Room Eight is closed to new posts. The existing archive will remain up for the immediate future.
If you were a Room Eight writer and would like access to an export of your content, please contact the editor.
This site is not affiliated with or collaborating with any other news or opinion site.
Some smart folks have emailed me some observations concerning my recent piece on Orthodox Jewish voting behavior. Here are some highlights
1) Assemblyman Peter Abbate, who in the past has used his Orthodox Jewish Election Districts as a bulwark against his often more conservative Italian-American constituents, lost his Orthodox areas this year for the first time
I strongly suggest that those who believe I am onto something, with regard to Generation Greed's long term effects on those coming after, read this article about Europe. While younger generations have become worse off than those who came before for some time in this country, the best off and most articulate had continued to prosper until recently, or so they believed because rising debts papered over many things. That's why, in my view, Generation Greed was followed by Generation Apathy.
But in Europe that is no longer the case — the young educated are suffering too. Next up, Generation Outrage. But the real damage will be felt when those born later become old themselves, and really suffer because their countries were bankrupted by those who came before — somehow even more so in peace in the past 30 years than by two devastating wars in the first half of the 20th Century.
Justin Elliot at Salon.com has become (I think) just the 2nd person in the “big leagues”, joining Ben Smith at Politico.com to notice what I has first pointed out in September –
THE MOSQUE STORY IS NO LONGER CONSIDERED NEWS
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/12/31/park_51_a_look_back/index.html
We always knew there was never really a Democratic Majority in the NYS Senate, just four (or more) factions in uneasy alliance. Dean Skelos' Minority always controlled more votes in the Senate than anyone else.
Off and running.
The new governor hit some of the right notes during his low-key inaugural address with his number one priority, creating “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
So last week, the state court held that the unqualified Cathie Black can become our next school's chancellor in New York City. Happy New Year!!
Four vehicles have passed over blacktop in the past couple of hours or so. With every pass, I see potholes that won’t be filled and garbage that won’t be picked up in the future, as these costs suck money out of an already diminished future.
Everyone's in a tizzy because the Jews found gas; haven't they ever been to Sammy's? Big Gas Find Sparks a Frenzy in Israel – WSJ.com
Some thought on President Katzir’s conviction:
Cleaning my desk at the end of the year, I found one unfinished story in the pile of numbers I analyzed from November’s elections. I’m not sure anyone cares anymore, even though there are a few lessons to be learned here, so I post it mostly for the record.
RESHMA SAUJANI: Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe its the time of man
I don’t know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
OK, she didn’t say that, Joni Mitchell did, but she might as well have. In fact, it would be an improvement over what she did say.