March 31, 2010

I really don't have anything against old people.

Eventually we will all get old. Some of us are already senior citizens and we are all trying to deal with it. It is a new experience for all of us. None of us have been there before and there is no point looking for assistance because it is different experience for every individual.

But one thing is common. We should all try to act our age and more importantly accept our age.

Unfortunately too many people can not accept the latter condition. I have a serious problem with older drivers. And I mean really older drivers.

Case in point.

I saw on the news a car totally submerged in flood waters right on a highway here in New York. Actually, somewhere in the northern suburbs.

The only thing visible was the roof of the car. Actually I think it was a pickup truck.

As I understand there was a really deep drop in the road that was totally flooded. The police put up signs indicating that the road was closed.

So, here comes this 78 year old man who either didn't see the signs or just plainly disregarded them and drove straight into the water.

Well, he was rescued and is now in a hospital being treated for trauma and exposure.

I think they should give him a summons for disregarding the traffic signs and dangering the lives of the rescue people.

If the man can not see the signs then don't drive, if the man thinks he is smarter than the rest then why rescue him? I'm sure he had a plan how to get out of it.

How many times we read accidents when a driver loses control of the car and plows into groups of people, or drives into the living room of a house or similar accidents.

And, without fail these drivers are unfortunately always elderly people. Their claim was always that they lost control, they stepped on the gas instead the brake or they got overwhelmed.

Now with the Toyota fiasco they will probably also say that the car sped up on its own.

Don't misunderstand me, I am not anti old. But I am anti inefficient drivers. Anybody who drives and that is regardless of the person's age, should be aware of his or her limitations.

Nowadays everybody who is in the possession of any kind of license, may that be a doctor's, engineer's, airplane pilot's, nurse's, optometrist's and many, many more must take refresher courses.

Speaking just for myself. I received my driver's license in 1960. That was fifty years ago, wow!

In that time I drove at least half a million miles. That is a lot. But even though I am a very good driver, if I may say so, it wouldn't be a bad idea to require people like me and older to take a refresher driving test.

I don't want to cut a branch from under myself but in the long run something like this might save some lives even if it is my own.

March 30, 2010

It's been raining cats and dogs second day in a row. And they say spring is beautiful!

The only light at the end of the tunnel is that from Thursday on they are forecasting beautiful warm weather.

I trust the weatherman about as much as I trust the politicians! They both say what we want to hear.

But I really feel sorry for the people whose homes are being flooded out, now the second or third time within a few weeks.

I can't imagine living in an area where flooding is a regular or annual occurrence.

It is unimaginable that in today's technology in the middle of a major state they can not regulate the streams and rivers. Maybe they can they just don't want to.

The way the politicians are looking at something like this is that as far as they are concerned nobody of importance is living there so why spend the money.

For a few weeks they will go to these places, look very concerned, promise the moon and then nothing. On to the next issue. Do things that are self serving and not people serving.

Today was another day when I was really grateful I didn't have to go to work. There was nothing I hated more than go to work in the pouring rain.

I have a subway station about a block from where we live. But that one block was always enough to get pretty much soaked and then spend the day in wet, wrinkled clothes and wet shoes.

Now, I don't have this problem. I looked out the window and saw those people going with their umbrellas that didn't offer any protection and was glad I could stay home.

They say the rain is good for the fields, but I'm not a farmer and I really don't care about the fields. I live in the city and I know that food grows in the supermarkets.

March 29, 2010

I am so happy that I'm retired and not working anymore. It is not a money issue and it is not not being occupied issue.

The issue is that I used to go to work every day using the New York City Subway. This was undoubtedly the best way to get in Manhattan since it was inexpensive and most of the time fast and efficient.

No matter where my office was located the the subway had a stop nearby. But then came September 11.

Since then taking the subway was a frightening experience. My line was traveling under the East River in order to get into Manhattan. In rush hours the trains were always full.

I could not help but always think of how exposed we were to any possible terrorist attack.

It happened in Madrid, it happened in London and now it happened in Moscow.

Thank God that so far it didn't happen in New York. But all law enforcement experts agree that New York is a prime target.

My problem is that while the invisible security might be superb the visible one does not give me the warm fuzzies.

The New York Subway system has 468 stations. There is no way the police can patrol and make all of them safe. Years ago, late in the days there was a policeman assigned to every subway train who regularly walked through the trains. Now there is nobody protecting the passengers who travel late.

I used to see group of policemen at various stations who were supposed to stop people and check suspicious packages. I never saw anybody stopped. They were always too busy talking among themselves and drinking coffee.

As a matter of fact, one time I carried a fairly large box onto the train because I bought something that was delivered to the office and I had to take it home. This squad of policemen were at my station. They never took a look at me even though it was a big box and I was expecting to be questioned.

Unfortunately, whenever something tragic happens they announce that they beef up security and it supposed to make us feel safer. But what they do is that they protect the so called glamor stations most of which are in Manhattan.

But what about the rest of the over 400 stations? Are they being protected? What is the guarantee that something tragical can not happen in one of the remaining three boroughs the Subway serves?

The New York Subway system has an antiquated public announcement system that is almost impossible to hear and understand and it has no closed circuit television network that would cover all the stations.

That is why I am relieved that I don't have to rely on this transportation system any longer because I have absolutely no faith in the security that is supposed to be provided.

I survived the World Trade Center once and I have no wish to expose myself to another similar experience.

One in a lifetime is more that a person should be exposed to.

March 28, 2010

We don't even realize how spoiled we are here in this part of the Universe. We take everything life gives us for granted. If we would find ourselves without any of life's comforts we would panic.

I bet if somebody from today's generation would find himself in the middle of the Sahara Desert he or she would be upset for two reasons. One: no Starbucks in sight; two: can't text to a friend.

Yesterday my friend from England told us a funny story. It seems he had a clogged outside drain in his house. He looked everywhere to buy a good size rubber plunger that would work.

He was unsuccessful getting one around where he lived. Nobody seemed to carry such a thing except the ones good for the inside of the house.

He was forced to call a plumber who came over and in a few minutes cleaned the drain with the right size plunger. He naturally had one.

It seems that in England the 6" or larger heavy duty plungers are in short supply. So, my friend went in to the first hardware store he saw in New York and bought one for around $6. Good move!

When he told us the story we were amazed and immediately questioned him that don't the have a Home Depot or Walmart or K Mart over there?

The bottom line was that it was difficult for us to imagine life without any of these establishments. We are so spoiled, we are so used to these so called comforts that it is hard to grasp when someone lives without them.

This is similar to our saga I wrote about on March 16 when we had to tackle life without TV and the Internet. I don't want to say it was horrible but it was really crappy.

What I am trying to say is that maybe instead of constantly complaining about everything we should look around at what we do have and be a little bit grateful for it.

We really don't even realize how good we have until we don't have!

March 27, 2010

I had a great day today.

For one thing the Market was closed and it seemed that whatever bad news there was it just didn't matter. That's how I like it. This is what is called the status quo.

But the other thing that made this day great was that I met two of my dearest friends.

This is the once a year get together we have with two very very longtime friends. We know each other for such a long time that it is almost impossible to imagine.

Thank God we are well and we are at all our faculties. We remember things some people would rather forget and we are genuinely enjoying recounting old times.

Each of my friends have lovely wives and fortunately they all get along well.

That is sometime a problem with childhood friends that their spouses don't get along or they do not approve the friendship or bond.

