• Giuliani as hero, blah blah blah

    From Crain’s New York Business:

    The cityÂ’s debt per capita has more than doubled since fiscal 1990, to $5,083 per head, according to a new report from the city comptrollerÂ’s office. The figure was $2,490 per citizen in 1990. That rate of growth exceeds the inflation rate by 63% and the growth in city tax revenues by 55%, the charter-mandated report said

    In addition, the comptroller found that debt service costs will grow about 25% by fiscal 2006, reducing the funds available for city services. The costs are projected to approach 20 cents of every tax dollar, compared with 16 cents of every dollar today.

    Aren’t we glad Giuliani used the boom years of the 90s to get NYC in better financial shape, fix up all of the roads and bridges, improve public transit…

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  • Great blogger on politics

    Not that most of you want to read more political blogs, I suspect, but she is really good. On the state of the Washington Post:

    The point is, it just feels like such a waste of time to try to read stories by journalists who are really just reporting on what’s going on inside their own heads. Fair enough for me to do it on my own weblog, but no one’s paying me for this. But in The Newspapers of Record? It’s like a horrible joke, except that it’s not funny.

    [via Rittenhouse]

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  • Openings

    I’m going to the White Columns and Schroeder Romero openings tonight. I should be at the latter (in Williamsburg) at 8ish. E-mail me or call me if any of you want to meet up there.

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  • So tell me sonny, are you gay?

    Danziger on Leave No Child Behind.

    [via TBOGG]

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  • Gay rights in the UK

    Gay men, lesbians and bisexual people are to be offered the same rights as married couples, a government minister indicated today, although she said this will not amount to "gay marriages".

    I love the Guardian! They have a link to Peter Tatchell’s home page at the bottom under “useful links”.

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  • Australian women

    Nicole Kidman isn’t the only fabulous woman in Australia.

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  • Rocked by Rape

    The Evolutionary Control Committee … have topped themselves with this stroke of genius. It’s months worth of Dan Rather speaking on the CBS Evening News, edited down to its essence — Rather naming one calamity after another … and set to a cut up and rearranged AC/DC groove. … This could easily be cute and nothing more, but the ECC has made it an actual song… The B-side has a very long string of Rather disasterspeak on its own. Mix your own hit!
    — College Music Journal (CMJ), 8/98

    Go and download it right now!

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  • Some poetry

    I get regular emails of poetry from RealPoetik. They don’t put the stuff they send out on the web right away, so I’ll post the latest one, from Stacie Barrie:

    I Sold You, You Sold Me
    (a poem in Newspeak)

    From the age of pavement
    From the age of split seconds I salute:
    Not files
    Not papers
    Not pictures
    No need
    No mini
    No maxi
    No need
    Minus time
    Minus space
    Plus persons
    Plus statues
    Plus corporations undead
    Freeway, landfill, proving grounds
    Newthink bellyfeels prolefeed
    Old behind
    Old below
    Oldthink always new
    Victory is apathy

    —-

    A couple more, found while researching her on the web:

    Outskirts, by Stacie Barry

    Jesus in the Psych Ward, by Richard Jordan

    untitled, by Sal Salasin

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  • I think I’ll buy some

    Bin Laden Used Your Gas Money

    Sept 12: Sell Your SUV Day

    Protest Bumper Stickers

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  • Too fat to fight?

    US troops are losing battle of the bulge

    As American troops prepare for war in Iraq a report is about to reveal that more than half of them are overweight.

    A panel of nine medical experts commissioned by the Pentagon is expected to say that 53.9 per cent of US military personnel over the age of 20 would be classified as too fat to fight under federal obesity standards.

    A fifth of those aged under 20 would also fail the fat test, The Times has learnt. Iraq may not have such sophisticated weapons, but its soldiers at least fit their uniforms better.

    …

    A successful method used to recruit teenagers is to allow fast-food chains such as McDonaldÂ’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken to operate restaurants on bases. Mess food is no longer obligatory.

    [Via TBOGG]

    Maybe these guys can provide some fitness tips.

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