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If the election were held today, it would be best for the country if everyone stayed home and refused to vote until we got some candidates worthy of their office. None of the men running for president–including the man currently in the White House who I and many of you voted for–deserves our vote. If [...]
My parents were Socialists and civil rights workers, so I was raised with the core belief that everyone is equal. It’s imbedded in my DNA. As a consequence, I am always stunned when people I otherwise respect show themselves to be bigots. I felt that shock on Monday while listening to NPR as I do [...]
When Republicans and Democrats join forces on reproductive issues, women always lose. Such was the case last week. President Obama decided to go the anti-science route and refute an FDA finding on Plan B while the Pennsylvania legislature voted in SB732, which will likely further restrict abortion in Pennsylvania. Both measures were cited as “protections” [...]
I’ve been watching the Occupy Philly actions with avid attention over the past few weeks. I’m in that middle-age demographic that has mostly been complaining that there’s no focus, no leadership, no direction, no end game to the protest. As one friend explained, “These are middle-class kids with the privilege to hang out night and [...]
Last night someone stole my new trash can. It’s not a big thing in the greater scheme of things, of course. But the trash can was only two weeks old and had my address on it in stick-on numbers and letters. And it was raccoon-proof, which given we have raccoons, was important. Oh and [...]
Like many queer Americans I cried when the New York vote on marriage equality came in late Friday night. I spent years in New York, having worked at OutWeek, QW and POZ and free-lanced for the Village Voice and New York Times. New York remained my second home for many years. I’m thrilled for my [...]
My father died May 22 after a brief illness. “Brief” is one of those end-of-life euphemisms that implies quick, painless and uneventful. But dying is almost never like that. Dying is long, painful and beset with one set-back after another. It also costs a fortune. Health care costs are the major reason for bankruptcies in [...]
I read Mark Segal’s column in PGN last week with dismay. He endorsed Obama with laudatory comments and added as his rationale that Gavin Newsom and Elizabeth Birch had also endorsed him. Early endorsements are always dicey, but early endorsements of incumbents who have done little for constituents are a mistake. I voted for Barack [...]
According to the near-daily emails i receive from the DNC, DSCC and Obama’s Organizing for America, the crowning achievement of the Obama Administration has been health care reform. According to the Republicans, their raison d’etre and the alleged mandate from the electorate after the November 2010 election is overturning health care reform. Only problem: There is no [...]
Rachel Maddow has a Ph.d. She’s smart. She’s politically motivated. She has reason to be left of center. But she has a fatal flaw: She’s an unrepentant Obama apologist. Tonight she proclaimed that President Obama had delivered a “smackdown” to GOP governors by moving up the date of the health care reform opt-out to 2014. [...]
