Source: Silvercore Training / Flickr
BETWEEN THE LINES: What we have in Congress — to paraphrase the iconic line from “Cool Hand Luke” — is a failure to legislate. That was quite evident last week after the Senate failed to expand existing gun laws without infringing on the Second Amendment. On top of everything else, because of undue filibustering rules, a 45 percent minority — too afraid to challenge the all-too potent National Rifle Association — defeated the will of the majority.
The American people — pardon the phrase — should be up in arms over legislation that would have strengthened and expanded background checks for gun sales.
With the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre still fresh in our minds, it was disgraceful, albeit not shocking, that nearly four dozen senators did nothing to assuage the painful memories of victims’ families or the overwhelming support of the American public in a clear cut triumph for the National Rifle Association.
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A Bushmaster AR-15, one of the three firearms the Newtown killer used to ambush his defenseless victims. Source: barryt83 / Flickr
BETWEEN THE LINES: When I wrote my first column about gun violence in the wake of the fatal Columbine shootings years ago, I knew it wouldn’t be the last. Similar incidents happened before and were likely to happen again. I’ve written seven since then. Here’s number eight.
By now, I thought, Congress would at least have set stricter federal standards to reduce the chance of it recurring. Sensible, necessary laws are passed to ensure public safety with speed limits, penalties to reduce drug and alcohol abuse, in addition to requiring licenses, registrations and, in most states, insurance for motor vehicles. But when it comes to guns, the attitude is far too restrained.
In and around the annual commemorations to the victims of 9/11, the inevitable question is: “Do we feel safer?” That query relates to potential terrorist attacks. However, after last week’s slaughter of 20 first graders and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that question is also pertinent to our glut of guns. Americans own an estimated 300,000,000 of them.
Are we any safer? When people are massacred in small town schools and movie theaters, is there any safe haven from potential tragedy?
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Lady Justice, atop the Fontaine de la Justice in Cudrefin, Switzerland. Source: Wikimedia. Click to enlarge
BETWEEN THE LINES: A 68-year-old former Brooklyn resident died of a heart attack a few weeks ago in a New Jersey nursing home, not far from where he lived until his late teens. Though his life was undistinguished, his death prompted a New York Times obituary and op-ed, and 125 Google articles — negligible by today’s standards when compared to the glut of trivia on the rich and famous, yet more than merited for such an unexceptional life.
Few people probably ever heard of George Whitmore, but, due to a progression of regrettable circumstances, he almost certainly never realized the effect he had on the nation’s justice system or New York State’s death penalty law.
Whitmore was a grade-school dropout, whose life was disrupted when he was victimized by malicious detectives and an imperfect judicial system. It was justice run amok long before the New York City Police Department’s questionable and racially-motivated Stop & Frisk policy became the subject of debate. Even so, Whitmore was part of a pattern of veiled racism that existed — and, in some ways, still does — in the dark corners of law enforcement and the halls of the American legal system.
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Stained glass at the Cloisters shows baby Jesus’ bris, in which some accounts say he received metzitzah b’peh. (Source: pboothe/Flickr)
BETWEEN THE LINES: As soon as the New York City Department of Health (DOH) established a regulation recently to require written parental consent before a circumcision, several rabbis and Jewish groups asked a federal court to prevent its enforcement, claiming it is safe and called the ruling an unconstitutional breach of freedom of religion.
The focus of the dispute is a specific act performed during the procedure. After the mohel, who conducts the circumcision or bris, removes the foreskin from the penis of an eight-day-old Jewish baby boy, he carries out the ultra-Orthodox tradition of metzitzah b’peh — cleansing the wound by sucking blood from the cut.
In most modern circumcisions, the mohel uses gauze or a tiny sterile pipe to remove blood during the bris.
Not being well informed about Orthodox rituals, I never heard of that explicit act and was somewhat shocked to read about it. When I get a paper cut, I often suck the wound, but I’d never ask someone else to do it.
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Members of the New York State Legislature doing what they do best. Get it? Source: Wikipedia
BETWEEN THE LINES: A show of hands, how many of you think our state legislators deserve a pay raise?
Not too many hands.
Now, if they were to get a raise, how many think that a 26 percent hike, the amount that has been reported, is too much, even though they haven’t had an increase since 1999?
