February 11, 2026
Opinion | Articles
Interview with Jerry Leeman: Today we bring you a story about a handful of fishermen rallying against a billion-dollar green industrial project, shady foreign corporations, and our own federal and state government. All are conspiring to generate a cash cow for...
The following is adapted from a lecture prepared for delivery at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Kansas City, Missouri. Defending America and America’s friends and allies is expensive. If you add up the price tag—not even including secret programs or the cost of U.S. intelligence—our current defense expenses stand at $875 billion per
I am writing in support of Maine Representative Laurel Libby. Laurel represents District 90, Minot and parts of Auburn. Being a proponent of safety and fairness in girls’ sports, Laurel Libby came out against the recent loss in a girls’ state poll-vaulting contest to...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on January 29, 2025, at Hillsdale College’s Blake Center for Faith and Freedom in Somers, Connecticut. Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump declared that he and his supporters were “the party of common sense.” In his Inaugural Address on January 20, Trump returned to this theme. With
The following is adapted from a talk delivered at a Hillsdale College luncheon in Anchorage, Alaska, on January 22, 2025. Just hours after his inauguration on January 20, President Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people convicted of offenses related to the events of January 6, 2021. He commuted the sentences of fourteen additional people whose
The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on September 29, 2024, during a conference on “Christianity in America.” One of the most beautiful things written during the American Founding period is George Washington’s 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. Washington had visited Newport in August of that
The following is adapted from remarks delivered on November 19, 2024, at a Hillsdale College reception in San Diego, California. The recent election is the product of a decades-long struggle in American politics that has intensified since 2016. The election produced a victory for the man who caused the intensification, Donald Trump. He caused it
The following is adapted from a talk delivered in Christ Chapel at Hillsdale College on October 23, 2024, as part of the Drummond Lectures in Christ Chapel series. The top-down, elitist brand of politics that has dominated the United States since the end of the Cold War—under Republican and Democratic administrations alike—has failed. Yes, we
*The First Issue of Imprimis—Updated for Today* Editor’s Note: The first issue of Imprimis, published in May 1972, featured an article titled “The Dangers of Price Controls” by Henry Hazlitt. The Federal Reserve back then was printing large amounts of money to fund massive government spending on Great Society programs launched during the presidency of
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on July 23, 2024, at Hillsdale College’s Blake Center for Faith and Freedom in Somers, Connecticut. In March of this year, Bryan Malinowski, the executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, was killed by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol
Maine Yankee, an 840-megawatt nuclear plant went online in Wiscasset in 1972. The late 1960’s was the start of good times for Maine Yankee, Wiscasset, and the country. Wiscasset was thriving with low taxes, new businesses, a housing boom, and a dynamic and growing...
Is the coming election about a person or a party? Should we focus on the spokesmen or the likely full cast of administrative characters on each side? Are the dominant issues (I count 42) all black and white in their simplicity? Will the voting public prefer...
Our election focus every four years is centered on the Presidency. This time, age considerations force serious consideration of the qualifications of both candidates’ running mates as potential leadership successors. Voter scrutiny also should go well beyond that...
Should we be asking ourselves why anyone with good sense would want to be the next President of the United States? The overwhelming, multi-faceted disruptive effects of four years of open border alone will require enormous and expensive remedial actions to restore...
Has America had enough of diversity, equity and inclusion? Is the public and press ready to recast DEI in other terms? How about dedication, education and inspiration - or determination, enlightenment and imagination - or devotion, energy and intellect - or discovery,...
America's carefully promoted "brand identification" by the two long-established political parties has been "market tested" by transformative events and ideological actions over several recent federal administrations. Consistent labeling and marketing efforts by the...
The recent news is full of reports of fund-raising success for both presumed candidates for the U.S. Presidency in what promises to be record campaign spending. In the final reckoning, will it be “all about the money” or the substantive appeal of each party’s declared...
Does our basic Congressional, two-party political system actually serve to stifle creative policy innovation? Are that body’s two chambers so committed to achieving consistent solidarity and respectful of seniority that stimulative thinking from relative newcomers is...
Should the next occupant of Washington’s White House be determined on the basis of personal likability or demonstrated policy leadership and implementation? Has the voting public noticed that some major ballyhooed initiatives of 2020 have yet to be implemented, like...
