The Bleeding Heart Capitalist

Brief Thoughts on a Sad Day

If these weren't the times they are, the weeks approaching my 5th wedding anniversary would be far more joyful. Today was eerily reminiscent of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks: sunny, warm, puffy cotton clouds, and just a hint of coming autumn. So sad that such beauty would summon a feeling of melancholy. I was lucky 5 years ago. There was no casualty in my immediate sphere of influence. Not so with my oldest brother, who reflects on his loss of a good rugby mate here.

Since the talk now is of the new building proposals, I'll repost my vote. I think it sends the appropriate message to those who wish us ill.

Productivity

Tomorrow we see the OB. We are expecting another baby. We are tired, overjoyed, and probably crazy. Yes, I know, we've been busy. I think this puts me over the $1 million threshold for "tuition money to earn" so I'll be back to regular blogging sometime around the development of the warp drive engine.

I am a 4th child myself, so this is pretty cool.

IV

Happy 4th birthday to Luke, our oldest. I remember how weak in the knees I felt moments before he was born. How time flies.

Bigots

Imagine that you are a single income household. After years of renting, you and your spouse decide to buy a home. You get pre approved for a mortgage, find a home, make an offer, negotiate a deal, pay for a home inspection, pay for an appraisal, and then you get a peculiar call from the lender. Your loan has been denied. The reason? If you die, your spouse, currently a student, won't be able to pay the mortgage. Could this happen? No, not a world where equal housing opportunity is the law of the land.

UNLESS...you are buying a co op. Co ops, you see, are the last bastion of Jim Crow in housing. How can this be? Because co op owners do not actually own the land or structure, but are instead shareholders in a private corporation, co op boards use their application process as a fig leaf to circumvent fair housing laws. Co op boards can determine what minimum down payment you'll need, whether you can rent or use the unit as a 2nd home, and even make you pay extra for things like the use of an air conditioner. Does requiring a minimum down payment of 20% exclude otherwise qualified members of minority groups? Is the Pope German? Many boards still require an interview, where they can literally manipulate the complexion of who gets to live in the building.

Back to my opening scenario. I have clients, let's call them Nick and Mortimer, who are going to their co op interview this week. A board member who has reviewed their application mentioned to Nick that Mortimer's financials were  on the light side and told him that he would be asked what would happen should he die, since Mort clearly was not qualified to fly on his own. Nick, a first time home buyer, wondered aloud why this would be an issue; he has a more than ample life insurance policy with Mort as the beneficiary, and Mort earns his Masters this August and will enter the work world this autumn. Well, he was told, they will probably ask that question on the 17th. When I first heard from Nick that he should expect this question, I asked aloud if Ward Cleaver would ever be denied housing because June was a housewife. I think we all know that the answer is "no."

I dislike legislating special rights for some, and I dislike it when people play the victim card. However, I really abhor a double standard where the bar is arbitrarily raised for someone who is a little different. And if you are going to hide behind the small print of the law to be a bigot, I might just publish your name and company right here. And I might not stop there.

Thursday's Child Has Far to Go

Ann wished me a happy birthday this morning, reminding me that I am now 365 days away from turning 40. This was the first time I have actually felt a twinge of disappointment at being reminded it was my birthday! As a guy once said, soon it will time to start counting backwards.

This picture is of Mom, Dad, Paul, Jim and myself in the summer of 1978. Oldest brother Tom must have been in Jamaica at that point. Jim was just back from the Peace Corps in Guatemala and Paul was going into his junior year at Cornell. This must have been that tripod camera my father had with the timer, where he'd set it and run like hell back to the sofa before the flash bulb went off.

Live Bubble Blogging

The talk on the street is sometimes more of an indication of how things are than the reporting, although I blogged a few days ago that this was irresponsible journalism. A number of blogs have sprung up that are dedicated to the bubble/correction theme in the housing market. This one addresses my own area. If you are wondering what this guy's take is on things, just check out the blogroll.

Northern Jersey Bubble

Housing Panic

Bubble Meter

The Housing Bubble Blog

House Bubble

Another [email protected]$#&d Borrower

These forums have dozens and sometimes hundreds of comments from people who say they are sitting out buying property until prices come down. If that is any indication of the caution I am experiencing firsthand from the buying public, I don't see house values increasing anytime soon.

As I said yesterday, there is a certain amount of vitriol toard real estate licensees, and occasionally with good reason, but by and large I see the the slowdown issue as more related to raw affordability and massive taxation. Rates are still low, but only in the context of history, not the past 5 years. It all adds up to sellers having to understand that the thing had to slow down at some point.