That’s more like it. Almost all of you agree that’s too much. It’s like they’d be making up for lost time with an average of two percent a year for the last 13 years, which is when they got their last pay boost.
The current salary would jump from $79,500 to $100,000. But, in return, those noble lawmakers would sacrifice the $165 per diem they now receive when they’re in session. When you tally the numbers, legislators would give up just over $11,000 for a 67-day session — the standard annual legislative session — for a sizeable $20,500 raise.
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Our columnist, Neil Friedman, engages in some “armchair politics.” What armchair would be more appropriate than Archie Bunker’s? Source: ttarasiuk / Flickr
BETWEEN THE LINES: After watching portions of the Republican and Democratic conventions, here are some observations:
Now I can sleep soundly, knowing the incumbents, their opponents and their respective spouses are ensconced in lovey-dovey relationships. Not a vital issue, but we certainly don’t need another candidate like John Edwards.
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Former Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman and current Assemblyman Vito Lopez, in happier times. Photo by Aaron Short
“Politics are a labyrinth without a clue.” – John Adams
BETWEEN THE LINES: More than a year ago, Congressman Anthony Weiner resigned after he admitted taking part in virtual trysts with other women over the course of several years. The stupidity of that incident — and numerous others that preceded it — has apparently not penetrated the minds of shameless politicians as to what constitutes inappropriate conduct.
For decades, from casting to corporate couches, men in positions of power have taken advantage of women in the workplace. Decades after feminism inspired equal rights for women and brought such matters to light, you’d think the sleazy, obnoxious “boys will be boys” mindset would have fizzled out, but the creepy practice still permeates our culture.
For what it’s worth, let’s call groping, womanizing and related acts the “Dirty Old Man Syndrome,” though age, clearly, has no bearing on the matter.
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The contentious relationship between cops and West Indian Day Parade revelers is spotlighted in a series offensive Facebook remarks made by a number of the officers. Source: Stopallthathating.com
BETWEEN THE LINES: With the 45th West Indian Day Parade only days away, the New York City Police Department last week disciplined a group of officers for posting racist comments about revelers following last year’s celebration.
The NYPD said, after more than 150 comments were examined, it identified 17 employees who wrote offensive remarks, in addition to complaints that degraded and maligned paradegoers.
The comments were posted on a Facebook page titled, “No More West Indian Day Detail.” However, police officials may not have been learned about it until lawyers representing a man caught with a gun at the parade apparently went to The New York Times. The page was subsequently deleted.
The punishment follows months of investigation, which had been promised by Commissioner Ray Kelly, after The New York Times first reported last December about the comments posted on the social network in the days after the 2001 parade.
Police spokesman Paul Browne recently told the Times that four officers face departmental trials on charges of “conduct prejudicial to the good order of the police department.”
Six other officers received command disciplines, which may entail the loss of vacation days, with the remaining seven receiving “letters of instruction,” which is equivalent to a reprimand.
The probe matched some comments, which included references to revelers as ‘savages’ and ‘animals,’ with the names of current police officers.
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A customer buys ice cream from a Mister Softee truck — one of the very few options New Yorkers had to try and keep cool during the sweltering Northeast Blackout of 2003. Source: StructuresNYC / Flickr
BETWEEN THE LINES: Where were you when the lights went out on August 14, 2003?
A recent partial power outage in my apartment jogged my memory to that night. When the power went out and the air-conditioner stopped shortly after 7:00 p.m., I was annoyed, thinking it was gonna be a repeat of that long, hot night nine years ago. But, when I went out to the hallway, I realized it wasn’t a total blackout. Most of the hallway ceiling lights were still on and the elevators were operating. I looked out my window and saw most apartments had lights.
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If Neil Friedman had his druthers, “cancer sticks” would go the way of the Dodo bird. Source: SuperFantastic / Flickr
BETWEEN THE LINES:
The place: Times Square, New York City.
The time: High Noon, the present.
The scene: Two men slowly walk towards each other. A few passersby anticipate a showdown and seek nearby cover.
The players: The Villain and The Hero.
The Villain, clad in basic black from head to toe, advances from the left. The Hero, dressed in stylish off-white, approaches from the right.
As they get close — at the intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street — the villain strikes a match and lights the unfiltered Camel dangling from his lips, then rudely exhales the smoke into the Hero’s face.
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