The Judge Report

Empty Nest

2008-08-29T01:41:07Z

This is a difficult couple of days. On Saturday we will be bringing our fourth (and probably last) child, my darling Louisa, to Boston University. We've been through this before, but this is our baby, Daddy's Little Princess.

How many nights did I walk the halls with her, tuck her into bed, tell her stories, sing her songs. They grow out of that eventually and that is one of the saddest parts of life.

Last night was her last waitressing at Fariello's, our local ice cream parlor, so we all went over and I had my usual fudgenberry sundae, and she was top-notch as usual and cute as a button. She's always been top notch: in school, on stage, back stage, in her art, in the way she treats other people. I hesitate to think what more one could ask of a child.

For a long time we've known this day would be coming, and so this Labor Day we will be contemplating the meaning of the empty nest.

Fortunately we'll have Jamie to help us.

Oh, and Anna.

And Laura.

And Uncle Sy.

And Chip, Lokis and Cocoa.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

Service Records

2008-08-27T15:24:27Z

From National Review Online last night:

Factoid on Military Service on the Ticket [Pete Hegseth]
For the first time in 44 years, the Democratic ticket for President will not include a veteran of America's Armed Services. Neither Senator Obama nor Senator Biden have spent one day in military uniform.
And by my calculations, it's been 76 years (Hoover-Curtis ticket in 1932) since the Republicans nominated a duo without any military experience. This year, that streak continues...
While military service is not a presidential prerequisite, one should not under-estimate the value combat boots bring to understanding leadership, service, and courage...especially in the dangerous world we live in today.
08/26 07:31 PM

Actually, I believe these calculations are wrong. In fact, it is the first time since 1940 (FDR/Henry Wallace) that the Dems do not have a veteran on the ticket. Since that time, they have always had at least one: Truman (44 and 48), Stevenson (52 and 56), JFK (60), LBJ (64), Muskie (68), McGovern(72), Carter (76,80), Mondale (84), Dukakis (88), Gore (92,96,2000), and, of course, John Kerry (2004).

While LBJ's naval career was cut short by a rule change that kept sitting congressmen out of uniform, he nonetheless was in WWII long enough to be awarded a silver star by Gen. MacArthur.

I should also point out that Hubert Humphrey tried twice to enlist during WWII but was rejected on medical grounds.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

Conventions Past

2008-08-26T02:00:01Z

The first Democratic Convention I remember was in 1956. My Massachusetts grandparents were visiting us in Westmere, outside of Albany, and staying at the Country Squire Motor Lodge at the intersection of US 20 and Carmen Road. Grampa Nelsi Brunelli flipped on the tv and on came the convention. The only VHF channel at the time was WRGB out of General Electric in Schenectady, an NBC station, so we watched Huntley and Brinkley for a while as Estes Kefauver fought Adlai Stevenson for the top spot. When Adlai won, he threw open the convention for VP, and young Jack Kennedy received his first national exposure. After all, it was the only thing on television.

Things sure were different then. As I recall, there were only about sixteen or eighteen primaries and Kefauver had won all of them. Didn't mean a damn thing, and no one argued that it did. [Update: My recollection was faulty. In 1952 he won twelve of fifteen, including knocking out incumbent Harry Truman in New Hampshire; in 1956 he won New Hampshire, Minnesota and Wisconsin before starting to slide and Stevenson actually had more primary votes in the end, though, again, those things didn't decide conventions.]

Did I mention I was five years old?

Four years later and we were in our last summer in Westmere before moving to Amsterdam and big brother Jay and I were trying out our new Montgomery Wards pup tent (purchased at the big store/warehouse in Menands, a place that reminded me of the department store in A Christmas Story). We were pitched in the back yard near the maple tree with the wooden swing, probably all of about six steps from the kitchen door.

Those were the days before air conditioning, of course, so every window in the house had been thrown open all the way. Though occasionally distracted by the chirping crickets and flashing fireflies, we both got a great kick out of the roll call of the states, already an art form, booming from our 19 inch black and white Motorola table-top television.

"Mr. Chairman, the great state of Alabama, the land of grits and catfish and bo-weevils, where the beauty of our women can not be exceeded anywhere and our rich soil produces the finest cotton in the world, where we have a candidate for State Attorney General, Rufus Beauregard Robert E. Lee Johnston, whose character, commitment and breeding make him an outstanding choice to replace the late and beloved Stentennius Bixby, whose tragic death in an agriculture accident has left the whole state and in particular our great Democratic Party, the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson and Curtis Alphonso Pickering, our great State Purchasing Agent, now seeking re-election to a fifth term, in mourning; the state of Honeysuckle Roses, mulberry bushes and good old-fashioned Southern Hospitality, PASSES."

