LOS ANGELES

BCK FILE--The Participant Media film On the Basis of Sex is inspired by the challenges faced by Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a young law student and attorney, as well as the groundbreaking 1975 court case, Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld 420 U.S. The future Supreme Court Justice and her husband, tax attorney Martin Ginsburg, argued that gender-based distinction under the Social Security Act of 1935 violated the right to equal protection by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

GELFAND’S WORLD--This little note is intended as advice to anyone who wants to complain -- and particularly to neighborhood council participants.

NEVER AGAIN MEANS NEVER AGAIN-I avoided the news, but my radio forced me to hear their eleven names: Joyce Fienberg, Irving Younger, Rose Mallinger, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Jerry Rabinowitz, Melvin Wax, Richard Gottfried, Daniel Stein, brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal.

EDUCATION POLITICS-What’s being contested in the current contract struggle between LAUSD and UTLA is far more important to all of education’s constituencies and the city itself than salaries and benefits or even a budget deficit. 

DEEGAN ON LA-It’s a new year, but there seems to be some old behavior carrying over. Empowered by many successes against what they see as predatory developers, “NIMBY’s” (not in my backyard) have identified a new target: shelters for the homeless in their neighborhoods. 

MY TURN-It happens every so many years. People in the U.S. seem to begin a slow crawl to the edge of a precipice and then jump off into worlds of their own creation. Violence and mayhem, for no apparent reason.

HYPER-HYPOCRISY-Netflix removed an episode of the comedy show “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj” (photo above) that criticized Saudi Arabia’s human rights record after a request from the Saudi government to do so, according to a report by the Financial Times. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Once upon a time, California courts sought to stop corruption by the rich and powerful.

POLITICS--If you’d have asked me before if I was ever going to run for any type of public office, my answer would have been no. I’ve spent most of my career supporting those in elected office and getting others elected.  But then a few things happened.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Caught up in the "I hate/love Trump" or "MAGA is racist/wonderful" is the fact that we each have our own individual lives, and our own individual challenges, to contend with that have little direct results from what's going on in Washington. For example, are you familiar with "GHOSTING"?

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-You don’t need to be a lobbyist for the real estate industry to realize that the entire country, especially Los Angeles, is in the midst of a housing crisis.

FURTHER--If you were hoping our lunatic village idiot miraculously grew a brain or soul for the new year: Sorry. After weeks of sulking and skulking around the White House - "I was all by myself in the White House. 

CANCELLED--If this undisguised reality series played by Hollywood rules, it would have already been canceled. The President Trump show has failed to grow its audience, and the reviews, even from the mildly sympathetic, are consistently bad. 

CORRUPTION WATCH--As 2018 closes and we step into 2019, let’s review the history of the media in not only world history but also in Los Angeles. 

BCK FILE--Charles Dickens wrote of three spirits, the “Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.”

GELFAND’S WORLD--There is a building consensus among both Democrats and Republicans that climate change is real and that something should be done about it.

CORRUPTION WATCH-When writing began in Mesopotamia 10,000 years ago, lying was not part of it. Today, one of the main uses of writing is to lie, lie, and then lie some more. 

MY TURN-Conservatives have long known that liberals and independents outnumber them to such a great percentage that the only way for them to win is to…well…cheat.

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA-Are you a Californian looking for a New Year’s resolution?

RANTZ & RAVEZ--I recently heard the streets of Los Angeles described on Channel 4 News as the “Streets of Shame.” 

FIRST PERSON-Recent medical studies have shown that "Fit Seniors Can Have Hearts That Look 30 Years Younger" than one would anticipate finding in a 70-year old. According to the study, these unexpectedly youthful seniors owe their vitality to a shared lifelong engagement with sustained vigorous exercise.