What is great about baseball is the word “hope.” We all live in hopes, and baseball is played practically every day, so unlike football we don’t have to wait a week. In baseball, on any given day, one’s pitcher can beat the 1927 Yanks. By the way they even lost 44 games. So it’s a long struggle of attrition. One can enjoy a well-played game, and an exciting season, even though it may not result in a championship. This idea that winning the World Series is everything is down right flummery. It takes years to build the right combination of players, and if management can keep them together, a city may just have a contender for years. As for the Mets, as bad as they have been throughout the years, they have been a late inning team. With decent pitching they have made a lot of late inning rallies exciting. But, it is a long season with injuries, slumps and sometimes just bad luck. But it is much more exciting to see the Mets make a decent run. Personally I don’t think they have the horses, and their starting pitching is still quite vulnerable. The Phillies could run away and hide, and don’t count out the Braves.

Unfortunately, baseball, which I love, is living up to its age-old criticisms. There is not enough action. There are too many strike outs, too many homeruns by mediocrities, too much reliance on the pitch count, no more 1-0 complete game shut outs, and too much money concentrated in too few hands. Baseball needs local revenue sharing, and contraction. In fact, as bad as the game is, it is too sophisticated for many fans. There are not enough plays on the field. The Yankees became successful by waiting on pitches, wearing out staffs and getting to below-average bullpens. By the way they are on the decline. Too bad Tampa couldn’t keep its players. The Yanks, with this current line-up could be in 3rd place easily. I look for a mediocre season from ARod, the most overrated player in history, Jeter, who got what he wanted, will not be better. He won’t be around for the option year. He was terrible last year. He grounds out more than Dave (W)infield. Whether Jorge can affectively DH is a question mark. I hope he can! Mariano will run out of gas in August, Joba should be cut! Burnett will be the same or worse. Hughes is a questionable commodity and CC may need the extra weight.

The only saving grace is that their competition is still weak around the league, and the Mets may be worse for another season. At least the Meds finally put an excellent management team together, and got rid of that idiot Omar in their front office. By the way, I believe Cliff Lee would have been a bust for the Yanks. They were crazy with their offer. This guy’s career stats were really no-wheresville and the pressure would have gotten to him. When will baseball learn? Never until half the teams are broke!

Speaking of Baseball!

The Yanks are on their way to another under-achievement year, with the uninspired guidance of Joe Girardi, who should have been eased out after last year. Take my word, as a diehard Yankee fan for 60 years, he will be gone next year if they come in 3rd.

He expects his bullpen to get up every day and throw aspirins and get them over the plate. He pissed away CC’s efforts, and he’s playing by Soriano’s idiotic contract. Let CC throw, he had only thrown 104 pitches. He’s a big and strong fellow. As to the Yanks, they can only hit homeruns early, have no ability to get a clutch hit, or put a team away. In fact, with all that talent on the field, they stink. Jeter will get 3000 hits, finish out this season and the next, and that will be that. He’s over the hill and I love the guy. The thought that this guy will get 3500+ hits is a pipe dream. My guess is 3260 hits at the most. He needs 70+ now and he’ll get maybe 170 if he bats enough this year and next year, he’ll finish with 160 hits or so. The opposition should bring in an outfielder to play just behind 2nd and the other two outfielders to crowd the middle and right field. He cannot get the ball out of the infield and that inside out swing is too slow. My suggestion is that like a lot of older players, he learns to pull the ball. He’s a big and rangy and maybe he’ll develop a bit more power by pulling.

As to ARod he is, and was, a stiff and cannot get a clutch two-out hit. He’ll lead off the inning with a hit or get a homerun when they are up 4 runs or behind by 4 or 5. I see a year with decent numbers, but few game winners or important hits.

Hughes has lost his fastball and Nova can pitch 4-5 innings as long as men don’t get on the bases. I am happy with Jorge’s and Teixeira’s fast starts. Martin is a pleasant surprise, but he will revert to form. Jorge may get bored at DH, Gardener must strikeout less, and Granderson needs also to get his bat on the ball. Cano seems to be sleep-walking early and I am amazed with all this talent, they continue to play boring and uninspired ball.

Recently the public has been barraged by all of the sob story letters written to the sentencing judge in the Vincent Leibell case, which request leniency to the disgraced, former State Senator. The paraphrased quote, “A public office is a public trust,” has been variously repeated from the writings of Edmund Burke, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Disraeli, John C. Calhoun and Grover Cleveland. It means what it says. When public officials violate that trust, the standard of their punishment must be much higher than what is accorded the ordinary felon. Ex-State Senator Leibell was convicted of extortion among other crimes. “Uncle Vinnie” as he was called, used his office for decades, as a conduit for funds to be funneled to his political cronies. The cause of reform regarding Albany’s ethical mess must start with strong medicine for Leibell. He should be sentenced to prison time for his full term and not sent off to Iraq on a goodwill mission. The suggestion from Leibell of that mission, as an alternative for his disgraceful conduct, is beyond humor or consideration and is an insult to the citizenry of this state.

