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Free Press Online Columnists

The weekly columnists in The Free Press are a great source of news and opinion - both local and global. Click on one below to start your journey.

Mac Deford: An Overview of Today's Chaotic Republican Party - and the Democratic One Too

It must be a pretty dreary time to be a serious Republican. (I haven't been one since George W. Bush got us into Iraq.) Tonight, everyone interested in American politics will be tuned to Fox - beer and popcorn at the ready - to watch the Top Ten Republican presidential candidates go at it. But of course what will be . . . Thursday, August 6, 2015

Michael G. Roskin: How the GOP Embraced Israel

Republican hopeful Mike Huckabee's fuming denunciation of the Iran nuclear deal as marching Israel to the oven's door - to many, an offensive misuse of the Holocaust - raises the question of how one of the more anti-Semitic sectors of the American polity became fanatically pro-Israel. It's complicated, part natural . . . Thursday, August 6, 2015

Grayson Lookner: Greece Frightenin'

As I've watched events unfold in Greece, I can't help but ask myself one question: "Who won the Second World War?" Ancient Greece was where the seeds of modern democracy were planted. A system of democracy and free markets supposedly prevailed in the West following WWII. Following the collapse of the . . . Thursday, July 30, 2015

Note from Away: Brief Encounter

CAMDEN. There is always a slight foreboding as I negotiate that steep, last step down to Laite Beach. Behind lies the civilization of warm car interior and grass embankment and asphalt pathway and picnic tables. Ahead lies sand, shells, seaweed (is it wet or dry? is the tide advancing or retreating?) and the pebbled . . . Thursday, July 23, 2015

Marine Matters: Strolling on a Summer's Evening

The sinking sun turned the surrounding clouds a burnt orange. The same color spread across the still water around the public wharf and parking lot in Lubec. A single skiff puttered quietly toward the boat launch, where a man had backed a trailer down the steep incline to the low water. I sat on a boulder above the wharf . . . Thursday, July 23, 2015

From Offshore: I can't see the telephone tower

The island women got together Sunday afternoon in a beautifully decorated church basement to eat crabmeat sandwiches and coo over cute infant gear at a baby shower. The new mom-to-be was very close to her due date, so getting stuck on the island, where there are no facilities for having babies in any degree . . . (1 comments) Thursday, July 23, 2015

Kids & Families First: Our Negative "Hooks"

As parents, we've experienced power struggles with our child at one time or another. We think we know best, that our agenda is what's most important. We can force that until our child finally digs in and says "no!" This scenario can also play out between adults. Sadly, this never becomes a gain, but rather a loss that . . . Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Just Saying . . .: 10 Years of Google Earth

So, have you given Google Earth a try? A lot of people have. It's a computer program that allows you to zoom in on an aerial view of almost any part of our globe, and it's been downloaded more than a billion times. We aren't talking about people viewing it a billion times but downloading the ability to view . . . Thursday, July 30, 2015

art current: Megan Chase at Chase's Daily

Sometimes more of the same still can never be enough. That's how I feel about Megan Chase's paintings. It seems like I've seen the selection of paintings currently on view at Chase's Daily before. There are entire compositions that ring familiar. They are, of course, not the same. And, really looking at Chase's work is . . . Thursday, July 30, 2015

Christine's All-Weather Field Notes: 2/4/15

There was a mid-size hawk feeding on a hapless gray-feathered meal next to the parking lot of The Free Press when I arrived at work this morning. It was perched in the limb of a tree, then hopped to another limb, keeping one eye on Wendell and me, and plucking gray feathers . . . Thursday, February 5, 2015