Amidst the exhilaration and sheer joy of next week’s inaugural, the lone discordant note seems to be that Reverend Rick Warren will make the opening invocation.

Most of the angst has emerged from civil rights advocates, particularly some gay activists, protesting Warren’s seemingly homophobic posture and his opposing California’s Proposition 8.

Before commenting on the Rev and Prop 8, let me raise another issue. As a strong believer in the separation of church and state, I wonder why it i...
Continue reading ...

Last week 60 Minutes opened their program with a home video of an adorable 7-year old girl, Katie Flynn, who was an attendant at a relative’s wedding in Long Island.

We then learned that this was the child dramatically killed while riding in a limousine on a state highway following the family’s celebration. Both Katie and the limo driver, Stanley Rabinowitz, were crushed to death when a 25-year old man, Martin Heidgen driving drunk and going the wrong way caused a head-on collision.

60 Minu...
Continue reading ...

In the last few months, we have taken the play The Castle to numerous correctional facilities, including Green Haven, Arthur Kill, and Queensboro, and to Riker’s Island on three separate occasions. We have met with hundreds of incarcerated men and women – after performances – and are impressed by how many listen to this station. Some have suggested that WBAI is their lifeline to the free world, gaining information and inspiration that is lacking in the mainstream media and certainly not...
Continue reading ...

 I’m going to bypass the traditional end of year wrap-up which every radio station and television show host feels compelled to share.  After saying it was the best of times – Obama’s election…it was the worst of times – Bush’s continued incumbency, what is there to say about the past year that hasn’t been said?

I want to move on to the economy. As Nixon used to say, let me make it perfectly clear…I am not an economist. In fact, just the opposite if there is such a description. ...
Continue reading ...