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Universal Notebook

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  • Universal Notebook: The arrogance of the human animal

    Just about the first thing you read when you open the Bible is that God gave man “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” If by “dominion” we m...

    Edgar Allen Beem • Opinion •
    Monday, March 8, 2010

  • Universal Notebook: Raise taxes, please!

    In these dire economic times, it’s easy for politicians to take the No New Taxes pledge. How could you possibly raise taxes when people are hurting, right? Wrong. A refusal to raise taxes when needed is political cowardice, plain and simple. Fiscal responsibility doesn’t just m...

    Edgar Allen Beem • Opinion •
    Monday, March 1, 2010 at 9:00 am
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  • pnms-beem-020409 You're only as old as you look

    For the first time in my life, the president of the United States is younger than I am. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are my rough contemporaries. They would have been seniors when I was a freshman, but I was 12 years old when Barack Obama was born. That was 1961, the year Roger Maris hi...

    • Opinion •
    Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 8:50 am

  • pnms-beem Speaking of Lincoln, Kennedy, King and Obama

    Barack Obama is the President of the United States today (and amen to that) primarily because he is a brilliant orator. He possesses the power and the persona to make people pay attention and to believe in what he says. He literally talked his way into the White House. So I must admit that I wa...

    Mo Mehlsak • Opinion •
    Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 8:43 am

  • pnms-beem-012109 The economic crisis is all in our heads

    According to the Social Security Administration, in 1980 I had a taxable income of $24. That paltry sum must have been interest income as I was employed at the Portland Public Library at the time and, therefore, was on the state retirement system and not paying into Social Security. In 1981, ho...

    • Opinion •
    Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 9:48 am

  • pnms-beem-011409 Advertisements for myself (and others)

    My new book arrived today. Although it will be a few weeks before it hits the bookstores, "Backyard Maine: Local Essays" (Tilbury House, Publishers, $15) is a collection of columns from The Forecaster masquerading as a book. I wanted to call it "The Universal Notebook: Scribbling for ...

    • Opinion •
    Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 8:11 am

  • pnms-beem-010709 Sports done right (away with)

    As Maine school districts face a decline in state subsidies and the same financial hard times being visited on all sectors of American society, the Maine Principals' Association has taken it upon itself to propose across-the-board cuts in school athletics.

    • Opinion •
    Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 2:23 pm

  • pnms-beem-123108 Shoveling for dogs

    By the time cruel April arrives, I'll no doubt be sick of (or from) it, but I must confess I do enjoy shoveling snow. There is something incredibly satisfying about hard, physical work that enables you to see the progress you are making and to know when you are done for the day. There's such a ...

    • Opinion •
    Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 9:12 am

  • The light in the forest

    Here at the blessed end of 2008, one of the most difficult years in living memory, we must all be looking to the new year with a mixture of dread at what else might lie ahead and hope for a return to peace and prosperity.

    • Opinion •
    Wednesday, December 24, 2008 at 4:07 pm