What would you say someone told you, Maine has had up to an 18% increase in all cause deaths in last two years? What do you suppose the normal average annual increase of deaths here in Maine? It’s less than 1.5%. We’ve just experience almost 18% increase, in healthy young and working age people who have died in Maine.
Election-year campaigning is full of talk about seductive federal programs appealing to certain targeted interest groups. This obvious pandering to buy votes includes over-the-top rhetoric and the assumption that an already problematic practice of unsustainable...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on April 18, 2024, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Bellevue, Washington. In the past two years, two competing groups of conservatives—National Conservatives or NatCons and Freedom Conservatives or FreeCons—have issued competing manifestos. These manifestos reflect a divergent understanding of the progressive challenge to the
Over the past two decades, elected politicians responsible for the welfare of American citizens have committed us to providing and expanding welfare in some form to 203 foreign countries. The sources of funding have been a combination of taxation and borrowing, such...
The critical issue in the coming national election is extending well beyond the two controversial party standard-bearers for the Presidency. We must question the character and commitment of members of both supporting casts who fail to speak out independently about...
Americans’ awareness of the societal shortcomings of “DEI” philosophy is becoming increasingly apparent. Positions of influence and authority are best filled by persons with knowledge, experience and communication skills for the role. As we approach a prospective...
The prospect of a fundamentally competitive ideological contest for the 2024 Presidency appears to be fading as preliminary appearances reflect more repetitive talking points than serious mutual articulation of policy proposals. Moreover, neither side has an assured...
Is the basic challenge for our form of democratic government to create a socioeconomic environment enabling citizen subjects to exploit opportunity - or to overcome adversity? The answer has to be both, based on self-reliance and motivation. “God helps those who help...
Everyone in the Democratic party seems to scream, “We are losing our Democracy!” They connect Democracy with Democrat. This is far from truth on many levels. First, the United States is NOT a Democracy. It is a Constitutional Republic. What’s the difference, you ask?...
Is it possible for a government to survive after inflicting widespread punishment from open-border immigration on its established democratic citizenry? Can the social, economic, and emotional costs of uncontrolled invasion and dispersion of foreign persons with...
A foreigner looking objectively at the American experiment in popular governance might readily conclude that we’re still finding our way after 248 years. The most recent 20-year experience reflects a wandering (some might say ‘devianto) philosophical path enabled by...
Both political parties want us to focus on the personalities and programs of their high-profile standard-bearers, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. In reality, the voting public probably should be paying more attention to (1) the respective running mates as potential...
Dear Editor: Has the embedded “deep state” of career Washington bureaucrats enabled the appointment of puppet-like political figureheads to lead key federal agencies? Are we relying on appointees better suited for and attuned to hearing complaints than to provide...
In this era of seemingly widespread gender dysphoria and psychological or surgical resolution, some of us senior citizens recall the good old days when we happily coexisted with a few “tomboys” and “sissies.” In my youth, Carole was a welcome addition to a boys’...
What does it say about our country when its Vice President is dispatched on a nationwide pre-election campaign to promote unrestricted abortion to the moment of birth? Is this concept better or worse than recent live beheadings of babies and burning of children by...
Last Thursday the American voter watching the presidential debate learned what the Democratic politicians, the press, the rich and connected, and the rest of the world, especially our enemies, have known for years, that our President is failing mentally. Until...
I know that blank stare of Alzheimer’s. My mother had Alzheimer for many years. Their verbiage is often disconnected and nonsensical. Watching the Presidential debate on June 27th was especially difficult for me. Watching a man who did not understand what was going on...
Is our American democracy becoming less a matter of cohesive principle of governance and more an exercise in targeted vote-buying? In other words, is collective benefit (“government of the people”) being replaced by selective pandering to a “tribal alliance” of...
Americans recoil at the thought of authoritarian governance, but do we also think about the degree of authority a President needs to exercise for the sake of worthwhile accomplishment? There’s a big difference between the persuasive authority needed to promote...
Much is being made of the initials “DEI.” Instead of the increasingly controversial “diversity, equity and inclusion,” the acronym might better stand for “determination, enterprise and innovation” or “dedication, energy and inspiration.” How about “devotion, education...
