Language
Why English is so hard to learn
It ain’t new, and it ain’t much but it’s all I have for you today.
Latest
Coronavirus
Vaxx gift cards reward sloth
Once again, the people who were responsible and did the right thing get squat, while the selfish and lazy are rewarded. This time it’s a $100 gift card to those who get vaccinated now, long after the time they should. It’s a progressive idea that reminds me of
Journalism
How the media handled Palin, and Durham
The lawyer writing for the NBC website says Sarah Palin probably feels like she was jobbed by Judge Jed Rakoff, and the lawyer understands that feeling, but . . . First, Palin had a high bar to clear, suing a newspaper as a public official. With that said, the judge did not dismiss
Race
Blowback against School District’s racist policy
The Philadelphia School District’s racist reorganization of admission to elite schools is biting its own tail. After my column calling the district out for a policy that was supposed to capture the unicorn of “equity,” but instead harmed qualified whites and Asians, even the “anti-racist” (its promised direction,
Politics
“Voter suppression”? Not so much, research shows
The long-held, but unchallenged, assumption that “voter suppression” changes the outcome of elections, has now been challenged — and refuted. The analysis comes from respected Emory University prof Alan Abramowitz, and his work has gotten far less attention than it should. And when it is published, his work is usually
Drugs
From crack pipe to crackpot
Elections matter. Faced with howls of protest led by conservatives, the Biden Administration policy that was described as crack pipes for addicts was quickly reversed, to assure citizens their tax money would not be going to providing nice, clean pipes to crack addicts. The pipes-to-addicts line was not
Olympics
What would be my Olympic sport?
Like many some Americans, I am tuning into China’s Gulag Olympics, but before I get serious about what it takes for most athletes to get there, I’ve got to exercise my funny bone a bit. Very early on in life, I knew I was blessed with neither physical
Race Relations
The myopic viewpoint of the woke
Here is an example of how you can be blinded when you view everything through the prism of race. My former colleague Will Bunch recently wrote a heartfelt column about the declining number of African-Americans going to college. Such a decrease might be worrisome, and Bunch helpfully published a
Race Relations
Where Whoopi went oh-so-wrong
Having taken the time to think about it, Whoopi Goldberg was wrong, but not that wrong. There has been a discussion for a long time about whether Jews are a “race.” When I was a schoolboy, there were three races -- called Caucasian, Negroid, Mongoloid. That’s from memory in the
Racism
School District selects racism for elite schools
It has begun -- the Philadelphia School District is dumbing down its elite schools in the name of “equity,” prying open doors to those who couldn’t get in under rules that demanded and created excellence. The (vague) new policies for student admission, announced in the fall, are a transparent attempt
Pete Buttigieg
A wake up call for Secretary Pete
I’m not sure what qualified “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg to be Secretary of Transportation, other than him being a Democrat and the vice president’s job going to Kamala Harris. As I predicted back in 2018, there was no chance Democrats would nominate two white men for president and vice
Philadelphia Eagles
Let’s go, Brandon -- and thanks
While we are forgetting our misguided love affair with Carson Wentz, and while we are trying to wash the taste of Ben Simmons out of our mouth, let’s pause to say goodbye to Eagles right guard Brandon Brooks, who announced his retirement at a news conference and also with