Killing the Messenger

The slowing down of the real estate market has gotten some people's dander up toward real estate agents. Here is a quote and my response from one of the discussion forums of the local rag.

I was wondering why we pay by commission. I mean is it more work to sell a more expensive house.When my house goes up in price why do you get a raise????

I think agents and brokers serve a purpose, but this commission thing kinda bothers me. Especially when the price they tell you they can sell it for[appraisal] is just the price someone has already paid in your neighborhood. Not too difficult. I think most people know what the number is before they call.

Being a RE agent is like a 40 hr course and real simple. I took it and passed with flying colors as did most people who took the course with me.

My response:
I agree and disagree.

I agree that it is far, far too easy to get licensed. We have experienced 5+ years of amateurs entering and often botching up deals in the hot market. Problem is, efforts to make it harder or more expensive have been considered discriminatory. Catch-22.

I edited your quote and know that you aren't objecting that brokers get paid, but more about the ostensibly large numbers by percentage. Here is the deal I make with sellers if they want to pay me a modest fee for my guidance and expertise instead of a % commission: I'll do that in a heartbeat. Just don't ask me to advertise the house, because $400 NY Times ads are not in the budget. And those glossy 3 page color brochures you want in ample supply? No can do. Besides, the house down the road just sold and everyone must therefore know all about your house by osmosis, especially after the guy that sold it lied about his price at a cocktail party. You want me to recommend someone to help you remove 20 years of cat piss from your carpets? Here's a phone book. What's that? The variance hearing for your illegal shed is next Thursday? Good luck! You want to know why I didn't get you an update at 8:30 am Friday after we spoke for 45 minutes 9:30pm Thursday? Here's the update: Everyone went to bed and woke up.

I could go on, but if you just bought or sold, look at your HUD-1 and look who got paid what just because they showed up besides the broker who held your hand through every piece of arcane minutiae for 6 months. I'd be more concerned with the attorney/government money grab, with Albany skimming 1% off the top for the NYS transfer tax, the attorney who collected 1000-1500 for taking a week to return your phone calls, the title insurance company charging you multiple thousands for a service that actuarial charts mandate a few hundred (just what are the odds that the Algonquins will come back to claim your 70 year old subdivision land?), and the town and county making you pay 3, 5, or 10k in taxes in advance. The lawyer/government/banker cabal often equals or exceeds commissions. Some states don't even use attorneys for real estate, but every state uses agents. Go figure.

I don't sympathize with people who tell me "but my agent stunk. They didn't do anything for their paycheck." Those people often should have known better than to entrust a $600,000 transaction to their cousin Mel or sister in law who just got licensed and learned the ropes on their backs. People who do their homework and get a good agent never complain about commissions.

I could go on, but I am off to work.

The Annual School Tax Extortion

I have blogged previously on the once a year money grab that is our local school  budget. My community passes the budget very year with no exception due perhaps to the high rental population who buy into all the doom and gloom threats if they don't give the board what they want. Mahopac, a community in nearby Putnam County, is not so knee jerk and this year's budget failed. So, Mahopac's school board has made good on their threat to make the children pay for it.

MAHOPAC — The Mahopac Board of Education last night stuck to its guns and adopted a $95.8 million contingency budget that does not fund sports or extracurricular clubs.

The board also eliminated 13.5 positions from its initial $98.6 million proposal to keep the spending increase under 4 percent, as mandated by state education law.

An estimated 500 people crowded the auditorium of Lakeview Elementary School to learn of the final plan and to hear what a community coalition formed after the budget defeat would do next.

One parent, 47-year-old Monica Wyka, said it was a sad day for the children.

"The taxes here are huge," said Wyka, a sales representative and caterer. "But you know what? If you want a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence for your child, then you have to pay."

The eliminated positions include 3.8 administrators, 4.4 high school teachers, one elementary school teacher, 2.3 special-education positions, a library aide and a secretary.

My heart goes out to that .8 of an administrator. I mean, to not only lose your job but also .2 of yourself must really stink. The purge continues:

Instead of cutting an academic team at the middle school — which had initially been proposed — school officials trimmed spending on repairs, supplies, equipment and other noninstructional expenditures.

Savings also resulted from eliminating adult education, cutting back on books and supplies for the library and reducing the amount for computer hardware.

Also, the district will not send students to the Walkabout alternative education program.

"The first priority is to maintain the integrity of our instructional program," Superintendent Robert Reidy said before presenting his plan. "Sports and clubs are absolutely critical for youth development. But they're not the core of the mission that we have."

A community coalition has been working on a strategy to keep clubs and sports in the schools — for a price. The coalition must raise a little more than $1 million to maintain all extracurricular activities.

