If Somerville’s city council tries to make moderate cuts to the police budget this year, the Mayor will respond by defunding the crossing guards. He’ll blame the council for making him do it. It’s classic bullying and budgetary hostage taking and it sucks. In order…
My mother used to tell stories about the 1967 race riots in Detroit. She was 17 years old, living with her parents at 7 mile and Woodward. She told me how the National Guard rolled tanks down the street while her grandfather hid in the…
Climate change is real, human activity is driving it, it’s an emergency. We need to slam the brakes on carbon emissions right now to have any hope of a smaller scale catastrophe. That’s the choice. Doing nothing or putting it off is a crime against…
I love staying in touch with you, my far-flung network of friends and family. I use this platform to do that. I love seeing the snapshots from your lives, your pets, your children. I love hearing about your spouses and houses and hobbies.I usually fight…
Just like every year, I’m running for president, god-emperor, and tzar of the world. My assumption is that I would have such an incredible popular mandate that I wouldn’t have to negotiate with either political party, nor would I have to respect existing law or…
That big chewy hairball of rage that I wanted to hawk up the other night – but was too jetlagged to choke out? Jim Wright nailed it. There’s plenty of profanity in there, as there should be. It’s appropriate to cuss. We’re dealing with a…
I want to work up a really pithy post on the ludicrous insanity going on on capitol hill. I really do. However, I am savagely jet lagged and waiting to get on a red-eye flight back to Boston. Under these conditions, I can’t trust myself…
After writing that last post about Libya, I find that my heart has hardened somewhat. A piece of it comes from further reading on the specifics of the situation in Libya, including Friedman’s excellent piece on the two sorts of nations we meet in that…
I think that the US and the rest of the world are probably doing about as well as can be expected with Libya. There is no unconditionally correct answer here. No matter what we do, people will die violently and chaos will win the day…
Anyone who is paying any attention at all realizes that there are a few different systems of justice in the United States. In case you’re not paying attention, or you don’t have the time and inclination: Let me break it down. There are four major…