Wednesday, July 8, 2009

News Gets Personal

As usual reading or listening to the news gets my blood boiling. I can never figure out how so many people get away with so much crap without anyone doing anything to stop them. But since there is always two sides to every argument or debate I am certain to piss some people off by stating my side of the issues. That is what a blog is for and that is why I write this one. If my friendly opponents wish to air differing views they may pen their own. I will even help them get started.

Today's bit of WTF news is on the front page of Newsday. In fact there are three items on that cover and I would like to say something about each.

First there is a teaser about the Pope and business ethics. The article which details the call from the Pope to business leaders asks for people to be placed ahead of profits. This is an admirable thought and one that I share. However in a slightly kettle-pot moment the Pope fails to note that he is the leader of arguably the richest organized religion in the world. The Church has an obscene amount of cash and property that is not taxed and it can do with it as it pleases without any seeming accountability. Perhaps Bernie Madoff chose the wrong scam to make his billions.

If the Pope would agree to sell off some of his rings and pare down the pomp and ceremony of his showy extravaganzas he might have a few billion dollars to funnel back into society. Using the same logic as he is transferring to the business community, which is undoubtedly only interested in themselves he should direct some of the Church's profits back to the people. If he were to order just half of what the fair taxes would be on Church property we could get our debt down to a manageable amount. And then his words would carry far more weight!

The second article on the cover of Newsday is a farewell to another business on the Island. OSI Pharmaceuticals is preparing to jump ship for greener pastures upstate. This Suffolk mainstay of 26 years has tried to make a go of it in Melville as it churns out anti-cancer drugs and works on other cures for disease. They had wished to expand so as to make it possible to find more cures for our diseases and have them come from Long Island.

But luckily we have caring elected officials such as Republican State Senator Charles Fuschillo who has repeatedly blocked attempts by OSI to expand here in New York. His claim that OSI would be leasing and building on state property without any public bidding has finally put an end to the pipedream of a pipeline of Long Island drugs. So the Merrick Republican can claim a victory over big business and Long Island can kiss 200 jobs and taxes from OSI goodbye. You may read the entire article which will show the scope of this loss due to one absolutely moronic a-hole in the paper or right here.

Another tiny article of note is hidden on page 8 of the paper today. A fan who was ejected from the old fan friendly Yankee Stadium won a lawsuit against the team and the city to the relatively small tune of $35,000. His crime was a heinous one and obviously premeditated but the courts decided to award him the verdict nevertheless. I will report, you decide.

Bradford Campeau-Laurion is a Red Sox fan and he was at the game in the Bronx on August 26th last year. Presumably after paying the exorbitant amount of money for the shitty beer they serve he felt the need to relieve himself. Being a law-abiding citizen of America he decided upon the men's restroom as his recepticle of choice. But he tried to do this during the seventh inning playing of the song "God Bless America." The police tried to stop him but he complained and when he refused to zip it they forcibly arrested him and tossed him out of the stadium. The officer even went as far as to suggest that since he did not wish to stand erect during the song he should leave the country.

Finally, although there were many more stories of note today as always I would like to say thank you to Newsday for their thoughfulness on the coverage of the never-ending saga of the Michael Jackson death. As the SNL skit once declared Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead - And so is Michael Jackson.

So after non-stop coverage on CNN and various other television news stations who seem to have lost sight of the real world Newsday chose to place a 16 page pullout section on the event. This allowed me to immediately remove it from the paper and place it untouched and unread into the recycleable bin without damaging the real newspaper. Bravo Newsday.

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