Hate begets Hate

I refrained from commenting on the Boston bombing until now to let the dust settle, I guess that was a vain hope for it may never quite settle. The main question that came to my mind and I think many others was why did they do it. The one that survived said that they did it because of what they perceive as western countries war on Islam with the United States as the leader and that Americans hate of Muslims. Maybe it is just me, but I think blowing people up is not a good way to make them like you. They hate us for blowing them up and we hate them for blowing us up. Now this is a crazy idea, but why don’t we stop blowing each other up? Muslims have their idea of how their society should work and Christians have their idea of now their society should work. Now with the flow of information available to everyone, let’s let have an international agreement to let the people decide which ideas they want to live by the most or maybe come up with a new and better idea. I think the United States should withdraw our troops from around the world and step up our helping people and it will take time, but people will evolve into more peaceful societies that can live together. I know this sounds like a pipe dream, but look where we have come in just the last two hundred years, yes there were setbacks, but societies are a lot better now than they ever were in the past.

Baltimore Wedding Day the pre-wedding hours

Baltimore: Wedding day We woke the next day; we went down stairs where the Home2 Hotel had a free breakfast, which was quite good. Then we went to the Hotel Monaco where the women went to make themselves beautiful, whereas the men were already beautiful many of them went with the groom Jimmy White to a rifle range, the father of the bride John Glover and Simon Robert Newey (Bob) didn’t want to go, personally I had enough of rifles when I was in the Army some 50 years ago, so I stayed with John. Bob had disappeared. John and I look around the Hotel Monaco for Bob, not finding him, with checked the Quality Hotel where John and Bob were staying, But no Bob. John and I took a walk around this Baltimore neighborhood with I taken photos with my new I-Pad, we walked for a while me taken a few photo of what thought were interesting buildings. We ended up back at the Quality Hotel that John and Bob were staying, still no Bob we sat in the lobby for a while, I decided this was a waste of time and decided to go back to my Hotel (Home2 by Hilton) I excused myself and left, taken a few more photos with my I-Pad on the way back to my hotel.

After arriving back at my hotel room I decided that maybe I should make sure my I-Pad was fully charge for the wedding that night, like I said it was new, I didn’t realize how long it could go on a charge. I went out for another walk taken photos with my packet cameras, which as it turned out were not as good as the one I took with the I-Pad. I was feeling a bit Hungary I went to a coffee shop across from the Hotel Monaco, for a cappuccino and grilled cheese, positioning myself to see if any on the wedding party arrived at the Hotel Monaco. Seeing nobody at the Hotel Monaco, I went back to my hotel retrieved my I-Pad, then returned to the Hotel Monaco. I returned to the Hotel Monaco, finding John with Bob along with Aaron and his sons Ryan and Justin with Aaron brother Daniel, also my sons Mike and Kenny Sr. Bob said “they combed the area for me” I said that “I just combed the neighborhood” We decided that we had enough time to walk to the waterfront; Bob seemed to lead the way. I of course took more photos along the way, We found the Baltimore waterfront quite nice with a square rigger with a nice little mull. While in the mull the others wanted to find a place to eat lunch, I said that there was an Irish Pub, I had already had lunch, but I decided could have a Guinness Stout, it was a nice Irish Pub.

After lunch we all returned to our hotels, a little later Adele called from the Hotel Monaco asking me to meet her there as doesn’t know if she can find the way back to our hotel. I started walking back to the Hotel Monaco which was about five slippery sidewalk blocks away, but found her walking back and we returned to the Home2 Hotel. We got dressed for the wedding, Adele in a beautiful grown, my sons in their suits and I in my wedding and funeral suit, hoping the next funeral I have to wear it to will be my own. Then all four of us walked back the Hotel Monaco for the wedding. I have to say that Baltimore does a poor job of clearing the snow off the sidewalks, but we were there to enjoy seeing our niece Olivia get married to Jimmy White.

