Nothing surprised me in Maine politics over the last two weeks save for someone penning the definitive book about Maine Gov. Paul LePage before I had the chance to publish my own political tell-all tome about the life, times and controversies of LePage.

Once upon a time, when the Earth’s crust was barely cool, I was a junior in high school and it was time for chemistry class. I was wild about atoms and molecules and now, at last, I was going to learn formally about them.

The interesting thing about the truth is that hard facts don’t bend to political spin.

A few years ago, I served on a panel as part of a National Academy of Sciences study titled “America’s Climate Choices.” One of the takeaway lessons from that study was that carbon dioxide has a very long residence time in the atmosphere, up to 1,000 years.

Most Americans of a certain age grew up hearing the adage: “Behind every great man is a great woman,” or some variation thereof.

Dee Clarke from Portland is single mother with three children and serious health issues. She wants to work, but for years her health was a barrier to holding down a good job. Like so many struggling families, Clarke needed to turn to the state for help.

In a previous column, I related some of the facts surrounding the huge cuts in the “core” of state revenue sharing and some of the effects on local municipalities.