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THE VILLAGE CHOICE - Volume 4, Issue 32
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Manhattan Libertarian Party
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Aug 19, 2005 12:54 PDT
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THE VILLAGE CHOICE
A Weekly Rundown of News, Views and Events Affecting Freedom in NYC
Volume 4, Issue 32 * August 19, 2005
THE VILLAGE CHOICE is brought to you by the Manhattan Libertarian Party.
http://www.manhattanlp.org
In this issue:
* The real mayoral debate!
* Nanny Bloomberg says no spray-paint!
* Defending the right to bare arms... and bare everything else!
* Your calendar of pro-freedom events!
* Much more!
==============
* News Bites *
Let the Debates Begin
Libertarian mayoral candidate says, “There are four kinds of people in
the free world: The apathetic, the beaten, the approvers, and the
opposers. The apathetic don't riot because they don't know enough to
care or until it really affects them personally. The beaten don't riot
because they figure by now there's nothing they can do. The approvers
(aka bleeding heart liberals) are those who actually believe we should
all be paying MORE in taxes to fund entitlement programs. That sadly
leaves a small number of opposers whose numbers can't add up to a riot.
And so I am here trying to "riot" for them.” [excerpts from the
independent mayoral candidates debate]
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/001176.php
Party Pooper Bloomberg
A fashion designer sued the city Friday and asked a federal judge to
restore a permit for a planned block party next week in which 20 artists
would spray graffiti on models of subway cars. The city revoked the
permit earlier this week after Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the party
would encourage crime, citing years of work by the city to remove
graffiti from actual subways. In the lawsuit, organizers of the block
party, led by fashion designer Mark Ecko, claimed Bloomberg and the city
had violated their First Amendment rights.
http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_231144817.html
Equal Treatment for Domestic and Imported Parasites
New York State cannot give low-income people who are elderly, blind and
disabled less benefit money just because they are immigrants, even
though the federal government has stopped paying its share, a state
judge ruled in a decision released yesterday. The decision restores
higher aid payments to thousands of disabled legal immigrants, many of
them elderly refugees who were facing eviction after being cut off from
federal and state disability benefits because they had not become United
States citizens within a seven-year period set by Congress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/nyregion/19immigrant.html
The Naked City
Topless women on skates, bikes and foot drew a surging crowd of grateful
gawkers in Columbus Circle this week when they doffed their shirts to
affirm the right to bare a lot more than arms. The 10 or so women
gathered and showed nearly all to protest the arrest of Jill (Phoenix)
Feeley, who said she was taken into custody this month after going half
naked on the lower East Side.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/337449p-288186c.html
====================
* Rant of the Week *
Escape from New York 2005
by Matt Siegel
Basically, I've been leading a double life. I realized this when I was
loading my up car to take a drive to my new house in Virginia. I
double-parked my car in front of the building, put on the hazards,
brought all my luggage down from my apartment to the front door, and was
loading it into my car, when a traffic cop pulled up behind me.
I thought he was writing a ticket, but then he looked like he was taking
care of some other business, so I walked the twenty feet from my car to
my door, and got some more of my bags. I put those bags in the car, and
was about to walk off for another load, when the traffic cop rolls down
his window and says, "You got a ticket."
He said this like the ticket had somehow fallen from the sky. Matching
his sarcasm, I said, "Wow, how did that happen?"
"Oh, you'll find out."
Then he just sat there for a while tinkering with his computer.
"Aren't you gonna give me a copy of the ticket?"
"In a minute." he said, fussing with the computer some more. Apparently
giving tickets is quite an automated process now, involving a
touch-screen device. This makes it easier to operate for people who were
previously working at McDonalds.
"You were double parked."
"I'm loading my car, and I have the hazard lights on."
"You have to have somebody in the car." He got out of his vehicle, and
put a folded bit of paper under my windshield wiper. "If someone's in
the car, it's okay. The minute you walk away from the car, it's mine."
It was 9 pm, and I asked him why he never hands out tickets on my block
during the day, when there are plenty of cars double-parked in front of
the synagogue. He told me if I had a problem, to call and complain about
it. Then he drove off.
I looked at the ticket. One hundred and fifteen dollars.
That's one hundred and fifteen dollars for loading my bags into my car
in front of my house without anyone ever complaining about it. On top of
that, the cop was a real asshole. And in fact he wasn't even a real cop,
he was a traffic enforcement officer.
Let's contrast this with my life in Virginia. My girlfriend and I were
driving through town on our way back from dinner, when we got pulled
over. The officer was very polite, and said we were being stopped
because one of our brake lights was out. It was a thirty-five dollar
ticket, and if we had the problem fixed within ten days, we could mail
the ticket in with a copy of the receipt, and there would be no fine.