Thankfully it is not the case with us. Our spouses are intelligent women who realize the value of good friends and plus they just also happen to like each other.

So, we had a great time together. We talked, rehashed some memories, caught up with the events of the past year and in the meantime ate some good Hungarian food.

I'm not sure that the success of our gathering was not because of the good food.

This was the visit I mentioned in my February 22 blog. How time flies. It seems that writing was only the other day and actually a month went by.

I am not rushing for next year when hopefully they will be coming again but nevertheless I am looking forward to it.

March 26, 2010

Why should I worry about Greece? Does Greece worries about me?

Yesterday the market went up over 100 points then it took a dive and finished only five points on the plus side.

And all that because they worry about Greece's debt problem.

I have a debt problem and I would like to know if Greece is worried about it. Probably not.

I don't understand it.

My wife and I frequently eat at two different diners. They are both owned by Greeks so we are really helping them. We probably do more than a lot of other Americans and I am sure Europeans too, are doing.

Then why should we lose money just because they happen to owe more money than they should have borrowed?

I like ouzo and I like moussaka. I liked Zorba the Greek and I like to throw plates on the floor. I am a nice person.

Then why am I being punished because Greece is having money problems?

Life is just not fair, is it?

That was yesterday, today is another story.

The market starts on the upside. Everything looks rosy. Maybe we can recoup yesterday's losses, we say.

Then the s..t hits the fan.

Some dumb ass boat driver in South Korea drives a warship to the rocks and sinks it. The world thinks that the evil North Koreans had their hands in it and the Market takes a dive, again.

Here is good old me being punished again but this time because of Korea. It seems they were afraid that this might provoke hostilities between the North and South Korea.

Later it turned out that this was not a hostile act but they did it to themselves. But it was too late to save the Market. After being up about 65 points it went negative and finished only 9.15 points on the positive side.

Why me?

I like Koreans.

I drive a Hyundai. The dry cleaner we give work to is Korean and we are on very friendly terms, the Japanese sushi buffet we like to go to is owned by Koreans but we don't hold it against them. So then why am I being penalized because something happens on the other end of the world?

I know why. Because the world is getting smaller and smaller. The world is now in our living rooms. Anywhere anything happens it affects everybody.

This is what global economy means: China eats the bad food and we get the diarrhea!

March 25, 2010

Over thirty-five years ago I knew a young engineer I worked with. The company we worked for for was a large engineering company with a lot of employees and a lot of work.

Nuclear power plants were the style then and they were hiring left and right and for reasonably good salaries and benefits because the competition was doing the same.

Well, this colleague of mine announced one day that he was leaving the company and was going to work for the New York City Transit Authority. This company was the predecessor of MTA New York City Transit. They ran the subways and buses .

I knew that the salary he was to get was way below what he was making at our company but he told me that the benefits were a great deal better than ours in the private sector.

Years later I met an engineer in New Jersey who worked for that state's Department of Transportation. This man was bright, he wrote some books and he knew structural engineering inside out.

His salary was also way below the norm for the private sector.

And in between these two that I knew there were thousands of professionals (at least in the New York area) who chose to work for municipal and governmental agencies for far less compensation than they could have gotten from the private companies.

Why did they do this seemingly illogical thing?

Because the municipal and governmental agencies gave something that the private sector didn't.

First, they provided job security. Then, they provided a pension plan. Then, they gave a free lifetime medical plan for the family. The transportation agencies also gave free transportation to the employees and spouses.

Comparing these benefits with the straight salaries no wonder people were drifting away from the companies. But the agencies were forced to do this in order to attract quality professionals.

Now, let's jump ahead to today and let's see what is the situation.

First of all, the definition of job security today means if one has a job this week it does not mean he will have one next week. Governmental agencies are cutting their work forces across the board.

Professionals and non-professionals are equally on shaky grounds and that includes police and firemen.

Now here is another thing. In order to attract the right quality workers the agencies were forced to increase their salary levels to par or even above the the private sector. So now, the professionals and non-professionals are a lot better off than their counterparts on the other side of the line.

But with salaries so high aren't the benefits a little exaggerated? Why should an employee after 25 to 30 years of service should be able to retire with 75% percent of his salary AND free lifetime medical insurance?

I can understand that some people joined these agencies long-long time ago when salaries were really low. They do deserve these benefits. But the ones joining now with incomes a lot higher should not be given the same benefits.

No wonder this City and many other municipalities are having serious financial troubles. They are giving away the store.

There are such disparaging differences in life that it is just unbelievable. Why is it that a professional person who spent his entire career with a company winds up with a lot less retirement benefit than another who just happen to collect garbage for a city agency?

There are employers and not even small ones who provide absolutely no pension plans. A person retires from them after many years of service and gets nothing but a handshake.

Granted, nobody was forced to work for such businesses but as time goes by it becomes more and more difficult to change employers even when one realizes that there is nothing waiting at the end of the yellow brick road.

Bottom line and the View From the Bottom is that reduce these unfair and undeserved benefit packages and maybe the financial pictures might look a little better for everybody concerned.

March 24, 2010

Today is March 24.

On March 24, 1899 my Father was born. If he were alive today he would be 111 years old.

Let's be reasonable. Nobody could live to 111 years. Yet, I always think of him as what would he say if he were here, what would he think of me as a man.

He was devastated when I left from home. I was just twenty years old, a student and not fully matured. I braved a new life where I anchored myself and never really looked back.

My Father and I never lost touch but unfortunately we never had the chance to meet again and He never had the chance to know me as a responsible adult.

In 1958 there was world's fair in Brussels, Belgium which my Father visited. I wanted to go there very badly. At that time I was advised that my current refugee status did not permit foreign travel. I was heart broken.

He passed away in 1961 and me being a temporary resident here I had no opportunity to travel at that time either. Also Hungary being under a socialist government did not allow travel for unreliables like me.

It was a great loss for me. He was a calm, loving, very knowledgeable and very likable person. Whoever met him liked him instantly. Might that be at his job or amongst his friends. His circle of friends included people he grew up with or went to school with. He was a good loyal friend to all.

My father was one of, the middle, three sons of a poor Jewish tailor. I know everyone' father was a poor Jewish tailor but in this case it is true. I knew my grandfather and I know he was poor and that also he was a tailor.

Yet, he raised his three sons to become professionals. Two became engineers while one became an architect.

Unfortunately two were killed during the Holocaust and my Father was the only one who survived.

Towards the end of the war he worked as a construction worker in a housing project in Budapest. Laws at the time forbade Jews to work in any professional capacity.

When the time came that he was about to be deported he escaped and made his way back to this construction site. It showed how much he was liked by his fellow workers because they hid him, brought him food and never divulged his where being.

Thanks to them he survived and was reunited with us when the Budapest Ghetto was liberated.

Ironically, after the war he became the general superintendent for that housing project.

He loved his family. His two brothers left two wives and three sons behind. He cared for every one of them and tried to help their lives whenever they needed it.

I am not celebrating His birthday one day a year. I think of him every day of the year and sometimes even ask for his advice or approval.

Don't think I'm nuts. I just miss my Father.

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How misleading TV commercials are!

Yonkers Raceway is in Yonkers, New York. It is not far from where we live, maybe a half an hour drive. Next to the Raceway they built a casino, the Empire Casino, that is operated by the State. There are no table games strictly slot machines. But of those they have over five thousand.

