Okay, I am going to start this off with a rant. Do you see that photo at the left? You all know who that guy, don't you? Of course, who doesn't by now. You would have to be living under a rock on Mars not to know. He has tried to interject himself into all aspects of our lives AND he thinks at some point he should be President. I was even in a small shop in my home town of Irving, Texas just a few weeks ago and two "good ol' boys" were talking about this guy like he was their Mayor! Yes, Mayor Bloomberg is the one who has curbed our smoking, lowered our fat and salt intake, and made certain that we know that the Big Mac we crave will kill us one day. Well, he finally went too far with his attempted ban on sugary soda larger than 16 ounces. A very wise and fair NYC judge struck down his unilateral ban ruling that it was "arbitrary and capricious". And like any good tyrant, our little Benito had not bothered to go through the proper legislative channels like consulting the duly-elected representatives of the citizenry of our city, the City Council, for a public vetting. The judge was right on point. Oh, Bloomberg and his people will file an appeal, but it doesn't even have the possibility to be heard before the final (and blessed) end of his reign....er administration on December 31, 2013 at 11:59:50 pm!
But, you know, stuff like this doesn't slow our Mayor down one bit. He has moved on to his next target (pun intended) - guns. His next project is to ban guns around the world, starting everywhere! Guns are bad! Guns kill people and nobody should be allowed to own one. Well, except the guys who stand out in front of his home. Guess whose house this is...
Notice anything in front of that townhouse that is not in front of yours? I will give you no hints because it is rather obvious. That is Mayor Bloomberg's 24/7/365 ARMED security detail paid for by the taxpaying citizen he would deny their own protection!! And not just ANY armed security guards, mind you, but two NYC police officers from the best police force in the USA. These officers stand guard at the front entrance of Mayor Bloomberg's private residence (and I suspect at his back entrances as well) all the time, all day and all night, every day and every night.
I personally took this photo on Sunday morning around 11 am. So, to sum it all up, Mayor Bloomberg is flying around the country admonishing we mere mortals that we should not be allowed to own firearms to protect our families in our own homes, while this jackass has 24/7/365 armed protection for himself and his family and property paid for by the same people who are too stupid/violent/crazy to be allowed to own their own. Pardon me if I rage, but WHO THE HELL* DOES HE THINK HE IS??? Oh, I know, a hypocrite, but then we knew that, didn't we?
Okay moving on:
We're Number 1!! We're Number 1!! Well, or more accurately, We're No. 50!! In a recent study published by George Mason University, New York was found to be the least free state in the union!. Only California and New Jersey rank higher! (Gee, I wonder how THAT could be, Mayor Bloomberg???) Well, it's a very proud day for...no one except Mayor Bloomberg.
Moving on again:
A few weeks ago, we had a police shooting. Kimani Gray, a 16 year old was shot and killed by the police when he allegedly pointed a gun at them. Riots ensued for days. But what has me baffled is the statement by Gray's mother following the shooting. She swears that her son was an innocent victim because he "was too afraid to have a gun, he was like my coward." I don't mean to question or criticize any mother who has just lost a child, but what exactly does that mean "too afraid to have a gun" and "my coward"?
And finally in other news:
Did you really think I could get through a report about New York without adding more names to my ever-growing list of disgraced/arrested/incarcerated New York state elected officials? It just isn't possible. But this time it special! We probably one of the first ever recorded bi-partisan arrests in New York this week! Yes, graft and greed crossed the aisle for a two-fer this week with simultaneous arrests of a Republican AND a Democrat by the FBI in a joint bribery sting. And we thought Tammany Hall were the bad old days. Old Boss Tweed has nothing on modern day New York politicians.
State Senator Malcolm Smith (D) - Arrested for paying bribes to NYC Councilman Daniel Halloran (R) to secure a spot on the Republican ticket for the upcoming Mayoral election.
NYC Councilman Daniel Halloran (R) - Arrested for accepting a bribe from State Senator Malcolm Smith (D) for same.
Oh, plus "...five other politicians, three Republicans and two Democrats, were also arrested and charged with collectively accepting more than $100,000 in bribes in meetings that often took place in parked cars, hotel rooms and state offices..."
Just in case you are keeping score, here is the previous list from 2012-2013:
State Senator Shirley Huntley (D): pleaded guilty to embezzlement of $90,000 in taxpayer funds for personal shopping sprees.
State Assembly Vivian Cook (D): not yet charged; implicated in procuring funds to be funneled to Sen. Huntley and participating in personal shopping sprees.
