The Urban Grind

I’m sure you all know about the sky high prices of renting (and buying) apartments in New York City. New York City residents have the option of using a broker, thus paying a 15% commission of the entire year’s rent, along with a one month security deposit, and another one or two months of rent before moving in. Or if they don’t want to go that route, they could search Craigslist for either apartments or rooms to rent, if they want to save some money and have a roommate.

Now I thought I would try taking a roommate a while ago, but I was immediately turned off by people who could barely put a coherent sentence together. Also, I learned that I’m way too old for this kind of thing. I mean it’s one thing to be fresh out of college, with dreams of “making it” in the Big Apple. At that age, living in a basement apartment with several roommates while taking an entry level “glamour” job in advertising, public relations, or publishing no doubt is seen by some as edgy and chic. I know this because I’ve lived in Manhattan for most of my adult life. The expression “bridge and tunnels crowd” was made up by Manhattanites who look down their noses at people who live in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx. (But then again, I don’t think it applies to residents of Brooklyn Heights and Astoria these days.)

These are some of the same people who will pay more than ten dollars for the privilege of waiting on several block long lines in 10 degree weather to see the latest movie. These types will also take a summer share in a Westhampton pig sty of a house, or sleep in the garage of that same disgusting house just to say they vacation in the Hamptons.

Anyway, the reason I thought of all this today is because I just came across blog called The Worst Room, run by a homeless man that shows what your money will get you (or in this case, won’t get you) if you want to rent a room in New York City. Get a load of some of these rooms:

West Village, Manhattan. $1900.00

“Loft bed setup with workstation”

Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. $725.00

“with kitchen”

And here’s the lovely kitchen.

Upper East Side, Manhattan. $1600.00

Washington Heights, Manhattan. $300/month

(The Breakfast Nook)

I don’t have to remind anyone here that New York has always been a blue state. But New York City is the bluest of the blue. In most of these social circles, it’s just a given that you’re a liberal Democrat. I remember one time going out with a neighbor of mine and her friends back in 2003. At the restaurant, my neighbor started by saying “Now we’re all Democrats here,” at which point I interrupted her to announce my conservatism. And her answer was “That’s OK.” They were all very excited about having the choice of either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama as the next POTUS.

I’ve had as neighbors well to do married woman with one or two small children who worked high powered jobs. If I’d bothered to ask them at the time about their politics, I’m sure they would have said “Of course I’m a Democrat! Why are you even asking me?” But I’ve always wondered if they saw anything wrong with working 60 hours a week for the privilege of living in a fancy Upper East Side high rise rather than staying home with their children. Did it ever occurred to them that they might not need two salaries in the first place if they weren’t taxed so relentlessly. Then again, something tells me that their brains don’t work that way. After all, being a high powered working woman with one or two kids while living in a pricey Mahhattan sky rise is “chic.” You’re “having it all.” Staying home with the kids would be “wasting their education.” And let’s not forget the whole feminist/pro-choice issue. In New York City, it’s automatically assumed that you’re pro-choice. I mean what other way would there be for these women to have the same sexual freedom as men, right? Maybe that’s why they put up with the 60-80 hour work weeks, the punitive taxes, the big bad co-op boards (a subject of an entirely different post), and the subway.

Investigators found jihadist material on Katherine Russell’s computer. Plus, they also found explosive residue on the kitchen sink, table and bathtub of the Tsarnaev apartment.

Radical Islamic materials and an al Qaeda magazine were found on the computer of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow — and there was explosive residue throughout their house, it was revealed yesterday.

The files found on Katherine Russell’s hard drive are part of an investigation into whether the woman — who claimed to be in the dark on her husband’s terrorist activities — was aware of his plan to set off the two bombs, The Washington Post reported.

It wasn’t clear whether the files belonged to Russell, 24, or her husband, 26.

The explosive residue was found on the kitchen sink and table and in the bathtub at their home in Cambridge, Mass., a source told CNN.

The surviving bomber, Tsarnaev’s brother, Dzhokhar, told investigators they built the bombs in Tamerlan’s basement.

Officials said female DNA and fingerprints on a piece of pressure cooker found in the explosive debris did not match Russell’s.

Some people still have way too much time (and money) on their hands. They are flocking to celebrity dog groomer Jorge Bendersky to have temporary tatoos stenciled onto their dogs.

