Posts Tagged ‘New York City’

LinkSwarm for June 9, 2014

Monday, June 9th, 2014

Here’s a LinkSwarm to kick your week off with:

  • Gee, what could have possibly sent hospital prices skyrocketing? It’s an unsolvable mystery! (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • Old and Busted: ObamaCare will save the government money. The New Hotness: “In its latest report on the law, the Congressional Budget Office said it is no longer possible to assess the overall fiscal impact of the law.”
  • “For Obama and his defenders to blame Bush — or anyone but Obama — 64 months into his administration deserves nothing short of lip-curling scorn.”
  • The New Narrative: Obama is just massively incompetent at everything but campaigning.
  • The VA Scandal displays “a systemic lack of integrity.”
  • Nothing says “socialism is a raging success” quite like rationing drinking water. Enjoy your socialist paradise, Caracas, Venezuela! (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • The idiocy of “white privilege.”
  • “It is not sufficient that transsexuals should be free to act on their delusions — the rest of us are expected to participate in them with unreserved enthusiasm, and the Left is willing to use the state to compel us to do so…The belief that members of minority political tendencies should be jailed for their views is very much in vogue for the Left at the moment.”
  • Steve Crowder: Having a Penis Doesn’t Equal Misogyny.
  • Another day, another Social Justice Warrior issung death threats against their political enemies.
  • 50 Years of Democratic Rule tracking Detroit’s decay using Google street view.
  • Once again, liberal Democrats oppose a project that might give burly blue collar men high-paying jobs.
  • Christopher Hitchens on Hillary Clinton. Yes, it’s old. (The fact Hitchens exited this vale of tears over two years ago may have been the first tipoff.) But I suspect this will not be the last time I repost it between now and 2016…
  • New York City now has more cops collecting pensions than walking the street.
  • The indicted friend of the Boston Marathon Bomber wired $71,000 to people in six countries using fake names. I think we can all agree that that’s not even slightly suspicious…
  • Best and worst paying college majors.
  • Vasser’s new Stalinist show trials.
  • The Texas Republican Convention occurred in Ft. Worth over the weekend, and delegates killed a down-payment on illegal alien amnesty, the so-called “Texas Solution.” How many time does the GOP establishment need to be told that actual voters reject amnesty, and demand that the border be secured before any changes are made to immigration law before they start listening?
  • Speaking of amnesty, all this “Dream Act” talk has sent children pouring over the border, where there are no housed in overcrowded and unhygienic holding facilities. Thanks, Obama!
  • Some of them are being dumped in Arizona.
  • Even Obama’s own immigration adviser says says his amnesty plan is endangering children. Plus “roughly 70 percent of swing-voters want tougher immigration rules.” Obama seems unwilling to stop the flood of illegal aliens because he views them all as potential Democratic voters…
  • 10 essential economic truths liberals need to learn.
  • Fight gearing up between the Bureau of Land Management and Texas.
  • Grammer Nazis.
  • Public Service Announcement: Try not to murder people for imaginary Internet memes.
  • Samuel L. Jackson takes a selfie at a an Israel Independence parade in New York City. naturally liberals freak out.
  • When I think “Hip-Hop” the first name that comes to mind is Ron Howard.
  • Al Sharpton vs. The Teleprompter:

  • Science Fiction Writer Jay Lake, RIP.
  • LinkSwarm for March 10, 2014

    Monday, March 10th, 2014

    Time for another LinkSwarm, sweeping up all the news that was happening while I was churning out Texas primary news:

