"Democracy is a new thing in my country," Naheed Farid, the youngest member of the Afghanistan parliament, said to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday morning at Wellesley College. "Don't you think that after 2014 there will be disaster for democracy in the region?" she asserted. Clinton, along with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, made the answer very clear …
Continue reading Hillary Clinton challenges global women leaders
Shortly after my blog criticizing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed ban on sugary drinks in containers of more than 16 oz, I read the Boston Globe's Yvonne Abraham piece offering an alternative solution, and it's worth passing along. Massachusetts exempts most food products from the state sales tax, now at 6.25 percent. Given how …
Continue reading A more sensible approach to sugary beverages
Aaron Deveau was only 17 when he crossed the center line while texting and killed Daniel Bowley, Jr. of New Hampshire, the father of three grown children. Deveau, now 18 years old, is the first person to be convicted under a law making it a crime to injure someone while texting. Even without the specific texting …
Continue reading Conviction in text-driving killing should be a wake-up call
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday urged the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana. This follows on the heels of last week's move to ban the sale of sugary drinks in cups exceeding 16 ounces. At first, this looks contradictory: pot's okay but not a big container of sugary beverage. Enough mayoral micromanaging! Still, let's look …
Continue reading Bloomberg is for marijuana and against sugary drinks
In 1978, I was covering Republican U. S. Senator Ed Brooke’s reelection campaign for the Boston Phoenix. Both on primary and election day, I was glued to him. Where he went, I went. Sometimes it was meet-and-greets with people. Sometimes it was consultations with staff. The possibility of defeat hung in the air, but he …
Continue reading With public figures, the personal gestures can unsettle
I still remember writing about the deaths in the early eighties of a Hyde Park family of four killed in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. The shock of that tragedy seemed to jolt people into taking drunk driving more seriously. And well it should have. Back in the '70's and '8o's, drunk driving was the …
Continue reading Judges still look the other way in drunk driving fatalities
Six nations are heading to Baghdad this week to meet with Iran about its relentless drive for nuclear weapons. This was teed up by their meeting this spring in Istanbul. The idea is to get Iran, at a minimum, to stop enriching uranium to a level necessary for bombs, four times more potent than what is needed for peaceful …
Continue reading U.S. and allies should stand strong in this week’s Bagdhad meeting
The Boston Herald drumbeating investigation of Elizabeth Warren’s claim to having Cherokee blood keeps on. In yesterday’s installment, the paper published excerpts from a 1984 cookbook called Pow Wow Chow, edited by Warren’s cousin, who compiled recipes from “Five Tribes families.” The story has gone viral on right wing websites. But so what? The Five …
Continue reading Let’s chuck the Cherokee fixation and deal with today’s challenges
Disclaimer: proceed at your own risk. The following observation of an emerging political figure is through the eyes of one who has known him affectionately since he was a little boy. Notwithstanding the personal connection, I really do see him as a potentially great voice of the next generation. Joey Goodwin, oops, he is now …
Continue reading The torch has passed: Joe Kearns Goodwin launches bid for state senate
It would have been easier for Barack Obama to wait until after the election to announce that he thinks gays should have the right to marry. He could have let people assume that V.P. Joe Biden’s and Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s comments to that effect were a hint that such was the thinking inside the …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 