Posts
January 21, 2010
Augustin Torres
The Jersey Journal
30 Journal Square
Jersey City, NJ 07306-4101
Mr. Torres,
I left New Jersey in 1996. I left Bayonne in 1965. I check the Irish sports pages to see who has left to go to the “undiscovered country”. I try to keep abreast of Hudson County politics because there was a “moral clarity” there that is not here. “I seen my opportunities and I took’em” was sound advice when Hinnnisy the Publican offered it to aspiring pols.
Down here, while no hot stove is safe and the pennies on a dead man’s eyes are quickly gone, they still want to “pee on your back and tell you it’s rain”.
In your column of January 2, 2010 you mention Dennis McAlevy, Esq. you asked “who picked up the tab at Amanda’s. I know it wasn’t McAlevy.”
Some things never change.
24 years ago I hosted a dinner for 5 at Gerrino’s. He knew two of the people at the table so he sat down and ordered some Irish whisky. There now being 3 lawyers at the table there was no way I wasn’t going to duck that tab. Admission to the New Jersey Bar requires short arms and long pockets. In the course of table badinage a wager with McAlevy was entered into about the identity of the Captain of the R.M.S. Titanic. In due course he left. He offered neither to pay for his drinks nor did he offer to leave something for the waiter.
The next day I sent him photographic evidence supporting my side of the wager.
He never paid.
Some contracts are unenforceable. Those are the ones with markers that you have to cover.
“Nothing lost save honor.” Like I said, some things never change
Kevin Smith
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Letter to the Editor The Miami Herald
January 26, 2010
Letter to the Editor
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, Florida 33132-1693
RE: What happened to the “penumbras”? Where did the “emanations” go? Some musings on your editorial comments on the Supreme Court reinforcing the right to free speech.
Sirs,
Is the newspaper business so bad that you are now opposed to free speech?
Former Senator and former Governors Jon Corzine spent $130,000,000 of his own money in the last 10 years to win 2 out of 3 elections in New Jersey. Was that “fair” to the Jersey version of Joe the Plumber? Do you think that newspapers in New Jersey should have been “encouraged” to run Joe’s ads for free?
You say that “Justice Stephens properly called this decision a radical departure from established law…” Do you think Justice Stephens would have voted against repealing Plessy v Ferguson? It was “established law” for 59 years.
You say that there “is nothing in the First Amendment that would suggest that the Framers intended to protect the rights of corporations to spend freely in elections”. There is nothing in the First Amendment that mandates the separation of church and state either. [You can look it up.]
You refer to the Founders in the reverential tone used by modern American Liberals when it suits them. A bit of Googling on your part would show you that the Founders were deeply religious men who used Natural Law, a “gift from beyond the stars”, that is ours at birth as the basis for our Constitution.
Does anyone know how much money George Soros spent to advance his political beliefs? The money, being his, was his to spend as he saw fit, wasn’t it? Should we “level the playing field” – And if there is a dumber term anywhere I would like to see it – so Jersey Joe the Plumber turned Politician can compete against Corzine or Soros?
I am sure the omission was unintentional but the Supreme Court decision applies to unions also. They are free to spend their members’ dues to promote their political beliefs. Would you apply the same rules to unions that you would apply to corporations for political expenditures? You say that shareholders must “specifically approve the allocation”. There is a plumbers’ union. Jersey Joe may have belonged to it. Should he be allowed to vote on “specific allocations”? Should a dollar amount be applied to the work done by “union volunteers”?
Even though I am a Roman Catholic I am not supposed to question the use of taxpayers’ funds to subsidize the production of the play Corpus Cristi. The play’s premise is that Jesus Christ was crucified because of a homosexual lovers quarrel with Judas Iscariot. Judas, in a fit of pique, dropped a dime on Jesus. As a result of him ratting Jesus out He wound up nailed to a cross.
I am hectored that my religious beliefs are trumped by the playwright’s unfettered right to free speech. One of Justice Stephens’ predecessors wrote “That we must have room for what we hate”.
The Bill of Rights numbers things that the government cannot do.
The First Amendment begins with the majestic words “Congress shall make no law…” The Founders put them in there because they wanted them in there. As someone who was visited 3 times by police for things that I have written I am glad that they are there.
That it took 103 years for the Court to correct a Constitutional mistake is a testament to the document and the men who wrote it.
“Free men speak with free tongues”
Good advice 25 centuries ago; good advice today.
Kevin Smith
Letter to the Editor
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, Florida 33132-1693
RE: What happened to the “penumbras”? Where did the “emanations” go? Some musings on your editorial comments on the Supreme Court reinforcing the right to free speech.
Sirs,
Is the newspaper business so bad that you are now opposed to free speech?
Former Senator and former Governors Jon Corzine spent $130,000,000 of his own money in the last 10 years to win 2 out of 3 elections in New Jersey. Was that “fair” to the Jersey version of Joe the Plumber? Do you think that newspapers in New Jersey should have been “encouraged” to run Joe’s ads for free?
You say that “Justice Stephens properly called this decision a radical departure from established law…” Do you think Justice Stephens would have voted against repealing Plessy v Ferguson? It was “established law” for 59 years.
You say that there “is nothing in the First Amendment that would suggest that the Framers intended to protect the rights of corporations to spend freely in elections”. There is nothing in the First Amendment that mandates the separation of church and state either. [You can look it up.]
You refer to the Founders in the reverential tone used by modern American Liberals when it suits them. A bit of Googling on your part would show you that the Founders were deeply religious men who used Natural Law, a “gift from beyond the stars”, that is ours at birth as the basis for our Constitution.
Does anyone know how much money George Soros spent to advance his political beliefs? The money, being his, was his to spend as he saw fit, wasn’t it? Should we “level the playing field” – And if there is a dumber term anywhere I would like to see it – so Jersey Joe the Plumber turned Politician can compete against Corzine or Soros?
I am sure the omission was unintentional but the Supreme Court decision applies to unions also. They are free to spend their members’ dues to promote their political beliefs. Would you apply the same rules to unions that you would apply to corporations for political expenditures? You say that shareholders must “specifically approve the allocation”. There is a plumbers’ union. Jersey Joe may have belonged to it. Should he be allowed to vote on “specific allocations”? Should a dollar amount be applied to the work done by “union volunteers”?
Even though I am a Roman Catholic I am not supposed to question the use of taxpayers’ funds to subsidize the production of the play Corpus Cristi. The play’s premise is that Jesus Christ was crucified because of a homosexual lovers quarrel with Judas Iscariot. Judas, in a fit of pique, dropped a dime on Jesus. As a result of him ratting Jesus out He wound up nailed to a cross.
I am hectored that my religious beliefs are trumped by the playwright’s unfettered right to free speech. One of Justice Stephens’ predecessors wrote “That we must have room for what we hate”.
The Bill of Rights numbers things that the government cannot do.
The First Amendment begins with the majestic words “Congress shall make no law…” The Founders put them in there because they wanted them in there. As someone who was visited 3 times by police for things that I have written I am glad that they are there.
That it took 103 years for the Court to correct a Constitutional mistake is a testament to the document and the men who wrote it.
“Free men speak with free tongues”
Good advice 25 centuries ago; good advice today.
Kevin Smith
Finally, my Epiphany moment or what really is behind the curtain at The Washington Post
January 23, 2010
Increasing my carbon footprint is my main avocation. I cruise the internet, a device for which I never properly thanked former Vice President Alpha Gump, in search of intelligent life. Finding none I move on to raising hackles, trapping manatees, buckling swashes, training pythons, and trying to find a perfect sentence.
[Full disclosure requires me to reveal that I too drive a pick up truck. Red, 5 speed, hole in the driver’s seat, 6 foot plumber’s snake, fading radio, 122,000 miles, and sometimes internal combustion eructations. I mention it because not “everybody can buy a truck” as the best President we have told us. Further, and like Trollope stating the obvious, if everybody did buy a truck wouldn’t most of our economic problems be solved? Just asking.]
I was watching Chris Cizzilla of the Washington Post on C-Span3 discoursing on the Brown Senate campaign. Two things were obvious:
#1 – “The proof of the pudding is in the eating” is terra incognita for him. In the real world, results, not effort, count. I can play football as hard as Peyton Manning. I can’t play it as well. That’s why I’ll watch him play on TV tomorrow. Senator-elect Brown is going to Washington. Marcia Coakley, as the really dumb Kennedy called her, will be the Assistant Vice Deputy Grand Marshalette of the fan appreciation parade for Curt Schilling. She’ll be the one behind the elephant. [There is now one more reason to call in artillery and air strikes on Fenway Park. I just completed a 2976 mile round trip in my gas guzzling SUV. By the Boston Marathon the only CITGO sign left in America will be the one behind the Green Monster. Viva Chavez. Go Hugo.] That David Gergen asked Marcia what her favorite color was just before he asked Senator-elect Brown why did he stop beating his wife didn’t hurt either. Has anyone looked the possibility that Gergen is on the Tea Party payroll?
#2 – I am glad to see that some people still drink whisky at lunch. I thought I was the last one keeping that tradition alive. Go Chris!
I read Post’s E.J. Dionne premature eulogy to civil discourse in politics.
As I recall the President reached out to WOG terrorists at his inauguration. “We will extend our hand if you will unclench your fist.” Lame brained when confronted by History but at least he can say that he took a shot.
The first Republican he spoke to, Senator Kyl of Arizona, got a different greeting. “We won.” That‘s a polite way of saying, “Play ball with me or I’ll shove the bat up your ass”. His flunkies soon added that he should “shit in his hat and pull it down over his ears because he looks good in brown”.
I am surprised he hasn’t sent Predator drones to Glenn Beck’s house.
The fact that he had unassailable majorities in both houses seems not to have caught Mr. Dionne’s attention. The American people dealt the President a pat hand. He blew it.
