The Urban Grind

First off, I’m curious as to what she’s doing in London. I mean, is it really necessary for her to go there (along with the Secret Service) to give hugs to the American basketball team? Couldn’t she have just congratulated them over the phone?

No, this looks like just another excuse for Mrs. Michelle Antoinette Obama to take a vacation, and to hob nob with the European Royals.

Of course the Obama supporters will go on about how Mrs. Obama can wear what she wants, and that it’s her own money, etc. But remember, this is a regime that has been demonizing rich people and business owners. Obama has publicly stated that everyone must chip in and make sacrifices. That is everyone except for him and his family. Here’s are pictures of Mrs. Obama in the $6,800 jacket.

The jacket is actually not bad, although she could have used a side mirror. But seriously, why does this woman insist on constantly exposing her arms? So they’re muscular. Big deal. Whatever happened to modesty? I don’t remember any other First Lady who regularly exposed so much flesh. For example, take a look at the video of the European heads of state and royals entering Buckingham Palace at the link above. (Sorry, I couldn’t find the embed link.) Do you see any exposed arms?

NO!!!!!

In case you’re wondering what it was that set off these monsters, it was simply because the 63 year old man asked them to quiet down.

A wolf pack of drunken young women “acting stupid” on the downtown No. 6 train after an all-night party stabbed a 63-year-old man yesterday — for having had the nerve to ask them to pipe down, police said.

The man was on his way to work as a vendor near the World Trade Center at about 6:15 a.m., a law-enforcement source told The Post.
“The eight females were acting stupid. He just told them, ‘Relax. Calm down,’ ” the source said.
Instead, one stabbed the man, Ralph Carnegary, in the shoulder. He was in stable condition at Bellevue.

The women were busted on the street near at the 23rd Street station.
A city bus driver who witnessed the arrests said the women, beers in hand, were screaming, “We didn’t do anything.’’
Seven of them, ages 17 to 20, were charged with gang assault, disorderly conduct, rioting, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing and felony assault.
Cops added that they recovered a knife.

The suspects later shouted and cursed at reporters and photographers as they were led to a police van.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg has been doing nothing but trying to outlaw guns, ban oversized soft drinks, and most recently, telling hospitals to hide baby formula so new mothers will breastfeeds their kids.

Instead, these “women” need to be thrown in jail and their welfare terminated.

Meet Idaho business man and co-chairman of the Romney campaign Frank Vandersloot. He’s the owner of the Melaleuca wellness product company. He also donated 1 million dollars to the Romney campaign, for which he’s in the cross-hairs of the Obama regime.

An Idaho businessman singled out by the Obama campaign for giving $1 million in support of Mitt Romney is now the focus of IRS and Labor Department audits.
Frank VanderSloot, in an interview with FoxNews.com on Tuesday, said he received the initial audit notice from the IRS last month. Two weeks later, he got one from the Labor Department stating the agency would be looking into records related to foreign employees working at his Idaho Falls cattle ranch.
It might all be a coincidence, he said — but the timing was peculiar.

VanderSloot gave the pro-Romney money last year to the super PAC “Restore of Future.” Then in April, he was identified along with seven other donors on an Obama campaign website as “wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records.”

At the time, VanderSloot spoke out and accused the campaign of targeting him unfairly. Then came the audits.
“It seems coincidental, but who knows,” VanderSloot told FoxNews.com Tuesday. “The problem is the president made the list, and 61 days later I get the first letter. One has to ask: Is the fact I’m being shot at the result of having a target on my back? … Was the list made with that intent?”

{snip}

He has also been targeted by liberal bloggers and an opposition research team that directed an investigator to poke around his local courthouse, looking at divorce records and other cases.
Yet VanderSloot, owner of the Melaleuca wellness product company, never expected to be branded on an presidential campaign website as a “litigious, combative and bitter foe of the gay rights movement.”

“I had never heard anybody say that,” said VanderSloot, who speculated the anti-gay claim is largely the result of him about 13 years ago opposing the film “It’s Elementary — Talking about Gay Issues in School” airing on public TV because it was not suitable for viewing by young children.
“Ninety percent of my gay friends agreed,” he said.

