By: Jeff Katz – Dec. 2015 I have been privileged over the years to meet many notable folks including celebrities from the entertainment world, athletes and elected officials. One man I met about seventeen years ago however, touched me in a different way. He was not a professional athlete, but he had a passion […]
By: Jeff Katz – November, 2015 For those of us with children of a certain age, we hear on a fairly regular basis about what is going right and what is going wrong with our schools. Sometimes, the observations are spot on and on some occasions they could not possibly be more wrong. Of course, […]
By: Jeff Katz – Oct. 2015 “It is clear Ahmed’s teachers failed him” said White House Press Secretary Josh Ernest when he was questioned about a fourteen year old student in Irving, Texas. No, Mister Spokesflack the failure here came on the part of those who thought the real story would never be revealed. There’s […]
By: Jeff Katz – Sept. 2015 For many years, there was the tried and true excuse that the devil made me do it. Commit a crime, major or minor, blame the devil. Behave poorly, must be that devil again. Lie, cheat, steal or murder…it’s clearly a case of that Lucifer dude influencing you and turning […]
A few weeks back, The Bride and I had to fly from Seattle to San Francisco and then on to Boston. The experience at SEA-TAC was the worst I’ve encountered in a long time. Ridiculous lines. Nasty T.S.A. flunkies. Delayed planes. Nobody seemed to care, and I was in a pretty foul mood by the […]
By: Jeff Katz – July, 2015 My usual writing ritual involves a hot cup of coffee, extra cream, no sugar in a specific mug. If that coffee is not in one of my official writing mugs, well, there’s some major writer’s block that I am sure to encounter. Today, in addition to the coffee […]
By: Jeff Katz – June, 2015 In early May, the Beegle family of Portland, Oregon was flying home from Orlando, Florida. Mom and dad with two children in tow. What should have been an uneventful flight turned in to an ordeal which the family will never forget and an embarrassment that United Airlines should not […]
By: Jef Katz – May, 2015 As I write this column, we see terrible acts of violence and radical activity in the City of Baltimore. Buildings are being looted and then set on fire. Police officers are being attacked with bricks and bottles. Gangs of rampaging hooligans are jumping up and down on cars. Thugs […]
By: Jeff Katz – April, 2015 There’s a great viral video going around that shows the worst job of parking a car in the history of parking cars. We see a silver Ford hybrid, which the driver attempts to pull in to an angled spot. So far, nothing out of the ordinary, but you need […]
By: Jeff Katz, March, 2105 The President recently delivered a powerful speech in which he called for a reformation within Islam. He pointed out over and over again, that certain parts of the Koran which call for Muslims to slaughter or conquer non-Muslims were simply outdated and needed to be consigned to the ash bin […]
By: Jeff Katz – February, 2014 Somehow, some way we made it through a massive blizzard without once seeing Andrea Cabral or her waving fan. I don’t how we did it, but we did. No, on second thought I know exactly how we did it. We elected serious, thoughtful adults to run the Commonwealth. We’ve […]
By: Jeff Katz – December, 2014 There are quite literally thousands of interactions between citizens and law enforcement officers every single day in the United States. Unless you are the cop or the suspect in one of these situations, you’re not aware of them. Why? Because almost all of these incidences involve issues which are […]
By: Jeff Katz – November, 2104 Just a few days after the 2014 midterm elections and the reverberations are being felt all over the country. People everywhere are hearing the message with one or two notable exceptions. For years, Harry Reid has snatched every bill passed by the House and stuck in his sock […]
One of the must watch TV shows when I was growing up was “Happy Days.” I still remember the oldest brother Chuck Cunningham simply vanishing without a trace after the first season or so. I can still sing the theme song. I remember how and why the phrase “jump the shark” originated and I still […]
By: Jeff Katz – August, 2014 As I sit down to write this month’s column for The Valley Patriot, I’ve just enjoyed a wonderful day. Early this morning I wished my oldest son Harry a happy birthday. Today he turned thirteen and I officially became the father of a teenager. In classic over achiever style […]