Expatriate Owl

Charitably Appreciating the President

2012-01-26T20:15:00.002Z

One great strength of America is its charitable organizations. In other cultures, the poor are poor, and the rich are rich, because that is how the karma has destined them to be. Charitable giving is a Judeo-Christian concept which requires everyone, no matter how disadvantaged, to help those who are in more dire straits. For all the bad press our charitable organizations have received of late, they have enabled Americans, individually and collectively, to succeed and become great forces of responsibility in this world.

As mentioned in this Blog's 13 September 2011 post, my own family was helped by charitable giving, and now, having for the most part achieved a fair degree of financial stability if not affluence, has given back and continues to give back even more than we received in order that others might overcome their obstacles.

Barack Hussein Obama's tax legislation proposals have, over the past few years, included caps on itemized deductions. The Alliance for Charitable Giving is concerned (as am I ) that such restrictions might discourage charitable giving.

Sue Santa, the Senior Vice President of the Philanthropy Roundtable (which sponsors the Alliance for Charitable Giving) has commented on Obama's State of the Union Address as it pertains to charitable giving:

"We believe that our tax code should encourage and incentivize private charitable giving. We appreciate that the President seems to acknowledge the value of charitable giving but we remain cautious and won’t speculate until we see the details of the President’s plan."

Sue, methinks that you are being a bit overly charitable!

Barack Hussein Obama does acknowledge the value of charitable giving, but only to the extent that it enables the donee organizations to pay nice salaries, bonuses and perquisites to his allies, sycophants and cronies. [Can you say "ACORN"?]. In the ideal world envisioned by Obama, there are no charitable organizations, only instrumentalities of Big Brother's governing regime.

America, or any other society, is only as free as its charitable organizations.

Policing the Pill Poppers

2012-01-16T03:59:00.003Z

Item: Letter to the Editor, Newsday, 12 January 2012, p. A33:

"Put Pharmacies inside Precincts"

The recent robberies and killings resulting from people's addiction to painkillers requires a very simple solution: Make pharmacies stop selling the pills and create a few centralized pharmacies on Long Island in police precincts for pickup of authorized controlled substances.

Then maybe not only will addicts stop filling these prescriptions, but maybe doctors will stop writing them or be held accountable for writing them.

Michele Zodda, St. James"

My comments, in no particular order:

1. Yes, our household receives home delivery of Newsday every morning. The many reasons why I am not the greatest fan of Newsday shall be dispensed with at this time, but here on Long Island the publication does have one minor thing to be said in its favor, namely that it is better than the New York Times. We have chosen to subscribe to it as a source of information, but are not very wild about it. A more practical reason why we subscribe: My wife's patients are always asking her about medical-related items appearing in Newsday, so she needs to know what Newsday published in order to affirm, qualify or (more frequently) debunk it when the patients ask her about it.

2. Lately, there have been a number of violent and deadly incidents at some Long Island pharmacies, perpetuated by drug addicts seeking to sate their chemical cravings. This Blog's posting of 23 June 2011 discusses one such horrific episode. discusses one such horrific episode. Newsday has been running an investigative series on the problem, implicating various physicians and pharmacists who have been less than careful in the prescription and dispensation of certain drugs. In that regard, Newsday is functioning as the press should function because its coverage of the matter will surely spur some reforms.

3. Though I never was really into the Dismal Science of Economics, I did take a number of Econ courses in college and in grad school. The phrase "a few centralized pharmacies on Long Island in police precincts" reeks of oligopoly if not monopoly. This would reduce competition in the marketplace, and raise the cost of prescription drugs. I know nothing about the letter writer, Michele Zodda (other than her address), but wouldn't it be ironic if she were in the camp of the Occu-Shmucks who crowded Zuccotti Park and whined (and continue to whine) about too much money and power being in the hands of too few?

4. More along those lines, what criteria would be used to determine which pharmacy entrepreneurs get to have those coveted concessions inside the police precinct stations? Who would make the decision? How could politics not play a role? And if politics does play a role, how could the big pharmacy chains not sink their resources into the venture, to the exclusion of the small business entrepreneurs?

5. Isn't the whole purpose of pharmacies and drug prescriptions to control the misuse of drugs in the first place? Why should the public tax money be used to duplicate a system that functions reasonably well in the first place? Shouldn't the system be tweaked instead of reinventing the wheel?

6. Why should the pharmacy industry be singled out? Shouldn't other high risk industries also be sited in police precincts? In such regard, try this little Googling exercise: restrict results to the prodeathpenalty.com website. Then google the following words or phrases: "Drug store," "drugstore," and "pharmacy." Each of those will get a small number of hits. Now try "convenience store" and you will get over 100 hits. Convenience stores are even more likely to be the scenes of violence than pharmacies.

7. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? With all due respect to my friends and clients in law enforcement, the powers of the police do need checks and balances. Indeed, the reason the United States has endured as a nation is because its governmental systems have had effective checks and balances. There will need to be measures taken to prevent the 7-Eleven concessions Michele Zodda would logically place in the police precinct stations from giving the police force too many free doughnuts. And, for that matter, Ms. Zodda's pharmacies from giving too many of their wares to the police officers.

8. I agree with Ms. Zodda that there is a problem. But changing the locations of the pharmacies will not resolve it. The problem is not that pharmacies stock controlled substances (remember, that is the very purpose of having pharmacies in the first place). The problem is that the pharmaceutical manufacturers have, over the past 30 or 40 years, bypassed the physician. The full color, full page display ads are not just in the New England Journal of Medicine and other physician-oriented publications; Big Pharma now spends billions to advertise in in newspapers and consumer-oriented magazines, and in the broadcast media. The physician is no longer a fully-empowered gatekeeper to keep controlled substances away from those who should not ingest them. As long as Big Pharma markets to the patients without the meaningful participation of the physician, the drug-related violence will be all the more exacerbated.

9. The police are too busy fighting crime. Why not just let the pharmacists be properly trained and armed? That would free up the police officers to do what they have been trained to do. Besides, at the precinct pharmacies envisioned by Ms. Zodda, the police would be under special obligation to bend over backwards in ensuring the criminals' constitutional rights. The private sector pharmacist with a Glock would not be held to quite the same standard.

Dad and Other Heroes

2012-01-05T20:00:00.003Z

My parents are now in the process of downsizing their living quarters, and I, as their son, am helping them (read "doing most of the work").

While growing up, my siblings and I always knew that Dad worked in a job which imposed significant restrictions upon what he could and could not discuss with us. We were conditioned to never ask Dad what he did; whatever he wanted us to know he would tell us, and nothing more.

Years later, while working for the Department of Defense and holding my own security clearance, I understood far better my somewhat abnormal childhood predicament of not knowing what my Dad actually did at work. And I had several occasions to interact with individuals, military and private sector, who knew my Dad professionally (and sometimes personally).

Going through my Dad's files has been very enlightening. First of all, his security clearance level was a few notches higher than he had led me to believe, even after I had my own clearance. Moreover, seeing his travel and debriefing instructions, and knowing now about the missions and activities of some of the installations to which he traveled, I now realize that my Dad played a major role in the development and production of some very important military projects.

When I was in Israel during the early 1970s, more than one of my Dad's friends and colleagues whom I visited intimated to me, in a rather surreptitious manner, that Dad's work was a major contribution to the Israeli military's technological advancement. One of the documents I found in my Dad's filing cabinet was a letter of thanks from the Israeli Ministry of Defense for the work he did (whatever that may have been). And, of course, several letters from various offices in the Pentagon reflect some big time involvement in some big time projects.

The engineers and scientists who design and perfect the technology used by the military are heroes of a special kind. It is because of those engineers and scientists in the private sector that America maintains its military firepower, global superiority, and historical prosperity. It is because of them that we have had a successful space program, which paved the way for artificial satellites; you owe them all a debt of gratitude each time you speak on your cell phone.

Those engineers and scientists paid (and continue to pay) a price for the work that they do. There are certain stresses, particularly when security clearances are involved, which come to bear upon the engineers and scientists, and upon their families. For those people, it is not "just a job;" complain as they might, they do it because it is a passion which gives them immense satisfaction. Dad could have taken over his own father's business and amassed far, far more money. But my Dad went into his line of work because it is what he wanted to do.

Of course the civilian engineers and scientists do not take quite the same personal risks as the American servicemen and women who are fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan (though many, including Dad, have served in the military). Their work does not warrant all of the perquisites accorded to military veterans. That being said, my Dad is an American hero, as are the thousands of other engineers and scientists who do and have done private sector work on military contracts. To all of you, I give my thanks.

Going through Dad's papers, I saw mention of some interesting names and places. I have every reason to believe that my Dad was involved in even more serious and salient projects than those directly mentioned in the file. For all of Dad's old age issues, he no doubt remembers those matters, and I really am very curious.

But some questions are best left unasked.

Facilitation Comes in Many Forms

2012-01-02T04:03:00.000Z

"I was wrong" and "I was wrong, but" are two separate and distinct attitudes.

Certain incidents in Israel of purportedly religious Jews behaving poorly have made the international MSM news [I will not be explicit in this posting; you have probably read about it.]. And some of the more insular rabbinical leaders and organizations, in Israel and in America, have finally issued statements regarding the behaviors involved, stating, quite appropriately and correctly, that the poor behavior on the part of a few misguided individuals is not an exemplar of the overwhelming majority of religious Jews.

Except that many of the aforementioned statements expend more ink on whining about how the news media is spinning the stories against religious Jews than in condemning the ill behaviors.

This, in my opinion, is an attempt to dodge the real issue: The poor behaviors involved are natural and logical consequences of the stances taken by the rabbinical leadership. The appropriate thing to do would be to unequivocally condemn the behaviors, and then follow up such condemnatory statements with support for and facilitation of civil if not criminal consequences against the wrongdoers.

Once upon a time, the religious Jewish community was viewed by the public as exemplars of honesty, rectitude and wholesomeness. By not standing up to the corruptors with vested interests, the rabbinical leadership has, of late, yielded the high moral ground, and their followings have been led astray.

Methinks that the impetus for many of the recent condemnatory statements has been the public embarrassment of the rabbinate, and not the despicable acts of the rabbis' followers. Had these matters not gone viral, I suspect that many of the rabbis would have been content to let their followers do the damage they have done.

By not speaking out unequivocally and definitively, many of these rabbinical leaders have facilitated the poor behavior of their followers. Perhaps, in at least some cases, that was what was intended.

Corzine's $1.2 Billion Locomotive

2011-12-25T06:42:00.001Z

This Blog's posting of 20 October 2005 invoked a quotation from the works of the late Robert Benchley, specifically, a sketch entitled "The Lost Locomotive."

I shall reprise that same quotation as anent to Jon Corzine and his MF Global's missing client funds to the turn of $1.2 billion:

The day that Mr. MacGregor lost the locomotive was a confusing one for our accountants. They didn't know whom to charge it to.

"We have an account called 'Alterations,'" said the head accountant (Mr. MacGregor). "We might charge it to that. Losing a locomotive is certainly an alteration in something."

"I am afraid that you are whistling in the dark, Mr. MacGregor," I said quietly.

"The point is not what account we are going to charge the lost locomotive to," I continued. "It is how you happened to lose it."

"I have already told you," he replied, with a touch of asperity, "that I haven't the slightest idea. I was tired and nervous and -- well -- I lost it, that's all!"

"As a matter of fact," he snapped, "I am not at all sure that the locomotive is lost. And, if it is, I am not at all sure that I lost it."

[from Robert Benchley, "My Ten Years in a Quandry," page 1 (Blue Ribbon Books, New York, 1936)]

Substitute Jon Corzine for Mr. MacGregor.

Wishing all a Happy Chanukah or a Merry Xmas, as the case may be.

Dhimmi Apparatchik in Training

2011-12-22T23:32:00.003Z

Matthew Carlson, a student at The College of New Jersey, has just been awarded a scholarship to study at the American University at Dubai for the upcoming Spring semester.

Said Carlson, "Dubai offers the best of both worlds for me as a student studying economics and Arabic. I will be able to continue my business education in an international financial center, and I will be able to improve my Arabic skills by experiencing the Gulf culture firsthand."

I basically believe that students studying in foreign lands is a good thing. I broadens the students' experience, builds cultural bridges, and teaches tolerance and appreciation. I happen to have had an exchange student from China enrolled in one of my classes this past semester.

But somehow, I cannot help but wonder what Carlson will do with his life once he graduates college and goes out into the world. Will he help to further the beneficial influence of American ingenuity and innovation, or will he become a dhimmi apparatchik facilitator of the Islamic agenda for world domination?

I hope for the former, but fear the latter. The fact that Carlson's scholarship is bankrolled by the William J. Clinton Foundation is not very encouraging.

Arab Neighborhood is Going to the Dogs

2011-12-22T23:10:00.001Z

Shuafat is a neighborhood in the Municipality of Jerusalem. The population of Shuafat is Arab. As such, it is an accepted cultural norm in Shuafat to physically attack Jews who come into their neighborhood. Even if those Jews happen to work for the electric power utility, or the Jerusalem municipality. While the residents of Shuafat unabashedly detest anything Jewish, the nevertheless do feel a strong sense of entitlement to the services of the State of Israel and the Jerusalem municipality.

Packs of wild dogs have, of late, converged upon Shuafat. The Shuafat residents now complain that the Jerusalem Veterinary Service does not provide adequate protection to their neighborhood.

But, as the JVS so appropriately notes, they cannot be expected to send their people into Shuafat without adequate protection from the Shuafat Arabs who habitually attack employees of the Holy City of Jerusalem.

If you want service, then you need to ensure the safety of the providers of such service!

This, by the way, is yet another reason to love dogs!

Talking about the Legacy

2011-12-16T05:01:00.001Z

I really shouldn't be writing this post now because I have so much to do, but I have just had a very frustrating day (the details of which shall not now burden the reader) and I need to take a break from it all.

One of the e-mails in the In Box was a Call For Papers on teaching students whose primary language is not English.

I frequently get Calls for Papers. Most of them are of no interest to me, but I have been known to submit some, and have made a few presentations at conferences (including one within the past six months).

I have no professional interest in this latest Call of Papers. What I did notice, however, was the use of the term "legacy speakers" to refer to people in America whose language preference is not English.

I remember my grandparents and parents conversing in Yiddish (which my own generation eventually picked up) and other languages from the old countries when they really, really, did not want the younger generation to understand the conversation. But even though my grandparents were born over there and English was their second (or third) language, they each had an excellent command of English (albeit with a heavy accent).

And while only one of my grandparents managed to graduate high school, and none of them attended college (though my grandfather did pass the entrance exam to an Ivy League school), all four of them could read and understand the fine English literature, the daily newspapers, and even a few specialized technical writings.

But in my parents' and grandparents' day, conversancy in one's ancestral language was never an excuse for a resident of the United States to be conversant and literate in English. Today, there are fewer incentives for people in America whose first language is not English (present in the country legally or otherwise) to learn English.

I have no objection to people being conversant and literate in the languages of their parents and grandparents. Millions of Americans of diverse backgrounds are. There is nothing wrong with taking pride in one's ethnic and linguistic heritage.

But I am very conspiracy-minded, and somehow, I suspect that the term "legacy speaker" is part of some grand plot to excuse people in America from learning English, and leaving America all the more vulnerable to a takeover by various and sundry hostile elements.

Occupied with the Occupiers

2011-12-05T21:54:00.000Z

Yes, the postings here have been few of late. Without going into details, it suffices to say that several changes in my heretofore normal routine schedule (if there is such a thing) are now afoot. I fully expect to be quite occupied with various personal and professional matters during the coming weeks and months, and it is likely to be stressful at times (though not all of it necessarily bad stress).

Speaking of being "occupied," I have encountered more than enough of the Occu-Shmucks and their supporters who run my faculty union and who have been convening many campus events to push the Occupy Wall Street agenda.

It therefore was very reassuring to read this article in the Jewish Press from one academic, Prof. Steven Plaut of the University of Haifa, who is definitely NOT an Occu-Shmuck. It is called "You Just Might be an 'Occupier'."

I now share it with you, dear reader, as I sign off and attend to all of those other pressing matters. I'll try to not delay this long for the next posting.

I Know What I'll Hear Tomorrow

2011-11-22T03:42:00.003Z

Breaking news:

There was an incident this evening at Baruch College CUNY in Manhattan, where the City University of New York's Board of Trustees was having a meeting, where one of the issues (if not the only one) was a proposal to increase tuition. The news has begun to go viral, but this posting will not link to it because I do not want to boost the hit numbers of the websites which are now spinning the story. I have watched the posted videos. My comments, in no particular order:

1. I have witnessed (and indeed, participated in) "nonviolent" demonstrations which were conducted with far, far better decorum.

2. The arrestees were apparently told to disperse and cease and desist, and were arrested only after failing to do so.

3. The people excluded from the Board of Trustee's meeting were denied admission because they did not register in advance. Advance registration is a prerequisite for admission. Advance registration is open to anybody.

4. Even with the proposed tuition hikes, CUNY's tuition is by far one of the best educational bargains available anywhere.

I'm sure that I will hear more about this one within the next 24 hours.

2011-11-22T00:25:00.002Z

Ice Cream on Wall Street

As usual, I have been busy with various and sundry projects, personal and professional. At this point, my wife and I are still not sure of our Thanksgiving schedule. On account of business and personal matters at their end, my wife's brother and his wife are not situated to do their usual hosting of the Thanksgiving dinner this year. Whether and how long we will travel this year is still undecided, what with the demands on our respective schedules. We shall see what happens.

Within the past 72 hours I have gotten into several different conversations, with different people, regarding various facets of the Occupy Wall Street dirtbags. The one theme that resonates the most is their inconsistency if not hypocrisy.

It seems that the uberleftist Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream people have endorsed the OWS movement! The company news release whines and moans about (A) the absence of employment opportunities; and (B) the big bad greedy corporations.

I will quote from the Midrash: "Do your ears hear what your mouth is saying?" [Midrash Rabbah, Bereshith, 38:13].

First of all, the OWS crowd has cost lots of people their jobs, including many who have jobs that are not in the stock exchanges or the financial markets.

And secondly, Ben and Jerry's is now a subsidiary brand of Unilever, a big international conglomerate that is about as ubercorporate as they come. In fact, those who seek employment at Ben and Jerry's are processed through Unilever's corporate offices.

It's too bad that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law aren't doing Thanksgiving this year. It would have been interesting to hear what my wife's niece, with her far, far left political tendencies (and whose education and living expenses have been well subsidized by her parents), says about the OWSers.

Teaching at the Teach-In

2011-11-18T04:51:00.002Z

I do have a certain degree of tolerance for liberals (having once been one myself in the idealistic and sheltered days of my youth). If the individuals in the upper echelons of the faculty union I am effectively compelled by law to join (or else pay them an agency fee equal to what my dues would be) were mere liberals, then I really wouldn't have much of a problem.

Unfortunately, my union is run, from the very top downward, by far left radicals who make the likes of Ted Kennedy or Andrew Cuomo seem like right-wing fascists by comparison. For the past few weeks, my union nomenklaturaniks and their apparatchiks have been promoting a "Teach-in" on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Murphy's Law did a posting on 4 November 2011 which explains just who the OWSers really, really are. Taking him up on his invitation to disseminate it, I put it to paper (4 pages) and had my local Minuteman Press guy run about 50 copies (Thanks, Murph!).

After arriving on campus today and tending to the business of collecting my paycheck from the Bursar's Office, I then went to the "Teach-in" to take a look. In the room reserved by the union were about 180 - 200 people, mostly students (including one of my own former students, who never did impress me as a clear thinker), all attentively taking in the panel discussion without question.

I wondered what good I could do. For one thing, that particular panel's presentation had just begun, and would last more than an hour, and I had too much on my "must do" list to wait around. And because it was a peaceable gathering, any attempts to agitate may well have backfired (I would have given further consideration if there were a few more like me there, but I didn't see any -- quite the opposite).

Seeing the empty expression on so many of the attendees' faces, I began to wonder whether I could be more effective if I attempted to vaccinate those who had not yet entered the room, instead of trying to cure those already in the room who were eating up the party line without question. A few seconds later, I realized that the alpha panelist on the dais was none other than Frances Fox Piven herself. That sealed the deal; if I am in the same room with Frances Fox Piven then there definitely is something wrong!

I immediately exited the room and then started placing my own printed literature on the tables in the cafeteria across the hallway, right next to the flyers already on the tables which promoted the Teach-in! I also tacked a few to some bulletin boards around the campus.

But I had the most fun when I taught my classes this afternoon. The lecture was on real property, so when I got to the part of my lecture notes about the right of property owners to exclude others from their property, the Zuccotti Park situation with the OWS trespassers fit in real nicely.

And one of my students, who works in Manhattan's financial district, told me and the class that one of the OWS protesters physically assaulted him, and told my student that the attack was because my student was wearing a necktie. A few other students chimed in with their own anti-OWS comments and observations.

I also gave my students something to think about: If they are so indignant that people who work in the financial industry have such high salaries, why do they not complain about the entertainers and professional athletes, many of whom are paid even more? And I also mentioned that the labor unions who have backed the OWSers would not do their memberships any favor if the shutdown of the financial markets they now seek were to tank the values of the members' pension funds.

I also suggested that Barack Hussein Obama might benefit if the OWSers were to get really violent, because then he could try to use it as a pretext to declare martial law and cancel the 2012 election. A bit far-fetched? Perhaps! But at least some of my students are going to think about it, and will at least question the much vaunted OWS movement.

My union urged me to participate in their Teach-in, so I did! But they are surely not very happy about what I taught.

To Burn or Not to Burn

2011-11-08T01:04:00.000Z

Though I am by no means anti-technology, neither am I on the cutting edge of the computer state of the art. Within the past 2 months I purchased a new computer after the one I had been using for a number of years got one glitch too many. I also purchased a new printer/fax/copier/scanner for similar reasons.

And so, I now have a working Adobe Acrobat program (the software for which I was able to procure at a generous discount on account of my status as a higher education faculty member).

My filing cabinets have been getting loaded, and I really, really do not wish to purchase another one because, being that my wife and I are inveterate packrats, there really isn't too much space around here to accommodate another.

And so, I am now archiving paper files into PDF documents. I have already freed up almost 6 inches of file drawer capacity by PDFing some of our credit card statement files. But that gets boring, and besides, I really don't want to overburden the secretaries in my Department with the task of emptying the shredder machine too many times in one week.

And so, I have taken it upon myself to PDF my Letters to the Editor files from the past 40 years. I have written Letters to the Editors of diverse publications. There were periods when I wrote almost every week (and, there were periods, like when I was in law school, where my letterwriting time was very limited). I still write Letters to Editors. My publication rate is about 1 in 3 or 4, which is quite good. And I have saved just about every one of them (I even retain the copies of the ones which do not get published).

The first 9 years' worth were the most difficult because I didn't have regular access to copy machines at the time, so I kept the actual newspaper clippings (which by now are all good and yellow), and the carbon paper copies. In most instances, using the document feeder on my scanner was out of the question; I had to individually lay each item on the scanner glass. But the next batch is a bit easier, inasmuch as most have already been copied to 8.5 x 11 sheets, and, with a few exceptions here and there, can just be arranged in order and fed through the scanner via the document feed. I have freed up about an inch of file drawer capacity on the project thus far.

A number of interesting observations:

First, the progression of the technological state of the art available to me is apparent. When I was in high school, it was all typewriter and carbon paper. And, environmentalist that I am, I did then, and do now, use the blank reverse sides of whatever 8.5" x 11" sheets I have for my copies. What was on the reverse (or, rather, the obverse) of my copies is often interesting.

Along somewhat similar lines, once I started working for the Government, I started keeping more complete documentation of my Letters to the Editor (e.g., background documents, articles which inspired the LTEs, notes, et cetera), paralleling the recordkeeping habits which I, as a government bureaucrat, learned as a matter of survival.

Most interesting of all, however, is the metamorphosis of my sociopolitical views over the past 40 years. Reading some of what I wrote in high school, I come off as a flaming liberal. But I have shifted my world view, as I matured, experienced more interactions beyond my suburban middle class upbringing, and got burned a few times by the real agendas of those whom I naively accepted as allies. Case in point: After Israel was attacked in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, many self-professed tolerant and reasonable humanitarians showed their true colors.

Which all begs the basic question: Might some of this stuff embarrass me? Do I really wish to preserve it for posterity? Shouldn't I burn some of those old letters?

I did think long and hard about it. And, after serious deliberation, I decided that yes, I will preserve my Letters to the Editor. Moses himself had flaws which are mentioned in the Torah (which actually gives that document some credibility; would the writings of a Chavez or a Castro or an Obama be so open about such shortcomings?). While I have no current plans to publicly post my correspondence with editors on the Internet, I do wish to keep an accurate record. There are too many people today who seek to rewrite history. I will take the risk of having my liberal past uncovered. I would rather be called a liberal than be thought of as deficient in my credibility.

More Folly than Honor

2011-11-03T01:04:00.001Z

My views regarding Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, the three American (?) hikers detained by Iran, are and have been essentially the same as those enunciated by Debbie Schlussel. I have been following the story since its inception, or, rather, it has been followed for me by a certain acquaintance of mine who also happens to be a friend of Josh Fattal's mother.

Josh grew up (and his mother still lives) in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. On 5 October 2011, the Township's Public Affairs Committee proposed that Josh Fattal be honored. Now, some friends of mine (not the mutual one with Josh Fattal's mother -- yet) have informed me that the Township Board of Commissioners has unanimously voted in favor of the proposal!

In my book, Joshua Fattal ranks with those Jewish Kapos who did the bidding of the Nazis in the concentration camps. He is not a hero. He is not a proud American. He is a self-hating Jewish leftist anarchist.

But he does outrank, albeit not by much, the shmucks on the Cheltenham Township Board of Commissioners who all voted to honor him.

