"Hellenic festival" written by Paul on estrip.org

06/06/09 07:41 - ID#48852

Hellenic festival

we went to the Greek festival today. It's mostly a food festival.

The food is really just like Greek diner food and despite Greece being a land of seascapes, it includes no seafood. That made me sad. They even had all these historical picture of fish and fisherman.

The only thing I can think of is that the people who founded that church were mountain Greeks.

My favorite part is the loukoumi, which are also known as Turkish delights. I am obsessed with them. I decided to just learn to make them, although I bought a pack of rose flavored ones.

The really surprising parts were learning how the Greek orthodox felt about Catholics is how the Catholics feel about the Protestants. Also I learned there used to be five patriachs till the pope got power hungry. Well, at least that is their story.

On the way out the pig man christians were protesting the Greek festival with a similar furvour to the way they protest Thursday in the square. It's so weird now that they protest everything. I hope they protest the Italian festival and guidos beat the shit out of them.

This seems like a bad translation - "Our ancestor's once proved useful to humanity"

The ones in the white skirts were men.

Permalink: Hellenic_festival.html
Words: 255
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: buffalo

06/05/09 02:04 - 73ºF - ID#48844

Being chemical bombed

This morning I was climbing in the pear tee when I heard these snake like noises coming under the fence from the parking lot behind us.

I climbed higher up in the tree so i had sight of a person back there and asked him what wad going on.

Turned out to be the noise of weed killer spray hitting the ground and draining into our garden and tortoise home. When matts babysitting the kids they play back there, and we have food plants growing there.

I am so angry that to keeps weeds off there freakin blacktop, they thought it would be cool to spray into my backyard. Matt says it's illegal without notification.

I just turned the hose on and sent the shot back in the other direction. I washed out the tortoise burrough but now I am still concerned. I wonder how often they do it.

The obvious answer is a brick mini wall. Like I don't have anything better to do.

It is like having my garden chemical bombed.

Permalink: Being_chemical_bombed.html
Words: 173
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: buffalo

06/05/09 11:56 - 68ºF - ID#48843

Hundreds of People Moved Downtown!

This morning I was reading a Buffalo Rising article about Buffalo making a comeback

While I think Buffalo does seem to be making a comeback, one of the signs of change was "Hundreds of people have moved downtown in the past few years."

Seriously? I hope that number is wrong or you never use it as a positive statistic again. Anytime you measure the success of a fairly large downtown by saying hundreds of people have moved there in the course of several years, it sounds like you are being sarcastic.

heidi writes at 07:07:52 06/05/09 - Comment #48951: Really great critique of the Bass Pro development: :::link:::

metalpeter writes at 06:36:11 06/05/09 - Comment #48949: Bass Pro won't do it alone but it being by a waterfront that is improving will be a help. What hopefully base Pro will do it get other stores to come down down and other things to come to the waterfront area. Just think about this for a second or two The Galleria Mall ............ Now the the Galleria Mall around Christmas time..... I'm not going to say that Down Town could ever get that many people there Just for some shops, but the potential is there. In terms of how many people have started moving downtown who knows really? Yes there have been lofts and apartments built into places and there has been some growth, but if you want things you have in your hood and you move downtown then those things have to come someplace else, sorry Tops Niagara is down town to most people. I admit there are reasons I would like to live DT But the area needs more stuff to get thousands of people living down there instead of 100's well unless of course 998 people moved DT.

joshua writes at 02:27:45 06/05/09 - Comment #48942: I've been critical of BR since its inception - I've felt that it was redundant and acted primarily as an unofficial chamber of commerce for EV, in concert with EVA (another org I've been critical of in the past, but have softened on). BR has done a better job but I still feel it's redundant - it is a rare day that I find something of interest to me there. Lately I've gone just to read whatever (e:drew) is writing, to support his contribution.

EV alone has 30,000 residents - "hundreds" doesn't mean anything. I ranted to (e:james) at (e:dcoffee)'s party about along a similar theme - the Bass Pro store. The Bass Pro store is our area's marquis new business development, and they treat it as if it's as critical as getting Intel in here or something - how absurd! Wake me up when we have *real* economic progress going on here - of course Bass Pro is going to sound good when literally nothing else is going on or being done to bring jobs here. Our city's motto has been "Fuck it!" for some time.

james writes at 12:35:00 06/05/09 - Comment #48939: Why hundreds of people? Why not millions?

BR reports that millions of millionaires have moved downtown to restore the Statler tower.

They didn't cite any report or say "according to...". As such, I think they are full of shit.

