Angry New Yorker |
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Semi-Daily Rants from New York City's Angry Man
"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly."
- Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, Life of Johnson, Sept. 1783
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Sunday, December 28, 2008
Merry Christmas. We can't wait for this year to end. 2008 has been a very, very rough year from start to finish, personally, professionally, politically and pecuniary, for us here at Angry New Yorker. We can only hope 2009 is better. Given the growing storm we've been caulking the hull, tightening the capstans and fixtures, checking the rigging and basically making ready for the arrival of full gale forces. We pray the storm will pass far from us, but as always hope is not a strategy. As for New York, the eye of the storm is certain to pass over it to the echo of a million strong chorus of "I told you so's". People are rightfully withdrawing their trust and faith in government, whether state or federal, at levels not seen in the United States in generations, and the consequences could be grim. No one wants to the be that last "sucker" - the last man still following the rules and laws when those all about him flout with impunity what he has determined to be the course. I'm sure the citizens of Rome were dumbfounded when the empire finally fell. Augustine's epic City of God goes into some tangential detail, but ironically, as noted in The God that Did Not Fail, by Robert Royal, many citizens in the outer Roman lands were relieved when the high burdens of Roman taxation and regulations dissipated. One idea we were mulling over during the weekend's reflection was that with the closing of the frontier and the civilizing of the western U.S. there was no where for a man to "escape" to build a life anew and leave the baggage of his past failings behind. While this certainly is for the better in many instances (how many conman, crooks and charlatans escaped justice by heading west in previous centuries can never be known), but how amazing would it be to create a "new frontier" right within the U.S. where regulations were few, taxes minute and people chose to accept fewer governmental "services" in exchange for more freedom? More on this in future posts after I decide if this is merely too many holiday alcoholic beverages speaking or worth exploring. Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Slash & Burn? More like Nick & Slightly Warm So Governor Patterson announces a budget that news outlets described as a "slash and burn" effort. Excuse me? Patterson says we are in the most severe economic climate since the Depression and the governor's budget cuts... Wait for it... spending to only a 1% increase over last year's budget. Now we realize that in NYS, addicted to year over year compounded spending increases far higher than inflation, this represents draconian cuts. But it is hardly a "slash and burn" budget by any measure. Patterson is quickly learning that NYkers are sick and tired of being nickled and dimed to death. As longtime readers know we moved outside NYC to Connecticut last year, so we can watch NYS with a bit more detachment (though CT is in no great budgetary shape), but the outrage we've seen to Patterson's proposals center heavily on the increase in petty fees and NOT his "cuts". Thursday, November 20, 2008
Ok. Passions that were running red-hot here at Angry New Yorker in the aftermath of Nov. 4th have sufficiently cooled. And the responsible reaction given that the economic and political climate has worsened in only two weeks since the election with the stock market is at new lows seemingly daily is FULL FRONTOL ENGAGEMENT. The available material for comment is endless. Tuesday, November 04, 2008
We're planning going John Galt. Friday, October 24, 2008
We Have Not Yet Begun to Fight Battles are won as much by keeping up one's morale as by fielding superior strategy and tactics. So the non-stop onslaught of Obama and his gasous minions, not to mention the festoon mushroom-like springing up of Obama/Biden (a/k/a "stand up Chuck") lawn signs and bumper stickers has been enough to generate in even the most Lion hearted a stutter step pause and shaky hand while clearing one's breech and fixing bayonets. History is written backwards while life is lived forwards and the two only intersect in this fleeting moment we call the present. But the present is the only place our actions can matter. And so we look to the past for guidance, the future being unknowable and malleable. And Lincoln is always there for times such as these. The fight can only be won if we show up! Vote proudly (and often - if you were registered by Acorn ;-) Bill Kristol's editorial in The Weekly Standard, "McCain Versus the Juggernaut," here, is a call to arms to those of us facing the gale of Obama's hot air. "If Obama wins, we wish him well. But for now, we can only echo the words of the 30-year-old Abraham Lincoln. On December 26, 1839, responding to the confident prediction of one of his political opponents "that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next Presidential election" and that Lincoln's opposition to the Van Buren forces was therefore bound to be in vain, Lincoln responded: 'Address that argument to cowards and to knaves; with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it...The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just... Let none falter, who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if after all, we shall fail, be it so.' Tuesday, September 30, 2008
