Friday, January 7, 2011
So, how's it going?
This is what is happening off my side porch right now:
Wonder how it's going 53 miles to the SW?
Thursday, January 6, 2011
More snow is coming! Plows up!
Snow is coming to New York! I don't know how the NYC Sanitation Department can improve on the A+ they received after the last storm, even if they actually plow the snow this time. We'll know by Saturday morning.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Saga of the NYC Winter Storm No-Plow, Part 3: You're kidding, right?
The head of the New York City Sanitation Department, the department responsible for garbage pick-up all year round, and PLOWING SNOW off NYC streets after winter storms, felt his workers did a great job plowing after the recent record-breaking storm:
"From my point of view, they get an A+. From the public's point of view, a C-," Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said of the workers...
Really? An A+? Really?
Not only did did Mr. Doherty's department fail to plow the streets after the storm, but his workers have been unable to do their regular garbage pick-ups because...they're finally working on snow removal so they can actually get to the piles of garbage lining the sidewalks throughout the City.
This video was taken on December 30th and shows the piles, piles and more piles of garbage piling up (with a short, lovely interlude of the skaters at Rockefeller Center and a couple of under-dressed woman heading into the MTV studios).
Remember, this video was taken on December 30th, three days after the storm ended. Garbage pick-up didn't even begin until January 3, two days ago, and it's still a huge problem in many parts of the City, except for the rats, of course. Understandably, the rats give the sanitation workers an A+ and additional points for extra credit.
It seems to me that:
* if the sanitation workers deliberately screwed up the plowing job they were supposed to do after the big storm, they should be fired because they didn't do the job they are paid to do,
or
* if the sanitation workers did the best plowing job they were capable of after the big storm, they should be fired because they couldn't do the job they are paid to do.
But that's just me.
Update:
Some people did enjoy the storm, as it turns out.
"From my point of view, they get an A+. From the public's point of view, a C-," Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said of the workers...
Really? An A+? Really?
Not only did did Mr. Doherty's department fail to plow the streets after the storm, but his workers have been unable to do their regular garbage pick-ups because...they're finally working on snow removal so they can actually get to the piles of garbage lining the sidewalks throughout the City.
This video was taken on December 30th and shows the piles, piles and more piles of garbage piling up (with a short, lovely interlude of the skaters at Rockefeller Center and a couple of under-dressed woman heading into the MTV studios).
Remember, this video was taken on December 30th, three days after the storm ended. Garbage pick-up didn't even begin until January 3, two days ago, and it's still a huge problem in many parts of the City, except for the rats, of course. Understandably, the rats give the sanitation workers an A+ and additional points for extra credit.
It seems to me that:
* if the sanitation workers deliberately screwed up the plowing job they were supposed to do after the big storm, they should be fired because they didn't do the job they are paid to do,
or
* if the sanitation workers did the best plowing job they were capable of after the big storm, they should be fired because they couldn't do the job they are paid to do.
But that's just me.
Update:
Some people did enjoy the storm, as it turns out.
Keeping watch...
Very few of the new members of Congress are planning on spending their off-time in Washington, DC. In fact, all but one of them are going to remain based, with their families, in their home states. That means they'll be running through either the Dulles or Reagan National Airports on a regular basis. Hopefully this will imprint on their brains:
While many of us have great expectations for the 112th Congress and what the new Representatives might accomplish, someone has to keep a close watch to make sure they stick to their guns. Pajamas Media is starting a project to so just that. It'll be called Nothing Washes Over and it will come online soon.
Part of the pre-launch of the new site includes a report card on what the lame-duck Congress did and didn't accomplish over the past couple of months. Not that I care, but here's the conclusion:
Final tally: 4-2 Democrats, with two draws. There were actually several other wins for Obama, a couple of them regulatory — including the nightmare of FCC control of the Internet — but these are the big ones. Fortunately the Republicans are in better shape to oppose some of this for the next two years, and may be able to repair or at least mitigate some of the damage these bills will cause.
But they’ve got to do better than they did during the lame duck session. And we’ll be seeing to that.
As will the rest of us.
While many of us have great expectations for the 112th Congress and what the new Representatives might accomplish, someone has to keep a close watch to make sure they stick to their guns. Pajamas Media is starting a project to so just that. It'll be called Nothing Washes Over and it will come online soon.
Part of the pre-launch of the new site includes a report card on what the lame-duck Congress did and didn't accomplish over the past couple of months. Not that I care, but here's the conclusion:
Final tally: 4-2 Democrats, with two draws. There were actually several other wins for Obama, a couple of them regulatory — including the nightmare of FCC control of the Internet — but these are the big ones. Fortunately the Republicans are in better shape to oppose some of this for the next two years, and may be able to repair or at least mitigate some of the damage these bills will cause.