At a meeting Wednesday, coalition leaders presented the school board with a preliminary plan that would call for charging varsity athletes $432 per sport, while junior varsity, freshman and middle-school athletes would pay $144.

Members of high school clubs — such as the yearbook, newspaper, drama and debate — would pay $169 to participate in each club.

Even parents of younger children may have to pay a surcharge of $25 to participate in the Mahopac Sports Association, according to the proposal.

The message is that NOTHING that can be trimmed from the budget that is waste or extravagance except some positions and extracurriculars. The school board members are the experts, right? These people examine multi-million dollar budgets for a living, right? Hardly. These are part timers with time to kill who won a popularity contest and have no other budgetary tool to ply except extortion. Their favorite excuse is the skyrocketing costs of teacher healthcare and pension benefits. I agree. Anyone who works as a teacher for 20 years must be set for life thereafter, and we must all pay for it.

My hat is off to the taxpayers of Mahopac who said no to the money grab and whose children have to pay for the board's ensuing temper tantrum. May they elect better board members next year. 

"Dead"

A 6/22 article in the local rag opens with this:

It's over.

The crazed phase of frenetic home buying in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties has screeched to a halt — leaving some industry experts wondering if the sound they hear now is the housing bubble bursting.

"The market isn't soft. It isn't even slow. It's dead," said Liz Rosenblatt, an agent with Fuerst & Fuerst Inc., a real estate firm in New Hempstead.

I don't mean to pick on Ms. Rosenblatt, but MLS stats have her involved in fewer than a dozen title transfers since 2002. That's 10 sales in 5 years. Couldn't the paper have chosen someone with a tad more experience than two sales a year to quote?

True, title transfers are down 19% from 2005, but according the to Westchester County Board of REALTORS, 2005 was also a record-breaking year. One piece of chatter among full-time real estate licensees is that the slowdown will weed out the overpopulation of part time agents who have come along for the ride since 2001. In a hot market, even agents with poor skills can pick fruit from the many low hanging branches. In a tougher market, the bigger fish rule the pond. Thinning the agent herd will be a good thing.

In fairness to the Journal News, the reporter for this article chose an excellent broker to quote.

More Blue Village Blues

I have blogged previously on the blunders of the mayor of my fine municipality. Now, he has announced his resignation.

At tonight's board meeting, Ossining Mayor Eugene Napolitano announced that he will be stepping down as Ossining's Mayor, a year and a half after taking the post.

Napolitano was elected Mayor in 2004 after years of serving on the board as a trustee.  His term was supposed to end at the end of this year.

The Mayor cited "Personal reasons" for his decision to a shocked audience.  Later, he said, "It was a whole bunch of things.  At some point I had to get back to my life and my family."

The Mayor said he came to the decision about a week ago.

Earlier this year, the Mayor was criticized for selling his home to a company that will be turning the house into a group home for mentally challenged adults.

The Mayor has since moved to a temporary residence at Eagle Bay in Ossining.  He said tonight that he will spend more time at a home he owns in South Carolina.

A few observations:

• "It was a whole bunch of things." How articulate.
• The "more time for the family" card is best pulled when one is resigning from at least a full time position. The Mayor of Ossining is a $12,000 per year part time position. How hard could it have been to stick it out until December? He had already been a trustee for 10 years, so it's not like this was a new development in his lifestyle.
• Part time status aside, a guy who is elected mayor has promises to keep, as well as policies and decisions to answer for. You can't offer a "no mas" without a plausible reason. We really have no idea what other shoe is about to drop, or if the mayor is pre-emptively exiting to avoid a brewing scandal. There were only 6 months left in the term. 'Fess up.
• How nice to hear that Napolitano has a 2nd home in South Carolina. Don't all Con-Ed workers?

The (part time) village board has embraced an unpopular condominium development to be built on the banks of the Hudson on land donated to "the People of the Village of Ossining." This will obscure the river view of some, but kill forever any better ideas that might have come up for the area. This is to say nothing of the fact that land donated to "the people of the village" isn't something the government ought to seize and sell to private developers. That such a decision rests on such a flighty group of five and not on a more reliable measure of the people's will is just one reason the mayor should be more accountable than a perfunctory throwing in of the towel. Something is rotten here.

Insightful Commentary on the "Da Vinci Code"

It is fiction. Get over it.

Good Things

I am really busy. We are talking 12-14 hours days and more, often driving 200+ miles in a day as I grow my business. I have little to complain about- I never expected that in the first year my company would keep me this busy. So, blogging has taken a backseat. I find it far more relaxing to read and comment than to produce something at the end of most days, so my postings will most likely be infrequent for the foreseeable future. So, if you see that I haven't added any commentary in a few days or a week, it is for a very good and happy reason.

