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Report From Rural Maine: What It Takes to Make a School
By Deborah Fallows Shead High School, home of the Tigers, sits on a hill in Eastport, Maine, just a short walk from everything else in town. I went to visit, curious about what a small public school...
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A Parable of Disconnectedness
The report below comes from Glenna Hall -- a former judge in Washington state, a current pilot, and a one-time Guest Blogger on this site. She writes about an episode this week in which she and her...
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I Have Seen the Face of Evil
The latest mailing from a group called Power Equipment Direct brings depressing news. America is a great but imperfect country, always struggling against its shortcomings. I recommend more struggle on...
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This Latest Chinese Censorship News Is Important, and Bad
I've written many times over the years, and still believe, that the news out of China is more good than bad. (For details: here, here, and here by me, plus this nice photo feature yesterday from Matt...
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An Educational Surprise From Down East: The Maine Maritime Academy
By John Tierney Eastport, Maine, which Deb and Jim Fallows have been profiling recently in their American Futures posts – and which Jim is writing an article about for the January issue of the magazine...
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The Suffering of the Philippines: 2 Charities to Consider
Of course natural disasters do not operate with deliberate cruelty. But it is hard not to imagine that they do, considering how often the countries and communities already hardest-pressed are the ones...
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Just Use the Damned Word: Filibuster
How not to do it: home page of the NYT just now. [And see intriguing update below.] Careful students can follow along as we review what's wrong here: 1) "Necessary 60-vote threshold" implies some...
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Who Are You Calling a Vocational School? In Defense of Maine Maritime
By John Tierney A few days ago, I wrote a piece here as part of the American Futures series, taking a look at the Maine Maritime Academy (MMA), a college I had heard good things about. Wanting to...
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On the Road Note: Radio, Software, the Dilemmas of the Press
I have been offline for a while because of (a) the long process of traveling to Greater China, plus (b) events once I got here, of which more soon. Starting later this month, my wife and I will be in...
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'This Is Political Malpractice': Inside Views of the Health-Care Mess
On the policy screw-up now dominating the headlines, two notes from readers in a position to offer judgments. First, from a tech veteran named Connie Revell: I was recruited by the administration as an...
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Do You Speak Eastport?
By Deborah Fallows Let’s let the Mainers speak for themselves! I’ve tried and tried to describe what Maine-talk sounds like, but I can’t even get close. When I emailed an old friend who grew up in...
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The Health Care Mess: More on What Went Wrong, and Why
Following this item about the political, technological, and cultural factors that led to the problems of the Obamacare launch, readers weigh in. 1. The UK lesson: government sites don't have to fail....
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Career-Oriented Education vs. the Liberal Arts
By John Tierney Reinvention and resilience across the nationRead more Last week, as part of the American Futures series here, I wrote two pieces about Maine Maritime Academy (MMA). The second post...
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We Report, the World Decides: Followups on the News
1) Chinese airspace. In the last few hours of my current visit to Beijing, news arrives that the People's Liberation Army is going to open up more of China's airspace to commercial travel! And I hear...
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Landing at the Wrong Airport: Sigh
Many people have sent me links about the unfortunate news of a giant cargo airplane, a modified 747 known as a "Dreamlifter," landing at a smaller airport in Kansas rather than at its intended...
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Harry Reid: Constitutionalist
Having inveighed nonstop these past six years about increasing abuse of the filibuster, am I glad that Sen. Harry Reid has finally begun to say "Enough"? Yes. Rather, Yes! More nuanced reaction after I...
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'Tis the L.L.Bean Season for Pinball Wizards and Wicked Good Wieners
By Deborah Fallows I always associate the word “wicked” with the Maine icon L.L.Bean. For good reason: do you know that if you search on the L.L.Bean website for “wicked” that you will get 40 returns?...
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How to Think About the Chinese Air-Defense News
Chinese map of its new Air Defense Identification Zone, from Xinhua.This is a strange development—China's establishment over the weekend of an ADIZ, or Air Defense Identification Zone, in an expanded...
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More on This Strange Chinese ADIZ: 'Sovereign Is as Sovereign Does'
Overlapping areas of Chinese and Japanese airspace claims, from China Military Review. The legend says that the red line shows the new Chinese ADIZ area, and the black line shows Japan's. The gray is...
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Building a Museum: Report from Down East
The restored facade and new civic space in front of the Tides Institute & Museum of Art. By John Tierney If you’ve been following the reports here by Deborah and Jim Fallows in their American...
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