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I spent the weekend here at the 2005 CCNY Student Leadership Retreat.

Did I learn how to be a better leader, organize my schedule, or use time more wisely? Ha.

I did learn that signs in elevators that read “Not to exceed 6 people or 1600 pounds. No jumping.” are to be taken seriously, as to never experience the weightless feeling of the elevator dropping half a floor before the emergency brakes kick in because nine people decided to cram themselves into the small box hanging in the air by a thin steel thread. I didn’t really enjoy my visit to the 2nd-and-a-half floor, but the jump down to the 2nd floor from 6 feet up was kind of cool.

The USG (Undergraduate Student Government) held our first “real” full meeting (senators and execs) at the retreat. I am now (besides VP for Evening Affairs) an alternate delegate for the USS (University Student Senate - the student gov’t for all of CUNY - Claudio’s a delegate now too), Co-Chair of the Harlemween committee (we invite school kids into the NAC building, which we decorate like a haunted house, to go trick-or-treating), and am sitting on the sub-committe on the Bookstore (which is running a $10k deficit…) and the Faculty Senate. I will probably wind up chairing the committe on my spring event as it gets closer to the spring semester.

Unfortunately the weekend was completely *dry* but I will be sure to make up for that in the coming weekends. Thursday night with my coworkers was ridiculous; I hope we go out again before the summer’s up.

Another week at the internship starts in a few hours…

Pat

Also posted at Scott from Slantpoint’s amazing new NYC Republican-HQ, Urban Elephants.

From The Man:

Top 10 Uses For the UN Building

The Onion published the perfect solution for NYC’s UN problem. I have a few more suggestions for the site.

Top 10 Uses For the UN Building

10. Additional nesting space for Pale Male’s bitches
9. Yet another Starbucks in the area
8. NYC’s first Wal-mart Supercenter
7. Anything other than the UN
6. The new Iraqi embassy
5. World’s largest bodega
4. More overpriced apartment studios
3. Headquarters for the 2012, 2016 Olympic bid committee.
2. New York City’s GOP Headquarters (probably only needs a few hundred square feet)

and the #1 use for the UN building
1. An East Side Football Stadium

If you have anything you would like to see on the site, add it to the comments section.

How about a public shooting range?

Claudio

Yes, I am a day late. But that just means that my birthday wishes will be all the more meaningful, now that he has had hours to fully understand the impact that this momentous event will have on the rest of his life.

Yeah, I’m lame; I was busy yesterday.

Claudio

T-minus 2 hours until my 21st birthday begins!

I won’t be around for the next couple of days (for obvious reasons), but let’s just say I will be celebrating my birthday Wednesday night (my real birthday) with family, Thursday night with the guys from work, and all weekend too.

First 21, then next summer undergrad work is over and I graduate college. What ever happened to fourth grade, snack time, and recess? Where did high school disappear off to? Hell, what happened to freshman and sophomore years of college?

Happy 21st Birthday to me!

–Pat

…time for random Family Guy quotes! Family Guy is the only thing keeping this American sane in Budapest. That and lots of alcohol - rubbing alcohol for cleaning my foot wound that is!

Well, close enough:

I understand that my views on laws governing abortion set me in the minority in our Commonwealth. I am prolife. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view. But while the nation remains so divided over abortion, I believe that the states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate.

I don’t know what I think about Gov. Romney yet. If the only other Republican potential nominees are Sen. Allen, Sen. Frist, Sen. McCain, Giuliani, Pataki, and Rep. Tancredo, then I might have to give Gov. Romney a much closer look.

Claudio

WaPo editorialist William Raspberry writes about something novel to the Black community: the destruction of the Black family.

The absence of fathers means, as well, that girls lack both a pattern against which to measure the boys who pursue them and an example of sacrificial love between a man and a woman. As the ministers were at pains to say last week, it isn’t the incompetence of mothers that is at issue but the absence of half of the adult support needed for families to be most effective.

Interestingly, they blamed the black church for abetting the decline of the black family — by moderating virtually out of existence its once stern sanctions against extramarital sex and childbirth and by accepting the present trends as more or less inevitable.

They didn’t say — but might have — that black America’s almost reflexive search for outside explanations for our internal problems delayed the introspective examination that might have slowed the trend. What we have now is a changed culture — a culture whose worst aspects are reinforced by oversexualized popular entertainment and that places a reduced value on the things that produced nearly a century of socioeconomic improvement. For the first time since slavery, it is no longer possible to say with assurance that things are getting better.

I don’t want to come across too sarcastic; I do applaud these ministers and Mr. Raspberry for highlighting such an important and devestating phenomenon. However, I do believe that this more ubiquitous and dangerous trend (almost) is the trend to every-couple-of-months-or-so bring up the topic and talk about how much needs to be done within and from outside of the Black community and then forget about it for another couple of months (wasn’t Bill Cosby saying this stuff a couple of months ago? And what was the outcome of all the media hoopla? A condemnation of Cosby, and no progress for Black families).

