The Ostrich: going “paper”- less

It’s been some time since we’ve had anything worthy of note to report about The Ostrich, or as it’s known locally, The Brunswick Bleep Bleep.

We’ve commented on their efforts in a number of posts over the years, and for those of you so inclined, you can catch up by going here.  The number of items may seem overwhelming, but their history is lengthy, and it takes this kind of coverage to document how much they’ve meant to us in recent years.

Beyond their editorial bias, and their self-important conceit as ‘government watchdogs,’ we’ve been most interested in their failure to pay their ‘fair share’ in the form of assessed property taxes.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

We can only imagine what the consequences would be if we didn’t pay our property taxes on time, and we don’t intend to find out. We suppose that makes us wimpy suckers, at least compared to the owners of The Ostrich, who have continued to operate as the self-appointed conscience of the community, while being tens of thousands of dollars in arrears on their obligations. (We’ll research the latest figures, and report them when we get them.)

We should expect such forbearance from town officials for the local elites, of whom the Bleep Bleep is a charter member. The Bleep Bleep could slam the officials in print in a Brunswick minute if they were not given wide latitude in tax matters. 

Gotcha scoring favors the Bleep Bleep, especially since the town already owns one vacated newspaper facility. Owning two might set a world record, not to mention heaping shame on those involved.

We don’t need to remind you that we asked the Bleep Bleep to continue to deliver our paper on a daily basis, even though we had not renewed our subscription,  as a quid pro quo for us paying our property taxes on time and carrying them in their delinquency status. 

We could gloat and be petty about this.  As juvenile as such behavior would be, it is more than warranted in this case, so we’ll go with it.

Now the news.  It turns out that The Ostrich has decided to go with an on-line emphasis.  A few years back, they redesigned their web site to eliminate the most useful feature it had at that time: a several year deep archive feature, which made researching their coverage on local issues fairly convenient.  They ‘modernized’ by changing the archive feature to a two week history.

When they did, they kept the print edition pretty much as it was up to that time.  While we could no longer use their web site for any useful research purposes, we occasionally visited to see what their view of important local events was.  We could do this in a minute or two, given the shallowness of their coverage; but we could do it at no cost.

Well, friends and enemies, those days are coming to an end.  Today, The Ostrich announced that the on-line version of the Bleep Bleep will cost $89.95 a year to read, only slightly less than what they used to charge for a print subscription.  The good news is that the web version will be complete with advertisements,etc.  Good move on their part; consumers have been flocking to the web to pay for content, especially advertisements.

Why didn’t we think of that?

In their own words, here’s what your ninety bucks a year will buy:

The new design will expand options for readers and advertisers by providing all of the content from each day’s newspaper online — in a format easily accessible on home computers, mobile devices and tablets.
Every story, photo, advertisement, news brief, column, comic and feature that now appears in print will be available online daily, effective Dec. 15. Honor rolls, police logs and other items that previously only appeared in print — and which readers asked us to post online — will be fully available on the upgraded website.

We wish them the same success they’ve had recently with their print version.  We‘re confident they wish the same for us.

Our advice to you, just like it was some months ago, is that should you choose to sign up for the service, don’t pay for a year in advance.  Since they don’t pay their taxes on time, there’s no reason they should have your cold hard cash in advance.

And don’t believe the rumors that John Corzine reportedly contacted the Bleep Bleep to see if they are for sale.  Even he is bright enough, if not honest enough, to know their future is as solid as a snowflake’s.

Technorati Tags: Ostrich,property taxes,newspapers

Stew: the missing link

There’s nothing like a bubbling caldron of stew, especially now that winter is here, if not by the calendar, by the thermometer.

But dad-gummit, your reporter once again failed to include all the ingredients that prove the common links in the recipes described in our post just the other day.

While our efforts are usually flawless, at least in our opinion, we do have a persistent and maddening habit of coming up with more thoughts after posting an essay.  Sometimes minutes later, sometimes days later.  And here we come again.

We suggested that a ‘common theme’ united Betsy, the MSHA, and the federal government, making them ‘peas in a pod.’

We remain firm in that conviction; and to emphasize our point, add this common property: good intentions.  Nothing works so well to justify and rationalize otherwise absurd behavior, actions, spending, and programs as the tried and true ‘we care more’ shibboleth.

We’re sure Betsy believes that spending a quarter million or so on global and gender studies will help her make the world a better place, eliminating racism, class warfare, and human rights abuse.  And thereby justifying a claim on OPM to cover the costs of her ‘education.’

Good intentions, thy name is Betsy.

Moving on, is there any doubt that the 143 people working at MSHA have good intentions?  How could providing affordable housing for the needy, no matter how much it costs, be anything other than  a pure and noble pursuit?

