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The day Fox News was on the TV in my gym

June 26, 2019  •  The Boston Globe

I'D OCCASIONALLY seen him in the gym — we both work out at the same Brookline Village health club — but we had never previously had occasion to speak. The other day, as I was using a weight machine near the front desk, I noticed him approach and speak to the staff member on duty. He motioned with apparent consternation toward the TV screens mounted on the opposite wall, and I heard him say the word "Fox." One of the eight screens was tuned to the Fox News Channel, and it became clear he wanted it changed.

"I'm sorry," the staffer replied. "Another member specifically asked for Fox to be put on."

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Would-be presidents can't wait to rule by fiat

June 23, 2019  •  The Boston Globe

'After four years of Donald Trump," declared Senator Amy Klobuchar in a statement on Tuesday, "a new president can't wait for a bunch of congressional hearings to act." To that end, the Minnesota Democrat, who hopes to become the new president in January 2021, issued a 16-page list of all the "concrete steps she will take in her first 100 days" if she is elected to the White House.

Some of Klobuchar's promises are wholly conventional ("Visit our troops") or matters of routine management ("Reduce State Department vacancies"). A few are about as noteworthy as calling water wet ("Fill judicial vacancies").

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De-link driver's licenses from the immigration wars

June 19, 2019  •  The Boston Globe

NEW YORK'S long, polarizing war over issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants was finally resolved on Monday. After a heated debate, the state Senate passed a bill to overturn an 18-year-old ban, allowing residents to apply for a license regardless of their immigration status. The Senate vote sent the measure to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who signed it Monday night. With New York, there are now 13 states (plus the District of Columbia) in which proof of legal residence is not required to obtain a driver's license.

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Temptation, the Talmud, and the Pope

June 17, 2019  •  Arguable

THE LORD'S PRAYER, of all things, has been in the news.

The familiar supplication, which begins "Our Father, who art in Heaven," comes from Chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew, and has been recited by Christians for many generations. According to Catholic news sources, Pope Francis has officially approved a change to one phrase of the prayer — the one traditionally rendered "lead us not into temptation." The papal tweak, assuming it goes into effect, will slightly adjust the wording for Catholics, making it "Do not let us fall into temptation." (So far no change has appeared in the wording of the prayer as it is posted on the Vatican's English website.)

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Hong Kong is being strangled, and the free world just watches

June 16, 2019  •  The Boston Globe

MORE THAN a million marchers flooded Hong Kong's streets at the start of the week, far and away the biggest protests the territory has ever seen. An astonishing one-seventh of Hong Kong's population turned out in opposition to a proposed law that would, for the first time, authorize extraditions to mainland China. If the bill is enacted, any resident of Hong Kong accused of an offense might be subjected to China's grotesque and repressive judicial system, in which arbitrary detention and torture are common, and due process exists only at the pleasure of the ruling Communist Party.

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