Donald Trump will be the Republican Presidential nominee unless the sun over Cleveland rises from the West on July 18th. So what's a newly defined "reasonable" Republican to do? People like the Bushes 41 and 43, Mitt Romney, Charlie Baker, former Mass. GOP Chair Jennifer Nassour, Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, and scores of other …
Some advice for Clintonites: lay off Sanders
If I feel sick to my stomach at the thought that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Grand Old Party, I can't fathom how I will feel on the morning of November 9 if he is the President-elect of the United States. This just can't be. How can so many millions of people …
Continue reading Some advice for Clintonites: lay off Sanders
Anteing up for the arts
Massachusetts is a world-class laggard when it comes to public support of the arts, and things could get even worse. The Massachusetts House just cut funding for the Mass. Cultural Council (MCC) by $2 million, to $12.2 million. (Originally, House Ways & Means had tried to cut twice than amount.) There's still time for the Senate to restore the MCC to …
Bathroom bill looms in Massachusetts
I have a friend. Let's call her Suzannah. She is over six feet tall, blue-eyed, platinum hair in a page boy. Terrific set of gams, as my father would say. She's married to a smart and talented guy. But here's a problem. It's the bathroom law, currently in effect in North Carolina and Georgia and under consideration …
Rocky road to electronic medical records
Have you ever wondered if the doctor who saw you in his office would recognize you if you met at the grocery? He or she might not, and it's not just because you're in street clothes. It might be that, with new health care regulations for computerized data gathering, he spent most of your annual checkup facing the computer …
Campaign 2016: Jousting in the Jungle
Storm clouds gathered over Serengeti, New York. The weaver birds and bee-eaters stopped their day’s work and gathered nervously in the limbs of the acacia trees. Even the flamingos out on Lake Nakuru stopped their soaring flight and gathered in the shallows, intensifying the pink of the mudflats and the lagoons. All around, the grebes …
Red Sox: hope springs eternal
There's a 4" x 3" piece of paper held by magnet on my refrigerator door. The paper is yellow. It's the American League standing from the first days of the 2015 season. Boston was at the top of the East division, with an .800 record. It had won four and lost one game. The scrap was …
Senators dodging action on Garland hardly “principled”
Have you heard the latest? Senate President Mitch McConnell says the 24 Republican Senators who are up for reelection this fall will not vote on anything from now until January 3, 2017, when those elected this November take office. Nor will they hold hearings on various appropriations, criminal justice reform, immigration, or any other legislation …
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Brussels attack plays into Trump
Secure the checkpoints. Close the borders. Keep all Muslims out. Is anyone surprised to hear such calls from Donald Trump? The unspeakable horrors of the terrorist bombings today in Brussels strikes fear in all our hearts. We're coming up on the third anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. In Greater Boston, we know the chaos and …
Marijuana legalization in Mass. – high or low?
I've often thought that, for an adult, getting mildly exhilarated without the caloric intake of wine or other alcoholic beverage would be a good thing. And doesn't the government already intrude either directly or indirectly in too many of our personal decisions? So why not legalize marijuana, as a referendum on the Massachusetts ballot in November …
Continue reading Marijuana legalization in Mass. – high or low?
Marjorie Arons-Barron 