On our "weakest, dumbest and most venal" politicians.
Filed under: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists, Gay Rights and Issues, New York City & State, Politics, Society, Religion, Culture Wars | 1 Comment »
What's more interesting to me than the entrapment analysis is how this scandal relates back to Larry Craig.
Filed under: Constitutional Issues, Gay Rights and Issues, Law Enforcement Abuses, New York City & State, Privacy Issues | Comments Off
Canada is, in at least one respect, less welfare-statist than the U.S.? Go figure.
Filed under: Economics & Finance, New York City & State, Personal Topics, Taxation & Fiscal Policy | Comments Off
I hear that Caroline Kennedy supports same-sex marriage. I also hear that she opposes drowning kittens in the East River. Both are nice to know, but both are totally irrelevant to the question of whether she is qualified to serve as a United States senator generally, or is entitled to be appointed senator from New [...]
Filed under: New York City & State, Politics | 3 Comments »
To review: For over six months my co-op board has been pushing for shareholder approval to initiate a "transfer tax" — also called a "flip tax" — to raise additional revenue and therefore mitigate increases in monthly maintenance charges and assessments. Which means that for six months I have been enduring repeated misrepresentations by the [...]
Filed under: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists, Economics & Finance, Law, New York City & State, Personal Topics, Updates | 1 Comment »
To review: Mass transit is not a pure public good, since it is perfectly excludable. It may be a natural monopoly, and it may be a club good, but that would only suggest rate regulation or at most public provision — not taxpayer subsidization. Those who use a subway line or commuter train — and [...]
Filed under: Economics & Finance, New York City & State, Public Goods v. Private Goods | Comments Off
I'm having trouble coming up with a non-expletive term for our infamous local megalomaniac: After being dealt a rare public embarrassment by the City Council, which forced his administration to acknowledge on Monday that he was legally required to send out $400 rebate checks promised to hundreds of thousands of New York homeowners, a defiant [...]
Filed under: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists, Law, New York City & State, Progressive Taxation, Property Rights, Updates | 1 Comment »
You may have noticed the current Sidebar Sidetrack, which links to a survey of ugly buildings. By sheer coincidence, word has come down that New York City's out-of-control Landmarks Preservation Commission continues to justify its own unjustifiable existence by finding new sharks to jump: Silver Towers/University Village, three concrete towers designed by I. M. Pei [...]
Filed under: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists, Law, New York City & State, Property Rights | Comments Off
So my plan was merely to attend the morning sessions of "LGBTQ Law 2008: Where Do We Go from Here?" at Columbia Law School and then head home. I've been going to these sort of symposia for years and they tend, quite frankly, to be rather redundant. The talk from one of the lawyers who [...]
Filed under: Gay Rights and Issues, Law, New York City & State, Politics, Society, Religion, Culture Wars | 2 Comments »
The District of Columbia's subway bureaucracy has announced that it will commence warrantless, suspicionless searches at subway entrances: The program is modeled after one begun three years ago in New York that has withstood legal challenges. However, experts said it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of such searches, beyond assuring the public that police [...]
Filed under: Fourth Amendment, Law Enforcement Abuses, New York City & State, Privacy Issues, Terror v. Civil Liberties, Updates | Comments Off