My Thoughts on the Citizens United ruling and the power of money in politics will be discussed on today’s broadcast of The Advocates. I believe on strict limitations on spending for political campaigns, the removal of the influence of tainted money, the shortening of campaigns and, if possible, the public funding of federal elections.

The “right wing” of this country always seems to trash the rights of the many for the rights of the few, by hiding behind “original intent.” Again the Framers had no understanding of the modern world that would come about. As Franklin Roosevelt said, “out of this modern civilization, economic royalists carved new dynasties…The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the Government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody’s business.” (FDR’s speech accepting re-nomination to the Presidency, June 27, 1936.)

Also in his Second Inaugural, the late President said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” (Second Inaugural, January 20, 1937)

Little really has changed in the minds of many of the old and new critics of the New Deal. But, did we go back to unrestricted capitalism, and therefore trash the SEC, NASD, and the Securities Laws of 1933, 1934, and 1940, wages and hours, child labor laws and the like? No, thankfully! Should we go back to the great enduring capitalistic legacy of the “Triangle Shirt-Waste Fire?” Or maybe we should trash the reform legacy of Ida Tarbel, Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, and others who revealed to the public the abuses of private capital and power. Meanwhile how many judges did the “economic royalists” own? How many of them came from the bosom of private capitalism and the world of property? (Thankfully Holmes, Brandeis, and Cardozo didn’t!)

President Obama is facing another generation of problems that has come out of an era of greed and profit without a concern for economic sustainability and resiliency. In a sense this all goes back to the real legacy of Ronald Reagan. It is hard to believe that Reagan, who voted for FDR all four times he ran for president, would place a picture of Calvin Coolidge in a place of honor in his office. What had Reagan really learned? Interestingly, as much as Reagan seems to replicate Calvin Coolidge more than Herbert Hoover, George W. Bush seemed to have done the impossible. He seemed to have replicated Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.

In a response to the issue of the Citizen’s United v. Chicago, it seems that a majority on the Supreme Court seems quite comfortable to go back to pre-New Deal thinking about the equality if corporations and individuals. As to unions, special interest lobbies, and others who bundle money for candidates, I also believe in limitations on their political contributions, directly or indirectly. But none of these NGOs and other association can match the financial firepower of corporations, and at least the unions, the NGOs and the interest groups reflect, in most part the feelings of their membership. How can corporations represent their diverse stockholders, who bought shares in their company for the purpose of investment, not ideological bias?

In conclusion, FDR said in his acceptance speech on June 17, 1936, for the nomination to the presidency, the following. His statement goes along way to reflecting my feelings towards society and government and how our leadership should act.

“Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.”

I wrote a long piece on Saint Patrick’s Day, the life of Saint Patrick and five famous Irish Americans and this vignette is from that long piece. It is about Father Francis Duffy and his influence on Bill Donovan.

Father Duffy, as he was known to almost all New Yorkers in the first quarter of the 20th Century, was the oldest of our group. He, of course, was connected to both FDR and Al Smith through General William “Wild Bill” Donovan, who was a law school classmate of Franklin Roosevelt, and ran for Lt. Governor of NY against Al Smith in 1922. Father Duffy and George M. Cohan also share the distinction of having their statues in Broadway’s theater district. Interestingly James Cagney had a leading role in both film treatments about Duffy and Cohan.

Francis Duffy (1871-1932) was born in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada and immigrated to New York City, where he taught for a time at the College of St. Francis Xavier and where he was awarded a Master’s degree (the school survives as Xavier High School). He became a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, being ordained in 1896. He attended The Catholic University of America, where he earned a doctorate.
After ordination, Duffy served on the faculty of St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, NY, which trains priests for the Archdiocese of New York. He was professor of Philosophical Psychology (a course more related to the Philosophy of the Human Person, than to Clinical Psychology, in today’s terms), functioned as a mentor to numerous students, and was editor of the New York Review — at the time, this publication was the most scholarly and progressive Catholic theological publication in America. Extremely popular with students, Duffy was part of a group of members of the Dunwoodie faculty who attempted to introduce ground-breaking innovations in seminary curriculum, putting the institution in the forefront of clerical education.

When authors in the New York Review fell under suspicion of the heresy of Modernism, Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan, of NY, broke up the faculty and reassigned them to other work.
The New York Review itself never published an article that was suspect, but it did print papers by leading Catholic biblical experts who were part of the newly-emerging schools of biblical criticism, and several of these authors’ other works (which would be uncontroversial today) raised eyebrows in Rome. Duffy himself wrote few signed items in the journal (though he did author parts of it) but was responsible as editor for the entire publication.

