We’ve gone from oil for food to pig wrestling. Make way for the Democrats. The angry left has taken the ball away from the insipid right...
 Jan 05 Shock 'n Awe '09gcatt, Newshole
Having survived eight years of wars on poor premise, Haliburton, insane Congressional spending, give-away mortgages and near economic collapse, we’re now being treated to the alternative: U.S. Senate seats for sale in Illinois; U.S. Senate seats by right or birth in New York; jury-rigged elections in Minnesota; pay for play mall development and free money for most every mismanaged corporation and state government. And… not unexpectedly more petty taxes to support more folly and more mismanagement.
We’ve gone from oil for food to pig wrestling. Make way for the Democrats. The angry left has taken the ball away from the insipid right... CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Senate, politics, New York Sep 10 Politics of Fear and Suspiciongcatt, Newshole
Topical, non-partisan conversations about this year's presidential election are getting messy. The insinuation has emerged that the danger inherent in this year's choices isn't that one or the other will not be up for the job, but what will happen if Barrack Obama does not win.
The inference is disturbing. If the black candidate does not win, there will be rioting by disappointed blacks who will feel the election was stolen. A win by the white candidate can be expected to re-invigorate the race-baiting industry which will feed the discontent. Doubtless those who have an interest in racial unrest will point to the controversial 2000 Florida presidential results that saw George Bush squeak past Al Gore. Into this emerging sub-issue stepped African-American New York Gov... CATEGORY: Archery
TAGS: election, politics, president, Paterson, Palin Sep 02 Summer Squalorgcatt, Newshole
Well, Labor Day has come to pass. I guess it's time to start cleaning up after the people who come to my neighborhood each summer to sip over-priced wine; drive too fast on both the lake and the roads and then throw their trash and empties out the window. Or...sometimes pause their RV just long enough to make a roadside deposit of the leavings of their vacation.
We hear so much about the value of tourists and the cash they bring with them, but no one talks about the filth and flotsam the unthinking leave behind. Like along the road in front of my house. A roadside inspection in the 1.1 miles from our front door to our lakefront revealed that "Sun Chips" have replaced "Lays" as the chip of choice among the litter set... CATEGORY: Relationships
Aug 13 The Other CNY Olympiangcatt, Newshole
Whoa there......just a minute. All those people getting themselves all overcooked drooling at the thought of Lopez Lomong, the Lost Boy who found a home in Tully, making his Olympic debut this week may have forgotten the Madison County woman making her second swing at the Olympics -- Cazenovia's (more specifically, Fenner's) Beezee Madden.
The winner of a gold medal in the Athens Olympics, she'll be saddling up at the 2008 Olympics today (Thursday) to compete in the jumping competition. She'll be riding "Authentic", a 13-year-old bay, Dutch warmblood at the Hong Kong Olympic Equestrian Venue. The event is slated to start at 8 a.m... CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: Olympics, China, Cazenovia, equestrian Jul 29 The Past Roars Backgcatt, Newshole
A little more than a year ago, a resume crossed my desk at the Palladium Times in Oswego where I was the editor before stepping up to this position. The applicant had written rec sports for the paper and was then studying at Cayuga Community College. I remember getting up from my desk and walking to the doorway of my office. Across the newsroom, I barked to the sports editor. "Hey, you know this Gosek guy?"
The sports editor rolled his eyes. "Yep." "Well, how'd he do with rec stuff?," I asked. The questioning went on for a two or three more rounds before it dawned on me. "Is he...?" "Yep." He was the son of the former mayor who had run into trouble and was jailed. The moment did -- quite literally -- leave me flummoxed... CATEGORY: News & Media
TAGS: journalism, Oswego May 11 Bear justicegcatt, Newshole
So...the DEC killed that bear they treed the other night in the town of Geddes. The official line on this event is forked. On one hand, the DEC argues that the bear was executed because it was known pest, with a history of repeat interactions with people. On the other, the DEC says there may have been an issue with the bear's slow recovery from being tranquilized.
Where's the truth? Hmmmm. In the first explanation, the DEC is left to explain why officers didn't relocate the bear to a wilderness environment after the first couple instances. In the second explanation, it would appear that somebody screwed up, either with the dosage or in the way in which the bear was retrieved... CATEGORY: General Society
May 04 New York State of (I) Mindgcatt, Newshole
Here's another reason to hate New York. Despite the bloated promises from the scalawags on both sides of the political spectrum, the state is a mess. It was mess before Paterson. It was a mess before Spitzer, Pataki, and the prince of inflated sanctimony, Mario Cuomo. Each has promised "change." Each has failed to deliver what New Yorkers need: A simpler, less intrusive, less expensive government.
This is due mostly to various overheated pronouncements and promises. Could anything be kookier than the Upstate Economic Czar? That was Spitzer's panacea for Upstaters. "Oooo. Spitzer knows we exist." We oozed anticipatory sweat as Client #9 put us on Cloud...oh, never mind. So now, in the midst of Paterson's litany of things he's going to do, beyond sleep in this own bed with his wife, we find that he wants to attach New York's tentacles to sales made on the Internet. There's a clutch of reasons that supporters of this stupidity offer to pursue a new raid on our pocketbooks. Chief of among them is poor, beleaguered small business owners who must, by law, collect state and local sales taxes amounting to over 8 percent in most cases. That's opposed to Internet merchants like Amazon which collect no sales tax, but do charge substantially for shipping in most cases. Pretty much a pocketbook wash, if you ask me. Small businesses experience financial challenges not from the Internet but by a despotic state legislature beset by Balkan principles and narcissistic arrogance. That means stupid regulations; exploitive taxation and a bureaucracy that oversees this effort with with the cruel zeal of a Russian apparatchik. There's hope, however, that this last frontier without New York's avarice my survive. Amazon has filed suit to stop the money grab by New York. And, if you're an optimist like me, the Amazon challenge on Constitutional grounds looks pretty good. But then there's hundreds of thousands of dollars the legislature and Paterson will spend defending this flaccid idea to stick it to us once again. CATEGORY: Government
 |
 58°
Partly Cloudy Low 33° | High 56° Mostly Clear            |
