Is it Just Me, or is New York Getting More... New York?

Perhaps its the departure of the original Law & Order franchise, the city feeling the need to cumulatively reassert its badassness, but wouldn't you agree that thing have, as the original Real World posited, stopped being polite and started getting real?

This morning on the Q, this guys just sits down, opens his book, and pops a 20-ounce Coors Light can.  No visible judgment from other passengers, which only made me laugh harder.  Well, life in NYC ain't easy, and as Anthony points out, it's always 5 o'clock somewhere.  (Still, be a gentleman and opt for a coffee stout before noon, it's NY Craft Beer Week for heaven's sake!)

Last night on the Bedford L platform, a fight broke out and my friend B (who will remain anonymous because he probably wants to get laid again someday) got pushed onto the SUBWAY TRACKS.  Quel horror!  He's okay, a few scrapes, but that's trauma to last a lifetime.

And two nights ago, in N's luxury Manhattan highrise apartment building, a 21-year old resident was shot and killed, possibly a drug-related crime.

Let's be serious: down economy equals hard times equals rise in crime.  The whole country is at a weird boiling point, no one seems quite balanced these days.  It's bound to keep bubbling over, especially in a city like New York.

Winning Emmy's & Taking Names

Huzzah!  Once again, SVU triumphs, only this time in REAL LIFE!  Check it out.

As awful things go, few things trump the fact that thousands of rape kits never go tested.  Can you imagine surviving a rape, having the courage to report it right after the fact without even showering before you go to the hospital, and then going through the further torturous, prodding, multi-hour process of a rape kit... and then it never even gets tested?  How can law enforcement sleep at night?!  Benson and Stabler would never allow this.

In light of the rape kit backlog, it seems fair to ask: Why should we put women through hours of an invasive procedure if we don't follow through and test their kits? The last thing anyone wants is for news of the rape kit backlog to discourage women from coming forward to have a rape kit collected.

And while testing rape kits is important to advance investigations, it also sends an important message: It shows victims that their cases -- and their pain and their anguish -- matter.

Fortunately, the doing-good-in-real-life team at SVU, Executive Producer Neal Baer and the divine Mariska Hargitay (who also runs Joyful Heart, an amazing organization that helps survivors of domestic abuse), is beginning a campaign to help solve this.  Now that's using your influence for good.

One More Thing: The Truth About Un- & Under-employment

Last one in today's multi-post rant, I promise.

Every time I hear a story on the "official" unemployment numbers, usually on WNYC, I want to throw my radio at the wall.  It's so rarely mentioned that the monthly percentage hardly reflects the reality of joblessness, declining income, and underemployment.

Consider those whose unemployment ran out.

Consider those whose new jobs pay a fraction of what they were previously making.

Or those who stopped filing because they were contracted for sufficient work... but were never paid for it.

Paul Krugman's editorial today brings up a related point: I can't tell you how many of my still-employed friends are now doing twice or three times the work they were previously doing before their colleagues were laid off and never replaced.  Here's where "structural unemployment" is factual: the two full-time jobs I have been courted for in the past several months were not individual jobs at all, but two or three distinct roles packed into one.  It was both insulting and deflating that these companies (small businesses where hours and duties are typically already demanding) sought mid- to high-level director and higher positions with expertise in two to three distinct areas.  One of the two companies had been looking to fill the role for over a year - no surprise that someone who has senior level experience in sales, publicity, and marketing either doesn't exist or isn't willing to work for small-company-salary.  Oh, and they clearly wanted someone under 35.  It's as ridiculous as the idea of a woman looking for a husband with a 100-point checklist of perfection.  Unless you're Angelina Jolie, or in this case, Google or Goldman, time for a reality check.

Also, The Republicans are Getting Me Down... Again.

Is anyone buying this Pledge for America bullshit?  No, I didn't think so.

If you want a two-minute read on the ludicrous-ness of it all, check out this brief editorial.

If you'd rather do video, here you go:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Postcards From the Pledge
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

In summary:

Wait a minute, that's the same shit we heard before.  Your fresh new ideas sound slightly like - I'm sorry, did I say slightly? - I meant, exactly like, your old ideas.
-Jon Stewart

In Which The Mayoress is Once Again Reminded Why She No Longer Attends Church

Oh guys.  I am going through one of those periods where everything I encounter in the news just makes me want to give up on every level.  It's all so frustrating and seemingly impossible.  So here we go with a few of the most upsetting.

One commenter summed it up quite succinctly:

"Bishop Long can actively shit on women and use "prosperity gospel" to bilk poor people out of their money and no one really gives a fuck. 

I strongly suspect that church folks wouldn't be NEARLY as upset if his alleged victims had been female, either. "

Read more: http://jezebel.com/5649005/relationship-advice-from-the-molesting-megachurch-pastor?skyline=true&s=i#ixzz10lTCavXb

On a positive-for-the-American-Christian-church note, I watched the film "Lord Save Us from Your Followers" the other night, and though it was a bit hokey, I thought it was a great treatment on the contemporary PR mess the church has created, and presents the best solution I've seen.  No, actually, the best I've seen was put forward a bit more subtly in Blue Like Jazz, but this builds upon it directly.  (Go Portland.) Definitely add it to your Amazon cart/Netflix cue.

VOTE TODAY NYC!

Today's the New York primaries, and as I've said before, many time, it's MORE important for you to vote today than in November.  Here's why.

It's gonna be a tough one for me - just moved to a new district, still registered in the old one.  Great moment walking to the subway today - guy tries to hand me a candidate's flyer and I deflect, "I'm not registered in this district."  Without skipping a beat he says, "I wanna be registered in your district."  Hot.  Now that's an election-day-appropriate pickup.

Go out there and vote!