The Hayseeds blog, No. 50 for the week starting February 14, 2004.
January 31, 2004
Hayseeds No. 49
February 14, 2004
Hayseeds No. 50
February 21, 2004
Hayseeds No. 50
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We've come a long ways in America, to the point where country music artists freely reference things like Janis Joplin's music, something that no country music artist or other redneck 30 years would even admit it existed. Remember the 1973 Weathermen firebombing of that country music concert (I forget who the artist was)? It's kind of strange the diffusion of the radical culture of the 1960s into sections of life that would seem to be the anti-thesis (like the redneck population).
The somewhat merging (although certainly not complete and with distinctive flavors) of the rather intellectual hippie drop-out back-to-nature/commune culture with that of the less intellectual redneck culture is interesting or how it seems both elements are unseperatable in modern society with both groups living side by side on the land. It's just so interesting how the two groups reconsel their differences in philosophy and experience.
with his picture and his critique of ugly urbanization getting the front page of the Times Union paper. He has some great points:
He is not the first to rip the Empire State Plaza in Albany. He may be the first to dub the late Gov. Nelson Rockefeller "Captain Kirk" who "arranged for this UFO to land like a Vulcan acropolis in the center of the state's capital city around 1972."
See also his fairly nice, but confusing website kunstler.com. Speaking of that, and talking about disposable buildings, take a look at the Big Ice Arena in Bethelhem, it's up for sale, and it's future is unknown as an ice arena.
Of course, I've always been pretty critical of James Howard Kunstler, insofar as is many of his suppostly serious solutions seem to be more window dressing then solutions to a problem, a problem he decries with current urban revialitization. His view of the great buildings and design of things tends to be highly biased towards the traditional, with little view of the future.
Still, it would be great if we as a society could do more to improve our downtowns, but I think that requires far more then improving our street design. We must improve the people in some form or another: be it through some kind of massive economic program which includes an important higher education program.
If anything is effecting our cities, it is ignorance and poverty. Model cities is a program that was stilborne because we couldn't get the funding. Not to mention, we need more passion to counter the great apathy. Cities need to become more fair, more free. We must find solutions that keep people in line without using coercision. That's a seemingly impossible task. But as they say, nothing is impossible, as our only (truly) limited resource is our imaginations. Everything can be improved on and created through technology, as material can not be created or destroyed.
money the NYSDOT is wasting outsourcing work, that could be done by state employees much cheaper for things like routine bridge inspections. I'm all for more state employees, with all their good bennies, if it's saving the state money, of course the only ones who would be opposed to such notions would be the contractors getting these lucrative contractors. I'd like to see the non-PEF side of this story, but it's still intriguing.
that creates lots of redtape and little resolve in capitol, not unlike most issues. We see the usual tatics at work here, including my favorite: Interest Group 'A' does not want a policy, but is forced to support or at least not strongly support a policy because supporting such a policy would increase consistancy between towns, counties, or states something that they desire.
I'm sure those political scientist people have a word to describe this. You see this all the time with federalism. The NYFB and the open burning bill is an example of this, as is NYSSA and the 55 MPH snowmobile speed limit.
A bill to establish a 55 mph maximum speed limit on snowmobile trails has passed for many years in the Assembly, but has been on-off-on-again in the Senate. NYSSA studied this issue, but its applied science did not have any medical-expert testimony. Snowmobilers complain the limit would take away riding rights.
In 1999, the Senate and the Assembly sponsored a multifaceted bill on improved snowmobile safety that would have authorized localities to control snowmobile speed limits. NYSSA complained of the cumbersome responsibility for having to follow different speed-limit signs posted when snowmobile riding from county to county.
Sigh... So as we all know, we all end up losing rights. I know, the 55 MPH snowmobile speed limit is an issue of safety and environmental (hitting squarrels on the trail), but it seems as though such lobbies don't really have a clue, including our very own Jack McEneny. Sigh. I wish I could like my represenatives, be it Jack McEnery or Mike McNutty, but that's not the case. Sometimes I question my allegence to the Democratic party.
say that the ATV trail idea holds a lot of weight, although there are a few mistakes in it.