My only regret about the Health Care plan going walkabout is that I was looking forward to being on the Death Panels. I’ve been keeping a list for years. Lately, it has been growing exponentially. It is at a secure, undisclosed location just in case.
Howie Kurtz, a Post chattering head for whom the term “amiable dunce” could have been coined, is rambling forth in his usual combination of “What, me worry” and “I desperately want to be a smarmy bastard” about the National Enquirer, John Edwards, and Pulitzer Prizes.
It is indeed fitting and proper to mention Janet Cook whenever the words Washington Post and Pulitzer Prizes appear in the same sentence, the same paragraph, or the same page.
It is to the Post’s credit that they immediately defenestrated Ms. Cook when her Pulitzer fraud was discovered. They took her name off the Hall of Fame wall and drew a line through it before consigning it to the Hell fires of media Gehenna.
No mention of Pulitzer Prizes can be made without citing the New York Times. They cling to the memory of Walter Duranty, their employee, who was the winner for Foreign Correspondence in 1932. That he was bought and paid for by the KGB is of no import. That he lied about the extermination of the Kulaks made the New York Times acquiescent in the horrors that the 1930s produced. If you recall it was Auden who called it a “low dishonest decade. One more argument against inherited wealth.
Your actions merit you an indulgence and entry into the newspaper hagiography.
John Edwards and Sarah Palin have one thing in common.
They both lost elections to become Vice President.
John Edwards then lost his race to become the Democrat nominee in 2008.
What if he had been elected?
Save for the Enquirer no other media outlet investigated him and his dalliance.
Modern American Liberal journalists were aghast at the thought of Sarah Palin one step from the Oval Office. John Edwards in the Oval Office didn’t seem to bother them one whit. There’s a disconnect there.
Then I thought of Tom Shales, Eugene Robinson, Sally what’s her name, Bradlee’s goomah, Dana Milbank, Wilhelm Boysenberry, David Broder, Ellen Goodman inter alia. Post toadies all.
POW!
I got knocked off my horse without ever getting to see Damascus.
The truth is simple.
The Washington Post is like the “Boy in the Bubble”. It is enveloped in a large penumbra of “non-malodorous fecal matter”. Beyond being permeated by it, beyond wallowing in it, they generate it. To be fair, they try to do it in an environmentally sensitive manner. Febreeze at the Post is like holy water to a vampire.
I have tried to arrange my affairs in such a manner so that I run out of money and breath at the same time. I had set early Fall as the time when the lines would most likely converge. I knew I was going to fall 3 short of my goal set foot in each of the 50 states.
Now that President Yokahama Messiah Osama Bahama, to quote the late Senator Kennedy, has found either 7 or 8 more states my Stygian crossing will have to be delayed. This is the first time I have ever gone mano a mano against deus ex machina.
Just as I was almost back in the saddle I get knocked of again. It was all made clear to me.
Do you remember the famous line from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
“Morons! I am surrounded by morons.”
Bad enough that the dunces are in the ascendancy but their shoes never wear out because their feet never touch the ground.
How, you ask, can they defy gravity?
Dr. Johnson explained it all.
“The triumph of hope over experience.”
Kevin Smith
Increasing my carbon footprint is my main avocation. I cruise the internet, a device for which I never properly thanked former Vice President Alpha Gump, in search of intelligent life. Finding none I move on to raising hackles, trapping manatees, buckling swashes, training pythons, and trying to find a perfect sentence.
[Full disclosure requires me to reveal that I too drive a pick up truck. Red, 5 speed, hole in the driver’s seat, 6 foot plumber’s snake, fading radio, 122,000 miles, and sometimes internal combustion eructations. I mention it because not “everybody can buy a truck” as the best President we have told us. Further, and like Trollope stating the obvious, if everybody did buy a truck wouldn’t most of our economic problems be solved? Just asking.]
I was watching Chris Cizzilla of the Washington Post on C-Span3 discoursing on the Brown Senate campaign. Two things were obvious:
#1 – “The proof of the pudding is in the eating” is terra incognita for him. In the real world, results, not effort, count. I can play football as hard as Peyton Manning. I can’t play it as well. That’s why I’ll watch him play on TV tomorrow. Senator-elect Brown is going to Washington. Marcia Coakley, as the really dumb Kennedy called her, will be the Assistant Vice Deputy Grand Marshalette of the fan appreciation parade for Curt Schilling. She’ll be the one behind the elephant. [There is now one more reason to call in artillery and air strikes on Fenway Park. I just completed a 2976 mile round trip in my gas guzzling SUV. By the Boston Marathon the only CITGO sign left in America will be the one behind the Green Monster. Viva Chavez. Go Hugo.] That David Gergen asked Marcia what her favorite color was just before he asked Senator-elect Brown why did he stop beating his wife didn’t hurt either. Has anyone looked the possibility that Gergen is on the Tea Party payroll?
#2 – I am glad to see that some people still drink whisky at lunch. I thought I was the last one keeping that tradition alive. Go Chris!
I read Post’s E.J. Dionne premature eulogy to civil discourse in politics.
As I recall the President reached out to WOG terrorists at his inauguration. “We will extend our hand if you will unclench your fist.” Lame brained when confronted by History but at least he can say that he took a shot.
The first Republican he spoke to, Senator Kyl of Arizona, got a different greeting. “We won.” That‘s a polite way of saying, “Play ball with me or I’ll shove the bat up your ass”. His flunkies soon added that he should “shit in his hat and pull it down over his ears because he looks good in brown”.
I am surprised he hasn’t sent Predator drones to Glenn Beck’s house.
The fact that he had unassailable majorities in both houses seems not to have caught Mr. Dionne’s attention. The American people dealt the President a pat hand. He blew it.
My only regret about the Health Care plan going walkabout is that I was looking forward to being on the Death Panels. I’ve been keeping a list for years. Lately, it has been growing exponentially. It is at a secure, undisclosed location just in case.
Howie Kurtz, a Post chattering head for whom the term “amiable dunce” could have been coined, is rambling forth in his usual combination of “What, me worry” and “I desperately want to be a smarmy bastard” about the National Enquirer, John Edwards, and Pulitzer Prizes.
It is indeed fitting and proper to mention Janet Cook whenever the words Washington Post and Pulitzer Prizes appear in the same sentence, the same paragraph, or the same page.
It is to the Post’s credit that they immediately defenestrated Ms. Cook when her Pulitzer fraud was discovered. They took her name off the Hall of Fame wall and drew a line through it before consigning it to the Hell fires of media Gehenna.
No mention of Pulitzer Prizes can be made without citing the New York Times. They cling to the memory of Walter Duranty, their employee, who was the winner for Foreign Correspondence in 1932. That he was bought and paid for by the KGB is of no import. That he lied about the extermination of the Kulaks made the New York Times acquiescent in the horrors that the 1930s produced. If you recall it was Auden who called it a “low dishonest decade. One more argument against inherited wealth.
Your actions merit you an indulgence and entry into the newspaper hagiography.
John Edwards and Sarah Palin have one thing in common.
They both lost elections to become Vice President.
John Edwards then lost his race to become the Democrat nominee in 2008.
What if he had been elected?
Save for the Enquirer no other media outlet investigated him and his dalliance.
Modern American Liberal journalists were aghast at the thought of Sarah Palin one step from the Oval Office. John Edwards in the Oval Office didn’t seem to bother them one whit. There’s a disconnect there.
Then I thought of Tom Shales, Eugene Robinson, Sally what’s her name, Bradlee’s goomah, Dana Milbank, Wilhelm Boysenberry, David Broder, Ellen Goodman inter alia. Post toadies all.
POW!
I got knocked off my horse without ever getting to see Damascus.
The truth is simple.
The Washington Post is like the “Boy in the Bubble”. It is enveloped in a large penumbra of “non-malodorous fecal matter”. Beyond being permeated by it, beyond wallowing in it, they generate it. To be fair, they try to do it in an environmentally sensitive manner. Febreeze at the Post is like holy water to a vampire.
I have tried to arrange my affairs in such a manner so that I run out of money and breath at the same time. I had set early Fall as the time when the lines would most likely converge. I knew I was going to fall 3 short of my goal set foot in each of the 50 states.
Now that President Yokahama Messiah Osama Bahama, to quote the late Senator Kennedy, has found either 7 or 8 more states my Stygian crossing will have to be delayed. This is the first time I have ever gone mano a mano against deus ex machina.
Just as I was almost back in the saddle I get knocked of again. It was all made clear to me.
Do you remember the famous line from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
“Morons! I am surrounded by morons.”
Bad enough that the dunces are in the ascendancy but their shoes never wear out because their feet never touch the ground.
How, you ask, can they defy gravity?
Dr. Johnson explained it all.
“The triumph of hope over experience.”
Kevin Smith
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Stephen L. Goldstein The Sun-Sentinel
January 18, 2010
Stephen L. Goldstein
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
RE: Tone deaf, a Pompous Fart, or both? A day after look at your column of 1/17/10 on football, “misplaced priorities”, educational woes, and why you don’t know Jack about the infield fly rule.
My dear Professor,
It is at least 50 years since Jacques Barzun said, “If you want to know America, you must know baseball”. Since he said it before microwave popcorn or Microsoft I rather imagine he would include the Super Bowl and NASCAR should he care to update his dictum.
“I’ve never understood anyone’s fascination with football.”
“It’s a game for sissies.”
“Real men have the guts to play rugby.”
“I also don’t understand fan mentality.”