We nodded off to sleep long before Wisconsin and Wyoming and the next morning read the headlines in the Albany Times Union:

IT'S KENNEDY!

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

Archbishop Chaput Explains . . .

2008-08-25T23:26:03Z

www.catholicnewsagency.com

Denver archbishop slams Pelosi on Church teachings and abortion

Rep. Nancy Pelosi / Archbishop Chaput

Denver, Aug 25, 2008 / 03:27 pm (CNA).- In a statement eloquently titled “On the Separation of Sense and State,” the Archbishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., and his Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley harshly criticized Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for giving a confusing view of the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion, during a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Catholic public leaders inconvenienced by the abortion debate” –says the statement- “tend to take a hard line in talking about the ‘separation of Church and state.’ But their idea of separation often seems to work one way.”

“In fact, some officials also seem comfortable in the role of theologian. And that warrants some interest, not as a ‘political’ issue, but as a matter of accuracy and justice.”

Archbishop Chaput’s statement recognizes Pelosi as “a gifted public servant of strong convictions and many professional skills” but adds that “regrettably, knowledge of Catholic history and teaching does not seem to be one of them.”

During the Meet the Press interview on August 24, Pelosi responded to a question about when human life begins by saying that “as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition . . . St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose.”

The Archdiocese of Denver argues that since Speaker Pelosi claims to have studied the issue “for a long time,” “she must know very well one of the premier works on the subject, Jesuit John Connery’s Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola, 1977).

The statement recall’s Connery’s conclusion: “The Christian tradition from the earliest days reveals a firm antiabortion attitude . . . The condemnation of abortion did not depend on and was not limited in any way by theories regarding the time of fetal animation. Even during the many centuries when Church penal and penitential practice was based on the theory of delayed animation, the condemnation of abortion was never affected by it. Whatever one would want to hold about the time of animation, or when the fetus became a human being in the strict sense of the term, abortion from the time of conception was considered wrong, and the time of animation was never looked on as a moral dividing line between permissible and impermissible abortion.”

The Archdiocese’s statement also quotes “the blunter words of the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”

Bonhoeffer, a strong critic and later victim of the Nazi regime in his native Germany wrote that “the destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.”

Archbishop Chaput’s statement continues, explaining that, “ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the Christian tradition overwhelmingly held that abortion was grievously evil. In the absence of modern medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homicide; others that it was tantamount to homicide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be animated or ‘ensouled.’ But none diminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early Church closely associated abortion with infanticide. In short, from the beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was always, gravely wrong.”

Archbishop Chaput also highlighted that “we now know with biological certainty exactly when human life begins. Thus, today’s religious alibis for abortion and a so-called ‘right to choose’ are nothing more than that – alibis that break radically with historic Christian and Catholic belief.”

“Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it – whether they’re famous or not – fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith,” the statement adds.

Finally Archbishop Chaput recalls that “the duty of the state and its officials is to serve the common good, which is always rooted in moral truth. A proper understanding of the ‘separation of Church and state’ does not imply a separation of faith from political life. But of course, it’s always important to know what our faith actually teaches.”

Read the full statement at: http://www.archden.org/images/ArchbishopCorner/ByTopic/onseparationofsense%26state_openlettercjc8.25.08.pdf

Joe Biden Says . . .

2008-08-23T14:49:46Z

The dangers of picking a former opponent as a running mate:

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

Is Hillary the New Number 2?

2008-08-22T13:32:32Z

If so, WHO IS NUMBER ONE?

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And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

Peggy Makes a Point

2008-08-22T08:50:03Z

Oh, how I wish I could write sentences like these. Peggy Noonan in today's WSJ:

As to the question when human life begins, the answer to which is above Mr. Obama's pay grade, let's go on a little tear. You know why they call it birth control? Because it's meant to stop a birth from happening nine months later. We know when life begins. Everyone who ever bought a pack of condom knows when life begins.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

Diamond Is Forever

2008-08-21T12:15:57Z

There are occasional perks to being a Red Cross volunteer that take some of the sting out of those middle of the night fire and flood calls. One such was the news that an anonymous donor had made available seats for the Neil Diamond concert at the Times Union Center (formerly Pepsi Arena, formerly Knickerbocker Arena) in Albany last night, and I quickly snarfed up my allotment.