Duffy’s new assignment was creating the parish of Our Savior in the Bronx, New York. There, he organized the parish and built a physical structure that combined parish school and the church, one of several innovations he introduced. Throughout this period, Duffy was active in both the Catholic Summer School, a sort of adult summer camp and continuing education system that foreshadowed the explosion in Catholic higher education for the laity today, and in the military — he was regimental chaplain to the 69th New York National Guard Regiment which was federalized for a time during the Spanish-American War.
Already famous in theological circles, Duffy gained wider fame for his involvement as a military chaplain during World War I when the 69th New York (The Fighting 69th) was federalized again and re-designated the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment. When the unit moved up to the front in France, Duffy accompanied the litter bearers in recovering the wounded and was always seen in the thick of battle.
Lt. Col. William “Wild Bill” Donovan (who would go on to create the OSS in World War II), used Father Duffy’s influence with the men as a key element regarding morale. Duffy went far beyond the actions of a normal cleric. The regiment was composed primarily of New York Irish immigrants and the sons of Irish immigrants, and many wrote later of Duffy’s inspirational leadership. Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of his division, admitted later that Duffy was very briefly considered for the post of regimental commander. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal, the Conspicuous Service Cross (New York State), the Légion d’honneur (France), and the Croix de guerre. Father Duffy is the most highly decorated cleric in the history of the U.S. Army.
Major General William Joseph Donovan, USA, KBE, (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer and intelligence officer, best remembered as wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He is also widely known as the “father” of today’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During World War I, Donovan organized and led a battalion of the United States Army, designated the 165th Regiment of the 42nd Division, the federalized designation of the famed 69th New York Volunteers, (the “Fighting 69th”). In France one of his charges was poet Joyce Kilmer. For his service near Landres-et-St. Georges, France, on 14 and 15 October 1918, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. By the end of the war he received a promotion to colonel, the Distinguished Service Cross and three Purple Hearts.
In the wonderful World War I action film, The Fighting 69th (1940), Father Duffy was played by Pat O’Brien. It starred James Cagney and George Brent and the plot is based upon the actual exploits of New York’s 69th Infantry Regiment during the First World War. The regiment was first given that nickname by opposing General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. O’Brien, who plays Father Duffy, a military chaplain, attempts to reform the character played by Cagney. “Wild Bill” Donovan, played by Brent, is the regimental commander, who ultimately orders Cagney’s character (Jerry Plunkett) to be court-martialed. One of the characters portrayed in this film is Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, the poet. Alan Hale, Sr. plays Sgt. Wynn, who loses both his brothers due to Cagney’s blunders.
Sergeant Kilmer, who was killed in action, was a great poet, no less a great soldier, wrote the famous poem, “Trees.” Kilmer’s companions wrote: “He was worshipped by the men about him. I have heard them speak with awe of his coolness and his nerve in scouting patrols in No Man’s Land.” This coolness and his habit of choosing, with typical enthusiasm, the most dangerous and difficult missions, led to his death.”Kilmer, who was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for valor, was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France. Although Kilmer is buried in France in an American military cemetery, a cenotaph is located on the Kilmer family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A memorial service was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan.

The text stated below is the original written by Kilmer.
Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Rouge Bouquet
Joyce Kilmer in France

In a wood they call Rouge Bouquet
There is a new made grave today,
Built by never a spade or pick
Yet covered with earth ten metres thick.
There lie many fighting men,
Dead in their youthful prime,
Never to laugh or love again
Nor taste the Summertime,
For Death came flying through the air
And stopped his flight at the dugout stair,
Touched his prey and left them there,
Clay to clay….
Let your rifles rest on the muddy floor,
You will not need them any more,
Danger’s past,
Now at last,
Go to sleep!

Following the war, he wrote of his exploits in Father Duffy’s Story ( published by George H. Doran Company, New York 1919), a book that grew out of a manuscript originally started by Joyce Kilmer, the poet and convert to Catholicism, who had joined the regiment and had become a close friend to Duffy. When Kilmer was killed in France, he was working on a history of the regiment’s involvement in the war, which Duffy intended to continue, but Duffy was prevailed upon to include his own reminiscences of the war.