And where is all this downtown development? Most new or restored housing is being built on the East side and lower West side in little suburban communities. Barf. Downtown got the Avanti and a new court house. That will pack in literally tens of new downtown residents! I am not sure what is going where the aud used to be. But a Bass Pro sure wont bring residents.

Buffalo Rising brings out the grump in me.

Permalink: Hundreds_of_People_Moved_Downtown_.html
Words: 97
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: thursday

06/05/09 11:47 - 68ºF - ID#48842

Disco Biscuits at Thursday in the Square

We went to go see the Disco Biscuits

at Thursday in the square with (e:heidi), my coworker Sameer. It was so packed with hippies. I didn't like the song when we arrived but the music got pretty jamin by the time it ended. I can't decide if the music stepped it up a bunch (which I think happend) or if I had "beer headphones" on.

Either way it way an awesome thursday in the square. The crowd went crazy trying to get an ovation and finally after like 5 minutes they came back out. Somehow I forgot to take pictures from my phone so I stole this pic off their website for your viewing pleasure.

In general, the crowd was one of the most drugged and drunk crowds I have seen at the square but what do you expect from hippies. Then again I haven't been going as much as I used to, maybe its just like that now.

I love the four blocks of misanthropes and misguided youth that line main street, north of the venue and put on their own event. There were street performers, dancers, and of course the crazy militant christians were still there.

I realized for the first time last night that even though they are protesting, some of them probably secretly enjoy going and not just to "save souls." I mean imagine, you have the choice to protest reality at the mall, or at thursday in the square with all the people and music and craziness. Its probably the only concerts they get to "go to." okay, maybe besides Kingdom Bound but honestly I think those particular people would find Kingdom Bound blasphemous.

The best part was watching this 15 y/o inner city girl telling some adult protester that her slutty top didn't have any effect on her relationship with jesus because he forgave her.

Permalink: Disco_Biscuits_at_Thursday_in_the_Square.html
Words: 317
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: work

06/04/09 12:29 - 53ºF - ID#48836

Working till midnight

No matter how far into the day I push my schedule I never come home on time. Today I got home now at 12:25am. Same on monday but then yesterday I left early for James' (Robert's not Jim's James') birthday so I guess it makes up and tomorrow I plan on attending Thursday in the square.

It all comes down to the fact that I really don't get a chance to program until after 5PM and then I get into a groove and don't want to stop. The time between 5-12am is when I get like 90% of the programming done and can really concentrate. Most of the rest of the day from 10:30-5:00 is documentation, meetings, politics and helping people.

Permalink: Working_till_midnight.html
Words: 121
Location: Buffalo, NY

06/02/09 09:04 - ID#48827

Seabar on Washington

We went to Seabar on washington for James' birthday. The food there is so delicious and beautiful.

The bright red one was "beef on weck" which is raw beef wrapped around rice and more beef, dipped in salt and caraway seeds. I also had marlin for the first time.

Permalink: Seabar_on_Washington.html
Words: 65
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: government

06/01/09 02:23 - 62ºF - ID#48814

Workfare instead of welfare?

A continuation of (e:paul,48807) What about a workfare program? What if instead of paying people to stay home, we give them state job doing all the things that need being done.

Obviously, I am only talking about people who are physically capable. If childcare is an issue than they could pick child care providers out of the group and have them watch children while the parents took turns working.

I mean our society has so much stuff that need to be done, and a lot of people that "desperately want jobs but can't find them." We pay them either way, why not let society (the people themselves included) reap some benefit from the tax money spent.

Then their salaries can just show up with all the other state workers? Is that ok?

There were plenty of examples of this during the depression with public works projects.

metalpeter writes at 08:33:55 06/01/09 - Comment #48862: What (e:theecarey) says it correct. I think workfare is through the county. Maybe it could go through the state also. I remember hearing that one of the big problems with workfare was that a lot of the Jobs people could do they didn't have the education for. If you think about it that makes sense. See if they had the education then they could get a job and not abuse the system.

heidi writes at 08:31:43 06/01/09 - Comment #48861: Paul -

To give you some numbers, I need to know what kind of "welfare" you're objecting to/curious about... there multiple social programs that someone considers to be "welfare":

TANF: Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. This is the program that replaced AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) back in 1996 with Clinton's Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which is the program that (e:James)' comment describes. As both names suggest, they're focused on kids and their parent(s). The exact program regulations and $ benefits vary by state, but it's the main program that is called "welfare"
:::link:::