As he was writing the ticket, I remembered I had a spare bulb in the
glove box. I got the bulb, got out of the car, showed him the bulb, he
got out of his car, and watched me replace the burnt out bulb with the
new one. We tested out the new bulb. It worked fine. He wished us a good
evening and drove off. No ticket.
Oh, I forgot to mention... I was carrying my handgun the whole time. You
know why I forgot to mention that? Because it wasn't a problem for me,
and it wasn't a problem for the officer. Why wasn't it a problem?
Because it's not illegal.
And guess what else... I never have to double-park in Virginia, because
there's always plenty of parking right on my block. While we're on the
subject of cars, the same auto insurance that would cost me three
thousand dollars in New York City only costs me six hundred dollars in
Virginia.
I've also purchased two houses and a piece of land in Virginia for less
than I'd pay for a two-bedroom co-op in Brooklyn. Those houses are
already rented for more money than my mortgage payments, so in addition
to getting a couple of free houses, I'm also making a few hundred bucks
every month. How is that possible? Well, property taxes are low in
Virginia, and they don't saddle you with things like mortgage taxes, and
constant violations for putting your garbage out the wrong way.
And unlike New York City, where they make you separate regular garbage
and recycling, only to throw them both in the same landfill, they
actually do recycle your recyclables in Virginia.
So, between a lower cost of living, and property values rising, I'm
going to be a millionaire on paper in a couple of years. I'm a high
school drop-out, who took his money outside New York City and put it
elsewhere. And I say this to y'all (youse guys) as someone who was born
and lived my whole life in New York... Leave. Get out.
The people who are enjoying life in New York right now are generally not
New Yorkers. New York has changed from the kind of place a real New
Yorker would enjoy, to the kind of place that attracts the disenchanted
inhabitants of fly-over country who are rich enough to get out.
Think about it. How many New Yorkers do you know who are actually from
New York? The people who are the most enthusiastic about New York City
generally came from somewhere else. And if you ask them about it,
they'll tell you what a shithole it was, how uncultured and uncivilized
it was. Then they'll happily wait in line to have their bags searched at
the subway entrance. Or maybe they'll be real radical New Yorkers and
"slum it" by attending a demonstration to protest those unconstitutional
bag searches. But of course, they'll be the first to leave when the cops
show up.
Fuck these people, fuck their money, and fuck the city government that
caters to them. These people have ruined my city with their faux radical
politics and faux dirty clothing. They have, in a desperate attempt to
deny where they came from and everything that they are, turned my city
into an urban Disney World where Mickey Mouse will arrest you for not
obeying a "lawful order."
This is why real New Yorkers should stop fighting and just leave. Let
them have it. We can make it anywhere, because real New Yorkers are
blue-collar workers with excellent business sense and project management
skills. We are white-collar workers with enough common sense to use a
hammer and nails. And real New Yorkers are people with enough foresight
to realize that their money goes farther elsewhere.
Would you miss the culture? Maybe. But what good is the culture if you
can't afford to go out and enjoy it? A movie is ten dollars. A beer is
five bucks. And what about rent?
Real artists can't afford to live in New York City anymore, so real
culture is moving farther and farther away. What you would wind up
missing is not culture, but a concentration of people who have been
"discovered." And only posers and parasites give a shit about those
people anyway.
If real New Yorkers moved away, the only thing they'd be missing is the
next terrorist attack, and the subsequent wave of bargain real estate.
But if you decide you want bargains, you'll get another chance real
soon.
In a few years, when the current wave of transplants have been chewed up
and spat out by our city, when the trust funds are spent, when they
realize that they aren't going to be rock stars, when they realize
they're never going to be best friends with the really really rich kids,
when they realize how hard they're working and yet still sleeping on
their college futon, the transplants will move out of New York to
someplace they would have previously described as a shithole.
And by the time they get there, I'm gonna own the fucking place. I'll be
happy to rent them a house. They won't be living in New York City
anymore, but they also won't be living in a place where former welfare
recipients, now working as well-paid parasites, write you
one-hundred-and-fifteen-dollar tickets for loading up your own car in
front of your own house.
Oh yeah... One last great thing about Virginia; I can have my license
plate number changed for about ten dollars, which is one hundred and
five dollars less than paying the ticket.
===================
* Upcoming Events *
Monday, August 22, 10:30 p.m.
The Libertarian Alternative
A libertarian political talk show
Time Warner Cable Ch. 34 and RCN Cable Ch. 107
http://www.libertarianalternative.org
================================
* News tips, rants and events wanted! *
Help us improve THE VILLAGE CHOICE. Send news bites, rants and event
announcements to village-@manhattanlp.org. Please include a web
link whenever possible. We will occasionally consider broader topics,
but our strong preference is for items pertaining to freedom (or the
lack thereof) in New York City.
THE VILLAGE CHOICE is edited by Jim Lesczynski.
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If you're offended by anything in this newsletter, you're obviously a
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See you next week!
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