He then served as a pastor of Holy Cross Church in Hell’s Kitchen, a block from Times Square, until his death. While there he had one last opportunity to make a contribution to Catholic thought: in 1927, during Al Smith’s campaign for president, the Atlantic Monthly published a letter by Charles Marshall, a Protestant lawyer, which questioned whether a Catholic could serve as a loyal president who would put the nation and the Constitution before his allegiance to the pope (a common thread in American anti-Catholicism). Smith was given a chance to reply: his article, a classic statement of the intellectual ideas behind American Catholic patriotism, hinted at notions of religious freedom and freedom of conscience which would not be spelled out by the Church itself until the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom in the 1960s. In fact, Al Smith had gone to Father Duffy and asked him to ghostwrite the piece and he did.

The last of our great Irish-Americans was the legendary Al Smith, who was known to everyone in his time. Jim Farley first worked for Smith in his NY State Governor’s campaigns. Smith was associated with FDR from the days that FDR entered the New York State Senate in 1911 and became his great rival and sometime critic. Smith was a political opponent of WWI hero William J. Donovan, whose friendship with Father Duffy was legendary. Later of course, Donovan became an intimate of FDR, worked secretly with him regarding early war-time spying and became the head of the war-time OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, which was the forerunner of the CIA.
Richard J. Garfunkel

PS: In a meeting a number of years ago, with Mr. William vanden Heuval, the former Ambassador to the UN and the current President of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, at his offices on 5th Avenue in New York, and I had suggested a the creation of a new “Birthday Ball Celebration” for Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the course of my conversation I learned that the Ambassador was quite well connected with General William Donovan, the legendary head of the OSS, during the 2nd World War and a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at the Argonne Forest. He was awarded the Medal of Honor while serving as an officer with the 165th Infantry, formerly known as the Fighting 69th, which of course was part of the famous Rainbow Division. It was nicknamed the “Rainbow Division”, because it was the first division composed of men from all over the United States. This division was home to the famous fighting Tennessean, Sgt. Alvin C. York, who captured and knocked out 20+ German machine gun nests, single-handedly and captured over 130 of the enemy himself.

The drive up the old Taconic Parkway was smooth and uneventful, despite the heavy rains that inundated the Hudson Valley. The road that had been started in the 1920’s and repaired, and re-structured many times since, is not unlike most in New York State, it needs a great deal of work, in the wake of a difficult winter.

It would encompass almost forty years to finally finish this winding and picturesque road from the original parkway proposal by Taconic State Parkway Commission chair Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1925 to the completion of the of the final stretch, in Columbia County in 1963. The delays were due to the high priority needs of labor and material demanded by World War II. Throughout FDR’s two terms of governor and his presidency, his vision of the Taconic Parkway went from an idea, to a proposal, then to legislation, appropriation, to the design period and then construction.

In the same way that the Taconic Parkway is a testament to his foresight, vision, drive and determination that FDR possessed, it also foreshadows the great public works FDR, as the architect of the New Deal, would initiate.

Once I reached Route 9, the Albany Post Road, in the City of Poughkeepsie, it is a short uphill drive to Hyde Park, where FDR’s memory still casts his mighty shadow on almost everything from the post office he helped design to the Saint James Church where he prayed, was a vestryman, and where his parents are buried. All along the Albany Post Road, there are banners with his name leading to his father’s old estate, Springwood, where the big house still regally stands, his museum and library still functions and the relatively new Wallace welcoming center hosts tens of thousands of guests each year.

In the preface of his book, In the Shadow of FDR, the renowned historian, William E. Leuchtenburg, writes. “A ghost has inhabited the Oval Office since 1945 – the ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR’s formidable presence has cast a large shadow on the occupants of that office in the years since his death, and an appreciation of his continuing influence is essential to understanding the contemporary presidency.” In the same way that FDR’s memory and shadow still dominates this Hudson River Valley village,

Every day in a thousand blogs, on the editorial pages of hundreds of newspapers and inside and outside the corridors of the Congress, the debate over the New Deal rages amongst the old New Deal liberals, the new proponents of social justice, the environmentalists, the deficit hawks and the revisionist lunatics of the radical right. Whether it is over investing in infrastructure, the rights of civil servants to collectively bargain, the future of United Nations, the Keynesian spending of the New Deal and today, the entitlement safety nets, or the rhetoric of the Tea Party heirs of Ronald Reagan, the philosophy, actions and legacy of FDR are still paramount in our political dialogue sixty-six years from the day of his death.

On that day in 1945, hundreds of thousands of mourners waved good-by to the 32nd President as his funeral train slowly made the three-day journey from his winter home in the hamlet of Warm Springs, Georgia, to the rolling hills of Dutchess County.

The Poughkeepsie Journal told of one local resident, Bernard Kessler, who was a young attorney in 1945, who attended the gravesite service. “It was a sad day for everyone,” he said, “They set up a stone there in the Rose Garden, Everything was beautifully laid out.”

The Journal told of some of the other residents who fathers were friends of the late president. Saul Kessler, Elmer Van Wagner Sr., and Harold and Rosabel Clay, to name a few, were also political supporters of Roosevelt.

