Monday, February 29, 2016

Trump: Talk Issues Not Insults

I don’t know what you guys think, but I think the Republican frontrunners have gone way overboard with their insults for one another. Donald Trump started the whole thing by being rude to everybody. Now, it seems that the other ones think the only way to get votes is to insult the competition. This is bullshit.
As a voter, I don’t want to hear insults from the candidates. I want to hear their plans for the country. Our country is in deep trouble, put there by liberal Democrats (oops, sorry, they wish to be called progressives now – ah, screw ’em!), who are battling for the privilege of continuing their destruction. H. Clinton is near salivating over the chance to continue the carnage brought on by the putz Obama. She has the annihilation of the first and second amendments square in her sights. She wants to do what she damn well pleases (sound familiar?) and limit what can legally be said about it and she doesn’t want anybody shooting at her either.
Actually, I’m not sure which party has put forth the worst candidates. The Democrats have the criminal H. Clinton and a sad-sack Socialist named Sanders. Neither of which is presidential material. But Democrat voters will be dipped if they’ll vote for something other than a Democrat. Doesn’t matter who it is, they have to vote for a Democrat. Meanwhile any one of the GOP candidates would make a better president. Any one of them.
Which takes us back to the GOP. I like Trump; I like the slogan: Make America Great Again! That’s great stuff, and it’s what we all should want. The only ones who seem to think otherwise are liberal Democrats, welfare people, and illegal immigrants. (Actually, they’re one and the same). What I don’t like about Trump is he doesn’t spend enough time talking up the issues – What? He can’t think of anything to talk about except Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio? And nothing good, of course. All he’s doing is tearing down the Republican Party. Now Rubio’s on the Insult Bandwagon, coming up with what he thinks are clever slurs against Trump, and he thinks he’s cute. A real stand-up comic. It must be because he has the Republican Establishment behind him with lots and lots of money. The Republican Establishment refuses to stand behind Trump. He’s not their kind of guy. There are other loud-mouth Republicans sounding off about refusing support for Trump. Don’t these fools realize they are telling the Republican voters who voted for Trump that their votes don’t matter? They don’t care what we want; they are the ones with the money, and they want what they want. Screw us! Jeb Bush is supposed to be a nice man, but the idea he spent more than $100 million in a failed campaign should tell these assholes something.
The one thing that is standing in the way of Donald Trump and the presidency is Donald Trump. He has to stop slinging insults at guys that don’t matter and start talking about what matters to voters. The blush is off the rose. The fact that he’s a political outsider is old news. He needs to get down to the real issues of a campaign – talk about what matters 

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Pedophilia No Longer Issue with Church

Again, I must apologize for the lack of a blog last week. The computer caught a virus and had to be sent out for some TLC. As usual, EDS  Computers in Hornell did a great job, and they don’t overcharge either.
And I have another excuse. I attended a Catholic mans’ retreat at Notre Dame Retreat House near Canandaigua over the weekend.  It’s a good time, and instructive. The priests each give a talk that lasts about an hour on various subjects, depending on the audience. Father Paul Miller, resident historian, is always interesting to listen to. His talk this time was the role of Catholics in American history.  The other priest spoke of pedophile priests and what the church has done to remedy these sad events. There has been much confusion and anger directed at priests and the church over the way the scandal was handled.  I’d like to talk about that for a minute. Many good points were discussed that helped listeners better to understand  what was going on back then.
The first bad thing to happen was that the church used the psychological model to diagnose the disorder. Pedophilia is not a crime unless acted upon. Indeed, there are many pedophiliacs who know what they are but do not act on their thoughts and urges, because they know sex with children is wrong, and many are afraid of being caught and sent to prison, where “baby rapers” are treated unkindly. In using the psychological model guilty priests were thought to suffer a treatable disorder. They were given counseling and therapy, but when they had completed the regimen and returned to duty, they also returned to their old habits. It is now believed pedophilia (sex with children up to 11 years old) and ephibophilia (sex with children between ages 15 to 18) are incurable. If a person is born that way, they stay that way. There is also a disorder called gerontophilia, which causes the sufferer to desire sex with old people. I had not realized there was such a disorder, but we were told there were philias for every age group. (I suppose I should be gratified that I have only been sought after by females of my own age.)
Pedophilia is not related to homosexuality nor is it child molestation.
Needless-to-say, the church realized it had a much more serious problem on its hands. What to do with mentally ill priests suffering from an incurable sexual disorder. A system was put in place that demanded these men be kept under constant observation.
First, if a priest is even accused of sexual relations with a child, the investigation must occur immediately and a report rendered within two days. The allegation must be credible – a reasonable possibility the incident occurred, made by a prudent person without an ax to grind. If the report indicates there was nothing to the accusation, it is put aside. But if it shows the likelihood of substance, the priest is removed from his duties while a full-scale investigation is carried out. If sexual contact with children is proven, the priest is defrocked and as long as he wishes to receive medical benefits and retirement from the church, he must remain in custodial homes under constant, very strict supervision. Since all pedophiles are pathological liars, supervision can be a chore.
It should be noted that pedophilia is not only a Catholic problem. Less than a quarter of the reported cases involved Catholic priests, although you would not see this from major media accounts, which always seem to make it a Catholic phenomenon. But the Methodists, Wesleyans, Baptists, Lutherans and all the others have their share of offenders. Out of 77,000 priests worldwide, only 2.1 percent were involved.
There are a couple of websites available to those of you with a further interest in this subject. Virtusonline.org talks at length about all aspects of pedophilia as does praesidiuminc.com, the latter with a slightly different bent.

