Small town politics

The campaigning is heating up in this small community.  I live in the Town of Highlands but cannot vote for mayor of the village of Highland Falls; nevertheless, the winner of that race does have impact on me.  Furthermore, since we have had the same fool in office for quite a number of years, I am pleased to see that someone other than a felon is running against the current mayor (yes, I believe the only person to run against this guy is a fellow with some criminal background).

So, the background.  Highland Falls has had the same mayor for a long time.  Long enough, in fact, for him to have a personalized license plate.  The hubris of that alone makes my hair stand up on end.  But, to the point.... this mayor is mean.  He has been known to give the finger to those who cross his path -- literally.  He is also a bully.  While I am not naive and realize that small towns have carried on in this manner for a long time, I do not like the flavor of the community under his mayorship.

Understand, there has been talk for many years of joining the small Hamlet of Fort Montgomery and the Village of Highland Falls.  As a resident of Fort Montgomery, I can vote for the Town Supervisor, but I cannot vote for the Mayor of the village.  If the two communities were to officially join (a fiscally wise move), it would be nice for us to join with equal standing.  As it is now, I do not have public water or sewer.  I do not have a sidewalk.  I do not have mail delivery.  I do not have gas lines.  Joining the two communities means that I have to accept the added tax burden of caring for infrastructure that I cannot claim benefit from.  It's an issue.  Someone who was forward thinking might address that point.  The current mayor has not.  Instead, he has taken what is available to the village and basically told the town to go scratch.

Example:  West Point was to return lands to the town for development.  In some manner of high jinx, the mayor was able to strong arm the dealings so the land was granted to the Village, not the town.  That meant, though it's moot now, that if the property were developed, the tax dollars would go to the Village, not the town.  The mayor has also been weird about providing water to the town.  He wants to charge more for town residents who live on the water line.  Still, they'd be paying to get the water AND for the added stress on the water treatment plant. 

In comes an opponent.  This guy is a very active member of the community and has a DJ business that had been used for 4th of July festivities until this past year.  When the 4th of July Committee (headed by the Mayor) opted to use another DJ, the shit hit the fan and the line in the sand was drawn.  So, here's what is ahead.  Said DJ, another townie who has some shady behavior that has even the locals wondering if the devil you know is the devil you stick with, has thrown his hat into the ring and is running for Mayor.  If he loses, he can expect the Mayor's office to come down hard on him in one way or another.  He'll have difficulty getting building permits or be written up for some minor legal infraction (like having too many friends visiting and parking on the street, for example).   

So, the nastiness moves forward.  And, since the decisions of the 4th of july committee seem to have set this in motion, let the fireworks begin. 

Moving to Las Vegas was a culture shock, but nothing compared to the fact that those who graded the Nevada Writing Proficiency exams were not counting spelling.  The news I got:  Spelling doesn't count.

Well, it's just one more place where the state of Nevada got it wrong.  Spelling DOES count.

Imagine my horror, then, when I saw the sign above -- my own hometown library guilty of a spelling error.  There was nothing bizarre about the bazaar I attended at the library.  Except maybe that no one knew the bizarre was really a bazaar?

Tyler was telling me a story last night about some stuff he sees on Facebook.  Apparently there is a group of people who have their facebook pet peeves listed.  Tyler claims they are full of misspellings.  So, he added to the list of facebook pet peeves:  My pet peeve is when people don't know how to spell!  Oh, my boy, a real chip off the old block.  (Many claim the computer writing that contains spelling errors is just typos, not spelling errors.  I beg to differ.)

Football Shenanigans

So another football season has ended and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

I am a football fan, but I have become increasingly annoyed by the Superbowl Super Show.  Really.  It's just plain annoying.


During any other game, the half time is 15 minutes.  Players are used to this break.  They enter the locker room and do whatever it is that goes on in there.  Regardless of if it's a pre season game or a play off game, the duration of half time is the same.  But during the super bowl, the half time show is 30 minutes long.  This must affect the pace of the game and the way the players get themselves ready.  The super bowl is the culmination of a dream for these players and it seems unfair to change the game for entertainment -- the game itself is entertaining.

Why is the Super bowl half time so long?  To allow for the Super stars to do their Super silliness. The pyrotechnics are stunning.  Then, the athletes come back on the field in an arena full of smoke.  Where is the sense in this?????  This year we had the added burden of a power outage (some say it's because of the half time show) that put the game on hold for an additional 30 minutes.  After the long half time and the power outage, the team that was getting its butt kicked was able to stage a comeback.  If they had been able to pull off the win, could we all really believe the extra time allotment hadn't been the reason?

