Open Thread Wednesday 7/13/11

By on July 13, 2011 12:50 am in Brooklyn Heights

Flickr photo by Dr. Derek Mead


What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • GHB

    Fine, but who the hell are you to describe anyone as “unpleasant-looking”? Who the f*** are you, Paul Newman?

  • GHB

    Oops, sorry! Paul Newman was Jewish…

  • Topham Beauclerk

    @ghb

    Half-Jewish.

    You seem surprised by the “venom being spewed at the Jewish community.” Is the Jewish community or Hasids? People dislike Hasids – their manners, appearance, obscene fertility, business practices, especially their business practices – and when one of them is caught out doing something really abhorrent, people delight in casting the first stone – an ancient Israelite punishment, by the way.

  • Cranberry Beret

    I wasn’t aware there were any prominent members of the BHA

  • Topham Beauclerk

    @cranberry beret

    Now you are.

  • AEB

    One question, Topham,is why you feel the need to continually reiterate your dislike of Hasidim.

    You know, if someone else took the opportunity to “object to” Catholics or Muslims, or the Irish, or blacks or gays–any minority group–one might well feel that the problem was with the objector rather than objected to.

    What you’re doing is a form of acting-out; there’s an element of compulsion to it, thus the never-missed opportunity (as you see it) to revile.

    So one must ask: what need does this sort of hating fulfill for you? Why the stereotyping?

  • EHinBH

    I know they are healthy because they live in my building. Also, you a joke if you actually think we are not paying for AAR. Like road and other public goods, our transit network relies on subsidies, toll revenue, and portions of a variety of taxes to make up the difference. A small portion of the sales tax, petroleum business tax, certain NYC real estate transfer taxes, and a newly enacted payroll tax all go to the MTA. The state and City also provide direct aid but their collective contribution has remained stagnant for years. There have been many articles about how the AAR system is totally taken advantage of by many scammers that want something for nothing…

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    EHinBH Oh so you know all your neighbors medical history? I don’t believe you anyway since you first said “a perfeclty healty woman and a five year old came strolling along and got on”, that doesn’t sound like they came out of your building or you know them. Liar.

  • harumph

    Wow, hostility abounds today on the Open Thread – is it the heat?

  • malanga es malanga

    Yep, I know. And I had hoped that opening with an olive branch would inspire gentler talk this week.

  • T.K. Small

    I have found this discussion of Access-A-Ride interesting and I am pleased that that there are some people that can see the benefit of this program. As with any other service that government provides, there are always some people that will abuse the system whether it is paratransit, housing subsidies, right on up the ladder to improper tax deductions. Does that mean we should throw the whole system away? As for me personally, I only use Access-A-Ride when I absolutely need to and encourage my peers to do likewise, but there are people that legitimately need this accommodation.

    My girlfriend uses Access-A-Ride to get to work and was recently featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal. The article discusses how MTA cuts are affecting people with disabilities.

    http://tinyurl.com/MTA-Cuts-Article

  • Cathy

    I am still looking for BeeBop, 2yr old male tuxedo w/distinctive black dot on right side of face. Very pretty cat w/some bad behavioral issues. Huge Cash Reward, no questions asked…
    917-837-6899/718-624-3000. Columbia Place/Willow Place/State Street. THANK YOU! He was seen last week so somebody must know something.

  • EHinBH

    I usually dont go back and forth too much. One comment and a response is enough for me. But I am not a liar — and yes, I know the woman is healthy and know her history. She lives down the hall from me. Her husband is ill. She is not. She came down the street from the store with her grandchild and got on the bus. She and the kid use the bus all the time. Sometimes she comes back alone, sometimes with the kid. They game the system and we pay for it. Why would you ever pay for a car when you can take a free NYC taxi!?!

  • Willow St. neighbor

    EHinBH,
    Why don’t you “gently” ask your neighbor as to what qualifies her to use AAR. One of my neighbors uses AAR and I had no problem asking her about it. I look perfectly healthy too but have had health issues in the past that would have qualified me to use AAR but I never would have thought to ask about it having grown up in the suburbs where this type of service was not offered.

  • sunshinebk

    cathy- I will keep my eyes peeled. I have mentioned before, I am a cat owner and it breaks my heart to hear that your cat is missing. even if i found him I would not accept an award.. I would just be happy u had your cat back.

