Weekly Mail September 25,2016

Hey There:

Saturday afternoon, I saw the musical Aladdin with Tara, Tim and my mother in law. Awesome show. The singing and the dancing and the costumes were top notch. It was a long show, but it was so good it made the time go by quickly.

My one complaint is that I'm guessing when these Broadway Theaters were built, folks were a lot shorter and thinner, because I'm telling you these seats were tiny. I went to Timmy's back to school night earlier in the week, and the little chairs we sat in for that were similar to the ones we sat in for the show.  Yes, I know I can stand to lose a few pounds, but I can't make myself shorter. Even still, you have to me short and skinny to fit comfortably into these seats. When the show was over, I found myself singing the song Billy Crystal sang in City Slickers...

Rollin, rollin, rollin
Keep them doggies rollin
Man my a$$ is swollen
Rawhide!


NEWS ITEM: HOFSTRA SHOWDOWN

My sophomore year of high school started right in the thick of the 1988 Presidential campaign. George HW Bush vs. Michael Dukakis to replace outgoing President Ronald Reagan.

My Global Studies teacher that year Mr. Fiocco, gave us an assignment to watch the first Presidential Debate. That took place on a Sunday. I wasn't looking forward to it.

But I had to admit after watching it, I enjoyed it more than I ever thought I would. Mr. Fiocco told us to keep track of every issue debated and to group them into domestic or foreign policy. (This was before they gave the debates their own themes)

That Monday we came into class and Mr. Fiocco asked how many of us watched the debate, me and maybe one or two other guys raised their hands. He then asked how many of us watched the Olympics instead. Everyone else raised their hands.

But it didn't matter, I was just about hooked. I would officially become hooked about a week later, when Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bensten debated in the Vice Presidential showdown. (Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy)

I've tried to watch or listen to them all since then. Not the primary ones, just the ones that get down to the finalists. Clinton-Bush-Ross Perot in 1992, Bush-Gore in 2000, Obama McCain 2008 and all the others in between.

I have never looked more forward to the debate coming up on Monday between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. And my interest in the debate is in inverted proportion to how I feel about the candidates themselves. They are both disasters.

And I realize that I sholdn't be watching these things for entertainment, but with what we are being served, how can you not?

EDITORIAL: TRUMP VS. HITLER

I very rarely read the Daily News anymore. I'm not going to sit here and trash it, I have some really good friends that work over there, men and women who helped me when I first started at the Post. People I hope to be friends with forever.

But I find myself disagreeing with things they write more and more, so about the only things I read are Mike Lupica's Sunday sports column, and on Tuesday syndicated Washington Post editorial columnist Richard Cohen. Not that I always agree with Cohen, (in fact more often than not I don't), but I find his columns nuanced and well thought out, and usually allowing for some room for the other side of the coin.

But this past week he did something that the Daily News and several other media outlets have done, and I'm reluctant to bring it up because someone is going to misrepresent the point I'm trying to make. But he compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.

I find this offensive.

And no, it's not offensive to Donald Trump, quite frankly I don't care if he's offended. He's offended everyone whose gotten in his way, and then some. You say he deserves to be offended, I can't say I disagree.

But if I was Jewish? I'd definitely be offended.

When South Park first came on in 1997, it's Halloween episode had Cartman dressed as Hitler. Naturally the school staff was offended and Cartman was sent to the principal's office where he was forced to watch a Smokey the Bear video explaining why dressing like Hitler wasn't cool. Amongst the explanation were that "Hitler was a very bad man."

I'm figuring South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were simply trying to get attention, but they also hit on something else...We've spent so much of the past 75 years as so talking about what a bad person Hitler was, that we may have lost sight of just how evil his acts were.

This man literally exterminated human beings in the most graphically horrible ways. Men, women and children, it didn't matter. If you were the wrong race or religion, you were starved, tortured and put to death in ways I can't even bring myself to type.

Donald Trump? I know he wants to deport illegal immigrants, I know what he said about Mexicans and Muslims. I'm not saying he's right, I'm just saying what he wants to do with the above mentioned people isn't anywhere close to what Hitler did to the Jewish people.

Is Trump a liar? A fraud? Yes and yes. Nobody here is disputing that. Do the things he says rally a certain unsavory portion of our population? Definitely.

