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The day has arrived!  The Supreme Court will finally release its opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller (popularly known as the Gun Case).  For those of you who have been living under a rock, Heller involves a challenge to D.C.’s notoriously strict gun laws.

In Heller, the lower court struck down D.C.’s gun laws because they violated an individual’s right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.  For many years, the federal courts treated the second amendment as some kind of anachronism that protected the states’ right to organize militias (like the National Guard).  This case has generated significant attention because the Supreme Court will now determine once and for all if the Second Amendment guarantees and individual right to bear arms.

 It is expected that the Supreme Court will reach such a determination.  Now before you get all excited and try to order a full auto Heckler & Koch MP5 and a mortar, you need to realize that the decision will (in all likelihood) have a limited scope (that seems to be the MO of the Roberts court).  I predict that the Court will determine that the de facto ban that exists in D.C. violates the Second Amendment, but it will not make a broader proclomation regarding gun laws all across the country.

It will place the de facto bans that exist in places like New York City and Chicago on extremely shaky ground.  And folks will likely start challenging those bans in the federal courts within days.

I cannot predict how the Heller decision will effect the rather strict gun laws that exist in New York.  It is likely that the decision will recognize the government’s interest in enacting some kinds of limits, but it will take further litigation to determine if New York’s limits are a bit too strict.  But who knows?  Scalia is rumored to be the author of the opinion, he might just go a little crazy and make it mandatory to own assault rifles.  We will have to wait and see what happens at 10:00 this morning.

Stay tuned!

Tags: Articles, Occam by Occam
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I actually feel bad for Obama on this one.  I disagree with almost every one of his policies, and I think he would be a disaster as a president, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling sympathy for the guy.

Recently, two Muslim women with traditional head coverings attended an Obama rally in Detroit.  Apparently by chance, these women ended up sitting behind him in what would be full view of the television cameras.

Can you imagine the harried conversations between the Obama handlers:

“Crap!  Those Muslim ladies are right in camera shot.  Now everyone will think Obama really is a Muslim.”

 ”Well, what are you going to do?  Move them?  Because they are wearing religious head coverings?  That seems pretty dirtbag.”

 ”Crap! The rally is about to start.  Are we going to be bigots or are we going to go live with two Muslim ladies in traditional head coverings standing behind a presidential candidate named Barack Hussein Obama who attended a Muslim elementary school but is actually a Christian and who doesn’t like to wear a flag pin and whose wife says crazy things like ”for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country” and whose pastor is a complete racist loon bag who thinks that 9/11 was an inside job and that the CIA invented AIDS to kill black people?”

“Send the intern over and get those women out of here!”

 And that is exactly what happened.  According to a story in today’s Daily News:

Campaign volunteers barred Hebba Aref and Shimaa Abdelfadeel from appearing behind Obama at a Detroit rally because they feared the women’s traditional head coverings would create a negative impression of the candidate on National TV.

Of course, this necessitated personal apologies from Barry himself.  That must have sucked.

 For the record, I do not buy into those stupid rumors about Obama being a closet Muslim who will change the Constitution to put the United States under Sharia law and ban all beer and stogies and make all the ladies wear crazy head scarves and make our sons grow Saddam Hussein mustaches, and make soccer that national pastime instead of baseball, or whatever it is that these idiots are worried about.  If I get one more email along these lines I am going to terrorist fist jab a puppy. 

I didn’t intend for this article to turn into a rant about the moronic crap that people forward into my email box, but I have to get this off of my chest: BEFORE YOU FORWARD THE EMAIL, CHECK TO SEE IF IT IS MARGINALLY ACCURATE ON SNOPES.COM.  For instance, Snopes has a nice article debunking the Obama is a Muslim rumor.  Please read it.  (Also, Microsoft and/or AOL will not send you money for forwarding along an “email beta test.”  Sorry to burst your bubble.) 

The Republicans are going to have a hard enough time as it is this election.  It makes it worse when people waste their time on non-issues like Obama’s secret religious beliefs instead of the clear substantive problem with an Obama presidency:  HE IS A HOPELESS LEFTIST WHO WILL DRIVE THE ECONOMY INTO THE GROUND WITH NEW TAXES AND RIDICULOUS PROTECTIONIST TRADE POLICIES.