Lastly, we turn to Washington.  As we all know, the federal government is motivated by fairness and economic and social justice.  Questioning the motives of our benevolent ruling class relegates one to the mean-spirited detention room.

The common attributes thus become clearer: spending OPM, lubricated by the moral superiority of good intentions.

The only open question at the moment is this: have you paid your fair share today? 

If you haven’t, we’d be happy to drop by and pick up your check.   You can make it out to ‘the greater good,’ a subsidiary of Poppycock Enterprises.

Technorati Tags: good intentions,OPM,government

Stewing, a la OPM

You know what stew is, we assume:  a slowly cooked mixture of various ingredients in which the individual components meld to create a blend of greater complexity and satisfying flavors.

Here at Side, we love the comforting aroma of simmering stew, and most of all, slurping down the final result.

Which now that we read our own words, makes this introduction of our thesis tortured to say the least, and absurd at the worst.  Oh well, everyone should do what they do best, and we do stupid metaphors as well as anyone.

So let’s segue into the meat of the matter on our cutting board.  We’ve been stewing for several days on the subjects of MSHA, the youth that supposedly comprise our future, our unmanageable public debt, and the reckless deficit spending in spite of it.

We find them all to be harmonious ingredients, united by a common theme.  Let us explain.

Let us begin with Betsy, exemplar of our future, as described in this prior post.  We cited this Coastal Journal passage:

For Betsy (redacted,) who is from Brunswick and is studying global and gender issues at New York City's New School, the Occupy movement goes beyond economic frustration. Like a lot of college students and graduates, she and her mother are deep in debt to financial institutions that funded her education. She (sic) believes, however, the Occupy movement also involves human rights issues, class warfare, and racism. She has participated in Occupy protests in New York.

We looked into the details, and learned that tuition alone at The New School is $35,000 a year.  Add living and eating in New York, plus all the party expenses, and you’re probably looking at close to $50,000 a year, or $200,000 for a degree, unless you go the 5 year route, in which case you’re staring at a cool quarter million.

All so Betsy can study pointless prattle like this:

Gender's meaning changes. In other words, the culturally constructed idea of what sex difference means is unstable and is often renegotiated over time and from place to place. To study gender is to study a central category of identity that shapes basic structures such as:

• divisions of public and private
• the distribution of wealth and patterns of labor
• the ways in which gender is represented in art, literature, and popular culture
• how sexuality and the body are understood
• definitions of sickness and health
• the creation of norms for public life and the state
• the production of knowledge itself

Courses in Gender Studies are one way to understand the ideologies, social patterns, and images that shape the changing world in which we live. Gender Studies raises questions about how the gender divide is formed and maintained, and how it is often resisted or undermined. Students explore gender scholarship from the last four decades in the United States and rest of the world. It includes courses about the history of feminist thought and action; men’s studies; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender studies; and queer theory. Working in conjunction with the program on Race and Ethnicity, these programs explore the many intersections among race, class, and gender.

Imagine spending and borrowing more than the median price of a home in Maine to immerse yourself in studies that prepare you for nothing other than teaching the same twaddle to those as gullible as you.  (Need we remind you the word gullible is not in the dictionary?)

We are convinced that Betsy and her mother, considering the other ‘affordable’ options they had, signed up for this crushing debt in the belief that the tooth fairy, or perhaps the fairy godmother, would come to their rescue.  We expect they hold a tacit belief the government should pay for her education, and that a benevolent agent of hope will ride to their rescue and bail them out with, you guessed it: OPM.

Strange as this may sound, the Maine State Housing Authority is known to spend more than this on an ‘affordable housing’ apartment.  So it’s all relative when it comes to borrowing, government, and the thirst for knowledge, useless or otherwise, and the pursuit of the common good.  They all are addicted to the drug  of choice: OPM.  Say it slowly; Oh-Pi-M.

Is there any doubt that if Betsy gets to Congress one day, she’ll support borrowing the country into oblivion because ‘it’s the right thing to do?’  What other choice could she make if she doesn’t have enough common sense in her young adult years to avoid chaining herself down with unmanageable debt, with the support of her mother?  Unless they expect someone else to bail her out?

Which brings us to the third corner of this triangulation scheme: the federal government itself.  High on their own self-importance and lust for remaining in power, our so called leaders are busy spending over 60% more than they have in revenue, making up the difference with Monopoly money and debt we will never be able to repay.  In the process, they are driving us down a greased death spiral that leads to almost certain collapse for the American experiment in liberty, self-determination, and self-government.

Coming full circle from our silly introduction, we arrive at a conclusion that Betsy, the MSHA, and our federal government are all alike.  They are ‘peas in a pod,’ to extend our original thought.

