The Hayseeds blog, No. 104 for the week starting February 26, 2005.
February 12, 2005
Hayseeds No. 103
February 26, 2005
Hayseeds No. 104
March 5, 2005
Hayseeds No. 104
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It was nice finally having a day off completely, where I don't have to work or go to church. Neither of them is much of a bother, but it's fun to have a little downtime once and while. I played with my pickup in the snow out back a little bit today, and it was great fun sliding around watching the snow fly. Nice light fluffy snow out there. How did I ever live without a 4x4 truck? I do not know. Today, alas it's back to the grind stone again for 5 more days.
The TU spectulates on the possibility of a women president. Many people have been doing that since about 1920, particularly post-1960s. My feel is that most of the women in the foreground are too much lighting rods of controversy to be put up by either of the parties, but someday I women will be elected. I'm guess that women will be a fairly darkhorse candidate, moderately liberal, and emphasize bureaucratic experience over partisan beliefs.
It looks like some people in the Senate don't want you to have a box cutter if your a minor OR have it with intent to harm somebody else. That's just another very useful law we need on the books—smirk. I really dislike laws that prohibit the posession of an item ONLY with the intent to do something. After all, there are many legal uses for box cutters like opening boxes up.
Our favorite burn barrel bill isn't going anywhere for now, as the State Senate has failed to introduce an equalent bill in it's chamber, greatly decreasing the chance of passage. That bill dying along with the bigger bottle bill (AB 1330) in the Codes committee means that the environmentalist agenda has stalled for this year. The other things like reforming Article 11 of Power Plant sitting law isn't also going anywhere.
As a refresher, the US Supreme Court is hearing a case regarding the right of a state to take property for a public use with just compensation, if that public use is economic development and jobs. On those grounds, it sounds like a dangerous precedence: we can tear down any house, condemn any farm just to build a Walmart that will create more jobs and tax money. On the other hand, New Lond Connecticut is an impoverished area that's brownfield development is being held back by a few greedy residents. If this property isn't condemned and given to the city to sell as a larger parcel for economic development, it will mean that green space will be destroyed outside of the city.
It's a tough call, but I hope the Supreme Court looks at this issue carefullly and words their decision carefully. I'm looking in their decision for mention of environmental and open space protection as being a compelling public good, and that economic reasons be at best secondary. It is important to have strong property rights, but when there is a compelling public interest to redevelop intercity slums the state must have the power to do so. Inevitably this will mean some people will lose their land, but as long as the city gives them fair value and helps them relocate this seems like a reasonable proposition.
PUTC has a nice little feature article on the Dodge Ram Mega Cab which tries to push the limit of big pickup truck a little bit farther. I don't even want to know what the gas milage is on that beast—probably far worst then my roughly 20 MPG Ranger. Driving a pickup is fun, but I'm not sure: you can get too big.
Hey, if the system works for you there is no need to change it. That said, most New Yorkers think we need lower taxes, a stronger economy, better health care, and the alike. Kind of an oxymoron. You gotta love poll-itics.
And others drive their car into the radio station when they hit black ice. Some poor people in Malone where spared the enjoyment or pain of top-40 country music for a few hours after the control board was damaged. At least nobody was hurt.
There are two sides of the issue: minority party members are there by choice of the voter AND the other hand those consituent lose money that other districts get. So it's unfair, but the choice of the voter. Maybe it should be made fairer, but that's a legislative choice and not something that the courts should be doing as suggested by the Liz Krueger-Tom Kirwin lawsuit.
And the Plattsburgh-Press concurs suggesting that the state provide a basic education to all students, and local taxes pick up any extra school would want to provide. That would certainly lower property taxes, but do to cost of living differences would inevitably mean too little money in the city, replicating the problem. Yes, the legislature could fairly fund the cities, but that's unlikely to happen as poor (and urban people) generally don't vote in the same number as those in towns in the Adirondacks with three or four peoiple.
I guess you can have too much of a good thing. At any rate, it seems like the TU has picked up on the story about the growth of equine-anything in Saratoga and how some people think their need be laws to keep the horses in line. Well, maybe it's a good check to other kinds of sprawl like the brand of suburbia that is so rapidly growing in Saratoga County.