Grandma's $1000 Porn Bill

After a long and protracted battle played out in the local media, a 62-year-old teacher & grandmother has finally gotten Cablevision, the local monopoly, to agree to stop pursuing her for an $1126 pay-per-view porn bill.

A retired teacher's $1,126 cable bill for porn and gangsta rap she said she never ordered will be dropped.

Cablevision will give Claudia Lee, 62, full credit and an apology for all of the pay-per-view programs billed to the Warburton Avenue resident.

"We are continuing our internal investigation into this matter, but there will be no charge back to Ms. Lee," Cablevision spokesman Bill Powers said yesterday.

Lee said she was unclear what the company means.

"He said reimbursement. He didn't say how much, he didn't say how soon," Lee said. "I don't trust them. They've got to show me some documentation, something in writing."

The Journal News' coverage last week of Lee's cable trouble prompted others to step forward with similar complaints.

This wasn't an easy battle. The charges came not long after Mrs. Lee switched to the company's service bundle, which included local phone service. When she had refused to pay the disputed bill, they threatened to cut off her phone service. She was forced to pay $779 to keep the phone on. If she hadn't gone to the media, the company would have extorted every cent of the bogus bill from her.

How is this for arrogance? The company hasn't even admitted to any mistake.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Cablevision said it was continuing its investigation, but it said that "As a courtesy to a long-standing customer, we have credited the account in full for all disputed pay-per-view orders and apologized to Ms. Lee for her negative customer experience."

This story does not surprise me about Cablevision. From their customer service on, they are a miserable, arrogant company whose directors, the Scrooges Dolans, are about as popular as root canal. The company owns a number of New York institutions, such as Madison Square garden, the Knicks basketball team, and Radio City Music Hall. This past Christmas, when the musicians at Radio City threatened to strike, the Rockettes danced to recorded music. In 2002, when their dispute with the Yankees deprived customers of Yankee broadcasts that season, we switched to satellite and never looked back.

Father Stinner

I attended John F Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers, NY. I am a 1985 graduate. While there, I was, like many of my classmates, encouraged to receive the Sacraments. Mass was held daily; attendance was optional due to the long commute for most of the students in the 20-odd school districts the school served. Confession was available, and I went occasionally. I still do. One of the priests, Rev Francis Stinner, was a peculiar man. I went to confession once with him, and afterward he told me that he admired my scrappiness for the wrestling team and he encouraged me to try out for JV soccer, which he coached. So, sophomore year, I attended the first JV soccer practice. Father Stinner WATCHED us shower afterward, talking us through the damn thing in a Vince Lombardi tone.

Thus endeth my soccer career for the JFK Gaels. I stuck with wrestling and remained on the varsity for all 4 years. The coach my last three years was a guy named Bill Carney, one of the janitors working his way through college, and I and my teammates respect Bill to this day. He was a tremendous guy, and he wrote a letter of recommendation for me to Villanova that went above and beyond. He did nothing halfway.

Back to Stinner: He was defrocked for abuse recently. As this post in the local paper's discussion forum indicates, he has never served a day in jail. Nothing in the post, a blistering condemnation, surprises me. The man made me uncomfortable but it would have been too easy to label him as an abuser-I just thought he was weird. If you asked my classmates who would be voted "Most Likely to be a Pederast," it would be Father Stinner. They would have been right all along. I wonder, of all the guys who were MIA from the last reunion (and of those who attended), who was a victim of monsters like Stinner. He remains in Westchester County, living with his mother.

It is more than a little disconcerting, especially knowing how vulnerable I and the other guys were at ages 14-17, to know that leaders of the Church shielded this man from the law and put kids in harm's way.  We were in the presence & care of a spiritual Jack the Ripper, and he was running the religion department.

Hitting the Fan

The sales statistics for homes sold in my area for the first quarter of 2006 are out, and sales are down from the first quarter of 2005 by 14%. This, coupled with higher interest rates means that the pool of buyers is shrinking, which suppresses appreciation. Add to this the growing inventory from the lower sales rate, and, all together now, the boom is over. Oh, one more thing: in the next 18 months, millions of variable rate mortgages which started out as fixed for 2, 3 or 5 years will hit their adjustment period. This will flood the market with even more inventory as people try to jettison mortgages which they can no longer afford. Foreclosures will spike, putting more properties up for sale, and the bank-owned REOs will elbow out a significant number of regular folks who wish to sell and who may find themselves unable to get the price they need.  Guess when this really hits the fan? 2008, which, by the way, is a presidential election year.

