Monthly Archives: January 2020

Now showing: The theater of the absurd

There is a place, ladies and gentlemen, where magic happens. It is a place where men and women parade around on a stage and recite lines they memorized in their head, and try to make you feel like what they are saying is natural and spontaneous. A place where people are playing characters for the […]

Why are we so afraid of speech?

Principles are pretty easy to have. It doesn’t take much effort to say that you believe in things like free expression, multiculturalism, religious tolerance, a limited government, social justice or fiscal austerity. All it takes is a broad philosophical agreement with the tenets of those principles. The problem, though, is that living out those principles […]

Joe Biden and the art of pretending you are something that you are not

As a general rule, I try to avoid actually watching political debates anymore. They have long since stopped being either useful or meaningful, and the media’s obsession with them as some kind of important guidepost for the campaign is as disappointing as the event is predictable. Still, considering that the Democrats have now had something […]

Here’s to the next hundred years, Maine

Welcome, friends, to the new year. Welcome, too, to the new decade. That’s right, we are now in the roaring 20s. Again. And while we are at it, welcome to the 200th year of Maine’s existence. That’s right, this year — technically on March 15, which is the date that Maine was admitted to the union […]