Richard Cohen's point, as I'm sure the point of most of the people making the Trump/Hitler comparison, is that a man was able to grab the attention of a people who felt left behind by society and through the sheer force of his personality was able to get the people to agree to overlook certain things that they would otherwise deem awful. I get that.

They say if we don't learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. I get that too, but that works both ways. If we don't take seriously the rhetoric of someone like Trump, we could find ourselves in a heap of trouble.

But if everyone we disagree with gets compared to one of the most evil people who ever lived, we'll become desensitized to the actual evil acts committed.

And THAT can't happen either.


SPORTS: 2016 WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY

I think it's a pretty safe bet that our old friend John Tortorella won't be asked to coach Team USA in any future international competitions. My goodness, did Team USA play like crap or what?

Of course it's not fair to lay all of the blame on Torts, I realize that. GM Dean Lombardi, not to be confused with Vince Lombardi, put together a team forgetting to add guys who can actually put the puck in the net. I have no use for Phil Kessel, but the man can score goals, what was the big idea of keeping him off the roster? Kyle Okposo? We could have used him too.

The real shame of this is that it was the 20th anniversary of the one time the US pros won an international tournament. The Canada Cup which began in 1976, featured NHL Players playing for their respective countries. In 1996, it was changed to the World Cup of Hockey.

The US made it to the finals of the 1991 Canada Cup (the last one before the name change) and most predicted they would probably not even get that far in 1996. Canada was still stacked. Gretzky, Messier, Eric Lindros, Joe Sakic, with Martin Brodeur and Curtis Joseph in net.

But the US was loaded too. Brian Leetch, Brett Hull (who could have played for Canada) Mike Modano, John LeClair and in nets, the great Mike Richter.

The US beat Canada in the championship game in Montreal (on a night Ray, Karl and I hit 14 downtown bars FYI) Besides the Miracle on Ice, it's considered the greatest victory in US Hockey history.

But this past week has to be considered the biggest disappointment. Losing is one thing, going oh for the entire tournament is another. This set back US Hockey a long way. It's looking like the NHL isn't going to send their players to the Olympics in 2018, so this was our last good shot for a while.

A shame.

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With the blog being delivered via Facebook now (for the most part) I've gotten away from birthday shout outs, and things of that nature, but  I do want to take a minute to salute a good man who passed this week. Bill DePuy the dad of one of my closest friends Ed (Auggie) dePuy, was one of the best guys you'll ever meet. A fellow McClancy Crusader (2nd graduating class) and fellow Postie (he was chief electrician at the plant) we always had a lot to chat about. Almost one year to the day heaven welcomed one huge Notre Dame fan, (Pete McGuiness) another one arrived just in time to see them lose to Duke. Well, they say the bar in heaven never closes Hopefully over a couple of cold ones,  Uncle Bill and Pete can come up with a plan to remind the Good Lord the Fighting Irish are God's team.

Thank you. And Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail Season Premiere September 18, 2016

One thing that has been absolutely mind blowing since I've lived here in Oceanside is the amount of people that I have run into that I've known from my past.  I often joke that I have two hometowns, Woodside and Rockaway, and it seems like lots of people from both of those communities have migrated eastward.

The other night, while I was at Timmy's welcome back to school barbecue, I ran into another old friend from the Rock. I hadn't seen him in years. Timmy's soccer coach was a Woodside/Maspeth kid, I was in 7-11 one day and met up with a St.Mary's classmate, ran into the parents of another not too long ago, and Timmy's teacher told me her husband was from Rockaway. (which was seconded by the guy I met at the BBQ)

A guy I worked with at the Post once said You know how they have the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon? Well they ought to have the two degrees of Bill Gallagher. At least in Queens." His girlfriend (now wife's) brother in law went to high school with me, and her best friend used to work at the St. Mary's rectory.  I don't know, I didn't think I was that famous. Or infamous as it were.



NEWS ITEM: DOWNTOWN EXPLOSION

  Saturday night, Mayor DeBlasio said that while the device that exploded in Chelsea was set intentionally, there was no reason to believe it was terrorism.

Huh?

So let's give this buffoon the benefit of the doubt and suggest that maybe he meant he didn't think it was  ISIS or al-Qaeda. In other words, it wasn't international terrorism or heaven forbid we she should say it fundamentalist Islamic Terrorism.

Well as of my writing this he still hasn't said the word terrorism. At all. Even after governor Cuomo said it was.