Which doesn’t make for a very tasty stew, unless you can compel other people to give whatever they have to bail out your supper.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be a critic of the society in which he lives. It is easy enough, and always profitable, to rail away at national enemies beyond the sea, at foreign powers beyond our borders who question the prevailing order. But the moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home; to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own culture. If the writer is unwilling to fill this part, then the writer should abandon pretense and find another line of work: become a shoe repairman, a brain surgeon, a janitor, a cowboy, a nuclear physicist, a bus driver. -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

Our choices are pretty clear, according to Mr. Abbey.  But we can’t help wondering why he didn’t mention the option of becoming a chef.

 

Technorati Tags: youth,our future,MSHA,government

The Disability Business, and Maine

Little more than a week ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article about apparent hanky-panky on the part of an administrative judge in the Social Security Administration.  You can find it here.

(We apologize for not being able to link you to the complete article; the link worked fine several days ago, but now only gives the abbreviated version.  We’ll keep working to find the full item for readers.)

The article included a US map, in which the percentage of disability recipients by state is shown:

Of note is the fact that Maine is in the top rank of states when it comes to recipients.  This comports well with personal but unscientific observations on a day to day basis.  These include our visits to the SSA office in Portland to sign up for Medicare a few years back.  On both trips, we were surprised to find the majority of clients in the office were not seniors like us.  And to the eye, they virtually all appeared able-bodied.

What really is galling in the subject article is the record of one particular judge, and one particular attorney he seemed to enjoy “working with:”

……….In 2010, he awarded benefits in all but four of 1,284 decisions. In 2011, before he was put on leave, Mr. Daugherty awarded benefits in all but two of the 1,003 cases he decided. Typically, judges award benefits in about 60% of their cases.

……….about Mr. Daugherty's high award rates and the number of cases he would assign himself from a Kentucky attorney, Eric C. Conn. The Social Security Administration in 2010 paid Mr. Conn $3.8 million in fees for winning benefits for his clients…..

Not bad money for appearing before a judge who seemed predisposed to find in your client’s favor virtually all the time.  We don’t mean to disparage disabled folks who qualify for and deserve the benefits.  But we’ve long believed that if there is a large, and virtually unlimited vault full of public money accessible to the citizenry, eventually careers will be built and people will get very rich raiding the kitty.

In this particular case, if you grab a pencil and paper and look at the numbers, you conclude that the judge and his attorney friend were making disposition of 4, 5 or maybe even more cases per day, depending on how many days they actually processed cases.

Result: Judge finds for the applicant. Attorney collects oh, say $3,000 for 2 or 3 hours of his work, and 6 hours of paralegal staff work.  A person could make a living doing this!

Is this typical?  We can’t say, but it does demonstrate how easy it apparently is to work the system while seemingly doing good.  And there simply aren’t enough auditors and other investigators to monitor the perhaps millions of transactions that take place each day in which funds from the public treasury are sought for a bewildering and overwhelming collection of purposes and clients.  It’s what we get when we allow government to grow more or less without limits.

A bit of looking into things gives a hint at how the system is biased.  We found this on an SSA web site:

Disability is something most people do not like to think about. But the chances that you will become disabled probably are greater than you realize. Studies show that a 20-year-old worker has a 3 in 10 chance of becoming disabled before reaching full retirement age.

IN other words, the government is biased towards an expectation that 30% of the public will eventually collect disability.  If you dig a little further, you’ll find the list of impairments that will qualify one for disability.  This reads like they are encouraging everyone to consider applying for benefits

It's hard to imagine that an attorney who specializes in such matters would have a hard time finding something under which his client should qualify, and easily send his government administrator into a kerfuffle of confusion. Especially if the burden is on a civil servant to prove that an applicant has not a single one of the listed impairments sufficient to qualify.

Wonder why we have government employment growing steadily while the private sector is struggling?  Wonder why government spending and public debt are at unsustainable levels and growing like uncontrolled wild fires?

Wonder no more, mon amis.  The answer lies ‘not in the stars, but in ourselves,’ to borrow a famous passage.

 

Technorati Tags: Maine,disability,social security administration

Friday Frivolities, Part Deux

You can file this addendum in the stuff file cabinet, under PSMIS.

That stands for “Please, Someone, Make It Stop!”  And put it in the Bowdoin College sub-folder.

Some of you know that we publish here as ‘P. C. Poppycock.’  P. C., as it turns out, are this reporter’s real first initials.  They also stand for politically correct, a pox upon our land.  Poppycock means nonsense, and its synonyms include:

babble, balderdash, baloney, bull*, bunk, drivel, empty talk, foolery, foolishness, gibberish, hogwash, hooey, hot air, jive, malarkey, mumbo jumbo, palaver, prattle, rubbish, silliness, trash.

Hence our nom-de-plume is part eponymous and part pseudonymous.

