Tea and Vitriol

Blood is thicker than water. It is also harder to get out of the carpet. As of this writing, Rochester has just celebrated its sixth homicide for the year so far. Homicide has become the new norm for our dying city. We are the deadliest city in New York State and the ninth deadliest in the USA. That is no mean accomplishment for a mid-sized city of 200,000 souls.  We have become accustomed to violent car jackings occurring almost daily; of deadly feral urban humanoids driving along streets, shooting into houses, unconcerned about who might be wounded or killed; of revenge killings; of robberies and drug deals gone bad, resulting in corpses littering our streets and sidewalks; of homicides that were the results of mistaken identities or of passers-by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately, when caught, the murderers usually have arrest records as thick as phone books, which reflect our government and judiciary's unwillingness to protect law abiding citizens from s

 In 2015, three people were shot and killed at Rochester's Boys and Girls Club while exiting a basketball game. It was a drive-by shooting. Three others were injured during that incident. Three men were eventually charged in connection with that triple homicide: Johnny Blackshell, Jalen Everett and Michael Mathis. Only Blackshell was convicted for his part in the triple slaying. The other two were eventually acquitted. Not everyone believed that they were innocent. Two years after his acquittal, in 2019, Everett was shot to death in a car in Rochester's historic Maplewood neighborhood. It used to be so peaceful and quiet there. Just coincidence? Or was Nemesis at work? Nemesis was the ancient Greek goddess who personified retribution. She is notoriously slow but ultimately effective when the laws of men fail. This past Saturday, January 22, Nemesis struck again.  The result was Rochester's second homicide of the year. The victim? Why none other than Michael Mathis, the othe

 Prince Harry's long anticipated and dreaded ghost-written memoir was officially released today. The title, "Spare," refers to the custom of the Royal hierarchy to refer to the first born as the heir and the second as the spare. Apparently, his position as the spare has bothered Harry for a long time, even before (he says) he married a not famous or important mattress actress whom many accuse of pulling his strings. That's because Harry is not particularly intelligent or well-educated and still, while pushing forty years of age, has not gotten over the death of his mother more than twenty-five years ago. He has been rehashing that over and over again over the years and continues to do so in his memoir. In short, Harry has failed to put on his big boy pants and grow up. But then, it's hard to be the second son of the sainted Princess Di, saddled with a cold father and an evil stepmother, encased in a cocoon of enormous wealth, privilege and prestige, at least in hi

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

  Tonight is Christmas Eve. It is the official end of the Christmas Shopping Season, which began after the Fourth of July. During that period, advertisers, merchandisers and public relations people have been Hell bent on convincing consumers to spend themselves into debt, buying presents for others to prove their love. To buy their love, as it were. Traditional Christmas Carols have been perverted to reflect this commercialism. "Angels we have heard on high, telling us 'Go out and buy!'" And "God rest ye, merry merchants, may you make the yuletide pay!" This has been going on for decades, and not just in the United States. Mind you, there's nothing wrong with buying gifts for a few selected friends and family members. That, at least, is in the tradition of Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus and the Three Wise Guys...or Men...or the Magi. But the expectation that casual acquaintances and relative strangers must be bought for comes under the category of "J

The Christmas season is upon us again. And Hanukkah. Both are religious holidays. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, whom all Christian faiths regard as mankind's savior. Hanukkah celebrates the purification and rededication of Solomon's temple after it was defiled by the Hellenizing actions of the Seleucid Empire. As such, the proper greeting this time of year would be "Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah." Especially in years like this one, where the holidays overlap. Yes, both holidays feature gift-giving and as such a great deal of commercialism. But still, it is a happy time of year for most people, who will still use the greeting "Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah" when they meet people. It takes us back to an earlier, less complicated time when people were less apt to take offense at everything, when such greetings produced a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. I am referring to the days before progressive liberalism sought to pervert traditio

Two hundred and fifty years ago, America rejected the British Monarchy. Many of our Founding Fathers felt that we had outgrown it and that hereditary kingship was no longer beneficial to our circumstances, hopes and goals. That the British have chosen to maintain the Monarchy up until the present time is their business, so let them look to it. Unfortunately, Americans are still obsessed with the glitz and glamor the Royal Family still exudes, since they are wrapped in a cocoon of fabulous wealth, privilege and prestige. Supposedly, in our republican and democratic political culture, we have foregone all of that, yet we miss the fairy tale of it all, the rituals, the pageantry and the jewels. Our First Families simply do not compare, nor do the political dynasties our history has brought forth, because they come and go, while the British Monarchy remains. Yet the concept of hereditary monarchy is based on the belief in superior and inferior classes, with the monarch at the top of the he