And so democracy ends not with a bang, but with a whimper - term limits are for little People As NY1 reports, "the controversial term limits extension bill passed by the City Council will likely be law next week. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has scheduled a bill-signing ceremony for Monday. The bill allows the city's elected officials to run for three consecutive four-year terms – up from two. The council narrowly passed the measure last week by a vote of 29-22 over the objections of opponents who said it should be up to voters to decide." We applaud the 22 who voted against this heinous overruling by fiat of not one, but two, public referenda. After 9/11, Rudy's hinting of seeking a brief term-limit repeal and third term was met with great caterwauling. "Mike" Bloomberg is a, however, a liberal beloved by the NYC intelligentsia. Compare and contrast. Monday, September 29, 2008
Subversives for Omaba If the following is documented as true Obama will lose the upcoming election in the most historic lopsided defeat in American history. In other words, we hope it is true. http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/2178136/subversives-for-obama.thtml ILYA SOMIN: "The stock market's record 778 point drop today will no doubt lead many people to conclude that the House of Representatives was wrong to vote down the bailout plan backed by both the Bush Administration and the Democratic leadership. Indeed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has already made that argument. Here's why I think such claims are wrong." In a just world, Pelosi, Reid, Frank and Schumer would be cleaning chimneys or growing turnips. In this world they somehow have their hands on the levers of power. Then, on the train today I saw a doofus liberal attorney with an Obama sticker on his bag. But we were once like him - he probably doesn't have any understanding of the New Deal and that a federal govt this size is an abberation in American history. The Forgotten Men are about to get even more forgotten I fear should Obama slither his way into the White House. And this (h/t Instapundit) A READER AT A MAJOR NEWSROOM EMAILS: Thursday, September 11, 2008
9/11/08 We remember. And not with hate, but in steely resolve and confidence in our principles, our culture and our Constitution, we shall defeat the barbarians who would bring a new dark age to the world. Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Mayor Bloomberg <=> Rocket Scientist Ah, Mike, what's the problem? Human nature is why we're in favor of terms limits. Because no matter how well-intentioned, no matter how much expertise is developed in one area, no matter how noble, every politician after a certain point just can't resist hearing themselves talk. Now the Mayor is still far from Joe "I love to hear the sound of my voice" Biden or Barry "We are the ones" Obama territory, but he's been developing troubling signs of heading down the same road. His latest scheme is wind power, as he hops on the T. Boone Pickens bandwagon. We're in favor of all energy sources that make sense, and perhaps wind farms far off the coast of NYC will prove economic, but does the Mayor grasp how much total power NYC demands? As of May 2008, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) estimated total peak demand in NYC would reach 33,809 megawatts. That's 33,809,000,000 watts. Peak usage in the summer of 2007, according to NYISO, was 32,169 megawatts. To put that in perspective, the two nuclear reactors at Indian Point, run by Entergy, together have a maximum power generation capacity of 2,069 megawatts. (See Entergy 2007 Investor Report at http://www.entergy.com/content/investor_relations/pdfs/2007_final_IG.pdf). The world's largest wind turbine, the Enercon E-126, has a peak power generation rating of 6 megawatts, and the E-126 is a monster with a rotor diameter of 413 feet. And, of course, it only produces peak power when there's a steady wind of, we believe, 17 knots. Commercially available GE wind turbines are rated at, depending on the model, 1.5, 2.5 and 3.6 megawatts of peak production power. (See GE Energy - Wind Turbines at http://www.ge-energy.com/prod_serv/products/wind_turbines/en/index.htm). With this in mind, the New York City subway system uses, according to the IEEE, approximately 500 megawatts during peak rush hour usage. (See IEEE-USA Today's Engineer at http://www.todaysengineer.org/2004/Oct/history.asp). Therefore, to run the NYC subway alone, it would take from 84 of the monster E-126 turbines to 333 of GE's current 1.5Mw models. And that's assuming the wind is blowing steadily at a peak production speeds; add in an additional 50% capacity to account for turbines out of production for maintenance, lower wind velocity, etc., and you wind up with, conservatively a need for 122 to 500 turbines for the subway alone. Now, Mr. Mayor, where exactly at you going to put these? If offshore, where do the transmission lines comes ashore? Our brainiac Mayor can put all the pinwheels he wants up on the Brooklyn bridge, on top of every skyscraper and in Lady Liberty's torch, but they won't make a dent in the city's powers needs. Which highlights that the green coalition has no viable answers to our actual current energy needs. But hey, if we could harness the power of good intentions we'd have solved the energy problem long ago. Labels: Bloomberg, Non seq., Wind power Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Gotham. Today's Babel. In the Bible, which unfortunately fewer and fewer people have any cogent familiarity with or understanding of, the Tower of Babel appears fleetingly in Genesis 11, tucked between a great deal of begatting, and has commonly been understood as mankind's overreaching attempt to reach God's domain via earthly efforts. As punishment (admittedly Genesis 11 is not a model of clarity), God decides to "confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.* * * Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth." Well, as Deroy Murdock scathingly notes, Mayor Bloomberg, is building a Babel in Gotham, whereby "America’s largest municipality soon will conduct official business not only in English and Spanish — which is bad enough — but also five more foreign languages: Russian, Chinese, Korean, French Creole, and Italian." Bloomberg nonsensically heralded on July 22nd, as he signed the edict, that “[t]his Executive Order will make our city more accessible, while helping us become the most inclusive municipal government in the nation.” Pardon? Government offices gabbering away in seven languages will do what now? Will people have to press 7 for Creole? The actual Executive Order is available here as a PDF for your amusement. Murdock delivers a full broadside: Are today’s immigrants too feeble to learn English, as did the 12 million immigrants who filed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954? Since when have Italians, of all people, become too wretched to fathom English? Is it too much to ask today’s Italian arrivals to speak America’s common tongue, as did the forbears of such distinguished New Yorkers as Giuliani, former governor Mario Cuomo, Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone, and Academy Award–winning director Martin Scorsese?Bloomberg is a rich man with good intentions. He's also a numbskull in many ways who can't pass up any opportunity to do for others what they should be doing for themselves. Labels: Bloomberg, languages, multiculturalism Thursday, July 24, 2008
I drink your milkshake! I drink it up! There Will be Blood was a lousy movie. Great acting and cinematography, but the plot (such as it was) dangled more lost opportunities than your average Christmas tree has decorations. But there were a few memorable lines, the title to this piece being one. And now that New York city and state have collectively emptied our milkshakes there's panic in the air because the glasses are bone empty. The front page of today's NY Post carries several stories about NY's impending self-imposed fiscal crisis (see Mayor Bloomberg Warns of $2.3B Gap in City Budget, and Gov. Paterson: Worst Crisis Since '70's). I have no sympathy for Paterson or the Mayor, or any NY elected officials. I do feel for NY's taxpayers and families, who will be sorely pressed even more so than they already are. But a bit of examination is order. The 2008-09 New York State budget, as enacted, runs $80.5 billion dollars. Over the past 20 years officials have jacked state spending up annually at two or three times the inflation rate, largely due to the headlocks by unions leading to stiff increases in education and health-care spending. New York City has suffered the same fate. While Mayor Bloomberg has often been hailed as a practical businessman, he's been complicit in the steady increases in the city's budget and foolishly calling NYC a luxury product (as in, if you have to ask what it costs you can't afford it) highlighted his "che sara sara" attitude. We've read enough reports about New York's Potemkin village-like finances, year in and year out, to have seen this coming a mile away. In fact, it's one reason we finally decided to move out of New York City, as have millions of others over the past decade (to be replaced by the never ending flow of low-skilled "immigrants"). But "we told you so" is never a gracious thing to say. Instead, we'll give the NYC Comptroller's just issued Budget Report, the final word: Furthermore, in most years of the Financial Plan period, risks identified by theThe accompanying Press Release notes, dryly: At the forefront of Thompson's concerns is the increasing burden of debt service on City taxpayers. Debt service is expected to increase 7.6 percent per year from FY 2008 through FY 2012, growth fueled by General Obligation debt borrowing that will average $6 billion per year and push the City’s debt burden from 13.8 percent in FY 2009 to 15.1 percent in FY 2012. New York City’s gross debt outstanding exceeded $7,000 per capita in FY 2007.Any questions? Friday, July 18, 2008
Accidental Governor. Intentional Buffoon. We had hopes for Governor Paterson. After all, with the shame of Governor Spitzer preceding him as a touchstone virtually any comparison could only be positive. Unfortunately, as is wont in New York, Governor Paterson has and continues to demonstrate that not only is he not up to the massive challenges facing New York, but he remains enthralled to the usual Albany suspects (i.e., lobbyists, unions, campaign contributors, perpetual grievance mongers, etc.). As the inimitable Henry Stern has highlighted at NY Civic, Paterson has raised $3.3 million in contributions since March and in the process discarded Spitzer's self-imposed $10,000 limit on contributions (which standing alone is indicative of nothing nefarious). However, his office expenditures, at a time of severe budgetary constraint is a shameful mockery