Dear Granddaddy, I don’t’ like it that my son’s basketball coach made my son run a lap for not paying attention in practice. Mary G-upset mom Mary, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know all the circumstances. But…
Posted: 12 March 2019 [08:49 PM] Column
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Friday 03/08/2019
Posted: 08 March 2019 [07:49 PM] WHYY Let’s dust off the history books and turn back the clock 45 years, to an event that resonates today. On Feb. 21, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee, having already spent four months probing Richard Nixon’s serial perfidies, released a…
Posted: 08 March 2019 [07:48 PM] The Washington Post We have seen it again and again. Sexual assault victims struggle for years and even decades before mustering the courage to come forward, only to be met with the same skeptical questions: Where’s the police report? Why…
Wednesday 03/06/2019
Posted: 06 March 2019 [06:51 PM] Column In recent years, news cycle after news cycle has focused on Americans, many of them white, who took it upon themselves to police their black neighbors. A white Yale graduate student called campus police officers to report a black…
Posted: 06 March 2019 [06:50 PM] The Washington Post President Donald Trump has been played for a sucker by many of the world’s most vile autocrats. Give him a glowing orb and he’ll look the other way if you murder and dismember an U.S.-based journalist. Roll…
Posted: 06 March 2019 [06:50 PM] Column The Congressional Budget Office recently released its revised Budget and Economic Outlook. Its economists estimate that, on present policy, annual deficits of a trillion dollars - between 4 percent and 5 percent of gross domestic product - will persist…
Tuesday 03/05/2019
Posted: 05 March 2019 [06:11 PM] Dear Granddaddy, what do you regret doing in high school? Alan-A student Well, Alan, I think if I really thought my high school years through, I’d probably regret several dumb things I did. I imagine most of us…
Friday 03/01/2019
Posted: 01 March 2019 [07:11 PM] Columnist More than a hundred Connecticut teachers told a hearing of the General Assembly’s Education Committee the other day that they are being assaulted or threatened in school by disturbed students as young as 5 years old. Describing an epidemic…
Posted: 01 March 2019 [07:08 PM] Columnist Normally, presidents who are in trouble exploit historic foreign policy moments to associate themselves with the majesty of their office and demonstrate their seriousness of purpose. Only President Trump could use his encounter with North Korean dictator Kim Jong…
Wednesday 02/27/2019
Posted: 27 February 2019 [05:23 PM] Column There is a huge income inequity in jails in New York. Those who are poor and arrested on a minor crime often end up sitting in jail until trial because they can’t scrape together the money for bail. But…
Posted: 27 February 2019 [05:21 PM] Column Was the Vatican’s just-completed summit on child sex abuse, convened by Pope Francis amid a crisis of credibility that has crippled the Catholic Church’s moral authority, really intended simply to prepare the way for genuine reforms in the indefinite…
Posted: 27 February 2019 [05:20 PM] Columnist WASHINGTON - In 1964, Nelson Rockefeller, then the governor of New York, rose before the Republican National Convention to condemn “extremists” who had “no plan and no program to keep the peace and bring freedom to the world.” Amidst…
Tuesday 02/26/2019
Posted: 26 February 2019 [08:06 PM] Dear Granddaddy, what skills would you advise high school students to learn today.…
Friday 02/22/2019
Posted: 22 February 2019 [06:13 PM] Does the bolt of eight members of Parliament from the British Labour Party out of frustration with its left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, have anything to teach Democrats in the United States? There’s a case for saying no, since Corbyn is…
Posted: 22 February 2019 [06:11 PM] There were widespread expectations when the Democrats took control of the House that an early, if not the first, order of business would be to go after President Trump’s tax returns. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said this month that the…
Posted: 22 February 2019 [06:09 PM] Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., raised approximately $6 million in the first 24 hours after his presidential campaign announcement. But his Democratic opponents shouldn’t be surprised or concerned. Sanders is the only Democratic contender for 2020 who ran for president in…
Thursday 02/21/2019