Still here, just busy.

2011-10-30T05:50:00.004Z

I'm still here, but just have been quite busy. Now I am taking a break from grading exams.

Next week promises to be a very active one, with a number of adversarial confrontations on the card.

Thus far, the snow did not stick to the roads or our driveway (though there's about a half inch on the cold metal of our automobiles). The accumulation was far worse over in New York City. In that regard, I take comfort in the fact that the Occupy Wall Street occupiers are uncomfortable with the snow.

Gotta go now, to prep for the many activities next week.

Holiday Timing

2011-10-19T20:10:00.002Z

In the Hebrew calendar (which long predates the Gregorian), the Month of Tishrei contains a long series of holidays.

1 and 2 Tishrei are Rosh Hashanah (it is a 2-day holiday even in the Land of Israel);

10 Tishrei is Yom Kippur;

15 Tishrei begins the Festival of Sukkot. The first day is one during which religiously-observant Jews such as myself do not engage in activities such as working, switching electricity on or off (this includes booting up on the computer), riding in a motor vehicle, et cetera. Outside the land of Israel, 16 Tishrei is also such a day [a practice from ancient times, before computers and televisions and radios, when those outside the Land of Israel did not know for certain when the Rabbinical Court confirmed the sighting of the full moon, so two days were observed to ensure that the proper day was kept.].

On the intermediate days of Sukkot most of the aforementioned activities are permitted.

But the Festival of Sukkot ends with Shmini Atzeret on 22 Tishrei and Simchat Torah on 23 Tishrei (in Israel, the two occur on the same day, 22 Tishrei), which day/days are also days where we do not do the various aforementioned activities.

Charitable giving in the Jewish community tends to run high around this time of year, (A) because the giving of charity ("tzedaka" in Hebrew) is viewed favorably by G-d when He judges us during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; and (B) on account of this, Jewish tzedaka organizations tend to go full throttle with their solicitation campaigns.

My wife and I have, in addition to our regular checking account, a special Tzedaka checking account, into which we deposit about 10% of our paychecks and other income. From that account we write our tzedaka checks. In addition to simplifying our records for tax purposes, it also induces a good tzedaka discipline.

So what did I get in the mail today? A solicitation from a religious Jewish organization (I shall not embarrass anyone by naming it) for their fundraising dinner in about 3 weeks. Having just emptied our Tzedaka Account, for us to purchase a full-page Journal Advertisement would place a strain on our budget. Had we known of this fundraising dinner we before the holidays we likely would have gone with at least a full-page ad, inasmuch as one of the honorees is the son of some old friends of ours.

Their timing is piss poor on this one!

Tonight begins Shmini Atzeret. To all, Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday)!

Kids and Cops Behaving Poorly

2011-10-12T20:20:00.002Z

I will admit to my inherent bias in favor of law enforcement officers, at least in America. This is not to say that I automatically accept the word of a cop, and certainly not to say that cops can do no wrong. But the cop who is out on the street making the arrest usually does not have the luxury of acting out a cleanly scripted routine resembling anything from Emily Post's Book of Etiquette. Moreover, cops, like everyone else, have their own biases and character flaws.

The jobs which the cops must do are not always the cleanest.

The story of a run-in between cops and teenagers last June is now gaining traction in the press. The kids were coming off a party in Manhattan's East Village at about 1 AM, and, if the reported facts of the story are anything near correct, one or more of the teenagers yelled at some plainclothes officers, who took the occasion to make the arrest. One of the kids kept his cool and attempted to calm down the others, except that he did so in their native language, which seemed to upset one or more of the arresting officers.

Up until this point, I'm with the cops. There seems to have been some ethanol and cannabis usage involved on the part of the kids, not at all unusual for parties in places such as the East Village.

One of the cops made some anti-semitic remarks to the kids. While this does not particularly add any luster to his profession, it must be remembered that he is not out there to be an Albert Schweitzer or a Mother Theresa or any other proponent of the universal brotherhood of mankind, but rather, is out there to detect and apprehend wrongdoers. So, while I do not hold this particular cop in personal high esteem, I'm still able to defend his on-the-job performance at this point.

Oh, yes, the audio portion of the incident was recorded by the kids on a cellphone. Cops everywhere should welcome this technological memorialization of the record, because, presuming that the cops were acting legally and professionally, such recordings can be invaluable in deconstructing the whinings of spoiled brats who scream "police brutality!" in their lawsuits. Even after hearing the recording, I'm still able to defend the cops.

Or at least I was until it was asserted that there were TWO cell phone recordings, but that the arresting officers erased one of them. Which is probably why all charges have been dropped -- not because Mamma's Golden Boys & Girls were given a bad rap by the cruel and heartless bigoted policemen, but because the spoliation of the evidence by the cops would not have played well at the trial.

Bad Cops! Bad Boys & Girls! And a good meal ticket for the ABC News producers who made hay of the story.

The Festival of Sukkoth is almost upon us, so I've got to log off. Chag Sameach to everyone!!

Yom Kippur 5772

2011-10-07T19:30:00.004Z

Tonight at sundown will be Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

I am now preparing to account to G-d for my sins this past year (which are not inconsiderable), and carbo-loading and hydro-loading for the fast.

I ask forgivenness from all whom I have wronged, and grant forgivenness to all who ask it of me.

Wishing all an easy fast, and a happy and healthy new year for 5772.

May your name be sealed in the Book of Life!

Student to the Rescue

2011-10-04T07:04:00.005Z

I have many gripes about America's educational system, but they all tie, indirectly if not directly, into the fact that students are now being taught WHAT to think instead of HOW to think. It has gotten to the point where students, for example, will ask me which topic I want them to write about for their term papers. I tell them, both orally in class and in writing on the course syllabus handed out the first day of class, that part of the term paper grade is based upon how well THE STUDENT selects a topic of interest in the news and ties it into a textbook chapter covered in the syllabus. This, quite intentionally, requires the students to use and develop their thinking skills. Asking me what I want them to write is tantamount to asking to be told what to think.

Fortunately, there are still plenty of students who can come up with their own ideas and thereby produce some interesting term papers for me to read. But the "please tell me what I should think" crowd is slowly growing in number. What is so scary about this is the knowledge that a society that craves being told WHAT to think is far more susceptible to a repressive takeover than a society of individuals who think for themselves.

The college where I teach is quite culturally diverse. Note that I use the term "culturally diverse" and not "multicultural." "Culturally diverse" is a situation where an organization or a society has participants from different backgrounds who have different perspectives and who think differently and who interact with one another. "Multicultural" is a political agenda that uses cultural diversity as a pretext for impinging upon individual rights. Because multiculturalism is so centered upon group rights as opposed to individual rights and responsibilities, it does not foster individual thinking.

On my college campus one can regularly see students and faculty from many different backgrounds, hear many languages spoken, see many styles of clothing and accessories being worn, and eat from a variety of cuisine styles (some of which are actually quality meals). As a professor, I strive to maintain a classroom atmosphere where students can feel free to contribute to the class discussion. This means that I go to great lengths to not embarrass students, or single out students on account of their exotic names, clothing, accents, et cetera. I try to be accepting of individual opinions, even as I express my own.

But sometimes it is necessary to give a student a figurative kick in the toochas. Like the young lady who came to class wearing a tee shirt with a picture of Che Guevara on it. I knew that I had to say something to her, but was not quite sure how.

But the lecture was about corporations. Corporations can be classified in several ways. One way is the distinction between domestic corporations (incorporated in the same state) and foreign corporations (incorporated in a different state) and alien corporations (incorporated abroad). I mentioned that multinational corporations frequently operate through subsidiaries incorporated in the foreign country where they operate, which are alien corporations. I explained that one advantage of such a strategy is that the foreign government is limited in the assets it can attach.

I realized that this was my entrée to Che Guevara. I gave the example of the various American corporations whose assets in Cuba were expropriated when Castro came to power, and then put in a word about the repressiveness of the Castro regime. That got me right in there to point to the young lady's tee shirt with the picture of Che Guevara emblazoned on it.

This young lady was quite clueless about just who the mass murderer Che Guevara was. And, quite fortuitously, another student in the classroom is the granddaughter of refugees who fled the Castro regime and came to America about 1960. And she, with all of her knowledge and opinions on the matter, saved me the trouble of having to give a history lesson lecture to the young lady in the Che Guevara t-shirt.

And so, to La Cubana, I say, "Muchas Gracias!"

Shana Tova 5772

2011-09-28T20:05:00.002Z

Am very busy. The sun shall set in a few hours, marking Rosh Hashanah, the New Year (5772) on the Hebrew calendar.

Wishing all L'Shanah Tova Tikatevu, a Happy and a Healthy New Year in 5772.

Gotta run.

Bloods on Their Hands

2011-09-27T02:42:00.002Z

Like many other areas of the country and the world, Long Island has its share of gang problems. If rival gangs only killed one another, then that would be one thing. But violence between rival gangs is seldom confined to members of the rival gangs.

One such rivalry up here involves two separate factions of the Bloods gang. There is a certain geographic territory which is contested turf between the Braveheart Bloods and the Wyandanch Bloods. Richard Dormer, the Suffolk County Police Commissioner, is now attempting to obtain a civil injunction which would prohibit 37 particular members of the Bloods gangs from congregating in that defined geographic territory.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (which, as the name implies, is the ACLU's New York franchise), now seeks to intervene with an amicus brief in the case. But because each of the 37 gangsters is, at this time, going pro se (i.e., without an attorney), the NYCLU is effectively their attorney.

I understand where the NYCLU/ACLU is coming from on this one. I really do. It is, after all, a significant imposition on one's freedom if one is restricted from associating with one's associates.

But I also understand that the gang members such as the Bloods have zero respect for the law and for the Constitution which the NYCLU/ACLU invokes to protect the so-called "rights" of the Bloods. It was that very disconnect which, many moons ago, caused me sufficient agita and disgust to allow my ACLU membership to lapse, never to be re-upped again, when the ACLU evinced a greater concern for the Nazis in Skokie than for the integrity of American values.

The NYCLU doesn't seem to get it that the Bloods and similar gangs are, in fact, actually dangerous, not only to one another, but to the public at large. Law-abiding citizens cannot safely walk down the street when the Bloods congregate together. The drugs the Bloods purvey corrupt the neighborhoods, and induce formerly law-abiding youngsters to enter into a pattern of crime, violence, and, in too many cases, death. That great abstract notion of individual rights is all well and good, but when the Bloods congregate in Wyandanch, then nobody, least of all the law-abiding citizenry, has any individual rights.

It is ironic that the NYCLU officials are so quick to carry signs reading "Safe Schools," but are doing everything in their power to prevent Commissioner Dormer from making the streets of Wyandanch safe (if such is possible anymore).

And it is certainly not lost on this observer that the lead defendant (because he leads in the alphabetical order if not the pecking order) in the case, Dormer v. Alexander, is a Blood named Jihad Alexander. That given name tells me about 85% of what I need to know about the type of thugs the Suffolk County Police are dealing with.

And so, I'm with Commissioner Dormer 100% on this one. My only misgiving is that the relief sought from the court is to enjoin Jihad Alexander and his fellow Blood thugs from congregating in a particular area of the Town of Babylon. In my own mind, they should be excluded from the entire State of New York (with the possible exceptions of Dannemora, Attica, Rikers Island or Sing-Sing).

Only a Week Late!

2011-09-22T02:35:00.002Z

Collegiate education is a two-way process. Yes, I get up in front of my classes and I lecture, but the students also have responsibilities. These include (but are not limited to) submitting their assignments on time.

I make this clear on the first day of class. And the course syllabus document explicitly states that assignments submitted late without good cause and absence of negligence will be penalized, and that such penalty can extend clear down to a grade of "Zero" for the assignment. Good cause and absence of negligence includes informing the Professor (that's me!) of the situation as soon as practicable. The greater the tardiness, the greater the penalty!

And it always works out that several students submit tardy assignments each semester. And at least one of them is a real whiner, and uses the line to the effect that he or she was "only a week late." Sure enough, yesterday I got the "only a week late" whine from a student who didn't like the low grade his assignment received.

I have developed a script, which I copy and post in my reply e-mails. I now share it with you. Readers in the education profession are, of course, welcome to borrow it:

Philip W. Warner filed his petition to the New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal just 7 days late. His petition was dismissed for lateness.

In 2000, Kenneth Bernard Rouse filed his habeas corpus petition in Federal District Court just one day after the deadline expired. The petition was dismissed for lateness, and Rouse's death penalty stood (though the cretin is still alive as of this writing).

The Village of Lynbrook filed a motion for summary judgment just one day late in the New York Supreme Court. The motion was dismissed for lateness.

Joanne Austin filed her petition with the U. S. Tax Court just one day late. It was dismissed as untimely.

Christine Lamanna filed her petition with the New York State Division of Tax Appeals just one day after the extended deadline. It was dismissed as untimely.

The protest of "Mama's Restaurant" (name changed to avoid embarrassing the taxpayer) was postmarked one day beyond the deadline. The Illinois Department of Revenue, Office of Administrative Hearings dismissed the protest as untimely.

A certain Indiana business (whose identity is confidential under Indiana law) remitted its employee withholding taxes to the Indiana Department of State Revenue just one day late. The lateness penalty was imposed.

And over in England, Commerce Connections, Ltd. was just one day late in remitting its Value Added Tax to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs. The default surcharge was imposed. And Geoffrey John Clarke's VAT was electronically submitted a mere 1 hour and 42 minutes past the midnight deadline, and he also had to pay the default surcharge to HMRC.

So don't come whining to me that your assignment was submitted only one day late -- Let alone a week late. If you submit your assignment late, then it will be penalized! End of discussion!!

Out of Their League

2011-09-18T05:57:00.000Z

I really shouldn't be writing this post because I have a whole load of papers to grade, and lots of other things to do tomorrow (my wife and I have already accepted the fact that our respective time constraints will preclude our attendance at a party to celebrate the engagement of a daughter of some good friends of ours). I have spent the past few hours grading assignments, and am not quite yet halfway finished.

But I am somewhat peeved, not so much by the late submission just e-mailed to me by one of my students, but by his attitude. He is attending college on an athletic scholarship, and seems to think that the demands on his schedule from athletic activities give him an automatic exemption from deadlines for submitting assignments.

I myself was a high school athlete, and appreciate quite well the positive influence athletics can have on a person's development. I am quite willing to make reasonable schedule accommodations even as I hold the jock students to the same standards as everyone else. And I certainly am pleased whenever my jock students win over their opposition.

But people who attend college (especially a college such as the one where I teach, which is heavily subsidized by public tax monies) should be there to pursue their educations.

I have had some students who played various sports, but who were also mindful of their academic responsibilities. These students approached me at the beginning of the semester and apprised me of their athletic obligations, and, where necessary, arrangements were made to accommodate the scheduling conflicts that inevitably arose. And those responsible and conscientious student-athletes used faxes and/or e-mails to submit their assignments timely when they were out of town to play their opposing teams. Some of them even pulled "A" grades in my courses.

This student(?) who now is submitting his assignments late while whining about his jock schedule is not in their league as far as I am concerned. Perhaps what makes his attitude all the more galling is that he has already taken a prior course of mine, and should by now know what my rules are and how I enforce them. He will be graded according to my well-publicized standards. Whether that grade is "A" or "F" or anything betwixt and between depends entirely upon him.

And I also have to wonder about what ever became of the real scholar-athlete. Senator Bill Bradley and Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White are not the only role models in that regard. My high school Biology teacher (advanced "Blue" version) was a working-class family's son who got out of Johnstown by going to college on a jock scholarship, and who was the school's football coach. One of his assistant coaches was a Math teacher whose courses I took for two years, who also escaped Johnstown via the jock scholarship route. A former business partner of mine, who has a postgraduate degree, was a national collegiate athletic champion and an Olympic Team alternate. Several teammates of mine from high school have gone into professions such as Medicine, Law and Dentistry.

As matters currently stand, this aforementioned student of mine is not going to be in their league any time soon.

Obama loses Election in NY-9

2011-09-14T23:01:00.004Z

As reported here and here, Republican Bob Turner trounced David Weprin, the Democratic Party apparatchik who had been viewed as the sure-fire winner in the contest for the seat in New York's 9th Congressional District, which became vacant with the resignation of Anthony Weiner (who was Chuck the Shmuck Putzhead Schumer's successor and protege).

The real loser of the race, of course, is Barack Hussein Obama.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Congresswoman from Florida who is now chair of the Democratic National Committee, is in denial (at least publicly), and claims that NY-9 is an aberration because it has a disproportionate population of religious Jews who begrudge Weprin's carrying the water for the same-gender marriage law recently passed in Albany. But that doesn't explain it because according to DNC Debbie's logic, they also should be up in arms against New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who also supported the abominable legislation.

Moreover, from 1923 until now, NY-9 has consistently sent Democrats to represent it in Washington, notwithstanding its disproportionate population of religious Jews. And the registration ratio is 3:1 in favor of Democrats. And plenty of non-religious Jews (and, for that matter, non-Jews, religious and otherwise) have told the news reporters that they voted out of disgust with the Obama adminstration.

In my mind, there is an even stronger indicium of the seriousness of Obama's loss. There is a Brooklyn-based rag called the Jewish Press [Note: the Jewish Press website has been uncharacteristically slow to load over the past few days.]. Yes, my household does subscribe to it, but with the understanding that beneath its strong advocacy for the Jewish community worldwide, it is largely yellow journalism with blue ink.

The Jewish Press endorsed Weprin in the race [alternate repost link here]. Its rationale:

"He has a long record of standing up for the interests of his constituents in terms of child care, health care, senior care, etc., and has always impressed us with his understanding of the special needs of the Orthodox community’s broad array of voluntary social service safety networks." … " Mr. Weprin’s opponent in the race is Republican Bob Turner, a retired communications industry executive. Preliminarily, Mr. Turner has advocated a prompt 35 percent cut in government spending without any new taxes, but insists this would not necessarily impact significantly on the lives of those who depend on such government funds, particularly Social Security and Medicare. " "Given his overarching negative view of government spending, it is hard to imagine Bob Turner going to bat as strongly as David Weprin in any struggle for funds to minimize the impact of government cutbacks on the 9th CD."

In other words, the Jewish Press's (not so well) hidden agenda is the government funding that some of its cohorts receive. One dirty little secret in the Jewish community is that disproportionate numbers of Jewish families from the more sheltered and insular groups, by dint of their inferior practical educations, are dependent upon diverse government-funded social welfare programs.

But even those sectors of the NY-9 population did not come out in droves to vote for Weprin to protect their rice bowls, as the Jewish Press implicitly exhorted them to do. Indeed, yesterday, the day of the election, I had occasion to walk along the street in a NY-9 neighborhood populated mostly by religious Jews, and the mood of the street was squarely for Bob Turner and against Obama. And not only on account of Obama's policies regarding Israel, either.

Many Democratic candidates for lower offices have, publicly and otherwise, expressed concern over the effect of Obama's national policies on their own local campaigns. My betting record on the outcomes of races for political office is not that great. But I do believe that Bob Turner's win in NY-9 is a bit more significant than DNC Debbie would have us believe.

Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Violence

2011-09-13T02:53:00.000Z

My wife practices at a large area hospital. The concept of giving aid to the poor is a distinct part of the Judeo-Christian culture, and accordingly, a percentage of her department's patients are the so-called "charity cases." As much as we may complain, this aspect of Western culture is one thing that has made us so great.

I daresay that I myself am a beneficiary of this, because my great-grandmother, widowed with three young daughters, was the recipient of aid from various sources when she came to America. But her descendants have by and large succeeded, and collectively, even adjusting to constant dollars, have voluntarily donated to charity ("tzedaka" in Hebrew) many multiples of the amounts our matriarch received (even when you don't count the multi-millionaire cousin of mine who is active on the board of a large charity). Just today, for example, I myself wrote and mailed out checks to two institutions that care for orphans. I expect to cut a few more checks in the next few weeks, what with the Rosh HaShanah holiday coming up.

But like everything else, charity often gets abused. Within the past week, an administrator in my wife's department was venting to my wife about a patient (not my wife's) who is a "charity case," understands close to zero English, does not work, and is probably an illegal alien, but who took up so much of the administrator's time in getting the woman's medical treatment attended to. What is this woman contributing to our society? My grandparents at least mastered the English language, and didn't need translators to transact normal routine business like healthcare, grocery shopping or banking.

My wife, along with all her other activities, is now taking some post-professional education courses. The particular course she now is taking is about the role of culture in health care. In connection with this, she came out with a somewhat profound observation this evening (or, rather, she had the gumption to post it online for her classmates and instructor to see). It goes something like this:

Being that language is a part of the respective cultures, are we not, in America today, witnessing some cultural violence on account of the great obsession to translate everything into Spanish?

The menu, then, is " Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Violence."

What's on Our Bookshelves (Plural)

2011-09-11T15:26:00.003Z

[It's September 11th, 2011. As the sun set on September 10, 2001, I saw the World Trade Center towers a few blocks south from where I was walking to the subway. The next morning they would be destroyed by Muslim terrorists. So yes, I do have a strong personal connection to the Muslim attacks of September 11, 2001. But I have mixed feelings about it all. On one hand, I am not comfortable with the 9/11 memorial mania, or, more specifically, its exploitation by certain political and commercial interests. But on the other hand, America must never forget it, and must recognize it for the attack on our values that it was!]

Brigid posted a piece entitled "What's On Your Book Shelf?" Several bloggers have responded, including but not limited to Murphy's Law, Aaron, North, and Rev. Paul. So now, I shall weigh in with my household's book collection.

I have, of late, fantasized actually taking the time and effort to catalog our collection, but, as will become apparent, that day is in little danger of arriving any time soon. The truth is that we have more books than do many small town libraries.

First of all, the only rooms in our house that normally do not contain any books are the laundry room, the bathrooms, and the garage. But books do occasionally find their way even to those locations.

Of the remaining rooms, the only one that does not have a piece of furniture and/or a fixture specifically dedicated to the repose of books is our dining room, but, the two buffets, which were custom-made for my wife's parents over 50 years ago, each have a number of books and magazines stacked on them, which my wife and I have been reading at meals (typically but not necessarily our Sabbath meals in connection with discussion with our guests).

Continuing, room to room:

One of our kitchen cabinets has two shelves of cookbooks.

Our den has my wife's computer stand, which has several computer-related books. There is also a cabinet next to the piano which contains sheet music, old and new. And there are music books and sheet music on top of the piano as well. They will, of course, need to be removed and straightened up when the piano gets its now somewhat overdue tuning.

The living room has four 7-foot high shelving units. They all contain various Judaica books, including a Talmud set, a Mishneh Brurah set, various editions of the Torah and Hebrew Bible, a whole shelf of various prayer books (everyday (English-Hebrew, Spanish-Hebrew and Russian-Hebrew) and various editions for each of the holidays. There is an extensive collection of Jewish Law and Jewish History tomes, and a complete set of the original Ben-Yehuda Hebrew Dictionary (which belonged to my wife's grandfather). And the bar-buffet (also part of the aforementioned buffet set) contains not liquor, but yet more books, mostly Judaica but also history.

The Master Bedroom has 5 bookshelf units. One contains my history/military/law collection, and a yet to be completed set of Maimonides's Mishneh Torah, plus some law-related books. My wife has taken over the other units with her various sci-fi, medical, and romance fiction, et cetera.

Our son is now in an apartment with a roommate, but his bedroom still has lots of his books on the bookshelves there.

The guest bedroom has 3 bookshelf units, one of which is almost totally occupied with my various collections of items other than books. The other two contain old college textbooks, and books of history, humor, Judaica, and various literature. These include Wendy Northcutt's Darwin Awards books. There is also a box full of books which a neighbor had put curbside for trash pickup, but which I rescued, but have not yet put onto any shelf. They are mostly old novels. At some point I will probably donate them to a library, but my wife had expressed an interest in reading them, so there they sit.

My office (a converted bedroom) has 3 shelving units containing mostly law books and books about business. There are also reference books such as dictionaries (English and English-to-Otherlanguages), Thesaurus, the Chicago Manual, the Bluebook, etc.

There is a bookshelf out in the upstairs hallway, containing classic and semi-classic literature, including Kipling, Jules Verne, Gulliver's Travels, Milne's Winnie the Pooh, Pinocchio (the Collodi book, not the Disney version), et cetera.

There are two linen closets in our upstairs hallway. One of them has no linens in it, only books. Old books. Encyclopedia Britannica, with companion Atlas, Dictionary, and yearbooks up to 1974. Also older law books, including past editions of Black's Law Dictionary. And the 1946 Heritage Press edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Et Cetera.

At any given time, there are, on various pieces of furniture, books "in transit" which have not yet been returned to their place on the bookshelf, or else have not yet been assigned an established shelf as a normal position.

In our household, we love our books!

An Important Person

2011-09-07T22:55:00.002Z

I was in Pennsylvania yesterday and this morning. Returning home was a challenge, what with all of the flooding, but I am now safe and sound back home.

Yesterday, en route from my morning appointment, the car in which I was sitting was approaching an intersection, and the driver, an old friend of mine, noticed a funeral procession approaching from the left, the cars bearing a suction-cupped purple "Funeral" flag. He said, "I wonder who they're burying now?"

I, of course, had no idea, but counted 7 cars after the hearse, and speculated, correctly, that they were headed to the well-known cemetery about 2 miles down the road which was at the next intersection.

The car in front of us turned on his lights and flashers and latched on to the procession. My friend wondered aloud whether he should do likewise, and thus be given pass to go through the numerous stop signs along the road to the cemetery.

I told him to go for it, which he did. We probably could have made slightly better time via an alternate route, what with the slow speed of the funeral cortege (but we got to go through the stop signs). But I think that we did the right thing.

