Getty Lee and Maimonides

The rational modern men, led by Clarence Darrow, believed that behavior was a pure product of heredity and environment. Free will, apparently, has nothing to do with behavior.

Me, I stand wit the Jewish sages and the band Rush. Moses Maimonides (the Rambam) wrote:

If one desires to turn himself to the path of good and be righteous, the choice is his. Should he desire to turn to the path of evil and be wicked, the choice is his.” (Maimonides, “Laws of Repentance” 5:1) (From Rabbi Telushkin’s A Code of Jewish Ethics)

And Rush sang:

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that’s clear –
I will choose free will.

Determinism is just too doctrinaire for me.

Judeo-Christian Ethics and Sustainability





A few places I am looking for ideas and guidance:


I carry the teachings and heritage of my father into this world in a manner very different than my siblings. Yet, I still love them – how could it be different? And is that not what my father would have wanted?

So why is it not the same for the Children of G-d? Does it not hold doubly true for the Children of Abraham?

Two Paths





Citizens Untied

If anything proves the inadequacy of law alone to guide current political outcomes, it is the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that essentially bestowed upon corporations the same status in a polity as human beings.

We understand, we intuit that a corporation does not deserve to be treated equally with a human. But rationality and law do not. Thus fictitious beings serving as sock-puppets for their owners – companies – are given a voice in our future.

How does this jibe with “one person, one vote?”

Law is an essential but insufficient defense for liberty.