Look, an explosive device was planted deliberately in a densely populated area. That's terrorism folks, no matter how you slice it. No, I won't sit here and speculate that it was an organized plot, I have no idea what the motive was. I may may not be the sharpest knife the in draw, but I know a terrorist attack when I see one.

Tara sometimes asks if I miss living in the city. On days like this I do. Days when I'm sorry I won't be able to vote that doofus out of City Hall.

2016 ELECTION


I was going to wait a couple of weeks before I wrote about this, but in light of Hillary Clinton's health woes last week, I felt compelled to move up my timetable.

I've made no secret of my dislike of our former Senator for many reasons, most of which I will detail later. But there are a few things that I do admire about the woman. Things you can't really take away from her.

1) She's TOUGH- I thought this about her even before last week, when she tried to soldier through the 9/11 memorial services despite her having pneumonia. Hillary Clinton can take a verbal punch better than anyone I've ever seen. It goes without saying that she can take one better than her opponent, who can't take any punches at all. But she even puts our current President to shame in that department, and her husband as well.

I'm not saying she doesn't deserve the criticism she gets, no, she brings much of that upon herself. But through it all, the legitimate and the bull$h-t, she keeps going.

I'll take her at her word that she was trying to fight her way through her sickness to honor those who died 15 years ago. I think sometimes she too tough for her own good, but I have to admit, she is as tough a politician as I have ever seen.

2) She's SMART- Whether or not you believe the things that she says, (and more often than not I don't) even I have to admit that she has a wealth of knowledge. She'll never ask "Is our children learning?" (Bush 43) or claim to have "visited all 57 states" (Obama 44). When someone asks her about Aleppo, she won't ask "What's that?" (Gary Johnson) *Editor's Note- To be honest, I didn't know what Aleppo was myself, but then again, I'm not running for President.* I can, have, and will say negative stuff about her. One thing I can't call her is stupid.

3) She was an excellent First Lady, (but not a transformitive one), Next year around this time will mark the 20th anniversary of the deaths of Princess Diana and St. Theresa of Calcutta. Even though both were important figures to their respective countries, they weren't considered world leaders. So it wouldn't have been appropriate for President Clinton to attend their funerals.
Instead Hillary went. And she represented our country with dignity and class.
She also made several trips abroad as a diplomat in the traditional sense of what First Ladies of the past did. She may have been more educated that her predecessors, and probably more knowledgeable of international affairs, but she wasn't sent to negotiate deals. Again, she went and put our country's best foot forward. And she did an excellent job.

Now some of you may read these three statements and say they are back handed compliments, especially the last two. Maybe they are, but I really don't mean them to be. I give her credit for her inner toughness and her brains, and I think she was an excellent representative of our nation as First Lady. I have at least another 6 weeks, (and more likely the next four years) to point out everything that's wrong with her.

Today I'm just saying what I think is good about her.


SPORTS: JETS BEAT REX:

AS I've written before, I am trying to ween myself off of the NFL Jones that has gripped most of the country. Firstly, and most importantly, I would much rather spend my Sundays doing fun things out of the house with Tara and Timmy. The idea of plopping in front of the TV and watching 12 hours of football strikes me as a total waste. Trust me, I've done it before, usually after a Saturday night of drinking and debauchery. But since those days are over, I have no excuse.

But also, football is so ripe with woman beaters, sexual assaulters, dog abusers, drunk drivers, druggies,  and cheaters, that I find it harder and harder to rally around them. And the reason that they all get away with it, is that no matter how low these scumbags go, we'll always be there on Sunday, ready to root them on. As Mike Vaccaro of the Post has stated, Football is our National addiction. I'm trying to break away from that.

All that being said, it did my heart good to see the Jets beat the Bills the other night up in Buffalo. Still kind of wish they had done that back in January when a win in Buffalo would have gotten them into the playoffs, but I guess I'll take what I can get. I loved Rex Ryan and his big mouth when the Jets were going to the AFC Title game, but now I enjoy shutting him up. And it looks like his days in Western NY may be numbered.

Sorry that I got this out late, and I hope I didn't miss any new developments with the explosions
in Chelsea.

Have a Great Week!