If you don't want Hillary to be president, you better pray hard that they catch bin Laden, because that's the only thing that will turn things around for this administration. 

Decadence

Prom season is upon us. I have blogged previously about the excess that has become the right of passage known as the Prom. It has become, even for this product of Westchester County, astonishingly decadent.

Joanne Goldstein estimates spending $1,500 on her oldest daughter's senior prom in 2004. She cringes at that figure, saying that in many parts of the Lower Hudson Valley the amount of money spent on the prom is out of control.

That is higher than the national average. This year prom-going couples will spend between $1,000 and $1,200, according to promspot.com, an offshoot of the wedding site theknot.com.

In terms of its importance and cost, the prom has taken on the air of a wedding rather than a simple teenage right of passage. Like a bride, many girls go for hair consultations to test their chosen style. Some dye their shoes to perfectly replicate the color of their dresses — something most bridesmaids only grudglingly agree to. (Goldstein's daughter did it to match her bright blue dress.)

"(The) prom was very important to my daughter but (spending that much money) would not have been my choice," says Goldstein, of Armonk. "I sincerely believe as parents that we go overboard. It's part of the culture of where we live. All of the girls feed off of each other."

As another blogger aptly put it, this must have been what Rome looked like towards the end. If these things are so valuable to these girls, I fear for my children.

One other pet peeve of mine: it is the prom, not simply prom. Ones says "I am looking forward to the prom, " not "I am looking forward to prom." Just my two cents.

$50

A driver in Colorado caused gridlock for the past 2 1/2 years by using a device only made for emergency vehicles that changes traffic lights green automatically.

The radar detector-sized gadget works by flashing an infra-red strobe light at traffic lights equipped with a special receiver.

The system, which is not in use in New York City, is designed to be used only by fire trucks and ambulances - not late-for-work motorists.

"I drive a lot, and getting through city traffic it definitely helped out there," said Niccum, adding that the device changed red lights to green in four or five seconds. "In hindsight, I'm kind of glad it got taken away."

He was nabbed after Longmont traffic engineers set up a video camera at the intersection after receiving complaints about gridlock. The camera recorded Niccum's white Ford pickup going through the intersection whenever the light inexplicably changed.

"People think it's comical, but the amount of people caught waiting during red lights created a long backup," traffic engineer Joe Olson told the Rocky Mountain News. "He was getting to work at the expense of thousands of others."

He was fined $50. For 2 1/2 years of inhibiting the commerce and productivity of others, to say nothing of the additional stress.  Gridlock has a domino effect that can cause people to go from being 5 minutes early to 5 minutes late, or worse. People could have lost jobs because of this troglodyte. He should have been guillotined.

Maybe This Will Shut the Holocaust Deniers Up

Hard to believe humans did this to humans.

Germany agreed today to allow access to a vast trove of information on what happened to more than 17 million people who were executed, forced to labor for the Nazi war machine or otherwise brutalized during the Holocaust.

The German government announced at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here that it is dropping its decades-long resistance to opening the archives in the town of Bad Arolsen. The files stretch for more than 15 miles, hold up to 50 million documents and make up one of the largest Holocaust archives in the world.

I had no idea that there were still sealed records- shows what I know. Germany, to their credit, has done a far better job of showing contrition for their war atrocities than Japan has. While this move is long overdue, better late than never. 

Square Footage

Fannie Mae guidelines define the square footage of any home as that area which is "above grade," as in  above ground level. This means that if you have a 1500 square foot ranch with a finished basement, then your square footage is ...1500 square feet. If you refer to your home as a 3000 square foot home because you put up knotty pine panelling and carpets downstairs, you are lying about your square footage. Why? Because, that's why. Basement square footage is not considered living space, especially when there is no separate egress for fires. For the record, this is a 3000 square foot house:

 

As you can see, it has a full 1500 square foot walkout basement that spans the entire footprint of the house, making the usable square footage closer to 4500 square feet. But the owners are too smart to claim it has 4500 square feet, because then people would unfavorably compare it with this one:

This is over 5000 square feet, not including the basement, which, when I first saw it, gave me vertigo.

This house below is a 1500 square foot ranch with a finished basement whose owners think they are clever, but only succeed in antagonizing people who seek 3000 legitimate square feet:

Most people can tell the difference. Moral of the story: don't lie about your property, because when people (especially the ones who can afford 3000 square feet) actually see it, they'll know. And they'll probably be annoyed.

Pet Names for Blogger Spouses

Why do web log authors feel compelled to refer to their spouse by some cutesy derivative of the blog name? Does anyone really think that Glenn Reynolds actually calls Mrs. Reynolds "Instawife" to her face? Why did he start that trend? From here on in, I promise to refer to Ann as "Ann." I toyed with referring to her as the Red Shmoogly Boogly Cupcake, but I think "Ann" will do. Call me boring. Or Phil.

