A must read from the Belmont Club blog...

The Usual Suspects

What's remarkable about Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Laureate Tom Schelling, and Hassan Nasrallah is that they probably agree with Keyser Soze, the legendary fictional villain of The Usual Suspects on one subject. Part boogeyman and part urban legend, Soze was a near-metaphysical example of implacable retribution. Soze's presence exists entirely offscreen until the final scene, but his legend is created in a an early bit of movie dialogue.

Read the entire thing, here.

posted by anonymous at 3:16 PM

 
The Summer 2006 City Journal issue is out.

A quarterly magazine of urban affairs, published by the Manhattan Institute, edited by Myron Magnet.

Why Today’s Immigrants Don’t Flourish

Steven Malanga
How Unskilled Immigrants Hurt Our Economy
A handful of industries get low-cost labor, and the taxpayers foot the bill.

Heather Mac Donald
Seeing Today’s Immigrants Straight
Advocates of “comprehensive immigration reform” let ideology blind them to the dispiriting facts on the ground.

Sol Stern
The Ed Schools’ Latest—and Worst—Humbug
Teaching for “social justice” is a cruel hoax on disadvantaged kids.

Gerry Garibaldi
How the Schools Shortchange Boys
In the newly feminized classroom, boys tune out.

Nicole Gelinas
Is There a New York Housing Crisis?
Only when government creates one—as Mayor Bloomberg is doing now.

Heather Mac Donald
New York Cops: Still the Finest
Bucking a national trend, Gotham’s crime rate keeps dropping. Here’s why.

Urbanities

Kay S. Hymowitz
Desperate Grandmas
Now sexagenarians, narcissistic feminists are still seeking the Best Sex Ever.

Theodore Dalrymple
The Terrorists Among Us
It’s not just Islam, but the tension between Islam and Western modernity, that makes them tick.

Steven Malanga
The Last Full Measure
Gotham may not know how to honor the 9/11 dead, but the suburbs do.

Departments

In Prospect

Soundings

Theodore Dalrymple
Oh, to be in England
Real Crime, Fake Justice

Letters

Contributors

Edmund Janko
Dean’s Office Diarist
It Still Leaves a Bad Taste

posted by anonymous at 9:46 PM

 
Level Lebanon if Necessary

The middle-east is a land of constant tears, thanks to human failings. And while we pray for the safety of truly innocent civilians, if need be the Israeli army should level every manmade structure in Lebanon to root out Hizbullah once and for all and let the empty wasteland stand as a example to all with the Lebanese people wandering the earth like modern-day Ancient Mariners telling their sad tales to any party-gather who will listen.
posted by anonymous at 6:48 PM

 
Our big "three h's" speech gains more background each week it seems. Oneof these days we'll get around to posting it up here, but until then, this tidbit in the history and human nature columns, (hat tip to Instapundit):

IN THE ASIA TIMES, a look at primitive authenticity:

Two billion war deaths would have occurred in the 20th century if modern societies suffered the same casualty rate as primitive peoples, according to anthropologist Lawrence H Keeley, who calculates that two-thirds of them were at war continuously, typically losing half of a percent of its population to war each year.

This and other noteworthy prehistoric factoids can be found in Nicholas Wade's Before the Dawn, a survey of genetic, linguistic and archeological research on early man. Primitive peoples, it appears, were nasty, brutish, and short, not at all the cuddly children of nature depicted by popular culture and post-colonial academic studies. The author writes on science for the New York
Times and too often wades in where angels fear to tread. [3] A complete evaluation is beyond my capacity, but there is no gainsaying his representation of prehistoric violence.

That raises the question: Why, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, does popular culture portray primitives as peace-loving folk living in harmony with nature, as opposed to rapacious and brutal civilization?

I think it has something to do with the new misanthropy, and with the same kind of voyeuristic idealization that led Marie Antoinette to play peasant.

posted by anonymous at 11:26 AM

 
Dicky Durbin -- How'd this guy get to be a Senator?

Showing why he's garned the fitting admonition "Dick Durbin before he dicks You", Senator Dick Durbin on today's Meet the [de]Press[ed] displayed not only a complete lack of basic Economics 101 understanding, but a total anti-capitalist philosophy.

Durbin: "Am I the only one of your guests here that think that profit taking is a problem?"

