Tuesday afternoon I learned the unfortunate news that former Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and former commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development John Richardson had passed away as the result of a heart attack. I had the great fortune to know John, though interestingly enough we first encountered one another […]
It can be quite hard to talk about the issues circulating around the death of George Floyd, as well as the protests that death sparked, without everyone tuning you out. Depending on not only what you are saying, but who you are, people can discount what you say before you utter a single word. It […]
If polls are to be believed, Joe Biden is currently enjoying a small but statistically significant lead over President Donald Trump in head-to-head matchups for the White House. That has been true for a while, of course, going back to late 2019, but that hasn’t stopped the media from reporting every new poll, regardless of […]
On Tuesday, the Mills administration announced that gyms, fitness centers and (for some reason) nail salons would not be able to open up on June 1, as had been the plan, but would instead need to wait longer before they could reopen their indoor facilities to customers. The reason? Science, of course. Science is every […]
It has all the makings of a good scandal. A powerful governor on a private conference call that was not open to the public. A surreptitious recording of the call by a participant, leaked to the media. An admission that actions being taken by that governor will make something worse. And, of course, the subject […]
When a crisis happens, I think most of us try our best to band together and be on the same team. In the year 2000, this country lived through one of the most bitter and miserable elections in American history. In the end, after a month of legal battles and uncertainty, George W. Bush became […]
This past weekend, something broke in my house that needed fixing. Sunday, I decided to venture out into the vast unknown hellscape now known as “reality” to venture to one of our illustrious essential businesses — a home improvement store — in order to acquire the necessary handful of items that I needed to repair […]
Here’s a fun fact you might not know. Your “freedom of association” is not guaranteed specifically by name in the First Amendment. Don’t believe me? Read it again. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or […]
I don’t typically write follow up columns to things I wrote, but in this case I’m going to have to make an exception. A couple weeks ago, the column I wrote in these very pages declared in rather concrete terms that I was not worried about the coronavirus. What I was more worried about than […]
Are you afraid of the coronavirus? Because I have to be honest, I’m not. “But Matt,” you might be saying, “you are a healthy man in your thirties! You might not think you are in danger, but others are!” Well, sort of. Setting aside the fact that, for whatever reason, it appears that men are […]