P. C. Poppycock is exactly what came to mind as we glanced at today’s Bowdoin Orient, the campus student newspaper.  Page 1 features an article titled Sexual assault allegations stir Colby, no doubt published with considerable glee by Orient staff.

There are some telling, to say the least, pronouncements by Colby officials in the article (emphasis ours):

The allegations have sparked dialogue across Colby's campus. Colby President William Adams wrote to the student body in an email, "These are deeply troubling allegations that have far-reaching impacts on our community. And I know we are all concerned about whether the campus climate encourages or excuses behaviors that are antithetical to our community values."

Antithetical to our community values??? It takes the unmitigated gall to say this that only a modern day liberal academic could possess. As anyone familiar with campus culture these days knows, college community values are sex any time, all the time, with anyone, no questions asked, no gooey relationships needed. Preferably with copious amounts of 'substances' as lubrication.

And then there’s this:

The dialogue continued at a large event held in Colby's Page Commons on November 15. A notice from Colby's Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students James Terhune explained that the purpose of the event was exploring "how Colby deals with sexual misconduct."

Exploring how you deal with sexual misconduct? What is this, a safari?  Or a first in history occurrence?  Pure academic psycho-babble that fully exhibits why we have the culture we do; so called leaders are at the bleeding edge of societal dumbing down through language abuse heaped on top of all the other forms of intellectual abuse present on our campuses.

Both, we submit, are fine examples of P. C. Poppycock.  But that’s just us, although we have little choice in who to be.

As a second addendum candidate, we noted a Security Report in the Orient that perfectly illustrates, in our opinion, the thoughts we expressed on college students in our post earlier today.  Unfortunately, we can’t find it on the web version of the paper.  If we did, it would help you end your day with a laugh followed by a moment of somber reflection.

Since we can’t give you the whole article, we’ll just offer a few prize-winners; keep in mind these are items officially reported to and by the Bowdoin Office of Safety and Security:

- An intoxicated student vandalized the paper towel and soap dispensers in a Smith Union men’s room.

- A student was escorted to Parkview Adventist Medical Center after he slipped on a wet floor in Coles Tower and cut his eyebrow.  (Couldn’t he had waited until the next day to trim his eyebrow?)

- A student at Stowe Inn reported being disturbed by noise from a nearby room.

Surely there’s a cause for protest or cries for social injustice somewhere in these reports.

One thing’s for sure; this ain’t your father’s college campus. 

And you know what?  It ain’t mine either. 

We conclude with a burning question: the next time our grandkids visit, can we call the Brunswick ‘campus’ police to report being “disturbed by noise from a nearby room?”

 

Technorati Tags: Bowdoin College,college kids,political correctness,balderdash

Friday Frivolities

A Frosty’s Return: Could it be???

As we strolled the ample sidewalks of downtown Brunswick on our way to lunch today, we noted, surprise of surprises, an ‘under contract’ sign in the window of the long closed Frosty’s Donut Shop.

This matches up with something we heard from a ‘little bird’ who visits the Other Side ‘feeder’ from time to time for a few grains of corn and other tasty offerings.  The ‘bird’ says the sales contract reportedly calls for the current shop owner to teach the buyer how to make classic Frosty’s offerings, for which we have long pined.

Could it be true?  Could we be noshing on twists or cinnamon swirl coffee buns or jelly donuts in mere weeks or months?  You can count on us to keep an eye out on your behalf, and report to you as soon as something tangible occurs.  And don’t worry; if the shop does reopen, we’ll put our eye back in.

Given our years of loyalty to the shop while it was open, we wouldn’t be surprised if we detect the aroma of dough frying in hot oil before any other indication.

Even if we do live four or five miles away.  Our schnozola has been well trained for just such purposes.

Local Occupiers: the past and the ‘future’ on display

In keeping with our usual habit, we surveyed the latest print media offerings as we chomped away on our Big Top lunch.

The lead article ‘above the fold’ in this week’s Coastal Journal is about ‘Occupiers’ in our local area.  In our view, the top level message in the article is that the well-known and oft-seen peace and anti-war groups in our area, largely composed of those in the older generations, are attempting to ride the latest media white horse by claiming ‘solidarity’ with the mostly younger ‘occupiers.’

Many of the local occupiers are stumbling all over themselves in their nearby encampments, embarrassing the concept of ‘protest.’  Public drunks, dopers, and common criminals don’t seem like the best choices for our local sign carriers, dialoguers, and face painters to align with, given that your friends say an awful lot about you.  But the usual suspects aren’t given to circumspection in such matters, are they?

Marching on, a few specific passages in the article (besides the oh so tired and typical BIW Destroyer comments) particularly tweaked our usually well controlled cynicism, and we are compelled to pass them along for your consideration and reflection.

