Christmas
Do you send out Christmas cards? To whom? How many? Why? No one sends cards any more, right? You tweet, you text, you message on Facebook. Who wants the expense of buying cards and standing in long lines to buy the postage? It’s all so 20th Century. Me, that’
Supreme Court
I haven’t seen many progressives thank the U.S. Supreme Court for its back-of-hand ruling against Texas’ wild idea that it could overturn election returns from other states. This case was the “big one,” according to President Donald J. Trump. He was right, in an unexpected way. When it
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Almost immediately after newly-elected D.A. Larry Krasner arrived at his 3 Penn Square office in 2018, he went ballistic, firing experienced prosecutors, including Carlos Vega, whose speciality was homicide. (He and other veteran staffers are suing the D.A. for age discrimination.) Vega faced Krasner in court just once.
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He will do it not for himself, but for the victims, he says. He is Carlos Vega, 64, who prosecuted almost 450 accused murderers during a 35-year career in the Philadelphia District Attorney's office and who was fired shortly after Larry Krasner took office in 2018. He lost
Hanukkah
The religious scholars tell us (Jews) that Hanukkah (the holiday formerly known as Chanukah) is not among the important holidays on the Jewish calendar. So why does it get so much prominence, starting at sundown, 4:51 Thursday on the East Coast? And why do Jewish holidays begin at night
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It’s hard to imagine a less memorable anniversary than the 79th, which is today’s for Pearl Harbor Day, the infamous attack that drew us into World War II, and opened the door for America to emerge as a superpower and leader of the free world. There will be
Guns
In a city on a glide path to the greatest number of homicides in decades, here’s an unusual holiday gift: The police department’s Gun Permit Unit will reopen Monday, Dec. 7. (Coincidentally, that is Pearl Harbor Day. No, I do not forget.) The Gun Permit Unit, located for
Politics
A strong Democratic friend of mine texted that he was glad President Donald J. Trump would not (as looks likely) attend Joe Biden’s inauguration. The inauguration is likely to be the least-attended in memory because of COVID-19 protocols, which Biden is more likely to observe than hypocrites such as
Racism
The moment of my real race awakening came in 1955 with the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi for supposedly flirting with a white woman. He was a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago. I was a 14-year-old white boy from The Bronx. Maybe I felt some kind of teenage, Big
Women
As far as women are concerned, right from the jump, former Vice President Joe Biden promised a team that would look like this country. His very first pick was historic — Kamala Harris for vice president, a woman who also checks two other identity boxes — Black and Asian. The Democrat’s
Elections
Are we happy with mail ballots? I mean, really happy? I am not — and I am not speaking in support of Donald J. Trump, who probably has done more to undermine faith in elections than anyone since Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. But that does not mean his complaint about “non-requested’
Thanksgiving
Today is Thanksgiving, your holiday, but not mine. I have nothing against Thanksgiving at all, but it was never a big deal in my family, nor in my neighborhood. I don’t know why. No massive ingathering of family, no huge steroid-injected bird, no sense of being in a Norman