State Assembly Jimmy Meng (D): pleaded guilty to soliciting bribes
US Representative Gregory Meeks (D): Currently under investigation for accepting $40,000 in unreported "loans" from Queens businessman Edul Ahmad. Ahmad has pleaded guilty and awaiting sentences in a $50 million mortgage fraud scheme.
State Senator Carl Kruger (D) - resigned his seat and pleaded guilty to charges of corruption and bribery. (2011)
State Senator Hiram Monserrate (D-NY) - of the 13th District, was expelled by the New York State Senate on February 9, 2010 in connection with a misdemeanor assault conviction against his girlfriend.
State Senator Efrain Gonzalez (D-NY) On May 25, 2010, Gonzalez was sentenced to 84 months (7 years) in prison, followed by two years supervised release, after pleading guilty to two conspiracy counts and two wire fraud counts in May 2009.
President of the New York City council Andrew Stein (D) - was convicted of tax evasion regarding a Ponzi scheme in November 2010.
Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Pedro Espada Jr. (D) - On May 14, 2012 a federal jury found Espada guilty of embezzling money from federally funded healthcare clinics, after 11 days of deliberation.
State Senator Nicholas Spano (R) - in 2012 Spano was indicted for Federal Income Tax evasion. Spano pleaded guilty to the single felony. He admitted that he under-reported his income — $42,419 in federal income taxes and $10,605 in state taxes — from 2000 to 2008. He is to be sentenced to 12 to 18 months in Federal Prison in June 2012.
*This wasn't my first choice of words...
I don't want to wake up ... in the city ... that never sleeps
ReplyDeleteBev, Wow. I don't think Colorado even has as many legislators in total as New York has in jail alone.
ReplyDeleteBloomberg annoys me to no end. On the other hand, I keep waiting for his Woody Allen "Bananas" moment when he declares that people need to start wearing their underwear on the outside.
By the way, aren't you going to get sent to a slave labor camp in New Jersey if you get caught taking photos of Benito Bloomberg's private residence?
ReplyDeleteI always thought New York electing a billionaire fascist control freak was just a response to Minnesota electing a professional wrestler. Sort of a performance art kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like...Chicago, that most enlightened of all American cities.
ReplyDeleteTennJ - It's great for tourists! They get to enjoy our fair city and then get to leave and go back to North Dakota where they live the free-est of all the states! I think we should send Mayor Bloomberg there just to show them!
ReplyDeleteAndrew - Sometimes I think I live in "Crazy Town" where there is not one politician with any common sense. And they keep freakin' getting RE-ELECTED! Trust me, once Malcolm Smith gets out of jail, he will run for something and win. [See: Charlie Rangel]
ReplyDeleteAlso, I took one photo on my cell very quickly standing by the front stoop of a building across the street. You will notice that I didn't use his address (which was very easy to get with a simple Google search) and I did not blow it up so you could see the faces of the cops. I was afraid that I would find myself "disappeared" off the face of the earth. I have expect someone to contact us to have us take the photo down and will kinda' be disappointed if they don't. Oh, by the way, Bloomy bought the white townhouse on the right too because he did not like the idea of someone living next to him. He's a germaphobe too...
ReplyDelete"Sort of a performance art kind of thing."
ReplyDeleteK - It was a response to something. I like the performance art angle though. Where's Karen Findlay? Maybe she's just getting us back for the whole NEA brouhaha!
But, hey LL, at least unlike Chicago, our crime rate is low...for now.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Bloomberg is who C.S. Lewis was talking about when he uttered that famous line that the do-gooder reformer is far worse than a robber baron, because while the latter's greed can be satiated, the former's desire to "set things right" never can be. Of course, this would mean one of the two time-traveled at some point and encountered the other, but then I could totally see Bloomberg trying to micromanage the space-time continuum as well.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to the headline question: Liberals seem hellbent on exporting their nonsense to every state of the union. Maybe NY's residents are just ahead of the curb in accepting rule by their betters.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav - I have every reason to suspect that Mayor Bloomberg can travel inter-dimensionally and probably already owns the space-time continuum where there is no salt, fat, sugar, smoking or scratchy wool sweaters.
ReplyDeleteK, LOL! Nice! :D
ReplyDeleteBev, You don't disappear off the face of the earth, you end up in New Jersey hand-writing copies of the New York Times or export... which is the same thing.