Diamond, a bit after my time culturally even though he's ten years older, is certainly familiar enough to me for his work in the 60's and 70's and I've always found his music rather pleasant and even have been known to join in occasionally when his signature song is played at my favorite ball park.

What really startled me was how great the guy looks and sounds after forty-plus years in the big time. The voice seems to have lost little of its power, and his impeccable phrasing of lyrics leaves the impression that he is creating the song for the first time while we are listening, even if he has performed it a thousand times previously. He worked the large crowd (made up mostly of people who made me feel, if not young, then at least "with it") flawlessly, seemingly making eye contact with every quintagenarian female in the place, most of whom were on their feet hootin' and hollarin' and swingin' throughout the show.

Diamond has a pretty solid song book and he led us through two hours of his hits with barely a pause for breath, which is pretty impressive for a 67 year old. He certainly didn't look like one of those aged and heavily-girthed former stars that are occasionally dragged out to a local high school auditorium for a Deputy Sheriffs' benefit show. Indeed, he seemed, remarkably, at the top of his game.

As enthusiastic as his crowd was for all of his songs, it is no exaggeration to say that Sweet Caroline blew the roof off the place, so wildly received that he simply did the whole thing over when he was done.

And Big Papi didn't even need to hit a home run or anything.

Fenway park, Memorial Day, 2007

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

Book Availability Update

2008-08-20T02:44:21Z

Both The Judge Report and The Evil Has Landed are now available in twice as many retail establishments as heretofore with the addition of my favorite ice cream parlor, Fariello's on Lincoln Avenue in Amsterdam, to the growing Judge Network.This will be convenient for my many, many fans in my old Market Hill neighborhood (former stomping grounds of The Hill Hoods, which, as Attorney Tim Kelly pointed out at last Saturday's annual Hill Hood reunion, was not a "Capital G" gang as the term is more commonly employed, but rather a "small g" gang, like in "that old gang of mine.")

Two hills over at the five corners, both books are once again available with the replenished stock at The Old Peddler's Wagon, an easy stop on the way to Saratoga for those of you passing through town for Travers' Week at the track.

I believe the local bookshelf at the Peddler's Wagon now contains NINE titles from my high school class, Bishop Scully 1969.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

Sweet Iodine

2008-08-20T01:35:52Z

Kindly remember in your prayers my friend, fellow-blogger and muse Dawn Eden who is currently undergoing radiation treatment in DC to eradicate any remaining cancerous thyroid tissue from her two surgeries.

She has approached same with her usual good humor, but our prayers will let her know she is not facing this alone.

My contribution to her recovery was a copy of The Judge Report (THE BOOK), which will doubtless give her endless amusement.

It is no exaggeration to say that without the inspiration and encouragement of Dawn Eden, neither this blog nor the book would ever have happened. She is a most precious gift.

Her next book will undoubtedly contain a chapter on this experience, probably called something like The Swill of the (Radioactive) Waste.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

SALES UP!

2008-08-15T03:22:15Z

Delighted to receive a call from The Peddler's Wagon that The Evil Has Landed had sold out and there were only two copies of The Judge Report left. I promptly replenished the supply.

And jumped up quite a few notches on Amazon today.

Don't be the last to join the bandwagon!

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

Sandy Allen, RIP

2008-08-14T13:01:22Z

"The World's Tallest Woman", Sandy Allen, died yesterday at 53 in Indiana. Such an event would not ordinarily be commented upon at The Judge Report, but it happens that Mary and I met Ms. Allen while on our honeymoon thirty years ago.

If the news reports are correct, she was only 23 at the time, which amazes me, because I thought her much older. She was a headliner at the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Wildwood, New Jersey. Once an hour or so she would emerge from behind a curtain to the delight and fright of the youngsters and somewhat embarrassed squirming of adults, answering the same old questions about food and clothes, posing for snapshots, and doing it all over again the next hour and the next day and the day after that.

I found it all very sad.

*******
Naturally, I took her picture. After all, she was the world's tallest woman.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

And remember: VOTE THE HERO, NOT THE ZERO.

THE BOOK(s)!!

2008-08-14T11:19:58Z

Many thanks to the delightful and charming Meghan Russell at The Recorder for the nice spread in yesterday's paper on the publication of The Judge Report (The Book).

For new readers, a few updates: both of my books are currently available for purchase at The Peddler's Wagon on Church Street, on line at Amazon.com and createspace.com (see links below), or from the author if you should happen to catch him in a coffee shop and say something politely dumb like, "Where can I buy your book?" (there is no escape).

