The Leo Court

People who write about the Supreme Court usually refer to it by the last name of the Chief Justice: the Warren Court, the Burger Court, Rehnquist Court, etc. By this method, the current Court would be the Roberts Court. Not so – the most descriptive shorthand to identify the current outfit: the Leo Court.

The what court? Who/what on earth is Leo? The big wheel in the Federalist Society, one Leonard Leo, who is virtually the architect of the current majority conservative court which exists today. Unknown to, I’m sure, the vast majority of Americans, Leonard Leo has painstakingly assembled the 6-3 majority: Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Bret Kavanaugh,and Amy Coney Barrett. Along with holdovers Clarence Thomas and the nominal Chief, John Roberts. Recommended by the Federalist Society, headed by Leo.

The Washington Post recently ran a column by Ruth Marcus, a respected interpretor of SCOTUS, who had a different take. Her thesis is that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is the main culprit in the current tilt rightward for the Court. Fundamentally, I agree with her. McConnell certainly performed the manipulations which enabled the seating of at least three Justices. He refused to schedule a hearing, never mind a vote, for Merrick Garland. Later on, with only days before the election of 2020, he rammed through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. Nevertheless,the names of these nominees was almost certainly contributed by Leonard Leo.

Throughout our history, the Court has deferred to concepts such as “settled law”. As the TV ads state, I’m a non-attorney spokesperson, so to speak. Also, I’m a chemist by training, not a historian. However, it seems to me that we were founded as a non-sectarian republic, not a Christian nation. Although I am not naive enough to believe this in our current circumstances, we were founded as an experiment in a truly novel concept-the majority of the citizenry rules. How does the nation’s largest voting bloc – women- feel about the overturning of the settled law Roe v Wade?

Meanwhile, kingmaker/fixer Leo has facilitated various goodies to some of our “justices”, in the form of hunting and fishing trips to faraway places with strange sounding names, to borrow from a (very old) song lyric. Were any of these junkets listed on disclosure forms required of all Federal judges except the Supremes? You’ve got to be kidding. If we should be referring to this crew as the Roberts Court, maybe the Chief should be lending his efforts to come up with disclosure requirements for SCOTUS justices. They appear to need some. Also, last I heard, the federal minmum wage in the USA is $7.25 per hour, which would amount to about $17K for a year’ work. Justices earn $274.2K. While allowing for their education, not to mention their exalted place in our society, is this enough? Probably not, it would seem.

Elections have consequences, some of which should be removal of the Republican facilitators of a lot of this mischief. Unfortunately, money talks or, in the words of an old friend, money screams in elections. Operatives like Leonard Leo are unbelievably adept at fundraising. I wish some of this dark money could be used to feed, clothe, shelter and educate desperately poor children, which is, truly, God’s work.

The Free Academy

The Extreme Court of the United States recently killed the Biden Administration’s effort to reduce the burden of student loan payments. Could anyone imagine in this day and time an institution which accepted students on merit alone, cost zero in tuition and was rated one of the foremost in the nation? Yes, Virginia, such did exist back in the day – The City College of New York (CCNY). I was one of the fortunate ones to benefit from this generous gift to residents of the city.

Back in the middle of the last century (mid Fifties), I was a good (but not that good) student in a public high school in New York City. My parents, immigrants from France, both worked, but were not rich enough to send kids to college. I was pursuing the possibility of attending ivy league Columbia College on a Naval ROTC scholarship, until I learned I was ineligible because I didn’t have perfect vision. Based solely on my average in high school, I was admitted to CCNY in 1956.

A bit of history. In 1847, the Free Academy was founded by Board of Education president Townsend Harris. “Open the doors to all…Let the children of the rich and the poor take their seats together and know of no distinction save that of industry, good conduct and intellect”. Imagine that! Alumni of the College include numerous luminaries of the arts, sciences, government and the military: Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the first polio vaccine; Edward G. Robinson, actor, and General Colin Powell, who also served as Secretary of State.