Sun-Sentinel
Sunday
You
Because you don’t “understand” it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. There is much to be said for the discipline of a team sport. At its core, it demands the subordination of the individual to a higher goal. The individual voluntarily accepts this dedication to perceived greater good. The Iron Duke said that “Waterloo was decided on the playing fields of Eton”. General McArthutr once asked for a volunteer for a dangerous mission. “Get me an Army football player” was his only criterion
As the paradigmatic template of modern American Liberalism I know that one of your problems with football is that, in the end, excellence prevails. Score is kept. The team with the most points at the end wins. There is no “affirmative action” plan for picking wedge busters. Pass blocking is a harsh task master. If your quarterback’s jersey is dirty you have not been doing your job very well. Running back punts is normally not a subject for judicial review.
You say “it’s a game for sissies”. That statement presupposes that you have never been hit in the throat by a forearm.
Lyndon Johnson was President the last time I played competitive rugby. I am down to not quite one good leg left. If I were to see you on the other side of a scrum it would give me the strength of ten.
I saw the way some fans dressed at the NFL playoff games this weekend. It was as if the Village People were running a costume call for La Cage aux Folles. Several things should be self evident, even to you.
A – They were all adults who chose to dress like that.
B – Some of the outfits were amusing.
C – What harm is done? I’ll bet that some Stimulus money was involved.
D – Perhaps if you were to dress up as a Raider fan you might have a different view of it. You may want to try a weekend as the San Diego chicken first.
Bear Bryant said that football didn’t build character. It revealed it. He also said that whatever his salary was the university President was to be paid $1 more.
As to a “Super Bowl of Learning” let me tell you that the co-captains of my high school team – Marist High School of Bayonne, New Jersey – each has a Ph.D.
Would that high school academics were held to the same standard as the football coach! At the end of the year his record determines whether or not he keeps his job. There is an accounting of his stewardship. Teachers who can’t teach and administrators who can’t lead are given a pass year after year. If the football coach goes 1 and 8 two years on a row his next job is at an insurance agency.
I can see why the sound made by fans on the right side of the score would be alien to you. Your cure for teenage unemployment is a higher minimum wage. You believe, achingly so, that we can tax our way to prosperity. Your attempt to level the playing field for high school football would have Barney Frank as the prototypical head coach.
You say that we should “start appreciating brains”. This may come as a shock to you but the last 4 Presidents hold 6 degrees from Ivy League schools.
I don’t think any of them ever played football.
Kevin Smith
Stephen L. Goldstein
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
RE: Tone deaf, a Pompous Fart, or both? A day after look at your column of 1/17/10 on football, “misplaced priorities”, educational woes, and why you don’t know Jack about the infield fly rule.
My dear Professor,
It is at least 50 years since Jacques Barzun said, “If you want to know America, you must know baseball”. Since he said it before microwave popcorn or Microsoft I rather imagine he would include the Super Bowl and NASCAR should he care to update his dictum.
“I’ve never understood anyone’s fascination with football.”
“It’s a game for sissies.”
“Real men have the guts to play rugby.”
“I also don’t understand fan mentality.”
Sun-Sentinel
Sunday
You
Because you don’t “understand” it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. There is much to be said for the discipline of a team sport. At its core, it demands the subordination of the individual to a higher goal. The individual voluntarily accepts this dedication to perceived greater good. The Iron Duke said that “Waterloo was decided on the playing fields of Eton”. General McArthutr once asked for a volunteer for a dangerous mission. “Get me an Army football player” was his only criterion
As the paradigmatic template of modern American Liberalism I know that one of your problems with football is that, in the end, excellence prevails. Score is kept. The team with the most points at the end wins. There is no “affirmative action” plan for picking wedge busters. Pass blocking is a harsh task master. If your quarterback’s jersey is dirty you have not been doing your job very well. Running back punts is normally not a subject for judicial review.
You say “it’s a game for sissies”. That statement presupposes that you have never been hit in the throat by a forearm.
Lyndon Johnson was President the last time I played competitive rugby. I am down to not quite one good leg left. If I were to see you on the other side of a scrum it would give me the strength of ten.
I saw the way some fans dressed at the NFL playoff games this weekend. It was as if the Village People were running a costume call for La Cage aux Folles. Several things should be self evident, even to you.
A – They were all adults who chose to dress like that.
B – Some of the outfits were amusing.
C – What harm is done? I’ll bet that some Stimulus money was involved.
D – Perhaps if you were to dress up as a Raider fan you might have a different view of it. You may want to try a weekend as the San Diego chicken first.
Bear Bryant said that football didn’t build character. It revealed it. He also said that whatever his salary was the university President was to be paid $1 more.
As to a “Super Bowl of Learning” let me tell you that the co-captains of my high school team – Marist High School of Bayonne, New Jersey – each has a Ph.D.
Would that high school academics were held to the same standard as the football coach! At the end of the year his record determines whether or not he keeps his job. There is an accounting of his stewardship. Teachers who can’t teach and administrators who can’t lead are given a pass year after year. If the football coach goes 1 and 8 two years on a row his next job is at an insurance agency.
I can see why the sound made by fans on the right side of the score would be alien to you. Your cure for teenage unemployment is a higher minimum wage. You believe, achingly so, that we can tax our way to prosperity. Your attempt to level the playing field for high school football would have Barney Frank as the prototypical head coach.
You say that we should “start appreciating brains”. This may come as a shock to you but the last 4 Presidents hold 6 degrees from Ivy League schools.
I don’t think any of them ever played football.
Kevin Smith
Senator Dan Gelber
January 20, 2010
Senator Dan Gelber
1920 Meridian Avenue
Miami Beach, Florida 33139
RE: The wonders of make-up plus a good photographer and no one need ever know.
Senator Gelber,
By now you must be minus your lower lip.
I say this because if your resume is correct and that you went to college, law school, passed a Bar exam, and prosecuted people it is inconceivable that you could make, continuously make, statements such as the one below and keep said lip.
“Florida has an insurance crisis – 20% of our citizens
have no insurance,” Gelber said. “I have no idea what
McCollum will do to solve this crisis other than to sue
Congress when it tries to solve the problem.”
[As an aside, and for the record, perhaps you could clear some fuzzy math about the “insurance crisis”. 17 years when Czarina Hillary’s plan to graft the wildly popular Bulgarian health template onto the American health system we were told that we had 43,000,000 uninsured people in this country. By last year the number had grown to 47,000,000. President Obama twice said that the number was 30,000,000. How many are there? How are they counted? Was “statistical sampling”, a methodology that the Supreme Court said was unconstitutional when ACORN grifters tried to use it in the Census, used? Just asking?]
I thought the Constitution was a document that said what government could do.
I thought the Bill of Rights was a document that said what government could not do.
Can you tell me “where I can lay my finger on the part of the Constitution” that says government can mandate the purchase of insurance? If you can find that it should be no problem finding the part that says government can punish those who fail to do so.
I wrote to you a while back congratulating you for sending your children to the same public grammar school that you attended. I asked you to find out why President Obama doesn’t send his daughters to fine schools run by the District of Columbia. By the perpetual mantra of modern American Liberals the DC school should be the finest in the country because they have far and away the highest per pupil expenditure in the United States. Why wouldn’t he take advantage of that?
I haven’t heard back from you.
Do you think I ever will?
Kevin Smith
P.S. – since you keep your plastic surgeon’s cell # on your speed dial may I suggest that the next time you chomp through your lower lip you go for the Julia Roberts look? Anyone running as a Democrat is a member of a party that says the best way to fight unemployment is to increase taxes and raise the minimum wage. Also, their plan to tax the bejeezus out of the banks to make them lend so jobs can be created is priceless. They run the risk of bleeding to death. Call me if you need a pint
Senator Dan Gelber
1920 Meridian Avenue
Miami Beach, Florida 33139
RE: The wonders of make-up plus a good photographer and no one need ever know.
Senator Gelber,
By now you must be minus your lower lip.
I say this because if your resume is correct and that you went to college, law school, passed a Bar exam, and prosecuted people it is inconceivable that you could make, continuously make, statements such as the one below and keep said lip.
“Florida has an insurance crisis – 20% of our citizens
have no insurance,” Gelber said. “I have no idea what
McCollum will do to solve this crisis other than to sue
Congress when it tries to solve the problem.”
[As an aside, and for the record, perhaps you could clear some fuzzy math about the “insurance crisis”. 17 years when Czarina Hillary’s plan to graft the wildly popular Bulgarian health template onto the American health system we were told that we had 43,000,000 uninsured people in this country. By last year the number had grown to 47,000,000. President Obama twice said that the number was 30,000,000. How many are there? How are they counted? Was “statistical sampling”, a methodology that the Supreme Court said was unconstitutional when ACORN grifters tried to use it in the Census, used? Just asking?]
I thought the Constitution was a document that said what government could do.
I thought the Bill of Rights was a document that said what government could not do.
Can you tell me “where I can lay my finger on the part of the Constitution” that says government can mandate the purchase of insurance? If you can find that it should be no problem finding the part that says government can punish those who fail to do so.
I wrote to you a while back congratulating you for sending your children to the same public grammar school that you attended. I asked you to find out why President Obama doesn’t send his daughters to fine schools run by the District of Columbia. By the perpetual mantra of modern American Liberals the DC school should be the finest in the country because they have far and away the highest per pupil expenditure in the United States. Why wouldn’t he take advantage of that?
I haven’t heard back from you.
Do you think I ever will?
Kevin Smith
P.S. – since you keep your plastic surgeon’s cell # on your speed dial may I suggest that the next time you chomp through your lower lip you go for the Julia Roberts look? Anyone running as a Democrat is a member of a party that says the best way to fight unemployment is to increase taxes and raise the minimum wage. Also, their plan to tax the bejeezus out of the banks to make them lend so jobs can be created is priceless. They run the risk of bleeding to death. Call me if you need a pint
Douglas C. Lyons The Sun-Sentinel
January 16, 2010
Douglas C. Lyons
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
RE: Why mean, nasty, and forgetful White people should give to Haiti. Some comments on your stern, finger wagging op-ed in today’s Sun-Sentinel.