  • “The uninsured just aren’t buying ObamaCare.”
  • A not-so-short compendium of all the people Harry Reid is calling a liar.
  • ObamaCare will slash wages by as much as $5 an hour for hospitality workers.
  • ObamaCare helps states transfer medical costs for imprisoned felons to Medicaid.
  • In Sean Trende’s latest senate simulation, Democrats are more likely to lose 14 seats than 0 seats.
  • Among those in trouble: Mo Udall. (Hat tip: Shall Not Be Questioned.)
  • Even Obama is worried that Democrats will get “walloped.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • This week’s Democrat caught beating his wife: Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida
  • Senate to Obama’s cop killer fan nominee: REJECTED!
  • But evidently Mary Landrieu and Kay Hagan are just fine with cop-killer supporters.
  • New York City’s new mayor is perfectly willing to screw poor black kids attending a charter school because it’s a non-union school run by his “political nemesis.”
  • Speaking of cities run by Democrats: woman’s mummified remains found in foreclosed Detroit house.
  • A great list of things Obama won’t even consider to stop Putin.
  • Time magazine continues its record of unrivaled prognostication: “No, Russia Will Not Intervene in Ukraine.”
  • “If economic success is all but criminal in France these days, why not depart for places that reward it instead?”
  • Israel intercepts more Iranian freedom missiles and happiness rockets in route to Hamas.
  • Nigerian Muslim defends daughter’s conversion to Christianity, pleads for multiculturalism and tolerance. Ha, just kidding! He hacked her to death with a machete.
  • “What Nigerian scams are to your grandfather, Bitcoin exchanges are to the 20-30 semi-tech-savvy libertarian demographic.”

    “The exchanges are based on layers upon layers of bad software, run by shady characters,” he writes. “The Bitcoin masses, judging by their behavior on forums, have no actual interest in science, technology or even objective reality when it interferes with their market position. They believe that holding a Bitcoin somehow makes them an active participant in a bold new future, even as they passively get fleeced in the bolder current present.”

  • The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’…
  • Can anyone derail the juggernaut that is Biden 2016?
  • Vaunted liberal tolerance rears its head in Ireland:

  • We have an early winner for “stupidest Critical Race Theory race-baiting essay” from Salon (natch): “Why I can’t stand white belly dancers.”
  • Meanwhile, National Review is celebrating Chinese classical musicians. Now remind me again: Which side is racist?
  • More on Critical Race Theorist/Social Justice Warrior types: “These people don’t listen to things like “logic” and “reason” when they are in one of their social justice tizzies. It’s not even worth trying to be kind or polite to them.”
  • Winners and Losers from the Texas primaries.
  • Flash Mob at Brooklyn Mall

    Saturday, December 28th, 2013

    One problem with defining the flash mob problem is conflicting reports on the severity of particular incidents.

    Thursday there was a flash mob at Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn. How bad was it?

    According to the New York Post story linked above:

    A wild flash mob stormed and trashed a Brooklyn mall, causing so much chaos that the shopping center was forced to close during post-Christmas sales, sources said Friday.

    More than 400 crazed teens — who mistakenly thought the rapper Fabolous would perform — erupted into brawls all over Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Mill Basin on Thursday at 5 p.m., sources said.

    The troublemakers looted and ransacked several stores as panicked shoppers ran for the exits and clerks scrambled to pull down metal gates.

    [snip]

    “They were playing the ‘knockout’ game,” said Shante, a 21-year-old perfume merchant, in reference to a violent trend in which teens try to knock out an unsuspecting victim with a single punch.

    However, this CBS NY report makes things sound pretty chaotic, but a whole lot less criminal:

    “There were reports of minor damage and no store owners reported any thefts.”

    Well either looting occurred or it didn’t, but you would think thefts would have been reported if stores had been “ransacked.” Did the “minor damage” consist of decorations being knocked over or windows being smashed?

    All sources agree that some fights broke out (though video of that seems to have been pulled from YouTube).

    There was also reports of black-on-white racial attacks in the same neighborhood back in October.

    And what does The New York Times have to say? Either my Google-fu is weak, or a mini-riot at a mall in the city it ostensibly covers is simply beneath The Gray Lady’s notice, as I couldn’t find any online coverage.

    More on racial tensions in Brooklyn and the knockout game.

    Edited to add: Gothamist seems to have some non-embeddable videos off of Facebook. What’s shown there seems slightly on the “rowdy” side of the “rowdy/criminal” divide. I would have been concerned had I been there, but I didn’t see any window smashing or looting. Caveats on limited viewpoints and small sample sizes apply.