Amongst, the local residents, The Journal reported that Elmer Van Wagner Jr., who is 75, remembers his father hearing the news of Roosevelt’s death. The elder Wagner was plowing the family farm, the Vanderbilt Estates, at the time.

Wagner said, “He got right off his tractor, got down on his knees and cried like a baby.” Another resident, Ann Dingee, who is now 79, of Hyde Park, vividly recalls the reaction of her mother Rosabel Clay, on learning of the president’s death. “All I remember is coming home and my mother screaming,” she said. “I remember that like it was yesterday.”

The actual funeral service took place at 10:34 am, with the Reverend Dr. W. George Anthony, the rector of Saint James Episcopal Church presiding and it lasted just seventeen minutes with howitzers in the distance and the roar of planes flying overhead in a farewell salute. At 10:51 an Army bugler played taps.

There are two budgets in the United States: one is the entitlement budget and the other is the Federal or operating budget. The entitlement budget has been tweaked, I believe 72 times. As LJP has stated, most people want their benefits, because most people have older parents, and or sick or disabled friends and relatives. Most people like Social Security and believe that since they have contributed, like their parents and grandparents, they deserve and earned an additional safety net to help or supplement their savings or pension. But in truth, many are damn glad to have SSI because it keeps them in a home, not in the street, and not eating dog food. Many recipients are women who never worked, and their husbands either pissed away their money, never knew had to save, never made big money, never had a defined benefit, or their defined benefit was small, went bankrupt, had a catastrophic illness themselves or in their family, were impoverished by long term care, were flooded out, were a victim of Mother Nature’s wrath or were victims of some other unforeseen problem. In fact, a huge percentage of Americas are one paycheck away from the poor house, and have very little savings.

Let us not excuse Madison Avenue and the boob tube for encouraging the profligate lifestyle. Our savings rate here in the US of A is horrible and the mutual funds, which hold 99% of their 401Ks and 503bs, no less IRAs, go up moderately in Bull markets, and tank in Bear markets. Generally no one knows what are in these funds or how they work. Our schools abhor teaching financial responsibility. The average student graduates high school, then maybe college without any knowledge of insurance, annuities, the bond or stock market, and even how to manage a credit card. The credit card companies thrive on ignorance, and are happy to put usurious, almost loan shark interest rates on most folks because others are constantly behind the “payment 8-ball” and there are many defaults.

Therefore, with regards to the “entitlement” budget, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins wanted health insurance tied to the bill, but with the huge struggle FDR faced, that provision was sacrificed. We probably should have had a “single payer” system from day one. In fact, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield system, state by state, basically served as that type of universal semi-private-public insurance and did not cover office visits and drugs. The system was gutted by insurance (Oxford and many others) raiders, who took away the healthier clients and promised office visit and drug coverage. Part of this tactic was to bundle doctors into competitive groups who would be fed by these pools new clients, provided by businesses. This practice also encouraged doctors to raise rates, to buy expensive machinery, and fatten their pockets by passing along each expense to the insurance companies, who passed it along to the businesses. This fed the inflation of health care. As insurance coverage became more complex, doctors had to hire more staff and computer programs to process the claims. The result was more “pass a longs” to the patient and thus the insurance carrier. The insurance executives didn’t complain. They make millions. The doctors banded into group practices, to lower their costs, shared nurses, shared billing, bought more equipment, and shuffled patients in and out as fast as possible. Care improved for the upper middle classes and above, and become rationed for the lower middle class. Their co-premiums have increased, private coverage is unaffordable, co-payments have doubled, people cannot leave their jobs, and hospitals are going broke. Great sytem!

Meanwhile, with regards to SSI, by 1950 the ratio of workers to recipients was 8-1 and it has been shrinking since, Political leaders, especially Democrats, want to be more inclusive regarding the disabled, orphans, and widows. Is that terribly wrong? In fact, the GOP “fiction writers, inside and outside of Congress,” as FDR termed them, opposed every “decent” step forward. The GOP did not hate big government or the nanny state, it basically believed in Social Darwinism, felt they could game the system better, and despised people other then their own. They never looked at SSI or Medicare, or Medicaid as a responsibility of government and they are basically opponents of liberal democracy. The GOP talked of everyone having to pull their own oar or have to drift out to sea in no uncertain terms. In fact, they don’t give a good goddamn, plain and simple. Also, coincidently, the “uncertain times” have been created mostly by economic “bubbles” caused by the GOP sponsored hand maidens on Wall Street.

