http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish RSS Feed for Michael Smerconish en-us Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:37:53 GMT http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090709_Michael_Smerconish__Pa__s_fireworks_insanity.html IGOT CARDED a few weeks ago, and, just like I used to do in high school, I lied. Back then I was trying to buy booze in Jersey. This time, I was just interested in some bottle rockets for the 4th of July. http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090702_Michael_Smerconish__The_good_we_lost_with__Evil_Irv_.html SEVERAL hundred of us gathered to pay respects to the self-proclaimed "Evil one" on Sunday. Irv Homer wasn't buried alone. With him, he took the era when personality ruled the talk-radio airwaves. Homer was the last local vestige of that era. Like Dominic Quinn and Frank Ford before him, he ruled the dial when personality mattered. http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090625_Michael_Smerconish__Ed_McPhilly.html 'GOOD with 10 million people, lousy with 10." That's how Ed McMahon once described to me his longtime friend, the notoriously private Johnny Carson. http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090618_Michael_Smerconish__Senior_prank-itis.html IHAD feelings of nostalgia after reading about the Lehigh Valley high-school students whose senior prank involved camping out in a school courtyard, though school administrators didn't share my yearning for a rerun of "American Graffiti." I get their post-Columbine dilemma, but disagree with the punishment they imposed. http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090611_Michael_Smerconish__Best_Rx_for_crime__Age_.html OK, so he turned out to be 59 years old, not yet ready for retirement, but the arrest of alleged Center City "senior-citizen" bandit Jerry Lee Stanton raises an interesting question: Where do all the criminals go when they get old? http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090604_Michael_Smerconish__The_problem_with_Kensington.html ON SUNDAY, the news of the execution of Dr. George Tiller repulsed me. On Monday, reports of a U.S. soldier killed outside a military recruiting station sickened me. http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090528_Michael_Smerconish__More_like_a_pol_than_a_judge.html JUDGE Sonia Sotomayor's 2001 speech at the University of California-Berkeley Law School is a cross-examiner's dream. Too bad in these politically correct times no senator is likely to use it as a roadmap to learn if the judge is better suited for Congress than for the Supreme Court. http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090521_Michael_Smerconish__Can_Bob_s_Notes_save_Pelosi_.html MANY ARE finding it easy to throw Nancy Pelosi under the bus. She says that in September 2002, the CIA briefed her on en- http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090514_Michael_Smerconish__When_teams_play_the_White_House.html WHEN the Phillies visit the White House tomorrow, they'll meet with a president already fond of hosting these familiar sports grip-and-grins. http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/michael_smerconish/20090507_Michael_Smerconish__Jack_Kemp_s_winning_game_plan.html I HAD MY last conversation with Jack Kemp in October. No surprise, our focus was to be on tax policy. But the part of our dialogue that will always stay with me had to do with football and his family.