Some Burning Issues

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.

Rest in Peace, Lt. Robert J. Ryan, Jr.

The Fire Department of the City of New York, which has already paid a very steep price for its collective excellence and dedication in protecting the city's populace, has lost another of its Bravest. Lt. Robert J. Ryan, Jr. fell in the line of duty while attempting to extinguish a fire in a Staten Island home. I, of course, proffer the all too usual condolences and regrets. My specific comments, other than those standard procedural sentiments, are as follows:


A. The posting of 16 November 2008 questions New York City's promotion policies for its uniformed services, including but not limited to posthumous promotions for those incurring line of duty deaths. This is, of course, an unpopular subject, but New York, like any other governmental unit, has the need for fiscal prudence, and also the need to appropriately reward/punish its employees for their performance. Oftentimes, these two imperatives are propelled on a collision course with one another, particularly in times such as this when the budget is exceedingly tight.

I do not know whether Lt. Ryan will be posthumously promoted to Captain, and do not now pass any judgment as to whether he should or should not be so promoted. What I do assert is that the decision, one way or the other, ought to be based upon the particular facts and merits of the individual case, whatever they happen to be.


B. Reportedly, Lt. Ryan was seriously burned in 2005 while responding to a fire. He worked hard to recover and to rehabilitate himself for more than a year, so that he could once again join the ranks of the active FDNY. Plenty of governmental employees have no doubt retired on disability for injuries which are superficial in comparison with Lt. Ryan's 2005 burns. Lt. Ryan surely could have gone into retirement and collected his monthly check while finding gainful employment in some sinecure position (or, perhaps, totally retired altogether). He affirmatively chose to make a comeback with FDNY. While this should not be dispositive in any posthumous promotion decision, it certainly should be among the many relevant factors.

C. Lt. Ryan apparently did work to reconstitute his firefighting unit following its personnel losses in the wake of the September 11th attack. This could not have been as easy as it sounds.


D. It is now reported that the occupant of the house which collapsed upon Lt. Ryan escaped unharmed. I know nothing about this person, but fervently hope that he or she is worth the trade, and will, in his or her own way, make positive contributions to society, just as Lt. Ryan did in his own way.



Rest in Peace, Lt. Ryan. Your family and colleagues have every reason to be proud of you!

Glenn Winuk has Prevailed!

The 25 June 2007 posting for this Blog reported the victory of 9/11 hero Glenn Winuk's family in the Court of Federal Claims. The posting expressed the hope that "the Department of Justice will not appeal Judge Horn's well-reasoned and well-substantiated decision, so that Glenn Winuk's family can hold their heads up high in full knowledge that Glenn's heroic actions are appreciated, and that Glenn Winuk can have his hard-earned and dearly paid rest in peace."

Well, the Justice Department guys/gals did appeal, but, having second thoughts, moved to voluntarily dismiss the appeal. The on 10 January 2008, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted the motion and dismissed the appeal. The LEXIS cite is 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 1640 (Fed.Cir. 2008).

So now Glenn Winuk is officially a hero. But we all knew that.

The New Pigeon Police

Much has been going on, so I have been kept busy, off the streets and out of trouble (mostly). I didn't sleep too well last night, primarily because our local volunteer fire department responded to a call from the house next door at about 2:00 AM. Nothing major; the firefighters were gone in less than an hour, and the neighbors got out safely on their own accord, and are back at home after the fire. I have no further details yet (and they really don't seem to be that important). But the sirens and the bright lights woke me up and kept me up. I don't like losing whatever precious little sleep I am able to achieve, but at least I know that our firefighters show up when they are needed. I can live with that!


In the Big Apple, Councilman Simcha Felder has announced legislation proscribing the feeding of pigeons, under penalty of $1,000 fines for violations. The bill (which, as of this writing, has not yet shown up on the NYC City Council website) would create the position of pigeon czar to deal with all pigeon problems.

Having kept pigeons as pets during my preteen years, I have developed some opinions and attitudes regarding the birds. First and foremost, there are just too damn many of them in New York City (and, for that matter, in the covered parking lot where I teach). Secondly, as pointed out by Don Jenner, we have ourselves to blame for bringing pigeons to America. They are descended from the Rock Doves of the Old World, but we brought them here. Think of them as illegal aliens!

I agree that we do need to do something about the pigeons. About 3 or 4 years ago, my wife and I went to a wedding in Brooklyn. The valet parking people parked our minivan right under the El tracks, and when they returned the car there were several very large blobs of pigeon poop on the windshield. Turning on the wipers would have smeared the poop all over, and rendered the entire windshield opaque. And so, as the valet people (I wouldn't bet that they all had green cards) were honking their horns behind our van to try to get me to drive it away, I climbed upon the front of the van, with a spritzer of Windex and lots of paper towels, and cleaned off my windshield. A very significant part of me regrets (A) not wiping the poop in the face of the valet parking captain, who was standing there 20 feet away watching me wipe the poop from my windshield; and/or (B) not mailing a sample of the poop to the mother & father of the bride (we were guests on the groom's side).


Pigeons are edible (and, if slaughtered according to the Torah dictates, kosher). They can be used to alleviate much of the hunger problem in the New York metropolitan area, except that the animal rights sob sisters would all be up in arms.

And speaking of the animal rights sob sisters, their big thing of late has been the feral cats at Idlewyld (I refuse to call it JFK) Airport.


Why not just bus the feral cats from Idlewyld in to Manhattan, and dispense with Councilman Felder's additional layer of bureaucracy?

Glenn Winuk update

On 25 September 2006, the posting to this Blog discussed Glenn Winuk, the volunteer firefighter/EMT who died while performing rescue operations at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

The 25 September 2006 posting was a bit skeptical and chary regarding the motives of Winuk's surviving family members in trying to qualify for survivors' death benefits under the Public Safety Officers’ Death Benefits Act. This is a function of my training and experience with the IRS, and not on account of any character flaws that the Winuk family members may possess. An IRS agent who cannot "think dirty" cannot effectively enforce the tax laws.

And, if Glenn's brother Jay is to be believed (his statement is, in fact, extremely plausible), the Winuk family has spent more money pursuing their legal remedies than they will collect from the death benefits. Notwithstanding my initial caution in the 25 September posting, it seems that the Winuk family really was in the fight for the principle.

It is with much gratitude that I now report the Winuk family's victory in the Court of Federal Claims. The opinion by Judge Marian Blank Horn makes for a good read in memory of Glenn J. Winuk, and also holds a magnifying glass over the miniature minds of the bureaucrats who fought tooth and nail to deny Glenn his rightful status as a public safety officer killed in the line of duty at the World Trade Center. When it comes to tending to the public treasury, some initial skepticism is healthy and appropriate, but, as Judge Horn noted:

"Chairman Biancanello and Chief Lottes of the Jericho Fire District properly certified that Glenn Winuk should be considered to have been a public safety officer killed in the line of duty during the 9/11 tragedy. That should have been the end of it."

Hopefully, the Department of Justice will not appeal Judge Horn's well-reasoned and well-substantiated decision, so that Glenn Winuk's family can hold their heads up high in full knowledge that Glenn's heroic actions are appreciated, and that Glenn Winuk can have his hard-earned and dearly paid rest in peace.