Meanwhile the demographics have changed, people are aging, the trade unions which fought for pensions, economic balance and democracy, and fair wages have been destroyed by cheap Asian (foreign) labor and manufacturing here has been gutted. The next target of the union-busters is civil service, and one day it will be the minimum wage, and when people are desperate for jobs, the GOP-supported industrial magnates will be happy to offer jobs at a dollar an hour. Yesterday, McDonald announced that it will hire 50,000 workers on one day! More cheese burgers for the growing obese population that will be rupturing Medicare and Medicaid. Also, the working poor and the civil servant are now less Western Eurocentric and more Black, Hispanic, African, Eurasian and Micronesian. Therefore, why pay taxes to help this different brand of immigrants and foreigners who do the scut work. Even the issue of abortion has been one less of religion and more of demographics. The GOP could care less what the Bishops say. The average old-line Roman Catholic practices birth control and would use an abortion if necessary. Just look at how few children the Irish, Italians and Poles have produced in the past few generations. The hypocritical right-wing is only concerned that more whites still have abortions then non-whites, and if it were the other way they would double the funds for Planned Parenthood and repeal the Hyde Amendment. In truth, there are still many more whites born, but the problem is that the white birth rate is very low and the non-white birth rate is much higher, along with an immigrant population which is heavily weighted to non-whites. So in my view this whole big government, liberal-conservative fight is all about race and demographics. In fact, no matter who the GOP alienates, and no matter what they oppose, the numbers are against them. Their answer is to lock in generational wealth for their heirs, weaken the democracy and become citizens of the world with assets in banks all over the planet. In fact, look at how they blackmail the majority in the Senate and the presidency. They just tell the country, we’ll defund the whole government if you don’t fall into line and give us our tribute. Wouldn’t it be great, if the next time there is a Republican president the Democrats filibuster and defund their government? That reminds me more of the Weimar Republic.

Since business refuses to pay more taxes and there are still incredible loopholes allowing GE, Exxon and others to pay no taxes last year, the temporary answer is raise the payroll tax on the recipient, and consider long and hard, Governor Brewer’s idea to add surtaxes to smokers and the obese in Arizona to fund Medicaid. I am for that. But on the other hand, who encourages smoking and obesity? Certainly not the liberals and the Democrats, who have generally better health habits than the typical Okie form Muscogee. So let’s raise payroll taxes until there is some solvency going forth, and put this one too bed. Then we can look to how to adjust benefits to cover the baby boom bubble!

As to the operating budget, how about a special “war tax” to support our large, expensive standing forces and our need to intervene, here and there, over the short and long term? What happened to the media’s memory of who engaged us in these wars, who didn’t pay for them, who encouraged our spending binge, who decried regulation, who manned the toothless SEC, who allowed the super heated derivative market to flourish? I ask who? The Media depend on a system that pays their owners, shareholders, and spokespersons zillions and when the truth intrudes, now and again, they make it quite clear, “get out of the way, and get with the program!”

I believe in high taxes on the rich. We not only have 400 billionaires, who are paying less taxes then ever, but we have millions Americans who have holdings and earnings way above $10 million to $999 billion. They benefit by a low top tax rate, they have caps on their payroll taxes, have all sorts of deferred income, stock options and pay most of their incomes at the capital gains rate. They utilize tax loss carry forwards, not any differently then what GE did to earn $14 billion and not pay any taxes last year. Just read it in the NY Times. I also believe that everyone who earns money must pay a minimum tax, no matter how many deferments and exemptions they have. The only group who should be exempt from all taxes are accredited students, of any age, up until and through college and to age 22. I would also consider partial exemptions for graduate students and hospital interns. I would tax earnings by college sports programs at the current corporate tax rate. These colleges want to pay coaches millions of dollars, and use cheap labor, let them pay taxes. The abuses by these bowl committees and athletic conferences are disgusting. Just read about the Fiesta Bowl and their practices. If we are so concerned about insolvency, along with cutting government fluff, especially in the defense budget, with crop subsidies, and the oil depletion allowance, cut the staffs of all the departments and the Congress by 50%, lower salaries by 25%, and let them pay their own benefits. Institute a partial draft to take the gangs off the streets, and reduce the professional army to a more manageable level, and return the Reserves and National Guard back to their previous roles. Along with enhanced revenues through higher taxes, closed loopholes, and the shutting of offshore tax shelters we will be more solvent and comfortable with the future.