They advertise this establishment on TV all the time. Interestingly in the ads they show entertainment like bands and singers and hip young, clean cut people around the machines.

And this where the fantasy ends.

Now the reality.

Jerry Lewis' Telethon doesn't have as much handicapped people as they have in that casino. The visitors are primarily elderly or unemployed and without exception they all look schmucky.

The band that played had an average age of 70. I can see why they play long instruments so they can lean on them when necessary.

We heard from friends who went there at night that at that time the crowd is even worse.

So, what one can learn from this. Don't believe advertisements. They are just like the government: they lie.

March 23, 2010

Last night was the first night of the tenth season of ABC TV's Dancing With The Stars. We watched them because there was nothing else to watch but I don't think we will be watching them again for a while.

The line up is so poor that they should be ashamed of themselves to expose both the so called celebrities and the public to such a spectacle.

In my opinion the people who agree to appear do it for one of two reasons. One is the money which I am sure is good. The other reason is to shore up a fledgling career. Publicity is good and this way they can remind the public that they are still around.

Any self respecting performer who is gainfully employed would not have the time to spend on such a ridiculous show.

And any self respecting professional would not expose himself or herself to ridicule and embarrassment as they do front of those so called professional judges.

I can see show business people to take chances on the dance floor because they never know if it might help their career.

Look at this season's new co host. Brooke Burke won the contest in season seven and now she is back in a new capacity. Not a bad career move.

But what was a former House Majority Leader was expecting to achieve by embarrassing himself?

Now, yesterday even I was embarrassed. Buzz Aldrin is an 81 year old former astronaut. He is an American icon. The second man and American who ever walked on the moon. This man achieved more than very few man was ever capable of in one lifetime, primarily the people who are now judging him.

I think this is an all time low for ABC to expose someone of such a prominence to this amount of embarrassment.

For Buzz Aldrin to except it is one thing but for ABC to even think about it is sensationalism and unforgivable and in my view straightforward un-American.

He does not need to be criticized by two non Americans one of whom is a grouchy old man who seems to be getting pleasure from degrading contestants.

Is there a lack of Americans to understand ballroom dancing? Why ABC must place outsiders into that position?

One of the other contestants is a middle aged self styled sex bomb. I don't know if anyone ever told this person that this was not a sex show and a pole dancing contest. I was really surprised to see that she had panties on under that short dress.

Too bad the dress could not hide her slightly bulging belly. But with those humongous breasts and messy hair in her face she was probably not able to see her belly.

Then there was the mother of eight. She would apparently do anything for the buck. I don't know what talents she has but it seems dancing is not one of them. I just wonder where are the eight kids while mommy is gallivanting and appearing in Hollywood.

I can see Kristi Yamaguchi appearing and then winning in season six. In 1992 she won gold in Albertville, Canada. But that was eighteen years ago. Now she is history and she needed some exposure to show the public that she was alive and well.

Evan Lysacek just won the gold medal for figure skating in the Vancouver Winter Olympics. He is hot and in great demand. If anything he dos not need the pressure and added embarrassments that come with being on the show.

All these points just add to why we and many other people will not watch this much longer. It is a shame that the producers are not able to find anything else to make the show more interesting.

Too bad, because it started as a really interesting and entertaining undertaking but just like many other shows it is slowly going down the drain.

March 22, 2010

Yesterday the new healthcare plan was voted in by House of Representatives. I don't know if it is good for my wife me or if it is bad for my wife and me.

But, the news media is all over about what happened. They are interviewing people who claim to understand it and trying to sound very intelligent.

As a matter of fact these people sound so intelligent that nobody really understand what they are saying.

The only good thing that came out of it today was that the market closed up by almost 44 points. At this time that's all I care about.

Now back to the healthcare plan. They say that there are about 30-35 million uninsured people in this country. These people are not able to get medical insurance.

According to this plan everybody will be required to carry some kind of medical insurance and it will be enforced by the individual states. The funny thing is that at this time they have no idea how the states will be able to do this.

Smart people are making all kinds of predictions and suggestions but they really have no clue.

I know that ever since I retired I have to pay for our supplemental insurance that covers us over Medicare. This supplemental insurance provides a good coverage but it is not cheap. When I worked the company paid a portion of the premium but as a retiree I must pay the entire amount.

We receive no tax breaks for the premiums paid by us and in the past four years every year it was increased.

Living on a fixed income this premium is not a negligible amount. I don't know what, if any, changes or improvements this healthcare plan will do to us.

But I have a funny feeling that being the member of the lower middle class it will mean nothing.

It is not good to belong to the middle class. Members of the middle class never get any help from anyone. According to the politicians and all other authorities members of the middle class make too much to qualify for any kind of assistance.

Politically we don't count. Our votes are taken for granted so why bother to waste money on us.

The poor are the trump card. Politicians love to court the poor because that makes them look real, human and down to earth.

The rich, well the rich are running the establishment so they are not to be worried about.

Somebody will have to pay for all the things they are including in this new health plan. And I am sure it will be the middle class.

I suggest to start a new party that might be called the Middle Class Party. It would represent the, miracle of miracles, the middle class and only them.

No race, religion, sexual orientation would matter. The only requirement for membership would be that one has to belong to the middle class.

Not the poor class or the upper class.

It would be very interesting to see how fast the two ruling parties would start to reorganize themselves and start to take a look at their own programs.

As I said it earlier: if you not the lead dog the view never changes!

March 21, 2010

They are talking about unemployment, lack of money, bad economy.

Today we went to Greenwich Village for a brunch and there was no sign of anything like that in this part of the City.

The occasion was a family birthday and we selected a nice Italian bistro where they serve Sunday brunch.

OK, the weather was gorgeous, a lot of people were outdoors. Every restaurant that had a sidewalk terrace opened it up and they were all filled up.

The place we went to also had a terrace plus all their doors and windows were open. It was wall to wall people. This place and most of them in the Village are not inexpensive. Yet, people thronged to these.

There were people on the streets, there were open air sight seeing buses filled with tourists. No matter how one looked at it it didn't give the impression of a city suffering under a bad economy.

Maybe if it were raining it might have looked more depressing but under these circumstances it looked just plain peaceful.

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Today the US Congress, more specifically the House of Representatives is voting for President Obama's healthcare. At the time I am writing this we don't know the results but the Democrats are swearing that they have the necessary votes.

I can not comment on the healthcare bill because I am not familiar with its details. However, if it would reduce my monthly premiums that I have to shell out I am all for it. The way I see it the doctors cheat and lie so much (at least in New York) they will not come out losers no matter what.

I was watching C-Span for a short while this afternoon. There was some kind of vote going on in the House. It was very interesting watching those politicians behave. They were reading papers, texting, talking or just plain sitting and gazing into thin air.

Short of playing with themselves they did everything else right on live television. I know they were upset because this ruined their weekends but hey, it comes with the territory.

Besides, they were throwing around that whatever they were doing was for the American people, giving the impression that they knew better what we wanted than ourselves.

Then for such a serious responsibility one can give up a weekend without any complain. And I am convinced that they are very well compensated for their extra efforts.

I wonder if they get double time for overtime?

March 20, 2010

Today I gained about twenty pounds. Well, figuratively speaking, not in reality.

I read the menu of a Hungarian restaurant in Chicago (Epicurean) and just by reading it I put on weight.

I am not hooked on eating but I do love Hungarian food. And this restaurant's menu comes as close to being in Budapest without ever crossing the ocean, as I can imagine.