Earth to Durbin! Come in, Durbin. "Profit taking" is the bedrock of capitalism. Dope. Here's the transcript and the podcast so you can get the entire flavor of Durbin's nuttiness.
posted by anonymous at 8:12 PM

 
Can we get out of this State in one piece?

We ask ourselves this question with depressing frequency these days, and it makes us very angry. We were born in New York and have lived here all our lives -- through good times and bad. But the thought there is likely no affordable and viable long-term future for our children in this State, the result of a generation of entrenched malefeasance and unbridled union greed, combined with the stranglehood of legislative disfunction and the sense that our politicians ultimately believe -- in action if not in word -- that no level of taxation is too high for New Yorkers, often leaves us wondering why we bother acting some Cassandra and publicizing the obvious facts.

Well, last week New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office released a report (Property Taxes in New York State - Local Government Issues in Focus, Vol. 2, Issue 2, April 2006, available at http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/research/propertytaxes.pdf as an Acrobat PDF) that by all rights should have the streets filled with marchers, no, not illegal aliens clamoring for "rights", but property owners and citizens of New York storming toward their local state politician's office with pitchforks, torches, and some tar and a few feather-filled pillows.

Here's the fact again: New York State is in a slow-motion fiscal implosion, which means two things: (1) there's still time to get beyond the shrapnel's kill radius, and (2) there's still time to limit the damage, but whether its enough to result in the New York ship of state merely brushing the reef as opposed to our current full-speed ahead course toward the coral remains to be seen.

Some highlights from Hevesi's report:

• New York taxpayers have the highest combined State and local tax burden in the nation, with atotal tax bill of $131 for every $1,000 of personal income in 2002, nearly 26 percent higher thanthe national average.
  

• New York’s high tax burden is entirely driven by high local taxes – State taxes are about average, at $64 per $1,000 of personal income, versus $62 for the nation as a whole.

• Local taxes are the highest in the country, at $67 per $1,000 of personal income, 60 percent higher than the national average of $42. Maine is the next highest state at $55 – nearly 20 percent lower than New York.

• The property tax is by far the largest tax imposed by local governments in the State, representing 79 percent of all local taxes outside of New York City.

• Per capita property tax burdens in New York are 49 percent higher than the national average and property taxes measured as a share of personal income are 28percent higher.
  
  
• This disparity is even greater for taxpayers in most of the State, sinceNew York City’s property taxes are relatively low compared with other localgovernments (because it collects revenue from a number of other local taxes,including a personal income tax).
  
  
• Local property tax levies grew by 60 percent from 1995 to 2005, more than twice the rate of infl ation during that period (28 percent). Most of this growth occurred in the last 5 years – when property tax levies increased by 42 percent,compared to infl ation of 13 percent.
  
  
• Levy increases have moderated somewhat in 2006, particularly for counties,which benefited from last year’s Medicaid cap. However, growth rates continue to be substantially above infl ation for most classes of government.
  
  
• Property taxes add to the overall high cost of living in downstate suburbs,where property taxes per $1,000 of personal income average about $65 (comparedto the State median of $53), and are a major contributor to higher housing costs.

The report concludes, with dramatic understatement:

New York’s property tax is large and growing fast, as it tends to do when growth slows in other revenues or costs increase for local governments. The property tax is stable and easy to administer, but it has some serious fl aws, including a weak system for ensuring professional and equitable assessments. STAR and related rebates will not fi x these fl aws, and may indeed magnify them, as they may encourage growth in spending, particularly in higher-wealth, higher-spending areas. A rebate payment or State-funded tax exemption is a transfer of tax burden, not a tax cut, and should be considered in the context of overall tax policy in New York. While short-term property tax relief may be the perceived effect, the long-term outcome may well be an overall increase in State and local taxes. Future research and policy analysis should be directed toward structural changes and systemic reforms for the property tax.

A show of hands. How many people out there believe we can achieve a "systemic reform for the property tax" before this entire house of cards comes crashing down? One, two... three. Yeah, that's pretty much what we thought. See you out West somewhere. We'll send a postcard.
posted by anonymous at 7:14 PM

 
New York leads the nation with the highest state gasoline taxes while Alaska has the lowest, according to the American Petroleum Institute. On top of New York's state tax of 8 cents per gallon , it charges 8 percent state sales tax and a Petroleum Business Tax of 15.2 cents per gallon . There is also a spill tax of 0.3 cents per gallon and a petroleum testing fee of 0.05 cent per gallon levied on gasoline.

