Kap storms the white-male battlements

November 7, 2017

The year 2017 isn’t quite over, but I think it’s fair to say that it has been the year of the “C” word.

Collusion. (Wait, what did you think I meant?) You hear it applied to the Russkie investigation. And you hear it applied to the NFL owners’ possible blackballing of Colin Kaepernick over his National Anthem protest. The latest is that Kaepernick’s attorney has subpoenaed the phone records and emails of certain key owners. I for one can’t see what good this will do. Collusion – the legal term would be conspiracy – is difficult to prove. ...

In defense of rationality in the presidential election

November 6, 2016

Today I could be writing the latest installment in My Big Fat Greek Odyssey or about the particularly New York aspect of this presidential election. I could be considering Tim Tebow’s new book “Shaken,” and how he may not have necessarily heeded God’s word – something central to his life – in resisting the suggestion of becoming a halfback as his career as a quarterback fizzled, or contrasted him with bad boy tennis player Nick Kyrgios, who has the talent for his sport but, apparently, not the temperament.

All in good time, though, for nothing is more important right now than this historic – and historically ugly – presidential election and making a case for rationality to triumph over animalistic emotions. ...

The Athena principle: Ivanka and Donald Trump

July 24, 2016

A patron at a restaurant I frequent finds Donald Trump’s relationship with his older daughter, Ivanka, peculiar. He seems to be closer to her than to his wife, Melania, she has said.

Jill Filipovic – a lawyer and journalist who’s the author of the forthcoming “The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness,” offers an explanation: A man wants a nurturer in a wife, who will care for his needs, and an independent-minded, strong woman in a daughter, who, after all, reflects him. I myself saw this with my own father and I’ve seen this with every man I’ve known who had daughters. Whether or not he was a feminist, married or divorced, gay or straight, he always wanted his daughter or daughters to succeed and thus women to have opportunities and pay equal to that of men. ...