I am fluent in the English language but there is something in the way food is described in Hungarian menus that is without match. Somehow I can not get very moved by any menu course description in English. But in Hungarian, momma mia!

It also leaves room for disappointments, since one can get overly expectant than be disappointed once the food is delivered to the table.

But that is life. I still like this menu even if I never eat there.

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We went shopping today. It was gorgeous day. The temperature was up to 72 degrees, real summery. Actually, around midday today Spring officially started.

Anyway, it was so weird to still see some snow in the shaded corner of a parking lot. It was left over from the recent snow storm about three weeks ago and it was really dirty. But it was still snow.

At that time so much snow fell that the ski areas in the neighboring mountains are still operating. I don't think there are too many people there since warm weather and wet snow are not a pleasant combination.

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There is a race brewing for the post of governor in New York State. The current governor who was formerly the lieutenant governor announced it that he would not run. By the way he is a Democrat. The current Attorney General of New York is expected to announce his candidacy and is expected to win. He is a Democrat, too.

So, there is a very strong Democratic field. The Republicans are trying to gather their troops and come up with some strong opposition. They do have some fairly good candidates but the Attorney General seems unbeatable.

Now, here is the Suffolk County Executive who was elected to that post in 2004 as a Democrat.

This guy decided that he also wanted to run for the office of Governor. But as a Democrat he saw no chance at all.

Then he saw the light and decided that after being a lifelong Democrat now he would be a (I guess temporary) Republican and try to win as such.

Joseph Lieberman, Senator of Connecticut did the same thing. In 2006 he lost the Democratic primary but so badly wanted to get back in the Senate that he ran as a third party candidate and won.

Now he can vote any which way he wants to with no loyalty to any parties. And I am sure there are many more like these in the country but I know only of these two.

I love these turncoat politicians. They are the political prostitutes. They go where the money is without any regard to the people they supposed to represent. Their only interest is themselves and nobody else. They will do anything to get in the driver seat.

After such behaviors we should not be very surprised when they also fail the morality test. Mistresses, children out of wedlock, homosexual relationships and things we don't even know about.

So why are we so upset about some poor professional athlete who happens to have relationships with ten to twelve women?

March 19, 2010

I don't like unions!

I think unions are ruining the country, ruining the economy and are not fighting on behalf the people they supposed to represent but trying to justify the existence of the leadership by blinding the membership with empty promises.

At the beginning of my working life I was in a union. I had to be in in order to be able to work in the construction industry. The head of my local union who happened to be the son of the president of the larger local came to visit one time.

He was a young kid who couldn't have cared less about us. He told me that he was hoping that we would get a raise because that would justify him getting a new car.

On our regular monthly meetings the speeches by the leadership were always centered on how we could give the "business" to those damn employers. In our case we were engineers, professional people yet, the atmosphere was as we were longshoremen or bricklayers or any other physical workers.

Prior to the union the way the system worked was that when a particular construction job was over the company would send the engineer back to the home office to work on something else while a new assignment materialized.

After we became union members our salaries became too high for the companies to carry the engineers until a new position happened. Therefore, the only solution was termination.

Thanks to the union, the protector of the working people, I became unemployed and eventually forced to look for a new career.

You can see that I have no great love for them at all.

Many times their unreasonable requests forced businesses to close and put their members on the street.

Years ago New York City had several daily newspapers. In 1966 the unions were successful enough to put most of them out of business. I wonder who won that war. The poor slob who lost his livelihood or the union leadership whose main interest is to keep their cushy jobs with all the perks.

If one thinks back Ronald Reagan was right in 1981 when he threw out all the striking air controllers and replaced them with the military and eventually with a new breed of people.

Striking should be illegal. Striking is self serving and it hurts the public and the strikers as well. For the general public it creates inconvenience they didn't ask for while for the strikers it creates economic hardships.

A sanitation strike creates health hazards since garbage is not being collected. A cemetery workers strike creates health hazards because the dead can not be buried. A transportation strike creates general hardship because people can not travel or can not go to work.

A nurses strike creates health hazards because the sick at the hospitals can not be cared for.

I worked in the engineering business for over forty years. This was not a unionized business, nobody represented me. Yet, I received raises, I had benefits, I had sick days and I had holidays.

Maybe with a union I would have gotten half of that. But that's not the point. Unions protect the mediocre workers. The workers who don't want to excel at what they do, the workers who just want to get by.

If a person works good he should be rewarded and if he doesn't then make room for one that has ambition. There is no job in this world that can not be done either well or not well.

The sad thing is that there are glamor unions and there are ordinary (nobody cares) unions. When a glamor union strikes everybody look up and even the government tries to step in to find a solution.

When a "nobody cares" union start a job action nobody cares. One can see a couple of people walking a picket line somewhere in the city because they are striking against some small company. Their job actions do not hurt anybody but the workers. They do not have the strength in numbers.

What could happen is that the company will not care, hire non union workers and go on its merry way; or maybe come to an agreement and continue operating; or maybe just close up shop and tell the union to piss off.

I can see that in the old days when there were no labor laws and workers were not protected some kind of organization was necessary. But today there are laws protecting the workers, there are minimum wage laws, there are safety regulations and a myriad of other rules on the side of the working people.

I am not advocating the abolishment of all labor unions but I do not believe they are serving their constituents as they claim.

I believe they are close to as phony a Bernard Madoff.

The reason of this entire outburst is that British Airways cabin attendants are threatening a three day work stoppage starting this Saturday, thereby creating hardships for countless of people.

Who needs them anyway. As far as I am concerned airline cabin attendants are not needed anymore. They are really not doing anything useful.

March 18, 2010

When Spring arrives it arrives unceremoniously. Today the temperature went above 70 degrees Fahrenheit the first time. Actually for a few days now it has been very pleasant, but today was the warmest.

As a skier I hate this. All that good snow running off the mountains and becoming yucky stuff makes me very sad.

But looking ahead for the coming Summer and beach days is fine. Anyway, as I said it before it was a very nice day.

The sun was out, it was warm, the market went up. What else can one ask for?

We decided that having nothing pressing to do we would drive out to the beach and see what damage last weekend's storm created. Last weekend's wind storm created unusually high waves that created all kinds of damages.

The beach is about 50 miles from home so it is not a major drive. It was surprising to see so many people out there, today being a regular workday.

People were walking along the beach, some people brought their beach chairs and were sunning themselves, kids were playing. It was a very peaceful sight until...

The only disturbing fact was that most of the previously sandy beach was all but washed away by the ocean. They say that at high tide the beach is not usable since the water comes up to the bluffs that were created by the rough seas that washed away most of the existing sand.

They supposedly are planning to bring in several thousand cubic feet of sand to fill up what was lost and hopefully open for the season. But it was pretty depressing to see the damage Mother Nature is capable to dish out.

Just remember, I did say the end of the world is coming. And if it is really coming the last thing we would need is beaches.

March 17, 2010

Today is St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. Ireland is not here it is in Ireland. But being in New York today one would think this is Ireland.

Every year on the third Saturday in September, German-Americans celebrate the Annual Steuben Day Parade. This celebration is for some German baron who fought on the side of George Washington.

Puerto Rican Day Parade takes place on the second Sunday in June, in honor of all Puerto Ricans.