In this case, the person being harassed is one Jack Gilchrist, who appeared in a television ad accusing Mr. Obama of demonizing small business owners. This was in response to Obama’s notorious “You Didn’t Build That” speech. Here’s the ad that has the Obama zombies all hysterical.

Now whether or not these thugs are acting on the orders from the higher ups in the DNC, I have no idea. But I think it’s safe to say that the Obama regime tacitly approves. Anyway, here’s what Mr. Gilchrist has been going through.

MANCHESTER — The New Hampshire businessman who appears in a Mitt Romney television ad accusing President Barack Obama of “demonizing” small business owners has gone to his local police after receiving two “harassing” telephone calls and, he says, hundreds of nasty emails.

“It’s frightening to me,” said Jack Gilchrist of Gilchrist Metal Fabricating of Hudson, who also said Thursday he received hundreds of supportive emails as well.

{snip}

Gilchrist said the “harassing” telephone calls and negative emails started arriving soon after UnionLeader.com posted a report on Monday that said while he has had a successful business for many years, he received some government assistance along the way.

UnionLeader.com reported Gilchrist received the proceeds of tax-exempt bonds made possible by the federal government in 1999, which allowed him to expand.

Gilchrist also said in the report that in the 1980s, he received a loan of “somewhere south of” $500,000 through the U.S. Small Business Administration. He also received some assistance from a federally-funded agency and a few defense-related contracts, he said.

{snip}

Gilchrist said Thursday that following the UnionLeader.com report, he received “about 300 of each,” positive and negative comments via email.

Some of the negative email were blunt — calling him a “hypocrite,” a “liar” and “ignorant,” for instance.

But two profanity-laced telephone calls prompted Gilchrist to call the Hudson police.

One call came directly to his voice mail, while another went to the voice mail at the home of what Gilchrist called “a professional associate.”

Gilchrist emailed what he said were the voice mails to UnionLeader.com on Thursday.

One called him a “vile piece of (expletive),” among other things, and demanded he call Obama to apologize.

The caller was identified by Gilchrist through his caller ID. The man called from area code 630, which is the Chicago area. He has posted anti-Republican and anti-conservative messages on Twitter in the past, including a 2009 posts that said, “GOP needs to be eliminated,” and, “I am prepared to kill people. Let the tea bagers fire the first shot and I will pile up the bodies of the traitors.”

Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Remember Joe the Plumber? All he was guilty of was asking Obama a question when he was approached. And for that, he was vilified by the Obama worshipping media.

This exhibit, or whatever you want to call it, is being held at the Allegra LaViola Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The brains behind this is one Laura Ginn. It’s called “Tomorrow We Will Feast Again On What We Catch.”

For the privilege of eating rat meat, guests can pay $100, and sign a liability waiver in case they get sick. The menu is not exactly road kill stew either.

The first course consisted of a goat cheese crostini overlain with a small piece of rat meat and a shot glass of (rat-free) gazpacho. Diners at our end of the table noted that the goat cheese mostly overwhelmed the rat, but we found the flavor and texture reminiscent of lamb.

Next came two circles of rat and pork terrine over a deconstructed salad containing cherries, greens, pickled carrots and Mexican sour gherkins (also known as mouse melons—clever menu planning). Though oily (hardly a criticism, it’s a terrine for god’s sake), it was salty and delicious.

“Rat Two Ways” was the main course. Reminiscent of rabbit, a pile of braised rat was so tender it fell apart as soon as our fork touched it. A roasted half rat—glazed meat stretched over its tiny rib cage—was placed over a sweet corn salad. Throughout the evening, Ms. Ginn continually paced around the table, making conversation generously filling wine glasses, but for this course she hunkered down and performatively sucked the meat off the bones.

After a palate cleanser (much needed for a few reluctant friends of the artist, who came along more for moral support than dinner) of lemon sorbet dressed with an edible flower, we were served a dessert of French toast with the closest thing to bacon the chef and artist could summon from a rodent: a sliver of crispy rat jerky. As the most dramatic plating of the evening, an entire crispy rat head sat on each plate, mouth open and teeth jutting forward, and a back leg sat atop the French toast, toes and claws clearly visible.

