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The Editorial Page

What's gotten into Egypt?

Plus, Republicans for same-sex marriage, and trying to kill health-care reform
Being a dictator is a tough business. Just ask Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

By: EDITORIAL | February 03, 2011

Understanding the legacy of John F. Kennedy

'Ask not . . .'
January 20, 1961. On this day 50 years ago, John Fitzgerald Kennedy began his presidential odyssey.

By: EDITORIAL | January 19, 2011

The ultimate negative liberty: Privacy

The right to be left alone
Privacy, in the scheme of things, is a relatively new invention.

By: EDITORIAL | September 22, 2010

Tough times for the nation
It was only a matter of time before President Barack Obama turned into a deficit hawk. But it is a measure of the desperation sparked by Scott Brown's election to Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat that Obama hatched before the conclusion of the 2010 congressional elections and unveiled a spending freeze.

By: EDITORIAL | January 27, 2010

Tea-bagger Brown triumphs

Obama must rally independents
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley may be a good person and a dedicated public servant, but thanks to her gut-wrenching loss to tea-bagging Republican Scott Brown in the race for the US Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy, Coakley is now — quite rightly — a figure of local scorn and national derision.

By: EDITORIAL | January 20, 2010

How is Obama doing?

Not as well as he thinks
In response to a question from Oprah Winfrey about how he would grade his time in office, President Barack Obama gave himself a "solid B-plus."

By: EDITORIAL | December 16, 2009

Whalin' on Palin

The former VP candidate could have proven her intellectual bona fides. She didn't, so let's move on.
Give Sarah Palin this: she isn’t driven by polls. If she wanted to improve her chances at political success, she would have used her book and promotional tour to convince America that she has substance and gravitas .

By: EDITORIAL | November 24, 2009

Taxing Catholics

Should the Church lose its exemption?
Should the Roman Catholic Church, and the various subsidiary groups and organizations that exist under its umbrella and operate at its direction, be entitled to state- and federal-tax exemptions?

By: EDITORIAL | November 18, 2009

Merchants of death

Wall Street's latest bad idea. Plus, where the health debate will likely go.
Wall Street has found a new way to make a buck: buy up the life-insurance policies of the sick and the aged at a fraction of their cost, bundle them into bonds that will be sold to investors, and profit from them when the policy holders die sooner rather than later.

By: EDITORIAL | September 09, 2009

Ted Kennedy's passing

Also, will Afghanistan be Obama’s Vietnam?
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who served Massachusetts for 46 years — sometimes surrounded by controversy, but always with distinction — was the only one of Joseph P. Kennedy’s four sons to die surrounded by family at home in his bed.

By: EDITORIAL | August 26, 2009

Robert McNamara, RIP

Memories of Vietnam should speed Obama's exit plans for Iraq and Afghanistan
As secretary of defense under President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara prosecuted the Vietnam War on a day-to-day basis, just as Donald Rumsfeld orchestrated the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for George W. Bush.

By: EDITORIAL | July 08, 2009

Benign neglect?

It's time Obama moved vigorously to advance gay and lesbian rights
If you are gay or lesbian, or if you care about realizing social justice, you must be wondering when Obama is going to turn his attention to the fact that one in 10 of the nation's more than 230 million adults are second-class citizens.

By: EDITORIAL | June 24, 2009

Right-wing terror

The murder of Dr. George Tiller
Conservatives scoffed in April when the Department of Homeland Security warned that the United States could face another wave of homegrown attacks.

By: EDITORIAL | June 03, 2009

On Sotomayor

A noble pick that highlights a political flash point. Plus, California's shame.
There is a pleasing symmetry to President Obama's nomination of federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court.

By: EDITORIAL | May 27, 2009

Death by handgun

A public-health crisis; plus, gay marriage advances
A couple of weeks ago, David S. Bernstein wrote about the growing "state sovereignty" movement backed by anti-government conspiracy theorists and gun-rights extremists, and touted on the syndicated radio show and Web site of deranged agitator Alex Jones.

By: EDITORIAL | April 08, 2009