Opinion
Chaos
I bought a painting! I am not a major collector by any means, but I could not pass this one up: The painting, entitled “Chaos,” is by Austin Texas based artist Laura Atlas Kravitz from Lollies Follies Studio. A lawyer, Laura works in government relations for an education organization. She started painting as a stress […]
Checks & Balances in a Pandemic
Recently, Shelley Luther, a Dallas based hair salon owner was jailed for refusing to close down her salon. The owner of Salon à la Mode continued operating her business despite a temporary restraining order last week from Dallas County State District Judge Eric Moyé. She continued operating despite a county official’s cease-and-desist letter ordering her […]
Blanket Primaries or Ranked-Choice? Why Not Both?
A substantial number of Americans continue to voice dissatisfaction with current American electoral practices. This has put Justice Brandeis’s laboratories of democracy to work by prompting some states to exercise their powers to design election systems to experiment with various electoral reforms. Those powers derive from the state constitutions for elections of state officers; Article […]
Some Unsolicited Advice To Nancy Pelosi (and Those Who Would Replace Her)
If the “Blue Wave” materializes next week, as so many predict, you Madame Leader, will become Speaker of the House once again. Time marches on, and as many have already pointed out, you and the rest of the top Democratic House leaders are all closing in on 80 years old. This situation was made even […]
The Problem-Solving Legislature
Someone once told me that the large windows of the Massachusetts State House symbolize openness. They allow the public to see what their legislators are doing inside. The law-making that happens within is complex, as seen here, or here. In this post, I propose that legislatures should approach the complex law-making process as a problem-solving […]
Why Big Pharma Lawsuits Probably Won’t Fix Things
By: Lindsey Pasieka Pharmaceutical companies are sued every single day. There are literally thousands of drug and medical device-related lawsuits going on right now. And they run the gamut, from things like Pradaxa lawsuits, brought on by victims of side effects, to statewide and regional opioid lawsuits, brought on by mayors and state attorneys general. Even […]
Legislator of the Year– Senator John McCain
John McCain has served in the United States Senate for nearly 31 years, and is probably due a lifetime achievement award. This award, however, is not for his distinguished service in the US Navy, nor for his many accomplishments over three decades in Congress, nor for the honorable manner in which he ran for and […]
Planned Parenthood’s Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Year
The past 12 months was not the best of years for Planned Parenthood. In July 2015, a video surfaced of a Planned Parenthood employee discussing prices on harvested tissues from fetuses aborted by clinic patients. Planned Parenthood and other health care providers regularly act as a middleman – obtaining fetus tissue from consenting women and […]
Bees are Dying …. Massachusetts Should Pass Pesticide Restrictions
We need honeybees, desperately. Unfortunately, bees are dying at an unsustainable rate; without them, our agricultural system would collapse. Bees pollinize about one third of the food we eat, and about 85% of the world’s crops. Without bees, many essential crops would die out, creating a crisis. In Massachusetts, we rely on bees to pollinate […]
Pipe Dreams are a Massachusetts Nightmare: Why Bill H.3690, the Pipeline Expansion Bill, Should Not Pass
Today, New England has the second highest electricity prices in America. Hawaii ranks number one. New England fared well when hydro and coal were the energy sources of choice because of its geography and stores of coal in the region. Unfortunately, starting in the 1990s natural gas became the preferred energy source as a cleaner […]