The meal was touted as a “post-apocalyptic hunter-gatherer feast.” The gallery’s site notes that “allowance to current social memes” would be made, and in this way, despite the American taboo of the main ingredient which is widely eaten in other parts of the world, it was a completely authentic contemporary New York dining experience—on offer were upscale versions of a “low class” food, spirited with an imagined nostalgia and a hobbyist approach to survival skills. It occurred to us that cooking with rat is a slightly less socially acceptable version of taking up pickling as a hobby, drinking small-batch moonshine and paying $15 for grits at Sunday brunch.

Nowadays, it seems like anything can pass for art, as long as you charge (gullible) people enough money, and host it an art gallery.

Hat tip: Gary Morgenstein

For all you theater and politics enthusiasts in New York, there’s a new play coming out about a conservative African American man married to a liberal Jewish woman.

Right On Target is about a conservative African American – who claims he was fired from PBS for his politics — and his liberal Jewish wife. It will premiere at the New York International Fringe Festival at the Main Stage of the Cherry Lane Theater, 38 Commerce Street, Saturday, August 11 at 7PM; Wednesday, August 15 at 9:15PM; Saturday, August 18 at 12noon; Wednesday, August 22 at 2PM, and Friday, August 24 at 4:15PM. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at door. Go to www.fringenyc.org or call 866-468-7619.

Directed by Noemi de la Puente of Dramatic Question Theatre, RIGHT ON TARGET stars Maggie Wagner, who recently appeared in the off-Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank; Simcha Borenstein: Jane Dashow; Janet Kim; Tom Lacey and Robert McKay.

Here’s what Mr. Morgenstein says about this play, and his characters:

…In theatre, hey, all entertainment, conservatives are either depicted as religious zealots, redneck bigots or evil capitalists. Even in Aaron Sorkin’s THE NEWSROOM, his Republican character is a liberal. In RIGHT ON TARGET, a conservative is portrayed as intelligent, as are all the characters, so they can have intelligent discussions. I think that’s called democracy which, as Mr. Churchill said, is the worst form of government, except for all the others.

To see more of Mr. Morgenstein’s writing, check out his page on the Tea Party Nation website.

The Department of Health and Human Services will issue waivers for the federal work requirement to parents and caretakers.

The Department and Health and Human Services announced the agency will issue waivers for the federal work requirement of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program — considered a central facet of welfare reform in 1996 — Thursday.

The “Information Memorandum” states that the agency will be issuing waivers for TANF’s work participation requirements for parents and caretakers as a way to find new approaches to better employment outcomes.

“While the TANF work participation requirements are contained in section 407, section 402(a)(1)(A)(iii) requires that the state plan ‘[e]nsure that parents and caretakers receiving assistance under the program engage in work activities in accordance with section 407,’” the memo, signed by HHS Director of the Office of Family Assistance, Earl Johnson, explained. “Thus, HHS has authority to waive compliance with this 402 requirement and authorize a state to test approaches and methods other than those set forth in section 407, including definitions of work activities and engagement, specified limitations, verification procedures, and the calculation of participation rates.”

In other words, people on welfare don’t have to bother trying to find work, get job related training, or undergo drug/alcohol counseling as long as they continue to pop out babies they can’t or won’t support. They can sit on their fat behinds all day, and the payments, courtesy of working American taxpayers, will keep pouring in.

Unfortunately, I don’t see the Republicans opposing this in any meaningful way. Granted, they’ve bitched and moaned about how Democrats aren’t playing nicely with them, which is all they seem capable of doing. What they really need to do is come out and saying that Obama is purposely wrecking America’s economy by giving his supporters even more tax payer funded goodies (which these people see as what they’re rightfully owed forever). And let’s not forget Obama’s back door amnesties for illegals either.

Wealthy animal rights activist, television personality and Huffington Post columnist Wendy Diamond is playing mother of the bride, which in this case is a small dog.

Here’s a picture of the “blushing bride” in her $6,000 gown.

Here’s a picture of the “groom.”

A wealthy animal rights activist is breaking the Guinness World Record for the most expensive animal wedding with a “fairy tail” fete for her pooch at the Jumeirah Essex House. Zelda adds: Apparently there was another one two months ago in Greenwich Village.

