Reports of rape and sexual assault were up 50 percent last year, according to a Pentagon study released on Thursday. What's unclear is whether that reflects more reporting or more assaults. And what of the record in bringing justice to victims (of both sexes, by the way)? Recently, the U. S. Navy reassigned a Blue Angels …
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Palestine/Israel negotiations: no partners for peace
The latest bad news from the Middle East is that the Palestinian Authority (the Fatah faction) has entered a "unity pact" with militant group Hamas, which has pledged never to recognize the right of Israel to exist. The talks were set to end next week, and, even before the "unity pact," it was highly uncertain …
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U.S. to Ukraine: another broken pledge?
Life has taken a Cold War Turn, and I find myself almost missing Ronald Reagan and his willingness to stand up to the Russians. Ten years ago, Ukraine was the third most powerful nuclear power in the world. It dismantled its nuclear arsenal in exchange for the Budapest Memorandum "commitment" by Russia, Britain and the …
What will it take to fix ACA?
When President Obama back in 2010 said of the flawed Affordable Care Act, pass it now, fix it later, perhaps he never dreamed of the extent to which politics would have paralyzed the U.S. Congress. In the past, with major laws like Medicare and Social Security, legislators took an engineering model approach. Pass it. Test …
Boston Olympics? costly diversion
The initial images of the Sochi winter Olympics - tap water the color of urine, treacherous unfinished sidewalks, bathroom doors that wouldn't open, failed opening night electronic display - have given way to images of skiers doing death-defying summersaults off the chutes, elegant ice skating, breathtaking bobsled runs, the excitement of the T. J. Oshie goal …
Cardinal charms New England Council
Women have always played an important role in service to the community and to the Catholic Church. They are at the helm in various Catholic hospital systems, universities and foundations. The great unanswered question for many women is whether they will ever be allowed to become priests. Short of that, however, there is every expectation of women …
Elizabeth Warren: too much too soon?
Elizabeth Warren insists she is not running for President, most recently this past Sunday on Channel 5's On the Record program. This is a good thing. There's been too much bandwagon buzz about a possible Warren presidential candidacy, with even estimable Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi quick to portray Warren as a contender. Such effusiveness is getting …
MGM Resorts chief shows the house is in control
MGM Resorts International Chairman and CEO James J. Murren was the house controlling the game in his speech Thursday to the Boston College CEO's Club. As with all CEO's Club luncheons, the event invitation promised remarks plus opportunities for questions and answers, but Murren went on for so long that there was no time for …
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To clap or not to clap
Presidents have their social secretaries to tell them when to applaud during a White House concert. The rest of us, President Obama says, are on our own. But some of today's rigid rules need rethinking. Last Saturday night at the Boston Symphony, Peter Serkin performed brilliantly as soloist playing the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2. The first movement …
Remembering where we were
Fifty years ago today, the woman was not yet a journalist. She was barely 24, a Wellesley College graduate, living in a thoroughly domestic life in a garden apartment in Norwood, getting used to days and weeks totally different from what she might have experienced were she born a generation later. She was surrounded by other, …