And if he really was a secret Muslim agent bent on destroying the country, don’t you think he would have come up with a better name? 

Tags: Articles, Barack Obama, Occam, Presidential Politics by Occam
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It is beyond the scope of this humble blog to identify all the problems with the American education system. However, I recently read a news story that perfectly encapsulates one of the significant challenges faced by those who want to reform the system:

Many school administrators are complete cretins whose degrees in education and years in the educational system have atrophied their brains.

A great example of this comes from (where else) California. As graduation approached, school officials wanted to communicate to the students the dangers of drinking and driving. To make the message extra memorable, they brought highway patrol officers into 20 classrooms and had them lie to students and tell them that some of their classmates had died in car wrecks over the weekend. To make sure that the students were aggrieved enough, they told them that TWENTY-SIX of their classmates had died (I guess it would be inappropriate to make a joke about an army of Ted Kennedy’s swerving around the streets of Oceanside California, drunkenly crashing into carloads of students).

Predictably, pandemonium ensued. According to the AP news story:

Classmates wept. Some became hysterical.

A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax — a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.

The best part of the news story is where the school guidance counselor defends the brilliant plan:

“They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized,” said guidance counselor Lori Tauber, who helped organize the shocking exercise and got dozens of students to participate. “That’s how they get the message.”

Some might say that she wanted to traumatize some students to justify her job, but actually she wanted to traumatize them to help them “get the message.”

The only thing I can conclude is that getting a degree in higher education administration (or guidance counseling) causes some form of cognitive breakdown. Lying to teenagers and telling them that their friends have died is acceptable, but using red pens to grade papers is prohibited because it could damage students’ fragile self-esteem. Well reasoned!

Tags: Articles, Occam by Occam
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I guess I should stop being surprised by the utter absurdity of living in a post-modern world.  The complete lack of rationality, the disdain for any kind of traditional values, the refusal to make qualitative value judgments (except to condemn any form of intolerance); all these things bring us to a state of affairs where bill number 6584-A passes in the New York Assembly by a margin of 108-34.

This bill prohibits discrimination based upon “gender identity or expression.”  In addition, it adds “gender identity and expression” to the state’s hate crimes law.

 The bill defines “gender identity or expression” as follows: “having or being perceived as having a gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior or expression whether or not that gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior or expression is different from that traditionally associated with the sex assigned to that person at birth.” 

 I invite all readers to parse out that sentence and offer some reasonable explanation for its contents.  Presumably, the intent of the bill is to protect the transgender community from discrimination, but the attempt to define transgender shows the absurdity of the entire concept. 

From a scientific perspective, gender is a pretty concrete notion.  Human beings either have girl parts or boy parts, and that is not based upon some assignment at birth.  The presence or absence of a Y chromosome predetermines an individual’s gender upon conception.

In defiance of all logic, this bill makes gender into an amorphous concept based upon “expression” and “perception.”  A person’s gender can change from one day to the next depending upon how that person expresses themself on that particular day. 

Accordingly, if a man was “expressing” himself as a woman , and decided that he wanted to use the women’s locker room at the gym, the gym owner could be sued for refusing this man access to the women’s locker room.  A woman who was “expressing” herself as man on a particular day could use the men’s room (leading to a significant amount of confusion if you happened to be in the men’s room at the time with your young child).

From a practical perspective, this bill would likely throw New York’s anti-discrimination laws into chaos.  Proving discrimination is difficult enough when you are dealing with immutable characteristics such as race or (actual biological) gender.  It makes it completely unworkable when you are dealing with a characteristic based entirely on expressions and perceptions that can change from one day to the next.

I will refrain from a further a parade of horribles in the interest of time, but before I sign off, I do want to share how the Rochester area delegation voted on this measure:

Errigo (Republican): NO

Gantt (Democrat): NO

Hawley (Republican): NO

John (Democrat): YES

Koon (Democrat): YES

Morelle (Democrat): YES

Reilich (Republican): NO

It is an utter disgrace that the only democrat with the courage to vote against this monstrosity was David Gantt.  Although we here at Monroerising have taken Assemblyman Gantt to task in the past, I commend him for this vote.