Colin L. Powell ’58 was a cadet in Pershing Rifles, an elite outfit within the College’s Army ROTC program. He was two years ahead of me, a reluctant participant (at best) in the Program. One morning (following a drunken late night frat party) I hastily dressed for inspection – so hastily I forgot a tie. The inspecting cadet (I swear to this day it was Powell) came up to me, paused, totally nonplussed: “Mr.! You’re not wearing a tie!” (Oh well….). Many, many years later, my daughter brought me to a book signing, where I did meet the General. (I didn’t mention anything about it).

In my time, the College had several nicknames. My favorite: “The Harvard of the Proletariat”. Not so much: “The Little Red Schoolhouse”. I attended during the McCarthy red scare era. The College had a reputation as a “Pinko” institution. Most of the students I knew were too involved in academic survival to bother with politics.

During the 1970’s, the city’s Board of Higher Education instituted an “open admission” policy, whereby any New York City high school graduate could be admitted to the College, regardless of high school attainment. What had been a highly selective institution became, virtually overnight, a remedial basket case. This experiment all but destroyed the College as a respected center of higher learning. The project was abandoned after a few years, but it took decades to restore its reputation. I well remember attending my niece’s commencement at Wagner College, when the graduation speaker told us that, “I am a graduate of CCNY..(pause) the old CCNY”. Enough said.

Thousands of non-wealthy kids benefited from New York City’s foresight in investing in its youth. In turn, untold dividends have accrued to the city, many of which are incalculable. The nation gave itself a lasting shot in the arm following the end of WWII with the G.I.Bill of Rights, which enabled millions of people to earn college degrees who might never have had the chance. It is, indeed, unfortunate that some old men who sit on SCOTUS have (hopefully for now) thwarted President Biden’s efforts to relieve many young college grads of crushing student debt. Didn’t at least one of them benefit from a leg up in the form of Affirmative Action?

Drug Factoids – Heroin

For most of my career with the Feds, heroin was considered (to borrow an ancient FBI label) Public Enemy #1. In this century, it has lost the title to fentanyl, but for most of my time with DEA, its major focus was on heroin. The drug’s effect on humans is actually quite similar to fentanyl. Both are classified as narcotic analgesics (pain killers); the major difference lies in their potency. While a 10 milligram dose of uncut heroin is a fairly good sized hit, a similar dose of fentanyl would be fatal numerous times over.

While fentanyl is purely synthetic, heroin originates in a species of poppy known by its botannical name Papaver somniferum L. By a centuries old, highly labor intensive process, a liquid sap-like substance is painstakingly collected from each poppy, and the stuff is gathered into a solid mass (maple syrup, anybody?) known as opium. In a manner similar to marihuana, numerous drug substances exist in opium, which is, itself, a legal, controlled substance, unlike marihuana. The most prevalent of the drugs in opium is morphine, roughly 10% by mass. Morphine is an important, powerful analgesic in its own right.

During the late 19th century, Farbriken Bayer, a German pharmaceutical firm, developed a more powerful drug by reacting morphine with acetic anhydride to form diacetyl morphine (sorry about the chemistry) and in the finest traditions of Big Pharma a catchy name was given to this new drug: Heroin (because of its heroic properties). I kid you not!

One of the new drug’s initial uses was to alleviate drug addiction suffered by Civil War veterans who had become addicted to morphine (the Soldier’s Disease). Obviously, this did not work as intended. Unfortunately, the government’s response was draconian –synthesis of heroin was banned for any reason (it remains so to this day). Heroin does have properties which render it clinically superior to morphine. For example, Brompton’s Mixture, consisting of morphine, cocaine, alcohol and other substances, was often given to advanced cancer patients to alleviate severe pain. Developed in the U.K., the formulation used heroin in lieu of morphine, but this was prohibited in the USA.