If the reason you have stopped attending mass is due to your fear of or your anger at Catholic priests or the church, I hope these words have been instrumental in alleviating your reluctance to return to your church. Remember, come the Judgment, your excuses are not going to account for much. And priests entering seminary are tested psychologically forwards and backwards – not much chance of a pedophile slipping through. At least the door isn’t as wide open as it used to be.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

A New Voice in State Politics


I attended the Lincoln Day Dinner at the Main Place in Hornell Friday evening. Ordinarily I don’t show up at such goings-on but found spending an evening with people of my own ilk was a pleasure. The Lincoln Day Dinner is an annual event sponsored by the Hornell Republican Committee. The reason the dinner is named for Abraham Lincoln is that he was the first real Republican.

The food was good, the drinks were good, the company was good, and if you don’t mind a half dozen or so politicians’ speeches during which they spend several minutes patting each other on the back for the swell job they are doing for us, then you might say the speeches were good. Actually, we do have a swell bunch of local politicians that do a fine job for us, no fooling. In case you don’t know who they are, here are their names: U.S. Congressman Tom Reed, State Senator Tom O’Mara, Assemblyman Phil Palmesano and Assemblyman Bill Nojay. No. there are no Democrats in the ranks of Republican pols. Although they are welcome at any time.

The keynote speaker was of special interest.  Chris Gibson, a U.S. congressman from Columbia County delivered an inspired address to the audience of 112 guests, during which he enumerated many of the problems with the Cuomo Administration. (In that regard he could have spoken for hours but held his remarks to about fifteen to twenty minutes, a span of time  no speech should exceed.)  Gibson informed his audience of his plans to run for governor.  Can you even imagine a truly conservative Republican holding sway in Albany? Personally, I cannot ever remember such being the case. Pataki? You gotta be kidding!

Gibson described four issues he said needed immediate address.  The economy, of course, saying the ads the current administration is running on television about how well NYS is doing businesswise, simply are not true. But, then, anybody paying attention to the job market already knew that. The second issue is education, particularly the eradication of Common Core. I must admit ignorance as to the particulars of Common Core, but if it’s no better (or is worse than) the other math procedures concocted by asinine liberal “educators,” (remember “new” math?) then it’s simple “math” to say it’s no good. What was wrong with the old “rote” method, in which students simply did something until they got it right then moved on? Slower students went at their own pace, the gifted went according to theirs. Of course, it may help to arrange a method of ridding the school districts of bad teachers. The tenure system has to go for the betterment of education.

Chris Gibson’s third issue he would work to see changed if elected to the governor’s office is the corruption in Albany. I guess we all know how bad that is. NYS and Illinois (Chicago) are reputed to be the most crooked state governments in the US. Probably so, but I would not think others were better to any degree. And, as much as we’d all like to see Albany swathed with a brush of honest dealings, I’d bet there are few who would offer hold their breath.

The final issue Gibson spoke of was repeal of the SAFE Act. It should not have been brought into law in the first place – passed in the middle of the night after refusing lawmakers the opportunity to review it. Liberals do not care that disarming law abiding citizens, even making guns and ammunition more difficult to come by, puts those citizens in more danger. Areas of the country that legalized armed carry have less crime (talk about simple math). Crooks don’t want to be shot.

Chris Gibson is quite an accomplished individual. A 29-year veteran of the US Army, he retired as a full colonel. He spent four tours in Iraq, where he earned four bronze stars and a purple heart. Gibson led combat troops for the fabled 82nd Airborne and the Tenth Mountain Division.

Gibson did not make an official announcement about his political future but did say that “very soon” he would announce his intentions to form an exploratory committee in preparation for a 2018 run to unseat Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

To bring meaningful change to NYS we must work to put conservative Republicans in positions of prominence, as we have done in our area of the state. To date, Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1, the results of which are evident throughout the state – corruption, no jobs, failing schools, on and on.

“This must be our work,” said Gibson, “registering new voters.”

Gibson urged the party to focus on a positive message that will unite people around common problems and will celebrate diverse viewpoints. “Ours is a positive-issues centered message that ought to have mass appeal.”

Bringing Republicans together will be a great first step.

