As a secular humanist who was raised Jewish, I have learned to ignore the Christmas excesses and platitudes that inundate us for two months of every year. 

But one idea, especially on…

"Dear Alan and Elisha,

"We are planning to have the unveiling service for Belle [my mother, who died last year] on Sunday, November 22 at the Haym Solomon Memorial…

“It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.”

- Sophocles

“Here comes the orator, with his flood of words and his drop of reason.”

- Ben…

Once again, a Muslim targets the military and slaughters Americans.  Once again, motives are sought.  He was such a nice guy.  He came back from the Middle East, and he was somehow different. I am…

I have often said that Judaism is a religion for the obsessive-compulsive, with rule after rule, hundreds of them, interpreted and extrapolated to the finest nuance by generations of rabbis.  It…

We now face a new menace in the Mideast: a body of fanatics (armed with weapons we left) who will kill anybody who gets in the way of their turning the clock back to 1500.  They're openly…

Recently I spoke with a theologian who holds a young-earth creationist viewpoint, and I was struck by his…