On the eve of the big election, I would like to make a final plea to a group most Huff Po bloggers haven't been specifically focused on trying to reach. And no, I don't mean these so-called "undecided" voters. Let's face it. If you're still undecided at this point, you...

Tonight is Kol Nidre, the beginning of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. It is known as the Day of Atonement but it is, in a larger sense, a time of reflection. As I am Jewish by birth and certainly maintain a strong sense of my cultural...

In what is turning into the perfect storm for the US economy and for what I believe to be the most important presidential race of my lifetime, John McCain is stuck in the middle of all of it, utterly paralyzed as though he were reading a children's book to a...

Apparently the Republicans are up in arms about the treatment that poor Sarah Palin has received in the "liberal media". Well the self-proclaimed pit bull with lipstick better get used to it, because no one is going to make this easy for her. The problem is that the Republicans attack...

There is a well-known Christian hymn that begins "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." As someone who looks to the precision of word selection to reveal the most accurate meaning, the word "know" in this context is of critical importance. Aside from the rhyme,...

Last Thursday, I took my parents and a close family friend to see Billy Crystal's tour de force one man show "700 Sundays". Without giving away too much, the show is a deeply personal autobiographical account of Crystal's formative years, with special emphasis on his father who passed away when...

Before just about anything else, comedy was the first love of my life. It sustained and fed my mind and spirit as a kid. Growing up, that love only deepened and certain personalities became like members of my extended family. The artists who have always been closest to my heart...

So many political action groups are founded with names like "Americans for Change", "Concerned Citizens for Change" and "People for Change". Bruce Springsteen and his pals headlined last year's "Vote for Change" tour. Well, ever the contrarian, I am trying to set myself apart by starting my own group. "People...

Holidays exist for a variety of reasons. Religious traditions. Marking the occasion of a battle won. Even commemorating an event of historic and/or mythic proportion. However, in my experience, the reasons for the holidays are not usually reflected in the ceremonies themselves. The resurrection of Christ? Let’s dye eggs and...

It’s November in California and, as it often happens, entertainment and politics are intersecting right in the heart of the November sweeps for, not just any election… but a “Special Election”. So here now, dear Huffingtonians, is my attempt to “rock the vote”… blog style.

First of all, I am...

On the evening of October 31st, I picked up a couple of extra bags of trick-or-treat (but really for me) candy at our local drug store. The décor was appropriately spook-centric… spiders, ghosts, monsters and jack o’lanterns. But when I visited the very same drug store the next day, I...

Dear President Bush-

Just a quick note to check in and let you know that I'm thinking about you today. All of your pals seem to be taking hits lately. Rove, Frist, Brownie and now Tom DeLay? Well like they say on the Gulf Coast... when it rains it pours....

So much of what is written here for the old Huff Po is defined by our need to separate ourselves from the other side. To widen the chasm that exists between increasingly polarized parties and their constituents. So here now, I will expose myself at my most vulnerable to reveal...

(Warning: The following blog post features earnest, heart-felt expressions of humanity from a bona-fide bleeding heart liberal. Read on at your own peril.)

The past couple of weeks have been wildly cathartic for me, in both the micro and the macro. Recently, I have been trying to help my mother...

FEMA… which in my mind is now pronounced “feeble”… is trying to block the media from showing us images of the bodies of dead Hurricane Katrina victims being collected along the Gulf Coast. The reasons they are citing include sensitivity, common decency and respect for the dead. I will resist...

Like many of you, I have grown increasingly impatient with American news organizations over the past few years. Of course, there has been a tendency to sensationalize the news for some time, but since I work in entertainment, I guess I understand why that has happened. I don’t like it,...

Greetings Huffsters. Well here I am, once again, not knowing the etiquette of bloggery. (Blogerism? Blogcraft?) But I received a comment to my last post to which I'd like to openly reply. I actually tried to respond in the comments field but was told by "Hal" (as I have come...

File today's entry under "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need." Okay, that may be a bit long for the tab on the file folder, but I think you will get my point. Kindly read on.

Okay, let’s try this again. As those of you who read my clumsy first blog know, I am brand new to this form. But as I stumbled to find my way, it was my assumption that this forum is for smart and interesting people to kind of say “here’s what...

Okay, bear with me, folks. This is the very first blog I’ve ever written. Actually, to be totally honest, it’s the second blog I’ve ever written. I tried my first one back when I signed up on Myspace.com. I did it on kind of a whim but all the kids...