Posted: 21 February 2019 [06:49 PM] Colmun If you have been alive and in possession of eyeballs at any point in the last 75 years, chances are you have seen the photograph of George Mendonsa kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman on V-J Day in 1945. He: a…
Posted: 21 February 2019 [06:48 PM] Column President Donald Trump has a peculiar view of government in general, and of the Justice Department, specifically. He views himself as having unlimited authority over the executive branch - without regard to either constitutional or statutory obligations. It’s the…
Friday 02/15/2019
Posted: 15 February 2019 [07:15 PM] Just before a U.S.-sponsored conference that was supposed to be about Iran but isn’t, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu changed the subject back again. At the conference in Warsaw, he said, Israel would be meeting in public with Arab foreign…
Posted: 15 February 2019 [07:14 PM] With Democrats and Republicans locked in a staring contest over border security, there’s a solution here that secures the border and won’t cost the taxpayers one dime: Let’s build a wall, and make El Chapo pay for it. Joaquín Archivaldo…
Posted: 15 February 2019 [07:12 PM] Islamic State militants seduced an East London teenager named Shamima Begum in the winter of 2014. It used social media and personal appeals to spin a web around the 15-year-old, persuading her with emoji-studded messages, romantic memes and predatory religious…
Wednesday 02/13/2019
Posted: 13 February 2019 [04:58 PM] Column Once upon a time liberals defended individual rights, often taking great political risk to do so. Not so much anymore. These days in pursuit of political correctness liberals often command the mob to destroy individual rights, like the rights…
Posted: 13 February 2019 [04:56 PM] Column It’s one thing for a back-bencher such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to roll out a pie-in-the sky Green New Deal with no explanation of its cost, feasibility or consequences. It is quite another for candidates running for president…
Posted: 13 February 2019 [04:55 PM] Column Neither Gov. Ralph Northam nor Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, each embroiled in scandal, gives any indication they are considering leaving office despite the broad consensus of Virginia’s political establishment that they do so. That doesn’t absolve the two Democrats…
Tuesday 02/12/2019
Posted: 12 February 2019 [05:55 PM] Dear Granddaddy, I’m a high school senior, and I only have a 1.5 GPA. Is my future gone? -Jason No! Not by a long shot, Jason. Rarely in today’s modern times is our future a straight…
Friday 02/08/2019
Posted: 08 February 2019 [06:57 PM] The Concord Monitor Column There are nights, when the air is still, that their eerie howling can be heard in most parts of the city. Coyotes hunt the woods behind Concord Hospital and the edges of the corn fields in…
Posted: 08 February 2019 [06:48 PM] Column One of the memorable characters from the old days of television was Eddie Haskell of “Leave it to Beaver.” President Trump no doubt remembers him. Haskell was sycophantically respectful toward parents to their faces, but always plotted and…
Wednesday 02/06/2019
Posted: 06 February 2019 [06:08 PM] Guest commentary The 2019 Connecticut Legislature is underway and by all indications this will be a session with much promise as well as much controversy. Fiscal issues will be at the forefront of legislative proposals. With…
Posted: 06 February 2019 [06:05 PM] Column President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address had been trailed as an appeal for unity - and, by the president’s standards, it almost was. Despite some jarring moments, he made a passable attempt at a presidential tone, calling…
Posted: 06 February 2019 [06:05 PM] Column The debate over data privacy has Facebook and Google squinting into a harsh spotlight, while the least savory actors in the information economy have managed to stay offstage. That is no surprise, since hiding is at the core…
Tuesday 02/05/2019
Posted: 05 February 2019 [07:13 PM] Dear Granddaddy, my kid wants a lock for his bedroom door. What should I do?…
Friday 02/01/2019
Posted: 01 February 2019 [07:20 PM] Opinion Today is Take Your Child To The Library Day across Connecticut. The imitative, started by Waterford librarian Nadine Lipman, is an effort to encourage parents and grandparents to take youngsters to the local library and explore all the resources…
Posted: 01 February 2019 [07:19 PM] Opinion Furloughed federal employees returned to their jobs Monday after the end of the longest government shutdown in history. But life was not completely back to normal. They, along with workers who had been required to work without pay, awaited…