As an instrument of death, heroin is nowhere near as dangerous as fentanyl. However, it is not, by any means, a safe substance. Heroin can be injected, smoked, snorted, or taken in pill form,

During my time with DEA, opium poppies were cultivated in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Mexico. We devoted considerable effort to learn how they were processed to heroin in various parts of the world. By the time I retired in 1994, we had identified three distinct types of heroin, sorted by processing method: French Connection, Southeast Asian and Mexican. Nowadays, Colombia has emerged as a source country, largely at the expense of Southeast Asia (there are no longer US military folk there in large numbers to provide a local customer base). Let’s take a short walk in the wild side:

French Connection. Some of the best finished product I ever saw. Morphine base from poppies grown in Turkey was furnished to a small group of “chemists” operating mostly in the south of France. In the best traditions of French quisine these well trained chefs painstakingly followed procedures to produce the very best. The product was distributed in heavily diluted (stepped on) form mainly in Eastern cities, such as New York, Boston and Washington, DC.

Southeast Asian. Poppies grown in Thailand, Laos and neighboring countries were processed in six steps: #1, morphine; #2, heroin as the base; #3, heroin as the (water soluble) hydrochloride salt mixed with caffeine and a small amount of strychnine; #4, heroin as the hydrochloride (suitable for injection), with purity and whiteness rivalling the French stuff. Distributed mainly to US servicemen. The #3 product was intended for smoking.

Mexican (and later Colombian): Best described as “quick and dirty”, the stuff is brown in color, smells of vinegar, and often looks, in the uncut form, like tar. In fact, “black tar heroin” is quite desirable to consumers (probably because it’s hard to cut).

Today, Afghanistan is believed to account for 80% of opium worldwide, which is processed to heroin in Western Europe after transhipment through Iran and Pakistan. According to recent reporting in The Washington Post, the Taliban officially prohibits this activity, but enforcement consists largely of jawboning.

Sadly, we will never solve “the drug problem” until the idle rich no longer provide a customer base for drugs produced by desperately poor people, for little fun and profit. If ever.

Drug Factoids

If you have ever purchased a “drug” (maybe a bottle of hand sanitizer) you may have noticed on the label a section called “Drug Facts”. Not wishing to infringe on any laws, I’ll simply modify the name a little.

Most of us use drugs (probably to stay alive, in many cases). Just for the fun of it, here are some things I’ve picked up in 35 years or so with federal agencies (FDA and DEA) you might be interested in.

Drug Potency. To a chemist, it means the amount of the substance you need to ingest to experience the desired effect (pain relief, stimulation, relaxation, whatever). To my mind, there are three categories of potency:

Low: Drugs such as metformin, where one might need about two grams (2,000 milligrams) to achieve the desired effect, namely, reduction of blood glucose. Others would include aspirin (about 650 milligrams for most people), acetaminophen (Tylenol), 1,000 milligrams, ibuprofen, maybe 400-600 milligrams.

Medium: Diazepam (Valium), 5-10 milligrams; Nexium, 40 milligrams, Xarelto, 20 milligrams, carvedilol, 25 milligrams, morphine 10 milligrams.

High: Fentanyl, 100 micrograms; LSD, 75-100 micrograms

Then, there are the naturally occurring: opium, cocaine, marihuana. Of these, cocaine and opium are legal, but “controlled”, while marihuana is controlled under Federal law, but illegal.

The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) of 1970 was cobbled together from earlier statutes, mostly the Harrison Narcotics Act and the Drug Abuse Control Act. Five “schedules” are provided, with the worst actors, so to speak, listed in Schedules I and II. The principal difference between stuff in Schedule I versus II is that Schedule II drugs have an accepted medical use, while Schedule I’s do not. The result is that marijuana, a relatively harmless substance (depending on your point of view) resides in Schedule I, since it doesn’t have an “accepted” use, while fentanyl, the nation’s #1 killer, does have a use (to treat implacable pain in some cancer patients). With nods to Saul Bellow, this is a classic Catch 22.

