Last night, a large area of Gramercy Park went into lock down because of a report of a suspicious vehicle. And there was good reason to be concerned due to the similar description of the Times Square bombers vehicle. Thankfully that wasn't the case.
It turned out the owner was a gardener who had left the gas cans in his car while attending a Buzzcocks concert.
By midnight, the owner of the vehicle, who had been at the concert, returned and was none too happy -- especially when he saw that cops had blown out his windows with two controlled blasts.
"What happened! What happened!" he kept asking police. "What's wrong? I didn't do anything."
What the f**k is the matter with you? Do you not have any f**king common sense? Do you not read the f**king news?
You did nothing wrong but that is no excuse for not being aware of your surroundings.
Remember that person who invited me to that event? This is something he might do. He had a tendency of not thinking things through and when he was faced with option he refused to take it out of pride.
Here's an example.
Awhile back a friend of mine invited myself and "that friend" to a lunch party. Now I wanted to leave at least 45 minutes before it was time but he started pissing and moaning that there was no need for us to leave that early and that we would get there in plenty of time since the restaurant was nearby. I acquiesced because I just wanted to shut him up.
Now the restaurant was nearby but "that friend" forgot to factor public transportation not cooperating with us. We ended up being about 10 minutes. And guess who looked like an a**hole? Moi. Why? Because this was the first time both friends were meeting each other and I was acting as the intermediary.
Now "that friend" did not have any malicious intent in that situation but his inability and unwillingness to use common sense put me in a very poor light.
I am sure this gardener is a very nice guy. But that is no excuse for not thinking things through.
People, it is not about just about being aware of the bad guys but also being aware of whether your behavior is going cause unnecessary friction. Mind you, there are certain things that are out of our control, however, it isn't very difficult to think "I should leave those gas cans at home."
They are definitely putting the heat on teacher. But not in a good way.
Teaching is probably one of the most undervalued professions in this country. Which is ironic since teachers develop what is perhaps our most valuable resource: Our children.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not an easy job. It appears that teachers work from 9am-3Pm and get summers off. But it is more like teachers work from 7am to 6pm because they need to prepare their day before classes start and they need to deal with other business after the school day is over. And even though they are paid during the summer, a lot of teachers pick up extra work to supplement their salary because they are not being paid in Wall Street bonuses. I know of one teacher who worked as a truck driver during the summer. And I haven’t even begun to talk about the rigors of dealing with children.
Which leads me to this unsurprising trend of teachers taking pay cuts due to the current economic climate.
School superintendents and board members say they have been caught in the middle, left with no choice but to reduce teacher payrolls — either through salary concessions or layoffs — to offset sharp revenue drops from state aid cuts, declining property values and resistance to higher taxes. “At a certain point, there’s nowhere else to go” to achieve savings, said Michael V. McGill, the superintendent in Scarsdale, whose 460 teachers are among the best paid in the nation, earning $54,442 to $135,000. Faced with the prospect of 20 layoffs, a majority of Scarsdale’s teachers voted to reopen their contract to shave one percentage point off an expected raise of 3.25 percent in each of the next two years. That would save $1.9 million.
I want to clarify something, if the teachers did not agree to these conditions, the board of education would have no choice but to break out the machetes and hack away at anything in their path. Why? Scarsdale is a UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT. In other words the teachers have no leverage in this situation. Therefore there was never a “prospect of layoffs.” It would have been inevitable.
So why would any teacher want to consider working in Scarsdale?
“At a certain point, there’s nowhere else to go” to achieve savings, said Michael V. McGill, the superintendent in Scarsdale, whose 460 teachers are among the best paid in the nation, earning $54,442 to $135,000.
M-O-N-E-Y
Obviously teachers are not happy with this and have been standing their ground. And they have pissed off a lot of people.
But Robert J. Rader, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, noted “a lot of concern, and a lot of anger” over teachers’ unions that have steadfastly refused to make concessions even as practically every other school group has.
In Waterford, Conn., the teachers’ union rejected a proposal to replace two professional-development days with unpaid furloughs next year but reversed itself after the district agreed to provide some training at other times, said Randy Collins, the superintendent. In Pelham, N.Y., where schools are the center of town life, some residents began speaking up at school board meetings last year to ask why teachers were not doing more to help.
