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Take two recent issues, the mosque near Ground Zero, and the recent shoplifting arrest of Caroline Giuliani, the daughter of tough law and order former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The American Brain Drain
By Michael Boyajian
Bob Herbert writing in the New York Times reports that America is suffering from declining academic excellence among other things falling to 12th of 36 nations with people having college degrees.
This my friends is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s more than Americans idly sitting in front of their TVs watching reality television while munching on a bag of potato chips without a book in the house. The real problem is the reverse brain drain that will relegate the country to Third World status.
The more Kevin Powell compares Ed Towns to Charlie Rangel, the more Kevin starts to bear an eerie resemblance to the fat man with the funny NYC accent. Former 'Real World' star Kevin Powell has a real financial mountain to climb in bid for Congress www.nydailynews.com
It is time for my friends on the left to stop making excuses and acknowledge that Chavez is just a thug, (not so) pure and simpleWelcome To Censorship In The 21st Century | The New Republic www.tnr.com
You might not have noticed it, but two terrorists who tried to attack Kennedy Airport were convicted in Federal Court in Brooklyn this week.
There is little doubt in my mind that the electeds like Senator Kevin Parker, Nick Perry and a few others from the inept Brooklyn crew, symbolize near everything wrong with too many contemporary elected officials: a breed of mindless, spineless, classless, gutless, unimaginative nincompoops; clueless as to what a true elected should stand for or be about. I say this as I personally observed (all week long) Senator Kevin Parker fighting for his political life against challenger Wellington Sharpe: in a Brooklyn court room and also at the Brooklyn Board of Elections (both located on Adams Street). It’s that faulty part of the electoral process, wherein electeds do near everything imaginable, in order to avoid an election challenge any September. Truth be told is that judges, lawyers and other officers of the court facilitate and encourage this affront to democracy every single election year.
GOP Civil War Brewing in Fishkill
By Michael Boyajian
It may not match the GOP battles between Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki where the two goliaths battled for top billing in the Empire State for years letting nothing get in their way including 9-11 but with all the troubles in Fishkill of late this battle between the Town Supervisor and the Village Mayor could have repercussions across the state with a new GOP guard’s ascent to power.
Purely by accident Tom Friedman may have stumbled on the real reason for opposition to the Young Men's Islamic Association proposed to be located at the Holy Mother Coat Factory:
"When we tell the world, 'Yes, we are a country that will even tolerate a mosque near the site of 9/11,' we send such a powerful message of inclusion and openness. It is shocking to other nations. But you never know who out there is hearing that message and saying: 'What a remarkable country! I want to live in that melting pot, even if I have to build a boat from milk cartons to get there.'”
It's a good thing the building's not located in Arizona. Op-Ed Columnist – Broadway and the Mosque – NYTimes.com www.nytimes.com
Do We Need Gay Bars? Do We Need Black Churches?
By Michael Boyajian
I had written recently about an LGBT get together at Bethel Woods and in that article I quoted Stephen Hengst of Big Gay Hudson Valley who postulated whether we need gay bars anymore.
After the commercial break, the Mayor continued on the same theme: ''Those are actually the basic fundamental questions that need to be asked, that often aren't and then we displace the responsibility to the police. What about the parents? How was the child brought up? What values were they given? What ethics were they taught? What happened in their church? What didn't happen? These are the basic things that create a lawful society, a decent society.''