In short, roughly 62 cents for every gallon you buy are siphoned away by taxes. And, on top of all the NYS taxes listed above, there's a U.S. Federal Excise tax of 18.4 cents a gallon. But wait there's more. That 8% NYS sales tax is paid after the Federal Excise Tax is applied, so you pay a tax on the tax itself. Isn't that just peachy.

To see how absolutely crazy anyone who says we aren't taxed to death is, consider the following example. Say you make ten dollars. On that you pay FICA, Medicare, NYS, NYC and Federal income taxes, leaving you maybe $5.80 net. Then you take that nearly 6 bucks to the local NYC gas station to buy two gallons of gas to get to your job (yes, we know gas is nearly $3.00 a gallon), and on that two gallon purchase you've paid $1.63 in taxes (62.9 cents per gallon to NYS, plus 18.4 cents per gallon to the Feds times two). So on that original $10.00 that you worked hard to make, you were actually able to spend only a bit over $4.00. That's not only pathetic, it's nearly criminal in our book.
posted by anonymous at 12:02 AM

 
From the let them eat cake files....

Bloomberg disappoints again and again. He's a RINO's RINO, truly. Illegal aliens can find jobs, but these people can't?

"Most eligible adults between the ages of 18 and 49 can only receive food stamps for three months every three years, but big cities with high un-employment rates can apply to waive that restriction. Chicago, Seattle and Washington have already done that.

According to the report, the demand for food stamps has slowly risen across the five boroughs over the past decade, jumping to just over one million people in February.

Mayor Bloomberg's support of the waiver is a sharp departure from his previous term. Bloomberg had followed in the foot steps of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani whose welfare reform plan to get people off public assistance has been followed in other big cities around the country."

UPDATE: Bloomberg's backed off and decided NOT to apply for the waiver. When one of our members recently enrolled his kids in public school in NYC (yeah, we know) he refused to sign up for the "free" lunch program, which the school itself was pushing, saying it was too much of a hassel to collect the $1.25 a day, or whatever the amount was, from parents. He said, too bad -- you collect my money, I'm not taking your "free" lunch for my kids.
posted by anonymous at 2:49 PM

 
Illegal Immigration Madness

Some days we wonder if somehow we were in a car accident or knocked unconscious years ago, or simply feel asleep under a sycamore like some modern day Rip Van Winkle and awoke TODAY in a by comparison distant crazy future. How else to explain recent mass rallies by illegal immigrants whereby those here ILLEGALLY -- as in unlawfully, as in breaking the law -- somehow put forth the proposition that they're entitled to not only gather enmass, but in doing so make demands on the rightful citizens of the sovereign country of the United States. It's madness. We can't imagine going to say, Bermuda, staying illegally and then getting on a soapbox in the town square to tell the people of Bermuda they should give us a cabana on the beach, benefits and a path to citizenship. The thought of it, the sheer gall required, would never enter our heads.

On the plus side, these marches by illegal aliens are working to ensure they sign their own deportation orders, because marches by illegal aliens do NOTHING but harden citizens against them and guarantee passage of stricter immigration laws. We'd certainly vote to deport the lot, no matter the cost, were it put to a referendum. Out you go, and don't let the door hit you on the way.

posted by anonymous at 10:42 PM

 
It's been a long time since the "Empire" state lived up to its moniker. And the past twenty years of legislative and executive leadership have done precious little in real terms to address the issue. Harsh? Maybe not harsh enough. Read this:

"New Yorkers, lured by more lucrative opportunities elsewhere, have been voting with their feet: from 1995 to 2004, New York lost nearly 1.7 million residents to other states.[5] New York’s rate of outmigration was well over the northeast region’s average and the worst of any state from 2000 to 2004, according to census estimates.[6] An influx of foreign immigrants and their higher birthrates have kept New York’s total population from dropping, but the relative loss of residents to the rest of the U.S. has been severe enough to cost the state ten congressional seats since 1980.[7]"

The full depressing report, Albany Inc., is available here. [3MBPDF]
posted by anonymous at 2:04 PM

 
More Legislative Madness from Our Knee-Jerk State Legislature

Get this, according to NY1 the "highly-publicized death of Manhattan grad student Imette St. Guillen has inspired a new piece of legislation. The bill called 'Imette's Law' calls for every business with a state liquor license to install security cameras at all entrances and exits of their buildings. St. Guillen's former boyfriend, also a student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, proposed the idea to Assemblyman Felix Ortiz who sponsored the legislation."