One of Our Favorite OCDs from Bethelhem by the name of Peter Iwanowicz wants to let us know that all that exhaust is killing us or something like that. Fun, fun, fun. Nothing particularly new or exciting about the dangers of particulate matter and soot, but a nice reminder. And as the article points out, many of the trucking centers along the turnpike churn out a lot smoke. On the other hand, so do power plants as the story say. Kids, we're all going to die. Someday. Probably not soon though.
Not much land for $1.2 million dollars (roughly $17,142 per acre) but still not a bad figure all things considered. Now the preserve is about 3,000 acres or about half the size of Patridge Run out in Berne. That's a lot of land all things considered (roughly 4.68 square miles), but most it is surrounded by a dump, suburban sprawl, and the Thruway. Not a lot of solutude there, unless you like the sound of roaring cars and the smell of methane. Business people hail Pataki's pronouncement of this being compatible with Tech Valley, though some probably disagree. The Times Union considers it to giving a continuous habitat for the native plants and the endangered Karner blue butterfly
. I'm obviously cynical about that notion.
Of particular interest was this one quote:
The state made a deal with the Nature Conservancy, which bought the land from five owners, including two families who had owned the land for generations.
Why did the state choose to buy the land outright, versus getting an easement or buying development rights? It would seem as though protecting the land through private ownership might be best, except for that it would be easier to do certain kinds of conservation projects and would mean public access (a bad or good thing depending how you look at it).
It might be good to have a channel like C-SPAN in the courts (particularly civil matters), but I'm warey of just covering high profile criminal matters. I don't think the State Bar is right about first admendment grounds in this particular case, but I do thing the legislature should make it incumbent on themselves to pass a law allowing access of cameras to Appelate Courts. Watching good ol' Cardona-vision or Kaye-vision.
Trial courts don't usually ask important legal questions, and as such there is little justification for cameras in them except to distract juries and paint a misleading picture of the administration of justice. On the other hand, sticking a camera in the face of judges, might make them more honest and follow procedure, but much of what happens in courts happens behind closed doors in smoke filled Judge's chambers.
One GOP Legislator (Tom Kirwan comes to mind) sees that as the future of the Pataki dynaisty to be rather dull after 10 years in part due to one scandal after another. Libby's income is in question, chamber maids, poor legislative relations, and the alike.
Our friends over at AlbanyEye ("AEye") have finally picked up on Glen Heller’s wamc.net, a site that attempts to either debunk or create new myths about Alan Chartock. Some of them are true, and some of them are less then true. AEye is probably right about the sex harass stuff being junk or at least unverifiable, but more substantive stuff deals with the man's ego.
There is nothing wrong with having an ego, but Alan's style is well documented and some of us don't like him. Nobody is making you listen to his radio station, or read his rag the Legislative Gazette. It is possible to change the radio station dial to another station! Alan's compensation and his lavish lifestyle is a bit off-putting, but he does work hard between SUNYA and WAMC.
Funding wise he does ask some good question: is WAMC putting all it's obxious fund drives to good work? A lot of it's money goes to pay for NPR programming (1/3), and then a lot goes to pay the salaries of various employees. As radio personalities go, they aren't paid all that much. Working as a DJ is a good job. In particular, we have to remember how many households WAMC reaches from Vermont to New Jersey. Alan's network is expanding.
Our governor seems to think that this is the year for and ontime budget, despite his new powers. He's claiming that open budget meetings will fix all the problems, along with inviting minority leaders to the table. Of course, anybody who has seen or heard anything about these so-called public budget hearings knows them to be a joke.
I happened to notice that this year's Verizon phone book for Colonie has on the first page the number for the national sucide hotline. Strangly enough, the regular phone book does not. This could only mean one thing: Colonie causes people to kill themselves. Having spent enough time in my life in Colonie, I would tend to agree with that line of thought. And who calls the sucide hotline when there about to kill themselves? Interesting. I know I always try to avoid driving in the sucide lane when going from Middleberg to Cobelskill, except briefly to pass. It might be different though now that I don't drive around a 100 HP Plymouth Sundance.