I’m not about to tell you that pot is harmless. In all fairness, no drug is completely harmless or free of side effects. New drugs undergo rigorous clinical testing before they are approved for use. So why couldn’t something like this be done to/for marihuana? For one thing, it would be difficult to patent, which deprives Big Pharma of the profit motive. For another, marihuana is a mixture of numerous substances; some of which we have an inkling of whether they are safe and efficatious; the vast majority, we don’t have a clue. To sort all this out would take years and cost a great deal – with no real prospect of any company ever making a profit.

Of the plethora of substances in marihuana, at least one shows considerable promise to relieve suffering: cannabidiol (often abbreviated CBD), which has been found (at least anectodally) effective in relieving seizures, and easing chronic pain. The stuff, supposedly, doesn’t make one high. Then there is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (abbreviated THC), which does make you high. THC can be ingested in several ways: in brownies (remember I Love You, Alice B. Toklas?), and, of course, smoked. This may be the most dangerous mode of ingestion; marijuana smoke has been compared with tobacco smoke, and not favorably.

As I write this, CBD can be bought in any head shop in the numerous states where “medical marihuana” is legal (sort of). FDA has approved two or three preparations. There is, of course, a drug that is available without a prescription, is perfectly legal, gets you high, and was once illegal under Federal law – alcohol.

Can’t We Get Rid Of

The Second Amendment

This Amendment, as written, basically makes no sense. To quote: “A well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of a free people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”. Seems almost like a non sequitor. Are we going to call a bunch of armed civilians out of their homes to fight WWIII? At best, the Amendment has long been superceded by technology (were the Founders familiar with assault rifles??). We do have a “well regulated militia” (the Armed Forces), for which we pay well north of several hundred billion dollars a year. Perversion of the interpretation of this Amendment has made us, arguably, the most heavily armed, and the least secure, populace among the rich countries of the world. In which nation, besides the USA, do grade school kids practice active shooter drills?

Justice Clarence Thomas

Arguably, this guy should never have become a Supreme Court justice. He was selected to replace Justice Thurgood Marshall (couldn’t the first Bush Administration have found a better qualified African American judge)? To paraphrase scripture, Thomas is not fit to fasten Marshall’s sandals. In the roughly three decades he has been on the Court, he has distinguished himself solely on the basis of how much he has accepted in the way of bribes (yes, bribes), from a billionaire new best friend. Not to mention his wife’s apparent role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection…….

The Debt Ceiling

As I write this, we, as a nation, are sweating through another cliff hanger involving The Debt Ceiling. Other than Denmark, no other nation on the planet goes through these gyrations. WE HAVE ALREADY SPENT THE MONEY!!! If we don’t want to increase the national debt, we need to budget accordingly. This nonsense does nobody any good. The last time this happened, in 2011, we got too close to the abyss, and, even though we didn’t default, we suffered a hit to our credit score, so to say, which cost us several billion. Just a rounding error.

The Electoral College

Yes, the Founders, basically, didn’t trust We, the People to choose our chief executive wisely, As I’ve noted in previous posts, the franchise was pretty much limited to property owning white males. What could go wrong? For the first centuries of our existence, in only a few elections, the College came to a different conclusion than a majority of the voters. In this century, however, it has already happened twice, 1n 2000 and 2016. George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump. Yes, there are a lot of academics who are opposed to its abolition, people with PhD’s in political science (not some clown with a masters in chemistry) but I did a lot of time in the federal government (and often wondered how the hell it functioned).

Gerrymandering

Named for a colonial official named Elbridge Gerry, the term describes a process whereby seats are reallocated in the various state congressional delegations following the decennial national census. Since the size of the House of Representatives is fixed (currently at 435 members) states gain or lose seats depending on increases or decreases in population. Each state determines the procedures used to reallocate seats. In recent years, the Republican Party has effectively gained control of many (if not most) of state legislatures (while the Democrats slept?). The end result in one of the hardest hit states (Wisconsin) the Democrats must poll about 60% of the vote, to barely break even in the number of seats. Not your father’s democracy, exactly.