To “tattoo” a dog, Bendersky and other groomers typically start off by filling in a stencil with canine-safe glue. Next, they add dog-friendly glitter and, sometimes, pre-packed designs with rhinestones.

These designs, which cost approximately $100, are most often placed on dogs’ hips or tailbone, making the placement analogous to a lower back tattoo on a person.
“It’s all about the tramp stamp,” Bendersky said.

Here’s what some owners have to say about why they do this to their dogs:

6. “In the summer, they cut the dogs’ hair short, so you’ve got to supplement the glamour.”
5. “It’s grown immensely — even people in remote Iowa do it.”
4. “I go to a lot of events, and people dress up their dogs in expensive outfits, and it was something I could do to make my dog stand out that wasn’t that expensive.” [Ed. note: It costs about $100.]
3. “Sometimes, my dog and I dress in the same color if we’re going to a red carpet event. During the summer, it’s just too hot to have him wearing outfits like that … The tattoo is a good option.”
2. “Dogs are like humans, and when they accessorize they get attention. A pink dog does not know it’s pink, but when people are smiling and taking pictures, it gets attention … So, a dog likes to get tattoos.”
1. “It’s all about the tramp stamp.”

Via The Lid

I knew this would happen sooner or later, as those Tsarnaev brothers had to have had help. The three individuals have been arrested for making false statements to investigators, and obstruction of justice.

(CNN) — At least two of three additional suspects arrested Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing probe face obstruction of justice charges, a federal law enforcement source said.
Boston police announced the arrests Wednesday morning, adding that there was “no threat to the public.”

Two students from New Bedford, Massachusetts, have been arrested on charges of making false statements to investigators and conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to a federal law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation.

{snip}

The students are originally from Kazakhstan and were already in custody on immigration charges, according to another source with knowledge of the immigration case. The third is a U.S. citizen, the federal law enforcement source said.

{snip}

The students who now face charges went to college with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the source familiar with the immigration case said.

Now I want to know when we’re going to stop immigration from these Muslim countries where their people are taught to blame America for all their problems?

She’s now whining about how “America took my kids away from me.”

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (CBS/AP) — The mother of the two Boston bombing suspects told reporters that “America took my kids away from me” and wished she had never left Russia.

I wish you’d never left Russia either.

“Why did I even go there?” Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said, crying, after CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata asked if she regretted the move.

Why did our government let this trash in to begin with? Remember, this is a family that mooched off of American taxpayers. This woman also shoplifted over $1,600 worth of clothing from Lord & Taylor

The mother told reporters at that same press conference that she would be “happy” to give up her U.S. citizenship, and that she was “thinking about it.”

The Tsarnaev family emigrated to the U.S. a decade ago, but both parents returned to Russia last year.

Speaking of giving up U.S. citizenship, I think it’s about time we make it legal to strip the citizenship of (at least) naturalized individuals who commit heinous terrorist crimes.

Citing “privacy” rights of dead terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the administration of Governor Deval Patrick is refusing to release records on what kind of government benefits the oldest brother was receiving.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, being that this is a state whose residents saw fit to repeatedly send Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to the Senate.

The Patrick administration clamped down the lid yesterday on Herald requests for details of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s government benefits, citing the dead terror mastermind’s right to privacy.

Across the board, state agencies flatly refused to provide information about the taxpayer-funded lifestyle for the 26-year-old man and his brother and accused accomplice Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19.

On EBT card status or spending, state welfare spokesman Alec Loftus would only say Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his wife and 3-year-old daughter received benefits that ended in 2012. He declined further comment.

On unemployment compensation, labor department spokesman Kevin Franck refused to say whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev ever collected, saying it was “confidential and not a matter of public record.”

On Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s college aid, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth spokesman Robert Connolly said, “It is our position — and I believe the accepted position in higher education — that student records including academic records and financial records (including financial aid) cannot under federal law be released without a student’s consent.”

On cellphones, the Federal Communications Commission would not say whether either brother had a government-paid cellphone, also citing privacy laws.

On housing, Cambridge officials and the family’s landlord ducked questions on whether the brothers were ever on Section 8 assistance.

The Herald reported yesterday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his wife and 3-year-old daughter collected welfare until 2012 and that both Tamerlan and Dzhokhar received benefits through their parents “for a limited portion” of the time after they came to the U.S., which was around 2002.

