Like many New Yorkers, my initial reaction to hearing that a large Mosque was to be built 2 blocks from the World Trade Center site was one of shock and opposition. I wouldn’t characterize my opposition as strident or terribly passionate; I didn’t attend any anti-Mosque rallies downtown nor did I make my [...]
The recent controversy surrounding the Tebow Super Bowl advertisement has given me reason to reflect on the ethics of abortion and I feel motivated to share my thoughts on the subject. Before doing so, however, I feel it necessary to disclose my absolute disdain for James Dobson and Focus on the Family. Dobson’s anti-gay rhetoric [...]
I feel like a man without a political party. This is personally very disconcerting considering that I have thought of myself as a Republican since the 1984 reelection of Ronald Reagan. Granted, at age 7, I had no idea what the substantive issues during the campaign were all about but what I did know was [...]
I am a social liberal. I support gay marriage, am an advocate of a more sensible drug policy, and, as a general rule, believe that abortion should be remain safe and legal for those who seek to obtain them. I hold these views because I am driven by a conviction that human beings are entitled [...]
I took a walk through Greenwich Village and SOHO today. As I was walking along Houston street approaching LaGuardia, I saw something quite adorable: two little kids, who appeared to be brother and sister, holding hands while walking a big black dog, which dog was about twice their collective size. Closely following this dynamic duo [...]
I must admit that it was with a type of sick pleasure that I read the comments posted on the Daily Kos about President Obama backing off of his proposed “public option” as part of healthcare reform. It seems, nearly 10 months after his election, that many Obama supporters are now realizing that the President [...]
Every member of Congress should read this article. It is written by an Obama supporter and long-time liberal, Camille Paglia; not Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, or Sean Hanity. Everyone knows that healthcare is in need of some type of reform — especially for the unemployed. However, I don’t trust Congress to draw up such sweeping [...]
I have had conversations about homosexual marriage with my mother on several occasions and it is clear that her view on the matter is informed, not from a purely logical analysis, but rather from a deep-rooted and very real sense of what is right and what is wrong. … Thus, asking a devout believer to accept homosexual marriage is asking them to discard, not only a singular moral view, but rather an entire set of moral standards based on a literal or semi-literal view of the Bible, a belief in modern Prophets who speak to God, and centuries of marriage tradition (mostly religious) that centered on the male-female relationship.
We must examine issues of equality of opportunity and also examine how social inequalities impact the whole of society. While nearly 50% of all health care expenditure in the United States originates with the federal government, the delivery of services is largely private and thus costs and prices are very much a function of market dynamics. … In scenarios such as this, just policy should create the incentives necessary for firms to develop treatments for these diseases and provide them at affordable prices. In an ideal world we would not be concerned with issues of resource distribution but as it is, we must adopt a system which creates an aggregate benefit for all within society through the distribution of those resources which are available.
The social contract which binds and informs society in the United States is based on the normative ideas of individual freedom, general suspicion of government power, and an idealized notion of equal opportunity and the virtues of free markets.[1] Less prevalent – as opposed to many parts of Europe for example – is the [...]