First of all, at Jewish funerals (which this was definitely not), those who attend the services at the funeral home but who, for whatever reason, do not go to the cemetery afterward, often follow the hearse for three steps in order to participate, at least symbolically, in escorting the deceased to the final resting place.

Secondly, along similar logic, we and the car in front of us raised the number of cars following the hearse from 7 to 9, an increase of not quite 29 percent. Note that the more cars a bystander sees following the hearse, the more important they will believe the decedent was in life. Anyone who sees a hearse followed by a long string of cars in the funeral procession invariably thinks, "hey, I don't know who they are burying, but it must really be someone important!"

So our car and the other tag-along increased the decedent's importance rating by 29 percent.

May the decedent, whomever he or she was, rest in peace!

Charcoal

2011-09-06T02:29:00.001Z

We had a relatively nonproductive Labor Day Weekend. While, as reflected in the prior posting, our power was restored after about 24 hours, a wide swath of houses beginning just 5 properties away remained dark for over 6 days.

Our shul had its annual Labor Day barbecue yesterday, run by the Sisterhood. As in past years, my wife volunteered me to run the actual barbecuing (which included procuring the charcoal, setting up the grills, et cetera). My preferred method is to make my own charcoal from wood; this year it would have been ideal because of all of the downed trees in the vicinity. [For the record, when I make my charcoal I have a hose at the ready and frequently spray water into the flaming wood fire to create the charcoal. As seen in the old advertisements, that is how the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee makes their charcoal.].

But there is one particular neighbor who gets squeamish about ordinary outdoor barbecuing, let alone the open flames necessary to create charcoal from wood. She's basically a sweet late-middle-age widow, but her tolerance for risk is extremely low. Another shul neighbor is a firefighter with FDNY, and he has no problem with the conduct of my charcoal-making process, as long as the fire is not left unattended. So, as not to cause this fine woman any untoward angst, I have for several years been using the pre-burnt wood purchased at the store (and known commonly as "charcoal"), at least at our shul barbecues.

At my own home, I do the charcoal-making routine. My immediate neighbors, who seldom if ever have occasion to peer over the fence into my back yard (and vice versa), don't seem to mind, except for the teenage son of one of them who about 2 years ago was all upset about air pollution and greenhouse gasses and global warming. But I explained to him that if the combustion process of which he complained did not occur in the pan of my backyard barbecue grill, it would occur in the charcoal manufacturer's facility -- and gasoline would be burned in order to transport the bag of charcoal to the grocery store. By manufacturing my own charcoal, I use local wood, so while the charcoal-making process is the same in either event, the gasoline or diesel fuel combustion inherent in the transportation process is eliminated.

If I must use charcoal, I prefer the lump charcoal to the briquette charcoal. [And, of course, I never, ever use lighter fluid, let alone the match-light charcoal briquettes.]. The lump charcoal leaves less unburnt charcoal. But this year, I decided to try the Kingsford's Mesquite Briquettes. I bought one bag of Kingsford's Mesquite and one of the lump charcoal. Having done the somewhat scientific comparison, I still prefer the lump charcoal to the briquettes, but if I am compelled to use briquettes, the Kingsford's Mesquites are slightly superior to ordinary briquettes.

In any event, the barbecue went off quite well. We had approximately 50 people in attendance. Busy as I was at the grill, I didn't have much opportunity to sit down and shmooze with the other attendees. I had to tend to the grilling. It was tiring and draining.

But I do not complain! My social isolation was nothing compared to the social isolation experienced by our men and women in uniform whose military duties keep them away not only from the picnic tables at the barbecue, but from their families and friends at home. It is highly likely that I will once again pull barbecue duty next year. And I shall be happy to serve.

Irene's Aftermath

2011-09-01T02:08:00.003Z

Hurricane Irene was Tropical Storm Irene by the time she got past Long Island. At about 7:45 AM on Sunday morning, after most of the storm had passed and the precipitation was minimal, we lost our electricity. It was still out Sunday evening, so my wife and I had a romantic candlelit dinner and then, after reading by flashlight for about an hour, went to bed. But I couldn't get to sleep, so about 2 AM I went out for my workout run. Being that there were no street lights, nor any light from any houses (except for a handful who had generators), I had to be careful where I stepped. At one point I realized that, about 15 feet in front of me, was a tree that had come down and was totally obstructing the roadway. So I stepped over the trunk and continued my run (the tree was in a section of the neighborhood where the developers had the foresight to lay the electrical and cable TV and telephone lines underground, so live downed wires were not an issue at that point).

But, on the other hand, the lack of artificial lights from the immediate vicinity, together with the clear sky, gave a view of the constellations the likes of which I had not seen since a few years ago when we were up in the mountains.

After about 24 hours our power came back on, and we have been fully operational ever since. Unfortunately, some of our neighbors, including the people directly behind us, have yet to get power restored. My rabbi told me that someone had told him that a major stepdown transformer blew, and while that information would not be admissible in court under the hearsay evidence rules, it completely explains the events; accordingly, I shall go with that story unless and until I hear something more definitive.

Our pool, of course, was full of leaves and twigs, and also a fair amount of algae. I was able to swim a few laps in it today, and got a relatively good workout and cool down after my run. I got out the major stuff but the pool bottom needs a good vacuum. My pool maintenance guy is scheduled to come tomorrow. He is paid to deal with those issues, and so, he will earn his money this week.

During the 24 hours we had no power, I had occasion to drive in the immediate vicinity. For about a mile on a main road out here, the traffic lights had no power. In New York (and, I daresay, just about every other state), if the traffic light is not working, then the intersection is treated as though it were a 4-way stop sign intersection, which means that all cars must come to a full stop. I only saw 3 cars in addition to my own obey that rule, the rest of them just drove through! The Suffolk County police blew that golden opportunity to erase half of the County's deficit, because they could have written an easy 100 tickets at any of the affected intersections.

Yesterday I started teaching again. I'm happy to be back, but it is going to be a very challenging semester for all sorts of reasons.

Waiting for Hurricane Irene

2011-08-28T04:12:00.002Z

Well, folks, Hurricane Irene will soon make landfall somewhere on Long Island. If trends on the National Hurricane Center's webpage do not significantly deviate, the landfall will likely occur in or near Long Beach, which is in Nassau County, not too far from the border with Queens Borough in New York City.

There is an evacuation order for certain low-lying portions of New York City, including much of Lower Manhattan (including Wall Street) and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. Many people are ignoring the evacuation order, and, quite frankly, I do not blame them. For one thing, the shelters provided by New York City are notoriously problematic for those who seek shelter in them, what with the gangs that effectively rule them, and the City's impotence to control such gangs. Moreover, many are very skeptical if not cynical regarding whether Big Brother (up to and including Mayor Bloomberg himself) really, really has their best interests in mind, including the ability of the local police to protect their homes and businesses from looters. And, of course, there are some who see possible financial gain in the looting opportunities that will surely be presented.

I have heard that Riker's Island (which houses New York City's prison complex) is not included in the evacuation order. This is reassuring, although I am somewhat concerned for the corrections officers there. But they should be all right.

My own abode is inland, and on high ground, and, once the storm passes, our main concern will be possible power outages, which conceivably might persist for a few days. But we have taken adequate precautions, including having placed lots of orange juice cartons, cold packs, and other heat sink in our big freezer. In the event of a prolonged power outage, we could transfer some of those frozen OJ cartons into our fridges (we have an additional refrigerator in our garage, which now contains mostly soda, yogurt and beer) and most of our food should stay adequately preserved.

Across the border from New York City on Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties), there are evacuation orders in effect for low-lying areas as well, specifically, everything south of Sunrise Highway. As in NYC, many in such areas of Long Island are also ignoring the evacuation orders.

One such individual who has chosen to stay put is my son. His apartment is in one of the evacuation zones, but he is now with a friend, also in the evacuation zone but on slightly higher ground, slightly further inland. They have adequate provisions to wait out the storm, and seem to be taking prudent measures for the situation.

For reasons unrelated to the hurricane, my son's vehicle (actually titled in my name) is currently inoperative. My wife was contemplating driving down to where he is to bring him back to the empty parental nest, but I talked her out of it. Our son needs to make his own decisions, and abide with the consequences of his decisions, foul and fair. If he wanted to come back here, he could find a way to do so. But he doesn't, and so, he will be waiting out the storm. Moreover, he is more accessible to his places of employment (he works 2 jobs, each in the restaurant/fast food industry), either or both of which would open if it could.

For years, I have been saying that it is only a matter of time before Atlantic City is hit by a hurricane on a Labor Day weekend. Evacuation would be a nightmare. This year, Hurricane Irene is only a week off, and a few miles removed from the Atlantic City boardwalk. It could be a lot worse for them.

As for us, we will be sitting this one out and dealing with it as best we can.

Redirecting Public Funds to the Victim

2011-08-23T23:44:00.001Z

The term "Midrash" refers, collectively, to various rabbinic writings which elucidate the Torah and the Prophets through various explanations and, in many cases, fables. The latter type would be analogous to the fable about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. Whether he actually did is not certain (and, in fact, more unlikely than not), but the fable is used to illustrate Washington's attribute of honesty.

Some Midrashic fables similarly elucidate various matters in the Torah.

One famous one spotlights the wickedness of the city of Sodom. Abraham's servant Eliezer was attacked by some Sodomites (capital "S" denoting residency or origin in the City of Sodom, and not necessarily sexual practices or preferences) and was bleeding. Eliezer brought suit in the courts of Sodom. The judge ruled that Eliezer owed money to the Sodomites who had beaten him because they had performed the service of bloodletting (which, in those days, was almost universally believed to have curative effects).

Eliezer then threw a rock at the judge, causing the judge to bleed. Eliezer then said to the judge, "Pay them what you owe me!"

I thought about that Midrash story when I read the case of New York State Victim Services v. Murray.

James Murray, New York State Inmate No. 95-A-4417, is doing time for his conviction on a sex offence charge. Murray has been in the Big House since about 1995, and, during his residency there, encountered an overzealous corrections officer who used excessive force against him. Murray sued, and won a judgment against the State of New York.

The New York State Victim Services believes, and I agree, that restitution to Murray's victim should take precedence over Murray's use and enjoyment of the money (never mind that the taxpayers are footing the bill either way). And so, the NYSVS won a preliminary injunction against the State depositing the funds into Murray's inmate account.

The game has not yet ended, but the results are predictable with a high degree of certainty. The money will eventually go to Murray's victim, but not before plenty of public resources and dollars are expended to give Murray his due process. It's not a good thing, but it is far, far better than Murray getting the money.

A Confirmation of my Observation

2011-08-17T15:02:00.002Z

As those of you who follow the Lagniappe's Lair blog have been informed, I had a brief but delightful meeting with Murphy's Law during my current visit to Washington. Unfortunately, Murphy was back guarding the Lair, and accordingly, not in on the rendezvous.

The prior posting on this Blog is dated Tuesday 16 August at 3:01 AM. This is the time as reckoned for the Greenwich Prime Meridian (known in military parlance as "Zulu Time"). Subtract 5 hours to get the time for the Eastern United States. The prior posting was done on Monday night.

At the time of the prior posting, I had not read the Washington Times for Tuesday 16 August 2011. On the last page of Section C (it would have been Page 10 if it were numbered) is the article by Patrick Hruby entitled "Obama Souvenir Sales in Tailspin," which effectively confirmed the observations and conclusions of the prior posting to this Blog. I noticed that the quantities of Barack Hussein Obama trinkets and paraphernalia on display in the hotel gift shop were plentiful, made inquiry to the woman at the cash register as to how well they were selling, and the woman confirmed to me that the sales were on the sparse side. I posted it on this Blog. The Washington Times provided confirmation. But you read it here first!

Market Studies and Analyses

2011-08-16T03:01:00.002Z

Companies pay marketing specialists millions of dollars to do studies in advance of product launches, real estate development projects, musical and dramatic and cinematic ventures, et cetera.

But then again, many entrepreneurs have extrapolated marketing data from a single isolated incident, and based upon such extrapolations, have gone on to earn respectable amounts of money and/or fame.

Such was the case with a number of automobile racetracks, whose founders figured, correctly, that the multiple spectators present at police busts of drag racing contests in abandoned parking lots were a viable customer base for a legitimate racetrack.

And, if legend is to be believed, back when Atlantic City was still Atlantic City (i.e., before the casinos), a little girl's enjoyment of a candy merchant's wares which were damaged by wind-driven water from the ocean gave rise to the Salt Water Taffy industry.

I am now in Washington, attending a conference and, as usual, enjoying the town. In some of the uberliberal neighborhoods, many of the cars have Obama stickers. But the lady in the gift shop of the hotel where I am ensconced told me that the Barack Hussein Obama coffee mugs, bookmarks, fridge magnets and other paraphernalia are not selling as well as the other tourist trinkets without BHO's picture.

During my first visit to our Nation's Capital, back when I was 6 years old, my sister and I wanted souvenirs with pictures of President Kennedy, just like all the other youngsters and oldsters were getting. I am not a marketing expert, but if the tourist trade is not putting down its money dollars on the St. Barack relics, then maybe the guy in the Oval Office has reason to be concerned.

Inside and Outside

2011-08-15T00:25:00.001Z

Here is the first paragraph of Judge Joan M. Genchi's decision in A.B. v. C.D., 2011 NY Slip Op 51404(U) (Family Court, Suffolk County):

"In this proceeding brought pursuant to Article 8 of the Family Court Act, the petitioner, A.B., filed a Family Offense Petition on April 7, 2011 which alleges that the respondent, C.D., her husband, committed the following family offenses: Harassment in the first or second degree; Aggravated harassment in the second degree; Menacing in the second or third degree; and Reckless Endangerment approximately between December 2009 and January 2010 and again in October 2010 during conjugal visits at the Elmira Correctional facility where the respondent was incarcerated. The petition alleges numerous attempts by the respondent to communicate with the petitioner, either by mail, telephone, texting, or through third-party contact with the petitioner. The respondent has since been transferred to Southport Correctional Facility where he is serving a sentence of 28 years to life for the murder of his deceased former wife's husband, and for other convictions. The parties had a child on August 31, 2004, and they were married on January 14, 2006 at the Clinton Correctional Facility. On April 4, 2010, the respondent had divorce papers served on the petitioner."

So here we have a woman who marries a man who is doing an indeterminate sentence of 28 years to life on a murder conviction. Don't let the number 28 throw you; it is the theoretical date when the inmate can start with the biennial petitions to the Parole Board. And in New York, it is very rare that those convicted of a violent offense get paroled the first time before the Board.

Then this woman decides to divorce the guy. Not a bad move, given the predicament she got herself into. But then, after filing the divorce papers, she continued with the conjugal visits at the State Penitentiary.

And now, she wants an order of protection from the guy who is incarcerated (and apparently in solitary confinement).

Judge Genchi declined to award an order of protection, inasmuch as the incarcerated husband does not present a danger to the estranged wife (estranged, that is, when she's not up at the State Pen on a conjugal visit).

So what do we now have? (A) A violent felon who is now confined behind bars for the next 20+ (and perhaps 30+) years; (B) A ditzy bimbo who doesn't want said violent felon to bother her, but who is not above going up to the Big House for a conjugal visit with him; and (C) a seven-year-old child who has two piss-poor role models in his/her life, one on the inside and the other on the outside.

Society's Investment in Felons

2011-08-14T04:52:00.003Z

It seems that Diane McCloud couldn't stop stealing if her life depended on it. As reported here, here and here, Judge Francis Ricigliano had seen fit to show the 47-year-old Ms. McCloud some humane compassion by springing her from jail so that she would be eligible for the waiting list for a heart transplant. But Judge Ricigliano's humane compassion does have its limits, and Ms. McCloud pushed them too far with her 27th felony arrest last month. She now has to complete the sentence Judge Ricigliano cut short, plus serve the one on the latest charges for which she has pled guilty -- stealing cosmetics and diet pills from a CVS Pharmacy. Her incarceration puts her off of the waiting list for the heart transplant.

[I am, of course, rather skeptical regarding medical death prognoses for ill prisoners. Susan Atkins was supposed to have only 3 months left when she petitioned the California Parole Board for compassionate release, and she lived another year-and-a-half. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the "Lockerbie Bomber," was released on "compassionate" grounds because he was given 3 months to live, and, nearly 2 years later, is still alive and revered as a hero in Libya.]

If indeed the purpose of the criminal justice system is to rehabilitate those who can be rehabilitated, then society must be willing to invest in people who have been convicted of crimes. Judge Ricigliano was willing to invest in McCloud, but, like any prudent investor, decided to cut society's losses when the investment went sour.

Some people have been successfully rehabilitated by the system, and are worthy of society's investment. Judge Denny Chin believes (and I agree) that Vernon Lawson is one of them. Lawson, who served 13 years in prison for killing his wife, has, in Judge Chin's opinion, completely turned his life around, and should be granted his citizenship so that he can remain in America. Anent to the case of Lawson v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, the following observations are now proffered:

1. Judge Chin is himself a naturalized American citizen.

2. Judge Chin is not reticent to incarcerate those who truly deserve incarceration. Remember that it was Judge Chin who sentenced Bernie Madoff to 150 years.

3. The USCIS's misplaced zeal in denying Vernon Lawson's application for citizenship stands in contradistinction to USCIS's willingness to hold America's door open for Muslim terrorists, Mexican drug dealers, and other assorted thugs and thieves.

The Talmud, Water and Cell Phones

2011-08-12T04:02:00.002Z

A few weeks ago, my Rabbi admonished/begged the congregation that we need to be more fervent and concentrating in our praying during the services. He's not wrong on that score. We all do our share of talking during the services, which we really shouldn't be doing (though it isn't nearly as extensive as certain other congregations with which I am acquainted). Every once in a while, we need to be reminded of Whom we stand before.

This evening, the talking during the davening was relatively restrained. The problem was that someone's cell phone went off. Not quite four years ago, I posted on this issue, noting that when the cell phone that distracts our concentration belongs to a rabbi then there's much rabbinical credibility to be lost.

[I note that there are a number of rabbis besides our main "pulpit rabbi" who join us on a somewhat regular basis for the afternoon/evening services. They do things like oversee kosher food preparation at the local old age home, or watch over the dead at one of the local funeral establishments, or, in one case, the "pulpit rabbi" from a congregation in a neighboring town (who happened to have been my son's 6th grade Religious Studies teacher at the Jewish day school) whose own congregation has trouble during the week with making Minyan (a minimum prayer quorum of 10 Jewish males over the age of 13).].

In any event, the cell phone one of these other rabbis went off during the davening, so what did this rabbi do? He kept on davening until he was finished, which took perhaps a minute or two. And the other guys in the Minyan (about 14 of us) were all distracted.

Afterward, I went up to our congregation's "pulpit rabbi" and asked him what happens in the following situation: Two men are traveling in the desert, away from civilization. One has a canteen of water, the other does not. The man with the canteen has enough water to make it to civilization, but if he shares his water with his companion, the neither will be able to reach civilization alive.

That hypothetical was answered almost 2,000 years ago by Rabbi Akiva, who ruled that it is better that only one man perish than to have both men die. Rabbi Akiva's ruling is recorded in the Talmud [Bava Metzia 62a]. In modern times, it comes up with some degree of frequency in discussions regarding health care rationing.

So, of course, my Rabbi quoted Rabbi Akiva's pronouncement to me (as though I had never heard of the Akiva's famous ruling). He wondered what my ulterior motive was, and didn't have to wait long to find out.

I then asked him, "Which is preferable, one man being distracted from prayer for a few seconds to turn off the cell phone which should have been turned off before he began davening in the first place, or fifteen men being distracted because the first guy does not turn off his cell phone?"

The Rabbi laughed. It would not surprise me if, after I left, he had a little private discussion with the other rabbi who wouldn't turn off his ringing cell phone.

The Wisdom of Vilna

2011-08-03T22:27:00.000Z

Throughout history, various political powers held sway in what is now Lithuania. Depending upon the ruling powers, and/or the language, the city that is now (and has long been) the administrative capital of the territory has been known variously as Wilno, Vilna, Wilna, Vilnya, and, officially today, Vilnius.

For many centuries prior to World War II, Vilna had a significant Jewish population, and was renown as a center of Jewish culture and learning. The Nazi ravages of World War II, of course, decimated Vilna's Jewish population.

Perhaps the most famous Jewish resident of Vilna was Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer, known as the Vilna Gaon, or Genius of Vilna. The Vilna Gaon had memorized the Torah and numerous other books, religious and secular. He was quite erudite in mathematics and astronomy.

Describing someone as "not the Vilna Gaon," usually means that they are intellectually challenged.

Like any other city, modern day Vilnius has its traffic enforcement issues. But Mayor Arturas Zuokas has come up with a unique approach to resolving the problem of cars parking illegally and blocking the thoroughfares of the city.

This video is obviously scripted and staged, and obviously had a higher than normal production budget for video clips of its length.

Nobody is claiming that Mayor Zuokas is the Vilna Gaon, but there is something to be said for his new and novel solution to illegal parking. Perhaps some American mayors and police chiefs might find some inspiration!

Hate Camp

2011-08-01T21:53:00.002Z

I've returned home from an out-of-town excursion, catching up on my mail pile, and getting ready for what may be shaping up to be another out-of-town excursion.

Summer camp is a big industry in America and elsewhere. There are many camps which are specialized. Music camps. Athletic camps (one of which I attended during my high school jock days). Art camps. Math camps. Science camps. Computer camps. Weight loss camps. Travel camps. Theater & Drama camps. And so on.

These camps are good for the entrepreneurs who run them, and usually good for the children and youth who attend them. Not to mention the privacy the kids' parents get for a few weeks (which my wife and I certainly enjoyed).

The previous posting was about the carnage in Oslo. Following that posting, additional details emerged about the whole affair in Norway. For one thing, the unpreparedness of the Norwegian law enforcement authorities is nothing short of amazing. More notably, the camp operated by the Norwegian Labor Party on Utøya Island was a specialized summer camp. It was a Hate Camp, as further detailed by Nidra Poller and Debbie Schlussel, where hatred for Jews and Israel was part of the agenda, and where the facilities were shared by Islamic terror groups.

Note that Jewish camps do not have such hatred programs against our enemies (of which we have so, so many).

I would be less than candid if I denied that this new info caused me to revisit my empathies with the victims of the massacre at Utøya Island. After all, the "victims" had, just the day before, engaged in an unabashed anti-Semitic exercise sponsored by the camp and blessed by a Norwegian cabinet minister. So yes, I have done some considerable deliberation regarding the previous posting.

But the first line of that posting, "There is no question that Anders Behring Breivik is truly an evil person," is still a highly valid statement. It is not good that he is being glorified in some quarters, and the fact that he has a good chance of walking freely in 21 years is not reassuring. That's a relatively easy one.

More consterning is the statement "My empathies are with the victims, regardless of whatever connections they may have had to the Labor Party in general, and its policies of dhimmitude in particular." There is, after all, a certain justice in the killing of the enemies of Israel and the Jewish people, and I do see G-d's hand in that. Nevertheless, those indoctrinated youth could have been my children, or, for that matter, me. They were victims of the Norwegian Labor Party's hatred and anti-Semitism.

So, even as I appreciate the justice of the Divine Retribution, I regret the loss of lives. Were I to go celebrate and exult, then I would be no better than the Labor Party, and I myself might just as well go to Hate Camp for a summer.

Evil in Oslo

2011-07-27T03:37:00.001Z

There is no question that Anders Behring Breivik is truly an evil person.

This is not to say that his observations and analyses of the problem are totally without merit. Indeed, the Norwegian Labor Party's policies of deference to the Muslims have, among other things, facilitated threats and attacks against Jewish families and businesses in Oslo and Stavenger.

But Anders Behring Breivik is truly an evil person, and I do not applaud his lethal actions in the least. My empathies are with the victims, regardless of whatever connections they may have had to the Labor Party in general, and its policies of dhimmitude in particular.

But let's compare and contrast the attitudes towards Breivik with those towards the Muslim terrorists. How many liberal-thinking individuals and organizations give pass to the Muslim terrorists on account of the perceived sins of their targets? If you say justify the actions of the Hamas terrorists who fire rockets at civilian targets in Israel because of Israel's policies towards the so-called Palestinians, then why shouldn't it be acceptable to justify Breivik's actions on account of the Muslims' actions against the indigenous peoples of Europe?

And I note that the judge in Norway has remanded Breivik to 8 weeks of solitary confinement with no communications to the outside. If you complained about imprisoning the Muslim terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, then you should be up in arms about this unjust treatment of Breivik! How many of those who now applaud Breivik's solitary confinement were out demonstrating that Gitmo should have been closed?

Reason to Believe, or just Conjecture

2011-07-25T05:00:00.001Z

The 14 July 2011 posting to this Blog speculated as to the possibilities of the Agudath Israel of America being concerned for collateral damage from the media feeding frenzy regarding the murder in Brooklyn of Leiby Kletzky. If the speculations did not hit the bull's eye, neither were they too far off target.

To square everything up front, I do not consider myself to be an opponent of the Agudath Israel of America, and respect and appreciate its many good works on behalf of the religiously observant Jewish community (of which I am a member). But neither is the Agudath Israel above criticism, nor should it be.

Having learned the harsh and painful lessons of history, the Jewish community inherently takes a very dim view of Jews reporting their fellow Jews to the secular governmental authorities. It is more than a social norm; the Rabbis inserted a section into the daily prayer routine addressing the issue.

This is not to say that one should NEVER report a wrongdoer, even under Rabbinical law. But the presumption is that whatever wrong the wrongdoing Jew has done to his fellow Jews does not warrant intervention by the secular authorities, and that the situation is best dealt with by Rabbis and community leaders.

Unfortunately, the theory has not panned out in practice. I shall not now get into the psychosocial analysis; suffice it to say that certain types of aberrant behavior are not adequately understood by non-experts, and that ordinary rabbinical training in a Yeshiva does not constitute adequate expertise.

