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 |