I have been in discussions with the Amsterdam Free Library about a presentation and book signing, which probably won't happen until October as a fine September slot has been snarfed up by my good friend and nationally acclaimed author David Pietrusza, whose new (terrific) book 1960--LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign That Forged Three Presidencies will be out shortly.

Also, I have indeed reopened my old law office at 41 Market Street, which has been taking up a bit of my time. No phone yet and office hours are by appointment only. Feel free to email me with your legal problems and requests for appointment at the address in the side bar.

The Evil Has Landed (Amazon)
The Judge Report (Amazon)

Createspace e-stores (where my royalties are larger) listed in the tag below.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

My Son the Photographer

2008-08-08T18:17:05Z

Jamie in the Big Hole

2008-08-08T10:59:43Z

While the other kids were gallivanting at the ocean, Jamie dropped down to the Colorado River and his first view of the Grand Canyon. This picture was taken at dawn on the way down on the first day:

Copyright 2008 James F. Going

More fabulous pictures here.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

A Sad Story

2008-08-08T10:49:52Z

I pass this along not to offend some of my sensitive readers, but just to alert them about some of the terrible things being emailed under the radar, this from a reader in Virginia:

Fourth Wedding

A woman married three times walked into a bridal shop one day and told the sales clerk that she was looking for a wedding gown for her fourth wedding.

"Of course, madam," replied the sales clerk, "exactly what type and color dress are you looking for?"

The bride to be said, "A long, frilly, white dress with a veil."

The sales clerk hesitated a bit, then said, "Please don't take this the wrong way, but gowns of that nature are considered more appropriate for brides who are being married the first time, for those who are a bit more innocent,if you know what I mean. Perhaps ivory or sky blue would be nice."

"Well," replied the customer, a little peeved at the clerk's directness, "I can assure you that a white gown would be quite appropriate.

"Believe it or not, despite all my marriages, I remain as innocent as a first-time bride."

"You see, my first husband was so excited about our wedding, he died as we were checking into our hotel.

My second husband and I got into such a terrible fight in the limo on our way to our honeymoon that we had that wedding annulled immediately and never spoke to each other again."

"What about your third husband?" asked the sales clerk.

"That one was a Democrat," said the woman, "and every night for four years, he just sat on the edge of the bed and told me how good it was going to be, but nothing ever happened."

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

Quote of the Day

2008-08-04T11:23:56Z

“Truth seldom is pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter.”
-Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Solzhenitsyn

2008-08-04T01:26:02Z

The conscience of the 20th Century, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, is dead at 89.

The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, he spent years in Soviet prison camps and internal exile, all the while gathering stories, memorizing them, eventually writing them down on scraps of paper that turned into books privately copied and circulated within the Soviet Union, eventually being smuggled out to the West and published as the astonishing Gulag Archipelago series.

It was one of the great crimes of Gerald R. Ford that when Solzhenitsyn finally came to the United States the then president refused to meet him. After his long exile in Vermont, he returned to his beloved Russia as the Soviet Union collapsed.

The prisoners of the Gulag Archipelago were not permitted to speak to each other. Once, while sitting under a tree in a moment of deep despair of ever seeing freedom again, he decided to jump up and run for the fence, knowing full well he would be shot and killed. At just that moment, the unknown prisoner sitting next to him lifted his finger and drew the sign of the cross in the dirt. The startled future author chose to live.

The elegant sadness of his prose will live forever. May his countrymen ever profit by his example, and the world eternally honor a man who dared to stand up to tyranny.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

A Summer Night

2008-08-03T14:13:09Z

We're in the post-season now for the Amsterdam Mohawks of the New York College League, a high-quality baseball league that keeps the college players in shape and shows off their talents to professional baseball scouts.

This has been a wonderful thing for our city over the last several years, and has been the catalyst for the transformation of the old and run-down Shuttleworth Park into a dynamic sports venue reminiscent of its hey-day back when we hosted the Rugmakers, a Yankee farm team in the old Canadian-American League. Field box seats came from the demolished Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The "temporary" aluminum bleachers in place since the 70's have been moved down the first base line and replaced with restored wooden bleachers under the 1920's grandstand behind home plate. A large party deck looms over the field, and even a luxury box.

The program has been building every year and the turnout for this season has been fantastic. The other night I took Uncle Sy to the regular season finale, and there must have been three to four thousand people there for a fine game won by the home team.

