Tea and Vitriol

 Rochester, New York has become a deadly violent place to live, work and play. I have been spending more and more time in Germany over the last five years and after each trip the thought of returning to Rochester usually unnerves me. My European friends wonder why I remain living in such a dangerous place, especially when, thanks to the internet, they can read for themselves what is going on here. There I can walk the streets at any hour, feeling safe and relatively secure. Here, in the neighborhood where I still maintain a residence, I won't walk my dogs after dark. There are some streets that I find it necessary to avoid because of the propensity for violence to occur there. Even when merely driving through them. And we no longer have beat cops walking the streets anymore. They were a usual feature in my youth, and I honestly believe that their presence in the neighborhoods helped prevent crime or at least provided a sense of security. Alas, beat cops vanished like the passenger

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

The US mid-term elections are over. The much anticipated "Red Tide," where the GOP would sweep national, state and local elections proved to be only so much hype. Though many races in dyed in the wool Blue states were close, too many Americans refused to reject the politically progressive perversion known as Bidenism. True, the Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives, while as of this writing there are still five Senate seats undecided. While GOP control of the House merely removes that Nancy Pelosi creature as Speaker of the House, and good riddance to her, she still remains a representative for her district in California, which means that she will continue to be a gadfly in the body politic of the US, though of lesser importance than previously. We might say "Thank God for small mercies." As for New York State, we will remain under the control of the unholy triumvirate of pre-born baby killing, criminal loving Hochul, James and Schumer. They

  Early last year, when COVID struck, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a "state of emergency" and assumed emergency, dictatorial powers to combat the pandemic. He shut down New York State entirely, with massive disruptions to the economy, the working class and to the human need for socialization. Cuomo then held near daily press conferences, to relay to the homebound public his strategies for combatting the disease. These so impressed the daytime television industry that, along with shows about menopausal women, castrated husbands and their juvenile delinquent brats, Cuomo won an EMMY Award! Heady with this success, Cuomo prompted his state employees to ghost a largely fictional, pretentious book about his successes in combatting COVID. He hoped to make his mark in history with it, as inaccurate and untrue as it was, and that it should serve as a textbook on how to handle pandemics. He got $5 million for the book deal. Then it all began to go wrong. His own staff

 Let's face it. Rochester has become a very dangerous place in which to live. Last night we had four shootings within an hour, only a short distance apart from each other. This is besides the other shootings, stabbings and assaults that are now Rochester's "New Norm." The victims were all women. One of them died. She was the 36th victim so far this year. Usually, shooting victims are men.  I suppose that, in a spasm of equality, women are now considered fair game for violent death. And the interim chief of police took off for the weekend, going on "vacation." Despite all the Pollyannas out there trying to tout the benefits of living in our fair city, Rochester was considered to be New York State's "Murder Capital" long before Mayor Warren's administration began. The anti-cop, pro-criminal atmosphere created by both her administration and City Council merely intensified the situation in Rochester, helping to maintain and expand its grip on t