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.