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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Thursday, February 26, 2004
What are they smoking at the New York Times? Today the NY Times endorse Senator John Kerry, commenting, in part: "Mr. Kerry, one of the Senate's experts in foreign affairs, exudes maturity and depth. He can discuss virtually any issue of security or international affairs with authority. What his critics see as an inability to take strong, clear positions seems to us to reflect his appreciation that life is not simple. He understands the nuances and shades of gray in both foreign and domestic policy." Huh? Someone who sees everything as gray will have a difficult time come twilight. This isn't an endorsement as much as a capitulation in the French mode -- "ah, but we are so, so sophisticated. We see the spaces between leaves on the trees." Please. When various things are in fact black or white, to have someone who can only see gray is NOT an advantage. But then the New York Times isn't called "the gray lady" anymore, merely because she was once all black and white. It's sad really. http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=37626 What are they smoking at the New York Times? Today the NY Times endorse Senator John Kerry, commenting, in part: "Mr. Kerry, one of the Senate's experts in foreign affairs, exudes maturity and depth. He can discuss virtually any issue of security or international affairs with authority. What his critics see as an inability to take strong, clear positions seems to us to reflect his appreciation that life is not simple. He understands the nuances and shades of gray in both foreign and domestic policy." Huh? Someone who sees everything as gray will have a difficult time come twilight. This isn't an endorsement as much as a capitulation in the French mode -- "ah, but we are so, so sophisticated. We see the spaces between leaves on the trees." Please. When various things are in fact black or white, to have someone who can only see gray is NOT an advantage. But then the New York Times isn't called "the gray lady" anymore, merely because she was once all black and white. It's sad really. http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=37626 [ed. note - We're "Yokers" alright. As in the Yoke is on us.] New Yokers [sic] Have Longest Commute In The Country FEBRUARY 26TH, 2004 From NY1.com New York tops the list of cities with the longest commute to work in the nation. A 2002 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau ranked cities across the country as part of an effort to gather data to develop a local transportation infrastructure. The study found New Yorkers take an average of 38.4 minutes to get to work each day. The national average is 24.4. With an average of 41.8 minutes, Bronx residents have the longest commutes out of the five boroughs, followed closely by Queens (41.4 minutes), Staten Island (41.2 minutes) and Brooklyn (39.9 minutes). New York also ranks first among the states, with an average commute of nearly 31 minutes. New York is followed by Chicago, where the average commute is almost six minutes less. The shortest average commute, 16.5 minutes, is in Wichita, Kansas. For more information on the survey, visit www.census.gov/acs/www, or factfinder.census.gov. [ed. comment -- what say you teachers' union?] NYC Last In The U.S. In Minority High School Graduation Rates From NY1.com FEBRUARY 26TH, 2004 New York State has the lowest percentage in the U.S. when it comes to graduating black and Latino students from high school, and when it comes to the city, the figures are even worse. A new report released Wednesday by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University and the Urban Institute shows 70 percent of Hispanic students and 68 percent of black students in New York City did not graduate high school within four years in 2001. When it comes to white students, 42 percent did not graduate on time. As for the state, overall, about 66.5 percent of minority students do not graduate on time, the worst percentage in the country. However, State Education Department officials dispute the study's figures. For more information on the study, visit www.resultsforamerica.org. Wednesday, February 18, 2004
From today's New York Post [ed. note - we couldn't have said it better. New York is serious trouble. The sooner we admit it, the sooner something can get done. Otherwise, the last one out, please turn off the lights.] AS N.Y. BURNS . . . By FREDRIC U. DICKER February 17, 2004 -- ALBANY LIKE Nero fiddling while Rome burned, Gov. Pataki and the leaders of the Legislature are fiddling - and fibbing - while New York's local governments crumble -literally and figuratively - under the weight of out-of-control state Medicaid, tax, environmental and other burdensome policies. With just six weeks to go to the start of the state's fiscal year, Pataki (when he is in Albany) and the legislative leaders appear less concerned with fixing those polices than they are about achieving a public relations