First, why is Assemblyman Ortiz giving special weight to the suggestions of her "former" boyfriend? Though we don't know if the boyfriend was rendered "former" because she's deceased, or that was his status prior to her untimely demise, but in either case, who the hell cares what he is? He's not family, he's not blood, he's not even a "life partner."

Second, whoever started this now full-fledged trend of naming laws after unfortunate victims should be hunted down and flogged. Enough of Amber's Law, Bambi's Law, Little Tiny Baby Snuggles Law! Enough! No mas. Laws apply to all people, and creating laws based on the single tragic consequences of one victim is a trend that is destined to lead us all steadily to ultimate disaster.

Third, let's hope this piece of pandering doesn't pass to begin with, but what would it accomplish? It wouldn't prevent any such crime. It, in theory, might make it somewhat easier to track down someone like the killer here, but hey, the cops didn't have much trouble tracking him down as it is did they?

But since the legislature's only tool is a hammer everything looks like a nail to them. As the good folks over at Power Line noted this past week, "[o]ne of the basic problems in our society is that nearly all informal sanctions have been forfeited, so that there is hardly any middle ground between passive acceptance of antisocial behavior and a felony prosecution. Legislation and criminal prosecution are blunt instruments that cannot be brought to bear against every deviancy that may arise." 'Tis true.
posted by anonymous at 5:16 PM

 
And the Last Shall Be First (to be sued) [From Gotham Gazette]

Voting Lawsuit

The Justice Department sued New York State yesterday for failing to modernize its election system and replace its aging voting machines. After the 2000 presidential elections, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, which requires states to comply with new voting guidelines. New York has accepted $221 million in federal funds for overhauling its system, but decisions about which voting machines to purchase have stalled in Albany. It is the first lawsuit of its kind. The federal government says New York ranks last among states when it comes to implementing the guidelines.
posted by anonymous at 5:34 PM

 
Sharia law - Coming soon to a country near you!

As the ever prescient Mark Steyn notes in a column in today's Sun-Times

"Simply as a matter of fact, every year more and more of the world lives under Islamic law: Pakistan adopted Islamic law in 1977, Iran in 1979, Sudan in 1984. Four decades ago, Nigeria lived under English common law; now, half of it's in the grip of sharia, and the other half's feeling the squeeze, as the death toll from the cartoon jihad indicates."Mark Steyn, Needing to wake up, West just closes its eyes, Sun-Times, Feb. 26, 2006, available at http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn26.html.

Gee, and everytime a country takes on Sharia law things go straight downhill. Wonder why?

posted by anonymous at 2:11 PM

 





Memo to Fanatic Muslims:
Grow up already! The answer
to every perceived "outrage" is
not "let's riot and burn something
down." Got it?
posted by anonymous at 12:17 PM

 
The end of the line...

Well, Mayor Bloomberg, increasingly a disappointment to those who held out hope of NYC's out-of-control spending throttling back, though admittedly he's still better than the rabid democrat quasi-socialists who challenged him for mayor back in November, rolled out the 2006-07 budget the other day. (press release here; documents here, and video presentation here).

Bloomberg's budget is, surprise, up again over last year, to $52,200,000,000 -- that's $52.2 billion, or $6390.52 for every man, woman and child in New York City. I've studied the New York State and New York City fiscal situation long enough to be very afraid right now for the future. Unless the situation changes drastically in the next five to ten years this state is pretty much fiscally cooked. End of story. I don't get any pleasure in relating this conclusion. But the chronic financial chicanery, the ballooning tax-eaters, the unions' stranglehold on the fisc, the increasingly mobile state of capital, the flight from New York city by the middle class beyond Manhattan, and the total picture is not bright.

More to come...
posted by anonymous at 3:54 PM