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Trivial Pursuits (A Drosh on the Jewish vote)

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As Latke Gravas once observed, senseless and meaningless rituals are all that separate us from the animals. And though sometimes resembling a zoo more than a salon, the Gatemouth Family has a few senseless rituals of our own.

We break Passover over Liberty Ale at the Waterfront Alehouse; on the Sabbath, Domestic Partner doesn’t eat pork or shellfish, or commit adultery; and every two years I write a piece analyzing the votes of the 2% of Americans who consider themselves Jews.

SOME POST-ELECTION MUSINGS: Including Bloomberg and Barron (again).

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Some wise-ass political thinker once said that “we get the government we deserve”. Another went even further when he said that “we get the exact government we voted for”. And on most elections nights you would hear commentators saying things like: “the people have spoken”; or that  “the voice of the people is the voice of God”; or that “these results are the people's will”. But are these cliches correct in terms of their deeper messages?

Long Island Needs ESA And Doesn’t Need ARC

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If there is one group of people who should be pleased with New Jersey Governor Christie's cancellation of the ARC Tunnel, it is Long Island homeowners and businesses. New Jersey Transit's ridership to Manhattan has been soaring and now, according to the Wall Street Journal, more people are riding MetroNorth in the Northern Suburbs than are riding the Long Island Railroad, as LIRR ridership falls. The article implies that poor LIRR service is to blame, and Long Islanders are choosing other ways to commute to Manhattan, while reverse ridership has boosted MetroNorth. But based on anecdotal evidence I suggest something different: those who hold high-wage jobs in Manhattan, which has the largest concentration of high wage jobs in the country, and want to live in the suburbs, are not choosing to live on Long Island. In fact, they are not even considering living on Long Island, unless they are from there. And the importance of this can be explained with a question: do people on Long Island want to sell their homes to those who are about as well off as they were at the same point in their life, someone better off, or someone worse off who can’t afford someplace better?

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