Olympics
Like many some Americans, I am tuning into China’s Gulag Olympics, but before I get serious about what it takes for most athletes to get there, I’ve got to exercise my funny bone a bit. Very early on in life, I knew I was blessed with neither physical
Race Relations
Here is an example of how you can be blinded when you view everything through the prism of race. My former colleague Will Bunch recently wrote a heartfelt column about the declining number of African-Americans going to college. Such a decrease might be worrisome, and Bunch helpfully published a graph
Race Relations
Having taken the time to think about it, Whoopi Goldberg was wrong, but not that wrong. There has been a discussion for a long time about whether Jews are a “race.” When I was a schoolboy, there were three races -- called Caucasian, Negroid, Mongoloid. That’s from memory in
Racism
It has begun -- the Philadelphia School District is dumbing down its elite schools in the name of “equity,” prying open doors to those who couldn’t get in under rules that demanded and created excellence. The (vague) new policies for student admission, announced in the fall, are a transparent
Pete Buttigieg
I’m not sure what qualified “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg to be Secretary of Transportation, other than him being a Democrat and the vice president’s job going to Kamala Harris. As I predicted back in 2018, there was no chance Democrats would nominate two white men for president and vice
Philadelphia Eagles
While we are forgetting our misguided love affair with Carson Wentz, and while we are trying to wash the taste of Ben Simmons out of our mouth, let’s pause to say goodbye to Eagles right guard Brandon Brooks, who announced his retirement at a news conference and also with
Fire Safety
Adam Thiel, Philadelphia’s 20th fire commissioner, has done doctoral work in public policy, in addition to earning degrees in fire science and history. On Tuesday, he showed his public policy chops with a declaration that the “root cause” of fire disasters is a dearth of safe, affordable, public housing.
Democracy
I have long called myself a disloyal Democrat because I can’t go along with every nugget of insanity that flows from the far left edge of the party, which seems to be steering the ship, or at least plotting its course. By the far left, I specifically mean the
Democracy
There is no computer that can’t be hacked, there is no web site that can’t be cracked. If that is true -- and it is -- why would we ever put our voting process and electoral returns online? When we do that, we make ourselves vulnerable. What follows
Culture
Having just downloaded it into my musical library, I am listening to “Be My Baby: The Very Best of the Ronettes,” and thinking how lucky I am, me and my generation. My parent's generation had some girl groups, the most famous being the Andrews Sisters. My generation --
Russia
I have no use for Russia. From the Czars to the communists to whatever they call themselves today, they have been poison for my people -- Jews -- as well as for democracy. Freedom doesn’t seem to be in their DNA. But do they have a point in wanting
Drugs
I’ve never been much interested in head shops. As in drug paraphernalia. Never been a druggie — wrong generation. My drugs were tobacco and alcohol, both legal. At least for now. My interest in the coming closing of Wonderland, near Rittenhouse Square, was just academic. I know the store because