Coronavirus
As someone who used to be paid to give an opinion — and who now does it for free — I am not always right. But I am not always wrong, either. My biggest strikeout was the 2016 election, in which I declared Pennsylvania was a lock for Hillary Clinton, and that
Coronavirus
The answer came too late for a column in which I questioned where the mayor gets the legal authority to order quarantines, face masks, social distances and the like. But the mayor’s office has now responded and I am going to share this with those of you wondering the
ACCT Philly
I hope this doesn’t come across as a desperate attempt to find a silver lining in a dark cloud, meaning the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is a happy fact that for the first time since Philadelphia’s animal shelter was reborn as ACCT Philly in 2012, the building at
Coronavirus
Does society have a right to institute rules and laws to protect its citizens from preventable harm? Self-evident, isn’t it? Especially in democracies where the laws are written by representatives of the people. Are we on the same page so far? Is this something both liberals and conservatives agree
Coronavirus
One of my friends is an optimist. No, really. He’s also moderately liberal, but hates Hillary Clinton almost as much as he hates Donald J. Trump, and thinks her endorsement actually hurts Joe Biden. I don’t because she is still very popular among white, female Democrats, who feel
Coronavirus
Having suffered the highest death toll in Europe, more than 27,000, and still in Phase One, total lockdown, Italy is moving gingerly toward Phase Two, slowly opening. “Phase 3 is going to be the criminalization of the contagion,” journalist Nicola Mirenzi wrote on the news website Linkiesta. “The pandemic
Coronavirus
When the Smithfield meat packing plant went down last week, shutting an amazing 5% of pork production, and we were told there would be no disruptions in our food supply chain, I said to myself, “that ain’t kosher.” Now we are told there will be a disruption in what
Coronavirus
Let’s examine some reporting and a statement from President Donald J. Trump. We start with a Monday night report on NBC Nightly News, from usually reliable chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel. He was reporting on Sweden’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was, basically, to ignore it and
Coronavirus
The civil disobedience movement, if you can call it that, is slowly spreading as the Great Isolation expands from days to weeks to months. The “social distance” wall is cracking, despite Dr. Deborah Birx’s warning that we will have -- must have -- social distances through the summer. Like
Coronavirus
In the last few days, a couple of new COVID-19 observations have come into view, developing and changing our view of the Great Isolation. First is research that is revealing — as we test more and more people — that more and more people already have been exposed to the virus, that
Coronavirus
There sure was deliberate stupidity at the Thursday news briefing at which President Donald J. Trump seemed to endorse bombarding human bodies with ultraviolet light and possibly injecting household detergents into the human body to fight the COVID-19 virus. He did not actually say that, although you could see Dr.
Coronavirus
Do you know this woman? And if you do, would drop a dime on her? She was a suspect in an assault, accused of spitting on another customer in the upscale Di Bruno Bros. Center City store. Actually, two assaults on consecutive days in the store. And apparently some people