Tea and Vitriol

  Yesterday, February 23, 2023, within the space of one hour, three teenagers were shot in the dying City of Rochester, New York. All three were shot in what has become known as the "Fatal Crescent," that section of our fair city in which most of our violence and homicides occur. The Crescent corresponds roughly to Rochester's ghettoes. The shootings occurred at different locations within the Crescent. One was pronounced dead at the scene.  He was Rochester's ninth homicide victim 0f 2023. Another of the three was taken to the hospital and into surgery with life-threatening injuries. The victim of the first shooting was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Thank heavens for small mercies, anyway. There is an old saying, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." A "rod," in criminal parlance, also means a pistol. And young people are somehow getting hold of lots of rods these days, always illegally. Therefore, they are not getting sp

The final hours of 2022 are upon us. Tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of people are planning to go out to celebrate New Year's Eve after nearly two years of government-imposed isolation and restrictions across the globe to "combat" the Corona Virus. Bars and nightclubs will be offering tacky paper hats and noisemakers, as well as a plastic cup of cheap champagne at midnight to ring in the new year to customers, who will be drinking at regular prices throughout the evening. All the while, the patrons will be shrieking to each other at how much fun they're having. I hope they will be. They are the ones who weren't invited to anyone's parties. News Year's Eve is usually regarded as amateur night for drinkers, which is why the various law enforcement agencies will be out at full force. Hopefully those partiers will be up and about by January 3rd. For myself, I am not particularly nostalgic about the passing of 2022 nor particularly hopeful for 20

 Remember the song, the "Limbo Rock" and the refrain "How low can you go?" Well, apparently the people in charge of governing the City of Rochester, NY are looking to bring it as low as they possibly can. We already know that our fair city is the deadliest in America per capita in terms of homicide. We have the worst school district in the State of New York, and one of the worst in the entire nation. We rank second in terms of child poverty. We used to rank first, but Syracuse, NY succeeded us to that dubious title this year. And now...and now... According to WalletHub, a personal finance website, Rochester ranks 13th out of 150 cities as one of the worst-run major cities in America! Surprise, surprise! Most residents of our fair city already know that. Washington, DC, San Francisco, New York City and Chicago, all jewels in the crown of progressive liberalism and governed by Democrats, fared worse than Rochester. According to the story printed yesterday (June 22, 20