As the task of scrubbing Senator Tom Libous’s name and image from the public square progresses in hushed haste, the right-center field wall at the NYSEG baseball stadium spells out his name over the clichéd expression, “actions speak louder,” the sad irony of a campaign slogan turned into an epitaph.

And so the mad scramble begins to save the seat of power, held firmly and in seeming perpetuity by Binghamton’s finest sons; only three men since 1943, Floyd Anderson, then his son, Warren Anderson and finally Tom Libous, title and power handed down in a ceremonious fashion not unlike the accolade of knighthood or succession of rank in a royal family, a long ago paid wretched dowry that assured upstate got its share of the pork fest that is business as usual in New York.

So now the line forms to join the former royal trio, now becoming the quartet of characters, a select and dubious club pushing 72 years of continuous membership, preserving and protecting that which is our apparent birthright; the unbreakable grasp on Albany and her purse so to continue our meager allowance up here in the hinterlands.

Astroturfing every high school track, building swimming pools, field houses, ice rinks, this was not done with chump change fellow voters, no that was done with influence, chicanery, deceit and most importantly, others peoples money, your money and mine.  Who will be anointed to assure us that projects will be built tomorrow that we can’t afford?

Predictably, the line of 30 or so wannabe candidates formed quickly on the Republican side, apparently all for show as the Broome County Republican party chairman trumped his hand mistakenly by expressing publicly his intent to painstakingly review candidates while simultaneously plucking the under-sheriff out from his law enforcement duties, trading his police uniform in exchange for a shiny new suit and red power tie, the uniform for Albany.

Is replace a convicted felon with a high ranking police official a strategy Republican leadership thinks will quell the under current of queasiness voters are feeling for a system so resplendent with felons and others under indictment?  Does a history of some 40 state level elected officials succumbing to criminal acts, arrest, incarceration, probation and shame somehow hope to go unnoticed?  Should a career lawman mingle with such miscreants?

Apathy combined with ignorance may once again win the day.  Human beings are inherently flawed.  Our systems of governance were originally designed to check and balance one against the other, in light of those human frailties.  James Madison tells us in Federalist 51, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Whether King Andrews endorsed Democrat wins or Republicans prevail, it really matters little when the system itself has become such a corrupting force, redesigned and in part disassembled to serve the wants and desires of flawed men, far from angels.

What was once the Empire State is now but a failing and corrupt empire, devoid of angels and ruled by tyrants.

Conflicting opinions about same-sex marriage need not be contentious given the differences between civil and religious ceremonies.  Civil unions take their authority from the State whereas religious ceremonies take their authority from God.

The religious form of marriage is also the original version, as outlined in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.  Religiously married couples are graced as such under ordination from God.  Civil marriages are something quite less; simply vesting rights from a secular state authority under a man-made law.

While true that certain religious sects are performing religious ceremonies for same-sex couples, this requires a tortured view of scripture, even a disregard for the word of God as he clearly instructs against homosexual behaviors.  To conclude otherwise requires either ignorance, obstinance or outright rejection of widely known biblical teachings.

The simplistic beauty of this “argument” is that God himself settles the matter by disallowing procreation by same sex couples.  Only a man and a woman can form a union that results in birth and therein lies the answer to the question of what constitutes a marriage in the eyes of the Lord.

As for non-believers, I guess for them anything goes and without rules, guideposts and firmly held beliefs, they’re free to make up their own definitions.

The act of a premeditated, cold-blooded mass murder, administered at the hand of a mad-man is somehow rendered as addressed and repaired by exiling a 150 year old flag into the ever expanding world of the never-can-be-talked-about-or-mentioned-ever-again archives of the liberal secret police; mind control division.  Such is the emotionally driven thought process of the modern American liberal.

Where was this supposed outrage for this flag the day before the shooting?  Had this sociopath been wearing an NPR tee shirt and a rainbow hat, would these same knee-jerk jerks be picketing their local public television stations or bad-mouthing homosexuals?  As usual, the liberal response is always that, a response, a reaction, never a thoughtful action-plan, but always a re-action, with the snide sureness that comes with the clarity of smug second-guessing, recollections only after something has happened; seldom a plan for what might be good policy before hand, but a condescending condemnation of what has already taken place.

Symbolism driven by emotion is the one-two punch of liberalism.  Never a thoughtful, reasoned response motivated by insight, observation and experience, quite the contrary, the liberal mind has a “vision” of the world in their minds eye and then molds their emotions around the outcome that they hope for, not the reality of what actually is.  In the liberal world, intentions are as valuable as results, even those unrealized.  “It’s the thought that counts.” is the mantra of the liberal, never requiring accountability but simply admiring and celebrating the effort, even in its failed form because in failure rests their imagined importance in continuing their failed policies in search of solutions that never come.

The key reason that liberals and conservatives can never find common ground is because the conservative is actually standing on that ground while the liberal is hovering above it all, in a rose-colored fog of good intentions that are never to be impeded by cruel reality.  Symbols over substance, intentions over outcomes, once formed as solid opinion, whether it be on the basis of reason and logic or feelings and hoped-for-outcomes, never the two shall meet when the basis for such conclusions is so incompatible with a method in which to merge them.

Positions and viewpoints formed on the basis of reason, logic and experience can never be used to counter a contrarian viewpoint that has been fashioned in the emotional, anecdotal, gut-feeling realm.  Expecting logic to unravel emotion is like churning milk and expecting coffee.

The emotional component of any position is in direct conflict with reason.

In most cases, liberal positions are rooted in the emotional while conservatives find their comfort in the reasoned and experiential.  Public policy, regulations, laws and decisions affecting us all should be formulated in logical and thoughtful fashion.  Emotion is fine for affairs of the heart and family matters, but it is misplaced in determining public policy.  If the liberals point of view cannot stand up to the examination that a logical, thoughtful and reasoned review provides, then the notion cannot carry the day on the concept of the teary eyed and heart-broken, seething with emotion and reasonably empty.