Ronald Reagan

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Stupid is equal-opportunity

To me, 2011 offered a buffet of publicly expressed stupidity, perpetuated by a broad swatch of races, genders, and ideological factions. Here are a few gems.
Diverse City
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | January 06, 2012

The strike that changed America

Action Speaks!, the panel discussion series at AS220, wraps up its fall program with a look back at Ronald Reagan's firing of striking air traffic controllers in 1981 — a watershed moment for organized labor.
Action Speaks!
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 21, 2011

Heavy burden

In 2012, collections on homes, buildings, and private infrastructure will feed more than 65 percent of Boston's $2.4 billion budget.
More than any other city on the East Coast, Boston is addicted to property taxes. Could the Hub be hitting a crippling tax-levy ceiling soon?
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 19, 2011

Pledge class

Whether it's to flags, fraternities, or charities, privileged douchebags love pledging allegiance.
This campaign season, you’re not really committed to defending the GOP agenda unless you sign on the dotted line
By CHRIS FARAONE AND DAVID EISENBERG | July 29, 2011

Does Obama have the cojones to win?

To make sense of this bizarre and dispiriting moment in American politics, here are the things one needs to appreciate.
This WTF moment
By EDITORIAL | July 29, 2011

From Morons to Assholes

A pyramid of political insults.
Failure
By KARL STEVENS | July 15, 2011

Hail the swinging geniuses!

For a tiny state, Rhode Island has offered much to the world — Mr. Potato Head, the Claus von Bulow trial, and a rich local music scene that covers the waterfront from alternative acts to blues, country, and a wide variety of artists in electronic n
A fan's notes on the Young Adults
By TED WIDMER | May 27, 2011

Flesh and blood

The acclaimed folk/Americana quartet resume the whirlwind promo stretch leading up to their third full-length release, following 2008’s critically-lauded breakthrough Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and their ’07 debut, What the Crow Brings .
Last year, the Low Anthem finished their third album and toured the world. During a freewheeling interview back home, they tell us all about it
By CHRIS CONTI | February 18, 2011

Understanding the legacy of John F. Kennedy

January 20, 1961. On this day 50 years ago, John Fitzgerald Kennedy began his presidential odyssey.
'Ask not . . .'
By EDITORIAL | January 21, 2011

Review: Inside Job

Although Inside Job is destined for Academy acclaim, it seems unlikely that anyone will actually enjoy Charles Ferguson's new documentary.
The feel-bad movie of the year.
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 15, 2010

Waiting for Repo Man

Inside Job , Charles Ferguson's newly released documentary, details with painful precision just how royally Wall Street screwed the planet.
The man behind Inside Job shows us just how low Wall Street has sunk
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 15, 2010

Review: Farewell

Somewhere between the shenanigans of Angelina Jolie in Salt and the ineptitude of the Russian moles recently deported to Moscow lie the exploits of KGB colonel Sergei Grigoriev (Emir Kusturica), who's known to French intelligence as "Farewell."
The big winner in this fact-based KGB drama? Western pop culture.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 06, 2010

Cutting taxes (and throats)

"If there was such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing . . . It is . . . unseemly for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell to insist that the nati
The GOP only cares about winning; the rich get even richers; notes from the road
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 06, 2010

Afghanistan: The war that's killing us

For several years now, I've been reading Andrew Bacevich's articles and books that argue for a reimagination of how American government conceives of and executes foreign policy.
Interview: Former Army colonel and current Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich explains why staying is a big mistake
By PETER KADZIS | July 30, 2010

The FBI's spy problem

I've been following the latest Russian spy saga with great interest, partly because of the local color and partly because of my prior experience with the FBI.
Freedom Watch
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | July 09, 2010

Rock the vote

Musicians with national interests
Musicians with national interests
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 28, 2010

Elena Kagan’s shaky record

As a potential Obama nominee for Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagan has liberal bona fides and the likely support of the right. But if her record is any indication, she’s more likely to side with the conservative bloc on matters of executive power and wa
What a Kagan appointment to the Supreme Court could mean for civil liberties
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | April 23, 2010

Fess Elisha Parker, 1924–2010

The King of the Wild Frontier is dead.
In memoriam
By CLIF GARBODEN | March 26, 2010

Review: Formosa Betrayed

Had Adam Kane's Formosa Betrayed come out 25 years ago, it might have been an eye-opening exposé.
Newsflash: All was not rosy during the Reagan years
By PETER KEOUGH | February 26, 2010

Texas Textbook Excerpts

The square root of taxes = bad
Big Fat Whale
By BRIAN MCFADDEN | February 26, 2010

Bouquets all around

While it is difficult to be very jolly during February, P+J are in a generous mood and are willing to salute a few people, rather than dissect them. Yes, we are just wonderful.
P+J spread the love; haigiography; hate-mongers in the Biggest Little
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | February 26, 2010

Screams from solitary

The 132-man supermax unit within the 925-man Maine State Prison is an expensive, taxpayer-funded torture chamber that for 18 years has sucked in mostly nonviolent, mostly mentally ill prisoners and ground them up by means of mind-destroying solitary conf
‘By dehumanizing prisoners, we dehumanize ourselves.’
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 19, 2010

New and improved Romney

Scott Brown's unexpected victory in last month's special US Senate election captured the attention of the country — and particularly of core Republican voters, who huddled eagerly before their TV screens to watch their hero du jour give his acceptance
He's more fiscal, less social. And he's got millions. But will GOP voters give a Mitt?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | February 12, 2010

The next Scott Brown?

Republican Scott Brown's victory last month in the race for the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat has every two-bit GOP hopeful in the Northeast claiming the mantle of the pick-up truck populist.
John J. Loughlin’s suddenly high-profile campaign to oust Patrick Kennedy
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 12, 2010

How to Celebrate Presidents' Day 2010

Pin the mustache on Teddy Roosevelt, and more
Big Fat Whale
By BRIAN MCFADDEN | February 12, 2010

A wake-up call

Some months back, Judge Richard Posner, a prolific author and longtime leading figure in the laissez-faire-oriented Chicago school of economics published his latest tome, a little bit of conservative heresy titled A Failure of Capitalism .
Ranting about money and media; musical musings; and notes from the road
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | January 29, 2010

Tea-bagger Brown triumphs

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
Obama must rally independents
By EDITORIAL | January 22, 2010

Instead of cuts: guts

Let’s assume, reader, that you’re concerned about economic and social justice. For those in real need — people who are poor, sick, old, mentally ill, addicted, disabled — you want decent care. You’re concerned, too, about proper funding of schools, commu
Raise taxes on the rich? Only one candidate says ‘yes’?
By LANCE TAPLEY | January 08, 2010

Over the coals

Not so fast, Mike!
Letters to the Boston editor, December 4, 2009
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | December 04, 2009

Mutant rats invade Allston

How could you write this article, a cover story no less, with no mention of the Allston squrat? Obviously, you have not done your homework.
Letters to the Boston editor, November 27, 2009
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | November 27, 2009

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