you want this man who has made billions, given away a ton of his gelt to wothwhile charities, to invest in a place where each and every decision is made by a blithering nitwit bagman turned mayor who hasn't got the grey matter he was maybe born with? get real. on the other if sheldon does feel like ponying up to his old homestead, tell him to tune in the televised st. patricks day breakfast to get a better look on how this formerly once proud and great city and state is being run as a 1st class welfare hotel. oh ya, we got a mayor who doesn't want wal-mart anywhere near the city limits. back in the days when adelson and his friends were working hard to be successful, we had entities that ran the alphabet from ames to zayres and included not only the mass merchants but the great ol dept. stores as well. none of these paid so hot but good men and women worked hard, stayed there, raised their families and more than a few had great success in retailing. one of them was jason chudnofskys brother carl. today we got a mayor backed up by a whole bunch of city and civic mouthpieces like horace small and peter meade who think people should be paid top dollar from the get go whatever their past work history and not have to prove to a company like wal-mart that they can be loyal and dependable workers willing to show up, do their job and strive for advancement. ya wanna invest in a city sheldon? than take a look at the once proud boston public school system and place your hard earned money elsewhere. ma

You can always tell a liberal, but you can't tell her much. On the other hand, liberals are only to happy to tell you a lot, especially with regards to how to spend your hard-earned money. And what they'll tell you is full of value judgments and subjective opinions about what the right things are on which to spend money and, conversely, what the wrong things are. In Farah Stockman's mind, Sheldon Adelson is wasting $10 million on the candidacy of Newt Gingrich, money that she thinks could have been better spent on alleviating the problems of his native Dorchester. Perhaps, Ms. Stockman, Mr. Adleson has a different idea about the effectiveness of giving away some of his monetary blessings and where that largess might best help improved the community at-large. Is it just possible that he might disagree with you; that you might be wrong and he might be right? Perhaps he would tell you that putting $10 million into Dorchester -- however that might be achieved -- is throwing good money after bad. Perhaps he'd tell you that he believes that Mr. Gingrich's larger plan for the country is a far better antidote for the troubles of many places, including Dorchester, than the usual liberal playbook of feel-good, do-goodisms -- good intentions where outcomes are neither measured nor important.

Uh oh. Here we go again. We want to make the exceptions the rule. Part of this is the columnist fault by injecting personal beliefs. Told in a straight forward manner would allow easier discussion no matter where you hail from. Mr Adelson obviously had special business talent and also not a bit of luck. The story is inspiring while at the same time giving an unclear view of the interaction between an employer and employees, union or not. In fact we do not know Mr. Adelson's real thoughts on this. His most obvious drive is his strong allegiance to the state of Israel. Unless Mr. Adelson writes a book we will not know for sure about anything else. This does not change what should be the relationship between boss and worker. What rules benefit both and what behavior leads to increased wealth has room for debate. Further is gambling a wealth adder or subtractor for society? Nevada is one of our least prosperous states at the moment. So Mr. Adelson is not a general model but an isolated example of good fortune. Let's look at more studied population to start forming what policies make sense.

Adelson is a pathetically vindictive man - and a dumb one. But what are his true reasons for supporting Gingrich in the GOP presidential race. We do not know that after reading this article. Why didn't the author ask Adelson? Gingrich is mocked in international papers, along with the American voters who are supporting him in the primaries.But what we have here are two very dangerous men, Adelson & Gingrich. A wicked bad combination.

Pleasure to finally read a story in the Globe about a SELF MADE man who DIDN'T go to hoity toity Harvard, DIDN'T belong to the elitest private equity club(s), yet made a fortune and made a difference in areas HE chose....

Instead of Adelson's money being wasted in Dorchester,Roxbury,and Mattapan (ward 24) ask the politicians why they CONTRIBUTED in making DRM what it is today. Ask the REDLINERS!

This column failed to mention the MANY MANY MILLIONS That ADELSON has donated to the Boston area including $75 to the Beth Israel hospital.

Cantabrigian01, just because Sheldon Adelson does not share your political views does not make him "pathetically vindictive, dumb or dangerous". Perhaps you might want to state FACTS rather than your unfounded opinions. It is your type of partisan rhetoric that has contibuted to the marked decline in public discourse in America. As a philanthropist, Adelson has donated hundreds of millions to numerous charities over the years. We should celebrate his generosity! Instead, Farah Stockman does little to applaud his philanthropic achievements and questions why he has not done more for Dorchester. She does so without questioning Adelson. The overall tone of her article is thus very unfair to Adelson. This type of journalism from Stockman is biased and would appear to serve her political agenda. In the interest of equity tockman should do another piece on all the wonderful things that Adelson has achieved by way of his philanthropy.

Clarification:: That was $SEVENTYFIVE ($75 million)