Happy Easter

I suppose I should announce when I'm not going to post for a while, but that strikes me planning spontaneity. Regardless, I appreciate the thousands of emails sent this past week asking if I was OK.

OK, so nobody emailed me! Andrew Clem did email the last time I was en absentia.

I hope you had/have a Happy Whateveryoucelebratethisweekend, and promise that the next time I get caught up in business that I'll at least acknowledge it. For the record, our taxes aren't done yet.

Incidentally, if you've been vaguely aware of this Gospel of Judas business and didn't see the recent National Geographic special, Andrew Clem has a good, concise post on it which more or less echoes my thoughts on the subject.

Dead Babies

It takes almost a year to adopt a baby. We attended some informational meetings on adopting a baby from China, supposedly an easier route than most, and it was packed. There aren't more unwanted babies out there than adoptive parents that want them, not by a long shot. Yet the news lately is filled with tragic stories of abandoned babies, some of whom do not survive. This one from this a nearby town especially disturbed me.

MOUNT KISCO — It could take several days or a week to get the autopsy report of a newborn girl found in the debris cleaned from a village storm drain, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office says.

"It is presumed that the baby was extracted from one of the catch basins that were cleaned by the Highway Department," Louis Terlizzi, Mount Kisco's acting police chief, said yesterday. "That is what it appears to be right now, but we're still investigating."

The baby was found about 2 p.m. Wednesday near a pile of sediment that had been sucked up by one of the village's vacuum trucks.

A Highway Department worker had cleaned out catch basins with the truck a couple times on Wednesday and returned to the department yard off Columbus Avenue to dump the sediment, Terlizzi said.

The employee saw the body when he returned to the yard a third time to clean out the truck, the chief said.

"He initially thought it was a doll," Terlizzi said. "Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a baby."

Investigators hope the autopsy will determine when the baby died — and whether it was stillborn.

"The best-case scenario would be if it was a stillborn baby but, any way you look at this, there's just no happy ending here," Terlizzi said. The highway worker was "visibly shaken" by the discovery, the chief said.

_______________________________________________________

The baby girl's discovery comes less than three weeks after a newborn boy was found alive in a plastic bag left in front of a Yorktown home. The baby was in a basket and covered with a blanket inside the bag, which had holes cut in it. He was treated at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt and released to child welfare officials.

His mother, Krishnia Schiaffino, 30, of 470 E. Main St., Jefferson Valley, was charged with felony child abandonment.

Schiaffino is not some destitute, at risk individual living on the fringe of society. She's married and the mother of an 8-year old. Her husband was possibly unaware of the pregnancy. But it isn't just that.

NEW YORK -- A woman whose premature daughter died minutes after birth, and whose tiny corpse was later found mixed in with hospital laundry, has filed a negligence lawsuit against the hospital, her attorney said Thursday.

Verna Uptigrow, 35, of Queens Village, says she suffers from nightmares and depression following the death of her baby, named Isabella Rosa Pickney. The infant weighed less than a pound and only survived about 30 to 45 minutes after she was born on Feb. 19, said Uptigrow's attorney, Dan Flanzig.

"I did get to hold her, I got to feel her breath on my lips," Uptigrow said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit. "I told her I loved her, I told her happy birthday, and then they took her..."

Days after arriving home from South Nassau Communities Hospital, Uptigrow was told by her obstetrician that the infant's body somehow ended up mixed with the hospital's dirty linens.

Shouldn't someone have kept their eye on the ball so that a woman who just lost her newborn can give the child a decent funeral, or to at least dispose of the remains in a respectful way? I know what we went through when we suffered a miscarriage at 11 weeks. I cannot fathom the mother's grief. I'm sure that nobody meant for that babies body to go out with the dirty laundry, literally. But what does this say about our society?

Pro choice advocates probably view these abandonment stories as a reason why we should keep abortion legal, but believe me, in New York it is easier in some ways to get an abortion than it is to buy cigarettes or use a tanning booth.

This may be a very predictable thing to come from a pro life guy like myself, but is this not symptomatic of a society where forces have tried for decades to convince us that babies are not human until the cord is cut? If you have that mentality, what's five minutes, one way or the other, especially if you are desperate?

No, It Doesn't

Does Megan's Law apply to a 12 year old caught playing doctor with his 6 year old half brother?

The justices heard arguments Tuesday in the case of an 18-year-old identified only as T.T. He was 12 when he was caught giving himself and his 6-year-old half-brother an enema.