This quote just, well, just read it.
“I have never heard such accusations against teachers,” said Frank Orfei, a social studies teacher for 32 years. “Many teachers feel like we’ve been made scapegoats of an economic crisis that we didn’t have anything to do with.”
Gee. You just figured that out just now? Whether we like it or not we are all bailing water on a sinking ship. And anyone not towing the line is dragging us down.
It sucks, but it is what it is.
Of course to add more fuel the fire for New York State teachers is this new development.
The agreement, reached in time for the state’s second bid at $700 million in federal education grants, would scrap the current system whereby teachers were rated simply satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Instead, annual evaluations would place teachers in one of four categories — highly effective, effective, developing and ineffective. While the deal would not have any immediate effect on teacher pay, it could make it easier for schools to fire teachers deemed subpar.
“We believe that if done correctly this will change the landscape dramatically,” said David M. Steiner, the state education commissioner. “This is not a gotcha system. This is about creating professional development that can really improve education.”
Teachers would be measured on a 100-point scale, with 20 percent points based on how much students improve on the standardized state exams. Another 20 percent would be based on local tests, which would have to be developed by each school system. After two years, 25 percent would be based on the state exams and 15 percent would come from the local tests.
Scarsdale teachers earn their pay and then some. After all they were pretty much forced to cobble together a curriculum that that could compete with the APs. Unfortunately just like any other school district, it has its share of people who have no business being teachers. However these developments make a non-union school district a very, very unattractive place work in.
Think about it. If you are a jerk off teacher who is more interested in spending time with a select few and marginalizing those that you feel that are not worth your effort or enjoy tormenting students, you are not going to last to long in Scarsdale.
Complaints are going to be made and you are going to be ordered to actually do your job. And nothing is more dangerous to a teacher than parents with money. You are better off working in a district that has a union because you will have a more secure position in dealing with the headaches.
Now this is a possible a win-win for the unions because if there is an exodus of teachers who feel that the high salaries of the union free school district are not worth it, they are going have their pick of the best and brightest. Or whoever has the best connections.
Now if you are a teacher who actually loves what they are doing and is willing to give their all especially to the runts of the litter. You have nothing to worry about.
This is further evidence that no one is safe. Security is an illusion and everyone needs to make every effort to ensure their survival.
This has been going on for quite awhile. I am not surprised.
People were basically emotionally hijacked when they jumped into the real estate market. They did not take a hard look at their finances and the repercussions of the deals they were making. They just wanted a house at any cost. A lot of these people who are leaving can afford to stay in their homes, but after doing the math, they realize they owe more money on the mortgage while the value of their house is declining. So they turn in the keys and walk.
If you think about it, what keeps people paying their mortgage? Besides needing a place to live, it is protecting their credit and their sense of honor.
But consumers are no longer feeling emotionally attached to their homes and to their obligations. Wall Street and Corporate America has shown that walking away is the cost of doing business. And those people sleep pretty well at night.
The purpose of business is making a profit. If it is not making a profit, you either figure out a way to make a profit or cut your losses.
All these people are doing is taking a page from the same book that Tishman Speyers read in the Stuy town deal. There is no money in this deal for them, so they are pulling out of the deal.
Of course these their credit is going to be mangled beyond recognition but they figure that the money they save will make up for that and time will heal their credit. And as long they have a non-recourse mortgage, they should be alright.
However, this is just a further indication of how f**ked up the housing and credit markets will be in the near future. The foreclosure process is not the most efficient of procedures and there will be a lot of low hanging fruit in our future.
And with the relative ease of how one can walk away, lenders will definitely go back to the drawing board on figuring out how to increase the pain of owners who walk even though they have the money to pay their mortgage. I predict non-recourse clauses will either be stricken or be made extremely expensive to install.
Despite the fact that Federal programs to modify mortgages have pretty much failed. The Federal government will no doubt dump more cash into this money pit. And where do you think they will get that money? Here's a hint. Look in the mirror.