Posted: 01 February 2019 [07:18 PM] Columnist WASHINGTON - Holy Chestnut Praline Latte! There was Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, making a case Wednesday for why Americans would flock to him if he decides to run for president as an independent. “They’re not going to…
Wednesday 01/30/2019
Posted: 30 January 2019 [05:31 PM] Opinion If you took a secret poll in the U.S. Senate as to whether the shutdown was a mistake, you’d likely get 100 yes votes. Now at least two senators, senior ones at that, are suggesting we never make that…
Posted: 30 January 2019 [05:30 PM] Opinion President Donald Trump has launched a new push for democracy in Venezuela, and, for once, he enjoys support from governments in Europe and Latin America. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada - who’s hardly a Trump acolyte - and…
Posted: 30 January 2019 [05:29 PM] Opinion Kamala Harris has what it takes to fill a big political stage. During Sunday’s announcement of her 2020 presidential run, the senator from California looked very much like a political contender who belongs in the big leagues. It’s always…
Tuesday 01/29/2019
Posted: 29 January 2019 [06:52 PM] Dear Granddaddy, my son brought home another C. He’s better than that! Kristy A mom who expects more! Well, Kristy, I never want to sound indifferent if I can help it when giving my advice, but here it is.…
Wednesday 01/23/2019
Posted: 23 January 2019 [05:47 PM] Opinion There has been a welter of news reports, denials, statements and retractions in the past week concerning President Donald Trump’s pursuit of a major real estate deal in Russia during the 2016 campaign, so perhaps some clarification is in…
Posted: 23 January 2019 [05:47 PM] The Washington Post Your opinion on the Covington Catholic fracas depends on the angle you choose to see it from. Literally. A clash captured on video among a group of white MAGA-wearing schoolboys, a Native American activist and a handful…
Tuesday 01/15/2019
Posted: 15 January 2019 [06:41 PM] Dear Granddaddy, why can’t they have jobs for us? I want to make some money! Ahmen- 14-year old student I feel your pain, Ahmen. When I was your age, a lot of us had paper routes. It…
Wednesday 01/09/2019
Posted: 09 January 2019 [05:16 PM] Columnist The Nantucket courtroom in which Kevin Spacey was arraigned Monday was a real courtroom, not a Hollywood set. Instead of a dramatic mahogony judge’s bench, it had a plastic laminate desk. Instead of a coiffed character in costume, it…
Posted: 09 January 2019 [05:16 PM] Columnist WASHINGTON - “This is what democracy looks like.” It’s the chant heard again and again at the women’s marches the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated and echoed later in mobilizations on behalf of gun sanity and the Affordable…
Monday 01/07/2019
Posted: 07 January 2019 [04:45 PM] Opinion As we make resolutions for the New Year, all of us at City Hall are continuing the conversations surrounding efficiencies and improving government. Some of these points include how to work across department lines, how to increase services…
Posted: 07 January 2019 [04:44 PM] Opinion Welcome 2019! It’s time to start fresh for the New Year. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. First and foremost, 2019 will be a year focused on the budget. With a new governor and legislature, combined…
Posted: 07 January 2019 [04:42 PM] Opinion As the government shutdown drags on, it remains the case that President Donald Trump’s proposed wall is unpopular with the American people. But an argument can be made that even if Trump’s proposals are unpopular, he still benefits from…
Posted: 07 January 2019 [04:42 PM] Opinion It might not have been a coincidence that as the new Congress convened Thursday, Saudi Arabia announced the opening of a trial of 11 people charged in the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. After all, the U.S. Senate so…
Sunday 01/06/2019
Posted: 06 January 2019 [06:30 PM] It has been one heck of a year at the New England Carousel Museum and the Bushnell Park Carousel with exciting special events produced and wonderful new education programs created and successfully produced for our communities. Taking part in hosting…
Posted: 06 January 2019 [06:28 PM] By Hugh Hewitt Congressional Republicans have little to say or do in the shutdown debate. Whatever deal emerges from President Donald Trump’s negotiations with incoming speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., will…
Posted: 06 January 2019 [06:27 PM] By Danny Tyree I knew it wasn’t just me! In recent weeks I’ve overheard multiple shoppers gripe about navigating the wildly dissimilar credit card setups at different establishments. Credit card machines have gotten just as confusing as the…