WBUR cognoscenti contributor Joanne Barker got it right: Eleanor McCullen, anti-abortion plaintiff in the Supreme Court case challenging the 35-foot buffer zone around clinics offering abortions, isn't typical of the individuals trying to deter patients from entering such facilities. Claiming the buffer zone is an abridgement of her First Amendment freedoms, McCullen says sweetly she …
Intelligence Committee report confirms blot on Hillary’s record
Four Americans dead in Benghazi, Libya, on 9/11/12, and they didn't have to be. Yesterday's Senate Intelligence Committee Report makes it pretty clear: the tragedy at Benghazi could have been avoided. For months, Ambassador Chris Stevens had been requesting additional security, to no avail. If only the State Department had heeded warnings about the growing threat. If …
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Christie has lost more than weight since the GW Bridge back-up
If Chris Christie runs for president, do we agree that "I'll get the country moving again" won't be his campaign slogan? But such a campaign, if it ever happens, is a political lifetime away. A more immediate concern to the Tony Soprano of politicians is whether there will be more revelations regarding what he knew about the …
Continue reading Christie has lost more than weight since the GW Bridge back-up
What will it take to protect kids from abuse?
This week, Attorney General Martha Coakley is responding to the disappearance of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver of Fitchburg while supposedly under state supervision by presenting a proposal to form a child protective division within the Department of Children and Families. Jeremiah's disappearance went on for months and was eventually made public, not by DCF but by his sister telling school …
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Walsh celebrates community at swearing-in
New is good. New is exciting. New is full of promise. That seemed the mood at Boston College today when Martin Joseph Walsh was sworn in as the 54th mayor of Boston, the first new Boston mayor inaugurated in the 21st century. Public ceremonies like inaugurations are supposed to bind together in shared values all …
Catching up on movies
For much of the year, my husband and I debate whether a movie is worth seeing on a big screen or relegated to Netflix. But our winter holiday tradition is to binge on in-theater movies during the last 10 days of the year. Friends have asked me what I liked, and so here goes. We believe what …
Headlines to hope for in 2014
Each year, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial page editor Tom Waseleski prepares for the New Year an aspirational list of headlines. For several years, I have shamelessly borrowed the idea and herewith present my own suggestions, with precious little expectation that we will see them atop newspapers, magazines or teasing newscasts in 2014. Please send your own in the …
2014 Mass. gubernatorial primaries up for grabs
Today's papers announced the latest entrant in the 2014 race for governor: a Tea Party challenger to Charlie Baker for the Republican nomination. Mark Fisher, a Shrewsbury resident and newbie at electoral politics, runs a metal manufacturing company. His website has a family photo album and an issues list that starts and ends with eliminating Turnpike tolls. …
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Hubie: 80 and going strong!
The marquee of the Citi Center for the Performing Arts, still known as the Wang, was lit up on Wednesday evening. In bold colors and a dominating photo it read "Hubie80!" For years now, Boston has known that "Hubie" is Hubie Jones, a man who has made an incomparable impact on this city. He came …
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 …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 