The Filibuster

In order to form (any) union, the Founders needed to make some compromises. In addition to the Electoral College, they created an “upper” house. It’s bad enough that each state gets two senators regardless of population, but at some point, following ratifaction, Senate rules were changed to require a “supermajority” to pass most legislation. Currently, 60 votes are required. As a result, the outfit has gone from “the world’s greatest deliberative body” to a legislative dead body. Since my background is scientific rather than political, I probably just don’t understand stuff like this. Neither does the general public, writ large.

These are, depending on your point of view, nice thoughts. They will never come to pass, but in the time I have left, I can dream, can’t I?

How Bad Does it Get?

Since the founding of our republic, we’ve had 46 chief executives (presidents). Ranking them has been something of a parlor game among historians since our founding. Although “rankings” can fluctuate over the decades as new information is unearthed, most rank the top 4 or so fairly consistently: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson. All of these gentlemen being human, there were flaws aplenty among them: some were slaveholders, for example. On the other hand, we have the failures: James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson. In my humble opinion, however the worst, absolute worst, hands down: #45, Donald J. Trump.

The Donald, as he became known among New York cognescienti in the last two decades of the 20th century, brought several extremely undesirable traits to his new gig: ignorance (and a determination to remain so), carelessness, stupidity, and a near total disregard for the truth. He is a failed businessman. His technique for problem solving can be summed up in a manner I learned in the Navy: When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. Overlaying all of these: Treason. Let’s call it by its name.

Early in his presidency, Trump took a trip to Helsinki, Finland. There, he basically sided with Vladimir Putin, dissing his entire senior intelligence staff. It lead me to wonder: What does Putin have on him, anyway?

He was impeached twice: Once for intefering with a foreign government (Ukraine), and the second, for inciting an insurrection. Is this treason, or what? In neither instance could the Republican cult (or party?) bring itself to remove him from office, despite the clear and present danger many of them faced at the hands of the mob he sicced on them that day. Not to mention his lap dog vice president!

As I write this, the Justice Department appears to be (finally) nearing indictments on two issues unrelated to each other: the insurrection, and the taking of classified documents to his (bordello) in Florida. As readers of this set of screeds know, the classified documents fiasco is close to my experience back in the day. What in the world is this turkey doing with this stuff? Writing his memoirs? Selling some of them? (just saying…). Although the seriousness of the documents pales in comparison with his antics inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection, people have been known to die when secrets are revealed.

Was it P.T. Barnum who coined the phraise, “A sucker is born every minute”? If so, judging by Trump’s campaign funds, the fertility rate of these folks has increased astronomically. Here they are putting their money where his mouth is – seems like every time he gets into trouble, campaign contributions from folks who really can’t afford them flow like a torrent into his coffers.

Speaking of financial prowess, has anybody noticed that the national debt soared significantly during his term? Might this have anything to do with his single legislative accomplishment, namely, the grossly ill-advised tax cut for billionaires? I really wonder what some of those people have on him.

Although known mainly as a neer do well man-about-town playboy who put his name on buildings to earn his keep, Trump did do some damage prior to his emergence as a politician. He was instrumental in the prosecution of a group of teenagers, dubbed the Central Park Five, wrongly, as it turned out, convicted of a sexual assault of a jogger in the park in 1989. Putting his money where his mouth was (to the tune of $85K), he turned public opinion against the accused, calling for the death penalty. He never apologized (probably never has, about anything).

Oh, by the way, a girlfriend of Rudy Giuliani (I guess she’s an ex, but who’s counting) filed a lawsuit recently (hard to keep up with this stuff) alleging that the President was offering pardons for $2 million a pop. The arrangement had America’s Mayor splitting the tab 50:50 with POTUS. Makes past grifts like Trump U. and Trump Steaks seem kinda chintzy, when you think of it.

As the wheels of justice grind on and on toward what I hope will eventually be convictions for several criminal acts (such as obstruction of justice and insurrection, to name a couple) I have been surprised to learn that convictions on none of them would preclude his running for office. I just hope the MAGA crowd finally wakes up and smells the coffee. I am not hopeful.

