Keller @ Large Blog

The Boston Globe has unveiled its latest list of "the most stylish Bostonians," and while they all look sharp, I have a different take. Watch it at 11, then add your own nominees below.

After last night's defeat in Maine, same-sex marriage is 0-for-31 when it's gone before voters.

Some gay-marriage supporters are talking about a lobster boycott in response, and I think there may be some merit to the notion of moving away from civil rights arguments which (however well-founded) open the door to pushback from anti-marriage forces who contend their rights are threatened by legalization, and instead emphasizing the economic clout of gay consumers and their sympathizers. Don't forget, Rosa Parks was part of a boycott of the local bus company that succeeded where protest marches had not.

So I ask you: would you honor a lobster boycott in protest over the Maine vote? And would you advocate a tactical change to economic pressure by the gay-marriage movement?

I'll give you my take on the message voters locally and nationally seems to be sending (if, in fact, there appears to be a coherent theme) at 11pm on WBZ-TV.

Meanwhile, give me your own testimonial. What message did you send with your own vote today? What was the one thing that compelled your choice most profoundly?

Kate Gosselin was on cable TV tonight in an effort to keep her reality show going, even as she acknowledges the kids are starting to show "signs of stress and behavioral changes."

Q: Is she the poster woman for bad, exploitative stage-mothering?

My take: basically, yes. I watched her big interview and saw a woman absolutely entranced by the celebrity she's created, still eager to be on TV, willing to put the kids back on if her estranged husband would only allow it, seemingly oblivious to the connection between the money and fame and the damage done to her family.

Your view?

(Read more about my guest expert tonight, Dr. Lisa Machoian, here.)

Here is the text of former State Transportation Secretary Jim Aloisi's astonishingly narcissistic parting letter to Gov. Deval Patrick. Read what it says in print and between the lines, and you'll learn that:

* Aloisi thinks Patrick hung him out to dry

* Aloisi thinks the transportation reform bill is a sham

* Aloisi refuses to acknowledge - or, even more appallingly, doesn't even get - the key role he and other Big Dig mismanagers played in plunging us into the transportation funding crisis we're suffering today

* The governor displayed shockingly bad judgement in recruiting Aloisi for this crucial position

An acquaintance of mine with many years of sorting through (and, at times, dishing out) political spin writes the following:

"Are you looking at yesterday's numbers on jobs 'created or saved?'  Even if you accept the Patrick Administration's own numbers, consider:

* Buried in the Globe article: 'The 23,533 individual jobs created or retained amount to 8,792 full-time positions, according to the administration’s calculations.' They only created 8,792 jobs!  Everyone who hears 'jobs' thinks they are full-time, 40 hours a week.  They should be saying 23,533 part-time jobs, at best.

* According to the AP, the 23,533 includes 6,000 summer interns. So if my math is correct, a full 25% of the jobs went to college students.  That's not exactly robust economic development.

* Teachers, firefighters and school teachers -- all necessary and valued jobs -- do not contribute to growing businesses or the economy. It's just the nature of the jobs.  And I'm sorry, but adding a new job at the pizza shop because of a nearby construction project is not impressive economic stimulus.

* Where are the tax incentives for R&D?  Where are the breaks on payroll taxes to encourage new hiring?  What is Patrick doing at all to help private industry recover?  (They always cite biotech, but that's a very small fraction of the total employment in Massachusetts.)"

To which I can only ruefully agree and add this: the feds are blowing smoke on job creation as well.

Buon appetito everyone!

Here's your next book.

Take a look at this interesting USA Today/Gallup poll on view of the president one year after his election.

Now, post your own view, and tell me what might change it below.

Here is the Time Magazine cover story referenced in my report Tuesday night.

Here is the controversial academic study Time found so credible.

Whoops. Makes you wonder - or should - about any news story or analysis you see based on a "study."

Oh, well, it was wishful thinking to hope the president would give a shout out to Cape Wind when he talked energy at MIT last week.

But actions speak louder than words. And as the Globe points out today, while the state holds the power to stop the latest NIMBY delaying tactic, the Obama administration could help break the impasse with a well-timed push. Or was all that talk about the urgency of now just a bunch of spin?