Brunswick resident Joe (redacted) said that while Americans are typically greedy, he thinks people deserve a lot in life they can't get.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over.  That’s either one of the most inscrutable comments we’ve read in a long time, or an example of incompetent reporting and editing.  Or, more likely, a combination of both, considering those involved.

Here’s another telling example:

Dan (redacted) is Mike's son, and is a graduate student at the University of Maine studying peace and reconciliation.

“All of these issues are connected,” he said, referencing Mahatma Ghandi, who spoke of economic violence and of his studies. “The one percent on top of the hierarchy exploits everyone else.”

We can’t help but wonder what the job prospects for young Dan will be upon graduation, other than carrying signs at protests.  Joblessness stemming from poor choices would, however, put him in real solidarity with the occupiers.  Unless that is, he intends to exploit everyone else by charging for his counsel.

Here’s another example of a total lack of common sense, or if you prefer, cluelessness amidst our current generation of college students:

For Betsy (redacted,) who is from Brunswick and is studying global and gender issues at New York City's New School, the Occupy movement goes beyond economic frustration. Like a lot of college students and graduates, she and her mother are deep in debt to financial institutions that funded her education. She (sic) believes, however, the Occupy movement also involves human rights issues, class warfare, and racism. She has participated in Occupy protests in New York.

Good luck, Betsy, on finding a job as a global gender specialist, or analyst, or whatever (hamburger flipper?) once you graduate.  That’s a fine choice of major, right up there with pursuing government dependency studies.  Perhaps you’re minoring in the latter, since we have a hunch you believe that other people (id est, taxpayers) should be funding your education, even though there were a lot less expensive options open to you, and majors that might actually prepare you to make your own way after graduation.

Call us unjust and insensitive, but we don’t have a bit of sympathy to spare on those who have allowed themselves to be sent down the primrose path of aimlessness, often with the encouragement of their parents.

While we’re snickering a bit as we write this, sadness is overwhelming our funny bone.  You’ll come to your own conclusions, but ours is that we are melting down as a culture and society. Those carrying the heat guns are ‘the children’ who are being deluded and misguided by many of our ‘elders’ in the attitude formation and ‘helping’ fields, especially our government schools and academia. 

If these ‘children’ are ‘our future,’ as Yogi Berra famously said, ‘the future ain’t what it used to be.’  And you can take that any way you damn well want to; we doubt you’ll have any questions about how we mean it.

Technorati Tags: occupiers,joblessness,protesters,college students,donuts

Thanksgiving Weekend Diversions…

Side’s recent publishing slowdown stems from the fact that your correspondent and his frau traipsed off to points south for the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.  We departed on an inconveniently snowy morning, but soon escaped that and enjoyed a relatively mild several days in the greater New York City area, most of which was at our daughter’s house in North Jersey, not far from where we were conceived, delivered, and reared.

The first part of our trip was taking in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Mrs. P wisely elected not to come along, as we were joining in with 3 million or so others who had the same idea.  We were coached by a high school classmate of ours on how to go about things.

We met her and her family members at 56th and 7th Avenue, well before the parade began, and only after enduring a ‘train’ ride and a ‘subway’ ride in which the dominant sensation was that of being a sardine.  Us ‘seniors’ tried as best we could to coordinate via cell phone, and were left wondering how the modern generation can manage to talk clearly in raucous urban circumstances.

Here we offer two snaps of the famous balloons making their way south along 7th Avenue.  They move surprisingly fast, and it’s amazing to note how much preparation takes place, including rotating all the traffic signal arms out of the way, of which there must be thousands.  In both photos, the building in the background on the right, behind the ‘Muni-Meter’ sign, is Carnegie Hall.

You know the old joke:

Q: “how do you get to Carnegie Hall?'”

A: “Practice, practice, practice.”

 

We’re glad we made the effort, and we look forward to enjoying other delights of Manhattan on upcoming trips.  Being in the midst of residents of the area, to put it mildly, is ‘entertainment’ in its own right.

Further, we’re resolute in our belief that attending this parade is something best done no more than once, like attending the Rose Bowl.  Standing motionless for 3 or more hours, bracketed by high energy commuter trips, left us pretty well wrung out.  Enough so that we deferred the gala family turkey feast to the following day.  More on that in a subsequent post.

On Saturday of the weekend, we went off in search of an Italian Bakery/Deli we had been given a lead on by a friend here in Brunswick who grew up in North Jersey.  It’s called Lotito’s, in Ramsey, just a few miles from the New York State border.

It’s one of those places that you walk into and feel transported – back to your growing up days, and into a world where ethnic ambience and specialties overwhelm you.  It’s hard to describe; you really need to experience and wallow in it.  Think The Sopranos, combined with Wild Oats, combined with Micucci’s, and that only hints at the pleasure of such places. 

