Good for the people of St. Louis, Missouri, for throwing the first major parade welcoming home veterans of the war in Iraq. I sincerely hope we see this being repeated around the country. (Including and especially in New York City, by the way. I really don’t understand why Mayor Bloomberg claims he needs permission from the Pentagon to have a parade on Broadway. This is something that the people want to do. It is inappropriate—at the very least—to allow generals in Washington to overrule it.) [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, News by Sean Curnyn

For some years now, a number of religious congregations in New York City that were short of worship space have taken advantage of unoccupied public school buildings, and paid a fee to use such space for their services. Other community groups and organizations do similar things. A win-win, you would think. However, the City of New York has long been suing to prevent churches—and only the churches, mind you—from utilizing public school space in this way. Something to do, I guess, with the terrible danger to innocent kids of merely knowing that the space they’re sitting in might have been occupied the evening before by a person who professes belief in God. [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, New York interest, News by Sean Curnyn

This morning’s much anticipated and ballyhooed “Occupy Wall Street” march in the financial district, and attempt to shut down the New York Stock Exchange, attracted anywhere from a few hundred to somewhere between one and two thousand participants, according to the media.

In this city of New York, you can gather a crowd like that if you stand on the corner giving away free samples of some new protein bar. I mean, really. Considering the non-stop publicity and promotion of this event taking place (for free) in all outlets of the mainstream media, the level of participation is nothing short of dismal. This is not the 99%. It is more like the 0.000001%. In addition, as is well known, many of those in the hardcore membership of this OWS “movement” in New York are in fact from out of town. Take them away and you have a complete non-event. It’s a non-event anyway: the whole escapade of the past two months has been created by and remains dependent upon the wildly disproportionate attention of the media, in pursuit of a political narrative that suits their own preferences. (And we must not forget who in the political world supported it from the beginning.) [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, New York interest, News by Sean Curnyn

In the early hours of this morning, the New York City Policy Department cleared Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan of hundreds of protesters, some of whom had been camping there since the “Occupy Wall Street” movement began two months ago. They were followed by an army of New York City Sanitation Department workers who moved in to remove tents, tarps and other accoutrements of the occupation, and to thoroughly disinfect the public plaza.

The decision to do this at this juncture came as a surprise, not least because Mayor Michael Bloomberg has vacillated for the past two months over how to address the problems created by the encampment; though he had largely seemed on the side of allowing the situation to continue until it might naturally peter out (with winter coming and all). [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, New York interest, News by Sean Curnyn

Sexual assaults and other crimes have been rampant at the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York. An interview with one bright young lady residing there paints quite the picture. Her matter-of-factness about rapes and such-like is simply one of the most chilling things I’ve ever seen. [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, New York interest, News by Sean Curnyn

In the case centered around atrocities which took place for many years in the abortion clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia, two of his former employees today pleaded guilty to murder. One woman, Adrienne Moton, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for picking up an infant that had been born alive and snipping the baby’s neck and spine with a scissors. The other woman, Sherry West, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for administering a fatal overdose of anesthesia and painkiller medication to a woman who had come to the clinic for “treatment.” The infant who was killed was not named; the name of the adult victim was Karnamaya Mongar, who had arrived in the United States from Nepal only four months earlier. [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, News by Sean Curnyn

At Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan this morning, the New York City Fire Department moved in and removed generators and gasoline from the small encampment of protesters which has been hunkering in that location for about five weeks. Naturally enough, the tiny public plaza was never intended for the kinds of activities taking place, and fire codes were being violated all over the place in the name of heating and cooking. Until now, a blind eye had been turned to it. It is an interesting time to now turn an unblind eye towards it, one must say, with temperatures having just plummeted in the New York City area, and with actual snow being predicted for tomorrow night. [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, New York interest, News by Sean Curnyn

Earlier this year, the news was of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, and his abortion house of horrors in Philadelphia, where deaths occurred not only of many infants who were fully delivered only to be killed, but also women who had gone there to receive his “family planning” services. Gross abuses went on there for over 15 years, with a blind eye effectively turned towards them by local Philadelphia authorities with a responsibility for oversight. [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, News by Sean Curnyn

After five years of being kept as a hostage by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has returned to Israel today. In return, Israel is releasing over a thousand prisoners requested by Hamas (nearly five hundred released today) including many who committed murders and were involved in bombings.

It makes no sense, of-course. Aside from the absurd imbalance in swapping all of these convicted terrorists for one Israeli soldier who has not been accused of any crime, there is the obvious point that this only encourages Israel’s enemies to attempt to kidnap soldiers again in the future, knowing the enormous potential reward they can obtain through this tactic. [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, News by Sean Curnyn

President Barack Obama yesterday said of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest that:

It expresses the frustrations that the American people feel that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country, all across Main Street. And yet you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on abusive practices that got us into this problem in the first place.

Vice President Joe Biden said:

What is the core of that protest, and why is it increasing in terms of the people its attracting? The core is that the bargain has been breached with the American people. The core is that the American people do not think the system is fair or on the level. There’s a lot in common with the tea party.

The leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said:

God bless them for their spontaneity. It’s independent … it’s young, it’s spontaneous, and it’s focused. And it’s going to be effective. The message of the protesters is a message for the establishment everyplace. No longer will the recklessness of some on Wall Street cause massive joblessness on Main Street.

At the same time, union leaders have been getting involved in the action, and similar protests have been springing up in other areas of the country. [Read more →]

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From section: 2012 CAMPAIGN, Commentary, New York interest, News, Politics by Sean Curnyn