But they’ve got to do better than they did during the lame duck session. And we’ll be seeing to that.
As will the rest of us.
Good bye and Hello, for now...
Goodbye.
Hello.
For now.
A Rasmussen poll published today shows that a majority of 'likely voters' favored Tea Party-identified candidates over candidates defined as progressive.
Tomorrow Speaker Boehner will open the first session of the 112th Congress by reading the Constitution. Cato's Roger Pilon, in the Wall Street Journal, discusses why that largely symbolic gesture is important and more importantly, how it will hopefully effect the efforts of this Congress. Well worth reading the whole article, including this:
The 112th Congress will have its hands full simply monitoring what the more than 300 federal agencies are up to. But if the new members want to get to the root of the problem—if they want to start restoring limited constitutional government—they'll have to do far more...
First, they'll have to keep the debate focused on the Constitution, not simply on policy or practicality.
Hello.
For now.
A Rasmussen poll published today shows that a majority of 'likely voters' favored Tea Party-identified candidates over candidates defined as progressive.
Tomorrow Speaker Boehner will open the first session of the 112th Congress by reading the Constitution. Cato's Roger Pilon, in the Wall Street Journal, discusses why that largely symbolic gesture is important and more importantly, how it will hopefully effect the efforts of this Congress. Well worth reading the whole article, including this:
The 112th Congress will have its hands full simply monitoring what the more than 300 federal agencies are up to. But if the new members want to get to the root of the problem—if they want to start restoring limited constitutional government—they'll have to do far more...
First, they'll have to keep the debate focused on the Constitution, not simply on policy or practicality.
Rising up...
This opinion piece in today's New York Times discusses a program in Brazil that gives grant money to poor people if they comply with certain rules, making sure their children attend school, for example. The program has, apparently, increased the income of its participants and has reduced the poverty rate from 22% down to 7%.
A similar program in Mexico has also successfully met its goals of increased school attendance and more visits to medical clinics. Forty countries around the world have started linking welfare money to standards of behavior.
I certainly have no problem tying standards of behavior to receiving public money, especially if the money is already on its way to a poor family. Shoot, even though I believe New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is the King of the Nanny State, I agreed with the rule he supported that removed soda from the list of food items that food stamps can buy. That's what happens sometimes when you use someone else's money, they get to set the rules.
I believe a better and more long term solution to poverty anywhere is the use of microloans. Microloans promote individual responsibility, and dreams for the future, better than any program that requires one to follow someone else's priorities. Kiva, only one among many organizations providing microloans around the world, makes it easy for individuals to participate in their program.
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World offers an interesting overview of how microfinancing works as Jacqueline Novogratz makes her way from working as an international credit analyst to founding the Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture fund.
Historically, microloans have focused primarily on Third World countries, but that is changing. Kiva, and other microloan companies like Microplace and Modestneeds, are offering the same opportunities here in the United States. To Catch a Dollar, a documentary released a year ago, shows the impact the microloans have had in the US. It focuses on Muhammad Yunas, Nobel Peace Prize winner for both pioneering the idea and proving the success of microloans in the Third World, who decided the same model could work in America. It's not available on netflix, but here's a clip
This review of the film is pretty compelling. I'll figure out some way to see it.
A similar program in Mexico has also successfully met its goals of increased school attendance and more visits to medical clinics. Forty countries around the world have started linking welfare money to standards of behavior.
I certainly have no problem tying standards of behavior to receiving public money, especially if the money is already on its way to a poor family. Shoot, even though I believe New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is the King of the Nanny State, I agreed with the rule he supported that removed soda from the list of food items that food stamps can buy. That's what happens sometimes when you use someone else's money, they get to set the rules.
I believe a better and more long term solution to poverty anywhere is the use of microloans. Microloans promote individual responsibility, and dreams for the future, better than any program that requires one to follow someone else's priorities. Kiva, only one among many organizations providing microloans around the world, makes it easy for individuals to participate in their program.
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World offers an interesting overview of how microfinancing works as Jacqueline Novogratz makes her way from working as an international credit analyst to founding the Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture fund.
Historically, microloans have focused primarily on Third World countries, but that is changing. Kiva, and other microloan companies like Microplace and Modestneeds, are offering the same opportunities here in the United States. To Catch a Dollar, a documentary released a year ago, shows the impact the microloans have had in the US. It focuses on Muhammad Yunas, Nobel Peace Prize winner for both pioneering the idea and proving the success of microloans in the Third World, who decided the same model could work in America. It's not available on netflix, but here's a clip
This review of the film is pretty compelling. I'll figure out some way to see it.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Gone in one second...
