insignificant thoughts

A few months back, the New York Times ran an article and an accompanying calculator to explain that for some people, renting makes more sense than buying (obviously flying right in the face of conventional wisdom that everyone needs to buy and own or they fail at life and are wasting money). I ended [...]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees the uselessness of these idiots in the glass boxes at the subway stations…

It was several years ago and I was returning home when I noticed a strange Asian man was hovering around me and then followed me off the train. I was concerned and went up [...]

Some of the city got hit harder than others, but this storm was hyped to be way more than it was. I was going to make a part two to the video I shot yesterday, but there was really no point. When Beth and I head out to get our groceries, we’ll probably [...]

Last night, before I went to bed, I stepped outside and shot some video of the snow that was piling up in my neighborhood.

It looked like it was gonna be really bad, but this morning when I woke up, it was a bit of a disappointment. There’s barely an inch and a half on [...]

Perhaps no tool in police work holds the legal or emotional significance of the badge, a few ounces of nickel alloy that is covered by an insignia and a shield number. Badges are routinely handed down from father to child in police families. As rookies, officers are taught to guard them closely and generally to [...]

From the Mayor’s office…

I support the Obama Administration’s decision to prosecute 9/11 terrorists here in New York. It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered. We have hosted terrorism trials before, including the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the mastermind of the 1993 [...]

New York drivers will start paying for new license plates next year — whether they want to or not.

Beginning in April, car and tractor-trailer owners alike will have to shell out $25 for spruced-up license plates, by dictate of state leaders coming up with new ways to wring out revenue as an unprecedented budget shortfall [...]

To Big Media, conservatism comes in only one flavor, social conservatism, namely anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage and a smattering of other issues that would fall flat over canapés and seltzer (liberals don’t seem to drink anymore). That Dede was pro-choice and pro-gay marriage fits the narrative perfectly for the media. End of story.

But, the media, [...]

With the price just to enter a cab heading up to $2.50, New Yorkers are bemoaning the fees. “It was already out of control. Now it’s even worse,” Kim Dae, a so-called “frequent taxi rider” and West Village resident, said. Of course, therein lies the rub. Ms. Dae lives in the West Village, an area [...]

When I think about how much I’ve given to these folks over the years, I shudder…

via Queens Crap

I really really REALLY wish I could vote for this guy… He’s a total class act, and we could use a clone of him for the NY gubernatorial elections.

New Jersey, open your eyes and vote for this guy, will ya?

A few weeks ago, I reported on this very site that DC 37, the largest municipal union in New York City endorsed William Thompson despite his torpedoing of their pensions through mismanagement and hiring of his cronies. I mused at the time that it would be interesting to see where the UFT went because [...]

You know those people who don’t clear their cars before they head out to work? The ones who, when you get behind them, dump a car full of snow on you because they couldn’t be bothered to break a snow brush out? The ones who blind you unexpectedly as you drive 70 mph [...]

For New Jersey’s sake, I hope he’s right… He’s by far the best candidate…

In a story I wrote about on Thursday, you learned that a Queens Assemblywoman threatened to have a building landmarked so that it could not be converted to a strip joint. She sided with local business owners that building such an establishment would reverse progress in the area.

Let me be the first to say, [...]

Drakopoulos said his Bronx club, next to the Major Deegan Expressway, has made the community a better place by illuminating the block and planting trees on the desolate street.

“We took a concrete, deserted neighborhood and brought life to it,” he said. “There were weeds 5 feet high, car parts and tires everywhere.”

He said he’s within [...]

During much of his tenure, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has taken credit for helping to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in New York City, from high-paying construction work to sales jobs at dozens of new big-box stores. Even as the city plods through the recession, the mayor has set a goal to “retain and [...]

During tonight’s debate between Mayor Bloomberg and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, the Mayor had this to say about his efforts to reduce gun crime:

“I ask myself, have I done enough to reduce gun crime, have I done enough to fight the NRA…”

Mr. Mayor, you’re way off base.

Guns are already effectively illegal here in New York [...]

President Obama finally endorsed fellow Democrat Bill Thompson for mayor Friday, but it was Mayor Bloomberg who snagged the better sound bite.

For starters, Thompson didn’t get the nod directly from Obama but rather the President’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs. And Gibbs never even mentioned Thompson by name in issuing the White House blessing, which he cast [...]

Some old shots by moi…