of spending restraint. As The New York Sun noted yesterday, in its editorial, Bloat in Albany: 62 of Governor Paterson's aides earn $100,000 a year or more. The result is a governor's office annual payroll of $15.6 million. Massachusetts manages with a governor's office payroll of $4.8 million, Florida with $6.8 million. Texas, which has a larger population than New York, manages to staff its governor's office by spending about half as much money as New York does. In California, only 46 of the governor's aides earn $100,000 a year or more.The sheer bald-faced lack of shame and abundance of gall in New York politicians today is utterly astounding. Some of us are still of the opinion that public service should be accompanied by some level of humility and recognition that the "public" is to be served and are not merely potential revenue sources for one's fiefdom. Even with all this, however, Governor Paterson raised the bar on his ballooning buffoonery with his idiotic (there's no other word for it) speech before the NAACP, a once proud organization that today has degenerated into utter illegitimacy and demagoguery. We couldn't find a copy of Paterson's NAACP speech on his official website at http://www.ny.gov/governor/index.html, as the link provided for speeches only lists speeches made between Mar. 17th and April 25th, 2008 (one would think that with the legions of staffers someone could update the site on a timely basis). However, as reported in the New York Sun, the Governor " lash[ed][] out at the press for describing him as an 'accidental governor,' implying in a speech that the term's frequent usage was motivated by racial bias." Excuse me, Sir? You ARE an accidental Governor. No one voted you Governor, and your ascension to the Governor's mansion is due only to the self-destructive implosion of Governor Spitzer. And to state that use of this term is somehow motivated by racial bias is paranoid buffoonery of the highest order. Indeed, as the New York Sun states, Paterson's charge that few others in the analogous situation were dubbed "accidental" is contradicted by the facts:
Playing the race card in such a manner is a disgrace. Worse, the Governor went on to then "suggest[] that the defeat of Senator Obama by Senator McCain in the presidential contest would be a victory for racism." My God! if simply voting one's convictions against Obama is a "victory for racism" than precious little one does in everyday life is free from the taint of this noxious charge. If we decide to go to McDonald's, because we like their Angus burgers, instead of the Burger King next door, which happens to have a manager who is black, is this a "victory for racism" as a result? Governor, you do yourself and New York no favor with this line of racial pandering and paranoia. And you damage your already tarnished image as Governor of the once great state of New York. Labels: Albany, Buffoonery, Paterson Saturday, July 05, 2008
Happy (belated) Fourth of July!! As always, each July 4th we re-read the Declaration of Independence and marvel at its majesty, wrought despite its ultimate creation by committee. Despite our many readings, we always wryly note the grievance of "[h]e has created a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance" in light of the massive growth of federal and state governments. Happy July 4th, and not to be missed on this day is Roger Kimball's July4th essay Thoughts on July 4, America and multiculturalism. Tuesday, June 10, 2008
And now for something completely different... In our day jobs we work with contracts. A great deal. As in daily. As in our livelihood depends on our ability to draft, parse, modify and negotiate contracts. We print out dozens of contracts a month. For fun. As education tools. In short, we do contracts and always, and we mean painfully always, we click on every "Terms and Conditions" and "Privacy Policy" link on any website we visit. We do. It's annoying to those around us. But it's who we are. And so we came across The New York Sun's "Terms of Use" page. We like the Sun. In a liberal island of madness it's a beacon of sanity (except for it's inordinate and ineffable recent crusade to get Bloomberg in the White House. Sorry, fellas, it was doomed from the start - and rightfully so. Of course if the Mad Marxist, a/k/a Obama, gets in to the Whitehouse, sheesh; don't get us started). Anyway, the Sun's Terms of Use is quackery. We hate to denigrate a fellow practitioner's handiwork, but there's elegant and then there's effluvium. And this, sir, is effluvium. When more time presents itself we'd like to do a Ken Adam-like annotated exegesis of the Sun's ToU, but for now, behold this clause: "It is prohibited to link other sites to this Web site without The New York Sun's prior written permission." As in YOU can't link YOUR site to us without OUR advanced written by your leave. Sort of defeats the purpose of this little thing called, ahem, the World Wide Web. Don't cha think? We have a saying for this kind of baloney. But this is a family website and we shall refrain in the interest of good taste and maintaining a civilized discourse. The Sun's legal brain trust then goes on to proclaim "If you link to this Web site, we require that you follow these guidelines. You may link only to the home page, and not to any other page, directory or subdomain of the Web site." Really? Do tell. You require that we follow these guidelines, else what? You'll release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark