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.

That’s according to what retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told Fox News.

Lt. Col. Tony Schafer told Fox News that sources were telling him that the President was watching the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya in real-time. Schafer told Fox that “only the President” could have ordered backup for the Americans who were under siege by terrorists so the President was most certainly informed of the situation as it was unfolding. “I hate to say this,” Schafer said, “according to my sources, yes, [the President] was one of those in the White House situation room in real-time watching this. And the question becomes, ‘What did the President do or not do in the moments he saw this unveiling?’ He — only he — could issue a directive to Secretary of Defense Panetta to do something.”

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Leon Panneta’s excuse was that his intelligence of what was happening in Benghazi was “sketchy.”

Mr. Panetta decried “a lot of Monday-morning quarterbacking” in the questions his department has faced about why it didn’t send help in the middle of an hours-long assault on the U.S. Consulate.

Mr. Panetta said the military had forces positioned to respond, but the situation was too uncertain to send them in.

“The basic principle is that you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on, without having some real-time information about what’s taking place,” he said. “It was really over before, you know, we had the opportunity to really know what was happening.”

First off, we now know that there were drones over Benghazi. Also, the job of the soldier is to go into harm’s way and to fight. That’s what they’re trained for. So what is all this business about not wanting to put soldiers in harm’s way?

As I see it, our current White House occupant is a Marxist, Muslim hater of white people and Jews who preferred to sacrifice the American (infidel) ambassador, Seals, and other staff, rather than raise a hand against his fellow terrorist brothers.

Also, what’s all this business about waiting to get all the information???? What more information does this miserable failure of a president need? Whether he calls it a reaction to YouTube video or a terrorist attack, our consulate was breached and attacked by a mob of fanatics. As a result, we have four dead Americans. If this happened under Ronald Reagan, those Libyans would have already had several bombs sent their way.

And on another note, why on earth did Mitt Romney not bring up this Benghazi mess in the third debate? In all honesty, I didn’t watch it because I had a feeling he would pull a John McCain, and I was proven correct. What is wrong with Republicans these days?

Get a load of Obama and Clinton lapdog George Stephanopolous telling a reporter with a straight face that there’s no liberal media bias.

Of course Stephanopolous would deny it and walk away. After all, he and Obama go back a long way.

And let’s not forget how little Georgie covered up Obama’s Freudian slip about his Muslim faith either.

No liberal bias, my foot!

A Lousiana charter school has put this policy into effect, and of course the ACLU is threatening to sue them.

MONROE, La. – A Delhi Charter School policy that prevents pregnant female students from attending school and can force them to take a pregnancy test to continue attending school if administrators “suspect” pregnancy has drawn the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The News-Star report the ACLU sent a letter Monday requesting the school revise its policy or the group will consider further legal action.
Delhi Charter School’s policy states the school seeks to maintain an environment where students will learn and exhibit acceptable character traits that govern language, gesture, physical actions and written words.

“The school reserves the right to require any female student to take a pregnancy test to confirm whether or not the suspect student is in fact pregnant,” the policy reads.
The policy also allows the school to refer the student to a physician of its choice. “If the test indicates that the student is pregnant, the student will not be permitted to attend classes on the campus of Delhi Charter School.”

Pregnant students wishing to continue attending Delhi Charter will be required to enroll in a home study course while pregnant.

“They’re punishing girls for making the choice to have the child,” Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana said Monday.
Students who refuse to take a pregnancy test are “treated as a pregnant student and will be offered home study opportunities.”

The letter from the ACLU contends that the policy violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 because it excludes students from educational programs and activities based on sex and the equal protection clause because it treats female students differently than male students and relies on impermissible sexual stereotypes.
Esman said the policy is a pretext for sexual discrimination.

Shirley said that all public schools, including charter schools, must abide by federal law.

At the very least, children in public schools need a record of immunizations, among other things, to ensure they have no contagious diseases. And that you get by having a physical. And nowadays with the number of out of wedlock teen pregnancies, it seems only logical to include pregnancy along with immunizations. For example, let’s say some kids get into a shoving match, and a girl ends up miscarrying, I would think the school could get sued.

But the main issue for me is setting a standard of acceptable behavior. Class trouble makers have been expelled or suspended for (obviously) being trouble makers, and for encouraging copycat behavior among their classmates. Getting knocked up out of wedlock as a teen certainly qualifies in my view as bad behavior. A while back, I wrote about one group of girls and their guidance counselors who pushed for their public school to give them four weeks of maternity leave.

