Rhywun’s World

The government was concerned that the images, which included views of the entrances to military bases, were a threat. Gen. Gene Renuart, head of the military command responsible for homeland defense, said, “It actually shows where all the guards are. It shows how the barriers go up and down. It shows how to get in and out of buildings. I think that poses a real security risk for our military installations.”

What’s the big scare? Russian spy satellites? Al Qaeda operatives? Nope. It’s snaps that can be taken by any bloke walking down the street, but only when Google does it. As was shown when NYC recently tried to ban photography in the subways, the lowly camera has proven to be one of the government’s most feared “weapons”.

“… we have accommodated their requests.”

Yeah, no shit. That’s the proper response to one of the few entities that the Google juggernaut can’t stare down. But how laughable is it when the world’s mightiest army is afraid of some guy driving down the street snapping pics?

Vice cops apparently don’t have any real crime to fight, as they continue–with admirable reluctance–to take on the dreadful burden of asking hot babes for sex in stripper bars.

The State Liquor Authority lifted the jiggle joint’s liquor license Wednesday for allowing prostitution to flourish on the premises. … Undercover Manhattan South vice cops found women selling sex to customers in back rooms, VIP lounges and even bathrooms in the W. 28th St. club.

One has to wonder, from where does the liquor board derive its authority to combat sex “crimes”? And since the charge seems to be prostitution, isn’t the usual punishment a short jail term for the “criminals”? None of this makes any sense. Nevertheless, the government will continue to pat itself on the back for fighting these “crimes”, thinking there is any relationship whatsoever between vice and real crime. In case they intend to bring up the “broken windows” theory where stopping smaller crimes leads to a decrease in larger crimes (about which topic and whether this theory is actually responsible for NYC’s dramatic drop in crime during the late nineties and early aughts one could fill an entire book), I offer the following memo to the NYPD, or the liquor board, or whoever the fuck they’re getting to fight crime these days: stopping vice does not have any effect on real crime, unlike other petty crimes such as vandalism or trespassing. The people who seek expensive stripper sex and the strippers who service them are not the same people who go on to commit larger crimes.

The real crime is that victimless crimes are crimes in the first place™.

Finally, some radical thinking on bus and subway fares:

It might sound like pie in the sky– but a new plan unveiled today would not only keep bus and subway fares down, it would eliminate them altogether. It’s an extreme congestion pricing plan that makes Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s look tame.

Not mentioned in the article–or anywhere that I’ve seen–is the cost savings that could be realized by eliminating the massive fare-collection apparatus required by the current system: token booth clerks, the computerized metro card system, card readers. One wonders whether the idea of eliminating fares might actually pay for itself, without the need for the draconian congestion pricing mentioned in the article (which doesn’t have a hope in hell of passing). Which leads to:

However worthy an idea, it seems unlikely New Yorkers will see free subways and buses anytime soon. It’s not even being considered by the Congestion Pricing Commission, which votes next week on a proposal to forward to lawmakers.

Of course no one will take the idea seriously. The Transit Workers Union would become apoplectic. They know that their salaries–like in almost any business–are the largest cost of running the system. And since the city sings to its tune, there’s no eliminating those jobs, let alone getting even modest cuts on the table.

I’m listening to Tangerine Dream’s latest album, Madcap’s Flaming Duty and I am pleasantly surprised to admit that it’s the best thing I’ve heard from them in almost twenty years. [more]

Listen to this praise for New York’s Governor Eliot Spitzer:

Spitzer called on the MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] to throw away a proposal that would have raised the price of those individual rides [from $2] to $2.25, and the MTA went along with him. It sounds like a small thing and is the opposite of that. It is a big thing Spitzer did, a big story of the city. This was the governor of the state acting like a true advocate for the city that grew him and grew his ambitions.

This flapdoodle goes on for about a dozen more paragraphs in the same vein. The problem? Almost nobody pays $2 to ride the subway or bus in New York City.

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