Social Security (federal welfare for old people and kids who have lost a parent)
Social Security Disability (federal welfare for people w/disabilities, including HIV/AIDS)
Supplemental Security Income
Medicaid (state-administered federal health care for poor people)
Medicare (federal health care for seniors & disabled)
SCHIP (state-administered federal health care for poorer kids)
HEAP (heating/cooling assistance for poor people)
Food stamps
WIC (women, infants & children food assistance)
Title XX (funding for childcare for working parents)
Unemployment Compensation
Workers Compensation (workplace injury care)
Earned Income Tax Credit (returns earned income tax dollars to poor people)

Here's the NYS list of assistance programs:
:::link:::

In PA, the equivalent of the Safety Net Assistance program is "general assistance" and the benefit was approx. $197 per month. I'm pretty sure the recycling collectors along Allen St. make more than that.

I'd also like to contrast TANF expenditures, which in the Obama FY2010 budget would be approximately $19.3 billion with "corporate welfare": "According to the Cato Institute, the U.S. federal government spent $92 billion on corporate welfare during fiscal year 2006. Recipients included Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical, and General Electric.[5]" (I don't particularly trust Cato, but it's a nice line for my purposes at the moment.)

FY2010 US Dept. of Health & Human Services budget
:::link:::
I couldn't find actual FY2008 TANF expenditures, but Bush's budget was approximately $15 billion - and let's not discuss all the "marriage promotion" activities that included.

ajay writes at 06:33:00 06/01/09 - Comment #48854: A few years ago, NYC decided that if you're physically capable of working and on welfare, then the City would require you to work cleaning up the streets, etc. IIRC, a lot of the folks affected protested. The protesters were all hefty guys who could have done the job easily; but they were protesting the fact that the jobs were "beneath" them....

I think if someone's on welfare and they're not (a) in school, bettering their sills, or (b) doing job interviews, then they should be required to do mundane tasks like cleaning up grafitti, sidewalks, abandoned houses, etc. Alternately: give preference to contractors who will take welfare people off the rolls.

theecarey writes at 04:21:25 06/01/09 - Comment #48850: Interesting, (e:jim). I forgot that many of the recipients are children only.
I wouldn't be opposed to giving them "government chores", though.
On that note (e:paul),as part of the welfare process, if an individual is physically capable of working,then they have to look for work and/or be expected to work an assigned amount of hours per month as part of being in the system, at a location predetermined for them. It could be shoveling public sidewalks, picking up garbage, clerical duties, farming, etc. So there is a workfare program in place. At first consideration, I do like your idea about childcare- choosing some qualified individuals from the mix to look over the others children (and that may already be in place?)
The amount "paid" to those in the workfare program is the absolute minimum. There are two things I am unsure on:
1. what the rate of pay actually is. It used to be much less than "minimum wage", with the idea that the individual would be better off finding independent employment that would likely pay much better. That "pay rate" may have changed to provide a minimum monetary expectation now. Anyone have data? and,
2. There has/had been much debate as to whether these people are considered "employees" of anyone, and if they have employee rights etc. Again, I haven't checked recent data to what, if anything has changed over the years. If they are still not classified as "employees" then their "wages" as per criteria would not be published based on this.

On a related note, to what degree would/does having low wage "workfare participants" benefit the state (and some private companies) more than if they hired out right workers? We may have people abusing the system, but that would also include the state and businesses that hire them- an initiative to keep people in the system, perhaps? Just thoughts..

deeglam writes at 03:07:10 06/01/09 - Comment #48847: fabulous idea.

paul writes at 02:53:11 06/01/09 - Comment #48846: James: I am curious about that plus total payouts.
Jim: I think plenty of people have additional dependents to stay on it. that is why I suggested the childcare part.

james writes at 02:45:25 06/01/09 - Comment #48845: This is from a 1994 report from the House Ways and Means Committee. Though, it would be very interesting to see more up to date information.

Race
--------------
White 38.8%
Black 37.2
Hispanic 17.8
Asian 2.8
Other 3.4

Time on AFDC
---------------------------
Less than 7 months 19.0%
7 to 12 months 15.2
One to two years 19.3
Two to five years 26.9
Over five years 19.6

Number of children
-------------------
One 43.2%
Two 30.7
Three 15.8
Four or more 10.3

Age of Mother
------------------
Teenager 7.6%
20 - 29 47.9
30 - 39 32.7
40 or older 11.8

Status of Father 1973 1992
-------------------------------------
Divorced or separated 46.5% 28.6
Deceased 5.0 1.6
Unemployed or Disabled 14.3 9.0
Not married to mother 31.5 55.3
Other or Unknown 2.7 5.5

jim writes at 02:44:13 06/01/09 - Comment #48844: If you are capable of working, and don't have dependents, you can't stay on welfare for very long already.

