On the second anniversary of the start of this column, I am reprising the first one, so that people who were not here for the first know where I am coming from, and what they can expect. (This should have posted Thursday, but tech problems prevented that.)
Welcome.
If you landed here because you were looking for a Russian troll farm, you are free to leave.
The rest of you know my name from the Daily News and the (cough) Inquirer, where I worked for 47 years before leaving “voluntarily” last Friday, with a farewell column that announced the birth of this website.
To distinguish it from the Old Column, a friend suggested that I write here in haiku, but limericks are more my style.
So now you know I will use humor. It might be a bit edgy sometime. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
I would prefer starting this adventure with something torn from the headlines, but I feel I have to show you a road map, so you know what to expect.
StuBykofsky.com is open to ideas from the Right (wing nut) and the Left (loon). My intent is to explore serious subjects — politics, reparations, socialism, Medicare for all, free higher education, illegal immigration, culture, bad behavior, good deeds, Beyonce, and space aliens, if we can find any. It also will be silly sometimes.
I expect this venture will develop a life of its own. I suspect it will be a hybrid — part column, part diary, part Facebook post. We will find out together.
I am a centrist, sometimes leaning left, sometimes leaning right. I believe in the rule of law as protection against anarchy and chaos. I also believe facts matter.
I also believe The Middle is where people meet to get things done. That’s what we (meaning me) at StuBykofsky.com believe. I know the extremes draw more attention, but they are destructive.
Compromise to me = common sense, whether in a government or a marriage. Self-indulgent ideologues don’t believe in compromise because they think the morality of their cause demands purity and excludes “settling.” I think that is one reason our national government is gridlocked.
I believe, in essence, America is a good country with some bad people and some bad patches in its past and present. If you believe America is a bad country, you won’t be happy here.
If you need trigger warnings, a safe space, or a puppy to pet when you see an idea you don’t like, leave now. Straight talk overrules delicate feelings.
This column will be Philacentric, but with a world view. The PC police have been handcuffed. The language may sometimes be rough, but we are all adults. I am the benevolent gatekeeper of The Middle.
There’s nothing in the middle of the road, said Texas Democrat Jim Hightower, but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos.
That’s a funny line, but is it true? Let’s road test it on politics.
As of June, when Gallup asked Americans about their party affiliation, it found 27% said they were Democrats, 26% claimed to be Republicans and — approaching a majority — 46% chose to be independents.
Those figures suggest the emergence of a third political party is possible, but I don’t want to get over my skis. The bulk of Americans are middlist, which is a word I thought I invented, but someone beat me to the punch.
In terms of my home ground, it means purple Pennsylvania is more in tune with America than is deep blue Philadelphia.
I am an enrolled Democrat (I have to be in Philadelphia, where the primary determines the winner almost always) who has voted for some Republicans — Arlen Specter, Thacher Longstreth, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush (once) and maybe some others. I vote for the person — not the party, not the gender, not the skin color, not the religion, not the astrological sign, not the age, not the spirit animal.
I vote for the person who I think will be best for America, not necessarily best for me. Voting only for who is best for you is entirely understandable, but self-centered.
“Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans,” said political commentator Milton Himmelfarb, about his (and my) people. It was a comment on the Jewish commitment to liberalism, which thrives even as American Jews uncouple from their religious roots.
Jews are the only people I know who put the interests of other minority groups above their own.
Is that harsh?
It is an opinion and that’s what you will see here, but opinion standing on a platform of fact. I won’t always be right, but I will always try to get it right — and to correct it when I am wrong.
And so the adventure begins.
“Second verse, same as the first…..”. I’m sure, Stu, you can figure out which 60’s Top 40 tune that came from. Mazel Tov on hanging in there – even with the Technical Wardrobe Malfunctions of the past few days!
Herman’s Hermits, Henry the 8th, a cute ditty.
still HAPPY FRIDAY !!!
Yo pallie !
Glad to read that you’re up and running. An encore presentation of the one and only ‘first’.
Two years of bumpy roads, but look where it got us. I have enjoyed the ride.
Tony
I, too, have enjoyed the ride — except for the tech issues.
Could have been much worse. Like Donald Trump’s Big Tech “issues.” 😀 Happy Anniversary, Stu. Looking forward!
