Blue Mass Group

Doesn't the GOP "owe Obama one" for forgiving (0 Replies)

and forgetting the crimes of the Bush administration on day one of his first term? Jeez- is there no honor among these people?

Don't buy the arguments for a citywide referendum (1 Reply)

Maybe East Boston feels like they could really use the jobs, and would be willing to trade off some traffic problems or other nuisance factors in order to benefit from the economic activity. The purpose of letting the rest of the city vote seems to be mainly to allow anti-libertarian moralizers to weigh in on something that will affect them only minimally.

Geographical segregation is still pretty bad (1 Reply)

For instance, many suburbs are still overwhelmingly white while several inner-city Boston neighborhoods still overwhelmingly black and hispanic. The city of Boston itself is far more diverse than your typical suburb (naturally) and segregation by neighborhood is not nearly as bad as it was in the 1970′s (for instance, places like Roslindale, Hyde Park, and East Boston are much more diverse now). Boston got a reputation for being racist because of the violent response to busing- unfortunately, Massachusetts as a whole is still pretty segregated geographically, along both racial and class lines. This accounts for a lot of the educational segregation we still see in Massachusetts. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Garrity had ordered inter-district busing, such as between Lincoln and Roxbury and vice-versa, as well as Southie and Weston and vice-versa, in an attempt to achieve full socioeconomic and racial integration in the public schools. Would there have been more protests, or simply a more widespread abandonment of public schools in favor of private ones? Or would many suburban parents of means idealistically agreed to have their children participate in this idealistic social experiment? We will probably never know.

Glad to see there are some like-minded folks out there (1 Reply)

This is becoming a disgusting and embarrassing story. As if it’s the first time in history a killer has been buried instead of having his body suspended in the public square to be eaten by crows or something. Twenty or so protesters shouldn’t command this kind of media attention, or be able to cow public officials (Markey included) into this kind of pandering to the barbaric lowest-common-denominator. From “Boston Strong” to “Boston Stupid” in a matter of days. Aren’t some of these cemeteries owned by churches, and are they all so quick to substitute their own judgment for their God’s? A really odd reaction.

They've got some train tracks out there (1 Reply)

Now inactive- it seems they were once used for freight. Be cool if they could extend passenger rail from South Station or something.

What would justice look like for you EBIII? (1 Reply)

Which of the following most accurately describes your position on all this:

a. Whitey Bulger is an innocent man.
b. John Connolly is an innocent man.
c. one or both are certainly criminals, but there are many more people who also deserve to be punished for crimes related to James Bulger and/or his associates.
or
d. none of the above/other

Where do you want it to go? What do you want to happen?

You're right- the column didn't make that much sense (1 Reply)

I was irritated by the DeFranco thing myself, as (call me crazy) I like to be included in the whole voting-democracy thing. At least I’ll be able to make my own choice vis a vis Lynch and Markey.
Seems like Vennocchi is a disgruntled moderate.

Menino was a unifying presence, to be sure (1 Reply)

People of all races, creeds, and classes liked him. He was sort of an unlikely guy to champion gay rights the way he did, and deserves a lot of credit for that. He often seemed to be everywhere, especially before his health problems really started to affect him. I think he did a tremendous amount to get us past the “ugliness of busing and racial division”, partially by just being himself, being out there among all the people. It seems like back in 1993 there were whole areas of the city that weren’t much more than hopeless, crime-ridden wastelands. Now there’s still crime and violence, but not nearly as concentrated, and there is a sense that all neighborhoods are valuable and valued. However, the people who surrounded him had become too complacent in recent years, and Menino had acquired a certain skill of dodging responsibility for bad things, whole taking full and complete credit for everything good. Internal audits of city departments seemed unheard-of, and too often it took journalists to direct the mayor’s attention to problems. In addition, there was something about the operation of the BRA that always drove me crazy, with the Filene’s Hole being the most glaring example of a miserable failure of planning and kid-glove treatment of unscrupulous, well-heeled developers.
But he was very good for Boston, all in all.

"In the end it’s two pro baseball teams." (0 Replies)

That’s actually what I was trying to get at, that it should be much more serious for Leone to switch sides, yet Leone himself has about the same degree of moral reservation that Ortiz probably would if he got a signicantly better offer from New York (sorry, Big Papi). But I out-cuted myself with the analogy- thanks for the help in clarifying.

Jesus, Tom, not all that big a fan of free speech, huh? (0 Replies)

Screw the president, Tom. Practically every one of our presidents has been a corrupt Machiavellian scumbag of some variety or another, and they’ve got the power to kill and/or send people to their deaths whenever the whim strikes them (see “drones” and the “Iraq War” for examples). In this country, the murder of ordinary civilians, either by police or by other civilians, is exponentially more common than the assassination of public officials- politician is probably one of safest occupations this side of the Atlantic. It should be illegal to joke about killing chefs or cab drivers- I’d wager they’re far more at-risk of actually being killed than “public officials”. This is America- fuck “lese majeste“.