An appeals court ruled the boy's motivation was not sexual, and he did not need to register as a sex offender under Megan's law.

Warren County prosecutors argued the appeals panel wrongly focused on the boy's motivation instead of his aggravated sexual assault conviction.

How is that aggravated sexual assault? This is aggravated sexual assault. I am not so naive as to suggest that the 12 year old ought not be watched closely, but without some additional context, it appears insane to me to brand a child that age a sex offender.

Cynthia McKinney

I haven't read much about Congresswoman McKinney's incident with the Capitol police, but I certainly hope that opinion doesn't fall along party lines. Ms. McKinney was not wearing her credentials, which essentially are the free pass given to members of congress so that they can bypass regular security. The cop had a job to do, and anyone- anyone- who is stopped by a cop needs to stop, shut up, and listen before they do anything. That goes for a guy being pulled over on the highway right up to the halls of the Capitol. It is intellectually lazy to cite race in this case.

Gators Win

For the 2nd year in a row, my Alma mater was eliminated by the eventual champion of the NCAA Tournament. Congratulations to the University of Florida for their victory.

Jill Carroll Disavows Statements

Jill Carroll has issued a statement that retracts her words from the immediate aftermath of her release from terrorists in Iraq.

During my last night of captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video. They told me I would be released if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and I wanted to go home alive. So I agreed.

Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not. The people who kidnapped me and murdered Alan Enwiya are criminals, at best. They robbed Alan of his life and devastated his family. They put me, my family and my friends - all those around the world - who have prayed so fervently for my release - through a horrific experience. I was, and remain, deeply angry with the people who did this.

I also gave a TV interview to the Iraqi Islamic Party shortly after my release. The party had promised me the interview would never be broadcast or aired on television, and they broke their word. At any rate, fearing retribution from my captors, I did not speak freely. Out of fear I said I wasn't threatened. In fact, I was threatened many times.

Also, at least two false statements about me have been widely aired: One, that I refused to travel and cooperate with the U.S. military and two, that I refused to discuss my captivity with U.S. officials. Again, neither statement is true.

So, she wasn't brainwashed or a Stockholm syndrome case. I'm glad for her. I am, however, disturbed that so few in the media viewed her initial quotes as peculiar. These people do not have their eye on the ball.

Baseball to Investigate Steroid Use

Bud Selig, the milquetoast puppet of a commissioner who has run baseball worse than he ran the Milwaukee Brewers, has announced that baseball will investigate steroid use by players. But since the inept bastard didn't put his foot down until 2002, he concedes that it would be difficult to punish any player who used before that time. It didn't dawn on Bud, an owner himself before being installed as a puppet commissioner in 1992, that performance enhancing drugs were wreaking havoc on the integrity of hallowed records until Sammy Sosa hit 60 home runs with more regularity than Reggie Jackson hit 30.

In other developments, Selig was "disappointed" when informed that Cuba, the runner up in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, was a Communist country.

Is Jill Carroll Brainwashed?

It is probably unfair to judge a person from just one news story, but the quote attributed to Jill Carroll after her release by her abductors in Iraq has me scratching my head.

Jill Carroll, the American reporter who was kidnapped in Baghdad nearly three months ago, was released today.

Ms. Carroll, whose abduction generated international attention, said in an interview shown on Baghdad television that her captors "never hit me and never even threatened to hit me."

Asked what message she wanted to send to the United States, she said firmly, "I was treated very well, it's important for people to know that.

Wearing gray Arabic robes, tucking her hair up under a gray and green headdress, Ms. Carroll said that she was told this morning that she was going to be free "and that is what happened."

Why is that important? It obfuscates that others remain missing or worse, whose plight is not covered as closely by the media (if at all) because they aren't 28-year old female members of the press like Carroll is. The extremists either arbitrarily choose who to spare and who not to spare, or make their choices based on Islamo-fascist guidelines. The guy she was with when she was abducted, Allan Enwiyah, was shot dead on the spot. He was 32. If you want to know what is important, it is that if anyone is spared by terrorists, it is the result of whim or manipulation of the media, not mercy. This woman was almost certainly brainwashed. She needs to be debriefed and deprogrammed.

Indian Point

It is no secret that Indian Point, the nuclear power plant in Buchanan, NY is located in a bad place, namely a county of one million people and in the northern region of a 20+ million person metropolitan area. It is no secret that it is slowly leaking radioactive water into the environment. It is also no secret that many people want it closed. Since I have grown attached to being alive, I'd be just fine with the thing gone, all things being equal. However, I'm a little spoiled. You see, I like having electricity.