I look forward to more incisive journalistic appeal with a touch of the Friars club humor. Every day in America today brings new ideas some bizarre and some futuristic but always worth writing about. Becoming disillusioned can hamper some days as you watch the demagogues, the political whores, and a changing media that went from being our investigator and truth dispenser to one long commercial of idealogue with a drop of believability. Every year Webster’s dictionary announces that certain words that are abused and overused should be dropped from our conversation such as; like, cool, chill and the overload used the phrase “It is what it is.” My point is every year our society has forgotten to use words that have real meaning such as research, fact-finding, and proof of the event. Again as always my best but In the back of my mind from all that has gone on in the past has your outlook changed in writing style or how you approach the subject matter in relevance?
No change of view or approach that I am aware of. Always fact-based.
Dtu congrsts on two years. Keep ’em coming.
Thanks. I will.
This middle of the roader — sometimes veering to left or right — has for years agreed with you most of the time. Even when I disagreed, I thought your articulating and explaining your position instead of simply making pronouncements was valuable and it sometimes made me rethink my own position. We should have more folks like you in this world, Stu! Keep the blog coming and keep posting.
BTW, we finally sold our condo. We are outta Philly and mourn the slow death of a once great city.
Thanks for comment and I knew you would be able to sell and escape.
Good afternoon Mr. Bykofsky,
Congratulations on your 2nd anniversary. I “stumbled” upon your site completely by accident around the beginning of 2021 so I am a newbie. Thank goodness I did because I could no longer patronize your former employer’s abandonment of journalism in favor of public relations for extreme left ideology. I was so thankful to find your site. Thank you!
Not to pile on regarding your tech issues, but this post did not appear when I went directly to https://StuBykofsky.Com. Your prior post was at the top & this post did not appear no matter how many times I refreshed my browser. Fortunately, I received your email notification with a link to this post & that is the only way I found it. Thank goodness!
Congratulations again on your 2nd anniversary & please keep it coming. Have a great weekend!
I’m glad you found me and tell your friends who are disaffected with the Inquirer.
Well done, Stu. In post #1, you said what you were going to do, and over the next two years you did it. (So you’d have made a lousy politician.) Keep going! Your analyses are a light in the darkness.
But not all us American Jews “put the interests of other minority groups above our own.” Our great sage Hillel two millennia ago taught us it is only by being self-respecting and secure ourselves that we can be of meaningful help to others:
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
“But if I am for myself only, what am I?
“And if not now, when?”
Many American Jews’ favoring of “the two-state solution along the 1967 [i.e., 1949] ceasefire lines with mutually agreed land swaps” flies in the face of Hillel’s wisdom. Palestinian Arabs are the majority population of Arab Jordan, 78% of the Palestine Mandate. Depriving Israel of historic Jerusalem (three times’ native Jewish state – Judah, Judaea, Israel – capital with a renewed Jewish majority since the 1800’s) and of Judea-Samaria (“West Bank”) hill country would render Israel a rump ghetto “Jewish national home,” spiritually meaningless and militarily indefensible (9 miles wide in the lowland middle).
Oy. To quote Stu: ” …the extremes draw more attention, but they are destructive…. Self-indulgent ideologues don’t believe in compromise because they think the morality of their cause demands purity and excludes ‘settling.'”
Tom,
The Palestine Mandate has already been divided 78% to a Palestinian Arab majority state, Jordan, 22% left for its Jewish national home. That’s compromise. Again dividing that 22% by taking away its heart, historic Jerusalem (3 times Jewish state capital and Jewish majority since 1800’s and giving it to Palestinian Arabs who never ruled any of it ever), and taking away the defensible Jordan Valley border, leaving a rump ghetto Israel nine miles wide in the lowland middle? That’s not further compromise, that’s suicide. Oy!
Jerry
Congrats Stu!
Your blog is my go to site for the last two years as I’ve dumped the Inqy (Stinqy to some) and the rest of the “lame” stream media in search of facts, humor, insight and the occasional tough conversation. You’re keeping it real, I appreciate that! I’ve shared your site with many friends, family and folks that could use a dose of reality! You also respond to your readers, which creates interesting dialogue and opens minds (its like rubbing elbows with Royalty 😃). And your blog followers bring their “A” game each post, the comments are priceless!
Hoping for many more posts….
Thanks for that TIC.
Two years and you haven’t yet been arrested for thinking thoughts inimical to the Left or Right. Will wonders never cease? Woke up this morning to KYW’s report that 40 people (!) were shot in Philly last night. That’s more people than have been shot in Afghanistan in several months. Yep, it is definitely time to defund the police. Or better yet, defund the pols.
Wishing you many more years of pissing off the PC idiots infecting the body politic, Stu. Keep your powder dry.
Thanks, Vince.
Did you ever get that mean woman at your retirement party to say “I’m sorry”.
A defamation law suit has been filed. On advice of counsel, I can say no more about her malicious, premeditated lies.