  • AmyinBH

    harumph, I have notice a lot of hostility all over the city, subways, buses, in the markets and even out in NJ since last Saturday. Perhaps it is the heat. Not everyone enjoys the hot weather. Maybe everyone should find a cool spot and have a glass of lemonaid or iced tea and “smooth their feathers”.

  • MM

    @Cathy, every time I hear that you have not found BeeBop it breaks my heart. I hope that he is found/returned to you quickly and that he is safe. I will keep an eye out for him.

  • TGB

    Remsen – Henry intersection

    Every day for the past week or so I have to listen to this cacophony of honking at the intersection of Henry and Remsen where I live. Either the traffic light has stopped working or they’re doing some work down the block betwween Henry and Joralemon. It’s driving me crazy. Am I alone? It’s all cabs who just reflexively hit the horn whenever they can’t get where they want to go. What can be done?

  • D Pearl

    Topham,

    The poor child who was murdered was a Hasid. The murderer was not — he was simply Jewish.
    So does this make it alright with you?

  • Knight

    I seriously doubt that Topham is a prominent member of the BHA. In fact, he probably hates the BHA — which is why he wants people to associate it with his anti-semitism. Nice try.

  • nabeguy

    Actually, if you look at the list of other prominent members, I would venture a guess and say he’s head of membership recruitment.

  • Alana

    I absolutely regret posting about the tragedy. Didn’t think it would reopen Racism on the blogs of Brooklyn Heights

  • Knight

    I wouldn’t think twice about it, Alana. On any blog — not just this one — where folks don’t have to use their real name, the simplest remark about the weather can trigger responses ripe with racism, parochialism, class attitudes, religious intolerance … you name it. I just hope that when they vent it here, it keeps them from showing it in other, more hurtful ways.

  • Capulet

    In other news I’m happy to report I have not stepped on dog poop this week so far in our adorable nabe. I’ve found other excuses, however, to be miserable and grumpy every day anyway…

  • GHB

    Agreed Knight. I wanna know who my neighbors are; the good, the bad and the ugly!

  • Cathy

    Thank you MM! I will never give up looking for BeeBop. My heart is broken too! He must miss me and his two older brothers, I got him at 4 weeks after he was rescued from a tree. He was not socially adept…I can only hope that somebody has him and hasn’t seen the neighborhood signs, blogs and craigslist.

    Please keep looking.

  • Paul

    This is off topic but is anybody else in this neighborhood extremely annoyed with the motorcycles that rip down Henry Street every night?! They are insanely loud and obnoxious. This is Brooklyn, not Alabama. BAN MOTORCYCLES!

  • Jeffrey J Smith

    I just got back from Washington and found the comments of Malanga.

    Yes, that is one of my main objectives. To provide a basis for people to really think about the state of the world around us and of even more importance, where we are headed. Often I cannot do this with droll complex observation but need to cast a clear light on areas many of us want kept in the background simply because it makes us “somewhat” uncomfortable.

    The debate on what happened in Boro Park misses a number of points. First, beyond crazed individual killers there have been major cults all through history who believe in ritual murder. In many cases, Children were target due to many cults considering children having the greatest “life force” Occult literature is full of these teachings. The Bohemian grove meeting is next week and I just interviewed a man who states he kidnapped children for use at the Bohemian rites. There have LONG been such charges about Bohemian grove.

    There is a thread which runs ALL THROUGH many. Many of these occult groups that if they harvest the mental energy or body energy of someone under stress they can use it to elevate their spiritual state AND if they can only collect enough of this energy they would be able to transcend this physical plane and become god like. Many groups I have studied many of whom contain many world leaders believe this. It’s all through their esoteric teachings which ONLY go to the initiates. Many cults and unbalanced types I have interviewed over the years however openly state that some of the “best” highest levels of mental or physical field energy is produced by persons who are experiencing severe horror or who are dying. These cults are very widespread. Talk to some retired FBI men, many highly decorated, and You can get an idea how severe the danger to children really is and how urgent the need is to pay attention to the existence and beliefs of many of these occult organizations.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    @AEB

    Your puerile psychologizing is beneath my notice. Attend to my arguments, not to my motivations for making them.

    One can’t help being Irish or gay or black. Hasidism, on the other hand, is an intellectual construct, an ideology, and as such is not biologically determined. Ideologies are fair game for criticism. Individual Hasids may be lovely people but the ideology they follow is appalling.

    All fair-minded people must tolerate the Hasids but toleration is not approval.

  • GHB

    So, you can say that about any religious group, not just the Hasidim. But you choose to single them out because you find them distasteful. That just makes you a bigot.

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