    New York City Liberals Shocked To Find ObamaCare Screws Them As Well

    Saturday, December 14th, 2013

    This New York Times piece linked by Instapundit is too good not to give its own post.

    Many in New York’s professional and cultural elite have long supported President Obama’s health care plan. But now, to their surprise, thousands of writers, opera singers, music teachers, photographers, doctors, lawyers and others are learning that their health insurance plans are being canceled and they may have to pay more to get comparable coverage, if they can find it.

    “Hey, wait a minute! ObamaCare was never supposed to screw me! It was only supposed to screw other people!”

    It’s like that scene in Aliens where the backstabbing corporate weasel corporate weasel who betrayed the rest of the crew gets a face-full of xenomorph, but with ObamaCare as the alien and liberals playing Paul Reiser.

    For years conservatives have issued unheeded warnings about how big government ruins peoples lives, but it took Democrats shoving ObamaCare down the country’s throat to make liberals feel the pain.

    It is not lost on many of the professionals that they are exactly the sort of people — liberal, concerned with social justice — who supported the Obama health plan in the first place. Ms. Meinwald, the lawyer, said she was a lifelong Democrat who still supported better health care for all, but had she known what was in store for her, she would have voted for Mitt Romney.

    And that’s why the Obama-friendly media lied about it for four years.

    ObamaCare is a bad law for most Americans, a bad law for the country as a whole, and should be repealed.

    LinkSwarm for December 9, 2013

    Monday, December 9th, 2013

    A LinKSwarm to start your Monday off, with a mix of old and new:

  • Obama’s popularity down among the Obama coalition:

    Obama’s job approval rating among Hispanic Americans has plunged from 75 percent in December 2012 to 52 percent today — a drop of 23 percentage points, the sharpest decline among any voter group. Among Americans who make less than $24,000 a year, the president’s approval rating has fallen from 64 percent last December to 46 percent today. Among Americans 18 to 29 years of age, it has fallen from 61 percent to 46 percent. Among women, it has fallen from 57 percent to 43 percent.

    Evidently free contraceptives don’t trump lost jobs and insurance. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

  • First came the first wave of ObamaCare “cancellation shock” as policies were dropped left and right. Next comes the “Doc Shock,” as people lose physicians who won’t cut their rates for ObamaCare plans. (Hat tip: Instapundit and Ed Driscoll.)
  • Indeed, 7 out of 10 California doctors are boycotting California’s ObamaCare exchanges. When you’ve lost California…
  • So get ready to see a lot more signs like this. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
  • “The GOP establishment is loath to admit it, but the government shutdown is turning out to be a brilliant political chess move on the part of Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.”
  • Why the hell is Paul Ryan trying to undo the sequester cuts?
  • New York City starts confiscating rifles and shotguns.
  • On Twitter, #LiesObamaToldUs trended for three straight days. Well, it’s a target-rich environment…
  • Photojournalist robbed twice in one day in Detroit. Funny how 50 years of Democratic rule mean that government is unable to enforce its most central function: keeping the populace safe by enforcing the rule of law.
  • Why you don’t stop shooting until the threat is neutralized:

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)

  • Is Hollywood turning the Biblical story of Noah into another tree-hugging Dances With Smurfs?
  • Lazy, SuperTiny LinkSwarm for December 6, 2013

    Friday, December 6th, 2013

    It’s Friday, and I’m feeling to lazy to put up a real LinkSwarm, so here’s the Mini-Me version:

  • Anger among Democrats over the rollout of ObamaCare is deep.” It’s nothing compared to the anger among voters…
  • An example of why Rick Santorum wasn’t the Republican Presidential nominee in 2012, and won’t be in 2016.
  • Once again, a super-secret military plane started under Republicans is revealed by a Democratic Administration.
  • Austin Attorney Marc Rosenthal, who helped bankroll the Williamson County Democratic Party, including gave $58,000 in donations to (now ex-) state rep Diana Maldonado, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for “racketeering, conspiracy, bribery, extortion, tampering, and mail fraud.”
  • Charles Barkley rides the New York City subway: “If they never see me again, tell my family I love them.”
  • You know that whole “I’ll never have to buy music ever again” thing? Yeah, not so much.
  • Texans fire head coach Gary Kubiak. It was time. Thy also fired Special Teams coach Joe Marciano, which was many, many years overdue…
  • Man survives two days in air pocket in overturned ship:

  • LinkSwarm for September 27, 2013

    Friday, September 27th, 2013

    Another Friday, another LinkSwarm:

  • When it comes to ObamaCare, it turns out that Democrats lied about, well, pretty much everything. “Millions of low-income Americans won’t receive coverage. Many workers at small businesses won’t get a choice of insurance plans right away. Large employers won’t need to provide insurance for another year. Far more states than expected won’t run their own insurance marketplaces. And a growing number of workers won’t get to keep their employer-provided coverage.”
  • ObamaCare is bending the cost curve. Upwards.
  • Even moderate and conservative Democrats dislike ObamaCare.
  • Green Eggs and ObamaCare.
  • Just starting, the ObamaCare Wars are.
  • Oh how Republican Senators hate Ted Cruz for expecting them to behave like Republicans.
  • Another Dead Goblin.
  • Given the chance, more Wisconsin teachers break their union fetters.
  • Thanks to high costs, mismanagement and union rules, New York City can no longer support two opera companies.
  • The DEA thinks Big Brother should have access to all your prescription records.
  • Is Texas DPS refusing to hold illegal aliens?
  • The Onion profiles an Obama voter.
  • Cosmo, RIP.
  • New York Yankees guaranteed to win as many post-season games as the Astros this year.
  • LinkSwarm for July 8, 2013

    Monday, July 8th, 2013

    Funny how three day weekends where you have to work Friday always leave you with more stuff you need to do rather than less. So here’s the Friday LinkSwarm on Monday.

  • “Barack Hussein Obama: You Killed the Arab Spring.” And other anti-Obama signs from Egyptian protesters.
  • Why is Obama more concerned with Morsi being deposed than he ever was with Mori’s totalitarian destruction of Egypt’s democratic institutions?
  • Ted Cruz says that Obama is making the same mistake in Egypt he made in Iran.
  • “In government, Morsi and his allies had an impossible task: to make Egypt work. Now they have an easier one: watch it fail.”
  • Speaking of which, at least 50 people were killed in clashes between Egypt’s military and the Muslim Brotherhood.
  • Islamic terror group Boko Haram burns 30 people alive, most children in an attack on a boarding school in Nigeria.
  • Turkey imprisons more journalists than any other country.
  • Germany’s finance minister: “We should not accept Turkey as a full member … Turkey is not part of Europe.”
  • Thomas Sowell: “The political left’s welfare state makes poverty more comfortable, while penalizing attempts to rise out of poverty. Unless we believe that some people are predestined to be poor, the left’s agenda is a disservice to them, as well as to society.”
  • “All the net growth in employment among the working-age (ages 16–65) over the last decade went to immigrants (legal and illegal). Since 2000 the total number of immigrants employed is up by 5.3 million, while native-born employment is down 1.3 million.”
  • Modern liberalism, among other things, is a psychological state, in which very-well-off Americans find ways through their income and privilege to be exempt from the ramifications of their own ideologies, while adopting causes and pets that exempt them from guilt over their own status and limitless opportunities. Judging by their concrete actions, they are indifferent to the poor whom they romanticize at a safe distance.”
  • Conservatives take aim at Lamar Alexander.
  • The bill Wendy Davis killed would have required abortion clinics to meet the same safety standards as clinics that perform LASIK.
  • Disgraced former NY governor to run for New York City comptroller…against his former madam. Gee, the Eliot Spitzers and Anthony Weiners of the world must really miss all the fawning and graft.
  • UT ranks 26th on the list of top 100 universities in the world. Don’t know how accurate that ranking is, but it must rankle Yalies to rank a mere 10th…and behind Harvard!
  • How does a Western cost $250 million to make, even after Johnny Depp has taken a pay cut? Unless half the budget went to cocaine?
  • What’s the difference between MSNBC and paint drying? A: Some people watch paint dry.
  • Boston Bomber Roundup for April 24, 2013

    Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

    So much new Boston Bomber information has come to light that I thought I’d put a big old LinkSwarm on just that topic:

  • It’s the Jihad, stupid.
  • Mother of the Boston bombers: “If they are going to kill him. I don’t care. My oldest son is killed, so I don’t care. I don’t care is my youngest son is going to be killed today. I want the world to hear this. And, I don’t care if I am going to get killed too. And I will say Allahu Akbar!” Media: Just what is she trying to say? I don’t understand! It’s like she’s speaking in code!
  • Mark Steyn: “As is now traditional in these stories, we’re now being told that the Brothers Tsarnaev are merely the latest card-carrying members of Local 473 of the Amalgamated Union of Lone Wolves.”
  • Kurt Schlichter: “’Extraordinary’ is the natural condition of Americans.”
  • John Hindraker asks why does evil make liberals stupid?
  • The Boston bombers were living the life of welfare queens.
  • After it bombed in Boston, the bombing brothers were looking forward to taking their show to Broadway.
  • Here’s all about the mosque at the center of the bombing investigation. If it’s at the center, I guess that makes it the Ground Zero Mosque…
  • Speaking of which, the mastermind behind the original is buying up more New York City property in the area.
  • Victor Davis Hanson: What the Tsarnaev case teaches about immigration.
  • Naturally, clueless apologists set up a #FreeJahar tag on Twitter. As Aaron Gardner noted: “If twitter had been around in the time of Jesus there would have been a #FreeBarabbas tag.” And just imagine the reality show potential! “It’s down to two! No one will want to miss the stunning climax of Survivor: Golgatha!”
  • To me, Free Jahar sounds like a heartwarming, direct-to-DVD Disney film about a boy and his magic genie trying to free an Islamic whale.
  • Russia tried to warn us about the Tsarnaev brothers. Repeatedly. By the standards of perfect hindsight liberals applied to Bush43 after 9/11, doesn’t that make Obama a traitor?
  • A Venn diagram of terrorist watch lists.
  • So who was Misha, the radical Islamist who became Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s mentor?
  • Via Michael Totten comes Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Amazon wish list. Hard to tell from that whether he wanted to become a terrorist, a singer or a Mafia wiseguy…
  • I’m seeing a report that the Boston Bomber Brothers are members of a Wahabist terrorist cell Problem: That report comes from DEBKA, a site that has a track record only slightly better than Infowars, so take it with a shaker full of salt.
  • Speaking of Infowars, guess what site Tamerlan Tsarnaev like to read?
  • The Onion: “I’m starting to think that maybe when Tamerlan first said ‘Let’s bomb the Boston Marathon,’ I should have said no.”
  • While you were paying attention to Boston, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police broke up a plot to bomb a passenger train.
  • Bloomberg Fails to Learn From History (Again)

    Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

    Nurse Bloomberg proposes the Mafia Fulltime Employment Through Cigarette Smuggling Act (though I think he’s offering it up under another name) to raise the price of cigarettes to $10.50 a pack. (Hat tip: Dwight)

    And how well is that likely to work? “New York currently holds the top position as the highest net importer of smuggled cigarettes in 2011, with smuggled cigarettes totaling a staggering 60.9 percent of the total market. Not coincidentally, New York also has the nation’s highest state cigarette tax.”

    You would think even Nanny State advocates might have learned from the example of Prohibition, but obviously not. It’s like Bloomberg watched The Untouchables and went “Hey, Al Capone! I bet I can boost that guy’s profits through the roof!” That is, when the smuggling isn’t funding jihad.

    If Bloomberg is successful in getting this enacted, cigarette vendors in New Jersey should send him a nice thank you basket…