“Please refrain from cigar smoking.” I was shocked when I first read those words.  It was 1984.  I was working at a chichi restaurant in Westchester County as a busboy, and the manager ordered me – ordered me – to drop tent cards on each table with those five words sprawled across them. I couldn’t […]

Would you trade places with someone in China? I wouldn’t. Not with a peasant farmer. Not with an industrial worker. Not with a factory owner. Not with the Premier. Not in a million years. I bet most Americans would agree. It’s important to keep that in mind, I think, when listening to the endless hyper-ventilation in […]

An outstanding idea out of Colorado Democrat Mark Udall. The two-term senator is proposing that Republicans and Democrats sit together at this year’s State of the Union Address (Jan. 25th. ) Not side-by-side together, but intermingled – all mixed up as one. Kumbaya appeal aside, this could be the greatest advancement for State-of-the-Union viewing since […]

I only saw about 12 seconds of the President’s speech last night.  But by all written accounts, he did a commendable job. I would have stopped to watch it – my wife had it on in our house – but in that single glance I felt I had seen the speech 100 times.  There was […]

Venezuelan autocrat Hugo Chávez is playing nice these days.  The hot-headed quasi Marxist has had a sudden change of heart about welcoming a U.S. ambassador back into Caracas.  His huggy photo-op in Brazil last week with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirms the strategy. But why? Why is the Venezuelan blowhard – a man who […]

Et tu, Pete King? It looks like the Long Island Republican has succumbed to cheap attention-grabbing antics  — like so many others – in the wake of last weekend’s terrible shooting in Arizona. King’s contrived solution to a lunatic’s shooting spree?  Make carrying a firearm within 1,000 feet of a congressman a federal crime. Really? How […]

The police state cometh. New York City just announced its intention to install speed cameras on Gotham streets. The fixed cameras would record the speeds of vehicles throughout the city and mail the owners of offending vehicles a summons. New York City has been issuing tickets to vehicles that pass through red lights since 1989 […]

As the New York City Council launches the first in a series of, say, 100,000 hearings on the recent blizzard in New York, Saturday Night Lives gives us some welcome perspective. I understand some council members are considering legislation banning snow in the five boroughs, with the full support of the trial lawyers of course.

It’s probably bad taste to weigh in so soon on this weekend’s terrible shooting in Arizona.  But Congressman Bob Brady’s (D-PA) knee jerk legislative plan announced Sunday compels ridicule. According to The New York Times: Representative Bob Brady of Pennsylvania told The Caucus he plans to introduce a bill that would ban symbols like that […]

Some truly frightening statistics just came out of the New York City Health Department.  They were quietly released at year’s end, tucked between reams of other health data. Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, these numbers have to disturb you: Forty-one percent of all pregnancies in New York City ended in abortion in 2009 – […]