As of today, the republican Senate has exercised a degree of rationality, and has refused to pass the bill.  Of course, if the Senate ever turns democratic, these are the sort of bills that will pass on a regular basis (thankfully, the legislators are only in session for half the year, take a lot of vacations, and rarely actually vote on bills).

Tags: Articles, Occam by Occam
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The state’s Freedom Of Information Law (FOIL) requires the government to release documents to the public upon request.  Certain types of confidential documents are exempted from the statute, but generally speaking, a citizen can file a FOIL request and receive a substantial amount of information about the workings of government. 

 Not surprisingly, the press considers FOIL to be more important in the history of human development than the discovery of penicillin (but ranked just below abortion on demand - ohhh that was a cheap shot, wasn’t it?).  What I find amusing is when the press is faced with a conflict between the beloved FOIL law and a leftist reformer politician.

 This little drama is playing out in Albany before our very eyes.  As you may recall, the District Attorney of Albany County is leftist reformer David Soares.  According to his official website, “David has successfully helped to redefine the role of the Albany County DA as the criminal justice prosecution arm for the entire state of New York with a focus on public integrity.” 

Earlier this year, he conducted an “inquiry” into the Troopergate scandal and concluded that Governor “Black Socks” “Steamroller” “Client 9″ Spitzer had done no wrong.  Amusingly, after Spitzer resigned, Soares released a second report that concluded that Spitzer actually would have faced impeachment for Troopergate, and that the first report was wrong. 

Nice timing, you courageous reformer!

In any event, the reporter who broke the Troopergate story filed a FOIL request with the DA’s office to get some of the documents related to DA Soares’s “inquiry;” in particular, he wanted transcripts of interviews Soares conducted with Spitzer and his top advisors.  Soares refused to turn over the documents.  The reporter appealed to the FOIL Request Appeals Officer, who determined that the documents should be released.

According to a story in today’s Post (a decidedly non-leftist media outlet): “The potentially explosive ruling was issued nearly two weeks ago, and Soares, in a blatant and possibly unprecedented violation of the Freedom of Information Law, has refused to make the documents available, much less say whether he will honor what is a legally binding ruling.”

Way to follow the laws you are charged to enforce, you courageous reformer! 

The entertaining thing will be to see how the New York Times and other media outlets report this story (if at all).  Stay tuned!

Tags: Articles, Dirty Tricks, Occam by Occam
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Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr. is an important politician in the state of New York.  He chairs the critical Ways and Means Committee in the Assembly and from 2002 to 2006 he served as the chairman of the New York State Democratic Party.  In addition, he has led the New York County Democratic Committee since 1981.  Many consider him to be the second most important democrat in the Assembly (behind only his close ally, Speaker Sheldon Silver). 

With all this experience in finance and with campaigns, you would expect him to have some degree of expertise when it came to…well…knowing what the hell he is doing.  But apparently not.  According to the New York Sun,  “Denny Farrell Jr., is trying to account for incongruities in the balance sheets of his multiple campaign committees, which show a cumulative negative balance of more than $120,000.”

Instead of the usual ONE campaign committee that most politicians run, Mr. Farrell has six committees, only one of which has a positive balance.  According to the Sun story, “Election officials say they cannot explain the puzzling balance figures….  After a New York Sun reporter contacted him about the balances, Mr. Farrell directed the treasurer of his county party to sort through boxes of paperwork, bank statements, and receipts to figure out the cause of the discrepancies.”

You do not need to be a Ways and Means committee-member to know that something is seriously wrong with these numbers.  However, given Denny “Math Whiz” Farrell’s prominence in the democratic party, I seriously doubt that most media outlets will give this story any play. 

In closing, can you imagine the outcry if a prominant Republican had screwed up this badly?   

Tags: Articles, Occam by Occam
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Will I get tarred and feathered if I admit that I do not support the United Way?  In fact, I am sick and tired of people trying to guilt me into giving to that organization.  