The Agudath Israel of America is essentially a political organ that does the bidding of the leaders of the European yeshiva world which has been transplanted to America following World War II. A legitimate purpose, if followed correctly.

But the problems of sexual abuse have been amplified on account of the failure of the Rabbis to recognize the dynamics of the crime and the criminal. There has been a big cover-up, analogous in many (but not all) respects to the problems now facing the Catholic Church.

And certain Rabbinical leaders have made statements to the effect that one must obtain permission from a rabbi to report the misdeeds to the authorities.

The Agudath Israel has issued so-called "clarification" of its position. Distilled to its essence, the AI's position per its "clarification" (which has many attributes of a back-tracking) is:

A. One is allowed to report it if one has sufficient reason to believe ("raglayim la’davar" in Hebrew) that it is abuse.

B. One is not allowed to report it if it is only conjecture ("'eizeh dimyon" in Hebrew). This is not a bad thing, inasmuch as many innocent people's lives have been destroyed by false accusations.

C. The differences between certainty and speculation are so complex and intricate that one needs to consult with a rabbi to really determine which is which (unless, perhaps, one actually saw it happen in real time).

I shall not now add to the feeding frenzy by linking to the numerous posting made with the past 24 hours; and I don't want to unnecessarily parrot other commentators. This Blog is not intended to be a "me, too" organ. It suffices to now say that the Agudath Israel's "clarification" has, in many quarters, created more controversy and confusion than it has clarified. Many individuals and organizations who, even a year ago, would have been squarely in the Agudath Israel's corner are now beginning to ask questions.

Some background: A number of years ago I was on the board of a Jewish day school. To the best of my knowledge, there was never any problem regarding abuse of students by school employees (though we did have other types of problems to address). During that time, however, I did have many occasions to compare notes with board members of other institutions.

One such board member (with whom I had a legal case unrelated to either of our institutions) told me that he had an abuser in the employ of his institution, and that the abuser was quietly fired, and was teaching at another institution. My acquaintance told me that he mentioned at board meetings that, as an attorney, he would be concerned regarding liability of the institution (this is before such a thing became the big concern it now is), and he threatened to do the reporting himself if the Executive Director did not. Within a week, he was preempted by the abuser's girlfriend (or rather, ex-girlfriend), who learned that her daughter had been abused by this guy.

The norm was to quietly fire the abuser, and keep quiet about it, even as the abuser went somewhere else to teach and abuse. I am not convinced that the practice has totally ended (though the threat of lawsuits has curtailed it significantly).

Perhaps the litmus test should be whether one feels strongly enough to terminate the employment of the person in question. If you truly believe that he may be the victim of false accusations, then you should have the fortitude to keep him in your employ, and stand behind him and back him up.

If, however, you yourself are not confident enough to keep him in your employ, then that should be your "raglayim la’davar," your sufficient reason to believe. When it comes to sexual abuse, if he's bad enough for you to fire, he's bad enough for you to report to the authorities.

Is This Any Way to Run a Loan Program?

2011-07-18T17:59:00.004Z

This past Memorial Day weekend, an automobile accident claimed the life of a very accomplished and talented humanitarian. Laura Kavazanjian was a Brown University alumna (where she played field hockey), and also had a graduate degree in Education from Harvard. Laura wanted to save the world, and had a special place in her heart for marginalized girls in the developing world.

But, at about 1:30 AM on May 28, while sleeping in the back seat (sans seat belt) of a car driven by her fiance, Laura was killed when she was tossed from the vehicle as it left the road and rolled over. The couple was en route from their class reunion at Brown to a wedding in New York. [I am unaware of any information regarding the existence or nonexistence of any toxicology report in connection with the tragic incident.].

A loss to Laura's family, a loss to Laura's friends, and a loss to humanity!

And so, at the suggestion of Laura's Harvard classmates, the Laura Kavazanjian Memorial Fund was established, to help grad students who aspired to help Laura's marginalized girls in the developing world. Surely a fitting and proper memorial to Laura!

But now, Congressman Timothy Bishop has a new and novel plan to perpetuate Laura's memory and posthumously carry out her dreams. A few days before the fatal crash, Laura had repaid her student loan to the government in the amount of $44,462.25. So Congressman Bishop has written a letter to Arne Duncan, Obama's Education Secretary, requesting the Department of Education to make a donation in the amount of $44,462.25 to the Laura Kavazanjian Memorial Fund.

"Bishop explained if Laura had not repaid this loan, it would have been forgiven and would have become an expense of the Department of Education, making it a responsibility of taxpayers. The appeal to Duncan is to redirect the dollars Laura paid and it 'would be as if she had not repaid the loan,' the congressman said."

You lost me there, Timmy!

First of all, there is an obligation to repay student loans. Except under extreme hardship situations, they are nondischargeable in bankruptcy. Yes, there is partial loan forgiveness for those who enter certain professions, but the loans are supposed to be repaid! And yes, if Laura had died before she paid the loan it would have been forgiven. But Laura DID pay off the loan. By extention, Timmy, after I die, shouldn't the money I paid to satisfy my student loans be donated to my favorite charity? How about my car loans and mortgage loans which I have paid off during my lifetime? And how about my wife's student loans she incurred while going undergrad and medical school? Timmy, this doesn't click!

Secondly, Timmy, you and your colleagues have budget problems! I know that $44,462.25 is not going to make any difference in our nation's debts of trillions, but shouldn't you all be setting an example of austerity during these tight times? I guess it's your freewheeling sense of entitlement that bothers me, and I know that many other taxpayers have similar sentiments.

Thirdly, shouldn't the Department of Education's function be to provide for education of Americans? I have nothing against bolstering the education of disadvantaged foreigners. I myself make charitable donations to organizations which do just that (though it bothers the politically-correct thinking libtards to no end because most of the disadvantaged foreigners whose educations I support happen to be poor Jews in Israel). If Laura's friends and classmates wish to help educate young girls in Malawi, then they are certainly welcome and encouraged to direct their charity dollars in that direction.

[In such regard, Laura was a 3rd Generation Brown grad, her father and grandfather having graduated Brown and gone out and made something of themselves. Laura was a child of privilege (and, to her credit, she sought to use her privileged position to help the world, unlike so many spoiled trust fund brats who end up screwing up their lives). She lived in one of the wealthier school districts on Long Island. Her family and social circle certainly has the means to make charitable donations as they see fit. They are not so impecunious that they need the U.S. taxpayers to make their charitable contributions for them.].

And did Laura have life insurance? I cannot imagine someone of her socioeconomic class not having it. I had a life insurance policy when I was in college (best time to get it ratewise, worst time to get it premium-wise). She had no dependents, so why not use the proceeds from her life insurance policies to help those Harvard students get their degrees so that they can go and educate all of those marginalized girls in the developing nations of the world?

According to Tim Bishop's logic, the Department of Education's loans should be forgiven if they are not paid, and treated as though they are forgiven if they are paid! Even the big banks bailed out by Congressman Timmy and his cohorts didn't operate with such profligate and irresponsible lending practices!

Horrible Crime, Lots of Repercussions:

2011-07-14T04:37:00.003Z

As this posting is being composed, the big news story unfolding is the gruesome murder and dismemberment of Leiby Kletzky in Brooklyn as he was returning from day camp. There is a sufficient media feeding frenzy going on that there is no need to link to anything in this posting. Needless to say, the politicians are in on the feeding frenzy as well.

First and foremost, my condolences go out to Leiby's family. I cannot even imagine what they are going through.

In journalism school (not that I ever went to J-School), they teach that stories of a dog biting a man are not newsworthy, but when a man bites a dog, it's usually good for the front page. What is unusual about this story is that the suspect is from the same religious Jewish community as Leiby. Hey, when Gentiles kill one another, nobody makes a big deal about it (just ask the people of South Sudan or Rwanda or places like that), but when Jews kill one another it upsets the whole world!

My instincts tell me (and my friends and acquaintances in law enforcement seem to have similar gut hunches) that (A) Leiby and/or his family have/had some familiarity with the perp; and (B) the perp probably has some prior experience in this type of misdeed.

My observations:

1. In many insular Jewish circles, pains are taken to give the dead various honorifics in speech and writing. I myself, for example, will often (but not always) add a phrase such as "may they rest in peace" when speaking of my departed grandparents. But many blogs and newssites use the honorific "HY'D" which is the transliteration of the abbreviation for HaShem Yikom Damo, which is Hebrew for "May G-d avenge his blood." HY'D is commonly used in connection with those killed by Gentile enemies of the Jewish people (think victims of the Nazis). In the case of Leiby, it is now being used in connection with someone killed by a fellow Jew.

2. Everyone in Leiby's community seems to be trying to keep the true facts from the young children. Counseling experts are giving advice on how to break it to the children. Okay, I agree that there is a right way and a wrong way to break the news to the children, but keeping them in ignorance is the coward's way out. In such regard, when I was 5 years old, a 3-year-old playmate of mine was sexually molested and murdered, and her body stuffed in a cabinet in the basement of the teenage perp. I had just been over her house with my mom the week before. My dad was in the searching party, and my mom had gone to junior high with the assistant District Attorney on the case. My parents found a way to tell me that this young girl was killed, and though they didn't give all of the graphic details, neither did they deny that something terrible had happened to the playmate and that I would not be seeing her again. And they did it without having to engage the services of a counsellor or psychologist.

3. The Agudath Israel of America has released a public statement on Leiby's murder. It includes the sentence "We join the entire community in expressing our tremendous gratitude to the New York City Police Department, the FBI and local government officials for their round-the-clock efforts in leaving no stone unturned in their search; and we hope and trust that the perpetrator of this murder of an innocent boy will swiftly be brought to justice."

You will recall that the insular factions represented by Agudath Israel have, of late, been taking the attitude in deed if not in word that it is better to sweep child molestation under the rug and let the rabbis handle it, but one should not go report it to the authorities without sparingly-granted rabbinical permission. The irony of the Agudath Israel's statement about Leiby is not lost on many, including myself.

If it turns out that the perp had a record which was covered up by someone in the Agudath Israel constituency, then the Agudath Israel would have excellent reason to be concerned about its continued viability as an organization, what with its steadfast support of those who have covered up and continue to cover up the child molestation.

Methinks that the Agudath Israel's chickens may be coming home to roost!

NYC's Opposition to Confidentiality is Confidential

2011-07-11T01:16:00.001Z

I really did not believe that I would have anything monumental to say that hasn't been said about the Casey Anthony case. No justice was delivered, and even if any or all of the jurors had possessed an IQ exceeding 190, no justice could have been delivered because, with the big time losers for a mother and grandparents (not to mention the unknown and legally nonexistent sperm donor), little Caylee was doomed from the time the sperm penetrated the ovum. The defense counsel, who could have let things sit after winning, partied over the victory, to the shame and deprecation of the legal profession.

In New York a few weeks ago, Matter of Kiara C., a case with some similarities and differences to the Anthony case, was handed down by the Queens County Family Court. Kiara was a 15-year-old teenager from a highly dysfunctional family who, having been impregnated by an illegal alien, hid her pregnancy, and hid the infant upon giving birth, recklessly suffocating the infant in the process. Kiara was tried as a juvenile delinquent and not as an adult.

Kiara is a far, far better person than Casey Anthony. Kiara has graduated high school, and is now in a vocational training program. It doesn't do a whole lot for her deceased infant, but at least Kiara has an outside fighting chance to become a functional and valuable member of society at some level.

The issue in the Matter of Kiara C was whether Kiara's records of delinquency should be sealed. The City of New York had vigorously opposed the motion to seal Kiara's record, but in a well-reasoned opinion, Judge John Hunt wrote that "The adjudication of juvenile delinquency in this case was never intended to constitute a Scarlet Letter which must be forever displayed to the public at large, and the notion of imposing punishment is contrary to the purposes underlying the juvenile delinquency statute."

A reporter for the New York Law Journal queried the Law Department of the City of New York for a comment. What did the spokesperson for the Law Department say? The standard line that they do not comment on cases involving juveniles on account of the confidentiality concerns.

Confidentiality concerns indeed!

Flagging the Fourth of July

2011-07-05T02:21:00.003Z

I'm at home today, the Fourth of July, doing paperwork and avoiding the crowds and the traffic.

Seems that a goodly number of real estate salespeople, from diverse realty offices, have a gimmick to get their name in front of the populace: Planting minature American flags on people's lawns (with a business card, of course).

The prospect of a slide down the slippery slope of crass commercialism is marginally troubling, but it IS nice to drive, walk, run or bicycle down the street and see all the flags at the curbsides. And if it takes some good old American commercialism to make it happen, then that is not such a bad thing!

I was out riding my bike today for a good workout. I was riding down a marginal road by one of the the main streets here. The marginal road, of course, has all of the homes, and it is separated from the main highway by a long traffic island, planted with trees and grass. On the traffic island I saw an American flag on the ground. So I put on the brakes, turned around, picked up Old Glory and stood it up straight, then saluted it and continued on my way.

That's really all there is to report from here. It isn't much.

But in some respects, it really IS a big thing!

Happy Birthday, America!!!

Why the Battle of Albany was Lost

2011-06-30T03:21:00.002Z

Until now, I really, really, have been too engrossed and occupied to comment on this same-gender marriage law enacted by the New York State Legislature. This one truly causes conflicting sentiments.

On one hand, I abhor and detest the very thought of same-gender sexual relationships.

On the other hand, what consenting adults do or do not do in that aspect of their lives is, all else being equal, a private and personal matter into which nobody should intrude, least of all the government.

The two men (or two women) who live together in a homosexual relationship, all else being equal, are not threatening anyone else's lives, safety or marriage. And so, as much as I disapprove of such relationships, I do not view it as any business into which I should personally insinuate myself.

The problem is that there is an extremely nefarious element amongst the homosexual community. There are those who actively seek to impose their own sexual values upon the rest of society, including and especially the recruitment of adolescent youths (and, for that matter, younger individuals).

There are many who claim that this so-called "gay marriage" law is merely a civil rights matter, and that all they wish to do is live and let live. But too, too many of these same advocates of "same-sex marriage" have tolerated if not encouraged the active participation of groups such as NAMBLA in their "gay pride parades" and other events. NAMBLA's unabashed agenda is very coercive, brutal and violent, and a menace to society.

There is a need to make distinction between the civil rights of individuals who happen to espouse homosexual preferences, and those who would use the civil rights line as an instrument to advance their violent and evil agenda.

The two most vocal lobbies against the legislation in Albany were the Catholic Church and the Agudath Israel of America. Why did they fail to stop the legislation?

My theory is that each of those two organizations has, over the past 10 or 20 years, ceded the moral high ground which they had previously occupied. And each of those two organizations has gotten a little more than a tiny bit arrogant in claiming the high moral ground they in fact have been in the process of abandoning.

Others who are or were more intimately involved with the Catholic Church can certainly provide more detailed accounts of the Church's lapses; my expertise in this area is effectively limited to what I read in the media, mainstream and otherwise.

But, as reflected in prior postings, I do have firsthand personal knowledge of the Agudath Israel of America and its strengths and weaknesses. The Agudah's stances on sexual misconduct have been too hypocritical for them to effectively hold the moral high ground, and have been exacerbated by their support of the wrong side in criminal matters other than sexual misconduct.

Sexual matters notwithstanding, the various religious Jewish organizations, including but not limited to the Agudath Israel, have made another mistake which has served to compound their losses of stature as exemplars of morality, namely, they have played the wrong political cards. For many years the religious Jewish newspapers have all been fawning over Sheldon Silver, the powerful New York State Assembly Speaker, because he happens to be a nominally religious Jew and he happens to be a Sabbath observer. They have done this even when they disagreed with his political stance. And, in the case of the same-gender marriage legislation, the Agudath Israel got bitten in the toochas by its inane presumption that Shelly Silver's religious values would trump his political agenda for such an important issue.

Before the Catholic Church and the Agudath Israel of America can deign to dictate morality, they will need to clean up their acts and reclaim the moral high ground. As matters currently stand, Governor Andrew Cuomo's morality score is, in many respects, higher than that of either organization.

An Unsafe Haven

2011-06-23T02:12:00.002Z

The big front-page story in Suffolk County, NY is now the quadruple homicide at Haven Drugs in Medford. It is too early to come down with too much in the way of definitive statements as to the motivation behind the crime, inasmuch as more and more facts seem to surface with time. It is the worst multiple homicide in Suffolk County since the now infamous six-victim Amityville Horror in 1974.

It seems that the alleged perpetuator, David Laffer, may well have had some accessory aid and abetment from his wife.

It is very disconcerting to me for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is that my after-school job during senior year of high school was at a local pharmacy. In those days -- well before HIPAA and the big deal that is now quite appropriately made over health care information confidentiality -- the Old Man told me in no uncertain terms that he would chew me out if I came in late or had a fender-bender with the delivery station wagon (which he did to me for the former, and to my successor for the latter), but that there would be no second chance if I were to disclose anything regarding what prescriptions were being dispensed to a customer.

In the big drug chains today, the pharmacy operation is basically separate and apart from the other retail business. Without in any way denigrating any of the pharmacists who are employed by a big chain pharmacy (the ones at the local big chain outlet where my wife and I have our prescriptions filled have, with few exceptions, proven to be quite knowledgeable), it takes a certain kind of person to be in the independent pharmacy business.

My observations:

1. The brutality of this crime should give opponents of the death penalty pause.

2. Would the incident have been quite as tragic if the perpetuator had tried to pull off something similar at the independent pharmacy establishment of Jerome Ersland?

Checking In

2011-06-12T07:04:00.005Z

By "checking in," I refer not to soon-to-be-ex Congressman Anthony Weiner's checking into a rehab facility, but rather, to me just checking in with this brief posting to assure everyone that I am still alive, well and functional. The whole month of June is busy for me this year, what with teaching, law practice, editorial submission deadlines, and lots of personal things. Scheduling was not made any simpler by the Festival of Shavuot, which was last Wednesday and Thursday (though my wife and I did enjoy the holiday immensely). Depending upon how my schedule plays out, there might or might not be further postings of any substance this month.

I really, really, was not intending to post anything on the Weiner story. I don't live in his district, and wouldn't vote for him if I did. His actions speak for themselves, and the less said about him, the better (though the demand by Nancy Pelosi for an ethics investigation provided some much-needed comic relief).

What amazes me is not the media feeding frenzy on him so much as the public obsession with the story. One of our house guests this past Shavuot (known as "He" in past postings) has, to say the least, a fascination with politics. And, having arranged access to the newspapers before the Shavuot holiday, "He" was reading them, and all that "He" could talk about was Weiner, Weiner and more Weiner. Hey, enough already!!

But like the proverbial broken clock, which tells the correct time twice each day, the New York Times got this one right. They buried the story of Weiner's wife's alleged pregnancy somewhere on page 20-something.

Squaring Off in New Square

2011-05-30T05:18:00.002Z

One of the more insular Jewish Chassidic groups are the Skver Chassidim. The group originated in the city of Skvyra, in the Ukraine. All of the physical migrations entailed the use of different alphabets, so there now are diverse spellings in English, including (but not necessarily limited to) Skvir, Skwere, Skvre, et cetera. In the 1950's, the Skvirer Rebbe, Yaakov Yosef Twersky, founded a settlement in Rockland County, New York, called New Square. The word "Square" is yet another variant of the name, and has nothing to do with the familiar quadrilateral polygon.

Following Rabbi Yaakov Yosef's passing in 1968, his son, Rabbi David Twersky, has been the Skvirer Rebbe.

As reported here, here and here, Aron Rottenberg, a resident of New Square, prefers to worship at a synagogue other than the one run by the Skvirer Rebbe. The venue where Rottenberg prefers to pray is an "orthodox" one, where men and women are separated by a structure (a mechitza).

[For the record, my own personal preferences: Except under the most extenuating circumstances, I will not pray in any minyan (group of at least 10 Jewish men) that is not a kosher minyan, that is, there must be some sort of physical separation between men and women. In my own congregation, the mechitza is made of several units on casters, which can be and are moved out of the way after the prayer service so that tables can be set up, et cetera; most of the men sit with their wives afterward. And our mechitza has curtains, through which the men can discern their wives on the womens' side, and vice versa.].

But Aron Rottenberg's venue of preference is not the Skvirer Rebbe's, and so, he and his family have been the objects of harassment in the insular community of New Square. The harassment, which has included slashed tires on the car, and broken windows, has now culminated in an arson attack, in which Rottenberg was burned over half his body.

Rottenberg has lawyered up, having retained Michael Sussman, Esq., to represent him.

In 2000, Hillary Clinton, following meetings with political apparatchiks from New Square, received 1359 out of 1369 New Square votes for her campaign for Senate. In 2001, some incarcerated fraudsters from New Square miraculously received some pardons from outgoing President William Jefferson Clinton.

Mike Sussman, Esq., believes (and I agree) that the local law enforcement authorities, who, I note, have been less than enthusiastic about responding to Rottenberg's complaints about vandalism at his house, cannot be counted upon to properly handle the situation, and that some Federal investigation is warranted.

The perpetuator, Shaul Spitzer, was the Skvirer Rebbe's butler and lives/lived in the Skvirer Rebbe's house.

My comments (in no particular order):

1. Spitzer, who now stands charged with assault, arson, and attempted murder, is also hospitalized with 3rd degree burns. Maybe he's a contender for the Darwin Award.

2. I have never personally met Rabbi Twersky, the Skvirer Rebbe, but a number of friends whose views I respect have met him. My tentative assessment of him (subject to adjustment upon receipt of further definitive and reliable information): He is not an inherently evil man, but his past inobjectivity is coming back to haunt him. He no doubt hoped that all of those inconvenient broken windows, slashed tires and verbal insults would induce the Rottenberg family to relocate to some place outside of New Square. He no doubt did not envision that matters would get out of hand the way they did.

3. Right now, Rabbi Twersky and the leadership of New Square are clearly in damage control mode. Mike Sussman, Esq. will likely exact some sort of significant financial tribute from Rabbi Twersky and/or organizations controlled by Rabbi Twersky. If Rabbi Twersky is praying for Aron Rottenberg's speedy recovery, it is motivated as much by his concern for asset conservation as it is by goodwill and decency.

4. Rabbi Twersky and the Skvirer Chassidim cannot have things both ways. If they wish to be insular in order to avoid the corruptive and evil influences of the outside world, then they cannot commit violent crimes and do other acts which cannot help but draw the attention of the outside world.

5. And, speaking of insularity, where did Shaul Spitzer, the Rabbi's butler, get it into his head to try to set fire to the Rottenberg homestead? Certainly not from the Internet, which is banned in New Square.

6. And, speaking of banning things in New Square, the Skvirer Rebbe's word is law in New Square. If he and his apparatchiks can deliver virtually all of the vote to a political candidate, then it cannot be said that he had no control over the vandalism and other depredations committed by his followers against the Rottenberg family.

7. I have more than a little discomfort over the concept of hate crime statutes. Not because acts motivated by hatred shouldn't be punished, but because there is too much potential for the hate crime statutes to be abused by prosecutors, and not applied in a uniform and even-handed manner. I nevertheless note, with applause and approval, that Mike Sussman, the Rottenberg's lawyer, has been using the term "hate crime" in his speeches and writings.

8. I have lived in communities where Jewish people were a small minority. Jew-on-Jew hatred such as that practiced in New Square is totally alien, totally offensive, and totally unthinkable to me.

9. If Aron Rottenberg gets the treatment he did for praying at a different venue than the Rebbe's own shul, then what treatment would be accorded to those who are known to vote for candidates other than those blessed by the Rebbe?

Aron Rottenberg's lawyer has been using the term "hate crime." But there is another term he should be thinking, if he is not actually saying it. And that term is "Racketeering!"

License Tag gets Tagged

2011-05-26T02:12:00.005Z

As reported here and here, Avrohom Eliezer Friedman's stolen car was returned to him as a result of a curious Florida police officer, whose interest was piqued when he saw "GMAIL" on the car's license tag. The officer, whose name has not yet come to my attention, punched in the tag alphametrics, found that the car was stolen, and made the arrest. The car was returned to Avrohom, and the car thief presumably was taken into custody.

Nice work, Florida Cop!!!

But look at the license tag in the pictures. It is a Florida Specialty License Plate. Not just any Florida Specialty License Plate, but a Florida Police Benevolent Association license plate, complete with the Florida PBA logo.

I am not, have never been, and have no plans to be in the car stealing business. Nevertheless, it would seem to me that when one is not in compliance with the law, the last thing one should strive to be is interesting to a law enforcement officer. Simple common sense must inescapably conclude that a car with PBA tags is inherently interesting to a law enforcement officer. Therefore, if I were in the car stealing business, I would make it a point to NOT steal cars with PBA tags on them.

My friends and acquaintances in the law enforcement field tell me that many a perp has been collared because some bored cop got curious and checked something out.

Tax Fraud on Film

2011-05-20T03:44:00.006Z

Right now, the American religious Jewish community's big domestic story (the big international one, of course, being Barack Hussein Obama throwing Israel under the bus on the eve of Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Washington) is the sentencing in Iowa of filmmaker Wendy Runge to 10 years for tax fraud in connection with claiming false tax credits for films she shot (or, apparently in some cases, didn't shoot) in Iowa. Everyone seems to be portraying Wendy as a naïve victim of circumstance, and suggesting, none too subtly, that anti-Semitism played a role in the sentence.

Yes, I do believe that the sentence is a bit on the stiff side. And, having grown up in an environment where Jewish people were in the minority, I am fully aware of the mechanics of anti-Semitism in places away from dense Jewish populations, and cannot totally eliminate it as a possible element. One take on this all, with which I largely but not totally agree, is an "Open Letter" in the 5 Towns Jewish Times by Rabbi Binyamin Goldfarb.