Are we still the United States? Would a redesigned American flag with alternating red and blue colored stripes separated by neutral white ones be a better representation of our country’s present political turmoil? Should ideologically crafted polarization of opinion...
Must it always be ‘us’ versus ‘them’ in national politics? Is there no room for a unifying candidate leader with sufficient confidence to select a qualified cabinet member, agency head or ambassador with a different party affiliation? Has no one in the outgoing...
Whatever you may think of presumptive 2024 Presidential candidate, both are victims of unprecedented mistreatment – by the same political party. As loyalists and the press debate the merits of each case, the overall result appears to be a growing sense of unfairness...
Our founding fathers are a genius or had insight into the future of America not wanting to repeat history of persecution and no freedom of Europe. They seem to know back 250 years ago how wicked government and Democrats and Marxism can be. So to prevent this they...
Must it always be ‘us’ versus ‘them’ in national politics? Is there no room for a unifying candidate leader with sufficient confidence to select a qualified cabinet member, agency head or ambassador with a different party affiliation? Has no one in the outgoing...
Both political parties want us to focus on the personalities and programs of their high-profile standard-bearers, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. In reality, the voting public probably should be paying more attention to (1) the respective running mates as potential...
Dear Editor: Has the embedded “deep state” of career Washington bureaucrats enabled the appointment of puppet-like political figureheads to lead key federal agencies? Are we relying on appointees better suited for and attuned to hearing complaints than to provide...
In this era of seemingly widespread gender dysphoria and psychological or surgical resolution, some of us senior citizens recall the good old days when we happily coexisted with a few “tomboys” and “sissies.” In my youth, Carole was a welcome addition to a boys’...
Our founding fathers are a genius or had insight into the future of America not wanting to repeat history of persecution and no freedom of Europe. They seem to know back 250 years ago how wicked government and Democrats and Marxism can be. So to prevent this they...
What does it say about our country when its Vice President is dispatched on a nationwide pre-election campaign to promote unrestricted abortion to the moment of birth? Is this concept better or worse than recent live beheadings of babies and burning of children by...
Are we still the United States? Would a redesigned American flag with alternating red and blue colored stripes separated by neutral white ones be a better representation of our country’s present political turmoil? Should ideologically crafted polarization of opinion...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on April 17, 2024, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Bellevue, Washington. On April 6 this year, as the University of South Carolina and University of Iowa women’s basketball teams were preparing to play in the NCAA National Championship game, two press conferences were held
Whatever you may think of presumptive 2024 Presidential candidate, both are victims of unprecedented mistreatment – by the same political party. As loyalists and the press debate the merits of each case, the overall result appears to be a growing sense of unfairness...
Democracy is more about fairness of opportunity than equality of accomplishment. Every U.S. citizen has a right to use public facilities, attend public schools, pursue a chosen career, and vote for governance. Beyond that, life’s outcome is mainly a reflection of...
Just as it’s possible for a few clandestinely manipulated votes to decide a close election, so too can a horde of unvetted and unruly immigrants alter the orderly functioning of an established form of government. Nearly 10-million United States “newcomers” invited by...
Do you value freedom of speech? Do you think that political correctness has gone too far? Are you frustrated with the rhetoric of social justice warriors? Are you looking for ways to cut through all the PC confusion with clarity and truth? You are not alone. No one...
This is a dangerous time for our country. While the dominant political parties conduct their usual election-year policy posturing and personal campaign attacks, public awareness of growing fragility of our 50-state union may be breeding greater underlying consensus as...
Could America/s vaunted educational establishment have found a better way to disgrace itself than its "soft on crime" reaction to multiple campus uprisings? For an affinity group that has studiously avoided religious involvement, tolerance of unruly and disruptive...
If the United States was a publicly owned corporation, would you want to be a shareholder? Would it be valued near the top of its historical range based on future expectations or reflect current underperformance and heightened competitive risk exposure? Would it rank...
As one Presidential contender sits largely confined to a courtroom during campaign high season, another is on the road literally talking his way out of serious consideration for the nation’s leadership position. Public attention is now focused on a continuing series...
