My father’s generation of Jewish immigrants was incredibly creative and practical in adding to our glorious Yiddish language. [click to continue…]
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Blog-Shmog
Newt Gingrich has persisted in calling President Obama the “food stamp” president, despite the fact that more people went on food stamps during Bush II’s presidency than during the Obama presidency.
What I find interesting is how many people, both conservative and progressive, assume that the statement is inherently racist. And behind the assumption of racism stands two other assumptions: [click to continue…]
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“When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.” —Jewish proverb
Every once in a while you order up a flick from Netflix and then forget why you ordered it, and then you watch it and sit there at the end, stunned and sniffling and astounded that such a film was ever made. That’s what happened to me tonight after viewing a 1937 movie, Make Way for Tomorrow, which is the best argument for Social Security that Hollywood ever produced.
The film tells of a happy, kind, elderly, joined-at-the-hip couple who lose their house to unemployment and foreclosure and are forced to live separately with their adult kids, who are all too busy being self-interested to make any major sacrifices or take any major risks on their parents’ behalf. The lead actors are Victor Moore (who reminded me in voice and gesture of Frank Morgan, the actor who played the Wizard of Oz) and Beulah Bondi (who was Jimmy Stewart’s mother in both Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life). A highly sympathetic Jewish shopkeeper with a Yiddish accent is played by Maurice Moscovitch. These and other characters are all very familiar, yet the actors’ performances are subtle and riveting. The plot threatens sentimentality but never goes there. The script is filled rueful sympathy for all of the characters. And the ending . . . the ending makes your jaw drop. [click to continue…]
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The one-day protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) accomplished its objective: With three major sponsors running from the proposed legislation, SOPA and PIPA backers are scrambling to revise the law to make it more palatable to the Wikipedias and Googles of the world.
The Stop SOPA/PIPA campaign followed the series of battles to preserve network neutrality, which means that telecommunications companies don’t offer different rates to consumers based on content or type of service. Over the past few years, there have been five attempts to give companies like Verizon and AT&T the right to create tiered plans for content. All have failed, as consumers have clamored to maintain the free flowing access to the Internet that network neutrality creates. [click to continue…]
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