I got a nice note from an old friend last night, a former President of the Log Cabin Republicans. It reminded me to keep an ear open for the gay marriage issue in Governor Cuomo’s State of the State Address today. There was just a single mention of the issue in a 48-minute speech about […]

During the American Civil War, the flag bearer was an instant target for the opposing army’s sharpshooters. Yet, in battle after battle, a felled flag bearer was instantly replaced by another willing soldier, Union and Confederate, who, in hoisting the fallen colors from the ground, knew that a bullet soon would arrive. And yet the […]

I don’t often weigh in on the culture wars.  But I was floored recently to learn from my two eldest daughters that the terms A.D. (Anno Domini) and B.C. (Before Christ) have quietly been replaced in public school classrooms – at least in Westchester County, NY – with the acronyms C. E. (Common Era)  and […]

In 1968 a God-awful movie called “Wild in the Streets” was released.  It was great. It depicted a psychedelic national movement of young people against the older generations (reminiscent of Jack Weinberg’s “don’t trust anyone over 30”) that culminated in the battle cry pop song: “14 or Fight!,” demanding that the voting age be reduced […]

The New York Post’s Fred Dicker pretty much nails it today.  This may, indeed be the last chance for the Empire State. He writes: “The proud Empire State that produced such national-class governors as Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Al Smith, Tom Dewey, Nelson Rockefeller and Hugh Carey became a national laughingstock, and deservedly so. “New […]

Mayor Bloomberg can no longer defend himself on the snow emergency story.  Not effectively anyway.  Attempts at self-defense are like quicksand now; they are seized upon by the political hyenas – mediocre career politicians stirring up discontent against one of the most competent mayors New York has ever known – and thrown back into the […]

New York City Mayor Bloomberg is catching the wrath of cranky New Yorkers, especially from those living in the city’s four outer boroughs.  It seems the streets haven’t been plowed quickly enough of the two feet of snow dumped on Gotham 24-plus-hours ago. “There was clearly insufficient planning, and New Yorkers are paying too steep […]

A friend and client, and an overall excellent guy, hit me recently with an intriguing sociological theory about the growth of government in America.  It is novel thinking (as far as I know), and there very well may be something there. The friend, an evangelical Christian, posits that the expansion of government directly correlates to […]

The damndest thing about history is that it doesn’t stop.  It hasn’t yet at least. That’s potentially good news for states like New York, California, and Illinois that seem to be on the wrong side of history these days.  They can alter their futures any time they want, and they know exactly how to do it. The […]