Mr. Lyons,
If, as you say, “The U.S. owes Haiti, big time” for their supporting our revolution and for our occupying their country are there any other inclusions/exemptions for Uncle Sam voluntarily emptying his pockets plus borrowing from the Chinese every time the beggar’s bowl is presented to him?
President Obama unilaterally canceled a missile pact with Poland. History shows a large Polish presence, exponentially larger than Haiti’s, in our revolution. What do we owe them?
The Union cemeteries at Gettysburg are filled with 1000s of Irishmen who died fighting for the North. A case could be made that they died to end slavery. They lie there, in silent repose, “still wrapped in their faded coats of Blue”. What do we “owe” Ireland?
Each and every time, without exception, that this country took up arms in the 20th century, we had one ally, the same ally, every time. What do we “owe” Australia?
You speak of Pat Robertson’s “absurdities”. What number would you give on the umbrage scale for his verbal diarrhea to Danny Glover? Would I have my toes on the edge of racism if I were to suggest that your scorn for a White man clearly in his dotage is not matched by your remonstrations [absent] about the movie star? At least both of them were “clean” and “articulate”.
Your view of Haitian history is, in typical modern American Liberal fashion, unhampered by facts.
If there is a root cause to the sad tale of Haiti, a tale replete with murders, assassinations voo-doo, thievery on a Herculean scale, zombies, the national pastime of biting the head off a chicken [Don’t tell PETA], Graham Greene novels, and an absolute indifference or ignorance to and of the rubrics common to any nation claiming to be civilized, it is the absence of any semblance or memory of the Rule of Law.
Years ago I sat in on a session of the Barbados Parliament. It was the House of Commons a la Caribbean. Adults were arguing with each other because they could and because it made them a better people. There were no Poppa Docs there.
The people of the United States shouldn’t help Haiti because we “owe” them. If the quality of mercy is to be judged by what the donor “owes” the donee, why, pray tell, did we give aid to the Asian tsunami victims? Why were American lives at risk to stop the genocide of Serbian Muslims? Why should we do anything about Darfur? They are, as Chamberlain said about the Czechs. “A faraway people about whom we know little”.
In typical modern American Liberal fashion you bend History to your view of contemporary politics.
I’ll write slowly. Try to follow.
The French and the English began fighting in North America in 1755. This fight continued on 5 continents and 3 oceans until 1815. Clearly, these people had no exit strategy.
The French stayed out of the American Revolution until we defeated the British at Saratoga. It was clearly in the rational self interest of the French to keep as many British military personnel as far away from Europe as possible. The war ended at Yorktown with the colonials outgunning the Red Coats from the front and the French Navy blocking both reinforcement of and retreat by Cornwallis from the rear.
Clearly, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” worked for the French and the Americans.
As an aside, do you think the Americans have covered the marker held by the French? I don’t know what the ratio is but there is one Hell of a lot of American graves in France.
Does it – mercy – “fall like gentle rain” or is it doled out like redeemed frequent flyer miles?
How big, in terms of money, water, penicillin, and MREs, is the marker held by Haitians? Would the absence of any Cubans or Venezuelans suggest that the scales are balanced among them? I saw a group from Iceland trying to rescue a trapped child. Why where they there? I am unaware of any Historical or commercial intercourse between Port-a-Prince and Reykjavik.
Let us hope that the aid soon to be given to Haiti is better spent than previous American attempts.
The United States began sending aid to Africa in 1960.
Would it be politically incorrect to ask for an accounting? What if I were to ask for but one African success story? Does that mean that we should stop all aid to Africa?
The United States declared war on poverty in this country in 1964.
Despite one trillion dollars [That’s $1,000,000,000,000.00] it would seem that we have lost that war also. Do you think it’s time for a “surge”?
In the end, Americans will give because they want to, not because they have to.
Your snarky admonition diminishes the charitable History that speaks so well of American exceptionalism. Moreover, it diminishes you.
Kevin Smith
PS – There may yet be some good that can be gained from this terrible situation. How about we field test the end of life questions that will soon be foisted on us should the Health Care plan pass? If you are to be saved you must not be older than a certain age. You must have knowledge of mathematics and a foreign language. Your blood pressure must fall within acceptable levels. Diabetics, those with osteoarthritis in 2 joints, arrhythmia, alopecia, extreme myopia, and the heartbreak of psoriasis are automatic disqualifiers. Let Haiti be remembered for decreasing its carbon footprint in a spectacular fashion! Undrowned polar bears will remember them, if they were able, with great fondness.
Douglas C. Lyons
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
RE: Why mean, nasty, and forgetful White people should give to Haiti. Some comments on your stern, finger wagging op-ed in today’s Sun-Sentinel.
Mr. Lyons,
If, as you say, “The U.S. owes Haiti, big time” for their supporting our revolution and for our occupying their country are there any other inclusions/exemptions for Uncle Sam voluntarily emptying his pockets plus borrowing from the Chinese every time the beggar’s bowl is presented to him?
President Obama unilaterally canceled a missile pact with Poland. History shows a large Polish presence, exponentially larger than Haiti’s, in our revolution. What do we owe them?
The Union cemeteries at Gettysburg are filled with 1000s of Irishmen who died fighting for the North. A case could be made that they died to end slavery. They lie there, in silent repose, “still wrapped in their faded coats of Blue”. What do we “owe” Ireland?
Each and every time, without exception, that this country took up arms in the 20th century, we had one ally, the same ally, every time. What do we “owe” Australia?
You speak of Pat Robertson’s “absurdities”. What number would you give on the umbrage scale for his verbal diarrhea to Danny Glover? Would I have my toes on the edge of racism if I were to suggest that your scorn for a White man clearly in his dotage is not matched by your remonstrations [absent] about the movie star? At least both of them were “clean” and “articulate”.
Your view of Haitian history is, in typical modern American Liberal fashion, unhampered by facts.
If there is a root cause to the sad tale of Haiti, a tale replete with murders, assassinations voo-doo, thievery on a Herculean scale, zombies, the national pastime of biting the head off a chicken [Don’t tell PETA], Graham Greene novels, and an absolute indifference or ignorance to and of the rubrics common to any nation claiming to be civilized, it is the absence of any semblance or memory of the Rule of Law.
Years ago I sat in on a session of the Barbados Parliament. It was the House of Commons a la Caribbean. Adults were arguing with each other because they could and because it made them a better people. There were no Poppa Docs there.
The people of the United States shouldn’t help Haiti because we “owe” them. If the quality of mercy is to be judged by what the donor “owes” the donee, why, pray tell, did we give aid to the Asian tsunami victims? Why were American lives at risk to stop the genocide of Serbian Muslims? Why should we do anything about Darfur? They are, as Chamberlain said about the Czechs. “A faraway people about whom we know little”.
In typical modern American Liberal fashion you bend History to your view of contemporary politics.
I’ll write slowly. Try to follow.
The French and the English began fighting in North America in 1755. This fight continued on 5 continents and 3 oceans until 1815. Clearly, these people had no exit strategy.
The French stayed out of the American Revolution until we defeated the British at Saratoga. It was clearly in the rational self interest of the French to keep as many British military personnel as far away from Europe as possible. The war ended at Yorktown with the colonials outgunning the Red Coats from the front and the French Navy blocking both reinforcement of and retreat by Cornwallis from the rear.
Clearly, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” worked for the French and the Americans.
As an aside, do you think the Americans have covered the marker held by the French? I don’t know what the ratio is but there is one Hell of a lot of American graves in France.
Does it – mercy – “fall like gentle rain” or is it doled out like redeemed frequent flyer miles?
How big, in terms of money, water, penicillin, and MREs, is the marker held by Haitians? Would the absence of any Cubans or Venezuelans suggest that the scales are balanced among them? I saw a group from Iceland trying to rescue a trapped child. Why where they there? I am unaware of any Historical or commercial intercourse between Port-a-Prince and Reykjavik.
Let us hope that the aid soon to be given to Haiti is better spent than previous American attempts.
The United States began sending aid to Africa in 1960.
Would it be politically incorrect to ask for an accounting? What if I were to ask for but one African success story? Does that mean that we should stop all aid to Africa?
The United States declared war on poverty in this country in 1964.
Despite one trillion dollars [That’s $1,000,000,000,000.00] it would seem that we have lost that war also. Do you think it’s time for a “surge”?
In the end, Americans will give because they want to, not because they have to.
Your snarky admonition diminishes the charitable History that speaks so well of American exceptionalism. Moreover, it diminishes you.
Kevin Smith
PS – There may yet be some good that can be gained from this terrible situation. How about we field test the end of life questions that will soon be foisted on us should the Health Care plan pass? If you are to be saved you must not be older than a certain age. You must have knowledge of mathematics and a foreign language. Your blood pressure must fall within acceptable levels. Diabetics, those with osteoarthritis in 2 joints, arrhythmia, alopecia, extreme myopia, and the heartbreak of psoriasis are automatic disqualifiers. Let Haiti be remembered for decreasing its carbon footprint in a spectacular fashion! Undrowned polar bears will remember them, if they were able, with great fondness.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Representative Jim Waldman
January 9, 2010
Representative Jim Waldman
4800 West Copans Road
Coconut Creek, Florida33063
RE: Can Conundrums about Ethics be unethical? The Sun-Sentinel reports on Page 1 today that modern American Liberals who make up the Broward County legislative delegation are now in pretzel mode because of the threat of tougher ethics rules
Representative Waldman,
One of the main points of Nicomachean Ethics is the quest for balance. Since Aristotle, the father of Ethics, is now known as a Dead White European Male it might be better to leave him out of the discussion and switch to the moral relativism of situational Ethics.
