My Two Cents On A Number Of Issues.

Plug Power, based in Latham, made all of its employees go see the Al Gore film last week. Employees went on company time. I don’t know how much this cost Plug Power, but it seems odd that a company that has yet to turn a profit, has money to send all of its employees to see this film. Apparently the head cheese there is an environmentalist. I have no opinion on global warming as I have not studied the pros and cons of it, but I would be perturbed if an employer required me to go see any movie.

Glenn Goord, Commissioner of New York State Correctional Services, has announced his upcoming retirement. This relieves Eliot Spitzer of having to remove him when he gets elected. It also means I have less to write about.

But I can still write about Patricia DeAngelis, Rensselaer County D.A. Apparently DeAngelis wrote a letter to the Troy Record and stated her willingness to meet with people in the Melrose community to discuss a level 3 sex offender who had moved into the area. She made some silly comments about the possibility of this person becoming a volunteer fireman or EMT and if he or she did, then a parent with a sick child would not be able to call the fire department for help. The Melrose fire chief did not take to kindly to the letter by DeAngelis. Read his response below.




Since I wrote my post on gay marriage, I have had to change my policy on commenting. Up until I wrote that post, most comments have avoided ad hominem arguments. Issues like abortion, capital punishment, the war in Iraq, gay rights and so on bring out the worst in some people.

I will be rejecting all comments that attack me personally or other people making comments. If you deal with the arguments, rather than make ad hominem attacks, I will publish your comments. For example, I published a response by Joe to my gay marriage post because it only dealt with the issues. (I will be responding to this comment when I get a chance.) But Joe wrote a second comment which I rejected. In his second comment Joe accused me of following everything I read. Joe doesn’t know me from Adam’s off ox, much less know what I read. Don’t make comments about what I read, know, think etc. if you don’t know me.

I have also begun rejecting comments that contain factual errors. One woman responded to my article on Child Protective Services and made several factual errors. For example, she said that Child Protective Services caseworkers do not have civil immunity. New York State law makes it very clear that they do. I researched Family Court law and checked with an attorney before I made the statement that Child Protective Service caseworkers have civil immunity.

By the way, if I make any factual errors, I would appreciate it if you would bring them to my attention so I can correct them.

Hopefully, the above changes will improve the level of discourse on this blog.