Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Small World: When traffic comes to a halt

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist The game for today is to find the correct metaphor expressed by the following real life incident: Driving south on I-95 through Delaware the other Sunday afternoon, we suddenly saw that the three northbound lanes were virtually void of traffic. The cause soon appeared: A hook and ladder fire truck […]

  • Small World: A declaration of independence for Maine?

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist As Scotland almost goes, so might also go Maine? That’s the line suggested by pundits who were way wrong on the Scots’ vote last week for independence from (almost not Great) Britain. Suppose it had turned out differently and Scotland had ended the union? What might have been the consequences hereabouts? […]

  • Darkside of the sun: Who’s running? Hillary won’t say

    By Michael T. Corrigan BN Columnist Despite their insistence that campaigns are already too long, the media continues to press Hillary Clinton on whether she will run for president, more than two years from now. “How should I know?” Mrs. Clinton said last week. “At my age, I may not even be alive in 2016. […]

  • Viewpoints: The real, best reason we should ‘shop local’

    By Michael T. Corrigan BN Columnist All politics is local, they say, so that means the best government is carried out by people you know. And we’d say the best capitalism is local, too. But economic policy tends not to reward local capitalism. Look around. The true old-time mom and pop stores are going, going, […]

  • Uppermost House: Forgetting the trash

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist Leaving work, I popped open the hatchback of my little red car and tossed in a plastic bag full of trash from my office and slammed the hatch shut, got in the car and took off. Thirty-five seconds later, my mind had wandered off to some bizarre place like […]

  • Small World: Challenge in the Middle East — Redux

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Two questions are haunting American foreign policy architects these days: What to do about ISIS in the Middle East and what to do about Putin in Eastern Europe. On their faces the two problems are not linked; in the background they are. Each poses a serious question for stability in […]

  • Darkside of the Sun: Doctors hate this old woman

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist On the screen, a picture of a rather attractive older lady, smiling. Beneath: “Doctors HATE This 78 Year Old Woman!” You’re supposed to click on the picture to find out why such a sweet-looking senior citizen has become the focus of the animus of all the M.D.s in the United […]

  • Small World: Getting to know the enemy

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Murders, beheadings, kidnapping, hostage-taking, guerrilla warfare: These are some of the tactics of fanatic Islamic fundamentalist in today’s Middle East. Hateful, barbaric acts. Yet, on the theory that it might be wiser to try to understand the mentality of these young men rather than just despise them, I will try to […]

  • Uppermost House: Waving at the offspring

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist I thought I was alone in the house that evening so when I went in to take a bath I closed the curtain around the tub, but left the door half open. I’m lying there, gently simmering with a good book, and my 21-year-old daughter just walks right in. […]

  • Small World: Obama and his discontents

    By Henry Prect BN Columnist Every American president since World War II has, if I am not mistaken, ended his tenure of one or two terms at a lower level of approval than he had earlier reached. It is certainly true so far for President Obama. Why the recurring slumps? And why specifically the downturn […]