When the cat's away, the mice will play. In terms of congressional financing, the cat is public disclosure. Given the do-nothing Congress' indifference to its abysmal public image, I probably shouldn't be shocked that the House has just quietly watered down its rules for reporting trips taken by legislators that are paid for by private groups. Since …
Author: aronsbarron
Books to escape from Benghazi, Boko Haram, Boehner, biz cycle etc, pt. 2
For real escape through summer reading, there's no substitute for fiction. Here are a few books worth sharing. My top read this past year was The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. A 13-year-old boy in Manhattan survives a terrorist bomb in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His mother is killed. They had been visiting her favorite painting, a goldfinch …
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Books to escape from Benghazi, Boko Haram, Boehner, biz cycle etc, pt. 1
Every summer I offer up some of the books I've read in the past year and happily invite readers' recommendations to me. I'm always on the prowl for a good read. This summer's book review will be in two parts. First, the non-fiction. If you're looking for light summer reading, do not try to read …
Continue reading Books to escape from Benghazi, Boko Haram, Boehner, biz cycle etc, pt. 1
Ann Coulter on soccer: a real head case
Ann Coulter must have been hit on the head by a soccer ball, and it was no planned header. Her recent column , a screed against the sport and America's growing interest in it, seems unhinged. She asserts that this is a sign of our nation's moral decay, that the only reason we are interested …
Snake eyes for Coakley on casino referendum
Question for gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley: if you knew that the legitimacy of the casino repeal referendum would end up at the Supreme Judicial Court regardless of how you decided on its constitutionality and you're supposedly fine with its being on the November ballot, why did you come down on the side of corporate interests rather than …
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Ryan resonates on IRS emails
I rarely agree with (Wisconsin GOP Congressman) Paul Ryan, but in this recent kerfuffle over "lost" IRS emails, he struck a responsive chord. Speaking to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen at a House Oversight Committee hearing, Ryan said "you can reach into the lives of hardworking American taxpayers and, with a letter, an phone call …
Warnings for seniors and horses
Yes, yes, it's important to see the big picture. But sometimes viewing life from 30,000 feet is not actually better. Two stories in today's Boston Globe show how grand urban plans or budget metrics can sacrifice a touch of humanity. First, in the interest of saving money, the Social Security Administration has been closing field offices, …
Iraq: Hell no, we shouldn’t go
President Obama said Friday the United States will not be sending American troops back into Iraq. That was firmer than his earlier comment that every possible response to the sectarian war was on the table. The difference is a important. Insanity, we are told, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Earlier that day, Fourth …
Eric Cantor’s House of Cards falls
I always thought that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was the brat, the youngish sharp-elbowed, supercilious, conservative Congressman assumed to be John Boehner's heir apparent as Speaker of the House. Bookish. Dogmatic. So determined was he to be the ideological antidote to a liberal Obama administration, he was a driving force behind the Republican congressional strategy to …
Smart People, smart play
Smart People, Lydia Diamond's new play at the Huntington Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, is a smart, funny, profound and highly polished play that I don't hesitate to recommend. Diamond, whose award-winning play Stick Fly played at the Huntington four years ago before going on to Broadway, writes a lot about race and …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 