Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick
Marinscope recently reported that the police department in Novato, CA, conducted a DUI checkpoint last Friday night. It wasn’t a surprise checkpoint. Police earlier warned the public that the checkpoint would be taking place somewhere in the city.
One thousand three hundred and six cars passed through the checkpoint while it was open and 67 cars were stopped for secondary screening.
Of the 67 drivers screened 21 were cited. One for DUI, 16 for driving without a license and 5 for driving on a suspended or revoked license.
If that percentage is anywhere close to the percentage of illegal drivers actually on the road at any given time, California’s in trouble.
And The Pope Says
Pope Francis minced no words this week when he called it a “grave sin” for countries to repel migrants
“It must be said clearly: there are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants. And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin … Some deserts too, unfortunately, are becoming cemeteries of migrants. And even here it is not always a question of ‘natural’ deaths. No, at times, they have been taken to the desert and abandoned. In the time of satellites and drones, there are migrant men, women and children that no-one must see. Only God sees them and hears their cry.”
I am not Roman Catholic in part because I do not consider the Pope infallible. But this Pope is right in calling out what amounts to mass exterminations of people fleeing the hell-holes from whence they came.
It would be a mistake to take the Pope’s statement and try to lay it over American politics. The stuff we debate here is very different from what the Pope is calling out.
For example, the European Union admitted in May to a “difficult situation” after a journalism consortium said Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania were dumping migrants in the desert to almost certainly die.
Human beings lucky enough to live in a civilized nation bear a responsibility to humanely deal with these migrations worldwide. Sometime I wonder whether we have an obligation to forcibly take over the governments in those countries that are creating the misery and the migration.
That may go too far.
What I do know is that ignoring the tragedy is the wrong way to go.
Churchy Stuff
Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, one of the greatest Episcopal churches in the land, will kick off its 2024-25 Organ Recital Series this Sunday with young German organist Raphael Attila Vogl. Currently a doctoral student at Juilliard, Vogl’s program will feature virtuosic music of the 19th century by Max Reger, and his own transcription of the final portion of Anton Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony.
If you’re in the area …
Crazy Sports People
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that a sports bettor has put $31,000 on the Las Vegas Raiders to win the Super Bowl. If the bet pays off, the bettor will win $2.48 million.
I wonder if he hedged that bet.
What kind odds would you get to bet on the Raiders not getting into the playoffs?
Marinscope periodically publishes the Properly Subversive column. You can read more Properly Subversive commentary at shermanfrederick.substack.com.
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