What do 19th century Danish sculptor Albert Thorvald and 14th century Polish King Wlasyslaw II Jagiello have in common?

Hint: Think Central Park.

Yes, they together with other foreign luminaries such as Giuseppe Mazzini and William Thomas Stead have been honored with sculptures in Central Park.

We appreciate the...

As evidenced by President Obama's State of the Union address, the major post-Newtown focus has been on gun regulation. Missing from the discussion of what to do about our epidemic of violence has been the question, what is it about American society, about the state of the family, that keeps...

Co-authored by Gary Ferdman

We knew something was amiss when we received a TJX Rewards MasterCard statement indicating that we owed $11.92 in interest payments when we had paid our previous bill in full.

Here's the story.

Back on June 17th we bought two Adirondack chairs and some lamps...

Detroit Tigers outfielder Delmon Young, accused of a hate crime, was denied a plea deal when he appeared in a Manhattan court on May 29 before Judge Abraham Clott. He is due to appear again on August 2. In April, outside the New York Hilton, Young allegedly yelled anti-Semitic epithets...

The 2012 March 4-6 AIPAC annual conference was attended by hundreds of congressional leaders; President Obama addressed the conference, as did Republican presidential candidates by video.

In 2001, Fortune magazine ranked AIPAC the fourth most powerful lobby in Washington. AIPAC lobbyists urge our government to support Israel's hawkish policies...

It costs approximately $130,000 to keep one teenager in a Pennsylvania juvenile detention center for one year. It would cost less than $200 per child per year to fund Educating Children for Parenting (ECP), a violence prevention program started in Philadelphia in 1979. The ECP program adopted in...

In 1934, General Smedley D. Butler testified to the Congressional McCormack-Dickstein Committee -- formed to investigate Fascist and Communist activities -- concerning a plot to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt. Butler stated that Gerald C. MacGuire, representing some of the wealthiest Americans including the DuPont family, and leaders of...

It was the mid- nineties; I was a panelist at a State University of New York, Old Westbury conference, speaking on research on the effects of violent entertainment on children. Afterwards, at lunch, I sat with a professor and an administrator at the university. They spent the hour telling me...

In his recent book, After Shock, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich argues that the economic downward mobility of American workers, has "to do with power...income and wealth in fewer hands." Apparently, many working class Americans want to keep it that way. A recent SEIU poll reveals that, 38 percent...

The large poster on the U.C.L.A. campus read "Israel: the Politics of Genocide," and featured a picture of a young woman, scarf on her head, holding a shotgun, with the caption: The Right of Return, Free Palestine. The poster was part of Palestine Awareness Week sponsored at universities around the...

Memorial Day is upon us and Corporal Pat Tillman, killed in 2004 in Afghanistan, is among those who will be honored. When in 2002, football star Tillman gave up his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the army, his decision made headlines and was toasted as the ultimate in...

Memorial Day is upon us and Corporal Pat Tillman, killed in 2004 in Afghanistan, is among those who will be honored. When in 2002 football star Tillman gave up his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the army, his decision made headlines and was toasted as the ultimate in...

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" -- the celebrated mantra of the 1976 film, Network, kept going through my mind as I read about New York congressman Eric Massa's announcement that he would not run for reelection, followed by his decision to...

In 2009, an Afghan-American defense contractor, Hamed Wardak, hired Patton Boggs, a blue chip lobbying firm to push for an extended U.S. presence in Afghanistan. The lobbying firm in turn set up a nonprofit front group -- the Campaign for a U.S. Afghanistan Partnership -- on Wardak's behalf to act...

Back when Senator Obama started his campaign for the Democratic nomination, I was as thrilled as any left wing democrat, with his brilliant, inspiring speeches filled with promises to do just about everything we thought needed to be done. The man seemed almost too good to be true. Since previous...

The concern with the "sanctity of life" is apparently so great among some members of Congress that the health care bill passed by the House includes the Stupak Amendment which prohibits funding for abortions. The prohibition applies not only to the public option, but also to private insurance companies that...

In his recently published novel, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us, which he describes as a "speculative utopia," Ralph Nader has seventeen real life billionaires and multi-millionaires -- Warren Buffett, Ted Turner. George Soros, and Bill Gates Sr. among them -- getting together to form an organization focused on...

"It's déjà vu all over again" Yogi Berra once famously said. Exactly my thought as I contemplate my father's life and then look around at what's happening in the world today.

Born in 1901 in Poland, my father died in his sleep at his Los Angeles home at age...

Dear Professor Glendon,

You were recently awarded Notre Dame University's Laetere Medal, to be given to you at the university's upcoming commencement at which you were to speak. You decided not to accept the award because President Obama who supports women's right to abortion would be giving...

In a few days, Barack Obama will be sworn in as our 44th president. Some see this as a vindication of our electoral system and American democracy -- "conspiracy theorists" who warned that Republicans would very likely attempt to steal the election were proven wrong. We should all be grateful...