THEATERS IN 30 US cities this week are doing something almost unheard of within an industry that routinely stifles even the mildest criticism of the Chinese government: They are screening a new film about atrocious human rights abuses in contemporary China. The movie, "Unsilenced," is directed by the award-winning Canadian filmmaker Leon Lee, for whom shining light on Beijing's crimes against humanity has become a calling.

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I WAS WRONG about Joe Biden.

In his inaugural address a year ago this week, Biden pledged to pour his "whole soul" into "bringing America together" and "uniting our people." He urged Americans — sincerely, I believed — to "see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors," to "treat each other with dignity and respect," and to "join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature."

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NEXT WEEK the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Shurtleff v. Boston, a freedom-of-speech case that concerns a flagpole on Boston's City Hall Plaza.

The facts of the controversy are simple. The issues at stake are profound.

There are actually three flagpoles in front of City Hall. One always flies the American flag. The second is reserved for the flag of Massachusetts. The third pole is handled differently.

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IN A "Dear Colleague" letter on Jan. 3, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a warning: If Republicans continued to block the Senate from passing two sweeping elections-related bills supported by Democrats, he wrote, then the chamber would "debate and consider changes to Senate rules on or before January 17." That was a threat, as everyone understood, to invoke the "nuclear option" and blow up the filibuster. If successful, Democrats would no longer require 60 votes to pass their controversial measures; a bare majority would suffice.

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A FRIEND of mine who lived for many years on the North Shore of Massachusetts relocated to Kentucky in 2018 and has rejoiced ever since that it was among the best decisions he ever made. Compared to the Bay State, he reports, the housing where he lives now is more affordable, the taxes are lower, the winters are milder, the people are friendlier, and the politics are more congenial. Not even the tornadoes that tore up western Kentucky last month have dampened his satisfaction in no longer having to put up with all the things that he found so irksome about life in Massachusetts.

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