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Panderbears are so cute and cuddly

What does it say about the Democratic party that its entirely uncritical relationship with the teachers’ union has become the baseline against which to measure other panders. This from the Talk of the Town section in the most recent New Yorker, in which George Packer analyzes the Republican presidential candidates, who he claims try to outdo one another, burnishing tough foreign policy stances while “. . . pandering to the war lobby as if they were Democrats addressing the teachers’ union.” And this is The New Yorker, mind you, not the National Review.

Life support for the Globe?

Been traveling so catching up on some items. In case you missed it, the Globe‘s circulation is down 6.66% (to 361,000) and the Herald‘s 8.7% (to 186,000). I loved the November 6 Globe’s headline: “Newspaper circulation still on decline.” All true, though the numbers for the Globe and the Herald were decidedly steeper than for all newspapers except for the Dallas Morning News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. While it might be interesting to understand why the circulations of Boston papers are headed in the opposite direction from that of the Philadelphia Inquirer (up 2.3% to 338,000), the broader, more important question is why the decline in newspaper readership is steeper in Boston than elsewhere? Other cities and regions have Metro […]

Another first from the paper of record

I’m confident that no previous New York Times’ article has ever mentioned this level of alcohol consumption.  From the NYT’s helpful guide to carving a Thanksgiving turkey: “One year the turkey took a long time to cook and I went to carve it after about 13 beers,” said Maurice Landry, who lives near Lake Charles, La. “The way I remember it, I bore down to take off the leg and the whole thing went shooting off the platter and knocked over the centerpiece.” Happy Thanksgiving!

A Small Step for Transparency

Buried in the outside sections of Governor’s latest supplemental budget is a provision to move the Mass Turnpike’s accounting system into the main state accounting system (that’s NewMMARS for you budgeting enthusiasts). This change will now make the MTA’s accounts (and spending down to a very detailed level) transparent to state budget officials. I’m not sure whether to be happy about the progress or sad that such a basic thing counts as progress.

Another Great Idea from the central planners

From today’s Globe editorial promoting universal wireless in Boston: Boston is trying to invent a more open model, with a network to be built and maintained by a newly created nonprofit using donated money. This nonprofit would pursue the civic mission and welcome commercial partners. So, for example, Verizon might offer low-cost e-mail service. [Emphasis added] Great idea, you could call it Hotmail. Or maybe Gmail. No wait, how about…….