they shoot bees at you? Gentlemen, I suggest you delve deeper into 17 U.S.C. 107. I also imagine you have registered each posting with the U.S. Copyright office. Right? It's a big Internet out there, and frankly, users do not NEED or require permission to comment, link to or reference your website and its pages for other legitimate fair use purposes. And here's another term you no doubt ran across in Contracts 1: "unconscionable". As in this indemnification clause included in your ToU: User agrees to defend, hold harmless and indemnify The New York Sun and its business partners and affiliates, and each of them, against and from any and all third party claims, liabilities, damages, fines, penalties or costs of whatsoever nature (including reasonable attorney's fees and costs), arising out of or in any way connected with: (i) any breach by you of these Terms of Use; (ii) any claim based upon your ultimate use of the Content or services available on this Web site in any unauthorized manner and (iii) any content or materials submitted by you.Good luck enforcing this in any court, anywhere, state, federal or otherwise. Words matter. And such usage mocks our craft shamelessly. We shall not even entertain the matters contained with your Governing Law and General Terms section. And, finally, for the record, we do not agree to your terms, nor consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in New York county, nor to indemnify anyone associated with your operation, and for completeness, and therefore our continued visits to the website are expressly unauthorized. You may send your cease and desist notice to rhlqc at hotmail.com. Friday, June 06, 2008
June 6, 1944 - D-Day Sixty-four years ago (can that much time really have passed), the greatest amphibious invasion in history began, and with it the liberation of western Europe. We have nothing but the utmost admiration, gratitude and respect for all those who took part, military or civilian.  The best D-Day website, with photos, audio and many links to other memorials, is the U.S. Army's own site at http://www.army.mil/d-day/The home page notes: June 6, 1944 - 160,000 Allied Troops landed long a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded -- but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.  It should also be noted that Google, which continues to rightly catch flak for ignoring momentous American holidays and events, is on its homepage graphic iconography today highlighting Diego Valezquez, as at left. Who? Exactly.  Labels: D-Day, Google's Shame Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Barack-eth Giveth, and Barack-eth Taketh Well, leave it to the Democrats to nominate the most inexperienced, least qualified, most liberal and now, after revelations of all his questionable associates and judgments, the most bloodied candidate. We don't care that Obama is black. Truly. We'd vote for the best candidate we believed embodied the majority of our beliefs and goals and if that person happened to be black then he's black. But the Democrats have demonstrated in spades what their endless ethic, gender and racial slicing and grievance mongering leads to -- internecine knives fights for the spoils of victory. We'd never vote for Barak because we don't believe he would be good for America. Period. His ultra-liberal socialistic stance, his vacuous rhetoric, his barely concealed sense of entitlement, his antipathy towards limited government & textualist Constitutional interpretation and his expansive view of the role of government are all anathema to us. Now McCain wasn't our first choice by any measure. We endorsed Fred Thompson here, based primarily on his view of governmental limitations, judicial and constitutional jurisprudence and the fact that he vocalized a tough affirmative stand on the war against Islamist ideology and we stand by that endorsement. McCain may be the luckiest candidate in history because right now we think he's going to clean Barack's clock Old School style. And if Hillary's supporters maintain their current righteous indignation Obama may lose in a historic landslide. And, frankly, on a knee-jerk note, we just hate the name Barack. President Barack? President Obama? Not on our watch if we have anything to say about it. Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Governor Patterson, who when he isn't admitting affairs or getting eye surgery, seems to think that there are higher priorities than attending to NY's precarious financial situation and dysfunction in Albany. Apparently it's almost summer and the living's easy.... Not quite. But the Governor still has time to direct, according to NY1.com, "all state agencies to revise policies in order to recognize same-sex marriages," with this decision apparently coming in response to "to California's decision earlier this month to legalize gay marriage." Funny. Why a baldly activist 4-3 court decision in California, which hinged purely on the CA state constitution, should provide some sort of magical impetus for executive branch action in New York escapes us. More so because, as the New York Court of Appeals correctly put in back in 2006 in Hernandez v. Robles, "the New York Constitution does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same sex. Whether such marriages should be recognized is a question to be addressed by the Legislature." The L-e-g-i-s-l-a-t-u-r-e. You know, the branch of our tripartite form of government that has the actual authority to pass legislation and make laws, such as those redefining marriage. The Governor's clearly acted beyond his Constitutional authority here. But in New York it's so hard to actually tell, given the way laws, rules and regulations crafted in Albany are always "enforce for thee, but not for me." UPDATE: Others have taken note of Paterson's overreaching: Emperor of the Empire State Bill Duncan from the Marriage Law Foundation calls the Paterson move "outrageous": (h/t National Review Online) And:
