October 13, 2017

Letter to the Editor

The Star Ledger

Star Ledger Plaza

Newark, NJ 07102-1200

RE: You can take the guy out of Jersey but you  can’t take Jersey out of the guy – Some comments on your so predictably, achingly POO [Perpetually Outraged and Offended] editorial about Willie Horton and Sanctuary Cities.

Sirs,

First, some background. 

I was born and raised in Bayonne. That’s on the good end of Hudson County. I learned early on that politics ain’t beanbag. I knew about el ladron, Senator Menendez, when he was the bag man for Mayor Musto before he ratted him out. Also, I had a cousin who was paid $5.00 to throw tomatoes from the roof of Saint Francis Hospital at all non-Row A candidates who dared to have a rally in Hamilton Park. I had an uncle who lived on Randolph Avenue in Jersey City, right behind Saint Paul’s Church, where both my father and Eamonn deValera were baptized. Such was his devotion to politics in general and Row A in particullar that he bullet voted until 1971 despite having died in 1956.

Second, some History lessons.

#1 – Willie Horton was a raping murderer in Massachusetts. He was, under the aegis of Governor Wee Mikey Dukakis, he of “the Iowa farmers should grow arugula and endive for crop rotation” furloughed. Later on, he insisted on being photographed wearing the silly assed GI Joe helmet as he drove a big boy tank. Using his “furlough” WH went to Maryland, and can you believe this, he raped and murdered again. Other than the empirically self-evident fact that Willie was Black, can you find a scintilla, a soupcon, if you will, of racism in the above statement?

I first learned of Willie Boy when Senator Albert Arnold Gore, Jr, AKA Alpha Gump and by his later Secret Service moniker “Cementhead”, used him and his sordid tale of rape, looting, and pillaging in 2 states to poleax Governor Dukakis in the New York Presidential primary in Manhattan. In this rebuke he was joined most enthusiastically by Mayor Ed Koch, another proud Democrat.

Look it up.

Bush 41 produced a TV ad featuring the above.

If that makes Bush a racist what does it make Gore and Koch? [Incidentally, Senator Gore, Sr voted against all major civil right laws of the ‘60s. I mention that 

because, absent Senator Dirksen’s 33 valiant Republican Senators, Johnson’s legislation would not have passed.

Look that one up also.

It’s a well-known fact – Did I just say that? I am bound and determined not to be cliché ridden – that modern American Liberals, specifically those who buy ink by the barrel, are made most uncomfortable when they realize the petard they are about to be hoisted upon is of their own making.

Ouch! That must really hurt.

#2 – There is more to the Interstate highway system than I95 in New Jersy. Despite naming a toll plaza after Admiral Halsey and a truck stop after Coach Lombardi, both of which add to the glory of the polar bear drowning internal combustion engine, there are other parts worth noting. [I insist on digressing. In the late 20s General Macarthur assigned his trusted clerk, Captain Eisenhower, with the logistical task of finding out how long it would take to get a fully equipped division from one ocean to the other.  “6 weeks, weather permitting”, was the answer. When Eisenhower was presented with the idea of an interstate system in the ‘50s he pounced on it. Look that one up also.]

Interstate 10 – Jacksonville, FL to Santa Monica, CA, ocean to ocean, sea to shining sea – is my favorite road. I use it when I go to see my Texas Ladies. It does not go through Plaquemines Parish, LA even though a neutral cartographer would have so done. It was also known for its bad roads, the main reason for which was that the Federal government refused to pay a penny towards construction and maintenance. Even though Bills of Attainder are specifically mentioned and expressly forbidden by the Constitution, Leander Perez was the reason why the Feds turned off the lactating highway teat. He was the typical Southern Democrat local pol. That is to say he was a vile, racist, bigoted who defied the Federal government. [As a Roman Catholic I am proud to say that my Church excommunicated him.]

He was an apostle of John Calhoun and his Theory of Nullification. The Theory posited a simple premise: Federal laws weren’t binding on local jurisdictions unless those jurisdictions approved them. That’s why his parish gave rise to the song “40 Miles of Bad Road”.

Can you see where I’m going here?

The Rule of Law is a precious gift. It comes to us “from beyond the stars”.

The A.V. Dicey definition of said Rule of Law, posited in the 19^th century, is still valid, is still the fixed star in the legal heavens.

“The Rule of Law means, in the first place, the absolute supremacy

or predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary

power, and excludes the existence of arbitrariness, of prerogative, or

 even of wide discretionary authority on the part of government.”

The Law of the Constitution

It’s like pi or when the chains are brought out to measure for a first down. 

If pi were to become 3.0 instead of 3.1416 geometry test scores would soar but  bridges would fall down. If it took but 9.5 yards for a home team first down but 10.5 for the visitors it would be an express lane to chaos.

180 years ago, Senator John C. Calhoun proposed his Theory of Nullification. Despite it being both refuted and defeated on the field of battle, it lives on. Leander Perez and the mantle of subjective obedience to some but not all laws and regulations lives on in the person of New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Patrick Murphy – 2 brief asides: Why is being an alumnus of Goldman Sachs “bad” when the alumnus is named Steve Bannon but “good” when the names Jon Corzine and Patrick Murphy are mentioned? Although no one will ever compare her to either Demosthenes or Patrick Henry but didn’t Goldman Sachs give Wide Bottomed Hillary $260,000 for a speech affirming the difference between the buttered side from the dry? Also, if candidate Murphy is such a big fan of public schools why didn’t he send his kids to them? Silly question, isn’t it? Public schools are for the children of “deplorables”, right?]

Would it not be “fair” to ask candidate Murphy if there are any other Federal laws he intends to disobey?

The Governors Cuomo, pere et fils, both said that while they are personally opposed to abortion, they couldn’t oppose it because it was the law of the land.  I asked both of them what would have happened if runaway slave Dred Scott had been captured when they were Governor. Would they have offered him sanctuary or would they have put his felonious Black ass on the midnight train to Georgia? Still waiting for an answer.

Somebody should ask Murphy if his favorite color is plaid, the color favored by all modern American Liberals. 

Kevin Smith

PS – How easy it is for you to confusingly conflate causation with correlation! On the other hand, if it weren’t for tautologies you wouldn’t have to think at all. Is there a collective noun for a gathering of putzes?