Weekly Mail September 11th Special

                                                     September 11,2016


15 YEARS AGO TODAY----I was walking to the train station that morning listening to Imus in the Morning. The mayoral primaries were supposed to be that day, and Imus producer Bernard McGirk was interviewing people on the street about who they were going to vote for. Bernard was speaking to a woman who said she was a teacher, and she was badmouthing Mayor Rudy Guiliani. Bernard asked her "what she had against guys with bad hair who spit when they talked" The woman said she didn't want to talk to Bernard because "he wasn't axing her serious questions," to which Bernard responded, "I'm not axing you and you're a school teacher?"

It would be the last good laugh I'd have for a while.

The ride in to work was uneventful.I took the 7 train to Grand Central and walked two blocks over to the office I was working at, 292 Madison Avenue. 


A little before 9:00, I got a call from a girl who had worked for us during the summer, She said that her mom told her  that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I went to our Internet computer and saw a picture one of the Twin Towers on fire. I thought it was just a small plane. It was the cover photo on AOL and it didn't do it justice. 


In the conference room, some of the other people in the suite were watching this on TV. We had a small black and white TV with just good enough reception. The people on TV were saying maybe there was a malfunction at the air traffic control tower, after all, how could this of happened. One of the ladies I worked with said "This was no accident." 

I was just heading back to my desk when I heard someone yell from the conference room,  The other tower's been hit. There's another plane."

Now we knew it was terrorism. 


We kept the TV on and found a radio. I heard on WOR radio that 1) The Pentagon had been hit, 2) There was a fire in the Capitol, and 3) that one of the towers had fallen. When I got off the phone, I called my father, who was working on William Street at the time. "They're locking us in, he said "I'll probably be here for a while." The thought of him being trapped in a building, knowing that he had trouble walking as it was, got me all choked up. All I could think of was that I'd never see him again. 


I managed to keep it together for a few minutes, but then I nearly lost it again. One of the attorneys I worked for, a former cop who had become a lawyer, came out of the conference room in tears. "There's no more Twin Towers. It's like, they're all gone." I couldn't even wrap my head around that. They're all gone? How was that even possible? 

Meanwhile, the guys on the radio were talking about a plane crashing into Pittsburgh, and that there were 4 more hijacked planes in the air. It was time for us to make a run for it.


Our office was on Madison between 40th and 41st, so we had to figure out where to go. .I suggested we start making our way towards the 59th Street Bridge, but to avoid going near Grand Central and the United Nations, where I figured the next two planes would hit. So we walked down 40th Street to 3rd Avenue and up Third till we got to 47th Street. That's when we decided to wait out the attacks at Conolly's Bar.



President Bush came on the TV (I can't even remember what time it was) He was at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. There wasn't a sound in the bar besides some guy yelling "Everybody shut the f-ck up!" 


"Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended. I want to reassure the American people, that the full resources of the federal government, are working to assist local authorities to save lives and to help the victims of these attacks.  Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts. I've been in regular contact with the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security team and my cabinet.  We have taken all appropriate security precautions to protect the American people. Our military at home and around the world is on high alert status  And we have taken the necessary security precautions to continue the functions of your government. We have been in touch with the leaders of Congress, and world leaders,  to assure them that we will do whatever is necessary to protect America and Americans. 

I asked the American people to join me in saying a thanks for all the folks who have been fighting hard to rescue our fellow citizens. And to join me in saying a prayer for the victims and their families. 

The resolve of our great nation is being tested. Make no mistake we will show thew world we will pass this test. God Bless. "

I had managed to get in touch again with my dad, He was asking about my sister Katie, who had just started college at Marymount Manhattan on 71st Street. I had called up there before we left our office and the lady who answered the phone said that everything was fine, the kids were fine and no classes were being cancelled. Dad was saying maybe we should hook up along the way, but I told him that we should stay apart. She was safer uptown than I was in midtown surrounded by the UN, Grand Central and the Empire State Building. 15 years later, I still get chills that I even had to think like that. That better one of us make it home than both of us getting killed. Even early that afternoon, there was still a chance that more was coming. 

Thankfully there were no more planes that day. At 3:00 I was walking to the bathroom at Conolly's when I passed by a TV that had NBC on. Tom Brokaw began giving the rundown "At 8:45 this morning, a plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. About 15 minutes later a second plane struck the other tower. At 9:40, a plane struck the Pentagon... " All I could think at that time was that Dan Rather had become famous because he was in Dallas when President Kennedy was shot. What was going through Brokaw's mind as he was reporting this. Was he scared because the nation was under attack, or was his blood pumping because he was covering the biggest story in years?