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The NY Sun headline this morning reads "Albany is Next Stop for Congestion Pricing." We expect Albany to rubber stamp the Mayor's foolish idea and then, after 100 years of free East river crossings the captives in Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island will be further penalized for deigning to enter Gotham proper. Other headlines we see in our quick scan read "$9 Million Tax Hikes for Banks" and "Cigarette Tax Hike: Gold Mine for Smugglers." Good luck, New York. You're going to need it. Update: Mirabile dictu. Congestion pricing failed to pass - a clear win for NYC. Bloomberg's quixotic quest that all wishing to enter the sanctum santorum of midtown pay tribute to the city and the MTA went out with a whimper. What next, Mayor? Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Confederacy of Dunces We've refrained from comment on the sordid Spitzer affair; silently rejoicing, however, that a man with a dangerous view of the law, statutory interpretation and enforcement has ended his career in both politics and law enforcement. Of course, as always, the people of NY are left holding the bag. But, now, only a day following his elevation to the governor's mansion we are fed the tawdry tale of David Patterson and his wife's multiple affairs. Query: Can anyone in Albany government keep their pants on? Across the river the gay ex-governor's disclosures induce cringing nearly daily, while the state budget is due in two weeks and is virtually guaranteed to contain unnecessary, unsustainable and unexplainable spending far beyond the fiscal means of the state and its citizens. Confederacy of dunces, indeed. Saturday, March 08, 2008
Shame on Bloomberg and Schumer We know it's often difficult to shame politicians, who, by definition, are generally beyond all shame. Nevertheless, we thought that the blind-eye, anything-goes treatment afforded to one Mr. Magassa, an illegal alien practicing polygamy in New York City, who, after a fire tragedy last year in the Bronx that claimed the lives of (one of) his wife and several of his children, details here, nonetheless had big guns such as Senator Schumer (NY-D) stepping in on his behalf in apparent direct opposition to the rule of law to not only prevent his deportation but to allow his re-entry into the U.S. after he finished transporting and burying his deceased family members in his native Mali. While a tragedy by any measure the aftermath was another stunning example of liberal relativism that equates no preference to U.S. citizenship, and is both passively willing to and actively engaged in granting non-citizen illegal aliens favoritism at the substantial expense of legal U.S. residents and citizens. We don't know about you, but we consider our status as a U.S. citizen to be one of the most valuable of possessions. Yet, Senator Schumer, of course, in acting on Mr. Magassa's behalf was only hewing to the liberal pantheon of positions. All of this is but preamble, however, for it was with no small amount of sadness, shock and, yes, outrage, that we noted that NY1 was heralding, "Malian Victims of Bronx House Fire Remembered One Year Later," here, noting, matter of factly, in recounting how Mr. Magassa is fairing in the past year that: A year later both men who are from Mali, West Africa are rebuilding their lives. They are devout Muslims. Magassa, who has other children says his religious beliefs allow him to have two wives. Over the last year, both women have given birth.Well, well, how nice for him and his many "wives." The fact that "his religion" allows him to have two wives would seem to conflict directly with both New York and U.S. law, and it seems the authorities should be doing something about this, no? After all NY Penal Law, Section 255.15, states that: " A person is guilty of bigamy when he contracts or purports to contract a marriage with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse. Bigamy is a class E felony." In addition to his earlier and ongoing violations of federal immigration law, a violation that Senator Schumer was eager to put aside, Mr. M. is apparently an open and notorious felon under New York state law. NY Penal Law, from our quick search, doesn't directly address polygamy, because no doubt in this day and age what rational legislator would believe it necessary to address a vestige from days long gone by? Unfortunately, it appears that in 2008 we do. And Mr. Magassa appears to have gotten over the loss of his "wive" and children quiet nicely, thank you very much, adding another "two, three" children, at least from the article's phrasing -- he's not sure. We know it must be tough to keep track when you have so many wives and so many children in your "family unit," but still, one wonders. As the National Review's Corner blog recounted, very perspicaciously, here:
It's time we stood up to this nonsense and insisted that "multiculturaism" does not trump the rule of law. Otherwise we are in for some very rough times ahead. |