To achieve this, the governor wants to raise fees and create a new fund for all-terrain vehicle trails in other areas of the state.
Good idea. But the breakdown of how the money would be spent seems unfair to ATV riders and should be revised. The governor wants to raise annual fees for registering ATVs from $10 to $45. He calculates this will bring in about $5.8 million to the state coffers, but only $850,000 would be spent on trails and enforcement.
The rest of the money would go into the general fund, presumably to offset shortfalls in the budget. If ATV fees are going to be raised this drastically, those paying the bill should get more of the benefit. Designating more money to trail programs also would benefit the environment.
Which is all fine and danty, 'till you remember this proposal is on a budget bill and it all magically will disappear next year (except for the fee increase of course), unless the legislature decides to keep the program alive (unlikely if the state spends like a maniac and the economic continues in the dumps). The eds are right though that fees going up a lot, and only $7 bucks out of the $45 will be spent on anything-ATV related. Then again, I guess that's somewhat better then the $0 bucks spent on ATV-related stuff for the $10 user fee that people have been paying since 1986. I know that isn't fair, there is some money spent on the couple of ATV trails in New York, and more spent currently on enforcement, but none of it's coming out of the non-existant dedicated ATV registation fund, so it's hard to say how much of a deal riders are getting for the $10 fee right now, besides a lousy one.
would be Fred LeBrun's nice little article on the struggles of Mark Ferran, his land, and a tresspassing ATV'er. I've mentioned about him several times in the past, and he always emails over some interesting stuff, but Fred's article does a good job summarizing his extra-legal and legal battles. It's a good story, and worth reading it.
Yes, it's kind of strange how the state sometimes defends against it's own interest, or the obvious right side, but that's what we pay DAs do, otherwise they wouldn't exist. To me, it's great to see individuals winning and getting power, this is more then just harrassing ATVers or protecting property rights. It's reasonable to give people ability to protect what they own, without the help of the state (which obviously has failed Ferran throughout this mess).
I've almost always argued that there has to be a lower standard for individuals, and a higher standard for any kind of organized activity: the state and corporations. As such individuals should be expected to follow fewer rules, and should be more free. Organization should come at a penality, it should require a greater degree of responsibility, due to the greater threat rational action is to our society.
master plan for snowmobiles tonight, I've gotten to meet some neat people like Peter Bauer of Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, and the director of NYSSA, among others. Yes, he's a real geek with a sweaky voice which seems perfect for his political position). I guess some people have to sit on the otherside of the isle, as they say.
It was surpising how few people were there in actuality, there is only going to be 5 public hearings in the whole state of New York, so some people traveled almost 150 miles just to get to this hearing, besides many of the mainstays of Albany lobbying. In total, maybe about 50 people attended this hearing, and many of them lobbyists. Which is really quite sad, figuring that there are something like 160,000 snowmobilers out there, and this is probably going to be the biggest of all the hearings on the master plan, with all the Albany-insiders there (although the real die-hards like NYSSA will be at each one).
So roughly .1% of all snowmobilers in New York will be represented in such hearings, assuming there is exactly 50 people in each hearing (which is unlikely, many may be smaller). Lobbyists are there to represent the will of people, and if you send you bucks to your local snowmobile club, your set but direct democracy is so much more fun!
The proposal is pretty complex, but it proposes three classes of snowmobile trails as I understand it, with Type III being the new one, and the one vehemintly opposed by environmentalists.
Again, this only applies to the Adirondack park, and it only sets guidelines for each Region's Master Use Plan, and has to pass snuff with the Adirondack Park Agency, something that may or may not happen with new type III trails. The plan also suggests that all trail groomers get special training in trail grooming from the state, including pratices that improve conservation. Of course, it seems kind of silly to me. I don't imagine groomers to be that destructive, but I guess you never know.
The Type III trails as previously noted, will connect towns together for trails, and will hopefully help promote economic growth. They're going to be pretty wide: 12 feet wide is the width of the typical interstate lane! But with high speed use, this is neccessary, as you want some distance between snowmobiles when they are passing each other at a high speed, figuring each snowmobile is a bit under 4 feet wide.
