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Nin Privitera, former Fredonia resident, offers some offbeat takes on recent headlines: --- Oh boy, our trade war with Canada may become more heated than it already is. According to the relentless digging for the truth, my super duper investigative team has found another executive order of President Trump that may soon be signed into law. Here are the highlights of what will be called executive order operation, GET OFF OUR LAKE, YOU, LOSERS. --- Starting today, upon the signing of this executive order 12345, I, Donald Trump, the greatest President in American history, legally declare ...

Quippies

Nin Privitera, former Fredonia resident, offers some offbeat takes on recent headlines: — People in New York City have witnessed strange men of unknown origin coming up out of the sewers. Rumors are that they could be part of Mayor Mamdani’s new program of rent control. — Donald Trump is hinting at renaming the state of New Mexico from that to New America. You know what this renaming scheme is eventually leading to, don’t you? “In the beginning God created the heavens and The Trump.” — Even though Prince Harry is moving back to England, it has been announced he will ...

Failure is often the only result with socialism

Apologists for socialism commonly claim its historical failures were because “they” did it wrong. To the contrary – we think “they” did it perfectly. However, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and today’s socialists seem determined to repeat history. Conversely, we who learned from history are not particularly eager to live under socialism’s totalitarian yoke. We do not want our children standing in bread lines for the sake of “equality”. We reject socialism’s innate lust for power over us. Nor will we surrender our minds to ...

Flock comments don’t match current picture

In response to the District Attorney’s statement and press release to the OBSERVER (Aug. 31, Sept. 2 and Sept. 5, 2026), it is immediately apparent that the facts behind the Flock camera program don’t back up what the DA says. Here are four problems: — Crime is not going up. The DA says crime “has increased substantially.” State data checked by the OBSERVER shows Fredonia police reported 293 crimes in 2003 and 163 in 2024 — a drop of almost half. SUNY Fredonia, with its own police force, reports very low crime. The whole reason for the program rests on a trend that isn’t ...

Sept. 11 Events Are Firmly In Memories

CHAUTAUQUA—If you’re more than, say, 35 years old, you’ll recall where you were when you heard the first news bulletins of 25 years ago today. Maybe you were in school or college. Maybe you were at work. Maybe you were running errands. Maybe you were with relatives or ...

Finding a proper perspective in 9/11, aftermath

How can it be 25 years? We keep asking that about 9/11 and it proves one of my favorite sayings, “Time’s a noodle.” I remember the 25-year anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, in 1988. I was 10. It was one of the first times I noticed “wall-to-wall” media coverage about something. But 1963 seemed completely mysterious to me, like another world. It was 15 years before I was born. It makes me wonder, “What do we tell the children today about 9/11?” Here are some thoughts: — It was a very bad day for anyone with a shred of human decency. And yet, ...