Rachael Rollins seemed to have such promise. She was a gutsy woman, highly articulate in a no-nonsense way. Willing to stand up to hardened criminals. Eager to challenge a cookie-cutter system of justice with an ingrained preference for incarceration for low-level crimes when diversion and other alternative punishments could work even better. The rate of …
Continue reading Rachael Rollins mucks up more than her promising career
Painfully recovering from seven broken ribs wasn't all bad. It enabled a ton of reading. The following represents a few of the books with which I busied myself. More will be posted soon. A Burning by Megha Majumdar is a powerful first novel about three individuals in contemporary India trying to claw their way into …
I remember when the U. S. Supreme Court was held in high esteem.Today less than a third of Americans polled view SCOTUS even somewhat favorably. Justice Clarence Thomas is a poster boy for why that is so. With a blind eye to propriety, Thomas has accepted millions of dollars worth of luxury vacations from Harlan …
Continue reading Clarence Thomas helps the Supreme Court soil itself
Toxic politics, anti-democratic nativism, uncivil behavior and willful stupidity - all dominate our sense of life in the United States today. But every once in a while, something happens that renews one's faith in the human condition. One example was Saturday's ribbon-cutting at a new park in Newton called Waban Common. For as long as …
Continue reading Comity and caring still found at the community level
Lots of time for reading when you're waiting for broken bones to heal! Fiction to follow. After the Last Border:Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America by Jessica Goudeau tells the often-checkered history of American treatment of refugees, the lofty national identity promised by Emma Lazarus’ poem on the Statue of Liberty and …
Continue reading Books for early spring, pt. 1 – non-fiction
Newsflash! Joe Biden is a candidate for reelection. It's hard not to be a little dispirited by the prospects of a replay of the 2020 election. As many as two thirds of both major parties are distinctly unenthusiastic about the expected nominees. But, while we may yearn for some shiny new thing, the chances of …
Continue reading 2024 Presidential race a high-stakes groundhog day?
Three months ago, for the first time in 13 years, I took temporary leave of my blog to deal with the fall-out (unfortunate term in this context) of having tripped and broken what turned out to be seven ribs, with some complications. Doctors said I would take at least three months to heal, and I …
( Getty Images) After three years of not being on an airplane due to COVID concerns, we decided to take a winter break. I should have chosen my words more carefully. Friends ask me how was my trip to Florida. A better question would be about my trip in Florida. It wasn't pretty. Out walking …
Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America by Hugh Eakins is a brilliant accounting of America’s slowness to embrace modern art, from the post-impressionists on. Even while Europe was enthralled by Matisse and intrigued by Picasso, those and other innovative artists were scorned by American collectors and museums. Germany and Russia were the frontiers …
Optimistic. Intelligent. Articulate. Polished. Upbeat. Confident. Michelle Wu is a great look for Boston. And so was the audience for her State of the City talk last Wednesday, one year into her term as mayor. Several thousand gathered in person for her address at the MGM Music Hall in the Fenway, and they were as …
Continue reading Wu and her audience a forward look for Boston