But that will cut some pretty large gouges in the forest, an issue that doesn't pass consitutional muster, at least according to the environmentalists. Some people testified that they believe snowmobiles have no place in the park at all, and others argued that snowmobiles have minimal effect on the environment and that in many cases hikers are far more destructive (hikers erode bare ground, while snowmobiles drive on snow). The plan is to open these new trails up, and then close off the old trails that are narrower and go deeper in the woods. Yet, that got the ire of some environmentalists who noted the DEC doesn't have the budget to stop people from riding off the trails.
Some people discussed the air quality and pollution issues, but others pointed out they are mostly a nil point in upstate New York, and that many new 2-stroke snowmobiles (according to NYSSA) exceed the future EPA standards, and 4-stroke machines are even cleaner. There was a mention of oil spill/oily emissions on the snow, but that didn't get much of a consideration. More of a concern of many there was the lack of DEC study into the effects.
Another issue of contention was the maintance of the trails, namely how maintained do you want to make them. My best guess is (depending who you ask, the DEC seems not totally clear) they want to limit trail maintance to almost all hand removal and clearing of rocks and other things (keeping bulldozers and the alike out), but also allow things like dynomite for removing bolders.
Cutting down trees is a contenous issue. Case law seems to allow for the removal of trees for safety and access, but the courts have never been super clear. Currently the DEC won't remove trees bigger then 6" in diamenter, which is going to be a problem for building these high speed access trails. The new proposal appears to be quiet on this issue. Right now with that tree limitation, many of the 8' trails are narrower then that, some claim that 4' is standard in many areas, essentially meaning that passing snowmobiles must come to a full yeild to each other, and find a place where they can safely pass.
The issue of rocks is another one, besides blasting and hand removal, the DEC plans to remove anything sticking out above 6". Environmentalists think that will make trails too smooth and like roads (illegal under the state consitution), and snowmobilers think 6" is too high, dangerous for groomers and riders alike.
Norm Vandenburg (former DEC snowmobile planner who wrote in Adirondack Explorer that he adovated killing snomwobilers) and piano wire jokes came up repeatly through the conference. You just knew this was going to be a subject of debate through the night, and the Property Rights Foundation lady who spoke, screamed out some of his quotes, in her paranoid quotes about the DEC.
ATVs were brough up several times from the hearing, in particular environmentalists were concerned about the issue of these 'wider' trails becoming magnets for ATVers, or some kind of a backdoor way to expand ATV trails in the Adirondacks. Some snowmobilers didn't have exactly postative thing to say about ATVs. I can't blame them. ATV generated muck certainly sometimes wrecks good snowmobile trails. Others were more postitive about them, seeing a balance and a neccessity to promote a diversity of activities in the Adirondacks. The farmer that was there, was less then pleased with ATVs, as he had problems with them tresspassing and damaging his field, but snowmobiles were harmless and enjoy'd snowmobiling.
The issue of liability and allowing recreational activities on people's private property came up, a former trial lawyer now lobbyist (for a snowmobile assocation, I believe) pointed out that New York General Obligation law exempts liability against people who allow people to ride on their land in good faith, as long as they do not charge fees or purposely try to hurt people (like using piano wire). Of course, you can still file a groundless suit against people, and try to milk more money out of them, effectively discouraging snomwobiling, and that's not good.
That's most of the interesting/major points from the public hearing. It was fascinating, and I learned alot.
New York State can almost now claim title to the South Mall, although not offically yet. Yet, one billion dollars doesn't seem like a lot of money, compared to the federal or even state budgets now days, but it was a lot compared to the orginal of $135 or so million dollar proposal that the South Mall orginally was.
In all honesty, this financing scheme for the Empire State Plaza has to make anybody grin, particularly the part about running checks up and done the State Street hill to ensure that voters would never have to vote on the financing of the South Mall.
If anything, these innovations in creative financing forever changed State Government, far beyond the city of Albany and the adminsitration of Governor Rockefeller. Every state now uses moral obligation bonds, selling property to itself (to balance budgets), bonding off to other levels of government, etc. Rockefeller was an innovator, who forever deminished the limits of what government could do, and probably found more ways to pervert the public's will, then ever mentioned before.