One thing I wished I had done was walk over the 59th Street Bridge. Showing the world that we survived and were still standing by defiantly walking over the bridge. Instead, the trains were once again running and I walked over to Grand Central to catch the 7 train. 

I'll never forget the feeling I got as that train came out of the tunnel at Hunters Point, seeing the huge cloud of smoke down where the Twin Towers used to be. It was at that moment I went from being scared to being humiliated. That's the overwhelming feeling I had as I headed home that day. Anger and humiliation. 15 years later, its still there. 


Coming home and seeing Mom and Dad and Kate was the greatest relief. I picked up the newspaper that was on the table and realized that anything that was in there was now irrelevant. 

 I was dreading finding out about who didn't make it. I was able to account for my close friends and family that were down there, but I knew several of my high school classmates, with whom I had celebrated my 10th year reunion were firemen. Amazingly, there were very few people of the nearly 3,000 that died that I knew personally. It didn't make me any more comfortable or any less angry.

The President came on the TV again at 8:30 that night to address the nation from the Oval Office. The lines that struck me was A great people have been moved to defend a great nation. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot shatter the steel of our American resolve. "

And then later that night, Mayor Rudy Guiliani held a press conference of his own. In the weeks and months before 9/11, I had little use for him. I found him to be a bully and a tyrant. In the years since 9/11, I have found him to be a huckster, cashing in on a tragedy.

But that day, that night, those first few days after the attacks, he was everything NY needed at that time. The press conference that night, he was humble and compassionate. He was honest, even if being honest meant saying "I don't know." And while his staff was urging him to wrap it up, he firmly but politely said "No, it's OK. I want to answer as many questions that I can." There were many moments that day that people have remembered Rudy for. Charging back downtown when everyone was trying to get him away from the scene, leading people out of the destruction. But for my money, his standing there and taking every single question from the press and doing so without a hint of aggravation was the thing I'll remember about him that day the most.

Another regret that I have about that night was that I started flipping around the TV to see what else was on. Many cable stations suspended programming and encouraged viewers to turn into the news networks for information. I turned into Sports Center and instead of the usual familiar theme song, they quietly put up a picture of Shea Stadium's parking lot. It was there that a staging area for relief supplies had been set up. Part of me regrets that I didn't walk over and hop on the 7 train to Willet's Point to lend a hand.

Instead I got on my computer and wrote. And wrote, and wrote. I wanted to make sure that I accounted for every second of that day. Of course most of what I wrote is gone now, and maybe that's for the better. I know that on several occasions, I suggested that Afghanistan be turned into the world's largest parking lot. I saw no reason why nuclear weapons should not be deployed. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have written all that. Not that there aren't times I still wish that we had.

The next few days were remarkable for several reasons. Mainly the volunteers that came forward to help in the recovery efforts at what was now being called Ground Zero. Also there had been so many people donating blood, that the blood banks were turning people away. Donations poured in from all over the world. Just about every house in America was displaying an American Flag. As horrible as the events of September 11th were, the unity that prevailed in the days after attacks was amazing, and something we may never again see in our lifetimes.

It's now 15 years later. It seemed to take forever to get construction started to rebuild the World Trade Center site, but now a beautiful memorial and the Freedom Tower stand where the Twin Towers once did. 

It took nearly 10 years, but Osama Bin-Laden, generally regarded as the evil mastermind of al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that carried out the attacks, was killed by US Navy Seals in Pakistan. 

And this year, just like it was for the 10 year anniversary, 9/11 falls on a Sunday. Which means many of us will be emotionally torn, between the creature comforts of a lazy Sunday, and the sad memories in our hearts. The first full slate of NFL Games will take place, there are pennant races in baseball. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will hopefully take a day off from clobbering each other (though with them you never know) There are church services, picnics, parks etc.  Maybe you'll watch them read the names in the morning and treat the rest of the day as a usual Sunday. 

Of course there is no right or wrong way, everybody deals in their own way. One thing is for sure, it's a good day to give your kids an extra hug, to call your mom and dad, to remind your spouse or significant other how much they mean to you. No day is guaranteed. There were more than a few people who were convinced the world would end on January 1, 2000. I remember thinking that the end of the world probably wouldn't fall on a round number like that.

