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First Things First

...But not necessarily in that order.

October 2009

( Monthly archive )

Of old newspapers and historical trivia

Saturday, 17. October 2009, 22:41:08

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Found (via an email from a RootsWeb list) a fascinating website today: Old Fulton NY Post Cards. The name's outmoded, since the site offers access to some 10 million scanned pages from newspapers all over New York State with (with an emphasis on the eastern part of the state).

Here's an interesting anecdote from the March 6 1953 edition of the Niagara Falls NY Gazette:

When Senator Joe McCarthy came to New York last Saturday for the televised hearings of his investigating committee, he went to the Federal Court house by BMT subway. He got lost for 30 minutes in the New York underground. McCarthy, incidentally, had to fly to an airfield covered with snow, and was assigned to a small plane which had skis. He told the pilot he was sorry to have him make this trip in such bad weather. "Oh, I'm delighted to do it," the pilot replied. "Five more flying hours, and I'll get my own pilot's license."



Cue the rim shot!

The site, by the way, will prove interesting to those (like me) interested in things historical and genealogical.

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There's a storm coming

Friday, 16. October 2009, 11:30:38

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This article in The Economist talks of several things -- but there's one aspect of the economy, and of politics, which I've felt strongly about for a long time:

Many working-class men have lost their jobs. Those who are still employed have seen their wages stagnate and their pensions shrivel in the stockmarket crash. Their health insurance is insecure, but they don't trust Congress not to make it worse.

Meanwhile, they can see that one group of Americans has been practically unaffected by the recession: government employees. Their hours have not been cut, their benefits are gold-plated and they are almost impossible to sack. In good times, few Americans notice these things, but in bad times, the disparity grates. Cops and firefighters can retire in their 40s and draw defined-benefit pensions for life. With overtime, one tenth of the police in Massachusetts made more than the governor's annual salary in 2006, according to the Boston Globe. Including benefits, the average employee of New York City makes more than $100,000, according to Forbes, while some Californian prison guards “sock away $300,000 a year”.

And what do taxpayers get for their generosity? The bad bargains get all the publicity. Union contracts force the postal service to pay thousands of unneeded workers to do nothing. In New York, public-school teachers who can't be trusted to teach but can't be sacked either are paid to sit and do crosswords.



Check out your state's (and your town's or city's) statistics. How many government employees are there now versus a year ago? If your case is typical, you'll find that it's only down slightly -- if at all.

How's their pay? If your case is like most, they got a raise of about 4% -- because, after all, that's what they got last year, and it wouldn't be fair for them to take a pay cut.

Did you take a pay cut? Are you even working?

Now check out your tax bill. Has that gone down?

You see where it's going. At what point do we tell our political leaders "Enough!" Because until and unless we do, they won't take on the unions -- and you'll pay for it.

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How to destroy a state's economy

Tuesday, 6. October 2009, 11:29:10

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Unlike the previous post, this is not a parody. This guy is the chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party -- a state which has the nation's highest unemployment rate. He knows how to
bring Michigan back:

First, we’re proposing that all employers in Michigan be required to provide affordable, quality health care for their employees and dependents or pay a penalty. We have more than 1.2 million people in this state who do not have health insurance. Many of those people are employed but their employers do not provide health insurance.


Most likely because they can't afford it. And ObamaCare isn't gonna help in the long run.

Second, we believe the minimum wage should be increased from $7.40/hour to $10/hour. ... Study after study has proven that raising the minimum wage would not deter job creation in our state.


Sure they do. I'd love to see them, because I seriously doubt they really show that. But okay, let's take this guy at face value: if that's the case, why not boost the minimum wage to $50/hour? Or $100/hour? That'll solve the problem! For about a week, before businesses -- who, unlike this tool, know damn well that there's a direct correlation between cost and profit -- go out of business.

Next, cutting utility rates by 20 percent would be a significant savings to both consumers and businesses.


No doubt. Of course, it'll kill the companies that provide utilities, along with the suckers who invested in them.

Much more could be said, and The Blog Prof says it.

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"We need Big Government"

Saturday, 3. October 2009, 19:25:43

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"Make my own health-care decisions? Why?"
One of the better-done parodies I've seen in a while.

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