Strangely this article didn't mention how the governor condemned most of this land, he often gave people very little time (72 hours) to challenge such condemnations, but of course, this was the early 1960s, and African Americans didn't count. Likewise, the area the South Mall took out was at one point the core of the Democratic Party, it's amazing he got Corning to go along with him, then again, Corning probably saw this as a way to get his city on the map, not to mention increasing the now roughly $10 million a year in payments-in-lieu of taxes.
See the TU article.
that were electructing and killing some milk cows in upstate New York (through starvation and electruction). Well today, we take it one step further, with our friends in downstate New York, and electric manholes. It's turns out that some sucker stepped on a manhole in NYC walking their dog, and found out what 120 V feels like, although now they aren't around to tell it.
The City and ConEd are running around trying to test for stray volts on manholes and electric poles and they are finding quite a few cases of it. Then again, we are talking about a pretty big city. About 120 where found to be hot, with voltages from the single digits to over 140, ouch.
I feel kind of shocked over these events: if not only for those poor kids, but the poor kids who will see their civil liberties suspended. Acts like this require immediate action for the perpectators, and nobody else. While our current American system of justice does not permit shooting of criminals at point blank, one could only hope for such a system. After all, most theorists agree that crime is a societal and state interest, the state should take an active role in procecuting criminals, even those who do not commit a direct crime against the state, but against another individual.
If people don't trust their safety, they are likely to blame the state and try to remove those who are in power. Or so the argument goes: the state needs some kind of justification for coercision over individuals in private matters. At any rate, this suggests that modern political thought believes that when an individual is injured, it hurts society as a whole: in the form of a feeling of insecurity (which is a totally irrational and baseless claim).
More importantly though, but often ignored in our public dialog, is the issue of loss liberties and freedom with any such crime against society. Crime is a focusing event, it causes us to take political actions not previously considered ('political-action' function of crime), and at the same time strikes fear in us, making us as individuals choose other actions ('terrorist' function of crime).
It's too bad the second is so ignored, as it's the largest consiquence of them all. Like it or not, 99% of us aren't going to be directly effected by any crime, but 99% of us will be effected by any new law, be it new gun control statues, deminished civil liberties, security hoops to go through, or just a dimished sense of freedom and dignity (something which is constantly in peril). Also this will lead to to more government and higher taxes, which will have no real effect except maybe calm some idiot's fears, eventhough such proposals will never work.
Every single one of us are autonomous individuals. We are free to whatever actions that we are physically able to do, and as human beings we can apply rationality in ways to exploit almost any situtation. Security is a joke, as is social control. Focault's Discipline and Punishment is a classic example of this.
We can make it really difficult to just get a silly 12-gauge shotgun, and make people jump through hoops to into buildings, but we all know that won't make a difference for people who totally fundamentally reject the social contract that bonds together society. After all the social contract doesn't even exist on paper, it's just socially-accepted norms of accepting dominance, partially generated through false conscienous and the desire of the stability that human rationality provides to us.
This scares both society and government, we all live in a rather thoughtless, irrational society, and individuals can not be controlled, except by their own bodies. Government and greater society relies on a certain tacit consent as described by Locke.
This might be true, but who is creating this culture of violence? Let's consider both what R.D. Laing and Micheal Focault would have said about such shootings. First R.D. Laing:
"What we call 'normal' is a product of repression, denial, splitting, projection, introjection and other forms of destructive action on experience. It is radically estranged from the structure of being. The more one sees this, the more senseless it is to continue with generalized descriptions of supposedly specifically schizoid, schizophrenic, hysterical 'mechanisms.' There are forms of alienation that are relatively strange to statistically 'normal' forms of alienation. The 'normally' alienated person, by reason of the fact that he acts more or less like everyone else, is taken to be sane. Other forms of alienation that are out of step with the prevailing state of alienation are those that are labeled by the 'formal' majority as bad or mad."
What is modernity but a destructive of experience? The new has to replace the old: which we in a pathelogical sense ship off to Rapp Road, and smile with our new shinny new stuff. Foucault's argument on madness would be that is little more then a system of classification over people, a method of discipline to control people and get them to act a specific way: even if it's a totally insane things. R.D. Laing's most famous quote is his section on the normal man:
The condition of alienations of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one"s mind, is the condition of the normal man.