“State Representative Jim Waldman, [D-Coconut Creek], expressed
Concern about a new entity of government being created
“with greater powers than the state attorney.”
Do you remember Judge Walsh, the special prosecutor of Iran/Contra fame? For that matter do you remember any of the special prosecutors? I search, vainly, for any modern American Liberal politician who opposed any of them not because they favored crime but rather that it was offensive to the legal system... Further, it allowed a spirit of “eclectic indignation” loose in the land that caused great harm to the body politic. Each and every “special prosecutor” loosed upon a Republican was greeted with huzzahs by the chattering classes. The silence was deafening when the tables were turned.
Do you think the WOG terrorist with a scrotum pocket rocket should be investigated by a “special prosecutor”? Do you think he should be charged with a hate crime? Christmas is still a sacred day for many people in this country.
I enclose a quote from A.V. Dicey about the Rule of Law. For some strange reason it is as clear as a 10 to 1 Tanqueray martini to all non-lawyers. To those officially steeped in pettifoggery and the marvelous labyrinthine ways of Jarndyce v Jarndyce it is good some of the time but never all of the time.
But back to Ethics.
In our conversation almost one year ago you made it clear that, if you had the power, you would ban all tobacco products in Florida.
I don’t suppose you’ve given much thought to uprisings led by the non-Casino Indians but I suppose they could be included ex post facto in the Stimulus program or shoved into the Health Care program.
My question to you is simple.
Is it ethical for the state of Florida to benefit from the sale of tobacco?
It is, as former Vice President Alpha Gump says about Global Cooling, Global Warming, Climate Change, & the new bogey man, drowning polar bears, “settled science” that tobacco kills.
Should Florida benefit from the suicide of any of its citizens?
At the very least shouldn’t you return the portion of your state paycheck equal to the percentage of the state budget that comes from taxing tobacco?
If you cash it you are compliant in death of your fellow citizens. I believe the adage qui tacet consentit is still valid.
Don’t you?
Kevin Smith
Representative Jim Waldman
4800 West Copans Road
Coconut Creek, Florida33063
RE: Can Conundrums about Ethics be unethical? The Sun-Sentinel reports on Page 1 today that modern American Liberals who make up the Broward County legislative delegation are now in pretzel mode because of the threat of tougher ethics rules
Representative Waldman,
One of the main points of Nicomachean Ethics is the quest for balance. Since Aristotle, the father of Ethics, is now known as a Dead White European Male it might be better to leave him out of the discussion and switch to the moral relativism of situational Ethics.
“State Representative Jim Waldman, [D-Coconut Creek], expressed
Concern about a new entity of government being created
“with greater powers than the state attorney.”
Do you remember Judge Walsh, the special prosecutor of Iran/Contra fame? For that matter do you remember any of the special prosecutors? I search, vainly, for any modern American Liberal politician who opposed any of them not because they favored crime but rather that it was offensive to the legal system... Further, it allowed a spirit of “eclectic indignation” loose in the land that caused great harm to the body politic. Each and every “special prosecutor” loosed upon a Republican was greeted with huzzahs by the chattering classes. The silence was deafening when the tables were turned.
Do you think the WOG terrorist with a scrotum pocket rocket should be investigated by a “special prosecutor”? Do you think he should be charged with a hate crime? Christmas is still a sacred day for many people in this country.
I enclose a quote from A.V. Dicey about the Rule of Law. For some strange reason it is as clear as a 10 to 1 Tanqueray martini to all non-lawyers. To those officially steeped in pettifoggery and the marvelous labyrinthine ways of Jarndyce v Jarndyce it is good some of the time but never all of the time.
But back to Ethics.
In our conversation almost one year ago you made it clear that, if you had the power, you would ban all tobacco products in Florida.
I don’t suppose you’ve given much thought to uprisings led by the non-Casino Indians but I suppose they could be included ex post facto in the Stimulus program or shoved into the Health Care program.
My question to you is simple.
Is it ethical for the state of Florida to benefit from the sale of tobacco?
It is, as former Vice President Alpha Gump says about Global Cooling, Global Warming, Climate Change, & the new bogey man, drowning polar bears, “settled science” that tobacco kills.
Should Florida benefit from the suicide of any of its citizens?
At the very least shouldn’t you return the portion of your state paycheck equal to the percentage of the state budget that comes from taxing tobacco?
If you cash it you are compliant in death of your fellow citizens. I believe the adage qui tacet consentit is still valid.
Don’t you?
Kevin Smith
Tom Shales The Washington Post
January 10, 2010
Tom Shales
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20051
RE: Time to bring back public floogings? Some comments about your comments on Brit Hume.
Mr. Shales,
Brit Hume suggested that Tiger Woods consider Christianity for the amazing grace that redemption brings. That comment caused you to consign him to the modern American Liberal version of Gehenna.
You said that “even only a few days into January it [the comment] is one of the most ridiculous of the year”.
I would suggest that a brief teaching moment from the cat, perhaps two dozen well laid on would be appropriate, save that you would probably enjoy it..
Instead, even though it is “only a few days into January” you are to be singled out for a rare honor
You have swept three of my most prestigious awards long before the Super Bowl. Accordingly, you are named
HORSE’S ASS OF THE WEEK
POMPOUS FART OF THE MONTH
SMARMY BASTARD OF THE YEAR
Most ill-tempered scribes would slack off, like Alexander in tears after conquering Afghanistan [evidence that surges work?], because there were no other motivations. I believe in your enthusiasm for being the paradigmatic template for modern America Liberal ink stained wretches will enable you to overcome this.
I wait to hear the sound of one hand not clapping as you ignore Senator Reid’s comments about “light skinned Negros”. Actually, a “light skinned Negro”, one who is as then Senator Biden said, “clean and articulate”, could go far in American politics, don’t you think?
You may wish to cite the fact that neither Reid nor Biden called B. Hussein Obama a “macaca”. That would have been unforgiveable.
“Men without chests”
C.S. Lewis was right.
Kevin Smith
PS – As I write this I am watching the ordination of a former KKK organizer as a Minister by a Black Bishop into a Black congregation. [I want to mention the Senator Byrd KKK connection but I won’t.] While you await your orders from the Church of Secular Humanism, Moral Relativism, and What’s Happening Now you may wish to Google up Dismas. I hope that it is not too late for you to try to become familiar with Dante.
Tom Shales
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20051
RE: Time to bring back public floogings? Some comments about your comments on Brit Hume.
Mr. Shales,
Brit Hume suggested that Tiger Woods consider Christianity for the amazing grace that redemption brings. That comment caused you to consign him to the modern American Liberal version of Gehenna.
You said that “even only a few days into January it [the comment] is one of the most ridiculous of the year”.
I would suggest that a brief teaching moment from the cat, perhaps two dozen well laid on would be appropriate, save that you would probably enjoy it..
Instead, even though it is “only a few days into January” you are to be singled out for a rare honor
You have swept three of my most prestigious awards long before the Super Bowl. Accordingly, you are named
HORSE’S ASS OF THE WEEK
POMPOUS FART OF THE MONTH
SMARMY BASTARD OF THE YEAR
Most ill-tempered scribes would slack off, like Alexander in tears after conquering Afghanistan [evidence that surges work?], because there were no other motivations. I believe in your enthusiasm for being the paradigmatic template for modern America Liberal ink stained wretches will enable you to overcome this.
I wait to hear the sound of one hand not clapping as you ignore Senator Reid’s comments about “light skinned Negros”. Actually, a “light skinned Negro”, one who is as then Senator Biden said, “clean and articulate”, could go far in American politics, don’t you think?
You may wish to cite the fact that neither Reid nor Biden called B. Hussein Obama a “macaca”. That would have been unforgiveable.
“Men without chests”
C.S. Lewis was right.
Kevin Smith
PS – As I write this I am watching the ordination of a former KKK organizer as a Minister by a Black Bishop into a Black congregation. [I want to mention the Senator Byrd KKK connection but I won’t.] While you await your orders from the Church of Secular Humanism, Moral Relativism, and What’s Happening Now you may wish to Google up Dismas. I hope that it is not too late for you to try to become familiar with Dante.
Robert Watson, Ph.D. Lynn University
January 10, 2010
Robert Watson, Ph.D.
Lynn University
3601 North Military Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33431
RE: who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes? – Some thoughts on your marvelous op-ed Republican liars in this morning’s Sun-Sentinel.
My dear Professor,
Presidents lie? I am shocked, shocked to find that out. I thought I was too old to learn anything new.
I’m fooling.
Presidents are supposed to lie. We expect it of them.
Woodrow Wilson ran for re-election in 1916 by promising to keep America out of wars overseas. Mexico didn’t bother him. Incidentally, Thurgood Marshall said that Wilson was the most bigoted, biased, and anti-Negro President in his life time. Do you agree with that?
Franklin Roosevelt set a Nixon standard for lying to Americans in 1939 and 1940 about America and the European War. I’ve read a bit too much about Churchill to think that he tip-toed in to some American Naval Bases and made off with all those destroyers on his own. They addressed and signed their personal correspondence with “Former Naval person”.
As to Clinton’s lying the cause, his stepping out on the Missus for “a bit of the gobble”, is irrelevant. My morning episode of the Sopranos included Carmella telling the shrink that her husband would “poke anything with a pulse”. Ah! To have been a fly on the wall during the post-Monica make up sessions led by the snake handling minister!
But I digress.
I will share something that is so obvious that only a really smart person could miss it.
Clinton didn’t just lie. Clinton perjured himself.
“A man on oath holds his soul in his hand as if it were water.
He opens his fingers at his own peril.”
