Taxes Fight Fires
Charitable Giving
I am going to offer the list and information on the charities (non-profit 501(c)3 organizations) I am giving to this year if you request it. It is lengthy. I have screened the federal information return, Form 990, for these groups to satisfy myself that most or all of the money they raise actually goes to […]
It Isn’t Ethics Until It Costs You Money
Many years ago Bill Moyers had a documentary series on Public Television called “Ethics.” I remember one thing very clearly, perhaps because I had more than one opportunity to live it. He was interviewing the president of the Peterson Institute of Ethics in California who said: “Around here we don’t call it ethics until […]
Turn About Is Fair Play
When I was on the Everglades research team in the 1960s, our office and laboratory were in the Federal Building in downtown Miami, as ugly and unadorned a phallic monolith as you would ever want to (not) see. During the riots that ensued after Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, Liberty City in Miami was […]
Imperialism
The story of Tom voting for Wallace was actually preceded, when I wrote much of this 40 years ago, by a discussion of my political analysis and philosophy during our years as protesting activists in the Sixties. Of course we were all against the war then. It was not until I had gone through my […]
Read Banned Books
Cofounding the Amnesty International Chapter in Miami and the Death Penalty
I met Nita Manitzas in the late 1970s. I have searched my records and cannot find anything to help me remember how we met. I do know it led to a very important change in my ethical, moral and political philosophy. Nita was a scholar of contemporary Latin American politics. I could not find anything […]
Why do I say I’m a Liberal?
When someone asks my politics, I say I am an Anarcho-Syndicalist. What? I then send them to 8 minutes and 30 seconds into Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when Graham Chapman on his Hobby Horse as King Arthur asks the peasants: “Who lives in yonder castle?” And they answer. I must insert some movie […]
Richard M Nixon & National Health Care
Nixon was the ultimate Oedipal figure in American politics. He did so many good things, but his pride led to his downfall. He negotiated SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) with Brezhnev, and persuaded the Senate to ratify it, the first reduction of nuclear arms in history. He signed the Clean Air, Clean Water and […]
1966 Westinghouse Science Talent Search
In 1966 Phil was chosen as one of the 300 most promising young scientists in the United States. This is the book that listed the honorees.