victory, a so-called "on-time" budget. But even if Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) succeed in passing the first such budget in 20 years - as now appears possible - their "success" will amount to little more than election-year bragging rights and a colossal PR hoax. That's because the kind of business-as-usual budget the state leaders are now considering will bring many of New York's most important and historic cities and counties to the brink of collapse. Consider: Schenectady, once the great beacon of high-technology and center of General Electric creativity, is so close to collapse that state Comptroller Alan Hevesi has actually set a date - sometime in May - for its bankruptcy. Syracuse, once a central New York economic powerhouse, is facing its biggest budget gap in history and a potential and devastating 45 percent property-tax hike. Its school-system is already making massive layoffs. Rochester, another early high-tech center with its highly educated workforce, is facing massive Kodak layoffs and is in a crisis spiral involving crime and a record population loss. Buffalo, once the great center of commerce and industry on Lake Erie, once the upstate symbol of New York's greatest and a beacon to the entire Midwest of the Empire State's economic prowess, lies bankrupt and broken. For rest of article please visit the NY Post website at www.nypost.com Tuesday, February 17, 2004
A Moratorium on "Controversial"? Every so often a word comes along, whose meaning takes on a new tangential connotation that runs away with the original definition for awhile. Sometimes the shift is permanent; other times only temporary. One world I'd like to see added to the do not use moratorium list is controversial. Now controversial, of course stems from its root controversy, which the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as: Etymology: Middle English controversie, from Latin controversia, from controversus disputable, literally, turned against, from contro- (akin to contra-) + versus, past participle of vertere to turn. 1 : a discussion marked especially by the expression of opposing views : DISPUTE 2 : QUARREL, STRIFE. Definition 1 strikes me as a fairly good, though anemic definition. Unfortunately, today's common usage is gradually flooding the definition 2 side of the tally, to make something controversial an event that's little more than a topic leading to a quarrel. Not everything with two opposing viewpoints is a controversy, or controversial. Yet, that's the way controversial is increasingly used -- if there's heated disagreement it's controversial. But since when is every debate on a worthy topic a controversy? It's not a good trend in my book. And I'm not trying to cause a controversy. Wednesday, February 04, 2004
My commentary? Why should there be a rule that you have to live in the city? First, who cares where you live as long as you do a good job? Second, I don't know how this isn't against the U.S. Constitution's Article IV, sec. 2, cl. 1, privileges and immunities clause, which states "[t]he Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. " So, if you can't hold a job in New York city because you live in New Jersey, ipso facto aren't you *not* entitled to the privileges and immunities enjoyed by citizens in New York? Although the Supreme Court has since the 1823 decision of Corfield v. Coryell, moved away from what appears to be a plain facial meaning of the P&I clause, in the 1823 decision Justice Washington stated that the Article IV privileges and immunities clause provided: ''Protection by the Government; the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right to acquire and possess property of every kind, and to pursue and obtain happiness and safety; subject nevertheless to such restraints as the Government must justly prescribe for the general good of the whole. The right of a citizen of one State to pass through, or to reside in any other State, for purposes of trade, agriculture, professional pursuits, or otherwise; . . . .'' 6 Fed. Cas. 546, 552 (No. 3,230) (C.C.E.D. Pa., 1823). See also, Hicklin, v. Orbeck, (noting the clause "does not preclude disparity of treatment in the many situations where there are perfectly valid independent reasons for it," it "does bar discrimination against citizens of other States where there is no reason for the discrimination beyond the mere fact that they are citizens of other States."). Case closed? I think it should be... CITY PROBES WORKERS BREAKING 'HOME' RULE By CLEMENTE LISI, New York Post February 4, 2004 -- EXCLUSIVE The city has launched an investigation into ferry workers and thousands of other Department of Transportation employees to determine if they are violating a law that requires them to live in the five boroughs, The Post has learned. The DOT has handed out to workers an eight-page questionnaire, asking for their current addresses and for additional information that verifies where they live. Those who live outside the city must either move or lose their jobs. [full article here.] |
