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Quotable Douglass

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.

— FREDERICK DOUGLASS (WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION SPEECH, 1857)

About that endorsement

The Gossips of Rivertown reports that faux-Democrat Rick Scalera—who has previously been a member of virtually every other major party—has endorsed Republican mayoral candidate Bill Hallenbeck in the 2011 cycle. This news should come as a surprise only to Hudson political neophytes, and to those with a deep-seated Panglossian need to believe in the redeemability of scoundrels.

Scalera has endorsed mayoral candidates before, with weak results. In both 1999 and 2005, Scalera attempted to anoint a successor. The recipient of his 1999endorsement, Cappy Pierro, lost. His 2005 choice, Dan Grandinetti, also lost. (In both years, I was “accused” of being their opponents’ “campaign manager.”)

Scalera had decided not to run for Mayor in each of those two cycles. Controversy dogged him, and he probably calculated he would lose a Citywide race. So in ’99 Scalera tried instead for 5th Ward Supervisor, losing badly to Kathy Nabozny, by a whopping 507-310 on the machine.

Then in 2005, Scalera again lost a non-Citywide race, this time in a primary for 5th Ward committeemen to none other than Peter Jung.

Yet now Scalera is being allowed by all parties to run unopposed for Supervisor in the 5th Ward. People with little historical memory have wrongly assumed he was unbeatable there. Per above, both times he ran for office in his home ward, the 5th, Scalera lost.

(The 5th Ward has changed more dramatically than any of Hudson’s wards. The total number of voters has dipped about 3% since 1999, but the big change there is in party affiliation. Democratic registration has jumped +60%, from 321 voters to 515 voters, while Republicans enrollment has dipped -24%, down to 263 from 344.)

Some City and County Democratic insiders have been twisting themselves into political pretzels to convince themselves that Rick Scalera, once he sails into a Supervisor seat unopposed, should become the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. Their thinking is that any Democrat is better than a Republican—even if that Democrat is a former Conservative who's well to the right of Mitt Romney. In these mental gymnastic exercises paper-thin party affiliation trumps actual ideology or policy.

But now that Scalera has endorsed a Republican for mayor, over the Dem nominee, how long can the Yellow Dog Dems maintain that illusion? Meanwhile, Hallenbeck’s opponent, Nick Haddad, has been endorsed by prominent City Democrats such as City Treasurer Eileen Halloran and 4th Ward Supervisor William Hughes. Whether such endorsements cancel each other out, or if voters pay much attention to those endorsements, will of course be seen in November.

Artswalk highlights

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Click on the thumbnails to see work by Stef-Albert Bothma, Lee Musselman, Kenny Smith, Laetitia Hussain, Iris Eicheberg, David Dew Bruner, Kris Perry and Ieva Medodia... Click again on each larger image to see it at twice the size.

Sound the retreat

CNN/Travel & Leisure tout Columbia County as one of their top five weekend getaway destination (calling our area a "culinary retreat")... To be honest, I can't agree with their recommendation of The Old Chatham Country Store—where I’ve had some singularly bland fare, plus exceptionally lousy service. But the rest of their choices are worthy, and any boost to the local economy is welcome.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/06/travel/road-trip-tl/

Bakery, Castleton, 1914

The Goergen family’s Schneid Bakery, via the “always interesting” Shorpy.

Quotable Mencken

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

— Henry louis (H.L.) Mencken 

Quotable Dash

So, who is this man? He’s the anchor baby of an activist Arab muslim who came to the U.S. on a student visa and had a child out of wedlock. He’s a non-Christian, arugula-eating, drug-using follower of unabashedly old-fashioned liberal teachings from the hippies and folk music stars of the 60s. And he believes in science, in things that science can demonstrate like climate change and Pi having a value more specific than “3”, and in extending responsible benefits to his employees while encouraging his company to lead by being environmentally responsible.

Every single person who’d attack Steve Jobs on any of these grounds is, demonstrably, worse at business than Jobs. They're unqualified to assert that liberal values are bad for business, when the demonstrable, factual, obvious evidence contradicts those assertions.

It’s a choice whether you, or anyone else, wants to accept the falsehood that liberal values are somehow in contradiction with business success at a global scale. Indeed, it would seem that many who claim to be pro-business are trying to “save” us from exactly the inclusive, creative, tolerant values that have made America's most successful company possible. I side with the makers, the creators, and the inventors, and it's about time that the pack of clamoring would-be politicians be put on the defensive for attacking the values of those of us on this side.

— Anil DaSh on Steve Jobs

Blood for oil

Ceramic mural in the 7th Street park, Hudson (NY)    

Burnett & Butt-head

Yeah, I’m a Yankee hater... So what’s not to hate? Even MFY fans hate on A.J. Burnett. (Doubt the resemblance? Click here.)

 

Diner reopens, with a hyperlocal angle

Shuttered since 2009, a Hudson institution reopened tonight as Grazin’—featuring ingredients almost entirely sourced from the most forward-looking growers within shooting distance of their Park location. (For example: Hamburger buns and cheese from Hawthorne Valley in Harlemville; ice cream and yogurt from the Hesse’s Milk Thistle Farm in Ghent, beer from Crossroads Brewery in Athens, produce and nuts from The Berry Farm and Tiera in Chatham, and of course meat from their own Grazin' Angus Acres.)

With burger plates that provide a solid day’s worth of nutrition starting at $9.95, it appears that the new proprietors are on their way to achieving their vision of delivering hyperlocal, healthy, farm-to-table meals at a reasonable price.

ABOVE: Nicole Vidor, Rainer Judd & friend dig in; an already-full counter scene; and co-owner/farmer Dan Gibson with manager/firefighter “Chip” Chiappinelli.

Saturday Art: H.C. Westermann

From Westermann’s See America First series (1968).