New York's Racist Voters

Been (and will continue to be) busy.

A somewhat belated critique of the election last week:

New York's voters re-elected Andrew Cuomo as their governor, who defeated challenger Rob Astorino.  Cuomo's running mate is Kathy Hochul, who will be our Lieutenant Governor.

Astorino's running mate was Christopher Moss.

Kathy Hochul is white, and Christopher Moss is an African American.

New York voted against the Black candidate!

Applying the Liberal standards, does that not make New York's voters racist?

Truth is an Absolute Defense

The various New York public employee unions held a rally in Albany.

[Disclosure:  I am a member of one of them.  I have the choice under Section 208(3)(a) of the New York State Civil Service Law, popularly known as the "Taylor Law," of joining the union or having an amount equal to the union dues deducted from my paycheck as an "agency shop fee."  I choose to pay the dues and be a member; as such, I have the right to attend union meetings and they cannot eject me for making comments that are at odds with the party line.  They have to let me participate in the union meeting.  Not everyone is happy about that.].

 One of the speakers was Danny Donohue, the President of the New York State Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA).  In his speech, Danny referred to Governor Andrew Cuomo as a "moron" and a "monkey."

[The video is here; if your tolerance for leftist labor union rhetoric is limited, Danny's discourse begins at 4:03, the "moron" comment starts at 5:04, and the "monkey" comment at 7:31].

I find the video very interesting because the speakers are all implicitly if not explicitly critical of Andy Cuomo's high-handed autocratic actions.  These same people, mind you, were leading their sheep in force to get out the vote for another autocrat, Barack Hussein Obama.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and New York State Public Employees Federation President Susan M. Kent issued a joint statement to wash their hands of Danny's comments, calling them a "poor choice of words."

I, for one, am with Danny Donohue on this matter if not on the politics he generally espouses.  Truth, after all, is an absolute defense to defamation. 

Holding and Folding the Race Cards

Group membership identity is a natural human (and, for that matter, animal) tendency.   It is not necessarily a bad thing.  Unfortunately, it is often used as a pretext for condoning if not supporting the poor behavior of particular group members.

Such a theme reverberated in this Blog's posting of 17 February 2010, which discussed the attitudes of certain Jewish groups and individuals to the execution of Florida cop-killer Martin Grossman, and the flak I as a Jew took on account of my refusal to subscribe to the supplications for clemency.

This is not to say that lenity doesn't have a place in the criminal justice system, but in the particular case of Martin Grossman, the criminal's serious recidivistic crime squarely warranted the penalty which was in fact imposed.

Within the African-American community are some very vocal spokespersons who are all too quick to use membership in their group as justification for excusing and encouraging the most violent of criminals.  It is not the purpose of this posting to analyze the reasons why such individuals hold so much sway in the African-American community, nor the connection of the actions and attitudes precipitated by such individuals to the reported percentage statistics of African-Americans as lawbreakers.  Those of us who advocate for a government of laws and not persons should be rooting for all law-abiding citizens regardless of race or ethnicity, and should support the imposition of the appropriate negative consequences upon those who violate the law, without regard to race or ethnicity.

With that as a background, I note that SEIU 1199, the scummiest of the scum as far as labor unions go, has cancelled a pro-gun control rally in Albany for fear of causing racial friction (or, more specifically, racial friction which would be inconvenient for their agenda).  SEIU's rank-and-file membership is largely Black and Hispanic, while the more vocal opponents of Governor Cuomo's gun-grab law are white.  There is no doubt in my mind that Cuomo, with his aspirations to sit in the Oval Office, was behind 1199's change in plan, being that he stands to have mud splattered upon him if a racial confrontation ensues.

My observations and comments on this:

A.  Given the historic use of gun control as a means of oppressing the African-American community, it is they who should logically be opposed to the Cuomo gun grab.

B.  Whatever the reasons may be for the disproportionate tendencies of Black people to commit crimes, the persons most likely to be the victim of a violent Black criminal are themselves Black.

C.  A story now making the rounds is that of Deyfon Pipkins, a Black man with a prior criminal record who was shot dead while in the act of burglarizing a home.  What is not being discussed in the news clips is that the event occurred in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, a predominately Black neighborhood.  The homeowner who performed the valuable service of permanently retiring Pipkins from the active criminal league's roster has not yet been identified, but there is a better than even chance that he is Black and/or Hispanic.

Maybe the SEIU 1199 leadership fears that this, too, might fall onto the table if it were to play its race cards at its now-scrubbed gun-grab rally.

Oiling the Machinery for New York Disaster Relief

   

My politics are not consonant with those of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (nor, for that matter, with those of his father, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo).  Nevertheless, I applaud him for his willingness to cut some slack on the tax angle in order to facilitate the disaster relief required in New York. 

Andy Cuomo is providing a commodity that has long been scarce in the Executive Chamber in Albany -- Leadership.  He has (through what surely were direct orders to his underlings):

            *  Postponed filing and payment deadlines for taxpayers affected by Hurricane Sandy, including special provisions for employers' tax filing and payment of withholding taxes.

            *  Waived the Highway Use Tax and Fuel Use Tax for trucks carrying disaster relief supplies or equipment.

            *  Simplified the paperwork requirements normally required to the import of motor fuel into New York State.

            But I will be quick to observe that the measures imposed by Andy's administration effectively amount to an admission that (A) the government's paperwork burdens stifle economic efficiency; and (B) higher tax burdens likewise stifle economic efficiency.

Why the Battle of Albany was Lost

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.