Society highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal.
Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years.
Our behaviour is a function of our experience. We act according to the way we see things.
If our experience is destroyed, our behaviour will be destructive.
If our experience is destroyed, we have lost our own selves.
Yes, the normal is our pathelogical society that kills our brothers for the heck of it, for weapons of mass destruction that don't exist or forces of evil that aren't really conspiring against us (the Vietmenese). And that says nothing of the hypocricy that Timothy McVeigh so famously noted about our government with Spirit of Oklahoma dropping bombs on Iraq, eventhough the US continues to own prohibited WMD. We are more evil and sick then Iraq, but we aren't conscienously self-destructive, although it's obvious that bureaucracyy is just that.
Our notion Rationality is best portrayed through capitalism (which essentially is the same thing as socialism and government, forms of dominance), the allocation of resources through rational means. Can anyone argue that capitalism is not self-destructive? If capitalist companies were able to monopolize all the resources they wanted, there would soon be only one or two corporations. The environment would be rapidly destroyed if we ignored pollution problems, it would be more then just a failure of the commons.
We should look at the alternatives to terrorism and try to push are youth towards to peaceful political change. I have created three responses to the evils of capitalism. Only one of them is desirable if we seek a peaceful society.
The week is almost over it would seem. My Project 1 for CSI310 is basically done, and it's great to get it off my chest. It's been going on too long. So are most of the exams for a while. And I have a 4 day weekend coming up.... I got to get ready for school now. Buh, bye. Read below.
accidently get too many food stamps from the state, when the state screws up, and places all kinds of conditions on them, but we don't even require EmpireZone tax break recievers to keep jobs in NY. Brodsky and Co. want change things:
State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and state Sen. Nicholas Spano say their bill would send a message to such companies as Eastman Kodak, General Electric and Kraft, all of which have reduced their New York work forces after taking business incentives from the state.
"A company that accepts money from the state of New York has a moral obligation to keep the jobs resulting from that aid here in New York," said Spano, a Westchester County Republican. "This legislation would ensure that the taxpayers who provided the grant would also benefit from its economic impact."
Which is good. If we are giving out corporate welfare, we should be guaranteed that we are getting something back like jobs. We are being milked to death by high userfees, after all. Too many corporations are changing names to get the tax breaks, or are outsourcing jobs to outside of NY, while collecting money (essentially) from the state for creating jobs. And this isn't helping farmers or feeding the hungry and marginal like food stamps. I don't think this stuff will be particularly relevant to agribusiness zones like the governor proposed, so there is no losing on those grounds. Still some Republicans oppose adding such conditions, saying businesses will say 'F-U New York', a trendy slogan in NY. They'll leave because they can't steal money from the tax payers of NY.
Charles Gargano, head of Empire State Development and a top adviser to Gov. George Pataki, said the state must be "very careful" about penalizing companies.
"We can't stand here with our noses in the air and say, 'If you do this, we'll penalize you,' " he said. "They'll say, 'Goodbye, New York.' "
Gargano said the state can't "dictate" to CEOs how to run their companies.
Says who? Companies are just political entities like government bureacracies. We have every right to control them like we our own government. That said, government can't exactly move out of a state, as it fixed to a specific terrorial area. Companies if they want the tax break, and want to work in NY, should have to live under some conditions, just like people who get food stamps (which are essentially the same thing, but in different domains). And the net results of food stamps and EmpireZone are the same: people can survive better.
In conclusion: Gargano can't even give us numbers, and that's never good for a program.
