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Our @&*!^$^# public discourse

April 22, 2018  •  The Boston Globe

LAST MONDAY MARKED the fifth anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, making this weekend the fifth anniversary of the first post-bombing Red Sox home game and its ceremony honoring the victims and first responders. It was during that observance, hours after Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was apprehended, that David "Big Papi" Ortiz took the microphone in the infield and threw out an F-word for the whole world to hear.

"We want to thank you, Mayor Menino, Governor Patrick, the whole police department, for the great job that they did this past week," he said. "This is our f***ing city. And nobody's going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong," he said.

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Snobs rage, but the Berkshire Museum's future looks bright

April 18, 2018  •  The Boston Globe

THE BERKSHIRE MUSEUM, a venerable but struggling cultural institution in Pittsfield, Mass., triggered a furor when it announced last July that it would auction off 40 works from its huge and sprawling collection of art and historical artifacts. The goal of the Berkshire's trustees was straightforward: to secure a new lease on life for the 115-year-old museum. The $50 million they expected to raise would be used to renovate the Berkshire's aging building, upgrade its exhibits, and establish an endowment sufficient to put it on a firm financial footing for the coming decades.

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Her 'Little Pink House' was her castle — until the government said it wasn't

April 15, 2018  •  The Boston Globe

IF "LITTLE PINK HOUSE," a new movie starring Catherine Keener and directed by Courtney Balaker, were the usual Hollywood tale of humble citizens abused by a mighty corporation and its political allies, you could expect it to find its way to a happy ending, with the little guys prevailing and their powerful antagonists getting their comeuppance.

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The misleading case for a millionaires' surtax

April 11, 2018  •  The Boston Globe

SOMETIME THIS SPRING, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will decide whether the so-called Fair Share Amendment can appear on the state ballot in November. The proposal would amend the Commonwealth's constitution, which for more than 100 years has decreed that income may be taxed only at a uniform rate. If approved, the initiative would subject anyone with more than $1 million in income to a surtax 4 percentage points higher than the state's regular income tax rate of 5.1 percent. The tax on million-dollar-plus incomes would thus rise to 9.1 percent — a prodigious 80 percent increase in the marginal tax rate.

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The concocted uproar over 'privatizing' the VA

April 8, 2018  •  The Boston Globe

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S TWEET terminating David Shulkin as Secretary of Veterans Affairs hadn't even had a chance to cool before the deposed Cabinet member was hurling some heat of his own.

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