Post-Gazette 5-6-11.Pmd
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VOL. 115 - NO. 18 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, MAY 6, 2011 $.30 A COPY oth Public Officials Honor Local Victims of 9/11 ppy M er’s D Ha ay “Why can one Mother take care of ten Children, but ten Children cannot take care of one Mother?” On Monday May 2, 2011 Mayor Menino joined the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund to honor the local victims of the News Briefs 9/11 tragedy at the Garden of Remembrance, a memo- by Sal Giarratani rial in the Boston Public Garden that is dedicated to U.S. Warned on Debt Load the victims of September 11, 2001. The Mayor, Governor The above was the headline in the Wall Street Deval Patrick and other offi- Journal on Tuesday, April 19. The blunt warning cials and Fund board mem- handed down the previous day from the Standard bers observed a moment of & Poor’s credit-rating firm about the U.S. silence and placed 206 white government’s mounting debt, which pushed stock roses on the memorial, one market prices down and the political heat up. S&P for each name remembered didn’t lower the AAA high bond rating for U.S. on the memorial. The event Treasury securities, but changed its outlook on followed the news of the these securities from “stable” to “negative.” This death of Osama bin Laden. (Photos by Rosario Scabin, Ross Photography) news is not very positive, is it? According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, “A downgrade would push up interest rates on Treasuries, which are a benchmark for other Swans Return to Boston Public Gardens consumer and business borrowing rates, raising the cost of credit throughout the economy.” The U.S. debt now stand at $14.219 trillion just shy of the $14.294 trillion cap and is expected to balloon, In part, due to rising costs of health care, retirement, other entitlement programs and the interest on existing debt. If no action is taken on raising the debt ceiling the government could default on its debt by July 8. Says Bill Gross, founder of Pacific Investment Management Company, the S&P action “is a warning shot at least to investors that should be loud and clear in Washington.” City Square Meets Tipping Point The other day while driving into Charlestown, I passed by the City Square Shell station and noticed the price of gas. Eighty-seven octane was going for $3.99 point 9. The highest I’ve seen to date this time around. The gas station was empty. What a surprise. It seemed like only weeks ago, I purchased some gas at King Express at the Dedham-West Roxbury line for only $2.97 per gallon. Right now prices are all over the place from $3.71 to that incredible $3.99. The last time this was happen- ing, the highest the price got was $4.11 back in July 2008. The swans (Romeo & Juliette) have returned to the Boston Public Garden Lagoon on (Continued on Page 10) Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Mayor Menino along with City Councilor Michael Ross and the public paraded the swans back to their home for the summer. (Photo by Rosario Scabin, Ross Photography) THE POST-GAZETTE SATELLITE OFFICE IS NOW OPEN AT 35 BENNINGTON STREET, EAST BOSTON This office is open on Tuesdays from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM and Thursdays from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PMPM, for the convenience of our East Boston and North Shore clients and contributors Call 617-227-8929 for more information Page 2 POST-GAZETTE, MAY 6, 2011 Res Publica by David Trumbull SEALs Seal the Deal “I believe that forgiving them is God’s function. Our job is to arrange the meeting” CLAUDIUS’ OLD ROMAN MUSIC — General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., 2007 Not unlike his predeces- sentenced to death more host. Even the most learned And in the early hours of May 2nd a Navy SEAL (SEa, Air sors, and common to a char- than 35 senators and 300 felt that the greatest wisdom and Land) Team settled the meeting arrangements, at least acteristic that goes hand-in- Roman knights with easy in- was to follow these dictates for Osama bin Laden. The Almighty was not available for hand with imperial power difference. of nature. Claudius sup- comment, but a Vatican spokesman said that bin Laden was his brutal attitude to- Claudius was also notori- ported this philosophy to the will have to answer to God — now that’s an understatement! ward persons of lower rank. ous for his timidity and sus- extent that he came very It took nearly ten years to get him, but we got him! I’ve In time Claudius developed picion. He never attended a close to enacting a law per- never