The crowd is into the game, adopting these kids from all over the country as their own, even though the team changes nearly 100% from season to season. One section is devoted to the "host families" who give these barely-more-than-teenagers a home from a couple of months every summer.

Games, food, silliness, mascot, prizes, color, lights, cheers, jeers. It's everything that home town baseball should be, and it doesn't hurt that the team has been winning.

In the seventh inning everyone stood and sang along with Kate Smith and God Bless America, sights aimed at the flagpole behind center field, 408 feet from home plate, following that with a rousing Take Me out to the Ball Game, now celebrating its 100th year.

After that game came a spectacular fireworks display, perfectly aimed for the baseball crowd. In the background, between the booms of the rockets, we could hear a steady stream of Sousa Marches and a medley of patriotic tunes. Even with the distractions of the glittering sky and fizzles and crashes, enough of the melodies came through that people began to sing along spontaneously: America the Beautiful, God Bless America (again), even Over There!

It was at that moment that it occurred to me that those people meeting soon in Denver don't understand any of this: the chill that runs up our spines at the playing of the National Anthem, the pride we feel when the Junior ROTC presents the American Flag, the unutterable joy of a summer night of baseball and family and fireworks and friends.

It was then that I realized for the first time that in the end there is no way in hell that Barack Obama will be elected President of the United States.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

A Day at the Races

2008-08-01T13:08:20Z

Ah, what would summer in the Capital District be without a trip to watch the thoroughbreds cavort at the Saratoga Race Track? Actually, it would be like most every summer for me. Yesterday was only the third time I've been there in my life.

The occasion was a tribute to the late Father Tom Boyle by his friends. Father Tom, who passed away ten years ago, was a native Amsterdamian whose brother and family used to live next door to us on Trinity Place (his niece Patti was born the same day as I was) and I had known him since his seminary days. As a member of the altar boy choir I even sang in procession at his first Mass at St. Mary's, the wonderful anthem Thou Art a Priest Forever, which his brother priests also sang at the end of his funeral Mass.

Ringleader, as always, was Father Joseph Anselment, my high school principal and long time hiking buddy (our first hike, Pharaoh Mountain, will have been forty years ago this November, the day Richard Nixon got elected president, which surely now seems like ten lifetimes ago).

Father Tom was a great guy, and frequent hiking companion. Once he led a separate hiking party and met us at the summit of Crane Mountain in what had turned into a howling rain storm. He called out to us from the shelter of a clump of pines, and pulled from his pack the perfect antidote to the weather: a jug of Manhattans.

His one great vice: Saratoga. He would work his vacation time so that every available moment could be spent at the track, where he would research deeply and play intensely. What better way to approach the track than to have the patron saint of horse gamblers as your personal friend?

Mary and I skipped over the first race, but just for laughs I picked Price of Love, the ultimate winner. Mary had a different imaginary bet and reasoned that she was now ahead of me, as I had not bet the winner, while she had saved two bucks by not betting the loser.

The second race, for two year olds, I went with the untried Buonissimo at 8-1, figuring what do odds makers know about a horse that hasn't raced before? And besides, with a name like that it had to be pretty good, at least in Italy.

Dead last.

In the third race we went with Siphon the Kitty, in honor of Jamie's late ferret. Nothing

By the fourth race, Mary had decided to do her own picking, so we bet both Prominent (hers) and Key Trip (mine), the latter in honor of Anna, Louisa and Laura heading for New York and Jamie heading for the Grand Canyon. I believe they finished 3 and 4, so we were getting closer, but still no cigar.

The fifth race was the unofficial "Tom Boyle", so we each chose a win ticket at random, Mary getting Better Than Swiss and me with Rhythm of Dixie, which I rather liked, being a fan of New Orleans Jazz. But I also played a couple of long shots to show, Meese Rocks, in honor of Reagan's Attorney General, and Donna Mira, for my former law clerk Donna Ross. With a second bet on the Swiss horse, I felt a bit over-extended, so I passed on Laurens Go Go, which was kinda close to Laura, but not enough to put me over.

The winner was, of course, Laurens Go Go. Meese came in fourth.

Couldn't miss in the sixth with Red Sandy, no doubt inspired by my hard-gambling friend George Sandy, leading all the way in a mighty display until the wire when he came in fourth.

I was beginning to lose confidence.

The seventh race I took a good strong horse, Simeon, to show (named after a priest from Tanzania who stayed with Father Anselment for a couple of summers and occasionally hiked with us) while Mary went with Approved by Dylan. Well, you're getting the picture by now, I'm sure.