Greek Independence Day Parade takes place on April 18, 2010 and it celebrates the independence of Greece. It commemorates the events of 1821 when they overcame the 400-year oppression of the Ottoman empire and the new Greece was born.

Salute to Israel Parade is the largest event in the world celebrating the anniversary of Israel's Independence. It is Being held this year on May 23.

All these parades and many more are being held on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. They celebrate the particular nationalities with marches, floats, bands and other stuff.

Typical to New York these have to be Irisher than in Ireland, Germaner than in Germany, more Greek than in Greece and more Puerto Rican than in Puerto Rico. Oh, and more Israeli than in Israel.

I always thought that Texas was the home of oversized. I heard that over there the small was big, the near was pretty far and the large was humongous.

But one has to be in New York to witness these events to be convinced of that if it happens in New York it is really big.

Take today for instance. In Midtown all the streets are closed to vehicular traffic because of this parade. Today supposed to be a regular working day. What about all those people participating? What about their jobs? Shouldn't they be at work?

In Ireland it is a national holiday but that's where the Irish are. That's their home, not here. If they are so craving for the homeland why don't they go home?

This applies to all who want to celebrate their national holidays here in this country.

I have no problem observing these days but all nationalities should do it in their neighborhoods and not in the heart of the City, thereby forcing uninterested people to endure hours of restrictions.

New York is an ethnic melting pot. All nationalities come together and live in a kind of harmony. Most nationalities have their own neighborhoods where their businesses, their restaurants are concentrated. National observances should be held in those places without infringing on other people's lives.

In addition to the parades there is always wild drinking going on after the marches. Things got so bad that years ago the police confiscated drinks from young people coming in by trains from New Jersey.

The Upper East Side was always infamous for crowds of drunk uniformed policemen and firemen. Bars and taverns had crowds outside on the streets drinking and making everybody in the area totally miserable.

Why does a holiday gives carte blanche for drinking? The Irish in Ireland don't do this. They drink but they don't make a nuisance of themselves. But in New York they have to overdo this too.

How can the authorities enforce order when they are just as guilty as the rest since they drink more than anybody.

It seems that we celebrate national holidays of other countries with more gusto than we celebrate our own.

This takes me back to what I said earlier. If they feel closer to their homelands -wherever that may be- then why don't they go home and live there?

But if they chose to stay here than start to act like this is their homeland and this is where they belong.

March 16, 2010

After two days of silence I am back!

This is what happened.

Saturday night at 7:30 our cable company lost all its services due to the severely high winds in the area.

As it turned out a very high tree toppled over and on its way down it took with it the aerial cables that supplied this neighborhood.

So at 7:30 the TV and Internet went off. Our Internet provider is the same company that provides the cable TV so when one goes everything else go.

At first they said it would be fixed by late Saturday night, then Sunday came and the promises kept coming. Sunday went without any change in status then Monday came and the promises never varied.

We even saw the technician working in our street and he said he wouldn't go home until the whole thing was fixed.

But guess what, he did go home and it wasn't fixed. We saw him again this morning at about eleven o'clock as we were leaving and he swore that he was almost done.

We went to Manhattan and didn't get home until about 6:30 in the afternoon. We entered the apartment with great anticipation. Is it on or is it still off?

And guess what, the system was fixed, the TV and Internet are both operational.

Hallelujah! Back to civilization.

I can't tell you how weird it is to be home without TV and the Internet. We are so used to it that without them life is really becoming "unbearable."

We are so dependent on life's comforts that losing them is really throwing everything in havoc. And not just the electronic gadgets. Everything around us is providing us with comfort. That applies to our food, our homes, our cars and everything else.

I am so used to my car that when I used to took it for service and left it there and I had to walk several blocks for the subway station, I felt like a bird who lost his wings (I didn't lay eggs).

What did we do in the old days before these comfort things ever became popular?

Anyway, we wanted to watch some DVD but I didn't know how to operate the damn DVD player because we never used it with the new TV. At the end we watched it on the computer which was almost as good then we listened to the radio and then listened to some music.

I remember when I was growing up all we had was a radio. But then radio had much better programming than they do today. This time we listened to the news which depressed us then we listened to music which cheered us up.

We also played an enormous amount of Solitaire on our laptops since that was the only thing that was available.

Anyway, hopefully this fiasco is over and we can live our life as city people should. Without interruptions and headaches.

March 13, 2010

Two good things came out of Poland, Chopin and kielbasa. The rest should have stayed there.

We have a Polish family as neighbors. They live in an apartment. Above them live a family with two small children. One of the children is a little boy with development problems.

This little boy runs around the apartment all the time and I guess his sister also gets in the act.

The detail that their floor is carpeted or not is not an issue but the noise these kids create is undoubtedly enormous.

These people were asked several times to try to curtail the noise but to no avail. Kids will be kids, as the saying goes.

I agree that the people living below them are suffering but the fight between these two families has reached unbelievable proportions.

The Polish family must have bought a boom box, because they are blasting that at any hours to annoy the people upstairs. The vibration is huge, walls are shaking and they are doing it at the most inconsiderate hours.

This childish behavior is there as a kind of response to the noise the children are making.

These people go to church every Sunday then come home and blast the music for everyone's annoyance. And the music is not Chopin but anything with very strong percussion rhythms.

They speak very little English. At one time they asked us to interfere and talk to the upstairs family but when we didn't want to get involved they got pissed at us.

So now they don't like us either. I am afraid to tell them that I am also Jewish because the shock might just be too much!

March 12, 2010

Antisemitism is a dirty word. Maybe word is not old but the meaning is. It has been around from ancient times. Maybe not described so intelligently but it was always around.

Thank God that He created the Jewish people. If there were no Jews in the world there would be no one to hate.

I don't know why, but people do not like Jews.

But why Jews are singled out for such an enormous dislike? Why not Baptists or Lutherans or Buddhists or Hindus or any of the others? Why only the Jews?

Jews were kicked out of Egypt, kicked out of Spain, Portugal, Russia and many other places for no reasons at all. There were economic restrictions placed against them, their lives were hard, they were constantly discriminated against all throughout history.

The blacks in America complain that they were held in slavery for a few hundred years and that is the reason, even today, for their slow emergence into the mainstream of society.

The Jews were pushed down and persecuted for thousands of years by every ruler and authority but they managed to survive and overcome all obstacles.

The Jews were always ready pawns for any bully might that be the local cossacks or institutional governments.

But the cruelty that men could bring upon another is unmatched when it could be served upon the Jew. The hatred against them is unparalleled in history.

Here is the reason why I brought up this sensitive subject.

The other day I read a story about the barbarian way Polish men behaved in the town of Jedwabne on July 1941, when they murdered between 400 to 1600 Jews (estimates vary) in a burning barn-house.

This is just one story but it made my blood boil. The Poles and Ukrainians were always known to be brutally antisemitic. They out Germaned the Germans. They not just hate the Jews which is OK because we don't like them either, but their level of brutality is unmatched.

Maybe they are jealous because the Jews are more intelligent, maybe because they are more successful.

They should realize that brutality is in reverse ratio with intelligence, i.e. the more brutal the more stupid!

It is mind boggling the level of brutality man can inflict on another man just because of racial hatred. We can not even say that they behave like animals because animals are not brutal at all. They kill to eat and not for fun and their preys rarely suffer.

Back in those years the persecuted Jews were defenseless people. They went to their graves without a fight. But when they fought they were lions.

Perfect example is the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

And when the tide turned those brave Polish and Ukrainians changed into sniveling imbeciles begging for their lives.

