Steam explosion causes scare in NYC

Steam explosion causes scare in NYC - Yahoo! News

The specter of 9/11 appeared in Mid-town this evening as a plum of steam/smoke rose above the skyline from 41st Street and Lexington Avenue. I can not overcome the skepticism by the instant response that it had nothing to do with terrorism. Last Fall when Yankees pitcher crashed his airplane into an apartment building, there were news commenters who stated "we do not know much other than this is not an act of terrorism." Back in the summer 2005 before Hurricane Katrina there were several refineries that had explosions, again we were immediately given the response that it had nothing to do with terrorism.

My general problem is that everyone in authority without knowing anything have gained the reflex to denounce any emergency has any connection with terrorism. It does not help the NYPD, FBI, Homeland Security, or anyone else to constantly speak as if they know before anything happens that they are certain the event has nothing to do with terrorism. This sort of behavior, though may have the intentions of calming the public, does not build confidence in the integrity and honesty of authority figures. Worse this behavior gives the conspiracy theorists red meat for the belief that terrorism is all pre-determined, or that those who are responsible for protecting us always has foreknowledge of terrorist incidents.

In October of 2001 a flight from JFK to the Dominican Republic which crashed in the Rockaways. The immediate response of New York City officials was to act as if was part of terrorist attack, closing the subways, closing bridges and tunnels, and generally preparing the city for the worse. Though not as calming as pavlovianly stating with confidence yet without any evidence that it had no terrorism connection, this reaction of preparing for the worse was truly the more cautious reaction. Closing the transit, airports, and river crossings certainly inconvenienced tens of thousands of New Yorkers but was the best course of action.

New York's City Hall to Move to Brooklyn - Forbes.com

New York's City Hall to Move to Brooklyn - Forbes.com

There's really nothing interesting here, just thought it would be weird for the Mayor to have short reverse commute from Manhattan to an outer borough.

New York’s Antiterror Funds Disappoint, Officials Say - New York Times

New York’s Antiterror Funds Disappoint, Officials Say - New York Times

{sarcasm alert!}
Indiana's World's Largest Ball of Twine needs to be protected!

There really is nothing surprising that this administration is making funding decision and government responses based upon political calculations. Democratic Governor's tend to get screwed by FEMA's decisions when responding to natural disasters (Kathleen Sibelius Kansas' Tornadoes this past spring; Kathleen Blanco Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana; etc) while Republican governors get rapid response from FEMA ( Jeb Bush 2004 Florida Hurricanes; Rick Perry 2005 Hurricane Rita through Texas; Haley Barbour of Louisana during Hurricane Katrina; George Pataki of New York during the winter of 2006 flooding upstate)

Blast the Right PodCast #100

http://www.therationalradical.com/audio/100-immigrantsrighttostay.mp3

Blast the Right host, Jack Clark, really puts together a great legalistic argument why immigrants who are working at incredibly low wages have reasonable expectations that they would be able to continue their new lives that they have started here in America.

Equitable estoppel is the excellent new term that I learned. The example of the legal premise that was given on the podcast was that if someone signs a lease that says that you will be charged a penalty fee or evicted if you pay the rent more than 3-4 days but in fact pay the first 6 months paying the rent 10 days late then one could not expect that the seventh month would be the month that your landlord would evict you. In the same manner when the U.S. has Fortune 500 companies seeking out undocumented immigrants to pay them less than the US standard for minimum wage but a greater wage than the average Latin American would be paid in their home countries, that there could be no expectation that undocumented immigrants staying past their visas (which a vast majority of undocumented immigrants do, not jumping the fence) would be prosecuted years after entering the country and putting in 1,000s of hour of hard work into our economy. With a such a strong encouragement to break the letter of the law from supposedly law abiding good corporate citizens like Wal-Mart, Archer-Daniels- Midland Company, Con-Agra, Manpower Inc., and any other company that depends on cheap manual labor why would their be anyone who has to chose between abject-starving poverty and simply being the bottom rung on the American economic ladder chose the former rather than the latter.

Obviously we cannot have anyone who is a violent criminal roaming over the border or taking a flight into our country, but the right-wing doesn't want to implement anything to stopping them. Mohammed Atta, and Richard Reid were on no-fly lists and were able to fly any way (9/11 ringleader and the shoe bomber respectively). The undocumented workers in the houses of right-wing nutjobs (like Rush Limbugh's maid who scored him all those prescription drugs) are the only people the wealthy class warriors want to get rid of, if the right wingers didn't like their own undocumented workers they should have the guts let them go and hire a legal resident (except at $7.25/hour instead of $3-$4/hr).

Sorry its been so long since a post

I had technical issues with blogger website so for the past couple of months had problems and couldn't update my blog.

Me at Yankee Stadium this weeekend