Most of us have regular home trash and debris collection, but few really know where our waste streams eventually lead. How much and what is recycled, processed, incinerated, landfilled, or winds up in water? Are we achieving desirable results from the standpoint of...
As an 'un-brainwashed" political thinker, I've become wary of browsing the daily e-mail and downright fearful of opening my post office mailbox. The disproportionate election-year mix of bills, catalogs, magazines, and solicitations (from both political parties) is...
Whatever you may think of either of the presumptive 2024 Presidential candidate, both are victims of unprecedented mistreatment – by the same political party. As loyalists and the press debate the merits of each case, the overall result appears to be a growing sense...
I love Maine and is why the outrageous bills coming out of Augusta has pushed me to run for State House Representative for District 39 (Northport, Belfast, Belmont.) When I talk about outrageous Bills, I'm talking about legislation like LD 1578. This is the "National...
Two months ago, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists left the Doomsday clock at 90 seconds to midnight. Issued with the following headline. “A moment of historic danger” then continued with,” It is still 90 seconds to midnight. Ominous trends continue to point the world...
When I see the multimillion-dollar schools being built with Broadway-like stages filled with philharmonic quality band instruments, Olympic style athletic spaces, and weight rooms I wonder where the priorities are. I was blessed to graduate over fifty years ago when...
Aren’t there some existential realities that a clear majority of Americans can accept as worthy of governmental attention? Inflation greater than 2% is undesirable. Indebtedness of $ 34 trillion is excessive. Current immigration policy is counterproductive. Law...
In every election cycle, political pundits inevitably cite a now trite quotation from some previous seer: “It’s the economy, stupid!” Is our current national economy good or bad? For the investor class, it is good enough to lift portfolio values to 2020 record levels...
Voters likely will go to the polls this year with the knowledge they may well be electing the next two United States presidents. Given public concerns about the leading candidates’ issues of age, health and conduct, focus will be on the respective vice-presidential...
After reading several articles in recent news, pertaining to MSAD75’s controversial policy ACAAA, I'd like to take this opportunity to address the overwhelming virtue signaling from some Maine local news publications. Shame on those journalists working overtime to...
I know what “binary” means, but I need help beyond that in dealing with biological fiction. Is a “trans” man a man who formerly was a woman - or a woman previously recognized as a man? Does the term refer to before or after the personally elected change? I need to...
Has there ever been a time in America's storied history when government "of the people, by the people and for the people" failed so miserably to promote "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" among that vast constituency? Our supposedly democratic, capitalistic...
What can be more autocratic and self-serving than an immediate Presidential declaration that the federal government will bear the entire cost of replacing Maryland’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge? Isn’t America’s elected 535-member Congress vested with authority...
The forces of freedom are scattered and disorganized. They are attacked across the globe by a foe that seems unstoppable. For more than a hundred years, the Marxist Left has planned and schemed for the downfall of Western civilization and has created armies of...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on March 11, 2024, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C. campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. The writers of our Constitution placed their faith not in specific guarantees of rights—those came later—but in
As our nation falls victim to a rising wave of violence involving unvetted migrants scattered in unknown places throughout the continental states, shouldn’t we ask ourselves if the fundamental crime is opening the border virtually without restriction? The “newcomers”...
Is artificial intelligence (AI) coming along just in time for our increasingly travel, entertainment and recreation-oriented society? Can it make up for a proposed 32-hour standardized work week and the time we already spend scanning social media and making telephone...
Is politics a team sport or a reflection of individual importance attached to specific issues of personal interest and consequence? Are we naive to believe that most Americans are able to think as comprehensively as their elected leaders are expected to govern - with...
In "Useful Idiots", Michael Ozga makes a disingenuous argument, misuses the term, and misses the point. Perhaps Mr. Ozga could tell us, first, what political agenda is not "tax & spend"? Taxing and spending is what governments do. Ozga acknowledges that's what 46...
Like many, I watched last week's State of the Union (SOTU) address. I have had the opportunity to observe 14 administrations. Until recently, the SOTU address was for all Americans. Previous Presidents, by their words and actions, recognized they served every citizen....