So I say, go ahead and ban their skanky asses!

Many people on the right view Mitt Romney as either a RINO, or a phony establishment conservative. Personally, I don’t think he’s the perfect candidate. But on the other hand, this story shows what a good moral character the man has, which is also very important for a POTUS.

Via Snopes

In July 1996, the 14-year-old daughter of Robert Gay, a partner at Bain Capital, disappeared in New York City. She had attended a “rave” party and gotten high on ecstasy. Three days later, her distraught father had not been able to find her.

When he learned of this, as CEO of Bain Capital, Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York on a chartered airplane to help find Gay’s daughter.

Romney set up a command center at the LaGuardia Marriott and hired a private detective firm to assist with the search. He established a toll-free number for tips, coordinating the effort with the NYPD, and went through his Rolodex and called everyone Bain did business with in New York, and asked them to help find his friend’s missing daughter.

Romney’s accountants at Price Waterhouse Cooper put up posters on Street poles, while cashiers at a pharmacy owned by Bain put fliers in the bag of every shopper. Romney and the other Bain employees scoured every part of New York and talked with everyone they could: prostitutes, drug addicts, anyone.

That day, their hunt made the evening news, which featured photos of the girl and the Bain employees searching for her.

As a result, a teenaged boy phoned in, asked if there was a reward, and then hung up abruptly.

The NYPD traced the call to a home in New Jersey, where they found the girl in the basement, shivering and experiencing withdrawal symptoms from a massive ecstasy dose. Doctors later said the girl might not have survived another day.

Romney’s former partner credits Mitt Romney with saving his daughter’s life, saying it was the most amazing thing, and he’d never forget for the rest of his life.

Now I’ve never heard Romney mention this incident, which leads me to believe that he didn’t do what he did for attention, but only to help his colleague.

Bikini waxing!

Some salons call it “Boyzilians.” Others call it a He-Wax.

The below-the-belt treatment — which, just like the women’s version, removes either some or all pubic hair — is becoming increasingly popular, and not just among competitive swimmers or underwear models. “What we’re finding is, it’s everybody,” said Mike Indursky, the president of the Bliss chain of spas, which offers a men’s Brazilian called the Ultimate He-Wax for $125. “It’s the gay community, it’s the straight community, it’s very conservative guys, it’s very liberal guys. All different age groups are coming in. It’s much, much bigger than we ever thought.”

Since Bliss introduced men’s waxing services in February 2011, Mr. Indursky added, their popularity is on track to double by the end of this year with Brazilians as the most frequently booked service.

Men’s bikini waxing accounts for around 70 percent of the weekly business at Face to Face, a discreet salon in the Flatiron district of Manhattan with a predominantly male clientele founded eight years ago by Enrique Ramirez. “When I started, I was like, ‘Nobody’s going to come in and get this done,’ and it’s just kept growing and growing,” Mr. Ramirez said. “In the past two years, it’s been crazy.”

The salon offers a full Brazilian called South of the Border for $70, along with partial treatments. Also on its menu is something called “pejazzling,” in which crystals in patterns like stars and dolphins are affixed on newly defuzzed skin.

Seems like some men have too much time on their hands.

Via The Daily Caller

Here’s what Mrs. Obama wore to the State of the Union address.

Of course her office has no comment.

After all, Obama bowed before him.

Saudi King Unhappy With US Handling of Egypt.

The Saudi Arabian monarchy is so unhappy with the Obama administration that it has sent envoys to Russia and the Peoples’ Republic of China to seek expanded business opportunities. NBC’s Tom Brokaw, in a report from Baghdad, said the anger stems from the way the administration dealt with Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak,” CNSNews.com reports.

In a report on NBC’s Nightly News, Brokaw said, “I was told on the way in here that the Saudis are so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt that it sent high level emissaries to China and Russia to tell those two countries that Saudi Arabia now is prepared to do more business with them.”

Brokaw also reported on the Iraq’s fragile democracy as the United States prepares to withdraw military forces by years’ end. He said the United Nations secretary general is worried about massive street protests in Iraq and added that “Iraq is a reminder of just how difficult it is to establish a democracy in this part of the world. After all, we’ve been at war here for eight years now, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, and thousands and thousands of lives have been lost on both sides,” CNSNews reported.

The way Jimmy Carter abandoned the Shaw of Iran, Obama abandoned Mubarack.   Both were good allies of the US.  Iran was taken over my Islamic radicals and it looks like Egypt is going that route too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFZzc5OY0pg&feature=player_embedded