Oh how we wish that Maine, and Brunswick in particular, could host and make such places a facet of our ordinary daily lives.  Sadly, we don’t have whatever it takes to make it so.  We could muse at length at what ‘it takes,’ without ever making sense, so we won’t bother.

Instead, we’ll just make sure we enjoy such places every time we’re down in the land of our youth, to which we feel an increasing connection as the months and years go by.  Perhaps you feel the same about where you grew up.

We hope so; feeling this connection has been a great pleasure for us.

Here our some views of what we enjoyed:

We’re tempted to say “eat your heart out,” but we’re worried our Doctors would not take such words in the sense they are intended.

So be it, dear readers.

Technorati Tags: gusto,ethnicity,culture watch

Amtrak Foot Warmer?

You may have noted when driving by Maine Street Station in recent weeks that concrete work for the boarding platform is under way.  Here are a couple of views we took on a recent journey past the area.

There are two widely separated ramps already poured, setting the stage for a rather long spanning platform to accommodate the 100 or so passengers projected to arrive every day by the consultants we use to justify otherwise unjustifiable spending, or more appropriately, speculation with other people’s money. 

Whether it’s five trains a day with 20 passengers each, or two trains a day with 50 passengers each, who knows?  And whose counting anyway when the funding is ‘free?’

We heard recently that the ramp will be 400 feet long (think a football field plus end zones.)  That’s why it’s virtually impossible to capture the grandeur of the entire structure in a single view.  Imagine a world class Olympic sprinter needing something like 10 seconds to dash from one end to the other.

And wonder of wonders, we understand that a portion of it will be heated, no doubt to melt snow and prevent ice build-up.

So if you should find yourself in town this winter, and need to get your tootsies nice and toasty, you’ll be able to head on over to the station platform and get them as warm as roasted chestnuts.

For those of you who support the Amtrak ‘experiment’ because it will save the earth by reducing the number of cars on the road, please make sure you revise your calculations to include the energy costs of heating the platform.  It might help remind you of why you don’t have a heated driveway to deal with snow and ice.

Here at Side, we’ve had ‘cold feet’ about the whole train thing since it began, convinced it will be a forever subsidized sop to the local constituency, suitable for self-serving publicity events, photos, and grandiose campaign statements, but not much else. 

And if you think about it, another income redistribution scheme.  Which to many, makes it a wonder of wonders.  You know; social and economic justice and all that.

Go figure.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,Amtrak,trains

MSHA: assorted foot (-in mouth?) notes

We just can’t stop our trailing thoughts on this subject, so while they are ‘top of mind,’ we’ll expunge them from our troubled braincase by passing them along.  Let’s set the stage for today’s commentary with this gem;

It's often the case that when a critic uses an embarrassingly accurate term to describe what a wrong-doer is doing, the wrong-doer protests: "Why don't you use my white-washed, conscience-soothing euphemism?" Such euphemisms, they claim, help promote "civilized debate."

- Steve Kangas

Let’s be honest with each other; the activity we’re discussing isn’t ‘affordable housing’ any more than a ‘free lunch’ is free.  In plain and simple English, which is rare these days, we’re talking about government subsidized housing.  No more, no less. 

Calling it affordable housing is a ‘white washed, conscience-soothing, euphemism,’ and carries the added benefit of making lots of bureaucrats and social justice advocates feel good about themselves, if not morally superior to the realists among us.

In objective economic terms, many of the projects that fall under this heading are actually unaffordable in real market terms.  If you’ve ever owned free market rental property, like we have, you know that the operative equation is whether the property can ‘carry itself’ at the very least, and hopefully provide a real return on investment.

In our simple way of thinking, there are three parties involved in this ‘affordable housing’ game (we had to bite our tongue more than once to avoid using the word ‘racket.’)  One party is the government, acting as proxy for taxpayers. This party doesn’t particularly care about rational concepts of ‘affordability,’ or return on investment, since it can compel whatever revenue it needs to make the deal work by force of law from we taxpayers.

The second party is a contractor/developer/property manager who decides to enter the ‘affordable housing’ sector as a business opportunity.  Think Rosa Scarcelli and Stanford Management, for example, who we referenced in recent posts.  As a side-note, they/she ‘have’ three properties right here in Brunswick.

Those who operate such properties are freed from the economic realities of open market, competitively priced rental properties in the region of interest.  They know they have a captive, targeted, government subsidized rental client base. If they are developers as well, construction costs are similarly distorted by government involvement and override of market reality, plus various and assorted tax credits, etc.

The third party is the client or tenant, to whom the housing is affordable in relative terms, but only because other persons (taxpayers) subsidize it, no matter how unaffordable it may be in real economic terms.

