The week between Christmas and New Year is usually pretty quiet around here. News sources have shut down for the holidays, reporters are using up the precious vacation days they’ve hoarded all year, our deadlines are early and our papers are returning to normal sizes after the traditional bloat from election season through Christmas. But […]

On the evening of Nov. 17, Carolyn and I walked our dog around the perimeter of the Bowdoin College campus as we have become accustomed to doing since moving to Brunswick a year ago. Carolyn decided to walk the dog home and I was driving back when police cars raced into the parking lot of […]

I was never good at keeping a journal. I fancied myself a throwback in that vein, a Jo March who could not fall asleep until she had detailed the day’s events and feelings. The follow-through just never matched the aspiration. Writing this column has gotten me close, though. I look back over the 24 “opinions” […]

Gov. Paul LePage’s call for further phased reductions in (and eventual elimination of) Maine’s personal and corporate income tax was rejected by both branches of the Maine Legislature, and by many in his own party. His initial approach was to propose a constitutional amendment that would achieve these ends. If adopted, this approach would all […]

Julie McDonald-Smith is almost invariably more partisan than accurate. I share her alarm about the disappearance of ancient Christian populations whose heritage is a rich and essential part of the Christian faith and serves as a check on the overwhelmingly Latin-rite church’s arrogance. But in “Silence deafening about plight of Middle East Christians” (The Right […]