Now there is a new generation that sprung from the ashes who will not stand for such a treatment any longer. The Never Again slogan is alive and well and it will apply anywhere in the world.

There is a resurgence of antisemitism in Hungary. Actually, it was always there but was kept under control. Now it is awakening its ugly head again. But there is nothing they can do to hurt the Jews again as they did in the 1940s.

The Hungarian neo-nazis are nothing but skinhead idiots who have nothing better to do with their life than hate someone.

The Polish garbage that participated in the Jedwabne massacre were nothing but uneducated dregs of the earth people.

Now they all claim that they like the Jews, they are accepting them into society. But a leopard doesn't change its spots. The underlying hatred against the Jews will always be there no matter what they say.

People tend to forget that in most of the civilized world the Jews were in the center of the industrial evolution, in the center of the financial world and in the center of most of sciences.

Getting rid of them would have turned the world into a stark place to live in.

Just look at the Palestinians. They claim Israel is theirs. Had Israel been theirs that country would have remained an empty desert, underdeveloped, torn by various internal dissents.

If everybody hates the Jews so much maybe all the Jews should just step back and let the world straighten out itself without their help. See how far they can get.

I am not a Jewish zealot. I am not an observant Jew. There are many people I don't like who happen to be Jewish but that is not the reason for my dislike.

I don't like when Jews do something very controversial because it is embarrassing and it just adds another log to the fire of antisemitism.

I was lucky so far in my life. With the exception of the Holocaust I never came across any subtle or open antisemitism.

But you don't know how many times I heard the remark about somebody that "he is Jewish but he is nice..."

If that is not blatant antisemitism then I don't know what is.

My way of saying it is "he is not nice but then he is Polish..."

March 11, 2010

Today is almost the Ides of March. We are only ten days away from Spring but the weather is playing tricks with everybody.

In Hungary it has been snowing since yesterday. Officially, they were expecting about six inches to a foot by the end of today. Hungary's weather is almost the same as New York's.

A friend of mine just drove up from Florida over this past weekend and said it was warmer here in New York than down where he was.

Right now it is about 78 degrees and raining.

In Chile there was an aftershock in the country that was pretty sizable. That is almost like adding insult to injury.

In Vancouver during the Winter Olympics it was unseasonably warm, melting the snow needed for the skiing numbers.

Europe, mainly France, Spain and Portugal were just recently hit with some very high winds that caused several deaths.

These are just some of Mother Nature's fickle behaviors around the globe. If this does not signal the upcoming end than I don't know what other warnings we need.

As I said another time the world is coming to the end of its existence by December 2012. And all these happenings just signify that it is preparing itself to the big event.

I suggest that we don't make extensive plans beyond the 2012 date because it might not be possible to see them through.

My car lease expires in early 2012. I'll probably take another car and just hope there will be somebody to return it to at the end of that lease period.

???????????????????????????

It is all over in the news that the other day a 1980s teen heartthrob died of drug overdose. The official ruling is that it was accidental drug overdose. Yeah! Sure!

The man was 38 years old. He had a good ongoing career all the way from the 80s. He didn't sit home, without work, waiting for the telephone to ring with job offers. He had jobs, he was working.

Then why a good actor, I assume he was good, had to become a drug addict? And a drug addict to such extent that it lead to his death.

The media is talking about him as if he were a hero. To me he was nothing but a druggie.

This man got more breaks in life than ten other men would get. But he didn't appreciate them and wasted his life on drugs.

I do not feel sorry for such a loss. People like him don't deserve the breaks they receive. He took opportunities away from people who very likely deserved those more and would have appreciated them more, also.

Why couldn't he become a sex addict?

That never killed anybody, yet.

March 10, 2010

I totally recovered from yesterdays exertions. I was really tired at the end of the day. Spring skiing is exhausting to say the least, but one can get a nice tan.

Today we went to Macy's to buy a birthday present. While there we happened upon the ladies' swim suit displays.

Spending most of our summer time on the beach we looked around for anything interesting. Well, there wasn't anything nice. But what I noticed was that on the grown up department junior swim suits were in majority.

I came to the conclusion that the reason for that is Spring Break time which is coming.

As far as I know Spring Break is an American institution that gives the college age young people license to get drunk, rowdy, promiscuous, very likely pregnant, possibly killed by overdosing on drugs or alcohol.

Granted there are Spring Recesses in Canada, Mexico, China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and other countries but not like in the US.

It is a time of the year when the college kids run wild in locations like California, Florida, Mexico and God knows where else.

Young men and women congregate at these locations looking for fun. After a hard year in college studying for their future they think they are entitled to this relaxation.

I know there were several surveys made for the increase in birth rates after major power blackouts. I wonder if there were any surveys made for the increase of pregnancies after the Spring Breaks.

These people are the country's future. Beer swizzling, drug eating sex crazed individuals.

But the fault does not lie with them alone. Where are the parents? The parents have nothing to say about where these people go on their free time?

Every parent is convinced that their offspring is the one who is without fault. I got news for those parents.

The parent is always the last to know!

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The other day a woman was charged with animal cruelty after she viciously attacked an eleven month old English bulldog pup with a snow shovel.

The ASPCA says the dog, Spike, had "a hip fracture, a broken leg, three broken teeth and injuries to his ears." In addition he also lost one eye. This was the result of months of abuse.

I can not understand why people have to bus defenseless animals. I love animals, any kind of animals.

As far as I am concerned they are better than most people. They are honest, they don't hold a grudge and even after continuous abuse they still show love toward their owners.

OK, if a tiger gets hungry he'll eat his owner, but he'll do it lovingly.

To me to abuse an animal is as sick as abusing a defenseless baby or desecrating headstones in a cemetery.

Maybe the Saudis have the right idea. For one theft they chop off one hand, for two the other hand an so on until it gets to the head.

I would like to see those animal abusers to be put into the same situation they put their animals in.

Interestingly, only humans are capable of cruelty. An animal even have the decency to kill his prey before he eats it. And usually the kill is swift.

It is so easy to give away a pet if someone doesn't want it. To torture it and to make its life miserable is just not normal.

But animal cruelty is not a specialty in this country. It can be found all over the world.

Many years ago in Hungary they came out with a law that required dogs to be registered because the owners were to be taxed.

People didn't like this tax rule and rather than pay many of them got rid of their dogs.

On the western side of Budapest there are mountains and woods, all within a day's reach. People took their dogs into these woods, tied them to trees and left them there to die.

I would have tied the people to the trees and left them there instead.

At least dogs are not antisemitic like most Hungarians are!

March 9. 2010

Today I went skiing, again. It was probably the last time this season, but never say never again!

The weather was great, not great but gorgeous. Sunny all day and the temperature had to be in the high 30s or low 40s up there.

By noon the snow which was in ample supply, began to be mushy and I really don't like to ski in mushy snow.

You see even when I ski I am not far from my friends. The brand name of my skis is the same as my friend's, not Atomic.

Whenever I look at those skis I can't help but think of him. And that also reminds me that we will meet in about three weeks.

I am tired and can't think. So this is it. I'll make it up tomorrow.

March 8, 2010

As I noted yesterday, last night was the night of the Academy Awards. There was nothing worthwhile on television so we watched it.

It went on from 8 o'clock through midnight. There is so much time wasted that the whole thing could have been done in one hour.

But I guess self adulation needs time.

