Abortion
Cards on the table: While I find abortion to be awful, I would not ban it. Can any rational person “like” it? Going back to the 1992 Bill Clinton dictum, it should be safe, rare, and legal. That was brilliantly crafted as an umbrella to include pro-choicers, alongside those who
Russia
May 9th is Victory Day in Russia, the national holiday that commemorates the Soviet victory over the Nazis. It is an important date on the calendar, because Russia lost more of its people to the Nazis than any other nation. An estimated 27 million Soviets died, most of them Russian.
Russia
Willy Joseph Cancel, a former Marine, is believed to be the first American to die while assisting Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. He leaves a young wife and toddler daughter. This link takes you to a verified GoFundMe page. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-raise-funds-for-willy-joseph-cancels-family?utm_source=customer&
Race
The recent approval of the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court led me to reflect on her “privilege,” meaning two caring parents who valued education, the gift of high IQ, plus her determination and her quality education at Harvard. I imagine she had a
Cartoon
Who is at the wheel of this bus?
Freedom of Speech
I am in Facebook jail again, so that’s good news to subscribers here. Without that massive platform, I will be pouring more work into this outlet. Can I hear an amen? This is at least the fourth time my privileges have been revoked by Team Zuckerberg, which makes me
Politics
I get on a lot of strange email mailing lists, maybe because I support candidates from a range of political parties — Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Natural Law. I have been getting fund-raising appeals from Louisiana U.S. Senator John Kennedy, no relation to the former president. He’s on talk shows
Politics
The man with the raised fist is not angry. He is Al Robles, and he is being emphatic. Emphatic about his platform, which has three legs: Solidarity, Pragmatism, Prosperity, he said during his candidacy announcement Wednesday afternoon, surrounded by supporters. He is running for the state house in Pennsylvania'
Culture
You know the adage about not tearing down a wall until after you know why it was built? Hearing about the latest Florida law, this one “banning” some math books, has me wondering. What could be in math books that would be objectionable? At the same time, I remembered that
Entertainment
South Philadelphia’s Bobby Rydell, who would have turned 80 on April 26, died April 5 of noncovid pneumonia at Jefferson Abington, his wife Linda Hoffman tells me. Services were private and his ashes will be divided between his first wife’s grave — that would be his beloved Camille — and,
Politics
I’m man enough to admit — not brag — that I am the one who does the grocery shopping in our family, because Half-Pint works at a real job, while I entertain the world with my blog. My basic shopping list is about 10 staples, and I don’t know what
Russia
In addition to proving to be amazing warriors, Ukrainians are demonstrating a grim sense of humor. They just released this stamp, signifying the Ukrainian soldiers' response to a Russian warship’s demand they surrender. “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.” By an accident of timing, on Friday it was learned