This is a column I ran a few years back and I thought was particularly important during this Christmas season to revisit. A friend was visiting that I only see on occasion. After talking about our common interests, he told me he was currently splitting his time between where he lived and where he grew up. That was because his 90-year-old father needed to have a family member nearby. After commending him for doing the right thing in taking care of his aging parent, I asked whether he had any siblings who could help. He stated he had one who was no longer in communication with him or his father. His answer as to why was because his father and the sibling had a fight five years ago. Shocked by the statement I inquired of him “You mean to tell me your sibling got so upset with an 85-year-old man that they no longer communicate?” The idea of estranged relatives has destroyed me for a while now. Along with parents divorcing, family members refusing to interact with their parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles or cousins just drives me crazy. We have enough problems with broken families and families that never fully formed. We have shrinking … Read More

When the Presidents of MIT, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania were invited to denounce open race-hatred on their campuses, they wrapped themselves in the mantle of free speech. People have a right to say what they think as long as it doesn’t become threatening conduct, they said, and on this narrow point they’re right. But that doesn’t explain why antisemitism is rampant on their campuses. It is not a tolerance for outrageous speech that is the problem – it is a complete intolerance of patriotic speech. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the two most intolerant and oppressive universities in the country are Harvard and UPenn. MIT ranks 136th out of 254 universities surveyed. How is it possible that such depraved and discredited philosophies as Marxism, totalitarianism, racism, Islamic-fascism and antisemitism now flourish on these college campuses? Because for years, the antidote to these social pathologies – the American founding principles of freedom, democracy, tolerance, and justice that have always kept them in check — have been systematically suppressed and removed from campus discussions. A… Read More

I was at one of my local casual restaurants for lunch on a Saturday. I asked my waiter, who I know, for my check and said to him jokingly that if the restaurant wants to, they can cover me for the day. He said that would be tomorrow, Sunday. I suggested that was his Sabbath and it would be more appropriate to cover me today on my Sabbath. He came back to my table and launched into an unsolicited, heartfelt appreciation for everything the Jewish people have done for the world and how grateful he is for Jews who have made the world so much better. At any time, faced with what he was saying, I would be brought to the edge of tears. Since this happened after October 7th, I was particularly moved.

Now, in return, I want to give Christians back their most precious holiday — Christmas. It is not that observant Jews are the ones who started using the milquetoast, ill-defined, all-inclusive term “happy holidays.” But we can help to stop the words from being used and revert to how we used to greet people – Merry Christmas. Any regular reader of my columns knows I have no problem with addressing Christmas. A few years back I wrote a… Read More

Because of my background as a weekly journalist, a committed Jew and former member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, I have been asked many times recently “Are you surprised by the level of anti-Semitism that occurred after October 7th”? My answer, NO. My question is why anyone is surprised by the large crowds gathered to support a group (Hamas) that closely resembles the Nazis and proudly revels in the fact they successfully butchered 1,200 Jews in one day in their sneak attack on civilians. Does anyone really believe most of the people in the rabble really know what they are protesting? What the cause is really about? Enough on-site interviews validate their ignorance. It is astonishing that any woman in the United States or Europe is out marching for this cause when they live in societies that have advanced the rights of women to the highest point in history. Odder still are Gays and the related alphabet soup cheering a group that would be happy to bury them alive. This has been brewing for years. The leaders of this thinking have been working for half a century to overturn the underpinnings of our society. Names like Angela Davis,… Read More

I have recently concluded that white liberals are the most dangerous people in our society. I decided to expand on the concept and explain why these sanctimonious people are so harmful. Across America people are regularly elected who make clear they want to radically change the landscape of American politics, particularly the justice system. Some may not distinctly state their desires, but once in office their plans become clear. The critical support of white liberals is what gets them into those seats. These white liberals first and foremost reject candidates that are labeled “Republican” even if their Democrat opponent expresses radical policies. The idea of voting for a Republican no matter how moderate is so abhorrent to them that they think if they vote for that Republican that God will strike them dead on the spot. It does not matter what the Democrat’s policies are as stated or once in office, white liberals will stick with their choice even as they see the policy choices are against their own self-interest. If the candidate is black, they will support the candidate even if that candidate has completely different policy … Read More

There was a blatant episode recently that exemplifies how deteriorated our press has become. The immediate disclosure to the world that the Hamas propaganda machine blamed Israelis for a hospital bombing in Gaza – in reality the hospital parking lot — and the killing of 500 people – which was actually 50. These irresponsible reports spread a blood libel that gave justification for riots throughout the world and cancellation of meetings with President Biden. But that is just a small sample of the distortion done on a regular basis by the legacy media. Meet the Press, one of TV’s most iconic news programs, transitioned to a new host on September 17th. That morning saw Kristen Welker anchor her first show after succeeding long-time host, Chuck Todd. It would be easy to take the position that it would be Tweedle-dee, Tweedle-dum. But in the spirit of writing this column and being part of the journalist world, I committed to giving her a shot. She was able to book former President Donald Trump for her first show, no question a big “get.” Trump is difficult to watch as a guest because of his repetitive rhetoric and chest pounding, so watching… Read More

As Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas has carried out the Biden administration’s open borders policy and deliberately produced the worst illegal mass migration in history. Since he took office, he has released three million illegal immigrants directly into the country, a population the size of Arkansas. And while the Border Patrol has been occupied changing diapers and taking names, an additional 1.7 million known got-aways have entered as well – an additional illegal population the size of Hawaii. The impact on schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, working families’ wages, social programs, law enforcement, national security and has been catastrophic. In response, many are demanding Mayorkas’ impeachment for “failing to maintain operational control of the border,” as Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resolution puts it. He is certainly guilty of that and more: maladministration, malfeasance, and neglect of duties on a truly historic scale. But these are not impeachable offenses. We know this because the American Founders specifically rejected these terms at the Constitutional Convention. As Madison explained, they feared that… Read More

There are many joys of being a Californian. The price of housing, the price of gas and the price of electricity are just a few. One that is not discussed is how our elected leaders are constantly changing the laws under which we are governed. This is one of the worst aspects of our “independent press” which barely discusses the matter. It has become custom for California’s full-time legislature to justify their collective existence by feeling compelled to propose a laundry list of new bills to become law. Each member can submit fifty bills in every two-year session. With 120 members, there could be 6,000 bills every session or 3,000 bills annually. It seems that each member attempts to make that “quota.”

The number gets whittled down, but not by much. The amount of bills passed is significant: 2021 – 965 bills; 2022-998; 2023-1046. The Governor gets a hack at them once passed by the Assembly and State Senate, but maybe “hack” is not an appropriate verb here. In the first year of the session, he has 12 days from passing of the bills to sign them into law or veto. In year two, the governor has 30 days. Newsom signed into law:… Read More