But at a legislative hearing Tuesday on Gov. George Pataki's proposed 2004-05 budget, Gargano could not say how many jobs had been created since 1995 because of Empire Zones or if companies that got special breaks reached or exceeded job targets.
pollywog and frog pond in the Adirondacks by re-posioning the non-native species in the pond, and restocking the lakes. These two ponds have been overrun by non-native species in the past-30 years (when the ponds were last cleared out), partly caused by careless fishermen. Environmentalists aren't thrilled with plan, as they say it will distrupt the ecosystem, but are these ponds any different from other ponds, and don't we understand the ecosystems enough of Adirondack ponds well enough to bring them back up to a natural levels? Plus, more trout fishing and a cleaner environment is always good.
often when it applies to ethics, like the fact that your not suppost use state employees to work on your farm, even if you are the chair of Senate Agriculture, or in this case, campaign funds to visit the Orangemen in New Orleans. I don't know, she's never gotten in trouble before in New York, with their non-existant half-hearted ethics laws, although sometimes the media has complained. Like usual, it could be considered a campaign stop to see the Syracuse Orangemen in New Orleans, so she's probably off the hook. The TU people think it's a big unneccessary expense, something I'm not so sure of. Have to keep a watch, especially if the Republicans decide (unlikely) that she's the scapegoat for their run against Chuck E. Schumer.
continuing to sell his idea of new userfees to fund highway construction. He's a Pataki appointee, and it looks like that he is pulling the state in that direction, and he obviously wants more toll booths, the hell with the inconvience, cost, and legal issues. This is the Pataki maintee: I'm cutting taxes, no, not really, but I'll appear that I am. In the meantime, I'll milk lots of user fees out of people. The obvious problem is income taxes are totally disfunctional and unproportional in New York, with the middle class paying way too much through user fees. NY used to have far more progressive income tax, but much of that has been replaced with fees. So the poor like me and you get milked. And we get crappier roads.
Is it just me, or has road construction and improvement slowed for the most part in upstate New York, since Pataki has become Governor? Or so it appears to me. I thought Republicans were suppost to be good to upstate, and reflecting our more conservative interests, but that seems not be the case, at least with the Pataki record. I'm rapidly starting to far prefer Cuomo, where our roads got built better, our taxes lower, and our quality of life better (well except the state museum was falling apart under Cuomo). At least under Cuomo we weren't wasting so much money on prison construction and frivolous security measures.
it takes $18 freaking bucks to fill her up. She can remember back to the $10 fillup, and so I can. Especially winter 2002 had cheap gas, it was cheap in winter '02. I was paying $1.75 a gallon, at the cheapest gas station around, and that's redicolous. I know it's good to get the MTBE out of things, and the cold winter has raised prices, but this is getting really annoyning.
To make matters worst OPEC plans to milk more money out ofthose damn terrorists. I think we should invade more of the middle east, and make them our bitches, it's obvious that we aren't doing a very good job in Iraq so for. I'm just glad I'm not filling up a V-8 Silverado or other big truck, a $50 gas bill is just too scary (figure 30 gallon tank + high octane gas).
NY having an independent budget office, as proposed by democrats in the Assembly. But we know that won't work, things are too partisan charged in NY, and the Republicans will never go for it. And it won't elimate the Senate and Assembly budget offices, just add another layer of bureaucracy. I don't know how to ensure the budget passes on time, but maybe making the due date May or June 1st, as suggested by some might be a start, and Sheldon/Joe's plan to move all the budget hearings early this year looks encouraging. Maybe this will be the year of the on time budget, but many political observers disagree, but Shelly and Joe are optimistic. This means it will happen.
I've been thinking a lot about these troublesome notions, and more ideas have come to my head about the issue. One other notions one should consider: background. The suburban feed-lot mentality to mass-schooling, in a suppostly good school, but I have my doubts. The ability to churn out mass-produced students of good quality says nothing about their real intellect. Then there was the issue of the defective family. Why wasn't there greater social pressure for them to stay together, and keep from producing children that are totally screwed up? Our society with it's permissiveness may be largely to blame. Finally one should note (like I argued yesterday), that all the post-Columbine school safety measures taken failed because they couldn't get anywhere near the root of the problem, they were bureacratic, and most of all, individuals are autonomous.
If you want more details then look at what the Times Union has for the facts, although pretty boring, and claims the usual school shooting stereotype bullshit. Stereotyping and profiling isn't going to get us anywhere, when it comes to understanding school shootings or anything else that's wrong with society. The FBI has dumped profiling since the '70s, and the fact is anybody can do whatever they want, if they so choose to act in a certain way. It's just rather sad that this had to happen in our backyard, not to mention rather shocking. It's both wrong, not as much for the people who are dead or injured, but for the rest of us who are just using our basic civil liberties to live a dignified and free life.
high schools through out our nation, and that we are working hard to make our kids into little Nazis. Look no farther then Voorheesville. It appears that a teacher is in hot water for discussing the virtues of Hitler in both positive and negative light, we might upset from freaking jews. Well, we all know how easy they get upset, as demostrated by Isreal. Okay, that was really anti-semetic, but you get my point about this political correctness bull.