The whole show is a sham.

First of all these people hate each others' guts. When the winner walks up to the podium to accept the award the cameras always show the ones who lost applauding happily and smiling. Like they are so glad the other person won.

I am sure they wish that person would drop dead before he reached the podium. All this I love you crap they dish out is fake.

Don't forget these people are actors. Actors know how to act and show false emotions.

Second thing is that some of the nominated pictures were shown about a year ago. People already forgot about them, they are already being sold on CDs and being played on airplanes. There are so many pictures released that most of them don't stay up more than a few weeks.

It's interesting that it takes about six months to produce a movie and after about three weeks it's history! And, most of them don't even make the three week mark.

Acting in movies is not an art. The perfect example is Gabourey Sidibe. This young lady was picked out of anonymity and under good direction and coaching provided an outstanding performance.

I'm sure she never went to acting school and did not study the Lee Strasberg method. And doesn't get paid millions of dollars for a few weeks of work.

These so called stars were sitting there in their borrowed clothes and borrowed jewelry and were all convinced that they are God's gift to the American film industry.

With the right clothes and make up anybody can be made to look stunning. There were several mediocre looking actresses who happened to look quite good because of the way they were dressed and the way they were made up.

I find it interesting that the men's hairdo looks like mine when I get up in the morning. I can't see what is attractive in a messed up head of hair. Zach Efron looked like he just got out of bed with that hair of his. And this supposed to be cool?

Maybe I am showing my age, but I do prefer the nice clean cut look versus the "elegantly" bum look. Even if they wear five hundred dollar jeans they are still jeans.

Christopher Plummer is one of the great old actors. I am sure he never goes out into the public unshaven, with messed up hair and in jeans.

But, he is last of a dying breed: good actors.

March 7, 2010

Today is the birthday of my Friend. I wrote with a capital F because I think so much of him. He is a very nice person, very pleasant and easy to be with.

My only regret is that fate placed him far away from me and I have very little chance to see him. He lives about 150 miles from me and I feel really guilty that I make such a big thing driving there.

I admit that I don't think again driving that distance twice the same day when I go skiing, but I also admit that skiing is more fun! I'm just joking. I really love this guy and if all works out fine we will see one another in about three weeks.

He is singlehandedly responsible for me being in this country. But I won't hold him responsible for it as a matter of fact I am glad he talked me into it.

Anyway, today is his birthday. He caught up with me.

Actually he is and always be 58 days younger than I. This way he can always look up to me as his elder. By the time he was born I was on my merry way in this beautiful world of ours. My life experiences outweigh his because of my more advanced age.

I will always be ready to offer him advice on life's fickle behavior.

Anyway, on this day I wish him good health, good fortune and all the other good things life has to offer.

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Today was a gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky and the temperature shot up to about 59 degrees. We went out and the first time my wife and I both had only jackets on. And it was very pleasant.

It was funny with 59 degrees to see the mounds of snow in parking lots and other places, and to think back that last week at this time we were up to our kazoo in snow.

We usually eat out for lunch several days a week. Nothing fancy just some diner staples. My wife and I both happen to like diners. We know two places where they already know us and this way everybody is nice(er) to us.

Diners in the New York area provide humongogantic portions. But that is not the reason we go there. The reason is that they can prepare any food any way you want it. And sometimes we do ask for peculiar combinations.

Diners in this area are predominantly Greek owned and have sizable Greek selections on their menus. But they serve primarily American food. And their prices are good, too.

So, we had lunch, actually a late lunch at three o'clock in one of our favorite diners. After checking the menu and thinking what to eat that's not too fattening I noticed that the Early Bird menu was on already.

Here is what I had: cup of matzoh ball soup (very good and tasty); roasted calf's liver with onions, vegetables and a sweet potato; desert which was rice pudding with whipped cream and a diet Coke. And the whole thing was only $12.95.

The liver was great. I happened to love calf's liver not only because it is very healthy (not for the calf) but also because I just like it. I think my Mother used to make it but I'm not sure.

My wife ate well, too. She likes vegetable omlettes a lot so that's what she had with coffee. And that was also good.

Eating our lunch so late will result in no dinner except some snacks which is OK with us.

Anyway there is nothing worthwhile on the telly tonight because of the Academy Awards and that falls into the nothing worthwhile category too.

March 6, 2010

Today was a perfect Spring day.

It was mild, clear, lots of sun. Just the way it is supposed to be so close to Spring. It's funny that when we drove around on our appointed routes we could see snow on lawns, streets and mountains of it in parking lots.

But with temperatures around 50 degrees it is quickly disappearing.

As I already mentioned it, on Wednesday I went skiing. The place is about 150 miles north of New York City. I calculated that while they promised mild weather in the city, up where I went it should be real wintry.

Thankfully I was right. It seems that it snowed there since the middle of the previous week and they got about four-five feet of extra snow on top of what they already had.

It was gorgeous. It was winter wonderland at its best. The entire area was blanketed with fresh, clean snow. By area I mean as far as the eye could see from the top of the mountains.


Even from the road driving up there one could see humongous amounts on lawns and on roofs.

It was interesting that as I drove up almost until I reached the ski place it was either raining or it was a rainy mixture. But about ten minutes before reaching the place it suddenly became Shangri La: snow, snow and more snow.

Bottom line is that I had a great time and was totally exhausted by the end of the day.

It's a good thing that I love to drive, because the trip home was really pleasant. The speed limit on the New York State Thruway is 65 miles per hour. That means if one drives around 70-73 miles per hour it is kind of permissible. It's not too fast and not slow either and it makes the drive pretty pleasant.

On Public Radio there is a program on Saturdays called Car Talk. This is a call in show with a lot of items of interest all relating to cars.

On this show somebody once asked how much over the speed limit is permissible to drive. The unofficial answer to this was that between five to eight miles over the posted speed limit is O.K. to drive without being afraid of getting a ticket.

But people are funny. If it is kind of O.K. to drive at 73 miles per hour there is always somebody who will go at eighty or eighty-five. And there is never a police car around at that time.

I guess this year Punxsutawney Phil was right. After February 2 we had a lot of winter and they are not saying it is totally over.

Remember, March comes in like lamb and goes out like lion! (It could happen.)

March 5, 2010

We elect the president and the vice president, we also elect the senators and the representatives who all go to Washington. We also elect our state and local governments.

This is what the democratic system is supposed to be all about.

We elect the people we trust and then we expect them to perform as they promised to perform and in the meantime keep our interests in their sights.

The fact that the majority is crooked and the only thing they care about is themselves is unfortunately par for the course. That is why there are elections every two or four or six years when the bad apple can be thrown out of office.

What this country didn't elect is the media, the fourth estate.

The media comprises the written and electronic media through which they can voice their opinions.

The media also comprises self styled patriots who claim they care about what happens and they also claim the public has the right to know everything.

This is all bogus and false.

All the media cares about is to sell news, with the emphasis on the sell. On a slow news day they get panicky, when something happens they get elated.

They have absolutely no morals. If they could create news they would, regardless of the consequences. Today's news is tomorrow's history.

An earthquake in Haiti is the same news as the upcoming Academy Awards.

Right now the media decided to get rid off the current Governor of New York State, David Patterson.

Patterson never wanted to be the governor. He was lieutenant governor under Eliot Spitzer who resigned in 2008 and then Patterson took over.