It must be remembered that Wendy seems to have a sense of entitlement to swindle the government. She has shown no credible contrition. And it is not just Wendy! We have had lots more, from diverse quarters of the so-called "religious" Jewish world (you have read them, and I shall not now glorify them by linking to them). As mentioned elsewhere, they may be insular, but they are not more religious than I am. Jewish law prohibits stealing, even when the victim is a sovereign government or an insurance company.

Hardly a week, and nary a fortnight, passes without some sort of entreaty in the snail mail, e-mail or in person to help some poor, hapless religious Jewish boy (or, now that Wendy is going to the slammer, girl), from a fine family, who is unjustly incarcerated because he or she didn't comprehend the complexities of the tax laws. And quite frankly, I am tired of it! Might all of the money the Jewish community contributes to these tax and revenue cheats be put to better use in feeding, clothing and sheltering some poor and needy Jewish individuals and families who obey the law?

So let's compare Wendy's sentence to some other recent ones (I haven't the time to do any detailed research on this):

Roger Waldner, who swindled more than $1.7 million in a bankruptcy proceeding, got a 120 month sentence (that's 10 years, for the mathematically-challenged).

And, on 17 May 2011, the very same day Wendy got her sentence imposed, Dr. Mark E. Hopkins, who caused the IRS a tax loss in excess of $2.1 million, was sentenced in a different court by a different judge to 120 months (10 years) in prison.

The sentence imposed upon Wendy Weiner Runge, who cheated the State of Iowa out of about $1.9 million in tax credits, may well be harsh. But it certainly is in the ballpark as far as prison sentences go.

I have long been a firm believer in the maxim that if you cannot do the time, then don't do the crime!

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

2011-05-17T03:13:00.002Z

One misunderstood tenet of Anglo-American jurisprudence is the principle that in a criminal prosecution, the accused is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. It is a legal fiction whose purpose is protect the Constitutional rights of the defendant by compelling the prosecutor to prove each and every element of the crime for which the defendant stands accused.

People often wonder how an attorney can represent a criminal defendant the attorney knows is guilty. The answer is that the attorney's client is the United States Constitution. It is a criminal defense attorney's job to hold the prosecution to the standards of the United States Constitution.

Does this mean that many guilty people walk free? It certainly does. But there need to be limitations on the government's power, and the famous (albeit misunderstood) presumption of innocence is one such bulwark against tyranny.

Which brings us to the case of the People of the State of New York v. Dominique Strauss-Kahn. [For the truly clueless out there, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, now stands accused of sexually assaulting a chamber maid in his Manhattan hotel room.].

The French Government's official and unofficial statements implore the public and the media to keep in mind the presumption of innocence. And not inappropriately so.

Nevertheless, it was not until after France signed onto the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in 1953 that the French jurisprudence system extended that same presumption of innocence to criminal defendants. Under the Code Napoleon, the accused was guilty until proven innocent.

Buying the Election only if He Wins

2011-05-15T13:53:00.003Z

In 1898, the City of New York was formed from five counties, to wit, Richmond, Bronx, New York (Manhattan) Queens and Kings (Brooklyn). The eastern towns in Queens were loath to go along with the deal, so, following approval by the New York State Legislature, they broke off and became Nassau County.

Today, Nassau County is one of the wealthiest in the United States. It is also one of the most inefficiently run. So inefficiently, that in 2000, the New York State Legislature, itself no paragon of governmental efficiency, created the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority ("NIFA") as a nanny to oversee the County. NIFA has activated its nanny role by declaring a "control period," and now, the County government needs NIFA's approval when it decides how many sheets of toilet paper to tear off to wipe its toochas.

Nassau County owns a structure known as the Nassau Coliseum, which is, among other things, the home ice rink of the New York Islanders, and also a venue for various entertainment events and shows. But the Coliseum has, since its opening in 1972, deteriorated. There is no serious question that a complete rebuild would be more cost-effective than a massive large scale repair.

Charles Wang, the owner of the Islanders, has threatened to move the Islanders away from Long Island unless the Coliseum is rebuilt.

So now, the County proposes to float bonds for $200 Million to finance not only a new Coliseum, but also a major league ballpark. Such a bond issue must be approved by the voters, and also by NIFA. The electoral process for the vote would cost somewhere between $800,000 and $1,200,000.

Wang has said that he would reimburse the County for the cost of the election -- provided that the bond issue is approved by the voters.

I believe that the whole system of professional athletics is bass-ackward. I do not per se oppose professional athletics, but do not believe that the taxpayers should subsidize the business. This is particularly so in Nassau County, whose government has already demonstrated its fiscal incompetence.

Moreover, athletics at the high school level has similarly gotten to be too much of a burden on the taxpaying populace [Disclosure: I was a varsity letterman in high school.].

If the purpose of organized athletics at the high school level is to develop character of the athletes, then the high school teams do not need all of the expensive high end accoutrements which have become the norm. If, on the other hand, the purpose of organized athletics at the high school level is to develop professional athletes, then the big league professional athletes should subsidize the high schools' athletic budgets.

Meanwhile, Mr. Wang's conditional offer is, in my book, the equivalent of tendering a bribe.

Tax Relief in the Growler

2011-05-11T19:49:00.002Z

Most bills introduced in the Congress or the state legislatures, if they do become law, undergo many changes between initial introduction and their final wording. Accordingly, I usually do not get too excited about bills introduced in Congress.

Nevertheless, some bills are worth watching. HR-1675, introduced on 2 May 2011, is one of them. This bill, if enacted, would reduce the excise tax on beer.

If indeed this measure passes, then it would be good for lots of L'Chayim, Cheers, Salud, Slainte, Na Zdrowie, Prost, Mabuhay, Genatzt, Skal, Saude!!

Images and Imaginations

2011-05-11T13:51:00.004Z

I was not going to post on the topic because it has gotten too viral, but I've had too many questions posed to me by various and sundry people in various and sundry situations over the past 48 hours, and certain matters need to be set straight. There will be no hyperlinks in this posting, lest additional contributions be made to the current feeding frenzy.

The White House released a photo of Barack Hussein Obama and his advisors in the Situation Room, watching the mission to take out Bin Laden unfold. The Yiddish language newspaper Die Tzeitung, based in Brooklyn and directed to an insular religious Jewish readership, published the photo, but with the images of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Audrey Tomasen photoshopped out of the picture. Die Tzeitung is one of those newspapers that does not publish photographs of women, based upon its interpretation of certain religious prohibitions, and the fear that men who look at such photographs might likely entertain various impure thoughts and fantasies.

I make no apologies for Die Tzeitung and other publications that have "no photos of women" policies. I do not now seek to distance myself from them (though in many respects they themselves have already done the distancing). I shall not now dissect the logic, and the flaws therein, of the notion that the Torah prohibits the publication of photographs of women. I take no position as to the propriety or ethics of altering a photograph released to the media with the stipulation that the photograph not be altered. And I do not now analyze whether the implementation of the aforementioned policies do or do not constitute a debasement and degradation of women.

I do, however, note (in no particular order) that:

A. I do not consider the subscriberships of Die Tzeitung and similar-minded publications to be more religiously observant than I am. As alluded to in previous postings, I keep the Sabbath, eat kosher, wear a kippah on my head, and my wife covers her hair.

B. This matter has drawn a significant amount of media attention upon groups that, by their own unabashed admission, seek insularity.

C. Said media attention has collateral impact upon those of us who are also Torah-observant Jews, but who have not problems with photographs of women (provided that the woman in the photograph is not immodestly or provocatively dressed or demeanored).

D. The media attention generated may well redound to the detriment of the insular groups the news publications in question identify with. Specifically, these same insular groups, which are not known for providing their people with a high degree of self-sustaining vocational skills, are dependent in no small part upon the generosity of charity-givers and/or the politicians. The current ridicule may well dissuade, to one extent or another, the continuation of such generosity, particularly in thin economic times such as those which currently prevail.

In its public apology, the sincerity of which I do not question but the efficacy of which I do, Die Tzeitung described the White House's photograph as "iconic." But if indeed a photograph is truly "iconic" then Die Tzeitung's editors cannot expect their manipulation of it to go unnoticed.

Negotiating with Terrorists

2011-05-08T04:46:00.004Z

Seems that French President Nicolas Sarkozy now threatens to recognize a so-called "Palestinian" state if Israel doesn't restart the negotiations.

Never mind such would amount to suicide on the part of Israel, and never mind that there is no such thing as the "Palestinian People," and never mind that Israel has the right, nay, the duty, to exist in the land G-d gave the Jewish people.

But if indeed Israel is "occupying" the land of Judea and Samaria (never mind that the land is not occupied, but liberated), then Sarkozy has some of his own negotiating to do regarding the separatist political movements in some of the lands which France now occupies. These include the Occitans, Corsicans, Basques and Bretons. This does not even begin to address the overseas lands occupied by France as an oppressive colonial power, including but not limited to Wallis & Futuna and French Guiana.

So come on, Sarko, get your toochas to the negotiating table!

Jewish American Heritage Month

2011-05-01T19:37:00.003Z

Lots of my friends are getting all celebratory over the fact that May is officially Jewish American Heritage Month. President Barack Hussein Obama has once again this year issued a Presidential Proclamation to that effect, and the Library of Congress even has a dedicated website on it.

On one hand, it is not a totally bad thing for the government to recognize the contributions of its Jewish citizens, and send out the metamessage that Jews are not bad people. This is far, far better than is officially done by certain other governments of now and yore, Islamic and otherwise. It is far, far better than U.S. Secretary of State (and later, President) James Monroe's rescission in 1813 of Mordecai Noah's appointment as U.S. Consul to Tunis because he did not want to offend the Bey of Tunis on account of Noah's Jewish faith. [N.B. That excuse doesn't wash because the Bey himself had Jewish representatives in his service, including Aaron Nunez Cardozo in Gibraltar.]. And during his brief tenure as U.S. Counsel to Tunis, Mordechai Noah did have some respectable successes in diplomatically controlling the predations of the Barbary Pirates (who were the Muslim terrorists of the day).

But, proud as I am of the Jewish contributions to America and to the world, this Jewish American Heritage Month thing is not without its uneasiness for me.

Specifically, at what point is the line crossed, and the U.S. government becomes more than just a recognizer of, but a definer and arbiter of the Jewish history and culture and people? They have already done this with the African-American race, and, quite insidiously, now have the Native Americans boxed into being a race of purveyors of tobacco and gambling (and, unfortunately, a disproportionate amount of prostitution).

Moreover, the Government's exemplars of Jews on the website include few if any religiously-observant ones. Which wouldn't be so bad if so many (though not all) of the nonreligious ones they did feature were not so antithetical to the true American values of strength and self-sufficiency.

And, in a broader sense, anything in the hands of Barack Hussein Obama is suspect.

Especially if it is Jewish lives!

I do not need the U.S. government to define my heritage. I do not need the U.S. government to tell me when to celebrate my Jewishness! It is all well and good that May has been declared Jewish American Heritage Month, but in my book, EVERY MONTH is Jewish American Heritage Month!

And so, while I am not without my appreciation of Obama's Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation, I cannot party too heavily over it. Someone's got to be the designated driver, to get people home safely after the party is over!

First Amendment, Second Class Education

2011-04-29T14:27:00.005Z

When I was in senior high school (let alone junior high), it was well understood that students were expected to attend classes for the duration of the class session, until dismissed by the teacher. We were not allowed to cut classes, and we were not allowed to leave the classes before dismissal.

And if, by whatever circumstance, we deigned to walk out of class (or, more commonly, were ordered out by the teacher on account of our suboptimal decorum), we were required to report directly to the Vice Principal's office for such action as he deemed appropriate. All else being equal, the consequences would be a one day after-school detention for the first offense, a two day after-school detention for the second offense, and a one-day suspension for the third offense (a level I was skillful enough to personally achieve).

But now, the New York Civil Liberties Union takes the position that students should be allowed to walk out of classes with impunity if the action is for political purposes! Some students at the Ralph J. Reed Middle School in Central Islip, NY, walked out of classes in protest against some proposed budget cuts by the school district.

Hey, aren't the students allowed to exercise their First Amendment free speech rights by talking about whatever the wish during travel time between classes, during lunch, before and after school, et cetera? Shouldn't the teachers have the right to demand the undivided attention of the students during classes? Apparently, the NYCLU (and by extension, its parent organization, the ACLU, from whose policies the NYCLU would never deviate) thinks that freely walking out of classes in the name of free expression and the First Amendment is more important than a first-rate education.

I can see reasons for prioritizing free expression over education. But if students seek to walk in and out of classes, willy-nilly, and thereby subvert the educational process and the teachers' lesson plans, then they should exercise their First Amendment rights on their parents' dimes, and not the taxpayers'. Because if the teachers are not allowed to teach, then they are relegated to being babysitters, and should be paid babysitter wages with our tax money and not teacher wages.

Better still -- Get the students who do not want to learn out of the classrooms, so that those dedicated professionals in the classrooms can get their smaller class sizes, and those students who do wish to learn can do so without the distraction of the other pantywaist.

There is a time and place for political protest. But there also is a time and place for the education of our children.

To Central Islip School District Superintendent Craig Carr, I say stand by the suspensions and tell the NYCLU to go take a hike!

LIFO and FIFO for Pesach

2011-04-22T02:27:00.001Z

Our Passover seder was very inspiring and enjoyable. This year, my wife's Cousin Shira was once again able to join us, as in some prior years. For those of you who have not been reading the postings, Cousin Shira's sociopolitical outlook tends to gravitate towards the leftward end of the spectrum. This year, she didn't seem as gung-ho about Barack Hussein Obama as in times past. I do enjoy Cousin Shira's company, notwithstanding her politics.

I am not an accountant, but, having attained a MBA degree, I do have a very, very basic understanding of some of the accounting profession's concepts and jargon. In such regard, it is noted that a merchant's inventory can be managed and valued in various ways, and the physical management is not always the same as the valuation method. The valuation method used can make a significant difference, especially when differing quantities are purchased at different times for different prices.

Without getting into too much detail, the three main methods of inventory valuation are First In First Out (FIFO), Last In First Out (LIFO), and Weighted Average. Perishable goods are usually physically managed according to the FIFO method (though they may be valued, for accounting purposes, using LIFO or Weighted Average).

Shortly after my marriage 20-something years ago, I found that I do enjoy eating pickled herring (having theretofore eschewed the food). And so, I usually eat it on Shabbat at my Shul (but that is the only time I ever eat it).

My Rabbi, who takes it upon himself to procure most of the provisions for our sit-down Kiddush meal every Shabbat (the main exception being the baked goods, which are picked up Thursday evening or Friday morning by one of our congregation's members whose office is a few blocks from the bakery we use), informed me that he was unable to find any Kosher for Passover pickled herring.

I went to the local supermarket where we usually obtain the herring, and asked the Deli Manager about it.

Turns out that the jars of the Kosher for Passover herring were still in the walk-in refrigerator, because his inventory management for such perishable goods is FIFO. I explained to him that during the eight days of Passover, certain foods, including pickled herring, need special Passover supervision or religious people such as myself will not eat it.

The Deli Manager thought about it, and then told me that he now understands why the sales of pickled herring were down this week. He instructed one of his underlings to put a few cases of the Kosher L'Pesach pickled herring (3 different brands) into the refrigerator case, so that customers holding by the Pesach kashrut laws would be able to buy it. I purchased four jars and took them to shul this evening. The Rabbi was obviously pleased.

But how much business has been lost because of deli managers who use the FIFO inventory management method with their pickled herring and other perishable foods? And how many, out of ignorance, will decide not to carry pickled herring and other such foods next year?

Pesach 5771

2011-04-18T00:16:00.003Z

Tomorrow evening begins Pesach, and my wife and I are very busy, prepping for the Passover seder we plan to host in our home. Probably will be a small and simple affair, but it is always a special thing. I have a long day tomorrow, still have things to do in preparation, and things that need to be done in my professional life before the holiday (as regular readers of this blog have surmised, I do not do any work during the holiday, including driving, turning electric switches on or off, or going online with the computer).

Here is a Pesach-relevant one now making the e-mail rounds, which I post for everyone's enjoyment, amusement, and introspection:

==================
If the Passover Story had been Reported by The New York Times:

The cycle of violence between the Jews and the Egyptians continues with no end in sight in Egypt. After eight previous plagues that have destroyed the Egyptian infrastructure and disrupted the lives of ordinary Egyptian citizens, the Jews launched a new offensive this week in the form of the plague of darkness.

Western journalists were particularly enraged by this plague. "It is simply impossible to report when you can't see an inch in front of you," complained a frustrated Andrea Koppel of CNN. "I have heard from my reliable Egyptian contacts that in the midst of the blanket of blackness, the Jews were annihilating thousands of Egyptians. Their word is solid enough evidence for me."

While the Jews contend that the plagues are justified given the harsh slavery imposed upon them by the Egyptians, Pharaoh, the Egyptian leader, rebuts this claim. "If only the plagues would let up, there would be no slavery. We just want to live plague-free. It is the right of every society."

Saeb Erekat, an Egyptian spokesperson, complains that slavery is justifiable given the Jews' superior weaponry supplied to them by the superpower God.

The Europeans are particularly enraged by the latest Jewish offensive. "The Jewish aggression must cease if there is to be peace in the region. The Jews should go back to slavery for the good of the rest of the world," stated an angry French President Nicholas Sarkozy.

Even several Jews agree. Adam Shapiro and Arthur Waskow, who are Jewish, have barricaded themselves within Pharaoh's chambers to protect Pharaoh from what is feared will be the next plague, the death of the firstborn. Mr. Shapiro claims that while slavery is not necessarily a good thing, it is the product of the plagues and when the plagues end, so will the slavery.

"The Jews have gone too far with plagues such as locusts and epidemic which have virtually destroyed the Egyptian economy," Rabbi Waskow laments. "The Egyptians are really a very nice people and Pharaoh is kind of huggable once you get to know him," gushes Waskow.

The United States is demanding that Moses and Aaron, the Jewish leaders, continue to negotiate with Pharaoh. While Moses points out that Pharaoh had made promise after promise to free the Jewish people only to immediately break them and thereafter impose harsher and harsher slavery, Richard Boucher of the State Department assails the latest offensive. "Pharaoh is not in complete control of the taskmasters," Mr. Boucher states. "The Jews must return to the negotiating table and will accomplish nothing through these plagues."

The latest round of violence comes in the face of a bold new Saudi peace overture. If only the Jews will give up their language, change their names to Egyptian names and cease having male children, the Arab nations will incline toward peace with them, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah declared.

==================

And so, at a time when the whole world seems to be backing the enemies of the Jews, and insisting that the Jews do suicidal things, we will celebrate our freedom, and our faith that G-d will save us from our current enemies, just as he rescued us from Pharoah.

As for the Jewish leftists who back the enemies of the Jews (and of civilization), they are the Wicked Son as noted in the Haggadah. Had they been in Egypt, they would not have been redeemed.

Obamacare Erosion Begins

2011-04-15T12:44:00.003Z

Yesterday, President Barack Hussein Obama signed into law the Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011.

BHO's statement upon signing the legislation:

"Today, I was pleased to take another step to relieve unnecessary burdens on small businesses by signing H.R. 4 into law. Small business owners are the engine of our economy and because Democrats and Republicans worked together, we can ensure they spend their time and resources creating jobs and growing their business, not filling out more paperwork. I look forward to continuing to work with Congress to improve the tax credit policy in this legislation and I am eager to work with anyone with ideas about how we can make health care better or more affordable."

What does this legislation do? It repeals the selfsame onerous tax reporting requirements imposed upon small businesses by Obama's own Obamacare legislation!

Another flip-flop for BHO!

I am pleased to no end that another misbegotten statutory creation has been removed from the books, in this case very quickly and relatively unobtrusively. But there comes a point where one must question the reliability of a President (or other official, American or otherwise) whose support for the things he advocates wavers, in such short order, on so many issues.

New Levy on Account of Levy?

2011-04-10T04:46:00.008Z

This Blog has had prior occasion to mention Steve Levy, the County Executive of Suffolk County, NY. Steve is once again in the news; specifically, his political career is now on indefinite hold after it came to light that, notwithstanding Steve's public pronouncements of the need to reform the campaign finance laws, his own campaign contributors have included many contractors working on Suffolk County public projects.

This posting will leave to other pundits the issues of the extent of Steve's questionable doings, (2) the terms, if any, of any deal that may have been made with the Suffolk County District Attorney regarding Steve's nonprosecution, (3) the effect of the current Steve Levy scandal on New York politics in general, and (4) speculations regarding Steve's short-term or long-term political future.

What this posting will note is the reactions of two Suffolk County Legislators to the Steve Levy scandal.

Legislator Jay Schneiderman (a political Independent) announced that he wishes to reanimate his proposed legislation to ban "pay to play" political contributions. Schneiderman's bill would impose fines and/or jail time for the tendering of contributions by County contractors and the acceptance of same by officials and candidates.

Legislator Jon Cooper, who co-sponsored Schneiderman's legislation in the past and is doing so again this time around, would go even further. Cooper wants to create a commission to oversee campaign finance in Suffolk County.

In an already overtaxed county, Cooper (a Democrat) seeks to add another governmental agency! This, in my view, is a cure worse than the disease.

Cooper's proposed solution is just so Democrat and Obama! Government bureaucracies cost taxpayer money! While some bureaucracies are needed, the excessive proliferation of bureaucracies is an engine of tyranny, and a menace to our personal freedoms.

What should be done is to add to Schneiderman's bill a provision to provide for the compensation of whistleblowers, or, perhaps, a False Claims Act type provision allowing private parties to initiate lawsuits against contractors and/or politicians who violate the law. This approach could use the existing bureaucratic infrastructure, and not create any new tax-guzzling bureaucratic apparatus.

Mona Lisa

2011-04-01T03:55:00.003Z

The world's most famous painting is arguably Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." Though relatively little is known about Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the subject of the painting, she is a very classy woman, if only by dint of Da Vinci's painting (and probably was more than a little bit classy in life).

Not so with one of her namesakes. The U.S. Tax Court case of Mona Lisa Herrington v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2011-73, is the tale of a poor excuse for a woman who was abused by a poor excuse for a man, but who prevailed in Tax Court (against a poor excuse for IRS case management) on her contention that the money her abuser expropriated from her business constituted a deductible theft loss.

That this Mona Lisa was in the business of tax return preparation with her H & R Block franchise, and that she had in a separate criminal proceeding pleaded guilty to willfully failing to file her own tax returns, does not alter the situation except to make it more grave.

So read it and enjoy it, and remember that the deadline for filing your tax returns is fast approaching (I received my refund earlier this week, thank you).

The case is Mona Lisa Herrington v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2011-73.

Where Did All That Money Come From?

2011-03-22T03:39:00.003Z

The New York State judiciary has been perceived by many as viewing itself above the need to share in the pain of the current budgetary crisis. Judges whine that their salaries are far below what they could earn in private law practice, never mind that they chose to run for the seat on the bench in the first place. The New York Court of Appeals is now completing, if it has not already completed, construction of luxury apartments for its judges to use while up in Albany. Many court personnel are where they are on account of political patronage, which wouldn't be so bad if so many of them were not so insolent towards the attorneys and members of the public whose circumstances compel dealings with the court system. And Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman did a lot of pouting and pissing and moaning before he grudgingly conceded the need for the judiciary to make some painful cuts in its budget.

But there is at least one judge who understands his duty to stand watch over the public purse. Justice Robert A. Ross, of the Nassau County Supreme Court (don't be too impressed by the "Supreme" terminology; the county Supreme Courts in New York are the lowest courts of general jurisdiction), has before him the matrimonial action of Felice Cohen against Eyal Cohen. In the course of the proceedings, Eyal had asserted that his income was approximately $10,000 per year and that he lived rent-free on Mom & Dad's dime, and, pleading poverty, was assigned counsel (i.e., on the taxpayers' dime).

Eyal apparently had been less than fully cooperative with the Court's directives, and a contempt hearing (not the first one) had been scheduled. Shortly before the scheduled contempt hearing, Felice and Eyal reached a settlement whereby Eyal would pay Felice a settlement of $45,000.

The numbers did not add up when Justice Ross crunched them. How would a person whose income is only $45,000 and who has few assets come up with $45,000? It is one thing to hide assets and income from your soon-to-be-ex spouse. But Eyal hid the assets and income from the Court, and, based upon Eyal's representations, the Court upheld Eyal's Constitutional right to counsel by dipping into the public fisc to engage an attorney for Eyal.

Judge Ross has now called upon Eyal to attend a hearing to explain the apparent discrepancy. In his order, the Judge gives Eyal the opportunity to file an amended Statement of Net Worth, and, to spare Felice's purse, has dispensed with the need for her to attend the hearing. Unless Eyal has a good and credible and documentable explanation, it seems that Judge Ross intends to make Eyal reimburse the State for paying the assigned counsel. And if Eyal did make a major misrepresentation to the Court, then his proper and honest filing of an amended Statement of New Worth would, in all likelihood, give Judge Ross a basis for not sending Eyal to the slammer.

After 20-something years, my own marriage is in no danger of going before Judge Ross or any of his colleagues on the bench. This good investment in my marriage has saved my wife and I lots of money that otherwise would go to the divorce lawyers. It also has saved the taxpayers of New York the expense of having another matrimonial action work its slow and convoluted way through the judicial system.

Useful Idiots as Sacrificial Lambs

2011-03-20T02:38:00.002Z

First and foremost, let me wish everyone a Happy Purim. This world has so many Hamans, but only one Purim!

I'm now between trips out of town, and will be on the go for much of this coming week. One place I will not be going is to Albany, New York. It seems as though the far-far-left faculty union of which I am (reluctantly) a member is trying to mobilize its members to go to Albany to protest against Governor Cuomo's budget cuts to education.

