This is the Easter weekend: the most holy in the in the Christian calendar. Holier than the Christmas celebrations even, because -if research serves me right- what now passes as the Christmas holiday, was originally a pagan holiday co-opted by Christian tradition(s). Research even goes as far as suggesting that December 25th is nowhere close to the day or season of Christ’s birth.

Many believe that Easter celebrates the period when Christ rose from the dead (for reasons nebulous to non-believers of course), and is the most important aspect of the ideology. In Christian theology, it is supposed to be symbolic of a major sacrifice made for the eternal redemption of believers. In a country like this -which claims to laud religious freedom- people are entitled to their religious beliefs. As such, protections of these beliefs are enshrined in the constitution, and have been upheld by the highest court of the land (Supreme Court) many times over, but sometimes you wonder why most people refuse to objectively analyze the things they claim to believe in.

New York’s Secession Talk

By Michael Boyajian

There is a lot of talk from various windbags about certain states like Texas seceding from the United States of America apparently ignorant of the fact that 600,000 on both sides gave their lives in the Civil War.

In the tabloids, I watch with interest the articles we as a society show the most interest in, the ones that are most emailed from one friend to another. Those articles are often the ones about total nonsense.

Articles that are not going to put food on the table, help lower the high unemployment rate, pay the rent, or enlighten us in any serious way. I wonder why we don’t show the same interest when it comes to giving back to the community.

It breaks my heart on a personal level that in NYC—and in cities across America—40 percent of children do not graduate from high school, and that figure is much higher in some states. Yes there are inequities in life all around us. But when we are done with the long line of pointing the finger at someone else….what are we doing about the problem? “We” in this case is defined as you and I. What are we doing to better our communities. Where is our passion for what really counts.

On Sliwa

By Michael Boyajian

The first time I encountered Curtis Sliwa the founder of the Guardian Angels was at a Rudy Giuliani political event and all the star gazed Young Republicans from New York and around the country were blindly brushing passed the outstretched hands of local Republican leaders as they headed to shake Sliwa’s hand.

Just asking?

Alright, of course the slogan is borrowed from my friends at Page Six and the N.Y Post, (the Daily News is just as good) but seriously I’m just asking?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is telegenic, and energetic, but does anyone believe Gillibrand is delivering for New York more than Caroline Kennedy would have?

Does anyone believe Gillibrand has more access to the President Obama than Caroline would have?

It’s obvious that Vice-president Joe Biden has become the Yogi Berra of US politics. After all, Joe has dropped so many “verbal classics”, that today he is to US politics what Yogi is to US baseball: one of a kind. Joe Biden is obviously a man inebriated by the many excesses (and successes) of his own verbosity; and yet you can’t help but like “Uncle Joe”: he is both eccentric and “real”.   

I remember writing -a couple years aback- that Joe had destroyed whatever little chance he had of becoming the democrat’s presidential nominee, when he said that Barack Obama was “clean” (as blacks go). He said this very early in the contest; and yet, by some strange twist of fate, he ended up on the ticket as the vice-presidential nominee. What a country! What a game! As I always say: politics is the only game in town. 

The Hegemony of the Cats

By Michael Boyajian

We have three cats in our household.  When we first moved to the Hudson Valley we had just two, Winston and Brigid who go everywhere together like two peas in a pod.

Then one day a few weeks before the start of winter we rescued a third cat, Malachy.  He had been abandoned.  We tried to acclimate him with the other two cats but it did not work out.  Malachy loves humans but does not like other cats so we have to keep him in a separate room.  The room is small, and he became an outdoor cat after his abandonment, so we occasionally have to let him out into the yard knowing the risks involved but aware that it would be cruel to keep him locked up in a small room.

Okay; so last week my employment with the city council (Darlene Mealy/41st Council district) came to an end. And no, Ms. Mealy had very little to do with that. In fact, I suspect that I could have stayed on as part time communications director, once I followed the blogging rules of the council.  I chose not to work under the blogging rules set by the council’s lawyers: that’s all. It was my choice and mine alone. They have a right to set their rules and I have a right to reject them. Many disagreed with me and that’s their prerogative. I couldn’t function with handcuffs on, it’s just not me; and I have to be true to myself.

Today the New York Times notes that states are approaching a debt crisis. And what is the crisis? When lenders decide that younger generations may be unwilling to pay more and more taxes for fewer and fewer services, and refuse to pay the debts and pensions older generations promised themselves but refused to those coming after. Until that point, the generations now in charge will continue to grab more and more with an implicit promise that those in the future will repay by having less and less. While this is a national problem, a function of Generation Greed, it is worse in New York, where Generation Greed is greediest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/nyregion/29budget.html?ref=nyregion

Mr. Sampson, a Brooklyn Democrat, leads 32 Senate Democrats, a tissue-thin majority. Most of his members, like most of Mr. Silver’s, are from safe districts in New York City. But the most vulnerable Senate Democrats are from places like Long Island, the North Country and Oneida County, occupying districts that were drawn for — and until recently represented by — Republicans.

Should even one of those members lose without a Democratic pickup somewhere else, Mr. Sampson’s majority will become a minority come January.