Why Pennsylvania Property Tax Reforms Never Go Anywhere I have been involved in public education as a volunteer Board Member for many years.  I served on the West Chester School Board for four years, and for almost fifteen years I have been on either the Chester County Intermediate Unit Board (about two years) or the…

I recently finished reading James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights, by Richard Labunski.  It is generally not well-known that the Bill of Rights was enacted separately, and later than the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and that opinions were deeply divided over whether or not a Bill of Rights was even…

The death of a loved one or family member often means that, after the remembrances of a funeral are completed, there is an estate to administer.  You may be picked for this job.  You may have little idea of what is involved.  Fear not – when you are done reading this, you will at least…

Political Power According to Locke Lock’s First Treatise of Government is dedicated to ‘detecting and overthrowing the false principles of Sir Robert Filmer,’ advocate of the divine right of Monarchs, and necessarily, one whose view of mankind is anything but egalitarian.  After shredding Filmer at length, Locke moves to his Second Treatise of Government, setting…

When it Comes to the Quality of Representation for the Indigent, Location Matters The New York Times reported recently that a federal judge in Washington State issued an unfavorable ruling concerning the public-defense systems of two towns in the state of Washington, finding them so inadequate that they violate the Sixth Amendment right to the…

This post has nothing to do with the law, politics or anything serious! Just Philadelphia sports.  But how great a victory was that for the Eagles, over Detroit, in the driving snow?   I’ll tell you – really great!  And I’m completely objective.  Not only were the weather conditions horrible, but Nick Foles couldn’t find…

Age Discrimination at Princeton The New York Times recently printed an article about four older employees at Princeton, all baby-boomers, being dismissed from their positions or suffering adverse employment actions, as a result of management changes in Princeton.  The four administrators were fired or demoted when a new Chief of Staff for the Universityy President…

The Senkaku Islands (China) also known as Diaoyu Islands (Japan) are the Excuse, not the Reason The Senkaku Islands, also known as the Diaoyu Islands, are a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea.  There is no civilian population and no economic assets are located on the islands.  Japan obtained control of them from the U.S., who had…

Nationwide, there have been recently two slayings in which homeowners, believing themselves to be threatened by an intruder, shot and killed someone who turned out to be a non-threatening after-hours visitor to the home.  In one case, the victim was a young woman apparently under the influence of some (disputed) amount of intoxicants, who was…

As noted in a previous post, Locke’s First Treatise of Government is an extended refutation of Robert Filmer’s manuscript Patriarcha or the Natural Power of Kings.  Today, Filmer’s arguments supporting absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings appear so absurd that it would not be possible to recite them at any length without being…

A mortgage foreclosure in Pennsylvania is the culmination of a lengthy series of personal and financial events.  For each mortgage foreclosure, there is a story of how one person, a couple, or occasionally, a group of people, arrived at this unhappy state.  Each time I am called about a mortgage foreclosure, if my caller is…

When middle class people commit crimes and become involved in the criminal justice system as defendants, they form a very distinctive group.  First, they have no prior criminal record whatsoever.  Typically, the offense(s) which they are charged permit of no defense with respect to the underlying acts.  Generally, they have ‘snapped out’ for some reason,…

HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVES, OR LIVING WILLS   By Thomas Wolpert, Esq.   Pennsylvania now employs a term ‘Advanced Health Care Directive’ that used to go by a more common term of ‘Living Will.’   The same general thought is also captured in the phrases  ‘Durable Health Care Power of Attorney’ or ‘Health Care Agent.’  The importance…

My mother used to say that when all else failed, ‘read the instructions.’  In the current political confusion, it helps to go back to primary sources.  John Locke is a primary source for American political thought, a British philosopher of the 17th century whose political writings were a major influence with the American revolutionaries.  Locke’s Two Treatises of Government and a Letter Concerning…