Sweet and Gentle Thoughts on a Summer’s Eve

Have you been up to Patriot Place? Trying to get in there to the Olive Garden and getting back out is a nightmare. All kinds of signs pointing hither and yon with conflicting direc­tions displayed to fool the average male into driving in circles and finally, out of total frustration, having to park to cool down and compose oneself and while doing so are cajoled into going into another store and spending more money, is the bottom line up there. The whole situation is dreadful. Last week a mur­derer was executed in Utah by the firing squad. The criminally insane mad man/lady who laid out the lots and travel lanes deserves no less. As another sign of total madness gripping the entire globe, police in Paris, France banned a street party in a Muslim area because alcohol and pork would be served. It was ruled as a possible provocation against the Muslims who live there. So French citizens now must curtail their activities not to offend this lot, who at the time of prayers, pray in the street, block­ing

traffic for several blocks. That’s O.K., I guess. Well, I’m not surprised, the French always seem to buck common sense and reasonable thinking and we know how well they stand up to confrontation, so to the French citizens who oppose “Islamiza­tion” of their neighborhoods, it’s tough crepes I guess. Now here’s a pip of a story from America’s royal family, the Kennedys. Ted Kennedy’s widow, Victoria Kennedy, is asking the Justice Department not to release any of the former sena­tor’s huge FBI file, saying “fishing expeditions” meant to “rum­mage” into her husband’s private life should not be allowed. She contends that “absent a specific reason why such files should be disclosed to the public, it is our position that these files should remain sealed and unavailable.”

Do you boys and girls know how to spell “whitewash” and “cover-up?” This is the same obfuscation that took place, with the Kennedy assassination. (And still does.) Yes, our royal family’s desire for privilege rivals the bunch of airheads from the House of Windsor who sit astride the British Throne. Of course, in the Brits’ defense, they didn’t saddle their land with a “Big Dig” fiasco and didn’t rewrite the immigration laws to the detriment of those who had worked, built, and died for our country.

In an incredibly poor ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the justices have decided that police may not frisk someone during a routine encounter unless they have a reasonable suspicion that the person(s) is involved in criminal activity and is armed and dangerous. Wow!

Let’s try to figure this out. The main people involved in kill­ings and violence in Boston are young gang members. So if the police see two of them coming down the streets with bulges in their waistbands under their shirts (by all appearances pack­ing

weapons) they can do nothing about it except tip their hats, unless the ne’er do wells state “We just shot a dude” and they pull out pistols and they are still smoking. Policemen will die because of this ruling. Look, the streets of some Boston neigh­borhoods are a war zone. Normal civilized behavior is not pos­sible, so the rules of engagement must be changed to reflect the reality of the situation. A form of martial law must be put in place. The streets must be taken back from the murderers and drug peddlers. One of the attorneys who pressed for this ruling, Wendy Sibbison, said “just because you are walking down the street in a high-crime neighborhood doesn’t mean police get to put their hands on you. There has to be more.”

I’m guessing Ms. Sibbison lives in a safe suburban neigh­borhood and this ruling won’t affect things at all there, but in the war-torn inner city where innocent people, especially chil­dren,

die every day, this naïve goodie-goodie approach doesn’t work. We’ve got to get serious, and this ruling is a huge setback for law enforcement and a major victory for the criminal el­ement that prowl the streets carrying out all sorts of terrible violence and illegal activities. In closing, we have one more situation to think about. In Walpole a 39-year-old man recently drove his car into the side of Palumbo Liquors. The man said he inadvertently hit the ac­celerator

instead of the brake. Police are saying the man is not to blame for the accident. Now let us step back to a few months ago. An elderly person did the same thing and the police went to the Registry of Motor Vehicles to have her license suspend­ed. Interesting, isn’t it, what a difference age makes? We are all much too quick to buy into the myth that all senior citizens are addle-minded incompetents who no longer can drive, but when a young man makes the same mistake, it was an acci­dent and that’s the end of it; and I’m sure that was the correct judgment, that is was an accident pure and simple, a careless mistake. But the point of the matter is, let an older person do it and it’s off to Utah and the firing squad. No room for mistakes for older folks, no bloody way.

I’ve just read the good news, that Norfolk has overwhelm­ingly defeated the override proposal by greater than a 2-1 mar­gin. Perhaps this will usher in a new era of fiscal responsibility. We will discuss this in greater depth next week with my friend Eddie and Brownie the cat. Until then, keep smiling.