So why don’t we just call it government subsidized housing?  See the quote we opened with above.  Some will call us insensitive or impolite for suggesting such a thing.  Poppycock; PC terminology like ‘affordable housing’ is insensitive, impolite, and far worse. It disguises the insidious and widespread use of government power to insinuate itself into every aspect of our daily lives, and every square mile of our local landscape.  Signs in front of such housing seem benign and vaguely uplifting, instead of reminding us that the heavy hand of government is involved.

Not only that, but it sets the stage for capitol cronyism by which those with the ‘right’ connections can become wealthy without suffering the uncertainties of free markets; perhaps even wealthy enough to finance their own campaigns for high political office.

Wow; we’ve exceeded the expectations we had for ourselves as we began this post, so we need to head for the exit.  As we do, we’ll leave you with media coverage of yesterday’s meeting:

Then you can go to this item, which has a link to an audio only report on the meeting.

In one final thought, we can’t help but marvel at the irony that Dale McCormick, MSHA Director since 2005, was formerly Maine State Treasurer for 8 years or so.  This is the very same position now held by Bruce Poliquin, who is leading the way in demanding accountability from quasi-governmental ‘authorities’ who manage huge sums of taxpayer funds with virtually no oversight.

If you think the election a year ago didn’t make any difference, you haven’t been paying attention.  And it’s time you do, because ‘sunlight,’ even in the dead of winter, is illuminating all sorts of interesting things.  Many of which haven’t had to wear sunscreen for decades.

Maybe you should make sure you have a good pair of sunglasses handy, so that when unexpected glare occurs, your ‘eyes’ are protected.

Technorati Tags: MSHA,affordable housing,capitol cronyism

MSHA, affordable housing, and McKeen Street

We attended the MSHA board meeting today (Tuesday, November 15), and will do our best, which usually isn’t good enough, to keep this report short.

Before we begin the report, however, an item we forgot to include in the ‘lagging thoughts’ post.  (See why ‘our best’ isn’t usually good enough?)

Leave it to the government to conclude that $300,000 apartments are ‘affordable,’ when the median housing price in Maine is well below $200,000.  Ponder these figures in the context of this recent report, which addresses former Navy housing in Brunswick:

Schott said prices for homes in the McKeen Street tract would likely range from $110,000 to $145,000, where most units have three bedrooms.  (emphasis ours)
“It is definitely affordable housing in that range,” Schott said. “There’s not much in that price range in town.”

It occurred to us in this context that most of us wouldn’t think of Cadillacs, BMWs, and Volvos as ‘affordable transportation.’  Or Mercedes Benz, for that matter.

But if government buys these vehicles, and then turns them over to you and I for say, 25% of the purchase price, guess what – they suddenly seem very affordable, don’t they? 

Which brings us to the central question here: when a bureaucrat uses the word ‘affordable,’ what do they mean? 

Do they mean ‘affordable’ to the provider, in this case the government, which really means we taxpayers, compared to prices in the open marketplace, or do they mean ‘affordable’ to the recipient, after government subsidies are applied?  Based on our experience to date, including the meeting today, we are convinced the former is irrelevant in deference to the latter.

So let us summarize our experience today.  The ‘open to the public’ meeting was to begin at 9:00 AM.  Concerned about the parking situation, we arrived at 8:20, and secured our spot.  After 10 minutes or so inspecting the interior of our truckster, we decided to enter the MSHA building, thinking we might get to find a seat in the meeting room and have a cup of coffee.

Dream on, reader.  Upon entering the building, we were asked to sign in, and were given a badge, and then told to wait in the lobby area with other arriving members of the public.  This did not create a positive first impression.  At least we weren’t given full Hazmat suits to put on.

40 minutes later, at 9:10, we were escorted to the elevator and up to the meeting, which was already underway, it appeared.  It was standing room only, with perhaps 30 or so general public showing up.

We could be wrong, but our sense is that this is a modern day record for such meetings.

So – what happened?  In our view, MSHA staff got a real surprise from the Commissioners in attendance, and also heard from several members of the public, your correspondent included, about project cost profiles that are way out of whack with broader real estate market figures.

Our overall impression is this.  As we’ve told you before, we spent our career in the defense industry, and were frequently pummeled by government officials and the public alike over “$400 hammers” and “$600 toilet seats.”  Almost without exception, those costs, if even true, are entirely due to government regulations for these items.

Still, we were a business that competed with other businesses, and we had to make a profit to survive.  Over the years, we improved our quality and cost profiles to make ourselves more competitive, and to ensure our SURVIVAL.

Today’s meeting revealed an MSHA culture totally devoid of competitive challenges, profit/loss considerations, and survival instincts.  You couldn’t avoid the impression this is an organization that believes there is not a single threat to their existence, and even more so, with a public mandate to keep doing what they do exactly as they have been doing it.