Are domestic women’s rights advocates spending undue time on resolvable issues of legalized abortion and transgender athletic competition at the expense of more troublesome worldwide injustices?We read of widespread rape and child abuse among undocumented immigrants...
Alarmed peonies convened with some threatened dahlias today. They are concerned about the weeds; who, adorned with bright colors and lush green leaves; attempt to fool the gardener. These weeds are clever in their disguise. It is easy to mistake them, but something is...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on February 15, 2024, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Naples, Florida. The most consequential falsehood in American public policy today is the idea that any racial disparity in any institution is by definition the result of racial discrimination. If a cancer research lab, for
What you see is what you get. Would you place more trust in someone with a confident, purposeful stride or one whose gait is hesitant, wandering and halting? Which would you expect to speak with greater clarity and conviction? Which would you choose to follow? One...
Where is the line drawn to distinguish governance by executive order from representative democracy, on the one hand, and autocracy on the other? Do we recognize similarity between the growing upsurge in personal relocation among the 50 states and the hordes of...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on January 22, 2024, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C., campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. In 1960, the Eisenhower administration began counting the number of foreign nationals “apprehended” or “encountered” by what
Does the public fully realize that we are engaged in a self-induced “war” with the hordes of illegal immigrants allowed over our borders and infiltrating most of America to some extent, even Maine? The deviant behavior among these uninvited and unvetted guests -...
A raging flood tide may not be welcome at our nation’s shorelines, but a sweeping one is needed internally this year to deter increasingly evident risk of dramatic way-of-life change. Our peaceful, proud, productive, and hopefully perpetuating homeland is under...
Will the 2024 election really serve to determine whether the United States remains united - and if it will prove to be a nation of order or disorder? Interestingly, polling indicates a growing portion of the electorate has been turning away from party fealty, toward...
Dear Editor: Has the embedded “deep state” of career Washington bureaucrats enabled the appointment of puppet-like political figureheads to lead key federal agencies? Are we relying on appointees better suited for and attuned to hearing complaints than to provide...
Are We in Decline? How can the United States pretend to be the world’s exemplar of democracy when it accepts ongoing antagonism and provocation from demonstrably authoritarian governments. The unmistakable messaging is that America is a willing punching bag up to some...
Should we forget about cumbersome, costly and contentious presidential elections and simply rely on extensive electronic polling to determine national direction? If not, can the old-fashioned notion of in-person voting simply be discarded in favor of doing so by cell...
Politics in America clearly are undergoing generational change at a time when most other large nations are not. As we stand by to see who will survive preliminaries to be on the presidential ballot in November, the voting public should be focusing on the potential...
Political parties seem fond of referring to their members as “the adults in charge.” Is that the case with our ambitious, publicity-seeking Secretary of State, who naively failed to anticipate potential ramifications of her showboating effort to influence the upcoming...
It’s a sad day for our democracy when presidential election campaigns are conducted on the basis of denigrating opponents rather than offering reason to extend or change regimes. Blame for inaction and misjudgment is accompanied by obfuscation and distortion of facts...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on November 1, 2023, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C., campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. The Covid cover-up began in China. But in a way we make too big a deal of
The 2024 election shapes up as a stark contrast for a current administration largely comprised of ethnic and gender symbols with limited specialized experience that forces policy dependency on established unelected bureaucrats. It therefore seems incumbent on the...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner on June 30, 2023, during a Hillsdale College educational cruise from Istanbul to Athens. Hillsdale is often called a conservative college, and in an important sense it is, although it is not a label we regard as fundamental. The word “conservative”
The nation is under attack - not militarily, but by hordes of unknown “invaders” who do not even share fundamental knowledge of our language, history, or religious heritage. The open southern border situation borders on treason to American citizens and disservice to...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on October 3, 2023, during a conference on “U.S. Intelligence: History and Controversies.” We need the CIA, but we also need to recognize the uncomfortable reality that the CIA is not performing at the level we require. It is not keeping us safe. It
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on September 12, 2023, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C., campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. The transgender movement is pressing its agenda everywhere. Most publicly, activist teachers are using classrooms to propagandize
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner on June 30, 2023, during a Hillsdale College educational cruise from Istanbul to Athens. The word “imperialism” comes from the Latin word imperium. It refers to a nation or a state implanting its rule on other states, treating them as subordinates
Section 1 Natural rights: "All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable Rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and of pursuing and...
