2016 Feb 9^th

Today, in addition to the New Hampshire vote, we must deal with a very curious letter to the editor in the morning paper, and a column by Patrick J. Buchanan. I shall take these one at a time: The letter in the morning paper, by one Salvatore Castronovo, claims that Governor Snyder is not at fault for Flint’s water crisis. Castronovo claims that the Governor “provided financial aid to solve the problem” once the “carcinogens appeared.” There are several curiosities with this letter: The most obvious one is that Castronovo concludes that “the governor was not responsible for Flint’s water problems.” Governor Snyder has admitted that the state dragged its feet in response to this crisis and he apologized for that. Citizens of Flint who complained were famously told to “relax.” So Governor Snyder has accepted responsibility for something that Castronovo tells us he did not do? I doubt that.

Then Castronovo talks about “carcinogens in the water” but the problem was not carcinogens, although there were surely a generous supply of those too: the problem was lead leached from aging pipes by the heavily treated water. Lead will arrest the development of a child’s brain and nervous system leading to substantial mental retardation. Lead is not excreted form the body so continued intake produces continued build up and more nervous system damage. This is disastrous for children, less so for adults. That’s OK, just “relax.”

Finally, Castronovo uses the word “Democratic” no less than five times in this 200 word letter. This word is, quite simply, not conservatively correct. The conservatively correct word is Democrat as in Democrat Party, never, ever Democratic Party, or Democratic anything! Be true to your principles Mr. Castronovo!

Now on to Patrick J. Buchanan, the aging xenophobe and self-described paleo-conservative: Buchanan claims that “Populism, patriotism, nationalism, defying political correctness and dissing the establishment and the elites that monitor PC is where it’s at.” It is surely true that for some of the population, particularly Trump supporters, and some others as well, that “that’s where it’s at.” But just how many is that? If trump gets 35 percent of the conservatives and if conservatives make up 49 percent of the population that means trump’s supporters are a whopping 18 percent of the population. I don’t believe that we should all head for Canada on that basis. Then Buchanan reveals once more his tenuous grasp of the way government works for he writes, “Obama doubled the debt, and the deficits are rising again.” Sorry Pat, there is no way President Obama can add to the debt unless Congress agrees and Congress the last I looked is dominated by conservatives. You’ve been involved in government long enough to know that. I believe you’ve embarrassed yourself!