The Yankees celebrated their 109th Opening Day in New York City and their 88th in the Bronx since they moved out of the hallowed and hulking Polo Grounds, which was located in Manhattan under the shadow of Coogan’s Bluff. John McGraw the feisty Grand Poobah of the Giants went against conventional wisdom and economic good sense and asked the Yankee co-owners; Jacob Ruppert and Til Huston to take their team and leave. It is a mystery why he did that. The Yankees were big draws and outdrew the Giants in 1920 (in this year the Yankees set a major league record, drawing 1,289,422 into the Polo Grounds 350,000 more than the Giants), 1921, and 1922 and most would have thought that the added revenue would have been hard to resist. Maybe the Giants felt that they were being overshadowed by the presence of their new star Babe Ruth. John McGraw, an exponent of “inside” baseball or “little ball” as they term it today, hated Babe Ruth and his home runs. He said in 1921, “The Yankees will have to build a park in Queens or some other out-of-the-way place. Let them go away and wither on the vine.”

They moved directly across the Harlem River and built “The House that Ruth Built.” The 58,000 seat concrete and steel edifice opened up on April 18, 1923 at the cost of $2.5 million. It was built in 258 working days and featured the first triple-deck grandstand. The Opening attendance, with Governor Alfred E. Smith throwing out the first ball, was reputed to be over 74,000, but later on it was revised to about 60,000. John Philip Sousa and the Seventh Regiment Band led the procession of players, Yankees and Red Sox to the centerfield flag pole the raising of the 1922 pennant. There were few changes since 1923. The right field triple deck grandstands were extended around the foul pole to the bleachers in the late 1930’s, and some of the outfield distances were re-adjusted before the great re-building in 1974-5. Originally center field in the old ballpark was 490 feet. It was later reduced to 461 feet and to its present day 408 feet. Deepest right center was an astronomical 550 feet, but quickly reduced to 457 feet and its present day 420 feet. The right field foul line remained at 296 feet until the renovation where it was lengthened to 314 feet and the fence was raised from 4 feet to 8 feet. Left field was originally 280.5 feet but was quickly adjusted to 301 and it is presently 318 feet with and 8-foot wall. Since those long-gone days, the old Yankee Stadium was completely re-built to a new configuration, and in 2008 it shut its gates as the new one opened up in the spring of 2009.

So “another opening and another show,” commenced on this first March starting date in Yankee history. In the tradition of the late Generalissimo George M. Steinbrenner III, his heirs and their managers, dragooned 75 West Point Cadets to parade the colors, two F-18 buzzed the throng of 40K+, the Star Spangled Banner was warbled and strangely enough Mike Mussina threw out the first ball. He got to the mound, threw the ball to his former catcher, now DH, Jorge Posoda, and before anyone could blink the game was afoot. Guy Fairstein and I settled in, had our sandwiches and decided that both teams were compensated enough to risk freezing to death. By the 4th inning, the cold, wet breezes reached almost minus Kelvin temperature levels and we sought shelter in the great concourses that surround the stadium. We found warmth in the Yankee Museum, took some photos of the signed baseballs, and then after some other activities, we headed back to the parking lot. The Yanks won 6-3, and despite the ugly weather, all was well with the world.

Dear Mr. Lugmaier,

When my great friend, Dr. Laurence A. Reich mentioned to me that he knew you, I realized that I could send you a frank email. We just returned this afternoon from a 5-day cruise on the Norwegian Dawn. This was our first cruise on NCL and our third to the Caribbean.

Besides all the obvious attributes that the Norwegian Dawn and NCL offer, we were quite disappointed regarding the totality of the cruise, especially when it comes to safety. Not only were we inundated by over 600 spring break college students, but we were quite unhappy by the performance of the NCL staff when it came to maintaining order and safety on the high seas. Not only did these young people take over the pool, the four hot tubs, and the entire pool deck, but they did it in a universally inebriated condition. According to NCL’s published guidelines, alcoholic beverages could only be served to adults 21 years or older or younger adults, 18 to 20, with the written permission of their parents, who had to be on board the Norwegian Dawn.

In fact, few of these students were “carded,” most were under 21, and almost all had a cavalier disregard for their own safety or any others. The service staff continually served under-aged students alcoholic beverages while they were in hot tubs. Many of these “spring breakers” were diving in the pool, were cannon-balling from the music deck and almost every one in the pool, and certainly in the hot tubs, were with Budweisers, Coronas, or mixed drinks clutched in their hands. Because of broken glass in the pool, it had to be shut down and drained. Besides all of this mayhem, in and around, the swimming area, there was noise in the hall at all hours of the late evening and early morning. My wife was awakened five times the last night of the cruise, as were many others.

Because it was impossible to enjoy the main pool, we were forced to take dual memberships in the Spa. This added another $178 to our bill. We basically sought refuge there from the noise, the rowdiness, and the overt licentiousness that was prevalent most of the day and the evening. I for sure am not a prude or a bluenose. I was much more willing to grant these people a lot more rope than my wife, and the scores of with whom we compared stories. I also understand that older people are often hyper-critical of youthful indiscretions. But safety can never be compromised, and being on a ship, in close quarters with thousands of others, makes the upholding of standards critical. I personally encountered more than one drunken “collegian” on the elevators. We are all aware of the recent histories of the spread of sickness on board ships, the increased concern over infection, and the incidence of violence and foul play. Therefore large concentrated groups of “revelers” in, or out of, the pool areas, must be discouraged.

