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Making the case for taxing the Left

Internal Revenue Service data indicate that the top 1% of taxpayers pay about 45% of all income taxes in the United States. The same data indicate that 49% of the U.S. population contributes absolutely nothing. Yet we still hear the nonsensical “Tax the rich!” mantra on infinite replay (yawn). It started with Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto in 1848. Marx – the quintessential socialist who mooched off others all his life — thought that confiscating the earnings of productive people would be fun. Socialist movements always start with “Tax the rich!” and always end in ...

Parishioners work with Holy Spirit

JAMESTOWN — Oh, Happy Day. Or maybe we can—under these special circumstances — take the liberty of putting that another way: “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum.” Those are the words — “I announce to you a great joy” — with which a cardinal standing on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City heralds the election of a new pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Such words also apply to the Dec. 6 announcement that Jamestown’s Holy Apostles parish — which includes Saint John Roman Catholic Church and Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church—will not ...

Jackson understood balance of power

Many people in Western New York, the United States and in fact the World are familiar with Robert H. Jackson. Mr. Jackson was born in Spring Creek Township, Pa., in 1892 and moved to Jamestown when he was quite young. There, when he was only 18, he joined a general practice law firm. In 1932, he was initially called by President Franklin Roosevelt to move to Washington, D.C. for a series of increasingly responsible positions including the U.S. Solicitor General, U.S. Attorney General, Associate Justice on the U.S Supreme Court, as well as the position that he is perhaps best known ...

The Vespa 400 was my ride

My four-wheel Vespa was not one of their world-renowned motor scooters. It was a car. A really small car. I don’t think my mother ever forgave me. “That’s probably the dumbest purchase you have ever made.” I bought the little red car during my junior year of college. No longer living on campus, it was a challenging year of half college credits and a full-time job. And to make it work, I had to commute 28 miles to work, 12 miles to Boston University, then 20 miles home each day. A 60-mile triangle. My bicycle was not up to the job. I waitressed on Cape Cod for three summers, ...

There’s two sides to Niagara Falls

It’s possible for two people to see or experience something and come away with totally different yet perfectly valid opinions. When it comes to Niagara Falls I very much enjoy the peace and serenity of Niagara Falls, N.Y., and the adjacent state park. The view might not be as sweeping as that from the Canadian side, but it does afford the best opportunity to get close to the waters of the mighty Niagara as they tumble over the rapids and plunge over the edge into the gorge below. Others prefer the Canadian side with its sweeping views of the Horseshoe and American Falls. The two ...

Facing the reality of AI

Though I don’t completely understand it, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. It is the latest permutation in our high-tech world and has taken over the stock market, if not our lives themselves. In a way, AI sort of crept on me. I didn’t think much about it when I began to ask “Siri” to dial a phone number or asked “Alexa” to play Johnny Cash on the radio. But, the development of voice recognition technology should have alerted me to the fact that AI was coming. Now, you can ask your computer or smart phone almost anything and it will get back to you in a ...