Bulls are only good for beef and helping calving along, they don't belong in our schools. We should be honest who are, and not pull any of this bull. Hitler may have been a very good person. It seems many Germans felt this way throughout the 1930s and early-1940s. Still many people world-wide still believe this, witness in the neo-nazis. Not to mention, he did a lot of good things for Germany, along with al the bad things. But the victors write history. And I though Voorheesville was suppost to be a good school...
as I'm tired and unhappy that my digital camera isn't working, for a reason I don't know. The suppostly recharged batteries just ain't putting out much in the way of power it would seem. Which is okay. Today is Friday. Still, I wanted to take some pictures when I go to Thatcher Park tonight. *yawn* The weekend is almost here.
article about the Pataki plan to raise pistol permits fees. It looks like it has drawn some ire from a lot of people:
''By far, the gun issue is the biggest,'' said Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope.
Sens. Steve Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, and Vincent Leibell, R-Patterson, sent a joint memo to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno recently expressing their opposition to the plan.
''I don't think it's likely they'll be in the budget that's finally adopted,'' Saland said of the new fees.
And some people have second admendment concerns on all this:
The fact they need a license in the first place, to exercise a Constitutional right guaranteed under the Second Amendment, is objectionable to them.
Most fear these kinds of steps will only lead to their guns used for sport and protection being taken away from them.
''It lays open the possibility that at any time, the state Legislature could say, 'We're not renewing them any more,' '' said Norm Dauerer, a Hopewell Junction resident and member of the Wallkill Rod & Gun Club. ''That's one way of getting in the back door and putting a ban on handguns.''
the bigger bottle bill according to a PPA / EANY study. According to the study, 70% of NY's support expanding the bottle bill, and 86% want to give unreturned bottle desposits to the state.
Seventy percent of a random statewide sample of 800 registered New York voters supports an expansion of the bottle bill to include noncarbonated beverages such as bottled water, juice, sports drinks, and iced tea. Support for expanding the bottle bill was robust: examinations of response by area of the state, age, race and ethnicity, household income, and political-party identification revealed widespread support independent of these characteristics. Support was also robust to variations in consumption habits: those who consume the greatest quantity of these types of beverages who would be most affected by the proposal support expansion.
Also of real interest is the fact that 81% agree that “curbside recycling is not enough: we need the bottle-deposit program to control litter.
Which makes sense unless you have my experience of finding idiots leaving behind non-refundable trash in the woods. Maybe all trash should have a refund on it, and be required to return to the stores, of course, then we'd have nothing to burn for the fun of it. Finally, almost everybody agrees New York isn't spending enough on Encon and related environmental programs:
New York voters feel we are spending too little to protect and enhance the environment. New Yorkers feel that, in general, we are spending too little to protect and enhance the environment. Consistent with national polls on the subject, 62% of the respondents say we arespending too little and only 4% say we are spending too much.
new uglified Dodge Dakota. I can't stand the Chrysler styling of late, it's quite obviously is ripped off of the even more humougous Dodge Durango 2.0. PUTC has a good picture of the new Dakota, and AllPar has the details. AllPar notes a rather exciting new option will be avalible on the new truck, alltime 4x4 that uses a central differential to allow the truck to turn on dry-pavement without breaking the drive train:
The all-new Dodge Dakota is the only mid-size pickup to offer a two-speed full-time four-wheel drive transfer case. The full-time system provides even torque to all wheels during dry or slippery conditions and allows four-wheel drive power to be used on all surfaces, all the time. A center differential allows the front and rear drive shafts to rotate at different speeds as required for steering on dry pavement without threat of damage to the drivetrain.
Kia's Mojave Pickup Truck model, would you be caught dead driving that ugly thing around or with a Kia nameplate on it?
