India had its untouchables. Europe had the Jews. Groups of people who were blatantly denied the rights enjoyed by most citizens of their native countries. And we Americans, who just know that we're as close to perfect as humans can get, had our n-word people.

You know the word. I hate it, and it digusts me when some black people throw it around for shock value, or for God-knows-what. Rhymes with "bigger." Continue...

It's good new that state governments are beginning to see that we can't continue to build more and bigger prisons. The average American household already spends around $500 per year to keep people behind bars.

For the short term, the alternative most often considered is directing juvenile offenders into rehabilitation-oriented programs for shorter periods of time, while keeping punishment as the primatry objective for older offenders. It's a step in the right direction, but let's hope it's only the beginning of a trend.

Rehabilitation has gotten a bad rap for decades now. Continue...

It happened again. At a Roller Derby again. Miriam and I arrived a little late for a Windy City Rollers bout, and someone was already singing the Star Spangled Banner. As usual, the melody was virtually unsingable, and the words obviously written by a patriot who was a better lawyer than poet. As usual, the performance by the singer was, as American Idol's Randy Jackson would say, "a little pitchy."

And as usual, it gave me goosebumps. For better or worse, it's our song. It probably seems quaint to people from elsewhere that we sing it before any kind of sporting event. Maybe out there in Liberal, Kansas, they sing it before their cowpie throwing contests. Continue...

The first time I remember getting a "tingle" from a woman on the movie screen, she was Hedy Lamarr as Delilah. That shows how damned old I am! My Delilah is a delightful mixed breed dog, named in memory of that bit of self-disovery. In dog years, she's roughly as old as I am.

Like me, she has some age-related limitations. Unlike me, she does not appear to fret over them. Continue...

It's always awkward for me when a Jewish person whom I normally like and respect goes on a rant about the holiness of the English language and the supposed scourge of immigrants, especially the "undocumented."

I'm not going to load this with references and citations, because anyone honest and intelligent enough to even understand the question should be quite capable of getting the facts for himself.

We have a situation in Arizona now where American citizens may need to carry "papers" to avoid unceremonious arrest and imprisonment. Perhaps in the Maricopa County Concentration Camp, Continue...

Is America really the best nation on earth? Our politicians get applause by telling us that it is. When some of our leaders spoke of mending fences with our allies, promising more cooperation and less of the arrogance we came to be known for recently, the mouthiest critics of the current administration screamed that they were "apologizing for America!" Nations, like individuals, should know that there's no shame in saying they're sorry.

Don't get me wrong; the U S of A is not perfect, and it's not God, but I think it's pretty great.

Sorry to say, there are a lot of Americans in 2010 who are not acting like they belong to a great nation. Continue...

When I was a kid there was speculation in some quarters that Father Charles Coughlin, the notorious anti-Semitic priest, was "The Antichrist." Then some thought it could be Hitler. Then Stalin. One evangelical revivalist insisted it was FDR, who wasn't really dead; his funeral was staged so he could make a new appearance and claim to be resurrected. Meanwhile, a Baptist preacher I knew was certain that the same evangelical revivalist was, himself, The Antichrist.

More recently, a "Christian militia" in Michigan (remember Timothy McVeigh?) seems to believe that President Obama is Satan's Anointed One. A member claimed that they were stockpiling assault rifles because Jesus Continue...

One of the worst kept secrets in diplomatic circles is the Cuban government's plan, beginning April First, to offer free healthcare to any American citizen who obtains permission to travel there and cannot afford treatment under what their health and welfare minister, Francisco Villa, called "the bloodsucking capitalist medical monopoly."

According to my anonymous sources, leading Democrats and Republicans have taken what appear to be totally paradoxical positions on the matter. Vice President Biden is reported to have said privately that he opposes the idea: "It's just grandstanding on their part, implying that we can't fix our own healthcare system. We're fixing it, and we don't need penny ante dictatorships telling us how to do it." Continue...

Not too long ago the largest Roman Catholic diocese in Illinois declared defensively that "only" two percent of its priests had engaged in sexual abuse of children. Only??? Let's put that in perspective: When I lived in Chicago, I estimated that there were about 600 adults living on my block, Ainslie Street from LeClaire to Laverne. If "only" 2% of those residents were pedophiles, that would mean that we had twelve adults predisposed to molest or rape a child, within a five-minute walk from my house. Knowing that, would you leave your child alone anywhere on that block?

The latests scandals about flagrant child abuse and coverups by priests in Ireland and Germany underscore the need for the Catholic church to rethink its priorities. The first focus should be on the preposterous requirement of celibacy for priests. If there was ever a justification for this denial of sexual normalcy for the clergy, which I doubt, there certainly is no justification now. It's not as simple as priests having no legitimate sexual outlet so that they satisfy themselves with children, whom they can bully into silence. Continue...

David Harris recently had a thought-provoking article on Huffington Post (link), entitled "It's not about Israel." I received a copy by mail and then checked the site to be sure that what I received had not been selectively edited. It had not.

Before I go further, let me say that I hold no animosity toward Arabs as a whole, nor toward the Islam religion. One of my sons is hosting a Moslem girl from Indonesia as an exchange student for a year. She's a delightful person who has sung in church choirs and plans soon to participate in a Jewish Passover seder. When I lived in Toledo I had many contacts with business owners who were Arabic immigrants; on average they were more fair and conscientious in their dealings than the majority of entrepreneurs.

Looking back 500 years, it was Moslems who preserved ancient writings and employed medical knowledge handed down from the Greek and Roman empires. Continue...