ReplyDeleteTryanmax: We are not all sheep....baaaa..er,uh. Baaa-ut there are no jobs except for union entertainment jobs coming into the state. Oh, because...get this...the Gov/Legislature gave a...tax break to television and movie film companies if they were shoot in NY! No, really? You give businesses tax breaks and they will come? You have got to be kidding me??!! That just can't work! Well, except every local/county/state where they give tax breaks to businesses that will move in. Works like a charm in Texas. I am sorry that people are moving out of NY and spreading their garbage (sometimes literally) across the nation. But hold the line and shoot if you have to. Ummm, not literally...baaaaaaaa. Four legs good, two legs baaaaaad....
ReplyDeleteBev, T-Rav. Bloomberg is the one responsible for making the no salt, fat, sugar, smoking, scratchy wool sweaters dimension the way it is. Now, like all good liberals, he is traveling to other dimensions to make them all the same. In the name of diversity, of course.
ReplyDeleteTryan - Yes, Conform in the name of Diversity - the liberal way.
ReplyDeleteConform in the name of Diversity!
ReplyDeleteYou will be assimilated!
Is there any way we can stop them at the border??
TOTALLY OT:
ReplyDeleteBTW, Andrew, a friend of mine had posted an "anti-scifi" post on facebook (her husband was watching a scifi movie) that turned into a list of good scifi/fantasy. So, I mentioned (linked) CommentaramaFilms, and Questionable Trek. The husband then posted a link to your Trek book on Amazon... don't know if you got a sale out of it, but I thought it was interesting!
rlaWTX, Cool. I hope they enjoy the film site. :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't diversity about forcing people who aren't like us into the collective? That's what I always took from the diversity people.
ReplyDeleteYou think maybe there's a parallel universe where Bloomberg is a libertarian, "do-your-own-thing" anti-control freak? Actually, I don't have anywhere to go with that comment, I just think it would be neat if there was.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav - The problem is that in the fantasy "Libertarian Bloombergiverse [as opposed to the reality of Bloombergistan!] everyone would be freakin' out because they need him to tell them what to do and he won't do it.
ReplyDeleteAndrew - I thought"diversity" meant to allow everyone to "do their own thing" in small ethno-centric groups (or tribes as they used to be called) and magically if there was a national crisis everyone would come together as one to overcome it. But what we have learned is that it only last for more than one week before the small ethno-centric groups begin to turning on each other.
ReplyDeleteBev, My handbook on diversity is about all cultures being inherently equal and everyone doing their own thing in small ethno-centric groups.... provided they make the right choices and think like liberals. If they don't think like liberals, then their cultures are wrong and must be reformed.
ReplyDeleteAndrew - So are you saying that liberals do not value diversity of thought, but only the "skin-deep" variety? Fie on thee! A pox upon your house! Pee-shah! Oh, wait...that sounds about right.
ReplyDeleteThis Just In:
ReplyDeleteFor you film fans, I am saddened to announce that Roger Ebert, famed film critic, has passed away at the age of 70.
Bev, Yep. Liberals had a dream where little black kids and white kids and brown kids and purple kids all goosestep together in lockstep.
ReplyDeleteI saw the Ebert news and, honestly, the guy was such a turd that I can't care in the least.
ReplyDeleteShame about Ebert. Cancer is a bitch.
ReplyDeleteI didn't agree with all of his (or anybody's) movie reviews and I didn't think much of his take on non-movie stuff, but as a film critic he was entertaining and intelligent and his reviews are usually fun to read.
I have a couple of his books of movie reviews and sometimes I browse through the thousands of old reviews on his website (its interesting to read his take on movie X at the time it was released and compare that to the modern take).
Anthony, I used to like Ebert, but he really angered me over the year with his behavior. And I'm not generally someone who worries about a person's ideology, but he was one of the few who pushed it too far.
ReplyDeleteQuote...> I always thought New York electing a billionaire fascist control freak was just a response to Minnesota electing a professional wrestler. Sort of a performance art kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteGood think I finished my tea before reading this. still chuckling.
Regarding Ebert... the way I see it Bloomberg just lost his evil twin. Not a penny to choose between them. If Martians had discovered either of these two we would have been bulldozed for a space thruway fer shure.
ReplyDeleteHere's what causes me to wonder why anyone would live in NYC: LINK
ReplyDelete$1000/mo. for 250 sq. ft.!?!? Yeah, I understand why NY rents are so high. What I don't understand is why anyone considers that an acceptable standard of living. Go West, young man! That $1000/mo. goes much, much further. (And maybe you won't be so liberal once you realize that life doesn't have to be so hard.)