doubted that we’ll win the war on terrorism. As I wrote a very cruel and bloodthirsty banquet without his guard mitting any emission of wind in this space in 2004 in my column Ten Thousand Reasons disposition. Criminal wit- and personal servants. The in public places. Doctors Why We’ll Beat bin Laden, the West will always triumph nesses were always exam- entourage included at least suggested to their patients because only the West has a self-sustaining culture. Hatred ined by torture and during one official taster. He never that they take full advantage of the West may motivate men to fly airplanes into build- gladiatorial shows he gave visited a sick friend without of the attitudes and liberties ings, but it will never sustain itself. They hate us because orders that even those who first having the room in- favored by this well-mean- we have freedom. They hate Israel because Israel is an accidentally fell should be spected for hidden weapons, ing but effervescent em- outpost of Western freedom. slain. He liked to watch the and even the sick person’s peror and just throw caution The history of the West reads like a novel. It has a plot; faces of persons who were bedding was searched. Those to the winds. As I sit here it has development. The history of most non-western being tortured or were dying. who visited his palace for a before my trusty Underwood civilizations is like reading the telephone directory. In a During the noon lunch morning call were subjected upright I can’t help but won- battle between a dynamic western civilization and a stag- break in the Colosseum, he to the strictest search, and der what the “sound of old nant civilization, we win. would often remain in his even women were grossly Roman music” must have In 401 B.C. an expeditionary force of ten thousand Greeks seat, and if any of the ser- mishandled. been like with 500 or 600 marched into the heart of Persia, then the greatest empire vice crew did not adequately The dinner parties of banqueting and contributing the world had known. There, in what is now Iraq, the ten perform their duties that Claudius were frequent and guests. thousand defeated a vastly larger Persia force. Xenophon, morning he would hastily very luxurious. He often en- Claudius had an almost in- an Athenian, was one of the ten thousand. In his first- match them up for combat in tertained 500 or 600 persons satiable appetite for food and hand account, the Anabasis, you see the vast servile Persian the arena. He even forced at one meal. Because of the drink. He never left the din- host. You’ll also meet the Greeks, a band of brothers, one of his pages to enter enormous amount of food that ing room until he was fully obedient and disciplined, but also each a free man think- the arena for combat while was consumed, and which of stuffed and half “crocked.” He ing for himself. wearing a toga. course was done in the re- went to sleep immediately After the battle, when the Greeks and Persians meet, He put his father-in- clining position, there was after dinner, lying on his under the assurances of truce, to discuss terms for an law and two granddaughters more than just a casual con- back and with his mouth armistice, the Persians break their word and murder the to death on unsupported cern for the inevitable flatu- open. It was standard operat- Greek commanders. The ten thousand are now stranded, charges, and gave them no lence (stomach gas). With ing procedure for his atten- a thousand miles from home, surrounded by the enemy, opportunity for defense. He most eastern cultures as dant to bring in a feather and with no one to lead them. Or so the Persians think. But did likewise to his son-in- well as with the Romans, the a bucket to prove that “relief the ten thousand are not Persians, they are Greeks– law Pompeius and also the good old after dinner belch is just a tickle away.” Westerners. They simply hold a New England-style town fiancé of his youngest daugh- was considered a politeness NEXT ISSUE: meeting and elect new leaders. The Persians are dumb- ter. He is reported to have and a compliment to the Claudius, A Summation founded. They cannot grasp the idea of free men electing leaders. And as for the Greeks? Well, they never really wanted NE Friends of St. Francis to conquer Persia anyway. They marched to Babylon just to put on the Persian throne someone who would be less a Deliver $18k to Homeless Shelter pain-in-the-neck to the Greeks. Having taught the Persians a lesson about Western power to effect a regime change, On Wednesday April 27, only made and sold 280 of from the Nazzaro Center and they simply, and quietly, marched back home.