Today's Democrat and Chronicle tells us about self-styled "peace" activists in Rochester marching in protest against Israeli air attacks on Gaza.
Funny, how we never saw these advocates of "peace" marching to protest Hamas's shelling of southern Israel from Gaza. Only when Israel defends its people do the American peaceniks hit the streets.
These people don't care about peace. They're Stalinists who support the party line of the Left, whatever it happens to be at the moment. The Left doesn't like Israel -- too Western, don't you know, too willing to defend itself instead of voluntarily turning its people over to terrorists. And, most unforgivably of all, not anti-American.
The hypocrisy of these "peace" protesters is contemptible: bombing Israelis is OK, but Israel defending itself is unacceptable.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
And Where Were These "Peace" Protesters When Hamas Was Shelling Israelis?
Still Wondering About Alesi
For a while there we were thinking our suggestion that Sen. Jim Alesi might switch parties would go the way of our other bold predictions in the past, like David Koon running for County Executive, David Koon running for State Senate, and Hillary Clinton snatching the Democratic nomination from under the nose of Barack Obama.
Are we in danger of spoiling our (so far) perfect record of extravagantly wrong predictions? It just may be. Word from Albany is that, in the still unstable environment of the State Senate following the election, Alesi continues talks with the Democrats about switching.
Supplement
Maybe an actual party switch isn't what's going to happen -- maybe more likely an Alesi vote in support of Malcolm Smith as Majority Leader, in exchange for keeping his chairmanship of the Insurance Committee, full staff, etc.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Bimbo
"Her quest is becoming a cringe-inducing experience, as painful to watch as it must be to endure," observes Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News.
"Andrew is, you know, highly qualified for this job," she said. "He's doing a, you know, a great job as attorney general, and we've spoken throughout this process."Read here for additional words of, you know, wisdom.• • • "You know, I think, you know, we're sort of, uh, sharing some of this experience. And um, as I've said, he was a friend, a family member, and um so, and uh obviously, he's, you know, he's also had an impressive career in public office."
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Why New York's About to Go Bust
Monday, December 22, 2008
Politically Corrected Christmas Carols
It's a close call, but for years mainstream Protestant churches have run second only to college faculties as purveyors of politically correct outrages. This came home to me vividly when a parish priest, during a sermon, referred to a particular year in Biblical times as being "around 100 C.E." Instantly my political correctness detector went off, as I realized the fulfillment of a prediction I had made in high school, that eventually we'd get around to purging "B.C." ("Before Christ") and "A.D. " ("Anno Domini", in English, "In the Year of Our Lord") from contemporary usage. The church? Episcopal. (Did you really have to ask?)
C.E., you see, stands for "Current Era." Isn't that so much clearer than counting a number of years back to a specific point in time? And since apparently the numbering of years is the same in "C.E." usage, as under the disfavored "A.D." nomenclature (today, apparently, is still December 22, 2008, whether you call it A.D. or C.E.) even the "C.E." convention refers back to that inconvenient and embarrassing business about the birth of . . . well, let's spare sensitive feelings by avoiding it.
And if this is "CE", what do we call the years we used to call "Before Christ?" -- why "B.C.E.," meaning "Before the Current Era." Get it? "Current Era" and "Before the Current Era." An Orwellian perfection, just like the dumbed-down English language, "Newspeak," that Orwell described in 1984. It retained the word "good," but replaced "bad" with the Newspeak word "ungood." Good - Ungood; Current Era - Before the Current Era. Oh brave new world!
Heaven forbid that a contemporary "Christian" cleric would employ the nomenclature "Before Christ" -- who in the official theology of today's trendier-than-thou church may or may not have existed, may or may not have done or said or been any of the things traditionally attributed to him. In contemporary theology, the only thing today's relevant, happening church can say for certain about Christ is that, if he existed, he was a swinging gay socialist who was active in Nazareth's Democratic Party.
Now, it turns out, churches are censoring and Bowdlerizing traditional Christmas carols to render them politically correct.
[T]he Rector of Blandford Forum in Dorset has banned his congregation from singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” for fear that its lyrics – referring to sweet stillness – are far removed from the anger, violence and tension he noted on a recent Holy Land visit.
Politically corrected Christmas carols are being catalogued by the website Ship of Fools:
[W]hat's wrong with O come let us adore him? Is it too gender-specific? Jesus wasn't hermaphrodite, or a girl.
Listen to the Bowdlerized Christmas carols if you want to. Here in the Archiepiscopal Palace we'll watch a video. Our choice: Raquel Welch, starring in One Million Years B.C.E
Friday, December 19, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Just Like Social Security
From The Times's article, in which arrested swindler Bernard Madoff admits his firm was “basically a giant Ponzi scheme.” The Times explained:
A Ponzi scheme, named after the swindler Charles Ponzi, is a fraudulent investment operation that pays ... investors out of money put into the scheme by subsequent investors, rather than from real profits generated by share trading.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Another Harriet Myers Nomination
Bush's sellout on the auto company "rescue" ranks with the Harriet Myers nomination as one of the most fatuous acts of his administration.
The rationale offered by the White House is a contemptible joke -- that a bailout is better than the risk of a "disorderly bankruptcy." This turns the situation on its head. What the bailout guarantees is continued disorder. By contrast, bankruptcy is a highly structured and orderly procedure that would enable the American car companies to shed many of the millstones around the neck that have dragged them down -- an uncompetitive labor cost structure being chief among them.
American auto manufacturing ultimately is doomed unless it can start producing reliable cars of quality that most consumers can afford. Competitive cost structures are part of it, but so is completely new management.
A trustee in bankruptcy could force the changes in top management without which these companies will not survive, no matter what other changes are made.
For these companies, Chapter 11 bankruptcy offers the only path to a real rescue.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Temporary Site for Rochester Turning
Thanks to the estimable Rottenchester, author and publisher of The Fighting 29th blog, we have a temporary web address for Rochester Turning, until RT sorts out its current host/server issue.
Good show, Rotters!
More Reasons to Oppose Auto Bailout
There are so many good reasons to oppose the proposed auto bailout, besides the fact that the Democrat and Chronicle editorial board seems to support it, that one scarcely knows where to begin, which is why we haven't begun yet, this being our first comment on the subject.
We admire these comments from Thomas L. Friedman in Tuesday's New York Times:
[O]ur bailout of Detroit will be remembered as the equivalent of pouring billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the mail-order-catalogue business on the eve of the birth of eBay. It will be remembered as pouring billions of dollars into the CD music business on the eve of the birth of the iPod and iTunes. It will be remembered as pouring billions of dollars into a book-store chain on the eve of the birth of Amazon.com and the Kindle. It will be remembered as pouring billions of dollars into improving typewriters on the eve of the birth of the PC and the Internet.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Our Work Is Done -- Why Wait?
From its inception, this site has linked to Rochesterturning, the lively voice of the dedicated left in this area, that does a lot to keep the debate going.
So we've been distressed to see the site down for the last few days. All you get is this:
We hope the dedicated folks at RT haven't decided to do an institutional version of George Eastman's celebrated exit line, now that Obama's been elected and the Democrats run Congress.
We want our Rochester Turning back!