However, the Department of Transitional Assistance wouldn’t release information about how long or how much they received.

{snip}

The administration was slammed by a Democratic congressman who insisted the public has a right to know how taxpayers were underwriting the accused jihadist Tsarnaevs.

“It’s certainly relevant information that should be made public,” U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch told the Herald. “There’s a national security interest No. 1. Secondly, there’s also a public interest in finding out whether these individuals were able to exploit the system and get benefits they weren’t entitled to.”

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lies hospitalized and facing capital charges that include using a weapon of mass destruction that killed three people and injured 260 near the Boston Marathon finish line.

Taxpayers — already on the hook for Tsarnaev’s court-appointed attorneys in the terror plot — continue to pay his mounting medical bills at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

The public also paid for Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s attorney when the Russian national successfully fought criminal charges in 2009 that he battered a former girlfriend.

I especially liked these comments:

You can’t make this crap up… Not only does deval willfully welcome the illegal invasion of foreign nationals into this state, support them financially and put their rights ahead of their citizens, that he now believes that a dead terrorist should be afforded more rights and privacy than the citizens they tried to kill, and now it appears that his lemmings like you tb agree with him. So you apparently believe the rights of terrorists supersede the rights of their victim as well. . . . . . I bet a rape victim, having every single and trivial aspect of her life exposed and destroyed by some scumbag defense attorney would like to be afforded those same privileges…

{snip}

This is looking more and more like a massive cover to protect the Democratic party. This kid is in the hospital all drugged up on pain killers and barely able to speak. A judge mysteriously appears to read him his Miranda rights during FBI questioning to shut him up before the truth comes out. That doesn’t look good. Obama and Napolitano have failed in homeland security. She should resign immediately. Deval is protecting his reputation for his presidential aspirations in 2016. Very pathetic. Now the welfare benefits are the nail in the coffin and a slap in the face for the victims of April 15th and the hard working taxpayers of this state. These lowlifes lost their right to privacy the second the first bomb exploded. Revoke the citizenship of the younger brother. He obviously took the oath of citizenship under false pretenses. Open the welfare records!!! Let see how badly we are getting jipped. Also, we should have a recall election for governor. Deval is not looking out for our security and should be removed ASAP.

Living off are tax money and yet he can afford to go to Russia for 6 months ? You bet they some splainin to do.The terrorist are literally mocking you to death Progressives.What a freakin travesty.From the white house to the Senate to beacon hill,nothing but lies and cover ups.

It’s bad enough that America allows in people from backwards countries who hate the country that (foolishly) welcomed them in. Yet these ingrates have no qualms about mooching off American taxpayers once they get here.

US-hating terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev took government handouts even as he delved deep into the world of violent, radical Islam, officials said.

Tsarnaev, his wife Katherine Russell and their 3-year-old daughter were on the state dole as recently as 2012, officials with the state’s Office of Health and Human Services told the Boston Herald.

The dead Boston Marathon bomber and his family stopped receiving benefits because his hard-working wife, toiling for up 80 hours a week, brought home enough bread to make them ineligible for government assistance.

The home health-care aide supported her deadbeat husband, who stayed at home with the child.

Tsarnaev’s younger brother, bombing suspect Dzhokar, and their parents also received benefits when they were younger.

On another note, I don’t believe for a minute that the late Tamerlan was being a stay at home dad. Knowing what we know now, I think it’s more logical to conclude that he was just being a deadbeat who only cared about jihad. And what kind of “man” (a term I use very loosely) would make his wife leave her small child to work long hours while he sat around all day doing practically nothing, except becoming more and more of a fanatic? The fact that Katherine Russell would even agree to such an arrangement only goes to show how she cared only about her vagina above all else.

Finally, I believe that wife had to know what her deadbeat husband was up to.

Unfortunately, America learned nothing from 9/11. Thanks to the ineptness and political correctness of our government bureaucrats, we have four dead Americans, and over a hundred people wounded. And now we learn that Russia repeatedly warned the FBI (and CIA according to CNN last night) about the older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The incompetent FBI interviewed him but found nothing. And his name was entered into some databases.

Sources said Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s details were entered into TIDE, a database maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center, because the FBI spoke to him in 2011 while investigating a Russian tip-off that he had become a follower of radical Islamists.