This, of course, places me into a bind. On one hand, it is clear that the taxpayers of New York need to have significant relief, and significant and painful budget cuts must be instituted. On the other hand, some of the proposed cuts may well affect a portion of my regular income (and, for that matter, a portion of the regular income of my wife).

But my union is not only protesting the budget cuts, they are also protesting the proposed tuition increases. And my local chapter president, who majored in economics as an undergrad, is fully aware that what is being proposed means higher taxes. Can you say "Redistributionist?"

In any event, the union is calling for a peaceful protest, yet is providing civil disobedience training and transportation reimbursement for those who are willing to get themselves arrested. I've seen enough in my years on this earth to know that "peaceful" protests that end up in mass arrests usually, in fact, do not play out quite as peaceable as the organizers would have the world believe.

This is one where I would say that individual union members need to follow their consciences as to whether, and what degree, they actively oppose the proposed budgetary cuts.

Point of information: My local chapter's Chair and Vice Chair, who are circulating the "Come to Albany and Protest" e-mail, have admitted that "for reasons essentially related to [their] teaching" they themselves will not be showing up in Albany.

Okay, I can buy off on that excuse (though I know of at least one far-left union-active colleague who has admitted that he cannot risk arrest for another few months, until his criminal case, now ACD (adjourned in contemplation of dismissal), actually gets dismissed).

But my local chapter's leadership would carry far, far greater credibility and respect if at least some local chapter officers were willing to go to Albany and stick out their own wrists for the handcuffs.

Zsa Zsa Gabor's Standing in the Matter

2011-03-04T14:07:00.001Z

Okay, so some of you will call this title's double entendre a cheap shot, but I think that it is quite appropriate under the circumstances, both current and historical.

I never really was able to classify Zsa Zsa Gabor. She is a poor excuse for an actress, a movie star or an entertainer. Those few of her appearances I happened to have watched on the lobotomy box were never anything memorable to write home about. And, in life off the stage, screen or tube, she is, by all credible accounts, a narcissistic, self-centered and inconsiderate boor.

But now she is in the news for her refusal to undergo a second leg amputation.

I will not second guess Zsa Zsa's (or anyone else's) decision as to the legitimate medical treatments she accepts or rejects. And, notwithstanding my low opinion of Zsa Zsa, I do empathize with her medical situation, having grown up with a grandfather who was an amputee and having seen the many difficulties he faced -- and overcame. It takes a special kind of courage and strength of character to deal with that type of thing. If, like Zsa Zsa, you do not have it, then there is little anyone can do to help you.

Having stated this, I cannot help but note that in 1983, when Zsa Zsa was performing live in Philadelphia, she insisted that a group of wheelchair users be removed from the front rows because she was repulsed at the sight of them. G-d works in strange ways, and now, Zsa Zsa, having lost one of her legs to gangrene, is herself now a person with a disability.

Apparently, as one who is repulsed by the very sight of people with disabilities, Zsa Zsa is now repulsed even by herself, and does not have what it takes to deal with life after the amputation.

Voter Registration Forms in Color

2011-02-28T04:47:00.001Z

According to the New York Post, Peter Rivera, a New York State Assemblyman from the Bronx, seeks to introduce a bill to require racial and ethnic data on voter registration forms.

This is, of course, absurd on its face. For one thing, there has not really been any racial purity amongst the population for the past 2,000 years or so. How would someone of diverse parentage and grandparentage fill out the form? And, of no less concern, what would be gained by placing what would inevitably be a strain on the New York State Budget, which is in poor shape as it now is?

What is even more amazing (though not at all unwelcome) is that the Congress for Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) and the NAACP are not warming up to the idea! Given the historical stances taken by those two groups, one would not be surprised to see either back such a scheme.

But it does sort of make sense for CORE and NAACP to steer clear of this one. They stand to gain little, and in fact, it may well backfire by yielding statistics which would embarrass them. There is too much of whatever credibility CORE and NAACP may possess that would be risked. Hey, it is so easy to register to vote by mail anymore that NAACP and CORE would be very hard pressed to find any of their constituents actually being denied the right to vote on racial or ethnic grounds.

Whether the nonplussedness (if there is such a word) of CORE and NAACP is based upon principle (which I sort of doubt) or practicality, it should be a signal to Rivera to forget about the whole thing and stick his proposed bill into the paper shredder.

Taxing Sleep and Sweat

2011-02-16T04:17:00.001Z

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has just complained to the Office of Congressional Ethics regarding various Congresscritters who sleep in their offices and use the House Gym to shower. According to CREW, this is a misuse of House resources for personal purposes, and a violation of the tax laws if the value of this perquisite is not reported as personal income.

I truly have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, CREW's personnel seem to fall largely into the left-of-center ranges of the political spectrum. On the other hand, CREW does not seem to discriminate on the basis of political orientation when it shoots barbs at Congresscritters and others.

On one hand, the various and sundry self-appointed government ethics watchdogs will invariably start barking and blowing whistles whenever a Congresscritter goes on a travel junket or on a vacation to an exotic place. This time, the Congresscritters complained of are in fact spending more time in their offices, which, one would think, would be where they ought to be spending time.

As for using the House Gym to shower, there are plenty who would complain even louder if the Congresscritters didn't shower. Imponderable: Just how intense a workout must the Congresscritters do at the gym in order to legitimately use the showers? Is three drops of sweat enough, or do they have to be totally farshvitzed?

And as for sleeping in their offices: How does sleeping in their offices at night conceptually differ from putting their heads down on their desks for a 5 or 10 minute nap during lunch break? And isn't the public better served if its legislators can get immediately to work without a long, tiring commute? Or, for that matter, a leisurely commute in the back of a taxpayer-financed limousine?

[Disclosure: I took a 1-hour nap in my office today before teaching my classes. I do similarly at least once per month, and sometimes more frequently.].

On one hand, a Congresscritter's control of his or her own office expenditures redounds to the benefit of the public. On the other hand, shouldn't those Congresscritters who want to ramp up the taxes on the more affluent of American society themselves be taxed for the privileges of office they themselves receive?

I'm pleased to no end that there is a group holding Congress's collective feet to the fire in a politically-neutral manner. But this complaint to the OCE, I believe, has more than a few wasteful and nitpicking aspects.

Crediting the Public Purse

2011-02-13T01:34:00.003Z

Haven't posted in a while, preoccupied as I have been with teaching, the law practice, and some travel.

Remember how the banks were whining when Congress recently imposed more consumer-friendly restrictions on their credit card operations? Well, the solicitations from the banks for credit card accounts have continued to come to my mailbox, unabated. This includes me, the wife, kids, an alias I used a number of years ago to investigate a former client's case, and my son's pet guinea pig who passed away about 9 years ago and whose name was once used as an alias by my son. And our names are not always spelled correctly.

As much as we might despise the banking industry, I think we can all agree that the executives in that industry are, intellectually speaking, at the upper reaches of the bell curve. And I would venture to say that the industry as a whole would not continue its wholesale mail solicitation program if its upper managers believed it to be money-losing proposition.

But these solicitations, as often as not, contain a business reply envelope with the legend "no postage necessary if mailed in the United States."

So I take the envelope in which the solicitation arrived, tear off any identifying info that might be on it (oftentimes there is none), fold up the solicitation envelope and stuff it into the business reply envelope. I then put it in with my stack of outgoing mail.

In addition to the basic postage (currently 44 cents), the addressee pays a per piece fee (now 10 cents for the high volume accounts).

And because the bank's addresses are high volume addresses, the Postal Service can deliver efficiently, i.e., make some profit on each mailpiece.

Postal delivery service is one of the relatively few legitimate functions of a sovereign government (The fact that the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 transformed the postal apparatus from a Cabinet Department to a public corporation is only incidental). Giving money to failing banks is not a legitimate function of sovereign government.

And so, I recoup the TARP funds from the banking industry back into the public fisc, one half dollar at a time.

The Egyptian Plague

2011-01-30T03:17:00.001Z

Egypt has long been susceptible to plagues. Though the incident of the Ten Plagues in the time of Moses is the most well known, plagues have afflicted Egypt numerous times since.

The typical pattern is that the plague originates elsewhere, but is somehow brought to Egypt, where it quickly mutates and expands and becomes epidemic, often afflicting lands beyond Egypt. Such was the case of the plague described by Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War (he himself had a bout with the plague). The plague that affected the war between Athens and Sparta originated in Ethiopia or other parts up the Nile, came to Egypt, and then went to Libya and Greece.

Today, Egypt is afflicted with a different kind of plague. This plague is political unrest. In this case, the "plague" originated in Tunisia, and now, there is rioting and looting in the streets of Cairo. The regime of Hosni Mubarak is seriously threatened.

My comments:

(1) Egypt is, to be sure, a pharaonic dictatorship where human rights are severely restricted. Mubarak, like his predecessors Sadat and Nasser, is a corruptocrat who has allowed his people to languish in poverty, and cares only for his personal aggrandizement. But if his regime is overthrown, will the next one give the Egyptians any more personal freedoms? I remember the overthrow of the Shah in Iran, and, as we see to this very day, the Islamicist regime of Khomeini and his successors is far, far more repressive than that of the Shah.

(2) Senator Rand Paul has been talking about cutting aid to Israel as a means to help balance the Federal budget. This raises several issues:

(A) Without accusing the Senator of anything, my inborn Jewish paranoia makes me wonder whether Rand Paul's position is born of some sort of personal dislike for the Jewish people. I have never met Senator Paul (though I have personally met his father and the experience made me very wary of him, notwithstanding my approval of many of his "on paper" ideas), and am not in a position to make a conclusive judgment in that regard.

(B) American foreign policy has long been to provide aid to the Arab and Muslim nations in order to keep Israel dependent upon American foreign aid. All else being equal, if American foreign aid to Egypt and the other Arab countries is significantly reduced then much of the foreign aid dollars to Israel would become unnecessary.

(C) But all else is not equal. Specifically, if America cuts aid to Egypt, then it will surely seek out other patrons to fund it. These patrons can be Saudi Arabia or Iran.

(D) More to the point: If the United States pulls its funding from Egypt, then Russia and/or China would likely consider filling the vacuum.

This plague in Egypt will make lots of people very, very sick!

State Courts, Federalist Principles

2011-01-26T03:54:00.001Z

New York City is now faced with a budgetary crunch. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as CEO of New York City, is now doing what any other CEO would and should do in such a situation -- he is looking for ways to cut expenditures. One such cost-cutting measure contemplated by the Bloomberg administration is the demotion and/or layoff of some Deputy Sheriffs. The Deputy Sheriffs, what with their union representation, went to court to attempt to keep their jobs.

And Supreme Court Justice Emily Jane Goodman (in New York, the Supreme Court is the LOWEST court of general jurisdiction, the trial court) issued a Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting the demotions or layoffs until a hearing is held and the TRO is lifted.

Bloomie didn't like the Judge's decision, and he was not reticent to express his mind, in relatively strident terms, on his weekly radio program. Specifically, he called upon Judge Jonathan Lippman, the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals (the Highest court in the State of New York), to step in and give Justice Goodman a talking-to.

For those unfamiliar with court procedures, this would constitute a significant circumvention of the normal order of things (and in fact would be highly illegal). According to the duly legislated procedures, Justice Goodman will hold her hearing, and then, if any party is dissatisfied, they can appeal to the Appellate Division. Then, and only then (and only if the statutory conditions for appealability pertain), can the case go to the Court of Appeals and be heard by Chief Judge Lippman.

And now, the New York County Lawyers Association has come down very hard against Bloomie's judge-bashing remarks.

I have mixed feelings about this all. On one hand, the Mayor should be able to control the NYC budget, and cut back on expenses. On the other hand, the Deputy Sheriffs have the right to fight to keep their jobs. And yes, Bloomberg's remarks were very high-handed, and I'll even go so far to say that they were unbecoming of a man who is supposed to set the public tone for law and order. But he does have certain freedoms of expression.

The NYCLA does have credibility, and has long occupied the moral high ground. After all, in the early 1950's, NYCLA admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion or gender when the other leading lawyer's professional organization in New York City, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, effectively discriminated against Jews, Irish, Blacks and women (though ABCNY has certainly distanced itself far beyond that mindset during the ensuing years).

And Justice Goodman, whose accomplished career as a journalist did not come to an abrupt halt at her robing ceremony, does not seem to be fazed by Hizzoner's strident remarks.

What is now happening is precisely what "Publius" (it is uncertain whether it was Alexander Hamilton or James Madison) expounded in Federalist Paper No. 51, which was specifically addressed to the People of the State of New York and published in the New York Packet on 8 February 1788:

"To what expedient, then, shall we finally resort, for maintaining in practice the necessary partition of power among the several departments, as laid down in the Constitution? The only answer that can be given is, that as all these exterior provisions are found to be inadequate, the defect must be supplied, by so contriving the interior structure of the government as that its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places."

In other words, the various branches of the government must provide checks and balances upon one another so that no one branch oversteps its bounds.

Those Deputy Sheriffs may well be cut from the public payroll, or they may continue to burden New York City's budget (and being that the New York City budget is heavily subsidized by infusions from Albany, the burden will fall more upon the taxpayers of the State than upon the City). Whichever way the matter is ultimately resolved, it will be done so in a manner that keeps too much power from being concentrated in the hands of too few. It may not be the most efficient way in the world, but given Mr. Bloomberg's proven propensity to play the nanny in the personal lives of his constituents, I'll take a little inefficiency over an unchecked appetite for tyranny.

Rabbi Weinberg Memorial Tribute

2011-01-16T02:49:00.003Z

We all need heroes, and Rabbi Noah Weinberg is one mine. I met him personally on two occasions, the details of which, highly positive and inspiring as they are, are also highly personal and shall not now burden the reader.

Given the high regard in which I shall always hold the Rabbi, the reader is now directed to a memorial tribute to Rabbi Weinberg by Jonathan Rosenblum. I am hard-pressed to put things any more eloquently.

May his memory be for a blessing!

Tickling the Ivories

2011-01-12T19:04:00.001Z

My daily reading menu includes the Federal Register. In the big law firms, one or more junior associates are stuck with that task, and they are expected to bring pertinent matters in the daily Federal Register to the attention of one or more partners. As a solo practitioner, it falls upon me to do the daily Federal Register duty.

In today's Federal Register, there is an item from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, "Designation Pursuant to Executive Order 13396 of February 7, 2006, 'Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in Cote d'Ivoire.' "

The designation essentially freezes the United States property of Laurent Gbagbo and his wife and close associates. Gbagbo, for the uninitiated, is one of the contenders for the disputed Presidency of the Ivory Coast (or Cote d'Ivoire en Francais). His opponent, Alassane Ouattara, also claims victory in the disputed 2010 election. Most of the international community recognizes Ouattara as the legitimate winner of the election, though there were, to say the least, irregularities on either side.

I am no great fan of Gbagbo, nor of Ouattara. Africa is not noted for its effective governments or skilled native statesmen. I take no position as to who should be the rightful winner of the election. Neither of them can be trusted any further than one can throw the Empire State Building.

I am, however, concerned as to the baggage that Ouattara might be carrying. Gbagbo is a Christian. Ouattara is from a Muslim tribe and has connections to Burkina Faso. I am concerned that a regime under Ouattara might be more conducive to Islamist terrorist activity against the West than would a Gbagbo regime.

This is not to say that Ouattara should be opposed merely because he is a Muslim. It is not to say that he is not the legitimate winner of the Presidency of the Ivory Coast. It is not to say that the nations of the world should not recognize him as the President of the Ivory Coast. It is not to say that Gbagbo's insurgency should be tolerated by America and the world.

But on the opposite side of the African continent there is another election in progress as I write this posting. It is a referendum on the question of independence for Southern Sudan. By all accounts, a vote in favor of independence is almost a forgone conclusion.

But the Sudan conflict is also, in essence, a Muslim-Christian war. It is fair to ask the question as to the chances of a militant Islamic insurgency taking control in the nominally independent Southern Sudan. And it is fair to ask whether, in such an event, such an insurgency would be tolerated by Barack Hussein Obama and the world.

The Rampage in Tucson

2011-01-10T01:21:00.003Z

This shooting in Tucson has, of course, commandeered the front pages of the news media. My comments, in no particular order:

1. The media is making a big deal over the fact that a Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, was seriously wounded. Relegated to the end of the story (if it is even in the story) is that there were six people actually killed -- including Judge John Roll, and a 9-year-old girl, Christina Green. But now, it looks as though Christina will start getting more ink, but only because she was the granddaughter of Dallas Green, who served as Manager of the Phillies, Yankees and Mets.

2. The MSM has been implicitly -- and sometimes, explicitly -- blaming it on the various right-wing political philosophies that have been expressed of late. But the shooter was connected with some anti-Semitic organizations whose party lines have had more in common with the far left. Why aren't those people blamed?

3. Amongst some of circles I frequent, much has been made of the fact that Congresswoman Giffords is the offspring of a non-Jewish mother, and therefore not technically Jewish. This, to me, is both accurate and irrelevant! This should not be about my philosophical disputes, or anyone else's, with the so-called Reform Judaism; nor even about my political differences (or anyone else's) with Gabrielle Giffords (of which I have many). I respect Ms. Giffords as an accomplished woman who, notwithstanding her political orientation, has displayed far more rationality than many at either extreme of the political spectrum. I wish her the very best.

4. Judge Roll's murder was a tremendous loss to America's judiciary. But even if he had been a lesser legal light, his murder would still strike a blow to law and order.

5. A number of pundits and commentators (many of whom do not merit such an honorific) have been blaming the shooting on Sarah Palin's public pronouncements using firearms metaphors. I am willing, to an extent, to find possible validity to the theory. After all, words and ideas do have consequences. But quite notably, one of these people who has been blaming the likes of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck has been none other than Jane Fonda. I daresay that Hanoi Jane's extreme and public statements some years ago, before the Internet age enabled the quick and expeditious communication to the masses, contributed to the killing of far, far more Americans and South Vietnamese. Jane Fonda, no less than Sarah Palin, ought be held to the same standard, and called to account for her lethal statements.

Til Divorce Do You Part

2011-01-05T21:54:00.001Z

My own marriage has been going strong for 20+ years, and when the nearly 3-year courtship period is tacked on, my wife and I are somewhat closer to 30 than to 20. We consider ourselves to be very blessed and fortunate, but we have had to work very diligently to make it work.

Within our socioreligious circle, the divorce rate seems to be on the increase. In a conversation this past Shabbat, my wife and I counted three children of our contemporaries, whose weddings we attended, who are now divorced. Our son, who now is living out of the house in his apartment (with a roommate), will likely be in the marriage market in the relatively near future.

By all indications, the divorce rate is on the increase, in all population sectors. And regardless of how strong one thinks his or her marriage may be, anyone who claims to not be at least somewhat frightened by this rising divorce trend is not being totally honest.

Divorce has a way of messing up and complicating all aspects of life. The very first Slip Opinion issued by the New York State Unified Court System in Calendar Year 2011 is just one example of this. The case is Simkin v. Blank, 2011 N.Y. Slip Op. 00001. Here, a divorce has further complicated some of the damage done by Bernie Madoff.

I don't have any particularly useful answers to the divorce crisis. But my wife and I at least are doing our part by staying together, resolving the problems that continually arise between us, and striving towards compatible life goals. The fact that we love one another is immaterial, but it certainly makes it all far, far more enjoyable.

There is (1) a dissenting opinion in this Appellate Division decision; and (2) it reverses the decision of the trial court. On those two grounds, the case may be appealed to the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, the highest Court in the State. Given the dollar value involved, such an appeal is more likely than not.

Ah, the things I am missing by staying married (and by not having invested my money with Bernard Madoff).

The Meaning of Christmas & New Year's Day

2011-01-02T03:04:00.005Z

I, of course, do not celebrate the Christmas holidays. Nevertheless, to say the least, many of my friends and neighbors do, and this I do not begrudge them. Many of my neighbors spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on outdoor seasonal displays, which they no doubt have done with due regard for the household budgetary needs.

One of my neighbors whose outdoor accoutrements run towards the more ornate on the street has, among his several illuminated holiday themes, a Knights of Columbus "Keep Christ in Christmas" display. This I find not one bit offensive in the least, and I have told this particular neighbor as much. The more that the Christ is kept in Christmas, the more Jewish people will realize that it is not our holiday, and that we have our own holidays to celebrate.

And the more Christians will realize that Jewish people have a right to live in the so-called "West Bank" of the Jordan River. After all, more than 2000 years ago a Jewish baby was born to a Jewish family in the town of Bethlehem, which is located there. Contrary to what the Muslims and their allies and dupes would have the world believe, we Jews do in fact have a long, strong and documented connection to the territory from which our enemies now seek to exclude us.

When Christians celebrate Christmas, then, they are confirming and affirming the Jewish people's right to live in all of the land of Israel! So yes, all you Knights of Columbus, please do keep the Christ in Christmas!

And, if Christmas was the first day, then the eighth day is New Year's Day, which in fact is celebrated as the Feast of the Circumcision of a Jewish boy born to a Jewish family in the land to which the enemies of the Jews now deny we have any historic connection.

Fast Forward 2010 years (there being no Year Zero under the common era dating system):

The New Year's Eve celebration in New York at Times Square drew hundreds of thousands of people, both locals and visitors from around the country and the world.

As mentioned in a prior posting, I endeavor to avoid such crowd situations. This year, however, it was totally out of the question, because New Year's Eve fell on Friday night, which is my religious Sabbath and all that it entails.

So where do I stand on the Times Square festivities?

First of all, New Year's Day is, for me, an administrative new year because that is upon which the world operates. It means, for example, that I need to get my financial records in order so that I can do my tax returns. It has no religious significance to me (though, as mentioned above, it certainly does hold religious significance to others).

Secondly, I am saddened by the number of Jewish people out there who were desecrating the Sabbath. I would like to see more Jews observe the Sabbath, and maintain the kosher dietary laws. Unfortunately, achieving that ideal would require so many of my fellow Jews to make so many changes which they are not yet ready to make in their personal and professional lives, and in their interpersonal relationships. I can and do invite and encourage; I cannot (and do not even attempt to) compel.

Having said this, I view the Times Square events last night quite positively. For one thing, the participation in the event by many visitors from around the world provided some much needed economic stimulus for the region.

More importantly, the enemies of America, of the Jews, and of civilization do not want there to be any New Year's Eve festivities (except as targets for catastrophic high-carnage acts of terrorism). Had the celebration not come off, then it would have been a victory for the Muslim extremist elements.

It is important to continue and develop that tradition of Guy Lombardo, Dick Clark, Ryan Seacrest, and, hopefully, others to follow into the far future. And so, to all, I wish a Happy New Year!

White Christmas

2010-12-26T02:03:00.003Z

To all of my friends out there who celebrated Christmas, I hope that you had a merry one. The weather forecasters inform us that the next 48 hours will make lots of the Eastern Seaboard, from Washington to New England, very white indeed, albeit after the holiday.

As is making the newsrounds, John White and his family received a very nice Xmas present from Governor David Paterson. White was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of Daniel Cicciaro Jr., as Cicciaro and his friends converged on White's home in Miller Place, NY. Governor Paterson, the lame duck Chief Executive of the State of New York, commuted White's sentence to time served, and White was home for the holiday.

Cicciaro and his friends were white, and White is black, and the whole matter has lots of racial overtones and undertones. One mitigating factor in White's original sentence was that White said, with some degree of credibility, that he feared a lynch mob. Cicciaro & company did, after all, converge on White's house to send a message to White's son, who had been alleged (apparently falsely) to have issued a rape threat against a white girl.

I have mixed feelings on this one. First of all, Paterson's failure to alert Cicciaro's family that he was issuing the commutation belies a severe disregard for the rights of victims. And as blogged previously in connection with this case, any matter in which Fat Al Sharpton issues a commendatory statement is always, always suspect unless demonstrated otherwise.

But one test I apply to determine my objectivity is to inquire what the stance would be if the religious, ethnic and/or social groups were to be switched or shifted. And so, I now inquire of myself what my position would be if John White were Jewish. I have had some occasions in my formative years to face gangs of Gentile kids (their specific ethnicities are not particularly relevant) with violent intentions against me and/or my companions. And I know a number of Jewish people who have actually been on the receiving end of violence by gangs of Caucasian non-Jewish gangs coming up to their homes.

[While I make no claims to being totally free of biases, I do not automatically side with Jewish criminals. This Blog's past postings regarding the recent Florida execution of cop-killer Martin Grossman should bear that out.].

If John White had been a Jewish man whose family was threatened by a mob of white Gentile teenagers who came to his house, then, under the circumstances, I would have some empathy for John White. Yes, Mr. White did overreact in trying to protect his family from what he believed was lethal danger, and so, he certainly deserves some sort of punishment. There also was a settlement for an undisclosed sum in a civil lawsuit by Cicciaro's parents against White. But what Cicciaro and his mob did was wrong!

On Long Island, law enforcement agencies and community activists are always talking about the problem of criminal gangs of youths. And almost all of those gangs are Black and/or Latino. Why do white gangs pose less of a threat to society?

Were I the Governor, I likely would have let John White's sentence of 2 - 4 years stand. In that regard, Paterson commuted White's sentence to time served; he did not pardon White. John White can go right back to the slammer to resume his original sentence if he commits any further crimes.

But Paterson's commutation states what Cicciaro's family and friends have yet to acknowledge: Cicciaro's mob behavior was wrong and unacceptable!

There is plenty of blame to go around on this one, and no ideal resolution to the tragedy. But Paterson, with only days to go before leaving the Governor's Mansion, sent out a message that does need to be sent.

Scoring at the Mets Game

2010-12-23T03:26:00.002Z

Apparently, it is not unusual for elementary school students to have a crush on their teachers. I say "apparently" because it is not a matter of firsthand knowledge for me. To me, teachers -- even the ones I personally liked -- were agents of The Enemy. As much as I enjoyed many aspects of my grade school and high school experience, I was always, from day one, disdainful of the controlling authority they represented. It was not until college that I had anything remotely resembling an attraction for any of my professors (and the most that ever came of that was, on one occasion, when she gave me a ride in her car to the train station on a foul weather day).