A random Tuesday in September on the other hand..... that was a day I thought we might be done for.

15 years later. Seems longer, yet it seems like yesterday.

Never forget.


Weekly Mail Returns Next Week 

Weekly Mail Saturday Special September 10,2016

So I know I said I was taking a couple of weeks off and was going to come back with a special about September 11, but between the big storm that wasn't, back to school, and some other shenanigans going on the past couple of weeks, I had to bring her back a bit early. I want to give the 15th anniversary of 9/11 the respect it deserves. Tomorrow will be all about remembering and reflecting on that horrible day.

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Tim started back to school last week, last Thursday to be exact.  The Thursday BEFORE Labor Day.

People who know me know I have a big problem with this. The first time I ever had to go to school before Labor Day was my freshman year...of college! For my illustrious career at St. Mary's, we usually went back the Thursday after Labor Day, and then had a three day weekend. In high school, it was the same thing, only Friday you went in to buy your books.

If I had to start school before Labor Day, I would have had to commute in from the Rock to do so. There was no way in hell we were packing up the bungalow early. I would have been beside myself.

Timmy, to his credit, handles it like a pro. Unlike me, he actually enjoys school, and looks forward to it. It's a trait that serves him well.

Maybe it's just me, but I can tell you this, if I were in charge out here, the first day of school would be the Thursday after Labor Day. I might even have school on Friday as well to give the kids an extra day to get acclimated before we hit the ground running the following Monday. But this back to school before Labor Day $h-t is for the birds.
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WEATHER- THE STORM WAS WASN'T

Five years ago, Tara, Timmy and I, anticipating Hurricane Irene, booked a hotel room in Queens. It ended up being all for naught, as our house didn't have any damage or flooding. A little over a year later, Super storm Sandy did it's thing and put many of us out. Four years later, those wounds are still fresh.

So of course we were walking on eggshells all weekend around here, anticipating the worst, while hoping for the best.

Saturday had that creepy feeling that something was brewing. It was cloudy and windy and it just looked like bad things were coming.

Sunday, it was sunny and pleasant, and the weather reports were still saying that something might happen. We took a walk along the boardwalk in Long Beach and watched the waves crashing. It looked like the perfect beach day, but the police were patrolling the shoreline making sure nobody went in for a swim. I honestly don't remember them closing the water because the waves were too big. Ever.
By Monday, we all realized that Tropical Storm Hermine wasn't going to be reeking havoc on us after all.  While we all breathed a huge sigh of relief, I also wondered again how one could have a job where they are allowed to get so much wrong. As I've said before, GM of the Knicks and afternoon drive host on the FAN are the only two other jobs I can think of that rewards getting it wrong so much.

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When Tara and I first were married, we lived in the Helmsley Medical Tower on 70th and York.  In the lobby, they had this huge fish tank. We moved out of there when Timmy was 7 months old, so while the three of us lived there, I would take him down to the fish tank, where he would sit there and gaze at the fish, with eyes wide open and mouth agape.

One night, three ladies in their early 20's came in and spotting us came over and started gushing over Timmy. He loved all the attention, he cooed and gooed and smiled and waved and of course the more he did that, the more these chicks went gaga. Finally after playing with him for a few minutes, they told me how cute he was and said goodbye. As the two of us watched them walk away, I said to him. "Dude, I wish we had met when I was single. You're the best wing man I ever had."

I was kidding when I said that.

Anthony Weiner? I think he was serious when he referred to his son as a chick magnet.

Yes indeed, once again we were graced the presence of Carlos Danger, the crotch selfie taking former Congressman from my home borough of Queens was busted for doing what he do, namely sexting dicpics. This time though, the plot sickens.

Seems as though he took some of these "self portraits" with his young son in the photo with him. In another text to his sexting partner, he told her he was putting his son to work as a chick magnet. The photos have triggered an investigation by Child Protective Services, and a split from his wife Huma Abedin, whose got enough of her own troubles working for Hillary Clinton.

Now I realize this probably isn't a joking matter, that this dude's got some serious issues that he needs to fix, if he can't keep it in his draws with his kid around. And his wife doesn't deserve this $h-t either, she's got enough on her plate with Hillary. But when you have a guy named Weiner involved in a scandal because of his, well, weiner, how can anybody pass that up. It's a tabloid dream.