In other words, we saw another concrete example of why state and federal governments are in a fiscal crisis beyond any in our history.

At least as we see it.  And we’re doing our best to watch.

Technorati Tags: Maine State Housing Authority,affordable housing

MSHA – Lagging thoughts, as usual….

Some tidbits, in no particular order:

We hear much about ‘crony capitalism’ these days; books on the subject have been written and published.  We think the label may be off the mark, so Side hereby coins the term “capitol cronyism” to describe the likes of Rosa Scarcelli’s ‘Stanford Management’ and too many similar enterprises to mention.  In these cases, ‘capitalism’ as commonly understood is not involved, but capitols, of both the state and federal type, clearly are.  Just to remind you of the scale of such ‘business:’

Rosa Scarcelli currently owns and manages over eighty affordable housing complexes in Connecticut, Maine and Pennsylvania and continues to grow Stanford Management’s affordable housing portfolio.  She has managed the development of over $500 million in real estate assets throughout the Eastern United States, and oversees a large staff in several regional offices.

We’re frightened, frankly, as we ponder just how many such ‘under the radar’ government based speculative enterprises exist, operating well outside the normal bounds of free market forces.

Now let’s talk about MSHA operation.  We’d sure like to have someone explain the business model from inception to destruction for MSHA projects.  Who is the funder?  What is the competition process?  Who owns and operates the result?  Who profits from the project (see Rosa Scarcelli and family)?  What form does the $13,000 plus per home for more than 84,000 Maine homes take?  is this a permanent arrangement, or does the benefit expire at some point?  What are the qualifications to receive the benefit? 

In other words, could we please see a flow chart of funds across all stages of MSHA activities?

Moving on, it turns out that the LIHEAP program is run by MSHA; that’s the “Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program,” and it’s always in the news this time of year.  Recently, AARP, that supposed non-partisan organization, is all in a dither over funds available under the program this year, and wants State Government to pony up added dollars to boost the kitty:

AARP urges state support for heat assistance

November 10, 2011 11:36 PM

To the Editor:

....AARP’s Public Policy Institute ... issued a report on winter heating costs...news is not good.

....For New England residents age 65 and older, the average....cost in 2010-11 was $3,058. Projections indicate ... for 2011-12, this will jump almost 10 percent.

.... huge cut to LIHEAP ...will...affect many Mainers... AARP’s sincere hope that Gov. Paul LePage will consider directing part of the state budget toward helping low-income Mainers as they struggle to stay warm.

John Hennessy
AARP Maine Director of Advocacy
Portland

Source

So let’s get this straight: by their own admission, MSHA dishes out more than $1 Billion annually in federal funds, but they don’t have enough for heating cost assistance? More than 84,000 homes getting an average of $13,000 each in ‘services,’ but there isn’t enough for heating costs?

Next subject: interestingly, one of the most prominent items on MSHA’s web site is their report on how the salaries of their more than 100 employees compare to salaries elsewhere:

Each year, the Maine Department of Labor independently compares salaries of many organizations to comparable positions in the total Maine market. Using the labor department’s 2010 data and comparing it to MaineHousing salaries, MaineHousing employees are paid on average 15% below the market.

At the end of the discussion is a link to a list of their salaries compared to ‘the Maine market.’  You can follow up and see what you think.

By the way, for those of you interested in just how much money has been spent by Maine Government in recent years, including federal funds, to address AARP concerns, take a look at this resource:

http://www.maine.gov/legis/ofpr/total_state_budget/history/

It’s awful hard to look at these totals and accept that any aspect of government services is suffering, since total state expenditures have grown and grown over the years, and most of all, the federal component. At a far faster rate than economic output has.

One wonders how many other MSHA type operations there are funneling billions to destinations unknown and lacking in full public disclosure. 

More than you know, more than we can guess, we are confident.   We better stop here, or the venting could get ugly.  Next thing you know, we’d be making up stories about federal subsidies being used to bring trains to Brunswick, whether that makes any sense or not.

Technorati Tags: AARP,affordable housing,MSHA

Urgent: Error in MSHA meeting location…

In this post the other day, there was a quotation saying the MSHA

Board Meeting, tomorrow, Tuesday, November 15th at 9am, would be held at 55 Water Street in Augusta. 

The correct location is 353 Water Street, Augusta, which is the MSHA building.

Sorry for the error; hope we see some of you there.

PS: If you go to google earth, or google maps, it shows 353 Water Street as several blocks below (south) of the State Capitol, yet the MSHA site, and the actual sat picture of the building, show that it is above (north) of the State Capitol.  So please be very careful how you find directions to the building.

Technorati Tags: affordable housing