[As surely you gather, I knew quite well the furniture layouts inside the principals' offices of the schools I attended.].

It was only at the verge of my adulthood that I began to realize that the teachers who knocked me around the most for my less-than-optimal attitudes were the ones who believed, deep in their hearts, that I would one day wise up and become a respectable and contributing member of society. It was "tough love" in an era before that term was widely used. Their faith in me was not misplaced, I am grateful to report. And I am willing to bet that, as long as they were able, they followed my career from afar, along with other problem children whom they helped to set straight, just as I take due note of my own former students who achieve in their chosen fields.

No, I did not cuddle up with adoration to my teachers. But some kids do. And such kids are vulnerable, big time, if the teacher to whom the cuddle up has nefarious intentions.

Randy Mudge is one such teacher. Mudge, of the Hunter-Tannersville Central School District in New York was suspended by the Commissioner of Education upon the finding that, on at least two occasions (in 1989 and 1992), he gave favored treatment to certain female students under his tutelage, and then, after they graduated and attained the legal age of 18 years, took them to Mets games and, after the respective games, had nominally consensual sex with the respective young ladies in the back of his vehicle in the Shea Stadium parking lot.

The Education Commissioner found that Mudge had groomed the young ladies for the sex while they were still his students and underage, and, finding that he lacked the requisite good moral character, suspended his teaching certificate for a year.

Mudge appealed, and the Court backed the Commissioner.

My questions:

1. Does the Education Department really expect that Mudge will somehow acquire the good moral character necessary to be a school teacher during the course of his one-year suspension?

2. What took so long for the case to be reported and acted upon?

3. What parent of a teenage girl would allow their daughter to go out to a baseball game, with a male teacher, unaccompanied? [Note: There were several outings to Mets games before graduation, before the ones when Mudge actually shtupped his by then former students.].

On this last one, I have a theory, albeit not a scientifically-tested one: People who are raised to never question authority have too much trust for any authority. Such blind trust is passed down from generation to generation, resulting in a society that is easily led astray by the government, etc.

But, having had an innate disdain for authority, I never had that problem!

The mom of a student who attended my son's day school (but who was not in my son's class) reported to my wife that her daughter had seen my son standing out in the hallway, obviously for disciplinary purposes. At the parent-teacher conference night about a week later, my son's rabbi/teacher told me and my wife that our son had gotten a bit out of bounds, and it was necessary to expel him from the classroom.

The colloquy went something like this:

Rabbi: "Your son has, of late, gotten a bit disruptive in class, so I had to make him stand outside in the hall a few times in the past two weeks."

Wife: "What did he do?"

Rabbi: "He wouldn't pay attention and was telling jokes to the other boys when I was trying to teach."

Wife: "So did you send him to the Principal's Office?"

Rabbi: "No! I just sent him out to stand in the hall. Sending him to the Principal's office would only brand him. I just wanted to get him out of the classroom so I could teach. Unless they are really, really disruptive or dangerous, I keep the Principal out of it"

Me (to Wife): "I always knew that our son was an outstanding student!!"

My wife began to wince, but the Rabbi laughed. And I knew that he would appreciate the humor. After all, we had known him when he was still in high school, and knew that he, in a similar vein, had also been "outstanding" in the hall on more than one occasion. The Rabbi, too, had a healthy portion of skepticism for authority and the government.

Somehow, I think that this Rabbi's daughters are not going to be such easy scores at any baseball game. As it is, they do not blindly accept whatever the government feeds them.

When is The Internet not the Internet?

2010-12-21T05:30:00.001Z

Past postings have speculated on the prospects for the insular religious Jewish communities in general, and the Agudath Israel of America in particular, becoming an internet presence. The rabbinical sages have nominally banned the Internet (with an ever-growing list of exceptions for business and livelihood purposes). It has been, and continues to be, my contention that official acceptance of the Internet will occur gradually, as the rabbis are able to find credible face-saving stories to make it look as though they are not backpedaling from their original stance.

[Note the use of the term "official" acceptance; many in the insular communities alreadly are cryptocyberians.].

Well, I got the latest Hamodia weekly edition today from my usual source, and, in a 2-page spread on pages C28 and C29, Hamodia announces its "Free Digital Edition," "Opening a Clean Window to the World," with the blessings of the rabbinical sages. An Internet version of the same display ad is available here (and you can read it in its entirety if you are so inclined). The long and the short of it is that it involves a one-site connection with no active clickable links, so you cannot be exposed to any material that will evoke impure thoughts.

Curiously, the internet version of the display ad (but not the print version) bears the legend "Hamodia's Clean Window email edition does not in any way endorse or condone personal/home email/internet use."

So the "Clean Window" edition of Hamodia is delivered over email, which supposedly is to be accessed only in the office and not at home. I think we all (including the rabbis) know that there are more homes with internets in these insular communities than anyone cares to publicly admit, but it still has to be kept sub rosa.

I note one teenage girl's account: "One friend goes to a really religious school and tells me that if her principal knew she had an email address she would be kicked out." This young lady's friend would do well to obtain the principal's own e-mail address (and preferably, those of her husband, children and mother-in-law). That way, any threatened expulsion from school can be parried by a threatened public disclosure of the principal's own family e-mail addresses.

If this Hamodia "Clean Window" thing is successful, then I would not be a bit surprised if similar technologies from similar vendors were to become a component of the Agudath Israel's soon-to-be-resurrected Jewish Observer. They will be pleased to use the internet, as long as it isn't really the internet.

Orts & Ephemera:

2010-12-19T06:26:00.001Z

I have administered my Final Exams for the semester. Proctoring the exam, attending a departmental meeting, and showing up in court, all in a day's work.

Now the Final Exams need to be graded. Understand that these are essay exams for the "Writing Across the Curriculum" courses I teach. And, oh yes, there are also Term Papers to grade.

In addition to grading papers and exams, there are some submission deadlines for a group report, and I must also begin to draft the written materials for a continuing professional education course to be taught in a few months.

And then, there are the clients, one of whom I just spoke with this evening at shul. Yes, I am busy, busy, busy!

The posting of 6 December 2010 wondered how certain news rags aimed at the insular religious Jewish communities would deal with the story of Haifa police chief Ahuva Tomer and her death while trying to rescue victims of the big forest fire in Israel. Hamodia didn't mention her at all, but Yated Ne'eman told the story relatively straight. As always, neither of those papers publishes pictures of women, so Ahuva wasn't pictured in either.

Given all of the things going on in the world at this time, Ahuva is no longer front-page material. It would not surprise me, however, if she comes back to life, so to speak, in the news media, during the coming months.

I don't claim to be adhering to any formal 12-step program, but I am now in my 13th day of freedom from playing Killer Sudoku and Boggle online. These wasteful activities were keeping me up into the wee hours of the morning, detracting from my efficacy, and sapping my creative energies. I decided that I needed to curtail these activities. And so, after oversleeping following too many hours on the Boggle website, I woke up and decided that, just for that day, there would be no Boggle and no Killer Sudoku. My creativity has begun to recover, I am accomplishing more in a day, I am sleeping slightly (but only slightly) better, and I am less irritable.

There is an excellent chance that I will get through tomorrow without any Boggle or Killer Sudoku, thus achieving the 2-week mark.

The Madoff Suicide

2010-12-13T08:03:00.001Z

The suicide of Mark Madoff is tragic on all levels. Never mind that he was the son of Bernard Madoff, arguably the world's most hated person. Never mind whether or to what extent Mark was or was not complicit in his father's sinister machinations. Never mind the lawsuits to which Mark was a party at the time of his suicide (and which will, no doubt, continue forward with his estate as a party). And please, dump your inclination to comment to the effect that this was the wrong Madoff.

One of Bernie Madoff's victims described Mark's suicide as the ultimate punishment for Bernie Madoff. I agree, and would say that Bernie rightly deserves it, EXCEPT that there are other victims of that suicide who are totally innocent. Specifically, Mark's children, including and especially his two-year-old son who was asleep in the next room as his father hanged himself. I don't even want to think about the long-term psychological damage this will, no doubt, inflict upon the kid, nor do I envy the person (probably Mark's wife) who gets stuck explaining it all to the kid when he comes of sufficient age to comprehend what happened.

And so, the repercussions from Bernie Madoff's crime just keep on coming and coming and coming.

Some Burning Issues

2010-12-06T21:34:00.004Z

My comments regarding the big Carmel forest fire in Israel, in no particular order:

1. Israel received significant foreign help in battling the blaze, including firefighting planes from Egypt and Turkey. Relations between Israel and Turkey had, just a few week ago, been at an all time low, but, on the occasion of the fire, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by telephone and cooperated in the effort. This tells me that something is afoot. I am not a foreign relations expert, but I would suspect that included amongst the dynamics that brought Erdogan and Netanyahu together are the following:

A. Turkey had started going anti-Western (not that it ever really, really has been pro-western) about the time Barack Hussein Obama won the United States Presidency. Erdogan probably viewed Obama as a weak leader, and placed his bet on Iran and the Saudis. But with the results of the midterm election last month, Obama's days are numbered, and Turkey will eventually have to deal with a Republican administration, which will not match Obama's tolerance for anti-American posturings. Turkey is not quite ready to totally wean itself from American aid, military and otherwise.

B. The Wikileaks fiasco revealed that many nations, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, who are postured against Israel, nevertheless share Israel's opposition to Iranian armaments buildup, nuclear or otherwise. These nations are now quite ill-postured to criticize any anti-Iran statements or actions that Israel has taken, or may take in the future, thus increasing dramatically the odds for some sort of physical measures on the part of the Israelis. Also increased are the odds of significant Iran-backed terrorist activity on Saudi or Turkish or Egyptian soil. [It is still not clear how the fire started, but there is some very strong speculation that it was an act of terrorism.]. Maybe Ergodan now needs to cooperate with Israel more than he needs to knock Israel.

2. An estimated 10,000 people were evacuated from the fire. And 42 civilian uniformed services personnel, including a busload of corrections officers, have thus far died while actively fighting the fire -- approximately one-tenth the number of the firefighters, police officers, court officers and other civilian uniformed service personnel who died while responding to the Muslim attack on the World Trade Center. Israel's population is a little less than 8 million, while the U.S. population is approximately 310 million. Accordingly, multiply the Israeli numbers by approximately 38 to get an idea of the degree of the human toll taken upon Israel. [Imagine the evacuation of 380,000 people in the United States, and multiply the number of fallen World Trade Center firefighters by a little more than 3.]. Yet, the MSM in America are giving this fire very low-profile coverage.

3. Most of the aforementioned uniformed service personnel were corrections officers en route to evacuate a prison threatened by the fire. Due to the nature of the situation, the evacuation of a prison is not a straightforward operation like the evacuation of a school. It is, of course, very tempting to think that the prison should be allowed to burn with the inmates inside. But some of the inmates do actually get rehabilitated, and someone who is sentenced to, for example, 4 or 5 years should not receive the death penalty. It would have been highly irresponsible to not try to evacuate the prison. The corrections officers who died in the attempt died no less honorably than the New York City firefighters who died trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center.

4. As of this writing, the latest casualty was Haifa Police Chief Ahuva Tomer, the highest ranking policewoman in Israel. All of the feminazis are now in quite a predicament because Ahuva was an accomplished woman with a family who rose to the top of a decidedly male organization. And her attitude was, "I don’t feel like I’m special. I do function in a predominantly male society, but I am an equal among equals and I try to be the best I can. But women need to understand that this is not just a question of equality of opportunity, but also equality of responsibility."

So Ahuva has said a word that is anathema to the feminazis: "Responsibility."

5. Also feeling at least some very small degree of discomfort are the insular religious rabbinical figures and their followers. Ahuva is now being glorified for going off the baby-making Hausfrau track, and she died a heroine trying to rescue other Jews. It is people like that who maintain the safety of these rabbis and their students as they study in their yeshivas. Don't get me wrong -- I do believe that yeshiva learning is vital to the survival of the Jewish people (and, for about a year, I did put my hard-earned money where my mouth is when my own son learned in a yeshiva in Israel on my dime.). But such yeshiva learning is possible because there are men -- and women -- who place themselves in harm's way. Freedom is not free!

And, I am wondering how newspapers such as Hamodia or Yated Ne'eman, whose orientation is by and large with the rabbinical establishment, will spin the Ahuva story. I expect to learn in the next week or two when the Hamodia and Yated Ne'eman I read make their way through the usual pipeline to me.

6. I have long viewed Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu with a certain degree of chariness. Though he is not totally ineffectual, he has long been too soft upon the enemies of the Jewish people, and too quick to knuckle under to pressure. It must be remembered that his political career stands upon the dead body of his brother, Yonatan Netanyahu, the fallen hero of the Entebbe Rescue on 4 July 1976. The aforementioned Wikileaks scandal has shown Netanyahu to be even more of a wimpy capitulationist than most had pegged him for. If there is one thing that has come out of this forest fire fiasco, it is a demonstration to the world that Yoni Netanyahu was not the last Israeli who had any beitzim, and that there are more brave and valiant Israelis where the fallen heroes came from. If I were Benjamin Netanyahu, I would be quite concerned over this last matter even as I would welcome it.

Entering the Cyber Stone Age

2010-12-05T13:46:00.003Z

The posting on this Blog from 2 August 2009 speculates whether the Agudath Israel of America will eventually get itself a website.

[To bring everyone up to speed, the Agudath Israel of America is an advocacy group for some of the more insular segments of the religious Jewish community (NOT to be confused with Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex, NJ, which does have its own website.). In such circles, there is much consternation with the new technologies, including and especially the Internet. A more in-depth analysis of this phenomenon is to be found in an article by Nathaniel Deutsch entitled "The Forbidden Fork, the Cell Phone Holocaust, and Other Haredi Encounters with Technology."].

The newspaper Hamodia has published an interview with Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, written by Rabbis Avraham Heschel and Yosef Rapaport. Rabbi Perlow is the top rabbinical banana at the Agudath Israel. Given Hamodia's editorial policies, it is more likely than not the interview questions were scripted in advance and/or edited afterwards by the Agudath Israel. I say this not to cast any negativity upon Hamodia, but only to acknowledge what I believe to be the likely facts. Consistent with the policies which Hamodia freely concedes as its own, the publication of the Perlow interview is likely an instrumentality of Agudath Israel's policies.

In the interview, Rabbi Perlow admits that the Internet's use can be restricted, but cannot be banned outright because (A) it is now increasingly a necessity for earning a living; and (B) most of the community would not adhere to the ban. The Rabbi also admitted that most of the insular community does in fact use the Internet.

It is likely, in my mind, that this is a calculated step towards the Agudath Israel's adoption of a website at some time in the future.

The foregoing contentions were conceived prior to my accession last evening of the succeeding edition of Hamodia, which, through a fortuitous chain of events, I managed to get hold of shortly after its publication instead of about a week later. This latest edition of Hamodia, along with the latest edition of Yated Ne'eman (which I got hold of along with Hamodia, through the same chain of events), published an account of the Agudath Israel's Thanksgiving Weekend Convention in East Brunswick, NJ. At the Convention, Rabbi Perlow, consistent with some of his statements in the Hamodia interview, addressed the problem of children who have not been placed in a religious school.

That issue made the rounds in late October, when Rabbi Aron Krausz strongly condemned those schools that reject students for petty and picayune reasons.

Also in the 3 December 2010 edition of Yated Ne'eman, on page 22, is an article by Avrohom Birnbaum entitled "It's Time to Bring Back the Jewish Observer!" (exclamation point in original). Rabbi Birnbaum was a panelist at one of the sessions at the Agudath Israel convention, and, as such, expressed sentiment that the Jewish Observer, an AI publication now (to use a Catholic term) in limbo, ought to be restored to its former status as a viable thought-provoking intellectual publication. Rabbi Birnbaum reported the response to his call to bring back the Jewish Observer as 100% positive, and that "the first person to spring up and applaud that clarion call was the Agudah's Executive Vice President, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel." While the JO's current induced coma has been presented as a financial-based decision (and finances, no doubt, did play a role), howcum the AI's own EVP cannot, after a year and a half, get it going again? Methinks that the prospect of the involvement of the Internet medium has some of the rabbis spooked.

But why would Yated Ne'eman publish Rabbi Birnbaum's account if it were totally contrary to rabbinical sentiment? Methinks that it is part of a strategy for the AI to be able to backtrack, without backtracking, on the anti-Internet posture it has assumed in very, very recent times.

And so, I see a pattern here. Rabbi Krausz comes out against those schools that reject Jewish children, and Agudath Israel follows suit at its Convention. Rabbi Birnbaum calls for the revival of the Jewish Observer, and Rabbi Zweibel agrees enthusiastically (although, to be sure, doesn't decree the magazine back to life). In recent years, the Agudath Israel's rabbinical leaders have, after years of denial, finally admitted that there is abuse of children at the yeshivas (but still strongly opposes efforts to hold accountable the responsible individuals).

Once upon a time, the rabbis controlled, to a large extent, the flow of information to and from their communities. Now, with the Internet technologies, that prerogative has largely disappeared. The management of information requires more proactivity than silence and denial. Remember that the flow of information through channels not controlled by the Politburo is what brought down the former Soviet Union

I cannot help but ask whether the Agudath Israel is providing leadership, or followership. And I stand by my belief that the Agudath Israel will eventually find a face-saving way to go cyber.

The Language of Thanks

2010-11-27T23:52:00.005Z

I do not have a particularly high tolerance for those "all news, all the time" radio stations, but this past week they were a very necessary evil on account of the traffic reports every 10 minutes. From the information thus obtained, we were able to avoid some real, major league traffic jams by modifying our planned travel routes during the Thanksgiving holiday.

I am very thankful for the right to hold and to express my personal beliefs and opinions. At the Thanksgiving dinner held at my brother-in-law's house this year, my wife's two nieces each made clear that, if either were ever to come into power, such a freedom of expression would be strictly limited to those beliefs, opinions and viewpoints that are consistent with their own, to the exclusion of all other perspectives. I, on the other hand, made it clear that they would not be able to abridge my freedom of expression without a fight (to the chagrin of my host and hostess). Perhaps if I am lucky, those two young ladies will continue to not speak with me for some time to come.

One of the seasonally news stories making the media rounds this Thanksgiving was the meeting between Sara Marmurek and Wladyslaw Misiuna at JFK Airport. Wladyslaw saved Sara's life from the ravages of the Nazis, and we heard the Thanksgiving "human interest story" of Sara the grateful Holocaust survivor once in just about every 10-minute news cycle as we traveled and tried to ascertain the traffic conditions. The story of the reunion between the two has even gone international.

But listen to the audio-video clip. Note that Sara is an immigrant to America! Note that her original language was Polish! Note that the Polish language has less in common with English than some other languages, including the one spoken directly south of the United States's southern border. And, most significantly, note that Sara can speak English!

If Sara can learn English and become a functional American, why can't all these other people learn English?

Dog-gone House Rules.

2010-11-14T06:16:00.002Z

Our family lifestyle is not currently conducive to pet ownership (though, as mentioned in the posting of 12 September 2010, we do, from time to time, pet-sit). We do, however, appreciate the salutary role of pet ownership, and are all in favor of it if the pet is reasonably well behaved.

Such is the case of Charlie, the dog owned by Donata Forman. Charlie is a Chihuahua-type breed, small enough to be carried in Donata's handbag, and, as all involved agree, extremely well tempered and behaved. But the Board of Managers of the Village View Condominium in Queens, where Donata lives, insisted that Charlie's presence violates House Rule No. 1, "Positively no pets are allowed in the building for any reason."

House Rule No. 1 was enacted by the Board of Managers. The Board of Managers sued Donata Forman. Judge Lane of the Queens County Supreme Court agreed with the Board that the Board had the authority to regulate the presence of pets on the premises, and, on account of other issues of law and fact, set the case down for trial.

But Michael Mauro, Donata's attorney, noted that under New York's Condominium Law, (1) whether or not a condominium can allow or disallow pets on its premises is a subject that must be addressed in the condominium's by-laws; and (2) the by-laws require a vote of at least 66% of the condominium unit owners, at a duly noticed meeting, in order to be enacted or amended. Moreover, the Village View's own by-laws impose an 80% threshold vote for amendment.

And so, on appeal, the Appellate Division reversed Judge Lane, ruling that the Board of Managers could not enforce House Rule No. 1.

Charlie is now legally at home in Donata's condo apartment.

This is a big win for pet owners.

Not mentioned in any of the judicial opinions is the fact that Donata Forman is a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. If a letter carrier keeps a dog for a pet, then chances are that the dog is very well behaved!

Railroad Was Not Running

2010-11-07T22:24:00.002Z

I haven't posted in a while because (A) have been occupied with professional things, and a death in the extended family; and (B) have had nothing to say that had not already been more eloquently stated elsewhere, including and especially about the elections.

Though running is a regular part of my physical workout, I have not run competitively for 20+ years. Though I have run distances well in excess of 20 miles, I personally have never had any desire to run in a marathon.

Nevertheless, I am all in favor of public marathon events. They give a positive public spin to physical fitness, stimulate economic activity, keep many young people occupied and out of trouble, and push many a negative story off from the front pages of the pulp tabloids.

Today was the New York City Marathon. I did not attend, but understand that it went off quite well. The weather was certainly good for it. My congratulations go to all who participated!

The main problem with the NYC Marathon is that it ties up traffic. Specifically, the Verrazano Bridge is closed until 3 PM. One year this was problematic for us because my parents were visiting us, and they had planned to leave Sunday morning. We convinced them to stay until the next day. Such traffic perturbations are part and parcel of Marathon events, but if they only occur once or twice a year it is not such a bad thing.

This year, however, another monkey wrench was thrown into the works by the shmucks at the Long Island Railroad. The LIRR is finishing its replacement of its 90-year-old switching technology, and the train service during this weekend has been very, very limited. Per my information, travel into New York City from Long Island has been an absolute mess, and the LIRR situation exacerbated the usual problems inherent in holding the Marathon.

It would seem to me that the LIRR people should have known that this weekend was the Marathon (being that the date was known over a year ago).

The LIRR is not known for its fine management of its trains. The riders, of which I was once a regular but now am only an occasional, do not hold the railroad in high esteem, and have no reason to do so. The LIRR is notorious for communicating misinformation to the public, sometimes intentionally so. Every LIRR rider has stories about this; I shall not now get started with mine.

To plan what amounts to a major shutdown on the weekend of the NYC Marathon is emblematic of the Long Island Rail Road and its public-be-damned institutional attitude.

Privacy for Dummies

2010-10-18T23:43:00.003Z

The case is captioned "People v. Kent," but a good alternative caption would be "Privacy for Dummies."

James D. Kent, then a Professor of Public Administration at an college in Dutchess County, New York [the judicial panel did not specifically name the college, but those of us who can put two and two together can easily figure out that it is Marist College], was convicted on various child pornography charges. The Appellate Division upheld his conviction.

Reading the facts of the case, Kent stored approximately 30,000 images of naked or nearly-naked young girls, age range approximately 8 - 9 years, in orderly folders and subfolders on the hard drive of the office computer. He complained to the College's info tech people when the computer malfunctioned, the college info techie found the stored images on the hard drive, and the matter was reported to the police.

In addition to the issues regarding the probative value of the forensic methods used by the police, Kent also claimed on appeal that his privacy rights were violated.

The Appellate Division wasn't caving in to such whining. The computer was Marist College's, not Kent's. He had no expectation of privacy on his employer's computer. And Kent seems to have forgotten that it was he who invited Marist College to take a look at his office computer.

The porno pervert is in the can until at least next August [New York State Inmate ID Number 09R3078]. I don't know which is more appalling, the guy's fascination with prepubescent females or his abject stupidity.

As for Marist College, it now has a very effective (if unofficial) policy against using College computers for pornographic purposes. The old maxim "Punish one, educate a thousand" (yes, I know that its origin is Mao) can ring very true. And in this case, it wasn't even Marist College that got stuck with administering the punishment!

Robo-Signers

2010-10-17T06:00:00.001Z

A few months ago, when I visited my local Citibank office to tender a payment on our mortgage, I was barraged by invitations from bank officers and employees to move my regular bank accounts to Citibank.

But I wasn't buying into it. I told them that my business with Citibank consists only of our residential mortgage, and a credit card, and that such was quite appropriate for our needs at this time.

They all touted the convenience of doing all of my banking under one roof. But if all my accounts are with the same banking institution, and if my bank is also my creditor, then I would run the risk of financial paralysis if I ever were to fall out of Citibank's good graces. One woman told me that I was envisioning something that was quite far fetched. But I, being about 20 years her senior, pulled rank and informed her that once upon a time, as a result of a misunderstanding on the part of my then bank, I had to spend lots of time and effort in successfully contesting a number of bounced check fees.

She then gave me the line about how Citibank is a full service bank. So I poignantly asked her why Americans should trust the banking industry. I then hastened to remind her that Citibank did not get to be a key recipient of the government bailout funds (from my tax money) because it was run in a prudent manner. She finally got off my case, brought my cash payment to the teller, and got me my receipt.

Now, it seems, what little confidence I had in the financial industry's good faith has been quite overestimated. The banks have been in such a mortgage foreclosure mania that they have now effectively admitted to hiring people to apply live pen signatures to moretgage foreclosure documents without knowing the particulars. And now, all of the state Attorneys General are on board the investigation.

I, for one, will not take the AGs all too seriously unless and until they begin some meaningful criminal prosecutions against the officers and directors in the banking industry who authorized the robo-signing.

