Recently, a Philadelphia church official, Msgr. William Lynn, was sentenced to three to six years in prison on one felony child endangerment charge for covering up sexual abuse by the now laicized priest, Edward Avery, whom he supervised. Lynn was acquitted of conspiracy and a second endangerment count involving a second priest, on whom the jury …
Continue reading Supervisors finally paying the price of sexual abuse cover-ups
Shouting fire in a crowded theater is a terrible thing to do. Opening fire is a horror of a whole order of magnitude. Most of America is struggling to make sense out of 24-year-old neuroscience student James Holmes' rampage, which so far has resulted in the deaths of 12 people and injured 59 others, some of whom may …
Continue reading Colorado shooting scares, saddens and stymies us
I can't really understand, much less explain, the Higgs boson, or the Higgs field that excites the creation of the Higgs boson. Scientists tell us it is the last fundamental piece of standard model of particle physics to be discovered in an experiment, and it seems to have enough potential as an explanation for an irreducible something, …
Continue reading Tanglewood: the Higgs boson of classical music
What is Deval Patrick is thinking these days? Other than his campaigning for President Obama, of course. At issue are the Governor's support of loosening a ban on gifts to doctors from pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers and his move to veto legislative reforms of the use of welfare debit cards. Big pharma has long plied …
Last Tuesday, Congressman John Tierney did what he should have done many months ago. He held a press conference and faced questions about what he knew and when he knew it regarding his brother-in-laws' illegal activities. For Tierney, there were no new revelations. Too bad he waited until he was backed against a wall by the two …
Continue reading Tierney v. Tisei: Time to focus on the issues
While tens of thousands of Boston concert-goers were being herded from the Esplanade to a tunnel under Storrow Drive under threat of storm, Ogunquit, Maine was celebrating July 4th as tradition would have it: simple and lovely. Standing on the Marginal Way, overlooking the water, the friendly, appreciative crowd could see the fireworks unfolding along the coast: …
Continue reading Ogunquit fireworks preserve charm of yesteryear
As Syria goes deeper into civil war (and may draw in Turkey) and Egypt's first civilian president, Mohamed Morsi, calls for the release of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plotter, "blind sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman, here's a small story that could be even more dispiriting when thinking about the future of the region. Well-known Algerian author Boualem Sansel was …
Continue reading Hatred trumps culture with Algerian novelist’s trip to Jerusalem
Marjorie Arons-Barron 