A $6,000 custom wedding dress for the tiny Coton de Tulear, a $5,000 sushi spread, and a $15,000 seven-piece orchestra are just a few accoutrements set for the Thursday night puptuals valued at $250,000.

“I know, how goofy is this?” said Wendy Diamond, the pet expert and TV personality throwing the wedding for Baby Hope, her adopted rescue dog. “But it’s for an amazing cause.”

The vendors are donating their services to the black tie gala, which benefits the Humane Society of New York.

{snip}

Kleinfeld couture bridal designers Michelle and Henry Roth tailored a two-toned, white French lace-encrusted dress with Swarovski crystals and a silk train for the pint-sized bride.

Floralia Decorators (the Waldorf-Astoria’s florist) has crafted a $5,300 huppah, a canopy, for the mixed-faith service. “Baby Hope is a Jewish dog,” explained Diamond. And TLC’s “Cake Boss” based in Hoboken is unveiling a top-secret wedding cake.

Just out of curiosity, I wonder if there will be rabbi conducting the ceremony, since the “bride” is Jewish. And what religion is the “groom?” Will it be like Chelsea Clinton’s wedding to that Marc Mezvinsky person which was conducted by a Methodist minister and a Reformed rabbi?

But seriously, what about helping other human beings?

If Ms. Diamond wants to help animals fine. It’s her money. She can do what she wants with it. But this whole wedding business is meaningless to the dogs. Whatever happened to finding loving homes for dogs currently in shelters?

Under the current New York City zoning laws, all apartments must be at least 400 square feet. However, Mayor Bloomberg is now proposing that micro apartments measuring at about 300 square feet be built for singles.

Mayor Bloomberg launched a contest Monday to stir development of teeny-tiny apartments — called micro units — for young singles willing to cram themselves into shoebox-sized digs.
The new closetlike flats will be just 275 to 300 square feet — larger than a jail cell but smaller than a mobile home — and will have special permission to ignore city rules requiring newly built apartments to exceed 400 square feet.

“The city’s demographics have changed,” Bloomberg said. “It used to be the average household was a family, a couple of adults and some children.”
That meant that the city was filled with larger dwellings, leaving just 1 million studios and one bedrooms — not nearly enough for the 1.8 million one-and two-person households.
At a news conference Monday, the mayor announced a contest seeking a developer for about 80 micro units at a city-owned parking lot on E. 27th St. in Kips Bay.
The ministudios will be just big enough for a bathroom, kitchen and sleeping and dining areas — but Bloomberg said tenants shouldn’t plan on doing much entertaining.

When I first read this, I wondered to myself if the rents for these units would at least be lower than those of regular studios. It would only be logical since you’re getting so much less space, right?

WRONG!!!!

This is Manhattan after all, where your location and zip code are pretty much all that matters when it comes to real estate.

These micro apartments will rent for $2,000 a month!

The craziest thing about these 300-square-foot apartments (which are about the size of half a subway car) is that they will cost around $2,000 a month to rent.

What’s even crazier is that some New Yorkers are already paying money to live in even smaller spaces. I wrote about one such woman a while back, who lives in a 90 square foot studio on the Upper West Side.

In more recent news, you have this young married couple, who live in a 240 square foot studio in chi chi Brooklyn Heights. For this tiny space, they pay $1,500 a month. This one commenter really nails it:

The communist indoctrination continues…

You don’t need, and shouldn’t want, the luxury of enjoying the fruits of your labor. You should be content with the novelty and sacrifice of not even being able to stand up in your bedroom. And believing that this self imposed punishment serves some greater good. Turning off all human impulse, fulfillment and your instinctive desire to have space to roam, makes you better than everyone else. Just ask these people who seem so self righteous about their choice to live in a prison cell at a premium price. I didn’t even need to be told that they were East Coast Public School products, but it confirmed a lot for me.

I also think it’s about the image. For some people, it looks better to say you live in Brooklyn Heights or the Upper West Side, rather than Rego Park in Queens. It’s also why some people spend their weekends sleeping in garages in the Hamptons, just to say they’re part of that Summer share scene.

As a final example, get a load of this very stupid woman who had her heart set on buying an apartment on 118th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan. For all you non-New Yorkers, that would be central Harlem, pretty much the yuckiest neighborhood in Manhattan.