Among the most vocal critics of our poor exit strategy in Iraq are people who have no exit strategy for alternative energy sources to Indian Point, which makes it's closure, in my view, a pipe dream. I asked an advocate today what Plan B would be for energy, and he admitted that there really isn't a magic bullet, which I suppose is the polite way of shrugging his shoulders. I'm all for conservation, reducing waste, consumption, and streamlining distribution. However, those things don't produce a watt of juice to power my computers, copiers, fax, or phone. We could all have airtight houses with R-120 insulation ratings and furnaces that are so efficient that they recycle newspaper into Jello, but the fact remains that electrical use will always rise due to technology, not fall.

If you are uncomfortable with being within 50 miles of nuclear fission I can relate. It is one town away from me. But if you want to remove our power source and have no other feasible means of producing clean energy, I think you'll lose my support.

Not Bad, At Least For a Monday

TOP TEN THINGS TO SAY IF YOU ARE CAUGHT SLEEPING AT YOUR DESK 

10. "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."

9. "This is just a 15 minute power nap they raved about in the time management course you sent me to."

8. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the white out. You probably got here just in time."

7. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new business strategy."

6. "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."

5. "I was doing a highly specific yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory towards people who practice yoga?"

4. "Darn! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out how to handle that big accounting problem."

3. "Did you ever notice sound coming out of these keyboards when you put your ear down real close?"

2. "Who put decaf in the wrong pot?!?"

Number one best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk....raise your head slowly and say, "In Jesus name, amen."

The Greatness of Labradors

This is Bella, the younger of our two dogs. When I am a couch potato she likes to act like a hassock. At that end of the couch, our two year-old likes to play this game where she puts toys on the arm and then push them overboard. In this case, Bella was either too lazy or comfortable to let the little metal cars landing on her head bother her. So they piled up.

At 20% Down the Payment is $319,345.30

Maybe our friend in Greenwich who tried to build a 39,000 square foot ego trip home house could find what he wants without having to build. A Long Island estate is up for a cool $60 million.

The Tudor style main house is 22,000 square feet with eight bedrooms, elevator access to all four floors, and a grand entry hall with a massive wood carved staircase and soaring cathedral ceilings.

The property also includes a six-bedroom guest house and an 11-bedroom staff house for the butlers, maids and gardeners.

The yearly taxes are $195,000.

Only 22,000 square feet? What a dump. A $50 million offer was turned down already. Cheapskates. And it's a Tudor? I'd have to rehab it. It's difficult to ascertain who the owner is. Title is held in a corporate name tied to offshore investments. I couldn't find the property on the Multiple Listing Service, and the broker's site didn't have it up either, but I did find this one. And this one.

The More Things Change...

The guy on TV asked the panelists if they knew how to pronounce "nuclear." He said it bothered him that the President said "nukular." The show was from 1978. The President was Jimmy Carter.

Villanova in the Final Eight

My alma mater beat Boston College in an exciting overtime game tonight, 60-59 to advance to the NCAA hoops regional final. In typical fashion from Rollie Massimino's days on the bench, they were losing for the first 38.5 minutes, took a brief lead, and then had to go into OT when BC hit a three-pointer with a few seconds left in regulation. If I were Boston College, that would be a bitter pill to swallow. It's tough to have your season end to a team you manhandled most of the game. I cannot recall a time BC has ever beaten us in a big spot. Not long ago, BC and Villanova were both in the Big East, but BC defected to the Atlantic Coast Conference. It didn't help- they still can't win when it counts.

			1		2		OT		Total
	(4) Boston Coll.	28	23	8	59	Final
	(1) Villanova	24	27	9	60	OT

Steroids

The popular drive time radio sport stalk duo, Mike Francesa and Christopher Russo, were discussing the two New York Yankees who have used steroids. High-priced mercenaries both, Jason Giambi has admitted his use, while Gary Sheffield has denied or refused to comment on the allegations. Russo, a San Fransisco Giant fan with the intellectual heft of a cotton puff, remarked that Yankee fans could now no longer razz him about Barry Bonds' doping in view of this news.

Chris Russo is an idiot.

The use of illegal steroids is the biggest disgrace in the Game since the Black Sox scandal of 1919, except you hardly know it because the Commissioner, Bud Selig, is an inept eunuch. Any baseball player who used performance enhancing drugs should have their statistics expunged or demarcated, and the sport should restore the records of Hank Aaron (if Bonds surpasses him) and Roger Maris as being the true and authentic standards. Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmiero, Giambi, Sheffield and whoever else used should have their numbers disqualified and their eligibility for the Hall of Fame revoked. It transcends whose guy did what or what team they played for, and Russo should know it.