Life is Not Fair

This is a partial quote from John F. Kennedy (did he actually say this? who knows). There is, however, much evidence to support this thesis.

Since this is going to concern driving, I really should start at the beginning. As readers of this blog know, only too well, I was brought up in Queens NY back in the ’50’s. While I was in college, I experienced the rite-of-passage known as getting a learner’s permit to drive. After taking driving lessons, I took my New York State drivers

test…and failed miserably. I failed three more times (mostly due to “poor clutch and gear control”). The family car back then was a standard shift. I finally passed on the fifth try.

Some years later, I met the guy who failed me (on the third try) and passed me (on the fifth). He lived next door to the girl I married. Maybe to make me feel better, he claimed to have flunked Stirling Moss, a famous racecar driver back in the day.

Sometime back, I wrote a blog describing an incident involving a member of my crew on my first ship. The young enlisted sailor was busted for a minor traffic no-no, speeding a few MPH above the speed limit. Unable to pay the instant fine (it was near the end of the month), the sailor spent the night in the hoosgow. I was sent to bail him out, and when we were back aboard ship, the CO had a captain’s mast convened and had the man reduced in rank- for speeding!

At about the same year, I was driving down the main drag from Portsmouth, NH to Boston. I don’t recall some 60 years later how fast I was going, but it was certainly more than my unfortunate shipmate was pulled over for. I gave the trooper my licence, registration and my military ID. Once he had ascertained that I was an officer, he gave me a “warning”, and all but apologized for inconveniencing me!

The only difference between us was I was privileged to go to college to earn a degree, which enabled me to get a commission. He was not. Life isn’t fair.

On the other hand, I once received a physics lecture from a Connecticut state trooper. I was headed down the Turnpike toward New York and (as usual) exceeding the speed limit. I patiently explained that my ship was sailing at midnight on a vital national security mission. The officer patiently explained to me, “Mr. Canaff, you are about 75 miles from your destination. It is 7PM. If you drive at the posted limit, you will be in New York at about 8:15, in plenty of time. Follow me, please”. Didn’t say it always worked.

Once I had completed my military service I resumed my civilian government career. I became a DEA forensic chemist (not even an agent). It was, for the next quarter century, my get-out-of jail-free card. Even though I never carried a gun, I was granted “law enforcement courtesy” during any traffic stops. I could do no wrong!(I never could confirm this, but I heard that FBI types didn’t enjoy this courtesy…just saying).

Eventually, I retired. A few weeks later, I was driving friends to Dulles Airport, and was pulled over. No creds, no courtesy. Got a ticket. Oh well.

Recently, I was snared in a speed trap. Being 84, I shouldn’t do stuff like that, especially as my kids ponder whether to pull my driving priviliges. My son, however, got me off easy. I just had to complete an AARP mature drivers course. He shmoozed with the arresting officer and prosecutor, and got the charges dismissed.

As I said at the beginning, life is not fair.

Lapsed

Those of you who read my stuff have probably heard me describe myself as a “lapsed” Catholic. My wife and I were practicing Roman Catholics for most of our long lives. Our two adult children are observant Catholics. Flo and I believe in God as the only rational answer to the wonders of nature which surround us. The Church is a tremendous force for good in the world. We believe that Almighty God, through his only begotten son Jesus Christ, created the Church about 2,000 years ago. So why are we “lapsed”?

About a half century ago, the world became aware of sexual abuses of children and young adults by priests. At first, it appeared to be a few “bad apples” spoiling the barrel, to use a homespun metaphor. After too long an elapsed time, the situation appears to be endemic to the life of the institution.

We are all too familiar with the tendency of institutions to “circle the wagons”, to use another old saw. The protection of the organization becomes paramount. Our son, who has devoted his life to fighting abuse of women and children, tells us that coverup is the great essential. The organization, hierarchy, institution, must be protected! The malefactors are transferred, lawyers are deployed, denials are issued. Little attention, it seems, is paid to the victims, most of whom are scarred for life.

