Boston Globe -- Editorial/Op-ed pages

For Democrats - Alan Khazei for Senate

2009-11-29T03:13:53Z

In supporting Alan Khazei, the Globe believes that this state's future depends on new ideas. The 48-year-old offers a strong vision for success in the Senate, channeling the energy of activist groups and private-sector policy incubators while dedicating himself to the laborious task of building legislative coalitions.

To spur prosperity, nurture innovation

Jay O. Light — 2009-11-29T03:12:24Z

While government should enact broad stimulus programs, it cannot be the driving force out of this recession. Indeed, if America is to recapture its position as a leader in the new economic order, it must be the new ideas coming from the private sector that shape our future.

No more troops to Afghanistan

Paul G. Kirk Jr. — 2009-11-29T03:11:48Z

We should not send a single additional dollar in aid or add a single American serviceman or woman in Afghanistan until we see a meaningful move by the Karzai regime to root out its corruption, assemble a more representative coalition government, and demonstrate some measure of transparency and accountability under the rule of law.

Housing policies leave cities behind

Benjamin Forman — 2009-11-29T03:11:11Z

The prioritization of affordable housing is correct. But it does not explain the reluctance to recognize the limitations of affordable housing development in communities with declining neighborhoods, and the need for another pool of resources to address the unique challenges cities with these conditions face.

Finding some comfort in the drift to dementia

Elyssa Ely — 2009-11-29T03:10:12Z

Dementia must be unbearable. But if you are fortunate in your dementia, something changes. On the other side, there is something shattered and something quiet. Very quiet.

Much to do, few resources

2009-11-29T03:09:25Z

SOCIAL WORKERS in child welfare have always been available scapegoats, seen as taking kids away when they shouldn’t, or not taking them away when they should.

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2009-11-29T03:09:25Z

Our kids could use lab equipment, too

2009-11-29T03:09:17Z

IT IS inspiring to read of Nina Dudnik’s crusade to send the “throwaways’’ of this country to fulfill the needs of scientists in the Third World (“ One lab’s trash becomes a poorer one’s treasure ,’’ Nov. 23, Page A1). It would be equally inspiring if Massachusetts high schools, which in many cases cannot afford to offer biology labs, could ...

Fear of job loss affects work

2009-11-29T03:09:06Z

IN ITS coverage of the recent oversight hearing on the Department of Children and Families (“ Embattled agency chief seeks to calm union’s ire ,’’ Nov. 18, Metro, Page B1), the Globe should have completed its research into the cause of the battle. I recently sat in State House hearing room 222 and listened as good people waged a war ...

East Coast feminists, meet your match

2009-11-29T03:08:49Z

"Angry, disillusioned East Coast feminists should take note. Good men find the qualities of a woman like Mrs. Palin enormously attractive." -- Martin Fuller

Don’t politicize Nazi horrors

2009-11-29T03:06:19Z

"We are in danger of minimizing the awfulness of what Hitler and the Nazis did during their reign of terror in Europe in the 1930s and '40s." -- Brendan Mullen

Not sexism - just nothing to her

2009-11-29T03:05:11Z

BECAUSE I have great respect for Joan Vennochi as a skilled writer and sharp commentator, I was relieved to get to the second part of her Nov. 22 oped, “ Sexism knows no political bounds ,’’ where she revisited the awful, sexist hatchet job done on Hillary Clinton. But her earlier characterization in the column of the volume of criticism ...

Setting the retirement bar on concussions

Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-28T02:03:24Z

One of the nation's top football brain injury researchers told me there needs to be a discussion of a "threshold number" of concussions that rules out a player forever. Based on what we are learning, three, perhaps even two should be enough.

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2009-11-28T02:03:24Z

Anybody but Coakley or Capuano

Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-25T06:49:20Z

Two of the four Democrats in the Massachusetts Senate race, Martha Coakley and Mike Capuano, are career politicians. Surely the last thing this state needs is to elevate yet another government lifer, yet another professional officeholder, steeped in the culture of politics.

The candidates and the unions

Scot Lehigh, Globe Columnist — 2009-11-25T04:17:05Z

In every important campaign, Massachusetts Democrats vie for union endorsements. But have you ever wondered what they promise in pursuit of the union imprimatur?

Taking a hit on health care? Why, that’s women’s work

Joan Vennochi — 2009-11-19T01:34:35Z

Whether it is losing abortion coverage in the health care reform package or putting coverage for routine mammograms at risk, it seems like women must always work to not get thrown under the political bus.