Has the doctrine of separation of church and state become so wide and rigid that our clergy are intimidated into virtual silence on matters of human decency and societal relationships? Religious leaders of all faiths are remarkably missing from the public dialogue on...
Government is instituted by and for the benefit of people, this being to secure the unalienable rights inherent in mankind: The right to life and to pursue happiness, to perform actions in liberty and to exist in a state of freedom, and to be secure in their persons,...
The Mainer’s Papers Summary. Date: July 27th 2023 A.D The Mainer’s Papers are a collection of seven documents that serve as the basis in a theory of action for the foundation of The Maine Republic. The first paper, being commonly called the Declaration, is ratified...
The entire de facto financial system is nothing more than a private-central banking debt-based fiat-currency Ponzi scheme. The purpose of this conglomeration of vehicles is to siphon your lifeforce, sweat-equity (intellectual and physical labor energy) into the hands...
On July 19th 2023 A.D, an assembly of people visited the SHERIFF’S department that occupies Androscoggin County, on 2 Turner Street Auburn, Maine State, and on the sidewalk near an entrance to this building, We spoke with the alleged SHERIFF, the man commonly called...
Once upon a time there was an old farmer. As he awoke early one morning to begin his rounds, he felt his bones creak and his joints pop, the pain familiar to him as he ignored it. The Farmer began his morning routine, and shortly took his cup of coffee out onto the...
What comes to your mind when you hear the word anarchy? Is it a scene like unto "Mad Max Fury Road" or the Fallout video game series, a dystopian or semi-apocalyptic future, filled with bandits, feral beasts, cannibals, raiders, general chaos, dogs and cats living...
The United States is a Bankrupt debtor entity entirely beholden to its creditors. Here me now, everything I write is fact, excepting error: The U.S. Corporation is not the United States of America, it is a separate entity owned by foreign interests that has been...
Lincoln, Grant & Patton By Michael Ozga “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content in your failure.” Abraham Lincoln “The art of war is simple. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as...
In Oakland, there is a 9-1-1 crisis currently occurring, according to a report by NBC. Callers may wait 10 minutes or more simply to speak with a dispatcher. Interestingly, an Oakland Police officer was stabbed while off duty by a woman, and had calls for his aid fail...
The term "Sovereign Citizen" has worked its way into the vernacular of law enforcement (thank you FBI *sarcasm*) and of the general populace. In my quest to teach people to consider the words they use and to have a comprehension of language that is better overall, we...
I was inspired to write this post after seeing some messages regarding "hunting" and that "you need a license." A man or a woman needs a license to forage? To pull bounty from the land, having been given permission by Nature's God to exercise dominion in stewardship...
People of Maine, stand up and lead, a letter for the Mainers: I. May 20th 2023 The Deep state is pure corruption and must be uprooted. All around the world, from France, to China to Brazil, to the several states of the former American union, People are rising up....
The natural state of mankind in this fallen realm is abject material poverty. Naked you came into this world, and you take nothing with you when you leave. Wealth and prosperity are the exception, not the norm. In recent generations, we have seen the rise of assembly...
The People are the De Jure authority, not the incorporated de facto. Today I was inspired to write this out after an unexpected conversation on the phone. I'm going to keep it basic, so if I'm scant on details bear with me. To those people who are unaware, the way the...
The New World Order is faltering, despite what it may appear like to the masses perception. Their plans, such as the Plandemic of 2020, spoken of years prior, were not as effective in their test-run as they would have wanted. They are not finding as much success in...
Many people across America are under the indoctrinated impression that Police, Troopers, Sheriff's and Deputies (Herein simply called "Police" collectively.) are tasked with protecting and serving the Populace. The idea that people may hold in their minds is that the...
Governments and their instruments are instituted by people for the benefit of the populace, that benefit best being: To aid in protecting a man or woman's unalienable rights to freedom, liberty, life, pursuit of happiness, and property. There seems to be a common...
This article dives into the alarming parallels between US teachers indoctrinating children to ignore their parents and Hitler’s Youth and League of German Girls. Uncover how this is happening today.