As to the wretched excesses of the “vast Right-Wing conspiracy” I am glad to see that you have debunked the ammo shortage myth being caused by Obama. Your explanation – a classic case of supply and demand imbalances – is straight from the Austrian School. Does that make you a closet Friedmanite?
In your rush to castigate the “birthers” – those mostly angry, bitter gun clingers who shrieked that Obama wasn’t born in this country – you probably didn’t have time to turn your wrath on the “truthers”.
They are the ones who say that Halliburton wired the WTC and the Pentagon to blow up after a fabulous light show and illusion paid for by the Carlyle Group, a known Bush family satrapy, to convince some Red Necks that peace loving Islamists, convinced by enemies of Georg Soros that they didn’t have to die to get their 72 virgins, to fly into buildings. Bringing Rosie O’Donnell into the public arena to caterwaul that steel doesn’t melt was a stroke of genius. I haven’t yet tied Fox News to this but I will, I will.
How Joe the Plumber, in cahoots with those Tea Party people, convince the Christmas bomber, heretofore a banker whose father didn’t much like him, armed only with a scrotum pocket rocket, to try to send that big plane down the only working chimney in Detroit is beyond me.
Any clues?
Kevin Smith
PS – Did President Obama, the one whose shadow need but fall on us for miracles to occur, promise to televise the Health Care hearings in 2008 or 2009?
Robert Watson, Ph.D.
Lynn University
3601 North Military Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33431
RE: who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes? – Some thoughts on your marvelous op-ed Republican liars in this morning’s Sun-Sentinel.
My dear Professor,
Presidents lie? I am shocked, shocked to find that out. I thought I was too old to learn anything new.
I’m fooling.
Presidents are supposed to lie. We expect it of them.
Woodrow Wilson ran for re-election in 1916 by promising to keep America out of wars overseas. Mexico didn’t bother him. Incidentally, Thurgood Marshall said that Wilson was the most bigoted, biased, and anti-Negro President in his life time. Do you agree with that?
Franklin Roosevelt set a Nixon standard for lying to Americans in 1939 and 1940 about America and the European War. I’ve read a bit too much about Churchill to think that he tip-toed in to some American Naval Bases and made off with all those destroyers on his own. They addressed and signed their personal correspondence with “Former Naval person”.
As to Clinton’s lying the cause, his stepping out on the Missus for “a bit of the gobble”, is irrelevant. My morning episode of the Sopranos included Carmella telling the shrink that her husband would “poke anything with a pulse”. Ah! To have been a fly on the wall during the post-Monica make up sessions led by the snake handling minister!
But I digress.
I will share something that is so obvious that only a really smart person could miss it.
Clinton didn’t just lie. Clinton perjured himself.
“A man on oath holds his soul in his hand as if it were water.
He opens his fingers at his own peril.”
As to the wretched excesses of the “vast Right-Wing conspiracy” I am glad to see that you have debunked the ammo shortage myth being caused by Obama. Your explanation – a classic case of supply and demand imbalances – is straight from the Austrian School. Does that make you a closet Friedmanite?
In your rush to castigate the “birthers” – those mostly angry, bitter gun clingers who shrieked that Obama wasn’t born in this country – you probably didn’t have time to turn your wrath on the “truthers”.
They are the ones who say that Halliburton wired the WTC and the Pentagon to blow up after a fabulous light show and illusion paid for by the Carlyle Group, a known Bush family satrapy, to convince some Red Necks that peace loving Islamists, convinced by enemies of Georg Soros that they didn’t have to die to get their 72 virgins, to fly into buildings. Bringing Rosie O’Donnell into the public arena to caterwaul that steel doesn’t melt was a stroke of genius. I haven’t yet tied Fox News to this but I will, I will.
How Joe the Plumber, in cahoots with those Tea Party people, convince the Christmas bomber, heretofore a banker whose father didn’t much like him, armed only with a scrotum pocket rocket, to try to send that big plane down the only working chimney in Detroit is beyond me.
Any clues?
Kevin Smith
PS – Did President Obama, the one whose shadow need but fall on us for miracles to occur, promise to televise the Health Care hearings in 2008 or 2009?
Senator Dan Gelber
January 11, 2010
Senator Dan Gelber
1920 Meridian Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33139
RE: “Are you serious”?
Senator Gelber,
I read recently of you getting your knickers in a knot because the Attorney General, Bill McCollum, believes that the proposed Health Care legislation is unconstitutional. Since we live in a most litigious society I can see no reason why this shouldn’t wind up in a court. Since you covet his office you would oppose him if were to declare himself on the side of the angels.
That’s politics. That’s why we have campaigns. It is good to hear free men yelling at each other.
A horse of quite a different color is the response of Speaker Pelosi to the question of does the Constitution give Congress the power to do what they are determined to do via health care. “Are you serious, are you serious”? was her response as if her questioner’s nose “was being eaten by weevils”.
I am serious. You are an attorney. You want to be Attorney General. Where does it say in the Constitution that Congress can do that? Also, buried deep in the proposed bill is a legal IED. It specifically forbids any future Congress from changing any parts of the proposed legislation. Do you think that would pass legislative and then judicial muster? If you are elected attorney General and the Florida legislature moved to bind the hands of a future Florida legislature would you defend said legislation?
Here’s a campaign tip.
If you could prevent the horde of rude, cheap, nasty, and generally rotten Quebecois from despoiling South Florida you would be elected in a landslide.
Get back to me on the first matter.
Kevin Smith
Senator Dan Gelber
1920 Meridian Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33139
RE: “Are you serious”?
Senator Gelber,
I read recently of you getting your knickers in a knot because the Attorney General, Bill McCollum, believes that the proposed Health Care legislation is unconstitutional. Since we live in a most litigious society I can see no reason why this shouldn’t wind up in a court. Since you covet his office you would oppose him if were to declare himself on the side of the angels.
That’s politics. That’s why we have campaigns. It is good to hear free men yelling at each other.
A horse of quite a different color is the response of Speaker Pelosi to the question of does the Constitution give Congress the power to do what they are determined to do via health care. “Are you serious, are you serious”? was her response as if her questioner’s nose “was being eaten by weevils”.
I am serious. You are an attorney. You want to be Attorney General. Where does it say in the Constitution that Congress can do that? Also, buried deep in the proposed bill is a legal IED. It specifically forbids any future Congress from changing any parts of the proposed legislation. Do you think that would pass legislative and then judicial muster? If you are elected attorney General and the Florida legislature moved to bind the hands of a future Florida legislature would you defend said legislation?
Here’s a campaign tip.
If you could prevent the horde of rude, cheap, nasty, and generally rotten Quebecois from despoiling South Florida you would be elected in a landslide.
Get back to me on the first matter.
Kevin Smith
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Representative Jim Waldman
January 9, 2010
Representative Jim Waldman
4800 West Copans Road
Coconut Creek, Florida33063
RE: Can Conundrums about Ethics be unethical? The Sun-Sentinel reports on Page 1 today that modern American Liberals who make up the Broward County legislative delegation are now in pretzel mode because of the threat of tougher ethics rules
Representative Waldman,
One of the main points of Nicomachean Ethics is the quest for balance. Since Aristotle, the father of Ethics, is now known as a Dead White European Male it might be better to leave him out of the discussion and switch to the moral relativism of situational Ethics.
“State Representative Jim Waldman, [D-Coconut Creek], expressed
Concern about a new entity of government being created
“with greater powers than the state attorney.”
Do you remember Judge Walsh, the special prosecutor of Iran/Contra fame? For that matter do you remember any of the special prosecutors? I search, vainly, for any modern American Liberal politician who opposed any of them not because they favored crime but rather that it was offensive to the legal system... Further, it allowed a spirit of “eclectic indignation” loose in the land that caused great harm to the body politic. Each and every “special prosecutor” loosed upon a Republican was greeted with huzzahs by the chattering classes. The silence was deafening when the tables were turned.
Do you think the WOG terrorist with a scrotum pocket rocket should be investigated by a “special prosecutor”? Do you think he should be charged with a hate crime? Christmas is still a sacred day for many people in this country.
I enclose a quote from A.V. Dicey about the Rule of Law. For some strange reason it is as clear as a 10 to 1 Tanqueray martini to all non-lawyers. To those officially steeped in pettifoggery and the marvelous labyrinthine ways of Jarndyce v Jarndyce it is good some of the time but never all of the time.
But back to Ethics.
In our conversation almost one year ago you made it clear that, if you had the power, you would ban all tobacco products in Florida.
I don’t suppose you’ve given much thought to uprisings led by the non-Casino Indians but I suppose they could be included ex post facto in the Stimulus program or shoved into the Health Care program.
My question to you is simple.
Is it ethical for the state of Florida to benefit from the sale of tobacco?
It is, as former Vice President Alpha Gump says about Global Cooling, Global Warming, Climate Change, & the new bogey man, drowning polar bears, “settled science” that tobacco kills.
Should Florida benefit from the suicide of any of its citizens?
At the very least shouldn’t you return the portion of your state paycheck equal to the percentage of the state budget that comes from taxing tobacco?
If you cash it you are compliant in death of your fellow citizens. I believe the adage qui tacet consentit is still valid.
Don’t you?
Kevin Smith
Representative Jim Waldman
4800 West Copans Road
Coconut Creek, Florida33063
RE: Can Conundrums about Ethics be unethical? The Sun-Sentinel reports on Page 1 today that modern American Liberals who make up the Broward County legislative delegation are now in pretzel mode because of the threat of tougher ethics rules
Representative Waldman,
One of the main points of Nicomachean Ethics is the quest for balance. Since Aristotle, the father of Ethics, is now known as a Dead White European Male it might be better to leave him out of the discussion and switch to the moral relativism of situational Ethics.
“State Representative Jim Waldman, [D-Coconut Creek], expressed
Concern about a new entity of government being created
“with greater powers than the state attorney.”
