by Jonathan Reisman

My maternal grandfather, Abraham Plaut, left me many gifts — a love of baseball, bridge, parody, the English language, and Yiddish idioms. Lately, all of those have been combining into a recurrent thought/meme: Oy vey iz mir, or woe is/to me. The Ashkenazi cultural overlay usually brings the phrase a touch of coping comedic optimism (hand wave/press to forehead) as opposed to depressed despair (chin cup/frown), but recent events have been challenging. 

Oy Vey: 

by Jonathan Reisman

The special “emergency” legislative session has mercifully almost completed its work and mission to advance leftist lunacy and screw over anyone who doesn’t agree, especially in rural Maine. 

by Jonathan Reisman

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?”-- Rodney King, May 1, 1992, after widespread Los Angeles riots in response to the acquittal of police accused of beating him.

“Defiance”- No Kings.org.

Our deep and widening divisions were on uncomfortable and transparent display in California,

by Jonathan Reisman

As the legislative session winds down, numerous party-line votes highlight our divisions and dysfunction. Given the general thrashing majority Democrats have given Republicans on the budget; spending; the 1st, 2nd, and 14th Amendments; and energy, climate, and equity policy, one might have wondered if a mercy rule should have been imposed. But the beatdown has potential policy and political accountability consequences for the candidates and content of the 2026 elections for the Blaine House, the State House, Congress, and the Senate. 

by Jonathan Reisman

by Jonathan Reisman

Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made. –Attributed, likely apocryphally, to Otto von Bismarck 

Regardless of the source, the verity of the observation was evident in Washington and Augusta last week. Close observance of the sausage-making process is not for those with a weak Constitution, and it does make me wonder occasionally about the wisdom of promoting transparency ... you are likely to see some things that you can't unsee but wish you could.

by Jonathan Reisman

by Jonathan Reisman

Higher Education in America is in for some change. The change process is not pretty or pleasant, but it is necessary because American higher education is the source of quite a bit of the toxic ideology and idiocy that has poisoned America in recent years, including identity/oppression politics, critical race theory, equity, and climate alarmism. DEI divas and defenders were created and trained on America’s campuses. 

by Jonathan Reisman

Forty Mays ago, my late wife Ernie and I moved into a largely unfinished house on Cathance Lake in Cooper. May is lovely — cool, bugless mornings, full of sunrise concerts from songbirds, ravens, and woodpeckers, with loon warbles and serenades in the evening.

by Jonathan Reisman

“Equity” is promoted across Maine State Government and the University of Maine System as part of broad Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts and within specific policy initiatives like the Climate Action Plan, which has a significant and significantly funded equity component. What equity does not have is a definition. Promoting an undefined policy goal is pure policy malpractice. Determining what equity actually is and what Maine State Government is doing to promote it has turned into a strange dance called the equity limbo.