Solar Programs Are Driving Electricity Rate Increases Gerry Chasse is a past President of Emera Maine and retired Chief Operating Officer of Tampa Electric Company. With 34 years in the electric utility industry, he is experienced in the New England electricity...
While these letters are meant for Maine, in general they may have value elsewhere, across the late United States of America, perhaps beyond. The intended purpose is to post educational, or at minimum, entertaining "letters" that have been written as part of a larger...
There are no more New Worlds. Consider the original “Brexit,” if you will, conceived and executed back in the mid-to-late 18th century. The United States of America, in a revolution born from the chaos of desperation and reaction, effectively severed ties with her...
“Birds of a feather flock together.” Are human beings supposed to be any different? All Americans have the same rights, one of which is the freedom to satisfy their preferences. Isn’t that why many big cities have Chinatowns, French Quarters, Black...
2023 Commencement Address The following is adapted from a speech delivered on May 13, 2023, at Hillsdale College’s 171st Commencement Ceremony. Congratulations to the Hillsdale College Class of 2023. It is a thrill to be here at Hillsdale, which I have heard about for a long time. Last night I had a wonderful tour of
Not long ago, elections were won and lost by a simple question; are you better off than you were 4 years ago? Jimmy Carter lost in 1980 due to a bad economy, inflation, high oil prices, the hostage crisis, and no clear answers or a vision of how to proceed. It ushered...
What can be done to overcome the divisiveness of incompatible political party platforms and posturing? The answer lies is growing public awareness that one or the other is not working to the benefit of most Americans. Our exemplary 247-year tradition as a civilized...
What should we think of a 247-year-old, post-revolution country that came to be recognized after World War II as the “land of opportunity” but now appears to be transforming into one of personal dependency? Ironically, the state arguably gaining most benefit from...
Life expectancy is falling in the United States. Life expectancy is possibly the most definitive indicator of the health of a nation. It is a proxy of material things such as adequate housing, access to clean water and nutritious food, a clean environment, access to...
The following is adapted from a speech delivered at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar on April 24, 2023, in Irving, Texas. In a recent survey of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries—i.e., all the rich countries in the world—about 60 percent of respondents said they believe that global warming will likely or very
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on February 22, 2023, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Indian Wells, California. Just about everybody on Wall Street knows, despite what you read in the financial press, that the Biden administration’s economic policies are driving our economy into a recessionary ditch. In a recent
The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on March 5, 2023, during a Center for Constructive Alternatives conference on “Big Pharma.” I developed a serious cardiac arrhythmia, ventricular tachycardia, seven years ago. It worsened over the past summer and early fall, and over the past six weeks I’ve had several ambulance
From Reagan Paul Today I saw a miracle. I saw Psalms 27:13 before my very eyes.... “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Today I witnessed an attempted suicide. Let me tell you the story. I went down to Portland...
The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on February 7, 2023. Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter last October and the subsequent reporting on the Twitter Files by journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and a handful of others beginning in early December is one of the most important news stories of our
By Christopher Flannery Host, The American Story The following is adapted from an online presentation recorded at Hillsdale College on October 18, 2022. On the mezzanine floor of the Parker House Hotel in Boston hangs a mirror, still today. In the late fall of 1867,...
Part 1: The Illness
“When did you move here?” or “where are you from?”
I am usually asked one of these two questions when I meet someone new, and I try to respond quickly.
“July of 2020, from Arizona, but my wife was born in Belfast.”
As if to say without saying, “yes, I’m ‘from away’, yes I moved here during “the thing”, yes I’m an ‘outtastater’. But my wife has roots here. I married into this culture and society.”
This passes most tests. It relaxes the locals. The next question they ask is “why would you leave Arizona for Maine?”
The question is usually stressed, exaggerated, and implies an attitude of derision toward Maine.
