It’s Spring, and time for my Second Annual Passover Post. This year, something very special to me: A commentary on the booklet all Jews read at the Passover seder, the Haggadah, by my teacher and friend of almost 20 years, Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man, who graciously allowed me to post [...]

This email is not about being a Republican or being a Democrat. It is about having some integrity and specifically, your lack thereof.

As one of your constituents in Arizona’s 7th Legislative District I wanted to let you know that I am outraged as a taxpayer at the time, money and effort spent on the ridiculous AZ “Birther” bill sponsored by State Rep. Carl Seel.

GOD had forbidden this one thing from Adam and Eve, the Fruit of Knowledge. The serpent tells Eve that eating the fruit will give them wisdom and make them like GOD. Eve takes the fruit and shares it with Adam. Their fate is sealed. GOD’s anger causes him to banish humanity from the Garden forever. Adam and Eve are tossed out into the wilderness beyond. GOD gives them the freedom they coveted.

Indeed, to those in my own party, I say that if we truly believe in a progressive vision of our society, we have the obligation to prove that we can afford our commitments. If we believe that government can make a difference in people’s lives, we have the obligation to prove that it works – by making government smarter, leaner and more effective.

Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality. William Hazlitt Welcome back to”Exploring Morality”. In this chapter we will have a more general discussion about morals and ethics than in previous chapters. Moving away from academic theory and into the area of personal [...]

Oftentimes in the media, newspeople talk about the economic crisis as though it were a natural phenomenon, like a drought or a flood. They speak about it as though no one really caused this to happen, as though it were not a human invention. But it is, of course.

Every week, there’s something new which some 24/7 cable big mouth has to use as a stick with which to beat this President about something else.

I was raised by a father who couldn’t abide the Republican Party. In fact, I don’t ever recall a time in his life when he didn’t refer to the GOP collectively as “those god-damned Republicans.” When Mills Godwin, a Democratic governor of Virginia, defected, mid-term, to the Republicans, my father [...]

1967-1994

I always hated math in high school, mostly because I disliked the teacher; but I need to qualify that and say it was actually “higher maths” I hated – the second year of algebra and trigonometry. Prior to that, I was really rather good, especially in geometry. If I remember [...]

“That particular sense of sacred rapture men say they experience in contemplating nature- I’ve never received it from nature, only from. Buildings, Skyscrapers. I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline.”
- Ayn Rand

I’m a big James Bradley fan.  The author of Flags of our Fathers and Flyboys hooked me with the first book, a loving examination of his father’s role as one of the participants in flag-raising at Iwo Jima that we are all familiar with.  The book was very interesting and obviously a [...]

I could not believe how many pick-up trucks in the school parking lot were sporting a Johnny Reb bumper tag that read, “Hell, no! We Ain’t Fergettin.’” It was here, in 1960’s Mississippi, that I learned the Civil War was not quite over.

Education reform is the main plank in my platform. The one policy that all others will flow from. It is the most important thing to me. So, how do we begin? A good question. This will be the first controversy in my campaign.

A quick look at the ‘terms of service” for commenting on Huffington could give anyone the impression that they have landed in Wonderland as opposed to Dorothy’s Oz.

During one particular political segment, the station played a clip of John Boehner doing one of his “Jobs…Jobs…(It’s all your fault, Mr. President)… Jobs” rants. At that point, a question occurred to me: How many US jobs, now exported, did those three cargo vessels represent?

Most of the Rightwing are confused over Libya. They don’t know how to respond to the way the President has responded. Let’s be honest: Gaddafi‘s not exactly your Hosni Mubarak. I mean, he doesn’t walk around in a tailored suit kitted out by Brooks Brothers. So whilst it’s funny to [...]

In asserting that the House rules supreme and supersedes the Senate, Eric’s either patently ignorant or pandering patently.

But they didn’t, did they? Some succumbed to Lee Atwater’s Southern Strategy; others became Reagan Democrats. Most watch Fox News now. Why?

The house she rented was in a neighborhood of starter homes in Charlotte, NC. She paid her bills and through no fault of her own, faced eviction because her lousy landlord didn’t pay his/her mortgage.

Much of what I’ve learned about politics I learned in the duck pond. Sounds strange, I know, but keep reading. So it’s a normal day at the duck pond… birds singing, dogs playing in the park behind me, blue sky overhead and snow-capped mountains in the background. In other words, [...]

Then they start bitching about what he didn’t say and should have said, and how he should have said what he did say differently. They twist and turn and bend and break down and analyse and parse his every word…..

We knew that if we wanted — if we waited one more day, Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.

Censorship? Surely there are few things more revealing of a reactionary mindset, some would hasten to assure me. Why, censorship can be identified with all the cruelest dictatorships, the most oppressive regimes, the most hardcore religious fundamentalists, etc. This is indeed true.

McCarthy pulls out a sheet of paper he claims has the names of 205 people working in the State Department who are all Communists. He tells the audience that these names have all been brought to the attention of the Secretary of State and he knowingly refuses to do anything to address Communist activity in our own State Department.