Andrew Malcolm from the Los Angeles Times tries to place some perspective on the $14 trillion (as of last Friday) national debt.
Fourteen trillion is 14-thousand billions. A billion is a thousand millions. A million is a thousand thousands.
A trillion has so many zeroes it won't fit in your checkbook -- 12 zeros, to be exact...
On [June 1] the national debt was "only" $13 trillion. It's 214 days from June 1 through last Friday, Dec. 31. That's 5,136 hours or 308,160 minutes or 18,489,600 seconds.
Fourteen trillion is 14-thousand billions. A billion is a thousand millions. A million is a thousand thousands.
A trillion has so many zeroes it won't fit in your checkbook -- 12 zeros, to be exact...
On [June 1] the national debt was "only" $13 trillion. It's 214 days from June 1 through last Friday, Dec. 31. That's 5,136 hours or 308,160 minutes or 18,489,600 seconds.
In those seven short months the national debt increased by $1,000,000,000,000.
That works out to be a growth in national debt of $54,084 borrowed during every single one of those 18,489,600 seconds.
Scroll down to see approximately what that brief second looks like in real money:
THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
PLUS THIS MUCH
IN BORROWED MONEY EVERY SECOND SINCE JUNE 1
Salmon P. Chase, who knew?
If there was ever any doubt about the role a teacher can play in the lives of students, the 2009 documentary Pressure Cooker puts it to rest. Wilma Stephenson, who teaches culinary-arts at the all-Black Frankford High School in Philadelphia, never lets up on her students as she guides them towards a citywide scholarship competition held every spring.
The expectations she places on them are high and, while Ms. Stephenson understands the difficulties some of her students face outside of school, there is no room for excuses in her classroom. As with Waiting For Superman and The Lottery concentrates on a few students as they push themselves to meet Ms. Stephenson's expectations and prepare for the scholarship competition. Pretty amazing.
Wonderful movie ~ available on netflix, of course. And three cheers and a big raise for Wilma Stephenson!
The expectations she places on them are high and, while Ms. Stephenson understands the difficulties some of her students face outside of school, there is no room for excuses in her classroom. As with Waiting For Superman and The Lottery concentrates on a few students as they push themselves to meet Ms. Stephenson's expectations and prepare for the scholarship competition. Pretty amazing.
Wonderful movie ~ available on netflix, of course. And three cheers and a big raise for Wilma Stephenson!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Why am I not surprised?
As witnessed in the youtube video from the last posting, much of Europe has been (or soon will be) bankrupted by pensions. In fact, the United States is behind the curve in terms of unfunded pensions compared to Greece and Portugal.
Not to worry about our sophisticated cousins though. They have come up with a great solution without having to reduce social spending ~ raid private savings accounts! Perfect! The concept of private property has always been a bit of a grey area in Europe anyway.
Hungary alone was able to stuff $14 billion (US) from individual retirement savings into the public coffers after threatening its citizens that if they didn't give up their savings they would not receive the Hungarian version of social security, even though they'd have to continue making payments on it. Sounds like blackmail to me.
At least, not for a good reason, right?
Not to worry about our sophisticated cousins though. They have come up with a great solution without having to reduce social spending ~ raid private savings accounts! Perfect! The concept of private property has always been a bit of a grey area in Europe anyway.
Hungary alone was able to stuff $14 billion (US) from individual retirement savings into the public coffers after threatening its citizens that if they didn't give up their savings they would not receive the Hungarian version of social security, even though they'd have to continue making payments on it. Sounds like blackmail to me.
Here in the US, our government would NEVER confiscate property from a citizen. And certainly, our government would NEVER raid any sort of private money account, right?
At least, not for a good reason, right?
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Rivers of tears...
Remember the New York City plow crews who, it appears, were discouraged by their supervisors from doing their job? Remember the plow guys who destroyed the parked car? Thanks to citizen reporters pounding the beat on the streets of New York, there is evidence that plow crews did indeed find other things to do during the storm, including drinking beer in their trucks and spending the night drinking coffee in diners.
And then there were the guys who just plain didn't show up for work at all, double the usual number of no-shows.
And public employees wonder why they get picked on by taxpayers. This morning the New York Time ran an article about the abuse being heaped upon public employees including the teacher in New Jersey, infamous for arguing with Governor Christie during some public forum, who is called "horrible names [by strangers]...The mantra is that the problem is the unions, the unions, the unions.”
Yup. In 2000, according to the Times article, New Jersey legislators cut five years off of the retirement age for police and firefighters," and in 2001, a 9 percent increase in pension benefits for state employees was passed by NJ legislature. Yet another perfect example of politicians-money-votes, politicians-money-votes...it's not exactly rocket science.
