Tea and Vitriol

Tomorrow is Memorial Day in the USA. It is the unofficial start of summer, after which fashionistas can wear white shoes and white slacks until Labor Day without attracting the criticism from self-appointed arbiters of taste. It is a federal holiday, so all schools, government offices, courts and banks will be closed, and bully for all those employed in such fields. Most other businesses remain open, as are retail establishments, albeit with slightly shortened hours to "celebrate" the holiday. In my youth, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, EVERYTHING was closed on Memorial Day to honor our fallen war dead, to give Americans the time to ponder its meaning and perhaps spare a thought or two about them. Yes, there will be parades tomorrow, attended by politicians seeking re-election, accompanied by their fan clubs wearing "Vote for so-and-so" t-shirts with which to indoctrinate the crowds of people watching and proving their "connection" to their constit...

 Michael Scott Jr, 22, was sentenced on Tuesday in NY State Supreme Court in Rochester to 30 years in prison for two separate deadly shootings, occurring a year apart. Scott pleaded guilty to manslaughter in both cases, not homicide, though I never knew a corpse that asked about the difference between the two. This was obviously a plea deal, which is how most of our justice system in the US functions, sparing everyone the time, stress and expense of an actual trial. This is supposed to make everyone happy, except maybe the families and friends of the victims. If they complain, they are looked at as spoilsports and told that the courts have provided them with that meaningless word "closure" and that they should get on with their lives. After all, justice WAS done, wasn't it? Without plea deals, our already overbooked courts would grind to a halt. That's because our legal system allows for a multitude of frivolous lawsuits to clog our courts. "Sue 'em" has...

When dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, I was born in Rochester, New York's "Beer Belt." It is an older part of the city and not a toney one, inhabited by the working poor. In my day, most of the residents were either immigrants or refugees from Eastern Europe and English was a foreign language there. You needed to have a working knowledge of five different languages just to go shopping on Clifford, Clinton and Joseph Avenues. And the beat cops spoke them as well. Yes, we had beat cops back then, visible in the neighborhood, and a deterrent to crime and violence. Most residents there respected the authority of the police and wanted to have no trouble with them, since they or their parents came from countries with repressive regimes and feared to be sent back there for committing crimes her in the US. Most of the homes there were built before the turn of the twentieth century, so many did not have driveways for automobiles, since they didn't exist at that time. The stre...

Pope Francis is dead. Long live Pope Leo XIV!  Elected on the fourth ballot during Conclave, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost has chosen to take as his regnal name Pope Leo XIV and has thus become the spiritual leader of the 1.4 billion Roman Catholics worldwide. The process of Conclave has been made much of in the media the last two days and was the subject of at least two recent films: "Angels and Demons" and "Conclave." I therefore will not bore you further with the process. However, I will point out that Conclave began yesterday and was concluded at noon today, making it one of the shortest in history. Perhaps the Cardinals hoped to avoid the diet of bread and water if the Conclave got to be too lengthy, as has happened in the past. Notably, the African and Filipino cardinals who were considered frontrunners for the Papal throne didn't get it. Instead, American born Chicago native Robert Prevost will step into the shoes of the Fisherman. Prevost has theref...