Sorry, but I’ll be less negative when I start to see more and more Black communities take action against this phenomenon. This cannot be a top-down operation (and by that I mean government-led or so-called-Black-leader-led). No amount of government programs or inspirational MLK, Jr. quotes mouthed by Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton is going to keep my old friends in Charlotte from making babies, smoking weed, and dropping out of school (not always in that order). What will, however, make a difference is community and church outreach, and the example being set by young blacks such as Ambra Nykol, myself, and my boy Travis Mason: young Blacks that prove it pays to let God lead you, complete your studies, be real about your responsibilities and work hard to help others. My boys in NC joke that I left them to become a nerd and go to college in New York, but I know at least that I am setting an example for them. I can only hope and pray that more young Blacks will, in the cliche words of Spike Lee, “Do the right thing.”

Claudio

Always one to further American culture and policy (however I see fit: drinking, dancing, and dragging America’s way into the hearts and minds of common Hungarians), below is the box score and stats for my first and last league baseball game in Hungary.

I played right-field, struck out twice, but had no errors (which you will see is a bit of a small miracle). Obviously no Mike Cameron, but I was just happy to play. (BTW, my boy Jason Jenkins who played short and pitched is pretty good. He’ll be coming to a Boston college near you soon - like next fall).

Baseball in Hungary.

Claudio

Often besieged paleocontrarian John Derbyshire of NRO graces us with this argument regarding the London police shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes:

DARWIN AWARD [John Derbyshire]
Here come the whiners and “civil liberties” pests.

It turns out that the man so dramatically shot by British police on Friday was not a suicide bomber.

However, the following facts seem pretty well established:

—He emerged from a house that was under police surveillance for terrorist connections.

—He was wearing a bulky, heavy jacket on a hot summer’s day.

—When challenged by police, who ordered him to stop, he ran from them, and tried to get on a subway train.

I don’t know whether this guy deserved to be shot, but he surely deserved a Darwin Award for sheer life-threatening stupidity.

Note to self: While in London next month, if challenged by armed police, stop, raise hands above head, freeze in place, and call out in a loud clear voice: “It’s a fair cop, guv’nor.” Do not dive into the nearest subway train.
Posted at 10:49 AM

Claudio

This was what Democratic Mayor Mike Bloomberg had to say about petty petition challenges back in the day (2004):

It’s become a whole cottage industry of you don’t have to beat the other guy based on positions or your ability to serve; all you’ve got to do is beat him because you got a better lawyer who can get him thrown off the ballot. I think it’s time to end this ‘gotcha’ kind of technique where lawyers comb petitions to find some technical violation. [Emphasis mine.]

Right. Now fast-forward to 2005. Same Mayor Mike, but now with a real Republican potentially challenging him in a primary:

The Bloomberg campaign plans today to try to prevent a Republican primary for mayor by challenging the nominating petitions of Thomas V. Ognibene, the former city councilman who is seeking to run on the Republican line.

Bloomberg campaign aides said they had found problems with Mr. Ognibene’s petitions, including signatures of people ineligible to vote or not enrolled as Republicans, signatures that did not match those on voter registration cards, and incomplete forms. The flaws, they said, will most likely drop the number from the 8,116 signatures submitted to well below the 7,500 needed to qualify for the ballot.

By trying to halt a primary challenge by Mr. Ognibene, a conservative, the Bloomberg campaign is seeking to avoid not only a distracting primary battle, but also a confrontation with elements of the Republican Party who think Mr. Bloomberg is too liberal.

Hmmmm. Dare I say “flip-flop”? Ognibene’s response is priceless:

It seems that the only thing that Bloomberg isn’t willing to spend money on is a fair fight. Why participate in the democratic process when you can simply write a check, and buy it?

Indeed. Oh, and couple that with the fact that Democratic Mike is getting endorsements from NARAL and potentially not supporting President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge John G. Roberts (even Hilary is supporting the man for goodness’ sake!):

Mayor Mike will be endorsed by the New York chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League at a 12:30 press conference at Brooklyn’s Kings County hospital, sources say.

Key question: Will Bloomberg now take a harder stance against Bush administration Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in line with NARAL’s opposition to his nomination? (Yesterday, the mayor punted, saying he’d have to examine Roberts’ record more carefully).

Could I dislike this guy any more than I already do? Is it even possible? We’ll see in the days and weeks to come…but something tells me even now, that it is more than possible, it’s likely.

Claudio

PS - My brother Thomas will return to light-blogging here at The (vast) Right Wing Conspiracy soon. He has been interning at State Senator and Queens County Republican Chairman Serph Maltese’s office (the only county party head to endorse Ognibene) and has been able to meet with the Senator on an almost daily basis. We’ll ask him to share his thoughts and predictions regarding future clashes between Serph and Mike and the future of the Queens GOP.