Do you remember Judge Walsh, the special prosecutor of Iran/Contra fame? For that matter do you remember any of the special prosecutors? I search, vainly, for any modern American Liberal politician who opposed any of them not because they favored crime but rather that it was offensive to the legal system... Further, it allowed a spirit of “eclectic indignation” loose in the land that caused great harm to the body politic. Each and every “special prosecutor” loosed upon a Republican was greeted with huzzahs by the chattering classes. The silence was deafening when the tables were turned.
Do you think the WOG terrorist with a scrotum pocket rocket should be investigated by a “special prosecutor”? Do you think he should be charged with a hate crime? Christmas is still a sacred day for many people in this country.
I enclose a quote from A.V. Dicey about the Rule of Law. For some strange reason it is as clear as a 10 to 1 Tanqueray martini to all non-lawyers. To those officially steeped in pettifoggery and the marvelous labyrinthine ways of Jarndyce v Jarndyce it is good some of the time but never all of the time.
But back to Ethics.
In our conversation almost one year ago you made it clear that, if you had the power, you would ban all tobacco products in Florida.
I don’t suppose you’ve given much thought to uprisings led by the non-Casino Indians but I suppose they could be included ex post facto in the Stimulus program or shoved into the Health Care program.
My question to you is simple.
Is it ethical for the state of Florida to benefit from the sale of tobacco?
It is, as former Vice President Alpha Gump says about Global Cooling, Global Warming, Climate Change, & the new bogey man, drowning polar bears, “settled science” that tobacco kills.
Should Florida benefit from the suicide of any of its citizens?
At the very least shouldn’t you return the portion of your state paycheck equal to the percentage of the state budget that comes from taxing tobacco?
If you cash it you are compliant in death of your fellow citizens. I believe the adage qui tacet consentit is still valid.
Don’t you?
Kevin Smith
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Senator Christopher Dodd
January 6, 2010
Senator Christopher Dodd
30 Lewis Street #110
Hartford, CT 06103
RE: What a piece of mierda!
Senator Dodd,
“None of us are irreplaceable. None of us are indispensable.”
Or so your website tells us.
Other than trying to stay out of jail here’s what you can do in retirement.
Study English grammar and composition.
The word none is a collective noun. In the present tense all 3rd person singular verbs end in “s”. Your sentences should have read “None of us is…”.
The plane rides back and forth to Ireland, your ancestral home and the current home of your wee little cottage and its bogus mortgage, should have given you time to become more familiar with other Irishmen. Swift, Goldsmith, Burke, Wilde, Shaw, Joyce, Beckett, Yeats – My God, you have offended all of them – shuddered when they read those sentences.
Maybe you and your special pal Angelo can study it when you get to America’s newest prison for smarmy politicians.
Adios!
Bienvenidos a Gitmo.
Kevin Smith
Senator Christopher Dodd
30 Lewis Street #110
Hartford, CT 06103
RE: What a piece of mierda!
Senator Dodd,
“None of us are irreplaceable. None of us are indispensable.”
Or so your website tells us.
Other than trying to stay out of jail here’s what you can do in retirement.
Study English grammar and composition.
The word none is a collective noun. In the present tense all 3rd person singular verbs end in “s”. Your sentences should have read “None of us is…”.
The plane rides back and forth to Ireland, your ancestral home and the current home of your wee little cottage and its bogus mortgage, should have given you time to become more familiar with other Irishmen. Swift, Goldsmith, Burke, Wilde, Shaw, Joyce, Beckett, Yeats – My God, you have offended all of them – shuddered when they read those sentences.
Maybe you and your special pal Angelo can study it when you get to America’s newest prison for smarmy politicians.
Adios!
Bienvenidos a Gitmo.
Kevin Smith
John Brennan – Czar
January 6, 2010
John Brennan – Czar
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
RE: Now what?
Mr. Brennan,
I cringe when I think that we may both be Irish Catholics. That’s why God gave me broad shoulders.
Since you have already offered the Detroit WOG bomber a plea deal may I suggest an alternative interrogation method?
Water boarding is so yesterday.
Give him a chance to give everybody up.
If he doesn’t cooperate start a fire fueled by copies of the Koran. Skin a pig and cook it down to fat. Pour the fat on him. Wrap him in the pig skin. Parachute him into Mecca with a note stapled to him saying, “Next time no more Mr. Nice Guy”.
If that doesn’t work lock him in a closet with Barney Frank and Barbara Mikulski.
That may be a bit over the top. Make him choose between Barney and Barbara.
V.P. Curley Biden, named in honor of the smartest stooge, must be your new best friend. He found someone in D.C. who is dumber than he is.
If Barack, the Big Boss man, sends you a sword it’s because he wants you to fall on it.
Kevin Smith
PS – Send me a photo. I will include it in my new dictionary to illustrate what an ohmadahn looks like.
John Brennan – Czar
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
RE: Now what?
Mr. Brennan,
I cringe when I think that we may both be Irish Catholics. That’s why God gave me broad shoulders.
Since you have already offered the Detroit WOG bomber a plea deal may I suggest an alternative interrogation method?
Water boarding is so yesterday.
Give him a chance to give everybody up.
If he doesn’t cooperate start a fire fueled by copies of the Koran. Skin a pig and cook it down to fat. Pour the fat on him. Wrap him in the pig skin. Parachute him into Mecca with a note stapled to him saying, “Next time no more Mr. Nice Guy”.
If that doesn’t work lock him in a closet with Barney Frank and Barbara Mikulski.
That may be a bit over the top. Make him choose between Barney and Barbara.
V.P. Curley Biden, named in honor of the smartest stooge, must be your new best friend. He found someone in D.C. who is dumber than he is.
If Barack, the Big Boss man, sends you a sword it’s because he wants you to fall on it.
Kevin Smith
PS – Send me a photo. I will include it in my new dictionary to illustrate what an ohmadahn looks like.
Janet Napolitano – Secretary Department of Homeland Security
January 6, 2010
Janet Napolitano – Secretary
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528
RE: Congratulations!
Madame Secretary,
Although you did it last year I am naming you the first winner this year of one of my most prestigious awards. You are hereby named
HORSE’S ASS OF THE WEEK
It took but 3 days for your comment “the system worked” to the President, taking a break from his luau poi, to speak of the “systemic failure” of your department.
You may remember back in the early days of the Clinton administration when a respected public servant named Craig Livingstone embarrassed Bill and Hillary. Congressman Lontos asked him if the ever considered suicide. If I were you I’d get some food tasters, just like Lucrezia Borgia did, on the payroll.
That warning notwithstanding, what you said makes you a boob, a ninny, I daresay even an oblatratrix. Showing my gender sensitivity I will allow you to call yourself a boobette.
Here’s a tip.
When the father of a WOG terrorist twice drops dimes on his son pay attention.
Here’s another tip.
If somebody looking like Abdul the Butcher tries to get on a plane have him first blow his nose into a page ripped from the Koran. For special cases have him wipe his ass with another page.
Wear your laurels proudly. You got them the old fashioned way.
You earned them.
Kevin Smith
Janet Napolitano – Secretary
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528
RE: Congratulations!
Madame Secretary,
Although you did it last year I am naming you the first winner this year of one of my most prestigious awards. You are hereby named
HORSE’S ASS OF THE WEEK
It took but 3 days for your comment “the system worked” to the President, taking a break from his luau poi, to speak of the “systemic failure” of your department.
You may remember back in the early days of the Clinton administration when a respected public servant named Craig Livingstone embarrassed Bill and Hillary. Congressman Lontos asked him if the ever considered suicide. If I were you I’d get some food tasters, just like Lucrezia Borgia did, on the payroll.
That warning notwithstanding, what you said makes you a boob, a ninny, I daresay even an oblatratrix. Showing my gender sensitivity I will allow you to call yourself a boobette.
Here’s a tip.
When the father of a WOG terrorist twice drops dimes on his son pay attention.
Here’s another tip.
If somebody looking like Abdul the Butcher tries to get on a plane have him first blow his nose into a page ripped from the Koran. For special cases have him wipe his ass with another page.
Wear your laurels proudly. You got them the old fashioned way.
You earned them.
Kevin Smith
Customer Service
January 6, 2010
David Kong – CEO
Best Western
6201 North 24th Parkway
Phoenix, AZ 85016-2023
Mr. Kong,
Enclosed are our two most recent invoices from Best Western Hammond Inn.
On the morning of January 3, 2010 we were two hours out of Hammond, LA when I realized I had left my phone charger in your motel.
I called the desk and, to my surprise, it had been found it in Room 117. It was at the front desk. I asked if it could be forwarded to me with any expenses being billed to my wife’s credit card, said card being the one used to settle the bill for the previous night’s lodgings. The desk attendant told me that it would be no problem but that it would have to wait for the manager’s OK on Monday morning. I was told that the manager would arrive at 6:00 AM Monday.
I called at 8:30 Monday morning and was told that the manager was not in yet but that it would be sent out straight away upon her arrival.
I called Tuesday afternoon to check on the status. This time I spoke to the manager. She told me that it hadn’t been shipped; it wouldn’t be shipped; that I would have to call FedEx or UPS and have them pick it up. Further, she said that she couldn’t imagine any employee telling me otherwise.
I asked her if anyone was going to tell me this. She did not answer.
I bought a new phone charger. Please dispose of the old one in an environmentally sensitive manner. I say that because if the way you dispose of good customers is any indication of your disposal techniques I probably should call the Louisiana Haz-Mat emergency response team.
Kevin Smith & Amy Smith
David Kong – CEO
Best Western
6201 North 24th Parkway
Phoenix, AZ 85016-2023
Mr. Kong,
Enclosed are our two most recent invoices from Best Western Hammond Inn.
