The Boston Globe took Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to the woodshed this week. In a 3/4 page editorial (a sign of energy unusual for the paper's diminished editorial page), the paper screamed "Enough." It proceeded to lambaste the mayor for continuing his $1 million (to date) lawsuit to stop Steve Wynn's proposed casino in neighboring Everett. The …
Category: Politics
Gun safety: Doing nothing is not an answer
President Obama was lamenter-in-chief in the wake of yet another mass gun murder, last week at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. But his basic message was that he had gone as far as he could without the backing of Congress. The only thing left for him to do, he told a press conference, was to keep talking about the …
Falchuk tries non-Trump solution to disenchantment with parties
No news here: People are increasingly fed up with Washington, with the political parties and with politicians. Three quarters of the American people disapprove of Congress, and the favorability rating of that august body ranges from 14 percent to 17 percent depending on the poll. Another measure of the public mood, fifty-two percent of Republican primary …
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Last night’s winners and losers
Would Donald Trump tone down his junior high school playground bombast? Or, for that matter, would he say anything substantive in response to a policy question? Would Jeb Bush show some "cojones" in confronting Trump? Would Carly Fiorina get in Trump's face, stand up to the braggart who had dissed hers? Would John Kasich be able …
Hillary v. Biden: getting real
When late CBS newsman Daniel Schorr was asked about his move from radio to television, he reportedly observed, "If you can fake sincerity, you've got it made." It's in that spirit, and mindful of her declining poll numbers, that Hillary Clinton is getting tweaked again. The effort has been brilliantly satirized by my friend and …
Iran nuclear deal better than doing nothing
Figuring out how I feel about the Iran deal has been a struggle. But, as I have read more about it and talked with informed people over the summer, I come to the conclusion that, while the deal is far from perfect, it is a worthwhile step to take. Opponents complain that the deal leaves open a …
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Richard Berman for President?
Federal Judge Richard Berman nullified Tom Brady's four-game suspension Thursday, and suddenly all was right with the world. Signs at the final preseason game declared with relief "Tom Brady is Free" and "Richard Berman for President." Why not? Even if there was no clear exoneration of Brady or declaration of the Patriots' innocence, and even if …
Getting to yes on the Green Line extension
It would be very tempting to leap to support the Green Line extension through Somerville to Medford. After all, anything that modernizes our nation's oldest mass transit system is a good thing, and this particular plan was promised years ago to environmental advocates as part of the deal that brought us the Big Dig. Somerville …
Name the victims; shame the Congress
Slain WDBJ reporter Alison Parker's father, Andy Parker, has become the latest grieving parent calling for gun control. We are all seduced by the notion that simply understanding the impact on real people of the failure to create meaningful universal background checks will somehow lead to a rational response by Congress. We were certain this …
Summer reading: there’s still time, pt. 1 – non-fiction
A late Labor Day and temporary physical disability have extended my usual orgy of summer reading, with both non-fiction and fiction offerings to share with you. Because time is running out, I'll keep the list short. In the first category, the book Frank seeks to answer the question of "how did a disheveled, intellectually combative gay …
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Marjorie Arons-Barron 