The System Worked

Peter Baker, "A Phrase Sets Off Sniping After a Crisis," NYTimes (Dec. 29, 2009):

To the list of phrases it may be best for political leaders to avoid after a major security incident, add “the system worked” right after “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”

Just as the public did not really share President George W. Bush’s assessment of how things were going after Hurricane Katrina, so too was there a good deal of skepticism when President Obama’s homeland security secretary declared faith in a system that failed to stop a guy who tried to blow up a passenger jet on Christmas Day.

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Kites & Kite-Flyers

December 24D

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December 24C

December 24B

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December 24A

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Winter 2009 in Jersey City

The place makes a nice antipasto salad.

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This part of Jersey City is a neighborhood from a bygone America. This is not so much because of the (undistinguished) architecture. It is because the homes and apartments are close together, the population of the neighborhood is relatively stable, and people in the neighborhood know each other (though sometimes only by sight). The population is predominantly but not entirely Italian-American.

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Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church
344 Sixth Street

From the church's web site:

"During the first few years of the early 1880’s the Italian speaking population of Jersey City began to increase rapidly, but they had no church of their own. In the towns, villages and cities of Italy the local church had been to these people a spiritual and social force. By the end of 1884 Bishop Wigger directed Father De Concilio to organize the Italians of Jersey City into a parish and to build a church. Father James S. Hanly, the pastor of St. Bridget’s was assigned to guide the new parish through its embryonic years.

With the money contributed by the congregation, two lots, 340 and 342 Sixth Street, between Monmouth and Brunswick Streets, were purchased for about two thousand dollars. A small frame structure already on the site was used as a temporary chapel. The first Mass celebrated was in February 1885."

Winter 2006

Christmas

Jerusalem 1999

Outdated Heirlooms?

A "jewelry exchange" says it wants my "outdated heirlooms."

But isn't the point of an heirloom to be outdated? Would an heirloom be an heirloom if it weren't outdated?

I suppose what the jewelry exchange means is that it wants my outdated outdated heirlooms.

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Mayor Healy on Bicycles

Ricardo Kaulessar, "Not just spinning their wheels," Hudson Reporter (Dec. 13, 2009):

Bicycling enthusiast Chris Bray, a Bergen-Lafayette resident for the past five years, recalled at the meeting a conversation with Mayor Jerramiah Healy about making Jersey City more amenable to bicycle riding.

According to Bray, “[Healy] said, and this is a direct quote, ‘You bike around here, are you crazy? I want people to use public transportation.’ ”

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Shale Gas & Russia

Shale gas in Poland may eventually ease Russia's vise-like grip on energy supplies for Eastern Europe and Ukraine.


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Throngs of People on an Overcrowded Planet in Early December (Northern Hemisphere)

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Newspeak in Health Care Reform

"Congress plans to pay for its reform plans partly with about $150 billion in Medicare cuts to hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies, referred to as 'permanent annual productivity adjustments to price updates.” George Orwell would be proud.'" Grace-Marie Turner, "Home Health Cuts Will Backfire," NYTimes (Dec. 3, 2009).

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Canada Recalls the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Andris Straumanis, "Canadian lawmakers back day to remember Molotov-Ribbentrop," Latvians Online (Nov. 30, 2009):

Canada’s lawmakers have adopted a resolution calling on the government to name Aug. 23 a “Black Ribbon Day” in remembrance of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Secret protocols to the treaty carved up Eastern Europe—including Latvia—into territory to be controlled by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

The House of Commons on Nov. 30 gave unanimous consent to the resolution, which among other points noted that knowledge in Canada about the totalitarian regimes and how they terrorized people in Central and Eastern Europe is “still alarmingly superficial and inadequate.”

In memoriam of one of the consequences of the pact: June 14, 1941, a cattlecar, a barge, and death for two people (and many others):

View Larger Map
Wikipedia: "Between 1930 and 1989, more than 500,000 people were banished to Narym and its surroundings."


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