The FBI found nothing to suggest he was an active threat, but all the same placed his name on the ‘Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment’ list. The FBI has not said what it did find about Tsarnaev.

But the database, which holds more than half a million names, is only a repository of information on people who U.S. authorities see as known, suspected or potential terrorists from around the world.

Because of its huge size, U.S. investigators do not routinely monitor everyone registered there, said U.S. officials familiar with the database.

Now just out of curiosity, why are people listed in terrorist databases even allowed to be in America in the first place? Why are the snivel-rights of these people, many of who detest America, more important than the safety and well being of lawful productive American citizens? Is it more important for government bureaucrats to have a job entering names while they pretend to keep Americans safe? Or is it still because we don’t want to be seen as “mean” and racist?

After being put in the TIDE system, his name was entered in another database, this one maintained by the Homeland Security Department’s Customs and Border Protection bureau which is used to screen people crossing U.S. land borders and entering at airports or by sea.
Tsarnaev was flagged on that database when he left the United States for Russia in January 2012 but no alarm was raised, presumably because the FBI had not identified him as a threat after the interview.

When he returned from Russia six months later, he had already been automatically downgraded in the border database because there was no new information that required him to continue to get extra attention. So he did not get secondary inspection on his re-entry at New York’s JFK Airport. It was unclear exactly what the procedure was for such a downgrade.

Via Liberty News Online

WHY DOES ANYONE NEED AN AR-15?
02-17-2013 10:16 am – Joseph Farah – World Net Daily

Have you noticed how gun-control advocates are asking all the wrong questions in their desperation to disarm American citizens?

This is one you will hear frequently from non-Americans like Piers Morgan of CNN. He recently asked it of Ted Nugent. (What a mistake that was!)

The question goes something like this: “Why does anyone need an AR-15?”

Now I can tell you lots of reasons why people need AR-15s. I may not absolutely need one. But I’d sure like to have one – maybe more than one.

But there really are people throughout the world and throughout the United States who have needed them.

Let me make this simple for the Piers Morgans of the world. Let’s say you are the victim of a home invasion. It happens every day in America, by the way. A group of armed thugs decide to select your home for an attack. Their plan is to ransack the house looking for money, jewelry, artwork, drugs, whatever. The gang has no compunction about killing you and other members of your family if you become an obstacle to their plan.

You find yourself outmanned, but, if you have an AR-15, you might not find yourself outgunned.

It’s just that simple. Why is this difficult for people like Piers Morgan to understand? I understand why Barack Obama and other would-be government tyrants want to disarm the citizenry. That’s about establishing a monopoly on force. Governments throughout the world have been doing it since the beginning of time.

Genocides have been perpetrated around the world only when the citizenry is disarmed. It’s not even possible to commit such monstrous acts among a well-armed populace.

But there’s more to this question than meets the eye.

Look at the question again – this time with emphasis on the key word: “Why does anyone need an AR-15?”

This is the word that betrays the motivations of the non-government advocates of gun confiscation.

What do they have in common? At the foundation, they are socialists. They don’t really believe in private property. They believe in Karl Marx’s philosophy: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” That was a slogan Marx popularized in 1875. Today, 138 years later, it still resonates in the hearts and minds of people all over the world – many of them unaware of its origin.

Socialists believe the entire society should be oriented to meeting people’s “needs,” with the government determining what those “needs” are.

Think about it this way: How would you like it if the government asked you the following questions:

“Do you really need that spare bedroom?”
“Do you really need that Big Gulp?”
“Do you really need that Big Mac?”
“Do you really need that expensive cigar?”
“Do you really need that second car?

Of course, as you know, governments are already asking some of these questions.

What it comes down to for them is this: If you don’t need it, you don’t get it.

One obvious one is: “Do you really need that abortion?”

They won’t ask that question because killing unborn babies is the sacrament of the new socialist religion. Actually, there’s nothing really new about it. Evil societies have been sacrificing children for thousands of years. In America, they are sacrificed to the false god of “choice.”

“Choice” is actually a wonderful thing in a free society. But “choice” has been hijacked by evil people as a euphemism for doing what seems convenient, expedient, taking the easy way out, shirking responsibility.

Socialists aren’t for choice. They are for determining what you can have based on “need.”

That’s why I’m pro-choice on guns and pro-life on abortion.