Baltimore Wedding day one

When we received an invite by E-Mail and the internet to the wedding of our niece Olivia Rose Glover, the daughter of my wife’s sister. She wanted to marry a Washington D.C. policeman who wants to be a lawyer named James Arthur White, he prefers just Jimmy White. The wedding was to be on the 26th of January 2013 in the Hotel Monaco, which is in Baltimore Maryland. The story of how Olivia met Jimmy as I heard and as I remember was that he was in a police car that collided with another car at a Washington D.C. intersection, putting Jimmy in serious condition in the hospital where Olivia worked as a physical therapist. Olivia helped Jimmy regain his health, they must have bonded right then and there, but after Jimmy got better they went their separate ways. Olivia as it would happen had to go to a police station for some paper work some months later and they met again, this time falling in love, which is why we ended up going to Baltimore in January. The first thing we did was to book a Hilton Hotel as close to the Hotel Monaco as we could using our Hilton Hhonors Points we booked two rooms, one for ours two sons and one for us, at the Home2 by Hilton for that weekend. Then we got four tickets on a Greyhound bus from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan to the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Baltimore Maryland, we choose the bus because it was cheaper and my wife Adele’s sister was going to take the same bus with her husband John and her friend Wendy. We were to meet them at the Port Authority before the bus left at 12:01PM. The Wedding was on a Saturday, so we traveled on Friday, each of us packed two bags one with our formal clothes and one for our regular clothes, which we pack into the trunk of our car and drove to Ronkonkoma Long Island Railroad station. We wanted to leave from Ronkonkoma so we didn’t have to change trains. Friday morning we left our house at about 8AM with my son Kenneth driving to Ronkonkoma railroad station, where we parked in a parking garage, haling our bag across the street to the railroad station, where we bought our tickets to Penn Station. First the railroad announcement said that our train was on time, but after a while there came another announcement that there was trouble on the tracks as one of the rails broke and they had to cancel all east bound trains. I thought at once if they are canceling east bound trains, they won’t have trains to go west bound either and sure enough a short time later they announced that all trains were canceled between Ronkonkoma and Farmingdale. They then announced that they would have buses available between Ronkonkoma and Farmingdale, but they were not sure when, maybe in a half hour or so. I turned to my son Kenny and said we could drive to Hicksville before the bus could get to Ronkonkoma. So we went back across the street, piling back into the car and drove to Hicksville, where we at first tried parking in a parking garage only to find out that you needed a permit from Oyster Bay town to park there, so as Adele, Mike and I went to the Hicksville railroad station while my youngest son Kenny parked the car across the street in a large parking lot for eight dollars for the weekend. We met back with him at the railroad station where we caught at train that would get us into Penn Station at about 11:30AM giving us about a half hour to catch the bus. We stood on a cold Hicksville railroad station platform waiting the train to come and when it did we were lucky to find seats, but the Long Island Railroad was built for commuters to/from the city not people with luggage, so we crammed into the seats with our luggage. When the train got to Penn Station we quickly went to the 8th Ave exit and walked from 34th street to the Port Authority on about 40th Street, along the way Adele start a conversation with what appeared to be a homeless person much to the condensation of my oldest son Mike. When we got to the Port Authority Bus Terminal we found where we could find our bus, we found we had time to eat some lunch. While we were eating in came Adele’s sister Dorothy with her husband John and her friend Wendy. Bob Newey our friend from the city was holding our place at the gate for the bus, also going on the bus with us was Bob Newey, Dorothy Glover, John Glover, Wendy (don’t know her last name), Adele Boyle, Mike Boyle, Kenny Boyle and myself, eight of us going to the wedding. The bus ride was ok accept that it took a little longer because of a snow storm that slowed traffic into Baltimore. When we arrived at the Baltimore Greyhound bus terminal, it was still snowing, with no taxies to be seen anywhere. When a taxi did come it was delivering people to the bus terminal, but not picking anyone up. Finally a cab came, Bob, Dorothy, Wendy and John got in, then a short time later another cab came, Adele, Mike, Kenny and I got in. We told the driver what Hotel we wanted to go to, he said it would be $30, which I figured was way too much, but cabs seem to be rare. He drove around Baltimore for a while then finally we got the Home2 Hotel. They gave us two rooms across from one another, nice rooms with a kitchen sink, full refrigerator and Microwave and a nice view of the city out the window. We asked the clerks where the Monaco Hotel was, but they said they never heard of it, I may have mispronounced it, I don’t know, I am forever getting Morocco mixed up with Monaco. There was a reception at the Hotel Monaco at 7PM so we refreshed in our rooms and started out walking down the street for we did find someone who knew what direction to walk, asking a few more people along the way we got to the Hotel Monaco where we were told that the reception was on the second floor, the elevators need a room key to operate so we took a beautiful marble stairs to the reception area where we met the White family. We met Jimmy’s Parents Bradley and Harriet White as well as his other relatives, who we talked to while feeding our faces, Adele had some seizure water to drink, my sons beer and I had a couple of classes of wine. After a while we walked back to our hotel on ice covered sidewalks, I know in New York City they have an ordinance about property owners clearing the snow from the sidewalks, but I guess Baltimore had no such ordinance for the sidewalks remained bad all weekend. I remember the buildings around the street where we had to turn for our hotel and we got there safely.

