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Speaker sees political realignment

CHAUTAUQUA - Alaskans understandably cherish summer months, when days are warm and long, much longer than elsewhere in the country. In fact, Kimberly Strassel, who lives near Anchorage, told audiences at Chautauqua Institution on June 23 and 24, that since moving to Alaska eight years ago, she has never left the state in June or July. The Wall Street Journal editorial-board member and weekly columnist light heartedly told those gathered at a reception at Chautauqua Institution on June 22 that she may never leave the state again in June or July. Yet she was happy to make an ...

Rounding Third: Surviving Mother Nature’s hot temper

It was 92 stifling degrees when I arrived home from lunch yesterday. Humidity was in the 80% range. As predicted. I hate this hot stuff. Fuggedaboudit. I know there are people who thrive in the heat. I’m happy for them, but I will never be one of them. Ever. I should have been born in Scotland – northern Scotland. My intolerance for heat must be hereditary. I would not have made a good Bedouin camel driver or Amazon rain forest guide. When my Scottish ancestors emigrated to North America, they didn’t settle in Charleston or Richmond – not even Boston. They landed in Canada, ...

Here’s the beef on greenhouse gases

A recent Associated Press story in the OBSERVER had me shaking my head. According to the United Nations, hardly the organization that FDR and Harry Truman envisioned at the end of World War II, it is estimated that a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from several links in the food supply chain. The solution according to the experts is to eat more plants and less meat. This is because according to the data emissions from a meat rich diet are four times higher than from a vegan diet. I like vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, onions, asparagus and beans. Vegetables ...

Rally not filled with lots of royalty

It was the 250th birthday of the US Army on Saturday, June 14. You would hardly have known it at the No Kings protest, except for those who displayed signs commemorating the day outside the protest rally in Jamestown. June 14 was Flag Day too, but for No Kings, it was billed as a “Day of Defiance.” Rally protestors had a lot of democracy signs, but our constitution gave us a republic, the difference being the rule of law (republic) vs. the rule of the majority (democracy). So seeing a sign held by a rally goer saying, “Democracy, rule of law” was a head scratcher. ...

Two guys from Queens

There must be something in the water in Queens for it seems that, as to politicians, that Borough of New York City produces a certain breed of them. Two that come to mind are Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump. Though neither now live in Queens, this is the place where they “cut their eye teeth” when it came to business and politics. Having spent a few years in Albany (now many years ago,) I had a “bird’s eye view” of politicians from across the state. Queens was known then as a scrappy place where people grew up battling, in one form or another, for everything from political ...

Experience necessary for troubled village

I went to the Democratic Primary Debate the other night eager to listen to those candidates who have decided to put themselves forward and serve our village. I know Michelle Twichell quite well and have observed her as a village trustee for the last four years. I was really there for the two new candidates the Democratic Party has endorsed. The whole spectacle was depressing and left me quite empty. It was more than obvious that, although both have the drive, they lack any knowledge of where the village is at this pivotal moment. They had no position on the water issue and ...