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The Politics of HB 1318

  By Elections and Voting

Some folks think that the Republicans in Harrisburg are in a win-win situation. They would like to enact policies to reduce the number of voters. But they know that for strictly political reasons, if no other, Governor Rendell has to veto HB1318. So they hope to embarrass the Governor by tying him to “voter fraud” and by reminding people of the controversy during the 2004 election when some Republicans accused the Rendell administration of not giving enough time for military ballots to be counted. So let us make sure that we remind everyone that there is no evidence of serious, widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania. If the Republican controlled legislature wants to be concerned with political reform, they can begin by regulating lobbying in Harrisburg. Continue reading

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Response to David Horowitz

  By Education, Higher Education, Philosophy

I want to respond to David Horowitz’s criticisms of my teaching of Marx. Horowitz points to my web page, The Failure of Revolution, which, he says “faces the fact that Marx’s predictions about revolution have been refuted by history.” But he criticizes me because I go on to say “We can understand the failure of a revolution to occur as Marx predicted in Marx’s terms. The conditions that Marx expected to bring about a revolution did not arise. And we can give a powerful social class based explanation of the failure of those conditions to arise.” Thus Horowitz concludes that my point is that “In other words, even though Marx was wrong, he was right, and we can all be Marxists – or neo-Marxists – now.” To say that this is my point is both to take one sentence entirely out of  context and to hold an absurd view of… Continue reading

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Academic Freedom at Temple

  By Education, Higher Education

David Horowitz, the leftist turned rightist who made a fortune as a best selling biographer of Kennedys and Fords, and who has recently been criticizing left wing radicals in our universities, turned up at a State House of Representatives hearing held at Temple last month. He has been pushing an “academic bill of rights” that would, among other things, prohibit professors from using their classrooms “to advocate for their political and partisan views on controversial matter that are irrelevant to their field of expertise” or “pressure students into adopting their personal opinions;” and that would also prohibit them from “grading students on the basis of their political, social or religious opinions.” I had thought that Horowitz’s campaign had some merit. I have learned however, that Horowitz is about as interested in fair and balanced teaching as Fox News is interested in fair and balanced reporting. Continue reading

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I have seen the future of progressive politics in Philadelphia and her name is Cherelle Parker

  By People, Philadelphia, Published op-eds

I have seen the future of progressive politics in Philadelphia and her name is Cherelle Parker Cherelle won a special election for State Representative in the 200th district in September. Come see her tonight (Thursday, February 9) at her reelection campaign kick-off at 7:00 pm at Lakey’s Restaurant, 8215 Stenton Ave, Philadelphia, PA. Continue reading

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Gambling and Its Alternatives at Wissahickon and Hunting Park

  By Casinos, Philadelphia

The Budd Company site, at the corner of Wissahickon and Hunting Park Avenues, is one of four potential sites in the city for a gambling casino. Residents from the immediately adjoining neighborhoods, Nicetown and East Falls, have joined together to oppose gambling at this location. I believe that residents and community associations throughout the Northwest ought to join our neighbors in this fight. Continue reading

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Athens and Betty Friedan

  By Love and Sex, People

On Tuesday I will conclude my teaching of “The Funeral Oration of Pericles” to my students in Temple’s Intellectual Heritage Program. (IH is a great books program required of all students.) I will spend a significant portion of the class talking about people who are barely mentioned in the text, the women of Athens. I do this because no other female citizens of a political community in all of Western history were more oppressed than the Athenian women. Continue reading