Friday, August 22, 2008

Occasional Irregularity

Please forgive me for posting only with occasional irregularity. It has been a month heavily occupied with vacation obligations, ill family-member visits, and general chores piling up hither and yon. But now, I am back, baby.

I mean with the Denver Democratic Convention just around yonder corner, where else could I be.So, I begin committed anew to trying to get a head start with posting each and every day as much as possible once again.

I hearken back to a former feature that I used to feature each and every Friday ---brought to my attention by Cindy of High Bridge and Frank of New Brunswick, two chimeric but regular readers---the Putz and the Mensch of the Week. So, let’s bring that back today.

First some explanation, for those unfamiliar with the terms. Putz in Yiddish means literally, “a diminutive form of penis” or a prick. But, then again, most of the Yiddish words I learned as a child seemed to mean ‘penis’. Used here, as we do in English to describe a nasty, unlikable man. A putz generally means ‘fool’, ‘idiot’, a nasty person, a nasty, unlikable a stupid person. Y’know, a putz.

Now, mensch, has a much better meaning: Mensch: Usually referring to a decent human being, a good, honest person who always takes the high road. Being called a mensch is the ultimate compliment.

So, here we go.

The Putz of the Week is the Assemblyman Mike Doherty, who this week called on Governor Corzine to “HOLD OFF ON DAMAGING NEW REGULATIONS AS CLIMATE CHANGE THEORIES CLASH.” Doherty claimed that “NEW SCIENTIFIC DATA JUSTIFIES REPEALING GLOBAL WARMING RESPONSE ACT.” Turns out what should be repealed is the vote putting Doherty in to office. The truth is that Doherty cited “a weather man -- one with no expertise on climate science -- as his second example of dissent with the ‘universal scientific consensus’ on global warming. So, for his never ending march to claim that the earth is flat, too----we name Doherty the Putz of the Week.

The Mensch of the Week is an easy one:

Congressman Chris Smith. Smith this week did something that heroes do: Smith traveled to Georgia to meet with officials and remained there to help facilitate the safety of two girls, Ashley and Sophia Evans, who live in Howell Township. After the Russian Army invaded, they were stuck in the war torn nation, and now they’re safe with their family. Smith had been criticized in the past for too many trips abroad. But not this time. Kudos aplenty to Congressman Smith.

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