Over the decades since the earliest revelations, a steady drip, drip, drip has come to light. It never seems to end. Numerous dioceses have had to declare bankruptcy. Just as you think it has all been revealed, additional stuff comes out, often in a foreign nation. If you think this is confined to the Roman Catholic Church, I have a classic bridge to sell you named for a borough of New York……Although Catholics are a minority in this country, at approximately 40% of religious adherents it is our largest single denomination. It is a big target.

I don’t pretend to propose solutions in the length of a blog post (this would be an insult to the many professionals, including my son), but allow me to raise a few points.

Members of the hierarchy (and the Church’s structure is about as hierarchical as it gets) have tried several approaches to stem the tide, as it were. Miscreants were transferred elsewhere in the diocese. Their crimes were, in many instances, not made known to the receiving outfits. Attempts were made, in some cases, to provide treatment to the offenders. Unfortunately, “once a predator, always a predator”, as cruel as this sounds, is usually the case.

While much noise is raised as to gay priests, most experts agree that this is not the problem, rather the Church, like many similar institutions, provides a refuge for men bent in that direction – along with a plentiful supply of targets. Many have advanced a married priesthood as a panacea. While I, personally, would like at least some serious consideration being given to implemention of this, I am not aware of any data supporting this as a solution. The Church would need to , for one thing, carefully address the financial aspects of such an approach to ministry. Let’s face it, other faiths have their problems, too.

One of the Catholic Church’s more serious problems is the advanced age of recent prelates. Pope Francis is in his late 80’s, as was his predecessor when he retired. I can tell you from personal experience (I’m 84) this is way too late in life to be starting a revolution, which would be necessary to bring about meaningful change The demands on an older man’s psyche (including, but not limited to, death threats) would be overwhelming. When we were much younger, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council. Shouldn’t they consider Vatican Council #3?

As a kid, I was taught that the Catholic Church was the “one true church”. By admittedly back-of-the-envelope calculations the number of Christians equates to about 1.4 billion souls, out of an estimated 7 billion people worldwide. Does this mean that 5.6 billion are headed for the netherworld? There are, obviously, numerous folk whose religious are labelled Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish and many other faiths, most of whom worship God. Surely, there are good people in this mix (and bad ones, too). To quote Pope Francis, “Who am I to judge?”.

The Catholic clergy do not have it easy. The ones I’ve worked with were, with a handful of exceptions, caring, loving people dedicated to worship of God and the salvation of souls. My kids would say the same.

Euphenisms

Although cruelty seems to be the hallmark of this century (or maybe we’ve just become more aware of it) it is increasingly avoided in communications, both oral and written. We have become abusers of euphemisms (hope I’m spelling it right). Euphemisms are, shall we say, nicer ways to describe things. For example, “senior citizens” is a nicer way of saying old fogeys, oldsters, geezers -you get my drift.

Doesn’t “pre-owned” sound better than “used car”?

“Facial Tissues” , instead of “toilet paper”, (do people really use it on their faces?)

“Native Americans” sure beats “redskins”, Indians (or Commanders??). “Indians” perpetuates, of course, a 400 year old screwup where Columbus thought he had landed in India (or was he trying to make sure he got payed by the Spanish royal family. Didn’t they send him there, after all?).

On the other hand, do physicians prefer being called “providers”? All those years in med school to become a provider? You’ve got to be kidding! How about medications, wouldn’t we prefer taking drugs? (guess not….).

Back in the day, my XO called me a “mackeral snapper”, in reference to my (lapsed) Catholic faith. Now that we Catholics are the Masters of the Universe in this country, does it make any of this PC-incorrect? This was, of course, based on the Church’s prohibition against eating meat on Fridays. Has anybody priced fish lately?

Speaking of medical terms, do any of us undergo operations anymore? Does it hurt any less if they are termed “procedures”? When God calls us home, would we prefer a “Funeral Director” to an “Undertaker” to do the honors?