I believe in free will. Take whatever actions you want but be ready to accept the consequences. For those of you who decide to walk. Just remember, no one put a gun to your head to buy that house. And if you think you are going to walk away scott free with just a black mark on your credit report, you are going to still have to pay for it one way or another. In Manhattan, if a landlord sees a foreclosure on a credit report, they won;t even return your phone call. And if they decide to take you on as a tenant, you are going to have pony up a lot more to stick around. The result will be that any type of transaction that requires a credit report is going to amount to a considerable expense for someone has taken a strategic foreclosure. Of course there will a huge growth in services that repair credit.
Strategic foreclosures are not something be to taken lightly. If you live in an area that is recovering and has everything you need, you might want to consider sticking around.
There is a ton of coverage on the Times Square Bomber but what irks me about this bomber is that he was given every opportunity to make something of himself.
They took their places in the wood-paneled courtroom, 58 people from 32 countries. They listened as a federal magistrate banged the gavel and said it was “a wonderful day for the United States”— the day they would become Americans.
The magistrate talked about Thomas Jefferson and told the group that they could run for office — only the presidency and the vice presidency were off limits, according to a tape recording of the proceedings in a Bridgeport, Conn., courtroom last year, on April 17. On her instructions, they raised their right hands and repeated the oath of citizenship.
In January 2002 Mr. Shahzad obtained an H1B visa, a coveted status meant for highly skilled workers and good for three years, with a possible extension. Records show that Elizabeth Arden, the cosmetics giant, applied for a visa for Mr. Shahzad; he worked there as a temporary clerk in the accounting department in 2001, through an employment agency called Accountants Inc., according to a timecard found in his trash.
Do you know how hard it is to get a H1B visa let alone citizenship in America? It's a f**king pain the ass. I have a friend of mine who has stay out of the country for two years in order to better their chances at getting a green card.
This piece of s**t, I am not saying his name, got everything he needed an immigrant desires from America. An education, residency and a place to raise a family.
Life wasn't perfect for him. It has been reported that he was part of the teeming masses that were in foreclosure. And like many people he was unemployed.
But are these reasons to go up and attempt to kill a massive amount of people in Times Square?
According to reports he was unremarkable, but even if though the POS got his MBA from a lower tier schools and his work experience wasn't at Goldman Sachs, in certain parts of the world that will take you very far.
All the POS had to do was pull up stakes and star new somewhere else. With his background he could have been a super star in his homeland.
But does he do that? NO! F**ktard goes back home and decides to spend time a club Taliban and learns, no, make attempts to learn how to be a terrorist. And F**King fails.
I don't know what the f**k they teach these a**holes but they have to stop it. I mean end it now because obviously they are not doing it right.
If watch a lot of crime films like the Getaway , Reservoir Dogs and Heat, that after pulling off a caper that attracts a lot of unwanted, you get immediately get the hell out of dodge. Yuu don't wait over two days to leave.
This guy was a numb nut of the highest order, he left his house keys in the car bomb and had to get the spare apartment keys from his landlord.
One can only hope is that the longer they keep up this up, sooner they will end up blowing themselves up.
Which brings me back Sheila Radziewic. This woman has arms. Yet she is on her way to getting a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. This is a woman who was destined to have a rough life. But does she give in to resentment or anger? Does she give in to despair?
She began living on her own at 19. She lives in Salem now and helps women navigate the court system as a local advocate coordinator for HAWC, Healing Abuse Working for Change, which helps victims of domestic violence.
At 23, Radziewicz earned her driver's license. The state helped fashion a car for her that she drives with her feet.
One of the things that pisses me off is when someone gets everything in life and then does something really stupid. This is why this POS really makes me angry and I hope they make an example of him. The ramifications of his actions are going to be felt by innocent hard working people who are trying to make a life of their own.
It is also imperative we do everything we can to discourage this type of activity for own good.
Bruce Lee once said that the most dangerous person to fight is a person who has no background in fighting. This is because those types of people are completely unpredictable and have a strong tendency to do anything. This pretty much applies to clean skins.
America needs to send a message to potential clean skins that it is in their best interest to stay clean.
Good news, at least for the month of April. Of course we do not know how much effect the tax credit had on sales. But I don’t know about you but I will take any good news.
For all of Craven County, April home sales
April 2009=58
April 2010=74
New Home sales
April 2009=19
April 2010=32
For the first quarter year over year sales seem to indicate we might have hit the bottom and maybe we are on a slow rebound up. Hang in there.