Having strived, along with my wife, to remain current in the payment of our debts, I have extremely limited sympathy towards the residential homeowners who now face mortgage foreclosure. My wife and I have foregone or postponed many desired activities and acquisitions because the monies we would have expended towards them were necessary for the timely payment of our debts. We would have preferred to have more trips out of town (and out of country), home remodeling, jewelry, and the like, however, our creditors -- and our good word -- have been given and continue to be given priority.

Accordingly, those in mortgage foreclosure predicament mode only have my sympathies if their predicament came upon them through unforeseen circumstances, despite the exercise of reasonable prudence in their financial affairs.

But our real property system has been assailed. There are serious questions regarding the integrity of real property ownership in America. When the mortgage holders can evict people from their homes without following all of the due process requirements, and upon false statements, there now are serious questions regarding the integrity of real property ownership in America. This is a threat to our freedom.

And so, notwithstanding whether those who failed to pay their mortgages are or are not evicted from their homes, there needs to be some definitive, visible and meaningful consequences visited upon the individuals who occupy the upper levels of the mortgage industry hierarchies.

Nanny Says You May Vote

2010-10-11T23:34:00.003Z

I'm busy, fatigued, and burnt out, so this will be a short post.

Seems that the New York State Board of Elections has not yet mailed out all the absentee ballots to the voters, including and especially the military servicepeople who are getting their toochases shot at to defend us and our freedom. So now all the politicians are castigating the BOE (as they, and everyone else, rightly well should).

The BOE already got a waiver from the Department of Justice until 1 October, but they still haven't complied with the law. Apparently, the BOE has refused help from other individuals and agencies as they have fallen behind in the matter.

I share everyone's indignation! What I find ironic, however, is NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's grandstanding on the issue. In America, the ballot is the quintessential exemplar of autonomy and free choice. Since when is Bloomie a proponent of free choice? He wants to prohibit the use of food stamps to buy sodas, he has pushed through legislation to cut out the unhealthy transfats in restaurants, and he has already curtailed people's right to smoke. And I won't even begin to discuss the Second Amendment issues as they affect New Yorkers.

Now understand that I personally wish to see the fatsos (including and especially my dear wife) take better care of their health and stop bulking up on the fattening foods. And I am in total agreement that smoking is a burning health hazard (pun intentional).

But evil as cancer and obesity may be, Bloomie's attitude that the people of New York (and America -- he has the White House on his radar) need a nanny state to make their personal choices for them is even more pernicious.

I therefore find it most ironic that Mike Bloomberg is sticking up for New Yorkers' free choice when he himself has done so much to remove our free choice options.

No Comfort for Nechama

2010-09-26T15:30:00.003Z

Nineteen-year-old Nechama Rothberger was driving a car in Brooklyn when it collided with a moped driven by Tian Sheng Lin, who was making a delivery for the Chinese restaurant where he was employed. Mr. Lin was critically injured when he was thrown from his moped, and has been declared brain-dead by the medical experts. Ms. Rothberger, it seems, was texting on her cell phone at the time. Mr. Lin's family has retained David Sobiloff as counsel.

Ms. Rothberger now stands charged with some misdemeanor offenses in connection with the incident, but, in the event that Mr. Lin succumbs to his injuries, one can easily imagine a scenario where the charges are upgraded to manslaughter. Lee Kimmel, Esq. has apparently been retained to defend Ms. Rothberger on the criminal charges. It is not yet clear which attorney will go to bat for Ms. Rothberger and/or her family (if the car was owned by her parents) in the civil lawsuit that Sobiloff will no doubt institute.

Sobiloff's job, of course, is to squeeze as much money as possible out of the Rothbergers, with as little delay as possible. Kimmel's job is to minimize Nechama's criminal liability. And whichever attorney is retained to defend in the civil suit will be tasked with financial damage control. Because I am not involved in either the civil or criminal case, I can sit on the sidelines and make some comments, in no particular order:

1. First and foremost, my primary sympathies lie with the victim and his family.

2. Having posited Comment No. 1, I will note that some very strident comments are now being made regarding Nechama Rothberger. Based upon conversations this past holiday with people who have some familiarity with the Rothberger family, Nechama is, to be sure, a slightly sympathetic defendant. She is not an evil person. She does not seem to be pretentious or arrogant. She apparently is a good young lady who made a very, very stupid decision that has wrecked the lives of two families. As the father of a child not all that much older than she, I can easily identify with her parents.

3. More along these lines, note that the photo of her in the New York Post, as she leaves the precinct station after her mother posted the bail, depicts her wearing a "Kids of Courage" sweatshirt, which she presumably was wearing at the time of her arrest. Kids of Courage is a benevolent organization that helps very sick children. She apparently has some sort of connection with the organization, perhaps as a volunteer.

4. There should be some criminal consequences for Nechama. The upper limit was set earlier this month by the Brooklyn DA's office, when then NYPD officer Andrew Kelly, who, while driving under the influence, fatally struck a pedestrian, pleaded guilty to Vehicular Manslaughter in the Second Degree. Kelly gets 90 days in prison plus 5 years probation. Kimmel, unless he is also brain-dead, will no doubt argue his client should be held to a lesser standard than Kelly, who, as a NYPD officer, should have known far, far better.

5. Every dollar expended in Nechama's criminal defense is out of the picture when the civil suit comes along. The more serious the criminal consequences which are visited upon Nechama, the lesser her earning power in the workforce will be. A good word from Mr. Lin's family might convince the Brooklyn DA's office to go for a plea bargain involving probation without jail time, so that she can go forward, complete her education, and go earn some bucks to pay the Lin family.

6. Were Lin and his family legally in the country? Was Lin authorized to be employed? This should not affect the criminal aspects of the matter, but it might be relevant in the amount of damages the Rothberger family gets slapped with.

7. Ditto for whether Lin was wearing a helmet.

8. Ditto for whether Lin has properly discharged his income tax obligations.

This is a very tragic matter for all concerned. Two families have been devastated. Nechama -- whose name is derived from the Hebrew word for "comfort" -- has given everything but comfort on account of her lack of thoughtfulness.

A Matter of Degree

2010-09-22T13:13:00.002Z

I've got to run and make final preparations for the Festival of Sukkot tonight. My wife has just e-mailed me some more items for the shopping list. We are having guests.

And so, I wish everyone Chag Sameach Sukkot!

But before signing off, I feel inspired to post my thoughts on a recent legal development:

Ayal Rosenthal, a CPA with PriceWaterhouse Coopers (for the uninitiated, PwC is a major accounting firm), copped a guilty plea on some insider trading charges, and got a 60-day sentence. Rosenthal was enrolled in New York University's MBA program at the time, and had even worked there as a Teaching Assistant in a Professional Responsibility course.

NYU decided that Rosenthal was unworthy of an MBA degree, so Rosenthal sued. And Judge Lewis Kaplan, sitting on the bench of the Federal District Court of the Southern District of New York, upheld NYU.

I am no great fan of NYU. They do get quite snotty from time to time (and I have been professionally involved in a case in which questionable ethics on the part of certain key players in the upper reaches of the NYU hierarchy played a role). NYU, then, does not have the firmest standing to deliver the morality lecture.

But Rosenthal is no better than NYU. He, too, has a nefarious arrogance about him, and he needs humility more than he needs an MBA degree.

In my book, Rosenthal and NYU are in pari delicto (Latin for equally at fault). And where parties are in pari delicto, the courts tend to leave the parties as they stand. The pari delicto theory did not play any role in Judge Kaplan's rationale, but the result is the same.

NYU's denial of Rosenthal's MBA has, in a broad sense, ever so slightly prevented my own MBA (not from NYU) from cheapening in value.

Judgment without being Judgmental

2010-09-20T03:19:00.002Z

We're coming off of Yom Kippur, and heading into Sukkoth. I have completed the Yom Kippur fast, and have done about 90% of the work on my Sukkah. My main malady now is fatigue.

Justice Carol Edmead of the New York State Supreme Court, New York County, has come down with a number of notable decisions of late. Before Carol played the politics and got herself a black judge's robe to wear, she assisted me in obtaining a particular elusive credential as an attorney, so it pleases me all the more that she is proving to be a credit to the bench. She has called her cases as she sees them, let the chips fall where they may, and kept her personal and political biases in the irrelevant column.

One such case is Matter of Urban Justice Center v. New York Police Department, decided about 3 weeks ago. It is a relatively lengthy read of legal mumbo jumbo, necessitated by the very technical nature of the issues involved. To spare the reader's time, I shall distill its essence as follows:

The Urban Justice Center, a non-profit legal and social services corporation, has a "Sex Workers Project" division whose reason for being is to protect the rights of the so-called "Sex Workers." SWP is now studying the legal ramifications of certain types of sexual behavior which do not involve penetrative contact, including the so-called "BDSM" (bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism). To such end, SWP has requested, under New York's Freedom of Information Law, certain documents from the New York Police Department. The documents consist of the NYPD's training manuals as to arrests for prostitution (Category 1) and memos and manuals of policies and investigation records of bondage and domination establishments (Category 2). The NYPD denied the request, and UJC/SWP's appeal fortuitously hit Justice Edmead's chambers.

Justice Edmead upheld NYPD's denial of the Category 1 documents, in light of the risks to the integrity of the NYPD's operations and the safety of its officers. Category 2 documents were required to be produced, however.

Okay, I know, I know -- The profession, and all of its specializations, have been around from time immemorial. But the UJC's employees and directors, as reflected on its Form 990, seem to be heavy on the left side, and many are connected with the ACLU. And if there is one thing this recovering liberal Democrat has learned over the years, it is that the ACLU has an agenda which is influenced more by political orientation than by the grand principles of liberty [for all you ACLU watchers, I deliberately allowed my membership to lapse after Skokie]. Accordingly, I cannot help but wonder whether SWP will (if it has not already) cross that line which demarcates the separation between protecting the victims on one hand, and encouraging and enabling the abominators on the other.

The case, then, carries lots and lots of baggage and "guts appeal." Justice Carol Edmead fulfilled her noble purpose by keeping the police honest, while not allowing UJC to obtain one more Post-It note of paper from NYPD than any other group would be allowed to obtain.

Rosh HaShanah 5771 (Wrap-up)

2010-09-12T05:05:00.002Z

We had an interesting Rosh HaShanah. It is two days, but this year, the next day was our religious Sabbath, which meant 3 days of not doing certain tasks. Accordingly, I have just caught up on my e-mail backlog (and my snail mail backlog, for that matter).

We frequently have guests for Shabbat or the holidays. This year, our guest was of the canine species. Due to a series of miscommunications, there was a misunderstanding as to who would take care of my son's roommate's sister's Yorkshire Terrier. About 2 hours before candle lighting time (signifying the beginning of the holiday), there was this Yorkie whose mistress had left town, and whose mistress's brother and roommates were about to leave for their respective Rosh HaShanah hosts, neither of which was conducive to bring the Yorkie for the 3-day period, thus leaving the Yorkie (named Maxine) with no place to go for Rosh HaShanah. My wife agreed that we would take Maxine (after consulting with me, of course).

And so, our son dropped Maxine off with us while he was en route to his Rosh HaShanah destination (the home of a Rabbi who had been a teacher of his when he was in junior high school, whose wife is terrified of dogs). Maxine was very well behaved and dispositioned, and it was certainly a pleasure to have her.

My son has returned home. He is now doing his laundry, and will probably stay the night before returning Maxine to her mistress (or, more likely, to his roommate, who is Maxine's mistress's brother).

One of the members of our congregation is now ill, and in no condition to come to services to hear the Shofar. So I walked the 2.5 miles to his house and sounded my own Shofar, just for him and his wife. It was good to see them, but I am quite concerned about his condition.

After the end of Shabbat, I decided to go running a few miles. This layoff of 3+ days without any significant aerobic exercise (that aforementioned 2.5 miles walk plus 2.5 miles return was the closest thing to aerobic exertion I had) is beginning to take its toll. The run did me good.

Next Shabbat happens to be Yom Kippur, so there will be none of the usual eating. Until Yom Kippur, we are in a period of penitence. Accordingly, earnestly I ask forgiveness from all whom I have wronged, and, in turn, grant forgiveness to those who ask it of me in earnest.

Wishing a Shanah Tova, a Good Year, to Everyone!

Rosh HaShanah 5771

2010-09-08T19:48:00.003Z

I haven't the time for an extended posting. In a few hours, the sun will set (it already has done so in the Holy City of Jerusalem) and the New Year, 5771, will be upon us.

This past one has had its plusses and minuses for me and my family. I hope and pray that 5771 will be a good one, without some of the negatives that have anguished us.

The holiday will be Thursday and Friday, and then, we go directly in to Shabbat, my religious Sabbath. Accordingly, it will be three days without doing certain types of work (including turning electric switches on or off, going online, accessing my e-mail, swimming, driving, et cetera). It will be a challenge, but I look forward to it.

I wish all a very happy and healthy New Year.

L'Shanah Tovah Tikatevu!!

Padlocking Unauthorized Immigration Law Practices

2010-08-31T02:53:00.002Z

Whatever else might be said about New York Attorney General and gubernatorial wannabe Andrew Cuomo, he is doing a few things correctly, and on that score I applaud him.

Specifically, he has been on the rampage against various business entities that have been illegally providing legal services to aliens regarding their immigration status. Not oblivious to the need to give his name some positive spin, he has posted a news release on his official website to boast of his accomplishments. My partisan political sentiments in the upcoming gubernatorial election notwithstanding, I applaud this. Under the circumstances, I even applaud his posting of the Spanish version of the news release.

One of the 7 entrepreneurs that got pinched in Cuomo's latest outing was Oficina Legal Para Hispanos, P.C., owned by one Geoffrey S. Stewart, Esq. The settlement agreement (styled as an "Assurance of Discontinuance") between the AG's Office and OLPH/Stewart contains some interesting findings and terms. Specifically, Stewart was employing people not licensed to practice law to provide legal services to the "immigrants" (the correct terminology, in most cases, should be "illegal aliens").

The settlement terms include, but are not limited to: (A) Oficina Legal Para Hispanos, P.C will be dissolved, (B) Stewart will permanently cease and desist from practicing immigration law or providing "immigration-related services," and (C) OLPH and/or Stewart shall pay the AG's office $30,000 for their trouble (via wire transfer or certified check -- no personal checks accepted).

Giving credit where credit is due, I thank our AG.

[Geoffrey Stewart happens to be the son of another attorney (ex-attorney) who has gotten into trouble for the "legal services" she provided to aliens. His mom is Lynne Stewart.].

Accessing the Mosque

2010-08-20T03:26:00.003Z

A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him.

This should tell anyone who, heretofore, was uninformed and/or in denial, all they need to know about what imposition of the Muslim Sharia law would mean to our freedoms in America.

Whether of not the Saudis actually inflict such a barbaric punishment is of little moment -- the fact that the Saudi judge even made the inquiry speaks volumes. Given that the Saudis have already co-opted at least one dentist to inflict a punitive whole-mouth tooth extraction upon a Saudi convict, the Saudi medical establishment is already perverted enough to crank out paraplegics and quadriplegics in the name of Islam.

As noted by Herbert London, The Ground Zero Mosque is, in all likelihood, financed by the Saudis. Which means that the Mosque, if built, would have the Saudi brand of Islamism. And, Saudi money or not, there can be little doubt that the construction of the Mosque at Ground Zero is viewed by the Islamists as a step towards the conquest of America, and the eventual imposition of Muslim Sharia law.

The New York City Department of Buildings will, no doubt, review the plans for the Mosque to ensure that it will be wheelchair-accessible.

Stop Teasing the Y Children

2010-08-15T05:33:00.001Z

Hardly a week goes by that I fail to receive at least one solicitation letter from one or more rabbis, imploring me to help some family in distress. For the record, I do open my wallet to them now and then; some of the solicitors are very suspect, while others I know and trust. Like everything else, these have to be evaluated on their individual merits, and on the merits of my own financial situation.

More often than not, the family at issue is headed by an individual who has taken up a life of learning Torah, to the extent that he has not prepared himself to earn a living to support his family. This is a departure from some of the great Rabbis of yore who had gainful employment in their occupations, including, but not limited to, Maimonides, Rashi, Hillel, Yochanan HaSandalar, et cetera.

The one I received this week begins with a particularly troubling passage:

"The Y. children of Yerushalayim have a deep dark secret that they guard fiercely. Their mother is emotionally not well, and their father is buckling under the burden. The children keep the situation quiet, because they don't want to be teased or ostracized."

Hold it right there! They are telling me that this Jerusalem family lives in a social group where it is the norm to tease and ostracize the families of those with mental illnesses!

Okay, so it is hardly unusual for people to make mock of mental illness. But deep in my heart, I do believe that if the rabbinical leaders of this Jerusalem community would take a stand, then the taunting and teasing of families of mentally ill people would instantaneously cease.

When I was in junior high school, there were some tensions amongst the guys on the track team (these tensions happen to have had racial undertones). Our coach put his foot down very early on, and very definitively, and made it clear that no taunts or other derogatory statements would be tolerated. The negative comments stopped, as did most of the tensions.

If my track coach did it, then the rabbis of the Holy City of Jerusalem can also do it.

Private Matter?

2010-08-05T02:14:00.001Z

It seems that Rudy Giuliani's daughter got pinched for shoplifting after being caught on camera secreting more than $100 in make-up from a Sephora store in Manhattan.

There are two aspects to the news report that warrant commentary here.

A. "Store managers, after calling police, said they didn't want to press charges against her, [NYPD spokesperson Paul] Browne said. But police arrested her on a petty larceny charge, he said. … … The Manhattan district attorney's office had not decided whether to file formal charges against her, office spokeswoman Erin Duggan said."

Is Caroline Giuliani being accorded a special pass because she is Rudy Giuliani's daughter? It may well make good business sense to not press charges against her. For one thing, it takes up the manager's time to go to court as a witness. Moreover, so long as no charges are filed, everyone can come to an understanding whereby Caroline not only will never do it again, but may even pe persuaded to come back and spend her money at the store. If charges are filed, the store will forever lose a customer.

But is the same standard being applied to Caroline Giuliani as would be applied to anyone else's daughter who gets caught shoplifting cosmetics at Sephora?

B. "Her father, through a spokeswoman, said the case was a personal matter and asked the media to respect her privacy."

This time I beg to differ with Rudy! Criminal charges are, by definition, public causes of action. Unless and until Caroline is acquitted, or charges dropped, the public has an interest in the case.

Query: How much of a "private matter" were the criminal cases brought in the Southern District of New York when Rudolph Giuliani was serving as the United States Attorney there?

Quite frankly, I am of the sentiment that the criminal charges at issue are so petty and picayune and penny-ass that if the victim (the Sephora cosmetics store) is okay with letting them slip, then the government resources should not be burdened by the prosecution of the case. This is particularly so in light of the fact that Caroline Giuliani is apparently not a hardened criminal, and can be swiftly rehabilitated to return to her place as a law-abiding citizen in society (not to mention a spender of money to stimulate the sagging economy).

But the public needs reassurances that Caroline's case is not being spotted any special favors.

Semper Paratus or Faulty Mental Apparatus?

2010-08-01T05:13:00.001Z

News item: "Coast Guard allows toxic chemical use on Gulf oil"

"The U.S. Coast Guard has routinely approved BP requests to use thousands of gallons of toxic chemical a day to break up oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico despite a federal directive that the chemicals be used only rarely on surface waters, congressional investigators said Saturday after examining BP and government documents."

As I recall, it was less than two months ago that the Coasties were holding the hawsers on the oil skimmer ships because of various Jones Act and OSHA technicalities. Why couldn't they come through with the emergency waivers then, when waivers were really needed?

From Washington

2010-07-28T01:13:00.001Z

I’ve felt a little bit out of touch with reality for the past 2 days, but that’s all attributable to the fact that I am in Washington, DC, where that seems to be the norm.

No matter how dismal or boring the matter that brings me to Washington may be, I have always enjoyed the city, and this time is no exception. I have begun to run again, having been sidelined for the better part of a month with tendinitis in the knee. I’m still not pushing myself 100%, but this morning was able to run from the Capitol to the WWII Memorial. It was a dry mouth that made me decide to turn around after paying my respects to the WWII Memorial (my first visit since its completion), and not exhaustion or my knee.

En route back I essentially ran a block and then walked a block, alternating accordingly until stopping at a convenience store to get some OJ and H2O. Before I hit the convenience store, I stopped at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and paid respect to all of the fallen law enforcement officers mentioned previously in this Blog, and all of the others listed there as well. I hope and pray that the number of names added in future years will be minimal (unfortunately, it is unrealistic to hope for zero).

And I deliberately avoided those two side-by-side whorehouses at, respectively, 1500 and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It would be such a pity to spoil an otherwise scenic and enjoyable run.

Yesterday, I was able to run up the inoperative escalator at the DuPont Circle Metro Station.

And so, the business that brought me to Washington has been on the northern side of neutral, and my enjoyment of the city has, as usual, been very, very positive. Tomorrow I shall return home. I hope that the plane ride home will afford me more room than the trip down here, where the fatso woman in the next seat gave me less wiggle room than I paid for.

A Window into Prayer

2010-07-14T22:37:00.004Z

My calendar schedule has suddenly become robust. There's a meeting tomorrow, I'm due in court soon, and someone wants to do lunch with me to discuss a possible gig. In another week-and-a-half, there seems to be an excursion to our Nation's Capital in my future -- I am now attempting to work in so that I can get some personal in along with the business. Accordingly, the next posting after this may be tomorrow, or in a month, or something in between.

We are now also in the first nine days of the month of Av, which have certain restrictions which my household observes. This includes no swimming (I've been doing bicycling and running for my workouts) and we don't eat meat (except for Shabbat), so my wife is now having fun with the various vegetarian and vegan recipes. Last night she made some Ma-Po Tofu, which was delicious. Not that I plan to become strictly vegetarian any time soon, but a vegetarian or vegan diet need not be dull, drab or boring.

As mentioned or alluded to in various prior postings, the insular religious Jewish community is now faced with several crises and issues, all of which somehow, directly or indirectly, tie in to the cultural effects of modern technology and communication.

Information can now be conveyed more quickly and efficiently. This has implications for politics, business and social relationships. America's economic greatness is due, in no small part, to the healthy independent press dating back to Colonial times. And I also hasten to note that the fall of the former Soviet Union had much to do with the Politburo's loss of its ability to completely control the flow of information.

Modern technology has made information far more difficult to control than in yesteryear. This has implications for the insularity which many of these social groups within the religious Jewish community have long strived to maintain. And it presents some significant cultural issues in the way the leadership of these insular groups conduct themselves. They nominally ban the use of the Internet (but make so many exceptions that the "ban" is meaningless).

The Agudath Israel of America, the leading insular community Rabbis, their social welfare organizations, their Yeshivas -- all are interconnected (though not without their differences and factions). One social welfare organization for the insular religious Jewish community in Israel is Kupat Ha'Ir, which has an American (and Canadian, for that matter) support group. They aid widows, orphans, and others in impecunious situations. I myself have occasion, from time to time, to modestly contribute to Kupat Ha'Ir.

The typical Kupat Ha'Ir solicitation brochure (from the American Friends of Kupat Ha'Ir) is usually received in multiplicate in our household, what with the various mailing lists upon which my my wife and I have, through not affirmative wishes of our own, had our names inscribed, and also as blow-ins to the various Jewish newspapers to which we subscribe. They all have the same themes: (A) G-d helps those who contribute to Kupat Ha'Ir; and (B) the great sages and Rabbis and students of Torah will beseech G-d in their prayers to confer blessings upon those who contribute to Kupat Ha'Ir (including, frequently, healing for the sick and infirm).

[For the record, I myself pray daily for the healing and recovery of various sick individuals, as does my wife, who is a physician. Taking it a step further, I have had occasion to see some of those individuals recover, and yes, I do believe that my prayers play a role in that recovery. But everyone, including and especially the physicians, must do their part; prayer, while necessary, is no substitute for skillful medical practice.].

Consistent with usual patterns and practices, the latest Kupat Ha'Ir solicitation promises contributors that, in organized shifts, various Rabbis and Torah scholars will recite the Book of Psalms ("T'hillim" in Hebrew) at the Western Wall (the "Kotel") in Jerusalem for 40 days and nights, for a total of 516 cycles culminating with the end of Yom Kippur, and that those who contribute will have their names specifically mentioned 516 times (never mind the significance of the number 516).

I certainly endorse the project, and will likely throw a few of my own dollars at it.

Against that verbose background, I note that the leatest solicitation piece from Kupat Ha'Ir contains a few paragraphs under the subheading "Complete Transparency," which tells the prospective contributor of all the meticulous preparations and precautions instituted by Kupat Ha'Ir in the project to ensure that everyone's name is included, spelled correctly, and spoken by someone who is concentrating wholeheartedly on his prayers. The solicitation brochure says, "Everything is transparent; there are no secrets and no loopholes."

For centuries, the Rabbis have operated covertly, and kept their counsel on even the most minute matters. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but trying to play both sides against the middle can backfire big time (as it seems to have with the Agudath Israel and its political posturing in the New York City election contests). Transparency is not part of the culture of these insular religious communities and their leaders. But now, they speak of "transparency" (and "Complete Transparency" at that).

[It is also noted that the word "transparency" is frequently bandied about in terms of the regulation of securities, tax-exempt organizations, and government.].

Praying at the Kotel is a very moving experience, and, as emotionally-laded as my first Kotel experience thirty-something years ago was, my awe, in many respects, increases each time I return. You just know that G-d is watching you when you go to the Kotel.

But nowadays, it is not just G-d who watches you. The Aish HaTorah Yeshiva, located next to the Kotel plaza, has a camera trained on the Kotel and now, effectively, the whole world can see you there!

Transparency at the Kotel is already a fait accompli. The whole world can see you there!

And so, the Kupat Ha'Ir has implicitly conceded that it not only fears G-d, but also fears the scrutiny of mortal human beings! Whether and when they begin to conduct their affairs with true transparency remains to be seen.