"About 44 percent of TANF households are not subject to federal or state time limits because they are â€œchild-only casesâ€ â€" typically, children living with a relative or families in which the parent is not eligible for benefits."

So, almost half the list would be names of children. That's not very awesome.

paul writes at 02:39:38 06/01/09 - Comment #48843: Ya, that part is true? Where are those numbers? That is kind of what I am asking for?

james writes at 02:37:38 06/01/09 - Comment #48842: But that, more or less, happens a lot already.

Last year I qualified for HEAP, food stamps, and medicare. I didn't have any of those and I worked almost all of last year except December. It wasn't for the government, but I worked like a lot of people who receive assistance do.

I think it would be important in this discussion if we had some actual facts and figures on welfare. How many people receive it, how many work, how long people are on it, etc. Otherwise this is just speculative.

Permalink: Workfare_instead_of_welfare_.html
Words: 147
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: government

05/31/09 10:22 - 49ºF - ID#48807

State Employee Salaries and Welfare

I wrote about this before but I want to discuss it some more. It is interesting that you can see the names and salaries of all state workers

They are a little behind, its not real time number but last year's numbers - still interesting.

I understand why people want this - the public pays the salary - the public wants to know where the money is going.

I like this kind of transparency and think we should take it one step further.

I think we should also publish the names and amount that people reap in social welfare benefits, and how about unemployment too? Seems only fair.

What do you guys think?

metalpeter writes at 08:27:36 06/01/09 - Comment #48860: I have to say no one's salary should be public. I would say you could publish a department and give averages. But here is why, it is a private matter. Yes if you are an elected position then that is different but the mayor pretty much makes the same for the time that the last guy got. Knowing what someone makes just causes problems. Say I work for the state If I can look up what everyone else makes and I see that lazy ass hole who just surfs online all day mostly makes the same amount as me a year there is going to be a problem. What about the fact that kids could look up how much their parents make or even parents (assuming they are state workers or public sector jobs) of kids they are in school with. I understand that people want accountabilty but it shouldn't be to everyone that has internet access.

paul writes at 02:25:57 06/01/09 - Comment #48839: Just to be clear, I don't feel victimized at all by the salaries being public information. I think it should all be public. I am thrilled that they made the information public and I think all tax spending should be documented. I am also not comparing the two, being a state employee and using social services. Just saying both are publically funded.

As I said before, there should be no social stigma associated with using social services temporarily to help you through difficult times. That is what it is there for, and that is why we all pay into it, so that it happens to us - the safety net is there.

I really don't care if people are embarrassed about being on social services. Shouldn't they just be happy that they have social services? Isn't it a miracle in itself? In any other era they would have just been in shanty towns or bread lines.

If you really aren't abusing it, you would show up really low on the list. What about just a list of the top payees?

joshua writes at 02:02:14 06/01/09 - Comment #48837: All of this is predicated on the idea that people on public assistance are the same as people who work for the state. That is an obvious fallacy - both may be "drains" on the public tax dollar, but that is where the similarities end. I can't believe that anybody would equivocate the two.

If you work in the public sector, the fact that your salary is public information is simply one of the prices you pay for working in the public sector. This is an interesting example of a major difference between the public and private sectors that few people consider until it is their name that they see on a state fact sheet on a web site. This sort of thing is a fact of public sector life that you have to understand and accept, then move on. No public worker should feel victimized by that web site - they should have known anyway, in my view at least.

Bleeding Heart Joshua agrees with (e:libertad) on this one, at least partially. I don't buy that such an idea would hurt a person's job prospects necessarily, but I think it is compelling to suggest that the net effect of this would be to humiliate people who are otherwise amongst our most disadvantaged. To me that isn't just wrong, but obscene.

If it were done in a general way, in order to illustrate on average the degree of waste in the social welfare system, I'd be all for that. To what degree our system is wasteful should absolutely be public information.

I think there is an aspect out there of people wishing to humiliate the serial abusers, which is a sentiment I completely understand. More statistics should be available to disseminate welfare statistics, but it should be done a general way. Comparing a welfare recipient to a state worker is apples and oranges.

james writes at 01:56:06 06/01/09 - Comment #48835: Salaries and benefits of public employees should absolutely be made public knowledge. That is an excellent way to help track patronage and corruption which you otherwise could not track. Salaries are paid for from a variety of sources, including city taxes, state taxes, federal money, grants, and others.