I wonder how many Russian citizens are comforted by Putin’s use of “Special Military Operation” instead of “invasion” or “war” to describe what is going down in Ukraine. How about Special Military Procedure?

I remember being a child buying clothes. Overweight kids were fitted with stuff called “husky”. Sounded better than fat. The Internet has, of course, launched a phenomenon known as “fat shaming”, targeted mostly at girls. Sort of reverse euphemism.

Also from childhood, if you couldn’t cut it academically, you were “left back”. No more. If you’re not granted a ‘social promotion”, you are “retained”. Growing up is painful enough; some governors don’t want kids ever to feel inadequate. Maybe we need to burn more library books.

While we’re asking, what does “premium” mean, anyway? We have premium gas, premium cable channels, premium cellphone plans (don’t you love the Ted Danson piece on Consumer Cellular). I strongly suspect it just means “more pricey” (by the way I don’t believe the ad, either).

Last, but not least, so to speak, the word “upscale”. Conjurs up images of more luxurious, enhanced, better than average – also usually means more expensive.

Just a few examples. Don’t you feel better already?

Outerboro

Plus ca change…….

We continue to hear and talk about school shootings (it is, after all, part of our Right to Keep and Bear Arms). I feel so sorry for parents, not to mention kids, who go to school wondering whether something like this is going to happen today. Just this month, a teacher, a young woman here in Virginia, was shot by a six year old pupil, It is believed to have been deliberate.

This is not unprecedented in our history. I vividly remember, to this day, about 75 years later, when school children were terrorized by the threat of anniliation by thermonuclear bombs aimed at our cities by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during what became known as the Cold War (thank you, God, that it stayed cold). I grew up in the “outerborough” of Queens, about 6 miles as the crow flies from Times Square, which was considered “ground zero” for such an attack. We practiced “Take Cover” drills in case the unthinkable happened. Our schoolbuilding, typical of those built a century ago, featured at least one wall of single pane glass windows. I seriously doubt that our desks, beneath which we sheltered, would have afforded much protection from flying shards of glass, not to mention blast effects and radiation, both prominent features of H-bombs.

As many of you are aware, the City of New York consists of five “boroughs”: Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. However, the City is widely considered to be Manhattan, with the others relegated to outer status. Manhattan is where it’s at, the center of culture, money, showbiz, money, political power, money – you get my drift. Queens, the largest in area, was a land of farms (yes, really) until it was developed after WWII. One of the major developers was Fred Trump (name sound familiar?). Fred made a lot of money (much of it inherited by son Donald), but the family never became accepted as A-list celebs – they were from an outerborough, after all. We are all familiar with the consequences (how much better off this country would be if the Donald had been content to remain a useless man-about-town playboy).

Then we have the Cuomo’s, who lived fairly close by the Trumps, also in Queens. Mario, the patriarch, worked his way through law school and rose eventually to become a three term governor of New York, and potentially a presidential contender. His elder son, Andrew, also rose to the governorship of New York (but was forced to resign amid allegations of sexual harassment). He unfortunately took his younger brother, Chris, with him to obscurity.

During my days as an undergraduate at City College of New York, I was a brother in the Zeta chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa, a national Greek letter fraternity. CCNY was, in those days, a first rate engineering school (The Harvard of the Proletariate). Although as a student I was anything but distinguished, I palled around with quite a few who earned degrees, both Manhattan and outerborough kids. Have any of you watched the new TV series. “East New York”? A few of my buds (Tony T., Christo C., and Richie A.) lived there – I got to like the place when I wasn’t getting lost trying to get back to Queens. Ron G,.Ron O. and Alex L. were from Staten Island (talk about an outer outer borough; it should really have been part of Jersey). None of them were rich or famous. Just successful, productive citizens,

Not all my friends were outerborough. Lubomir M. was a Manhattanite, but never would have pretended to be part of inner anything. Maybe it’s all a New York State of mind (with apologies to Billy Joel).