We washed out on Win, Place and Show in the Eighth, including Jeepers, which, as you know, is a euphemism for Jesus.

But if Rev. Tommy Boyle was ever to come through, it was the ninth.

Prince of Peace.

Can you imagine, a horse named for the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity? Surrounded as I was by priests and former seminarians?

Apparently the Prince of Peace felt that the Christian thing to do was to let all the other horses go first.

By the time we wiped out in the tenth we were 0 for . . . whatever.

I turned around to our antique dealer friend Joan who had a slight smile. "Ooooh. I hit the Exacta: 8/3!"

"And what caused you to play 8/3?" I asked.

"Why, it's Tommy Boyle's birthday, of course! John was playing 8 and 3 all day and left with over two hundred dollars."

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

Dr. Coburn Goes to Washington

2008-07-29T00:50:17Z

I think I have a new hero, a United States Senator who believes in requiring politicians to justify their spending of your tax dollars, who kept his term limit pledge when he went to Congress, who intends to do the same in the Senate, doesn't ask for or get earmarks, is beholden to no one and votes his conscience, Senator Doctor Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

The man has tied the Senate in knots by following their rules. He's put holds on every questionable bill he can get his hands on. See David Keene's background piece in The Hill.

At the time Keene wrote, he fully expected that the good old boys of both parties would squash Coburn like a bug when the "Coburn Omnibus Bill" (designed to logroll enough pet projects to guarantee 60 votes) came to the floor. Lo and behold, the Republicans stuck together and only 52 Senators voted "Aye".

The outrage of the venerable Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Dementia) contains language that looks like it's straight out of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. (All that's missing is the dam on Willet Creek, and I'll bet that's buried in there somewhere):

“Not a single one of the 35 bills in this package are partisan or controversial,” Mr. Reid said, declaring that anyone voting “no” would have to explain to his or her constituents. “These bills have been passed by the House of Representatives and their respective Senate committees with overwhelming support from Democrats and Republicans.” [This from David Stout's story in The New York Times.]

Ah, it's enough to warm a contrarian's heart. Assuming we want warm hearts.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

RAVE REVIEWS!!!

2008-07-27T13:19:31Z

The Evil Has Landed:

My wife and kid read it. They said they liked it.
                      -Jeff Stark

Retired Gazette reporter and current WVTL talk host Sam Zurlo has read “The Evil Has Landed” and really liked it.
                      -Bob Cudmore

Hey! I read your book. It's pretty good!
                         -The Guy at Old Peddler's Wagon who's supposed to be selling them

The Judge Report:

I have begun reading The Judge Report. I find that I can't put it down. It is as interesting as I thought it would be. Your account of the 9/11 horror is something everyone should really read. There are things in there that we just didn't see on TV. It puts a new perspective on it for me.
-puggy

Both books available at createspace.com (see links below), Amazon.com and The Old Peddler's Wagon in Amsterdam. (My personal stash is pretty much depleted for the next week).

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

Today's Blog Read

2008-07-25T19:59:56Z

The Nightfly takes on the atheists, with a fine degree of certitude, which is a good thing.

Photo Op

2008-07-25T13:48:16Z

There was some puzzlement about the abrupt canceling of President-Designate Obama's trip to visit wounded American soldiers in a hospital in Germany.

At first there were dark rumors, excitedly reported by Andrea Mitchell, that possibly John McCain had used his evil influence in the Pentagon to kabash the deal.

But, no, it turns out the answer is much simpler: the Obama campaign was informed of the long-standing rules about using military facilities as campaign stops. Senator Obama was welcome to come with his Senate aides, but no media. Only military photographers allowed.

What! No media? No photo ops supporting the troops? FORGET IT.

I'm rather sure our wounded aren't weeping over the loss, but still . . .

Compare and contrast the much-maligned President Bush who shut out the media and spent hours talking to the families of the 9/11 victims, or two months later when he waited until the cameras were off to greet the workers at Ground Zero. We were told that the president would take as much time as necessary to speak to any and all who wished to speak to him. He made it about us, not about him.

They used to call that class. And character.

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!

Art in Heaven

2008-07-23T13:00:54Z

Tony at Catholic Pillow Fight contributes his two cents to assist the American Bishops in their continuing efforts to dumb down the liturgy. Discontinue consumption of all beverages while reading this.

(Tony, BTW, is one of the few outsiders who made it into The Judge Report (THE BOOK) for one of his wry comments on liturgical music).

Buy my novel The Evil Has Landed and don't forget The Judge Report (THE BOOK) is now available, too!