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I really didn't want to weigh in on Colin Kapernick. I didn't want to bring any more attention to him than he's already gotten. But some of the things that came out of this got me to thinking....

Many of you already know where I stand on the issue of his not standing for the National Anthem. For those of you who don't, I'll sum it up thusly; I once gave out my loser of the year award (The Nerd of the Herd) to a female college basketball player named Toni Smith,  who turned her back on the flag while the anthem was played before her games. She of course blamed America for all the problems in the world and blah blah blah. I wrote at the time that while she did have the right to do what she was doing, she also had the right to leave if she hated it here so much,

Some people took exception to my choice and others said I had no right to pick on her, but freedom of speech goes both ways. Does Kapernick have the right to sit for the anthem? Did Toni Smith have the right to turn her back on the flag? Sure they do. The Westboro Baptist church has the right to protest outside the funerals of fallen soldiers, like they do all the time. Just because they have the right doesn't mean 1) That its the right thing to do, and 2) Doesn't mean I don't have the right to rag on them for doing it.

But I'm not going to do that here. Not today.

Today I'm approaching this from another angle. For a brief moment, I'm actually going to cut Kapernick some slack here and for the purposes of this discussion agree with his actions.

There were a couple of articles written by veterans saying that the reason they fought in their respective wars was to protect Kapernick's right to not salute the flag. Fair enough. I always saluted the flag and stood for the anthem specifically for those who put their lives on the line for our freedoms. As pissed as I might get with things that go on in our nation, I still believe this is the greatest nation on earth, and that people like my dad, both grandfathers, and father in law, put their lives on the line to help make it that way. I've always felt that way.

And it's also why, no matter how insignificant it seemed, no matter how much little it seemed to matter if I did or didn't, the reason I always get my a$$ to the polling station on election day and cast a vote for office, whether it be for President, Governor, Senator or dog catcher. I always felt that was not only a privilege living here in the US, but also my duty to vote.

But if as these vets are saying, people have the right to not salute the flag, or stand for the anthem, do we also have the right to not vote?

Think about it. If Colin Kapernick wants to protest how he thinks the cops are treating African Americans, and people are saying he has that right, do we have the right to say, "You know, with all the great people we have in our nation, we have a guy running who is clearly not fit for office, and a woman running who has no ethics whatsoever." If you feel that way, don't you have the obligation NOT to vote?

Now a few of you believe that Hillary walks on water and will gladly and enthusiastically vote for her. Even fewer of you feel that way about Trump and can't wait to vote him in. Most of you are not so much voting FOR Hillary as much as you are voting AGAINST Trump. A few of you are even exploring third party candidates.

For those in the latter categories, does it make sense to just say, "You know what, I'm just going to sit this one out." Hopefully next time we get two decent candidates?

Is that patriotic? Is that expecting better of our country because we know we are better than this? I don't know, it's just food for thought.

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A$$HOLES IN THE NEWS:

A mattress store in San Antonio ran an add in which a woman with multiple chins was standing in front of two stacks of mattresses. Two other dicks were behind her as she started in about the store's 9/11 sale. In her excite,ment over the sale, she knocks to the two guys into the mattress stacks. The yell as they fall and she screams and starts running only to stop and say quietly, Never Forget.

Let's start with the fact that this company was having a 9/11 sale. I know that in the years following 9/11, that there was some push to make it a holiday. While I believed that anyone who lost someone or who was otherwise traumatized by what happened that day should by all means take a personal day from work, I really didn't want it to become a holiday for precisely this reason. No business should have a 9/11 sale. They probably shouldn't have Memorial Day Sales either, but what's done is done as far as that's conccerned. a 9/11 sale? C'mon!

And then, to mock the people who had to make a run for it, I mean the only positive thing I can say about that is, the next time I say or do something stupid, I can comfort myself by remembering that there are at least 3 people in San Antonio who are 100 times more stupid than I am.

Heartless? Tasteless? I mean Opie and Anthony wouldn't do something this moronic, (and they had people fornicating in St.Patrick's Cathedral)

THIS JUST IN- The owner of the store, Mike Bonanno, has announced that the mattress store has closed indefinitely and will take "accountability actions." I don't know about San Antonio, but here in NY, if someone named Bonanno is looking to take accountability actions, it usually means someone is about to take a dirt nap.


Enjoy your Saturday Night


September 11 Special to be published tomorrow.