We learned through the rumor mill, and from some of the staff that there were numerous arrests for wanton destruction of property, breaking and entering, throwing chairs over the rails, possession of hard drugs, and young people being sent home by air from the Cayman Islands. Personally I do not know the accuracy of these claims, but I thought it was incumbent for the ship’s captain to report to the whole passenger list what had transpired and what actions his office had taken to correct these situations. We were left completely with the impression that the corporate office was totally uninterested in what went on in the ship, or decided that thousands of beer and alcohol sales far outweighed prudent judgment. We were also told by our neighbor in stateroom 9712, who happened to be a registered nurse that she personally witnessed a totally unconscious young women being carried aboard from the Cayman Island tender. Her professional opinion was that this woman should have been hospitalized.

On Thursday afternoon, at approximately 1 pm, the Norwegian Dawn was hit with a vicious wind-driven rain squall from the port side as it sailed northwesterly from Cozomel to Miami. It was obvious to all of on the deck that we were heading towards a potentially dangerous weather event. Not one warning was broadcast from the loud speaker system about the impending nature of what was approaching. No one was ordered out of the pool, and as chairs blew around the eating area that flanked both sides of the pool deck, student-aged youngsters were reveling in the pool and hot tubs. Whether there was the threat of lightning or not, I did not know. But the most basic of water safety rules demands that pools are closed when potential thunderstorms approach. It seems to me that the staff on the bridge was well aware by visual sighting and radar of the oncoming storm. The question remains, why weren’t the people on the pool decked warned to take shelter?

Larry Reich and I have been friends for more than 60 years, and I would never do anything to jeopardize or take advantage of any of his relationships. Therefore, it pains me to write this account, but I feel that it is necessary for the NCL management to look into this situation before it is repeated, and a tragedy ensues.

You made the remark that in Dresden our bombing killed thousands of “innocent” German citizens. Since when in total war were Germans innocent? It was Germany and their overwhelming support for Adolph Hitler and his Nazi brigands from 1933 onward that initiated the war, supported a campaign of race hatred and genocide and started the civilian slaughter with the terror bombing of Warsaw, Rotterdam and Coventry. How soon we all forget. When one sees the films of the feverish millions who worshiped Der Fuhrer it is no wonder the Allies had to retaliate with such draconian methods. As to the Japanese, their Rape of Nanjing was so horrendous that even the Nazis blanched. Their war crimes against the Chinese, (millions killed), the Koreans and the Filipinos have been conveniently erased from the public memory. All the history of that era reports that even after the 2nd A-Bomb hit Nagasaki, the generals and the warlords were willing to fight to the last drop of their own blood, and ours. Only the Emperor, fearing the end of his country, sought peace by accepting the Potsdam Declaration.

I have no sympathy in the least

It was Restaurant Week in Westchester this week. Alan and Wendy Rosenberg, and Guy and Marissa Fairstein joined Linda and I at Equus on Benedict Avenue in Tarrytown. The food was fine, the choices very narrow, the service was fair, and the dinner for two, advertised at $56 per couple, grew quickly to $116. Don’t order bottled water.

The Castle at Equus, which was built between 1897 and 1910 by General Howard Carroll, is the highest point in Westchester and this picture is a view from White Plains Road in Tarrytown. The restaurant now sits on ten acres and at one time and for many years it was the home of one of the largest mutual funds, the Axe-Houghton Fund. Emerson Axe, who died in 1965 and Ruth Houghton, who died in 1967, bought the castle and 64 acres for $40K in 1941. Most of the acreage on the southern side of the property was sold off to the developer of Carrollwood, which is a community of townhouses that can be accessed from White Plains Road (route 119.)

Meanwhile, the Fund ceased operations in 1992. Later the castle and house was sold to group of investors and a restaurant and hotel were added in the 1990s.

Much of the Castle’s success was attributed to to the Walders Family, who ran the hotel from 1994 along with their daughter Battina Landt, and Mrs. Landt’s husband, Eric Landt. But the hotel’s future was thrown into question in 2001 after the United States government seized ownership of the castle and fired the Walders and the Landts.

In September, of 2001, the United States Attorney charged Mr. Walder with stealing $70 million from his banking clients. The government took ownership of the castle and its 10 acres, and turned over operations of the hotel to UBS-New York, a division of the United Bank of Switzerland, which employed Mr. Walder until he was fired in September for his alleged misdeeds.