One last note on the Lincoln Day Dinner. Every year a Republican of the Year is selected and awarded a trophy. This year the honor went to Kevin Doran – posthumously! Mr. Doran’s contribution to the conservative cause was long running and on the money. He owned the WLEA radio station and often used his mic to espouse those conservative precepts we hold so dear. Most enjoyable were his Friday morning Newsmaker shows with Alfred University political science professor Dr. Robert Heinemann, in which they discussed, pro and con, many issues of the day. Mr. Doran also gave a radio voice to committee chairman John Buckley and assemblyman Nojay, who called the radio man “a lifelong defender of the truth .”

Mr. Doran was a good friend and he will be missed. He passed away last fall. I was wondering if he might have enjoyed receiving the honor of Republican of the Year, an award commemorating his longstanding work on behalf of conservatism, while he was alive.

 I think he would have.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Who's the Boss?

     The other day I was introduced to a couple of nice women at Wegmans and the first thing they asked was how was Cosmo doing.
     For those of you new to the Newshawk Report, Cosmo is our, now, four-and-a-half year old black Lab. And he’s a character.
    Since I first started telling stories about him, several people have offered some of their own stories about their dogs, black Labs specifically. Seems they are a personable breed. One of the women told of having two. They were always confined in a fenced in backyard. When a cat or whatever passed by, they, being dogs, wanted to chase it. Get this: One would stand sideways close to the fence, the other run and used the other dog to catapult itself over the fence. She didn’t mention how the arrant chaser of things got back in the yard. Probably rang the front door bell and was let in. Sounds like a Lab.
    Let’s face it, there’s no doubt about who’s the boss in our house – my wife just thinks she is. When Coz wants something, he doesn’t ask, he demands, and he expects you to obey. When he wants to go out, his bark isn’t simply announcing the fact, He’s saying, “Get your ass over there and open the door! NOW!”
    I guess what first endeared him to the readers of this space was the deal with the cat’s dish. Goes like this: When the cat is done eating, you can bet Coz will be lurking somewhere nearby, ready to finish it off. He, because he only thinks he’s smart, doesn’t realize that a 110 lb. dog cannot hide easily, no matter how big the house is. In the beginning, when the bowl was metal (still is) and the floor hardwood (we recently laid a carpet in the kitchen because he had such a hard time moving on the hardwood, because of his hip dysplasia) we could heard the bowl rattle while he was finishing it off. My wife yelled (I didn’t care), but Coz would hang in until the bowl was empty then hightail it. My wife would pick up the bowl and shake it at him, tell him what a bad dog he was.
    He may not be as smart as he thinks he is but he’s no dummy. He came to realize it was the rattling bowl that was ratting him off, so he started carrying it into the living room, where there is carpeting on the floor, and enjoying his snack there. No noise. But when the dish disappeared from its place in the kitchen and my wife found it in the living room, Coz, of course, got yelled at again. Truth be known, he really didn’t give a damn. Savoring those morsels of Nine Lives was well worth the scolding. He’d patiently put up with the tirade and be well on his way to the arms of the shaggy Morpheous almost before my wife left the room.
    And Cosmo loves to sing. Oh, my, yes.He’ll lay, mostly in the evening, at our feet while we watch TV or in under the kitchen table and sing his heart out. We haven’t yet figured out what’s going on, unless it’s his way of saying it’s bed time. He usually stops once everyone is tucked in.
    He seems to deal well with his bilateral hip dysplasia and the dysplasia in his knees. He got quite a sway in his hips, which apparently helps him deal with this birthright. He used to jump around and play endlessly with our other dog, Dani, but not so much as they have aged. We thought perhaps it was due to the dysplasias causing problems, but then he’ll take off like crazy after a squirrel or a cat … It’s true that sometimes he’ll hobble home, having pulled or yanked something in his hips or legs, or both. I tell him he’s not too bright chasing after creatures so much faster than he – pointing out he’d never come close to catching anything – but he pays me no mind. Fun, after all, is fun!
    Because he’s getting older and because he chases things faster than he is and because of the (sometimes) constant singing, we wonder if he’s not in pain, at least some of the time. Our veterinarian thought it possible and prescribed a painkiller for him. We learned way back that Coz does not like to take pills any more than his humans do. And we learned that he sure did not like painkillers in his food. How we found this out was interesting. We put the pill in with his food, usually bits from a bag, and wet it down, drop the pill in, mix the stuff all around, and somehow after he eats all those bits, he leaves that pill in the bottom of the bowl! How does he do that? The other day I cut the pill in half and dropped in both halves  –  after eating all those bits, he left a half a pill in the bowl! I stood and watched him eat around it! Each time he came to it, he pushed it aside, and when all was gone, there sat the medicine!
    His way of deciding what goes into his food?
    In a way, doesn’t that tell you just who’s the boss around here?

    Amazing. I need to learn to do that with Brussel sprouts.