He is blind and also an accomplished politician as well as a law school graduate. No matter how one looks at it the man must be brilliant to succeed to this level.

The fact that he is not a great governor is not his fault. But now the media decided to get rid of him. There is nothing he can do right now that they wouldn't find fault with.

They are dredging up things that are unimportant compared to the rest of the garbage that occupy power in Albany, the state capital.

There is no newscast on TV or radio where they don't say disparaging things about him. The media is in a frenzy, whipping up sentiments against this individual.

He must feel like the man in that old TV show The Fugitive. He can find no friend anywhere, everybody is against him and they all out to get him.

Thanks to the power of the media at the end he will very likely resign. Then what? Where will they turn their attention to?

Nobody should underestimate the power of the media. They are unscrupulous and they know no boundaries in the search for salable news. They do not represent the public they only represent what they can sell.

This was just my outburst as I can see the View from the Bottom.

March 4, 2010

It just amazes me how this country of ours is being governed or should I say ruled by hindsight.

Things are happening, things that shouldn't happen, then they come up with the assurances that in the future blah, blah, blah...

The World Trade Center Garage in the basement gets bombed after which they build strong security entrances.

The World Trade Center is blown up after which they realize that maybe they should check airline passengers more closely.

A guy smuggles explosives on the plane in the sole of his sneakers and they realize that even though they checked the passengers they didn't check the shoes.

A guy accidentally blows up his underwear (hopefully clean) on a plane and they realize that maybe they should do a more thorough check of incoming passengers even from outside the country.

An air traffic controller with thirty years experience brings his two small children to work and lets them give instructions to aircrafts ready to take off with over two hundred people on board and then they realize that maybe they need stronger workplace regulations.

Our country's motto is "In God we trust."

I think it should be changed to "We should have thought of it."

God is busy fixing this screwed up world. He has no time to correct every oversight that the people who are in position failed to perform.

We put our faith in people in authority to protect us but they are failing left and right. They are just like the local weathermen. An unexpected bad weather happens and their response is: oops, I missed that one.

With bad weather one laughs it off but with the other things it could lead to tragedies like the World Trade Center.

Another item.

How can a father take his stupid kids to the control tower and let them give instructions to airliners that are carrying hundreds of people? This is not a computer game this is real life.

I would fire his ass out of that job no matter what a great father he is!

Some of his neighbors said that this whole thing is being blown out of proportion.

I wonder what would have they said had they been on the plane directed by two idiot kids.

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I have great idea on how to solve the states' and country's financial crisis.

It seems that New York City as well as New York State, New Jersey and I am sure many other states and the Federal Government are battling the financial crisis that is surrounding us.

It seems that everybody's solution or at least partial solution is the reduction of services.

Reduce the mail deliveries, reduce transportation services, layoff people, increase taxes, reduce government provided benefits, and the list goes on and on.

Here is my suggestion.

Take away everybody's income across the board, without exceptions, and give an allowance to each person to live on. Just enough money to cover the cost of living with a small amount thrown in for entertainment or vacations.

This idea is very close to communism or utopia but that is where all this is leading to. Governments are striding to take more and more of our hard earned money and they will not be satisfied until they took all of it.

Communism is a dirty word but if it is called utopia it is acceptable.

It is all in the packaging.

March 3, 2010

Today was a beautiful day. At least for me.

I went skiing the fifth times this season and I had a great time. Leaving home this morning it was raining and wet snow and 36 degrees. But I was confident that by the time I get to the mountains, which are about 150 miles north of here, conditions would change for the better.

Boy, was I right. Up there it was cold and blustery and snow showers all day long.

Since last week this place received about eight feet of snow there was no shortage of the white stuff at all.

I went with a friend this time and we both had a good day. Right now I am totally exhausted, my brain is a mush so I won't write any more.

Hopefully, tomorrow is another day!

March 2, 2010

I am very upset today. They came out that due to the earthquake in Chile this earth of ours got such a kick in the butt that the days are now 0.00000126 seconds shorter.

That's 1.26 millionth of a second.

I had meticulously planned my days, now I am being shortchanged by having shorter days. Now, I won't be able to complete tasks that I wanted to do.

Now airlines will have a legitimate excuse why they are late. The hour is really not an hour long but 0.00000126/24 = 5.25 × 10^-8 = 0.000000525 second less.

That's terrible!

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Yesterday they announced the celebrity participants in the latest Dancing With The Stars season. It's a mish-mash of talents if anyone can call these people talented.

I can not fathom how a former astronaut who landed on the Moon can lower himself to the level of participating in this. If he is so hard-pressed for money I'm sure he could have found other ways than embarrass himself front of the country.

An Olympic ice skating gold medalist certainly does not need to expose himself to the wisecracks of those lame judges. I am sure there is a lot of promotional money in his future so why he agreed to this circus?

I'm surprised they didn't get Tiger Woods on it. But it is not too late.

This show is now bordering the insane. I think it's time that they discontinue after this season.

But money talks and if they can find advertisers with deep pockets the show will go on.

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I hate to see advertisements, commercials with babies or toddlers in them. I am very surprised that nobody ever raised any objection about this.

These children appear in something without their knowledge or agreement. OK, they are too small to understand and agree or disagree but then do not use them until they get to age.

All these appearances are the results of stage parents who are convinced that their kids are the cutest and most beautiful.

To me, showing some unsuspecting babies crawling through a set in diapers while the announcer states that these diapers are better than the competition's, look very disturbing.

The same goes for the commercials showing babies "talking" thanks to computer generated mouth movements. This and all other the other ads are not natural and as far as I am concerned borders on child abuse.

Give me an ad with cute, cuddly puppies in it anytime.

March 1, 2010

Another month went by. As they said yesterday at the closing ceremonies, only 880 days until the London Summer Olympics.

It's a good thing there is always something to look forward to.

But since the ancient seers forewarned us that the world will come to an end between December 21 and 23 in 2012, is it not kind of premature to prepare for something that may never happen?

Maybe that is why they awarded the next Winter Olympics to Sochi in Russia knowing that it can never be. I looked it up in Wikipedia and it seems Sochi is almost as tropical as Miami and I can not imagine Miami ever getting the Winter Games.

They probably thought, hey let's make those Russians happy and pocket those bribes now because this thing will never be.

I was watching the Closing Ceremonies last night. It was so boring that I could not find the words for it. This guy who produced that said it would not be like the one in Beijing but it would be superb. Well, he was half right. It was not like the one in Beijing.

This like the Opening Ceremony too, was like an ugly baby which has a face only a mother could love. It made no sense at all, the sound was poor and the entire show was extremely boring. Sincerely hope, in case the end of the world gets postponed, the London one will be better.

Another thing that bugged me. All these Hollywood people who forever lived in this country came out and waived their Canadian identities and tried to impress upon anybody who cared what great Canadians they were.

Then, why didn't they stay in Canada if that is such a great country according to them?

These people are just like the athletes. They go where the money is. How come Canada doesn't have any homegrown and home stayed talents? I'm sure they have they just wanted to be embarrassing and showed William Shatner who rambled on or Michael J. Fox who was playing the sympathy card.

Anyway, I'm glad it's over and Shaun White, Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn can go back into their world because I had enough of their antics. There was not one broadcast where one of them was not mentioned. NBC created such a hype about these people that it was bordering on the disgusting.

Besides, I would much rather watch good cops catching bad guys anytime.

Now with the Olympics over the media can concentrate on good, wholesome sports like golf.