It’s fun to keep up with the mobster-and-oligarch news from Russia. And things get really interesting when our market-manic media tie Russia’s economic woes to the privatization of former state enterprises. (There are limits, of course. Our media generally see privatization as bad medicine for them, but still necessary for us.) Yes, Russia is […]
Jack Bradigan Spula
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In your ear: Wronged by rightwing radio
How sweet it sounded: The Golden Hour of the Little Flower. But the 1930s radio show was anything but pleasingly tasteful. This was the hour of Father Charles E. Coughlin, the Toronto-born, Michigan-based Roman Catholic priest who whipped up hatred and fear with a blend of religious fanaticism, far-right anti-capitalism, and anti-Semitism. The recipe […]
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Gay marriage: untying the ‘not’
You could be forgiven for thinking of Galileo in the dock. Up in Ontario this June, perceptions of the universe changed radically when a provincial court legalized gay marriage. But in September, Bishop Ralph Spence of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara effectively declared his solar system would continue to operate by previously accepted moral […]
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After the vote: potholes ahead
A week after Maggie Brooks’ victory over Bill Johnson, I’m drawn back to Jimmy Carter’s “crisis of confidence” — or national “malaise,” as it became known. Carter was addressing the US “energy crisis” of the moment (apart from his attachment to coal and oil, he mused that solar power would provide 20 percent of the […]
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Sooty skies: all ‘downwinders’ beware
Love it or hate it, this region has its share of hazy, if not lazy days. Credit the “lake effect” in part. But there’s also an atmospheric effect that could be termed “coal comfort.” The Great Lakes region has long been dependent on large coal-fired electric-generating plants. And despite the availability of cleaner technologies, some […]
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Follies 2004: hard sell for the sales tax
With his 2004 budget announcement, County Executive Jack Doyle showed even a lame duck can spin like a top. Consider his proposal to increase the sales tax in Monroe County by 0.6 percent, making the full rate rise from 8.25 percent to 8.85 percent. Doyle characterized this increase, designed to erase almost $42 million […]
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Pre-Halloween spookiness
It’s not every day that a CIA veteran addresses an audience of social activists and does not repudiate his past. When these guys come out, they usually sound contrite. Take Philip Agee, the ex-spook who denounced RIT’s dalliance with Langley. Agee wrote a delicious book on the CIA’s international crime spree; ultimately he rejected […]
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Town supers near the finish line
With the primaries safely in the past, most Rochester-area suburban elections are over before they’re over. Whoever was lucky enough to win the Republican endorsement can coast. But there are still some town elections worth watching — because a particular primary turned the tables, or because a race involves issues that may resonate beyond […]
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Toughing it out for DA
Since the Nixon era begat the “modern ‘get tough’ movement” — to use the Sentencing Project’s term — the criminal justice system has been rough on people. A new Sentencing Project study says the US rate of incarceration in 2002 hit “a record high” of 702 inmates per hundred thousand population. Russia took second place, […]
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Medicaid: costs as benefits
Here’s one about a gift that keeps on taking. Last month Citizens for Justice released a study of federal tax cuts and their effects over the next six years. New York, says the group, stands to gain $78.2 billion over that period from the cuts, more than $4,000 per capita. But because the cuts force […]
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Boxing outside the think
One line in county executive hopeful Maggie Brooks’ platform will probably not be quoted much. It’s too abstract and unforthcoming at first blush. But it does get the mind moving. “Do we really want to turn our community into a laboratory, a place to experiment and tinker with our future?” asks Brooks. Well, do […]
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Uniters, not dividers: the towns evolve
Is “bi-lithic” a word? The play on “monolithic” may not be in the dictionary, but it should be available for this year’s elections. The word would neatly describe the city-versus-suburb dynamic that undergirds various contests — county executive, district attorney, and even some town supervisors — making this locality appear like two stone fortresses […]