The Hotel Monaco in Baltimore Maryland

First floor hallway of the Hotel Monaco

The Gun-Control issue

The Arguments against having laws to control violence due to rifles or pistols seems to be 1-Safety, 2-that you can kill someone with a hammer, 3-Target practice, 4-equalizing power, and 5-hunting. Some of these are good arguments while others are delusions with a lot of data available that shows that fact. Now I am not a hunter and don’t own a firearm and only fired them when I was in the US Army. Let’s look at those arguments one by one 1. Safety- this is a delusion as data shows that having a pistol in a home make it 12 times more lightly that they or one of their family will die by gun fire. There are twenty thousand suicides in the United States in an average year and having a pistol available makes that more lightly to happen. There are other way to protect yourself like with pepper spray or a stun-gun (if the law allows) 2. That you can kill someone with a hammer (or any blunt object), knifes etc.- Fire arms can kill at a distance where as hammers and knifes you need a close up attack, giving your victim a better chance of living and you can attack only one at a time. 3. Target practice- this is a good argument, but do you need an automatic which seems just so you don’t have to reload. 4. Equalizing power- these is a more honest argument, the argument against see 1-Safety plus improve our neighborhoods with better drug laws and better schools with access to higher education to all our citizens. 5. Hunting- another good argument for rifles anyway. Do you really need a automatic rifles for hunting deer? Hunting is suppose to be a sport not a massacre, why not give the deer a chance by using a single action bolt rifle or a bow and arrow. Well, at least these are what I think of the arguments that I see on Facebook and Huffington Post. There are a lot of other arguments about video games, movies and the mentally ill all of which are even harder things to control. American culture will have to be changed which will take a lot of time.

The President's Family under attack

Attacking the President’s Family

The NRA’s attack of Obama’s daughters wasn’t the first time the president family was attack, in one of the more famous one Franklyn D Roosevelt defended his dog a Scotch Terror named Fala. “The Republican leaders have not been content with attacks upon me, on my wife, or on my sons-no, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Unlike the members of my family, he resents this. Being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers had concocted a story that I had left him behind on an Aleutian island and had sent a destroyer back to find him- at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three or eight or 20 million dollars-his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since.” Frankly D. Roosevelt in a speech to the Teamsters Union on September 23, 1944 Some things never change like the Republicans and the NRA

My 2012 Genogical work

January seem like a good time to write about how my genealogical research went in 2012, well I did make some progress on my wife’s side on the tree, Eiermann, Stark and not much on my side. I did get my parents Marriage certificate from the New York City Archives, getting the information necessary from the New York City Library on 5th Avenue, along with a list of information that would be necessary for more certificates from the New York City Archives about my wife’s Aunt and Uncles. I used information that people such as Eileen Stark put on Facebook to get both photos and information about Eileen’s family, the Stark family is connection to the Eiermann line through one of my wife’s Great-Aunts who married a Duffy, who married a Karasz, who married then divorced Eileen Stark, so the relationship is through Eileen’s four children who are cousins to my wife. Well with all that as clear as mud I used the photos and companying information to research the Stark family back to Hungary, they ended up to be a very interesting addition to the tree with her Grandfather owning a restaurant in downtown Manhattan with a lot of newspaper articles about it during prohibition. I did get the permission of Eileen to use her data. Family Search the Web Site of the Church of Latter Day Saints helped a great deal on my breaking through on the Eiermann front, where I am now all the way back to the 15th century. My son Michael helped by getting a microfilm from the LDS in Salt Lake City to the Patchogue Library, We viewed the microfilm at the Patchogue Library, even with the fact it was hand written in German on the pages an old book we could make out the names and dates. Now we could the same information from the transcription of the microfilm on the LDS web site, but by put to images of the original church record on a flash drive then onto my computer the information became first hand, direct instead of second hand indirect information, confirming the information you already have is very important in that it make your family tree more accurate. I am still working on the Eiermann branch of the tree, now putting it on my Roots software. I have three different genealogical programs on my computer, the one I am now working on is RootsMagic 6, I like it for it has good templates for source information, but I am afraid it is too completed for people not familiar with genealogy. I also have Family Tree Maker 2012 which is easier to understand and can be synced up with Ancestry.com, but I have trouble syncing it up and then I have MyHeritage Family Tree Builder Which is cheaper, good for connecting with other peoples trees, but poor on sources templates.

I built it, No we built it

The Republicans have shown their disdain for your Labor, if anyone needed reminded in their slogan “I built it” which they take from a deliberate misquote of a Obama speech. What Obama meant was that businesses are not just built with some businessman’s money, but also with the help of Workingclass laborers, who build his factories, work in his factories, drive the trucks that bring his product to market, build the roads those trucks ride on, the bridges the go over, build the electrical grid his factories run on, and so on you get the idea. When they say the “Government didn’t built it” , but as the first Republican said “That the government of the people, for the people and by the people” in other words you the people are the people who put up the money in your taxes, and your labor as workers to help built any business big or small in this nation. When they say Government they mean the working-people, but use a word they taught people to hate. The only reason that humans are still here is they labored together and together we built the pyramids to landing Curiosity on Mars. Together we can do anything as individuals we perish.