On the morning of January 3, 2010 we were two hours out of Hammond, LA when I realized I had left my phone charger in your motel.
I called the desk and, to my surprise, it had been found it in Room 117. It was at the front desk. I asked if it could be forwarded to me with any expenses being billed to my wife’s credit card, said card being the one used to settle the bill for the previous night’s lodgings. The desk attendant told me that it would be no problem but that it would have to wait for the manager’s OK on Monday morning. I was told that the manager would arrive at 6:00 AM Monday.
I called at 8:30 Monday morning and was told that the manager was not in yet but that it would be sent out straight away upon her arrival.
I called Tuesday afternoon to check on the status. This time I spoke to the manager. She told me that it hadn’t been shipped; it wouldn’t be shipped; that I would have to call FedEx or UPS and have them pick it up. Further, she said that she couldn’t imagine any employee telling me otherwise.
I asked her if anyone was going to tell me this. She did not answer.
I bought a new phone charger. Please dispose of the old one in an environmentally sensitive manner. I say that because if the way you dispose of good customers is any indication of your disposal techniques I probably should call the Louisiana Haz-Mat emergency response team.
Kevin Smith & Amy Smith
Letter to the Editor The Miami Herald
January 8, 2010
Letter to the Editor
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, Florida 33132-1693
RE: Enough with these sea sloths and feral predators! Some comments on your editorial of 1/7/10 suggesting universal health care for 2 of Florida’s tourist attractions.
Sirs,
I refuse, absolutely and unconditionally, to accept the primacy of primates, invertebrates, Bambi wanabees, and feline man eaters over the rights of man.
Man’s rights are a gift from God. They are ours at birth, “a gift from beyond the stars”. We extend rights to animals as a condition of our humanity.
Having said that let me add that my first Old English sheepdog had his own credit card from the Speyer Animal Clinic in Manhattan on 61st Street. His name was on it but it required my signature. They couldn’t help Falstaff so we took him to the veterinary school at Cornell University where he died on the operating table. The veterinarian who treated him was the author of the book on his particular ailment.
Fast forward 35 years.
It cost me almost $1,000 for Sharpton to die in May, 2007. Yes, he was a black cat and, yes, he was named after the Reverend Al.
I tell you this lest you think I am a closet vivisectionist.
Your editorial on manatees and panthers is, to borrow the most sagacious comment about Jimmy Carter, “more mush from the wimp”.
You say that numbers for the “elusive panther” – Unless you count the cinematic panther are there any other kind? – are “very disappointing”. In the same paragraph you say the population may have increased 5 fold.
Which is it?
“Very disappointing”, “disappointing”, or not “disappointing”?
It can’t be all of them. It may be none of them.
Since panthers are cursory hunters I suggested at the height of the Mad Cow buncombe the importation and release of them into the swamp West of the Sawgrass Mall as a great example of recycling. Even though the word had not entered our lexicon it would have reduced our carbon footprint immensely.
As to the manatees, am I the only person in Florida to say that if the ultimate goal of the alpha male is to eat 2 week old kale and endive tossed from a bridge or a dock by an anti-rational twit and then to swim into a whirling propeller it may be time for them to go?
What would happen if a Florida Wildlife Officer, a person with a badge, a gun, and police powers, were to come upon a Florida panther trying to eat a manatee?
Would he intervene on behalf of the losing party?
Would he shoot both of them?
Would he try to arrange conflict resolution and anger management sessions?
There can be no doubt that the boobies are running the hatch.
Any conversation that brings Orwell into it is improved. He said
“The obvious and true have got to be defended. The
solid world exists. Stones are hard. Water is wet.
Objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s center.”
In an age when frigid weather is used as proof of Global Warming, in an age when a filthy WOG terrorist’s inability to light the fuse and kill 300 people is used as proof that “the system worked”, in an age when man, the planet’s most endangered species, is made subordinate to lesser breeds such as the Furbish Lousewort and the Snail Darter it may be time to “retire to bedlam”.
Alas, that is not the nature of man. He, as the poet said, will “not only endure he will prevail”. His enemies are not the hapless animals he protects but, rather, members of the chattering class who, through moral relativism, equate men with apes.
Kevin Smith
PS – I have been trying since 1997 to get the Miami Herald to turn off the A/C in your HQ by the bay. What better example could there be of a commitment to save the planet, not to mention the drowning polar bears, by reducing your dependence on green house gas producing fuels? Should I hope that this is the year you will change?
Letter to the Editor
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, Florida 33132-1693
RE: Enough with these sea sloths and feral predators! Some comments on your editorial of 1/7/10 suggesting universal health care for 2 of Florida’s tourist attractions.
Sirs,
I refuse, absolutely and unconditionally, to accept the primacy of primates, invertebrates, Bambi wanabees, and feline man eaters over the rights of man.
Man’s rights are a gift from God. They are ours at birth, “a gift from beyond the stars”. We extend rights to animals as a condition of our humanity.
Having said that let me add that my first Old English sheepdog had his own credit card from the Speyer Animal Clinic in Manhattan on 61st Street. His name was on it but it required my signature. They couldn’t help Falstaff so we took him to the veterinary school at Cornell University where he died on the operating table. The veterinarian who treated him was the author of the book on his particular ailment.
Fast forward 35 years.
It cost me almost $1,000 for Sharpton to die in May, 2007. Yes, he was a black cat and, yes, he was named after the Reverend Al.
I tell you this lest you think I am a closet vivisectionist.
Your editorial on manatees and panthers is, to borrow the most sagacious comment about Jimmy Carter, “more mush from the wimp”.
You say that numbers for the “elusive panther” – Unless you count the cinematic panther are there any other kind? – are “very disappointing”. In the same paragraph you say the population may have increased 5 fold.
Which is it?
“Very disappointing”, “disappointing”, or not “disappointing”?
It can’t be all of them. It may be none of them.
Since panthers are cursory hunters I suggested at the height of the Mad Cow buncombe the importation and release of them into the swamp West of the Sawgrass Mall as a great example of recycling. Even though the word had not entered our lexicon it would have reduced our carbon footprint immensely.
As to the manatees, am I the only person in Florida to say that if the ultimate goal of the alpha male is to eat 2 week old kale and endive tossed from a bridge or a dock by an anti-rational twit and then to swim into a whirling propeller it may be time for them to go?
What would happen if a Florida Wildlife Officer, a person with a badge, a gun, and police powers, were to come upon a Florida panther trying to eat a manatee?
Would he intervene on behalf of the losing party?
Would he shoot both of them?
Would he try to arrange conflict resolution and anger management sessions?
There can be no doubt that the boobies are running the hatch.
Any conversation that brings Orwell into it is improved. He said
“The obvious and true have got to be defended. The
solid world exists. Stones are hard. Water is wet.
Objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s center.”
In an age when frigid weather is used as proof of Global Warming, in an age when a filthy WOG terrorist’s inability to light the fuse and kill 300 people is used as proof that “the system worked”, in an age when man, the planet’s most endangered species, is made subordinate to lesser breeds such as the Furbish Lousewort and the Snail Darter it may be time to “retire to bedlam”.
Alas, that is not the nature of man. He, as the poet said, will “not only endure he will prevail”. His enemies are not the hapless animals he protects but, rather, members of the chattering class who, through moral relativism, equate men with apes.
Kevin Smith
PS – I have been trying since 1997 to get the Miami Herald to turn off the A/C in your HQ by the bay. What better example could there be of a commitment to save the planet, not to mention the drowning polar bears, by reducing your dependence on green house gas producing fuels? Should I hope that this is the year you will change?
George Weigel National Review
December 14, 2009
George Weigel
National Review
215 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10016
RE: The Just-War Tradition
Mr. Weigel,
In your article in National Review – “The Just-War Tradition” – you pose a hypothetical question of what would Admiral Halsey do if he found Admiral Nagumo’s fleet before Pearl Harbor.
I refer you to pages 37 and 38 of “The Battle for Leyte Gulf” by Thomas J. Cutler.
“Admiral, did you authorize this thing?” Commander Buracker asked.
“Yes,” said Halsey.
“Do you realize this means war?” Buracker asked.
“Yes,” Halsey repeated laconically.
“Goddammit Admiral,” Buracker said. “You can’t start a private war of your own! Who’s going to take responsibility?”
“I’ll take it. If anything gets in the way we’ll shoot first and argue afterwards.”
Thus was the Gordian knot of soul searching culpability cut.
In the movie “The Bridges of Toko-Ri” Frederick March plays an Admiral who asks the question asked in every war. “Where do we find such men?”
When Colman McCarthy and Father Hehir save Tibet I’ll reread Thucydides and try to figure out what he would have done.
Kevin Smith
George Weigel
National Review
215 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10016
RE: The Just-War Tradition
Mr. Weigel,
In your article in National Review – “The Just-War Tradition” – you pose a hypothetical question of what would Admiral Halsey do if he found Admiral Nagumo’s fleet before Pearl Harbor.
I refer you to pages 37 and 38 of “The Battle for Leyte Gulf” by Thomas J. Cutler.
“Admiral, did you authorize this thing?” Commander Buracker asked.
“Yes,” said Halsey.
“Do you realize this means war?” Buracker asked.
“Yes,” Halsey repeated laconically.
“Goddammit Admiral,” Buracker said. “You can’t start a private war of your own! Who’s going to take responsibility?”
“I’ll take it. If anything gets in the way we’ll shoot first and argue afterwards.”
Thus was the Gordian knot of soul searching culpability cut.
In the movie “The Bridges of Toko-Ri” Frederick March plays an Admiral who asks the question asked in every war. “Where do we find such men?”
When Colman McCarthy and Father Hehir save Tibet I’ll reread Thucydides and try to figure out what he would have done.
Kevin Smith
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