At many workplaces around the region, employees are annually hectored into donating to the cause.  Just today, the editorial page of the Democrat and Chronicle sternly tells its readership to “Donate to United Way of Greater Rochester now, when it counts.” 

Undoubtedly, the United Way supports many worthy efforts across the region.  It also supports organizations like Planned Parenthood. [Read more →]

Tags: Articles, Occam by Occam
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No one disputes that the Rochester area faces many problems.  The most serious problems, job loss and people loss, stem from the overabundance of state laws and regulations that choke businesses and individuals (high property taxes, high energy costs, high workers compensation costs, the scaffold law, I could go on, but I might fling my coffee mug at an innocent bystander).  

In light of these serious challenges, nimrods predictably offer the perfect solution to all our woes: TOURISM DOLLARS!

The latest example of this can be found in an editorial in today’s D&C that praises the state for focusing on upstate tourism.  According to the D&C:

The state this week rolled out a new campaign, using the iconic “I Love New York” slogan, to draw tourists upstate from nearby states and Canada.

The idea is that high gas prices will limit trips this summer, meaning people from New Jersey or Toronto might be more inclined to visit Rochester’s lakeside or take a golf vacation in Monroe County than travel long distances.

snip

The upstate focus, as it develops, must be about more than the Finger Lakes and Niagara Falls. Those are great attractions, but so too is the rich history of Rochester, the home of Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and George Eastman.

There are jewels upstate that a renewed tourism effort should uncover.

Someone please tell me who would go on a vacation to visit the homes of Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and George Eastman.  The next time you talk to an out of town friend, try to convince them to vacation in Rochester so that they can visit the George Eastman house.  Let me know how that works out for you.  [Read more →]

Tags: Articles, Democrat and Chronicle, Occam by Occam
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A reliable source of amusement each week is the “Thumbs Up Thumbs Down” section on the Saturday editorial page.  Our paper of record briefly describes an event or issue, and then, as moral arbiter, proclaims whether it is ”Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down.” 

I especially like it when they give a Thumbs Up to some girl scouts who raise $57.12 for a charity right before they give a thumbs down to a sociopath who just went on a 6 state murder/cannibalism/check kiting/puppy killing spree.  Way to take a strong moral stand against murder, cannibalism, check kiting, and puppy killing!

Also humorous is the way in which the editorial board attempts to sum up a complicated issue in a single sentence or two.  It is even better when the board attempts this feat after drinking seven blueberry almond martinis, as they did this Saturday:

THUMBS DOWN: for the continued focus on “gotcha” politics in the presidential race - misremembering, the use of certain words and personal relationships.  The focus on nonissues was on display in this week’s Pennsylvania debate between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama.

What does that even mean?  It is nearly impossible to analyze the substance of this statement.  It was either written by someone who was intoxicated or it was translated from Chinese.  Is the Democrat and Chronicle outsourcing its editorial page to China?  I always suspected that the editorials were being written by evil communists. [Read more →]

Tags: Democrat and Chronicle, Occam by Occam
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I have a natural distrust for self-anointed reformers.  In most cases, politicians who cry for reform are merely trying to further their own political agenda.  And they know that as long as they use the magic R word, the dim-witted public will immediately support their actions.  Pavlov’s dogs salivated at the sound of a bell, and newspaper editors ignore reason at the sound of “reform.” 

Even worse, the politicians who cry reform the loudest are usually the biggest hypocrites.  Recent history has borne this out. 

Exhibit A, of course, is Client 9, the big bad reformer who liked to transport hookers across state lines and then make the beast with two backs while wearing black dress socks (look it up, it’s true).

Exhibit B would be the number two man on the reform ticket: David Paterson.  As we all know, this guy admitted to having an affair, having a few affairs, and then having many affairs.  Soon thereafter, he was caught using campaign funds for personal uses (including for hotel stays in Albany despite the fact that he lived 15 minutes away - I bet that had nothing to do with the many affairs to which he admitted).  And then he also admitted to cocaine use. [Read more →]

Tags: New York State, Occam by Occam
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