The super bowl is still a game and should be presented as any other.  I am not alone.  Others are having a discussion about deleting the super half time show.  I say, thank goodness.  The super bowl is about the sport of football.  Let the Pro bowl, the game where the players bask in the glory of their super stardom, host the football shenanigans while the super bowl presents the best teams playing the game we fans enjoy.

American Doping

Just as Lance Armstrong finally confesses to using performance enhancing drugs while racing, I wonder how he was able to get away with it for so long.

The New Yorker published an article about Armstrong delineating his physical traits that make him better than others in the sport (a longer femur is one example).  Now he is completely disgraced and this issue should shed light on paid athletes as a whole.

When the Roger Clemens hearing was occurring, Rod suggested that the sports industry should just accept that performance enhancing drugs is part of the process now and note that info when an athlete is inducted into the hall of fame.  The bottom line seems to be that everyone is doing it.  A sad state of affairs for this country.

I guess I am confused about all of this.  There are tests to determine if an athlete is using performance enhancing drugs -- why are so many getting away with using them then?  The shit comes down in the form of Congressional hearings, or, in the case of Lance Armstrong, in the form of law suits.  So, if you're a big guy, you pay the price.  But there are others who are equally guilty.  What repercussions result for the trainers who covered it up?  Why did the whistle blowers take so long to blow the whistle?

This country needs to take a chill.  Sports should be a good thing.  Sure it would be wonderful to have the talent to play professional ball, but that shouldn't be the reason we let kids go to the ball park.  The stakes shouldn't be so high.  Little league games should be fun for all, not just the kids who are good.  In fact, we need to give all kids a chance.  Some of the big name athletes in football have equal talent in another sport.  Those people are different from the rest.  They should be admired.  But when society demands that all athletes be as talented, then we create our own disaster.

I believe Lance Armstrong, despite his current mess, is still a very talented bike racer.  He may even be the best.  As a result of our society demanding more, more, more, we have but one more example of American greed.  Doping is dumb.

Just another note on global warming --- it was 25 degrees in Las Vegas yesterday while NY was enjoying high 50 degree weather.

Sad, sad, sad.

A Change in Weather

As with millions of others, I have started the new year looking to shed several pounds.  For me, the key is not just dieting but getting some exercise too.  Last week that was a bit tough because it was so cold. Nevertheless, I weathered the cold and did my walk.  This week has been horrible!

It's January and I don't want the weather to be unseasonably warm.  The notoriously incorrect weathermen called for 60 degrees yesterday -- thankfully they were wrong.  Still, we need to really think about what is happening to us, this country, this planet due to global warming.

I miss the days of my youth when we would get off the bus, run home for our skates and then back out to the lake to skate.  Everyone did it.  The lake was big enough to accommodate the casual skater while allowing for a hockey game on the other end.  Kids were getting their exercise -- hours of it -- and generally, parents knew where their kids were.  Except for the cost of the skates, it was a free activity.
These days, however, I don't think the ice freezes for more than one day at a time.  My own son doesn't know how to skate because there is no opportunity to do so.

Often I hear people praising the change of weather.  They shudder when it's below freezing during the winter.  I just what to shout, "If you don't like the cold, move south!"  I love warm weather as much as the next guy, just not in January.  It would be great to have a month of 20 degree temps just to kill off a couple deer ticks.

Modern man is certainly raping this earth.

The Hobbit

Thirty five years ago I read the book The Hobbit.  The Lord of the Rings trilogy was all the rage and I wanted to be a part of the "in" read.  It wasn't my cup of tea.

This afternoon we saw the movie.  LONG!!!!

I read the review in The New Yorker so I was prepared, but it sure took a long time to set up the action. Plus, although the book was only about 300 pages, I cannot believe that Peter Jackson chose to make the movie in parts.

Again, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were not my cup of tea.  Now I'm feeling as though I missed something.  Is this movie only for those who were so into the books (you know the type -- those who know the name of every Ork and such) they could quote it?

On the plus side, the movie was a visual marvel.  Bilbo Baggins' house is cool as all get out and the various places in the movie are cool.  Still, it's a long movie.

Once again, I feel as though I'm not part of the "in" crowd all because of the Middle Earth.