Even the reliably liberal Times points out that spending huge amounts of someone else's money can buy a lot of votes, and cites an excellent article, well worth reading, from the the Manhattan Institute (via The Weekly Standard) which discusses the history of buying votes from public workers (JFK realized how politically powerful public workers would be if organized, and initiated the required legislation two years after his own very close election) and explains perfectly how the politicians-money-votes system works.
...unlike private sector unions, those in the public sector can achieve influence on both sides of the bargaining table by making campaign contributions and organizing get-out-the-vote drives to elect politicians who then control the negotiations over their pay, benefits, and work rules. The result is a nefarious cycle: Politicians agree to generous government worker contracts; those workers then pay higher union dues a portion of which are funneled back into those same politicians’ campaign war chests. It is a cycle that has driven California and New York to the edge of bankruptcy.
But public pensions and benefits aren't breaking budgets in just California and New York, it's happening all over the country on both the state and local levels.
Well, to use a tired cliche, the frigging chickens have COME HOME TO ROOST.
All that whining from people who have jobs-for-life, and benefits we can only imagine, is just about to get a whole lot worse, or better, depending on how you feel about budget-breaking public employee pensions. Some politicians, at both the city and the state levels, are taking on the unions.
The newly elected Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, plans to ask state workers to contribute 5% of their salaries towards their pension and double the 6% they now pay towards their health premiums. Other governors, mainly Republicans such as John Kasich of Ohio and Mich Daniels of Indiana, are likely to take on the cost of public employees as well.
If Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) gets his way, the federal government will be banned from bailing out any of the budget-busted state and local governments, forcing them to accept reality and, if it's not too much to ask, show a little respect for the people who fund their paychecks ~ us.
If any of this comes to pass, we're likely to see this or worse on the news.
These are workers in France protesting the increase of the retirement age from 60 to 62. Just think if the French government had increased the retirement age to 65. Can you imagine?
The Reason Foundation has an interesting paper about the California's broken pension system ~ how it reached the crisis point and what steps can be taken to fix it.
And then there were the guys who just plain didn't show up for work at all, double the usual number of no-shows.
And public employees wonder why they get picked on by taxpayers. This morning the New York Time ran an article about the abuse being heaped upon public employees including the teacher in New Jersey, infamous for arguing with Governor Christie during some public forum, who is called "horrible names [by strangers]...The mantra is that the problem is the unions, the unions, the unions.”
Yup. In 2000, according to the Times article, New Jersey legislators cut five years off of the retirement age for police and firefighters," and in 2001, a 9 percent increase in pension benefits for state employees was passed by NJ legislature. Yet another perfect example of politicians-money-votes, politicians-money-votes...it's not exactly rocket science.
Even the reliably liberal Times points out that spending huge amounts of someone else's money can buy a lot of votes, and cites an excellent article, well worth reading, from the the Manhattan Institute (via The Weekly Standard) which discusses the history of buying votes from public workers (JFK realized how politically powerful public workers would be if organized, and initiated the required legislation two years after his own very close election) and explains perfectly how the politicians-money-votes system works.
...unlike private sector unions, those in the public sector can achieve influence on both sides of the bargaining table by making campaign contributions and organizing get-out-the-vote drives to elect politicians who then control the negotiations over their pay, benefits, and work rules. The result is a nefarious cycle: Politicians agree to generous government worker contracts; those workers then pay higher union dues a portion of which are funneled back into those same politicians’ campaign war chests. It is a cycle that has driven California and New York to the edge of bankruptcy.
But public pensions and benefits aren't breaking budgets in just California and New York, it's happening all over the country on both the state and local levels.
Well, to use a tired cliche, the frigging chickens have COME HOME TO ROOST.
All that whining from people who have jobs-for-life, and benefits we can only imagine, is just about to get a whole lot worse, or better, depending on how you feel about budget-breaking public employee pensions. Some politicians, at both the city and the state levels, are taking on the unions.
The newly elected Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, plans to ask state workers to contribute 5% of their salaries towards their pension and double the 6% they now pay towards their health premiums. Other governors, mainly Republicans such as John Kasich of Ohio and Mich Daniels of Indiana, are likely to take on the cost of public employees as well.
If Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) gets his way, the federal government will be banned from bailing out any of the budget-busted state and local governments, forcing them to accept reality and, if it's not too much to ask, show a little respect for the people who fund their paychecks ~ us.
If any of this comes to pass, we're likely to see this or worse on the news.
These are workers in France protesting the increase of the retirement age from 60 to 62. Just think if the French government had increased the retirement age to 65. Can you imagine?
The Reason Foundation has an interesting paper about the California's broken pension system ~ how it reached the crisis point and what steps can be taken to fix it.
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