But welfare, What is the point?

We already know how much we spend on these services because it is in the budget every year. Even if the revenue source come from multiple places, it is all placed in the budget.

As Jim said, it is a minority of people who abuse the system. They should be investigated and punished. But punishing everyone by making this information public will only lead to humiliation and discrimination.

That said, I understand where your frustration is coming from and I hope Tony moves in.

jim writes at 01:44:08 06/01/09 - Comment #48834: My mom hated that we had to go on food stamps for a little while after my dad left us. There's no way she wouldn't have been embarrassed if it was public, she was plenty enough embarrassed as it was. Most people who use these services use them for brief periods of time - I know there are some who stay on forever, but most don't abuse and don't stay on.

If my mom were here today, and were going for a job interview, and they googled her name and found out she was on food stamps, mightn't that serve as stigma branding her as poor forever? Nothing on the Internet goes away.

If it was made public back then, she probably wouldn't have taken it and we'd have been much worse off. The people that would least abuse the system are the ones too proud to have their names released.

So count me totally against this, doesn't seem to do any good except to gawk. I also dislike having every government official's salary released, too. Most people get tax credits, so by this logic everyone's tax returns should be public - yuck. No thanks.

ajay writes at 12:37:09 06/01/09 - Comment #48833: Making the pay/benefits of State Employees public is a great idea.

Correlate this list with, for example, the professors in UB and see how some of the shittiest profs are making top salaries; whereas the really good ones are severely underpaid because they don't play the system.

As for people on welfare? I know where (e:paul) is coming from (given the tenants in his property). When I drive by some of the projects here in SF, I'm surprised to see BMWs and Audis parked on the street (of course not _every_ car is such, and there are lots of crappy ones too). I met a guy in Burning Man who spends his entire year partying, doing BM, Coachella, Rainbow, etc. because he's on "disability" since he injured his back. Ignore the fact that he was lifting heavy stuff into/out of his truck when there. So yeah, there's a lot of abuse too.

I am all for openness where **tax-payer funded** things are concerned. I don't care what the top executives at Apple make. But if it's my tax dollars, I want to know, dammit!

tinypliny writes at 10:38:57 06/01/09 - Comment #48825: We don't have even the first layer of transparency in India, which is one of the many reasons I admire your country. At least your government is making an effort. :(

jenks writes at 09:57:40 06/01/09 - Comment #48824: i'm with Paul.

paul writes at 09:46:26 06/01/09 - Comment #48822: If people are truly in a predicament which results in then needing public assistance they should not be embarassed. Only people who abuse it should be embarassed.

What I was trying to say is that seeing as many people want to know where are extremely high taxes are going, they should have the right to know.

Same with all those other programs for heat assistance, food stanps, etc. Maybe instead of breaking down what the person was paid for, they just break it down to total amount per person with no details involved until you apply in writing for that info.

In general see through government expenditure should be encouraged.

theecarey writes at 08:40:07 06/01/09 - Comment #48818: Interesting idea. I get what you are saying. However, my opinion is that I dont think salaries or benefits (or anything) should be public knowledge; but I am pretty private and don't really think it is anyone's business to know who makes what- even state paid employees. A grade range for a position, maybe, but not down to the pennies. I'd be fine with not even having immediate access to that either.
For all else, I agree with (e:libertad) entirely. I dont need to see who is receiving what benefits and in what amount. The impact, the stigma- it would hurt those it is really trying to help, and not make a difference for those that "abuse" it. As for unemployment, those same people have paid into it at some point and no one needs the added public exposure to a trying time in their life.

lilho writes at 11:53:47 05/31/09 - Comment #48817: i'm all for that idea.

libertad writes at 11:43:11 05/31/09 - Comment #48816: I don't think that is a good idea. Social welfare is and should be intended to helping people who are in a bad spot. They should not make a public list of people who are receiving government benefits because that could adversely affect their prospects for employment and also serve as public humiliation. It reminds me of that school that was pulling kids out of lunch lines because their parents did not give them any lunch money and serve them a cheese sandwich while everyone else ate hot meals.

Permalink: State_Employee_Salaries_and_Welfare.html
Words: 123
Location: Buffalo, NY

05/31/09 08:16 - ID#48806

Finally got to the pipe in question

That diagnal pipe coming out of the tub going into the main toilet
drain is where the problem lies. Next step is to replace it. My arms
are so freakin tired.