The following is adapted from remarks delivered on November 3, 2022, at a Hillsdale College reception in Santa Clara, California. If you want to see the problem with American education, look at a chart illustrating the comparative growth in the number of students, teachers, and district administrators in our public schools in the period between
The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on October 20, 2022, sponsored by the student group Praxis. On April 15, 2020—a full month after President Trump’s fateful news conference that greenlighted lockdowns to be enacted by the states for “15 Days to Flatten the Curve”—the President had a revealing White House
The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on November 7, 2021, during a Center for Constructive Alternatives conference on “The Great Reset.” Is the Great Reset a conspiracy theory imagining a vast left-wing plot to establish a totalitarian one-world government? No. Despite the fact that some people may have spun conspiracy
The following is adapted from a lecture delivered on February 28, 2022, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C. campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. For several years prior to 2020, violent crime in America’s major cities was on the decline. But
The following is adapted from a speech delivered at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar on February 24, 2022, in Naples, Florida. When I was researching my biography of economist Thomas Sowell, I kept coming across Sowell’s own descriptions of scholars he admired, and I was often struck by how well those descriptions applied to
The following is adapted from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College on April 5, 2022, during a two-week teaching residency at Hillsdale as a Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Journalism. Why do I say that we need to lay siege to our institutions? Because of what has happened to our institutions since the 1960s. The
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on July 20, 2022, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C. campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. Complaints by veteran soldiers about younger generations who lack discipline and traditional values are as old as
The following is adapted from a speech delivered on September 16, 2022, in Washington, D.C., at Hillsdale College’s Constitution Day Celebration. The seal of the U.S. Department of Justice reads, “Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur”—“Who prosecutes for Lady Justice.” Depictions of Lady Justice are as familiar as they are instructive: she stands blindfolded while holding
The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on October 4, 2022, during a Center for Constructive Alternatives conference on the topic of Russia. According to what we hear from the White House and from the television networks, the issues at stake in the Ukraine War are simple. They concern the evil
The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on September 20, 2021, during a Center for Constructive Alternatives conference on “Critical American Elections.” Sixteen years ago, in 2005, the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform issued a report that proposed a uniform system of requiring a photo ID in order to vote
The following is adapted from a speech delivered at a Hillsdale College reception in Overland Park, Kansas, on November 18, 2021. Here are two questions pertinent to our times: (1) How would you reduce the greatest free republic in history to despotism in a short time? and (2) How would you stop that from happening?
Soon we will be electing our “leaders” for the next two years. It is unusual to have a single party in control of our state and the federal government. In the current election cycle, Democrats control the Presidency, the Governorship, and both houses of the Federal...
For several years prior to 2020, violent crime in America’s major cities was on the decline. But since the riots that summer following the death of George Floyd, it is heading in the opposite direction.
Some people are better in handling power than others. Janet Mills is not one of them. For 16 months, she extended emergency powers and denied the legislature the opportunity to do their jobs. Mills issued 98 executive orders under her declared “State of Emergency.”...
Inflation is an economic concept that refers to the overall increase in prices of goods and services in an economy. It is usually measured as an annual percentage change. Inflation can be caused by various factors, including excess money supply, high government spending, and production bottlenecks.
The Republican Party was formed as an anti-slavery party and has been the leader in civil rights since its inception. Under Lincoln, a Civil War was fought and won, slavery was ended, and the Republic saved. For a brief time, during Reconstruction (1865-1877), civil rights for freed slaves were enforced.
Ninety-two years ago, this January, Martin Luther King Junior was born. I remember his “I Have a Dream” speech and wonder what our country would look like if he had lived to shape that dream. Today as I watch our country split apart by violence, riots, buildings being looted and burned, our history being rewritten even to Lincoln’s statue being removed – Lincoln, another man whose life was cut short before his dream of freedom and equality for all was realized.
We are hearing a lot about election integrity. A recent poll by ABC News highlights the importance of fixing our election laws. According to the poll, 30 percent of Democrats, 20 percent of Independents, and 13 percent of Republicans are "very confident" in our...
If you think the new Florida "Don't Say Gay" law is unnecessary, the read below may change your mind. In his essay, which first appeared in the Epoch Times, Roger Simon opines on one of the points I have been making: Not all books are appropriate for all ages. I would...
-John R. Lott, Jr.Founder and President, Crime Prevention Research Center The Following Article is shared from the October 2021 Issue of Imprimis. "Imprimis is the free monthly speech digest of Hillsdale College and is dedicated to educating citizens and...