Ben Bragdon

Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel

Latest

Published
November 3, 2019

Commentary: How we treat old chimpanzees — and what that says about us

The National Institutes of Health announced last week that it will be breaking its promise to move 44 chimpanzees currently being held in a biomedical facility in New Mexico to Chimp Haven, a sanctuary in Louisiana. Francis Collins, the head of NIH, said a review panel had determined that these chimpanzees are either too old […]
Published
November 2, 2019

View from Away: Facebook hands its microphone to lying politicians, Twitter takes it away

There is a big between not censoring candidates’ remarks and handing them a bullhorn to amplify untruths across the electorate, which is what Facebook is doing.
Published
November 2, 2019

Commentary: With the impeachment vote official, the heat shifts from Schiff back to Trump

An anonymous whistleblower’s complaint about President Trump’s July 25 phone call with new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy teed up two questions for lawmakers in September: What exactly did Trump do, and how bad was it? It has taken weeks, but now the House may be able to focus its attention, and the public’s, on just […]
Published
November 1, 2019

View from Away: President Trump is right to mark the death al-Baghdadi as a victory

One mark of how far we have fallen into the politics of division is the blowback the White House has experienced after the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Now let’s first stipulate that no one on this side of civilized society would seriously argue the world was a better place with al-Baghdadi in it. He […]
Published
October 31, 2019

Commentary: Facebook’s political ad exemption policy is a danger to our democracy

In recent weeks, President Donald Trump ran an ad on Facebook with discredited allegations about former Vice President Joe Biden’s relationship with Ukraine. Despite requests from Biden’s campaign to take down the ad, Facebook refused, stating the ad didn’t violate its policies on political advertising. Facebook’s new policy exempts politicians’ political ads from third-party fact-checkers. […]
Published
October 31, 2019

Our View: Pedestrians should get our attention every day

Halloween has a lesson or two about making roads more safe for everyone.
Published
October 30, 2019

Our View: Americans deserve full story on Trump’s actions

The information the public has so far is damning, and a full, unobstructed impeachment inquiry is necessary to find out the rest.
Published
October 27, 2019

Our View: Don’t let children be forgotten victims of domestic violence

The long-term affects of witnessing abuse are clear and must be addressed.
Published
October 26, 2019

View from Away: Cleaning up Trump’s mess

How would the candidates repair the damage Trump has wreaked upon U.S. institutions, political norms and relations?
Published
October 26, 2019

Jay Ambrose: William Barr is right about religion

Attorney General William Barr recently gave a speech on religious freedom at the University of Notre Dame law school, saying that mainstream faiths were being attacked by secularists, mass media, academia, movies, TV and the like, that our traditional moral system was being degraded and that the self-discipline of the past was fleeing. In no […]