Snowdumb

New York City’s most recent blizzard may be the sixth biggest snowfall the city has ever received, but its likely the worst response on record to a blizzard by people paid to clean it up and keep things running.

More than 48 hours after snow stopped falling, many streets have not been plowed or have not been plowed sufficiently. Mounds of snow normally removed by now still remain. Sidewalks in busy areas of Manhattan (which always gets better service than the outer boroughs) are still wastelands of snow.

The city sanitation department said that they are short staffed, but another city official said that New York has the same number of workers assigned to snow removal as per usual. This could be a work slowdown ploy by sanitation workers and their union to pressure the city to restore budget cuts. Budget cuts and the intensity of the storm certainly play a role in the city’s feeble response, but after two days the city should be in much better shape than this.

Numerous city busses became stuck on unplowed roads—and we’re not talking about obscure roads or small alleys, busses were stranded on First Avenue.

Some subways became prisons. One A train was stuck in Queens for about 10 hours (I’ve been arrested twice and my total time in a holding cell for both arrests didn’t total 10 hours). Other rail lines had horror stories as well. When I arrived at the 207^th St. A train station Monday morning, the stairs had not been shoveled. The Internet was alight camera phone-photos taken by incredulous commuters of snow inside train stations.

When I arrived home from work earlier tonight, cars trying to drive down my street were blocked by Parks Department vehicles. Parks Department employees milled aimlessly with shovels, ignoring the cars honking their horns trying to get down the street.

We are still cooling off under mountains of snow. When the city government collectively shits the bed at a time of disaster, heads must roll.

More Christmas, Less Christianity

It’s the holidays and ’tis the season to celebrate our lives and spread joy to those in it.

While my respect for humanity has not diminished, I have come to appreciate other human beings less. This is especially true when people are in thrall to both senseless spending and senseless charity.

Let’s embrace the celebratory feast of the harvest season and marvel at surviving another year. If you have food in your stomach and a roof over your head on Christmas, you’re doing better than a lot of people. Be happy about that. Buy generous presents for those that you love, but don’t be gaudy about it.

We can do without the mind-numbing consumer nihilism or the hackneyed love fest foisted upon us by delusional Christianity. Both are sad sides to the same coin. Mindless altruism is no less a detriment of character than mindless consumerism.

Grab Christmas by the throat. Open that egg nog, breath deep the evergreen, and station yourself strategically under some mistletoe. Let’s resolve to mulch our enemies along with our Christmas trees.

Here’s to more Christmas and less Christianity. Merry Christmas.

Taking a Leak on Secrecy

Critics of WikiLeaks act as if the Web site is out to flush democracy—and with all the “leaks” and document “dumps” I am overwhelmed by the fantastical bathroom imagery long overdue in our discourse on government—but really miss the scandals that should-have-been.

The latest disclosures by the gadfly Web site have made things tough for the State Department under Hilary Clinton. Certainly we’ve been damaged diplomatically, but certainly less so than by the Iraq war, extraordinary rendition from friendly countries and decades of myopic foreign policy.

Where WikiLeaks really blundered was in its first big release of documents concerning the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It released the names of informers, interpreters and others working for the U.S., thus endangering their lives and making things more difficult for the lives of our military. When human rights groups criticized WikiLeaks for this, founder Julian Assange blamed them for not helping his organization sort through what he had. If you don’t know what you’re publishing, why are you publishing it?

And have the latest leaks been that dramatic or informative? That the government of Afghanistan is horrendously corrupt is not exactly news to anyone who’s opened a newspaper in the last eight years. I’m not surprised that we’re launching missiles from drones in Yemen, and your average Yemeni Al Qaeda sympathizer isn’t either. The revelations about their government lying about it may create some terrorist sympathizers there, but it won’t turn anyone who wasn’t leaning in that direction to begin with.

The usual litany of plastic patriots is calling these leaks an act of treason. In order for something to legally be considered treasonous, I believe that Congress has to legally declare war, something it hasn’t had the courage to do since 1941. Also, since WikiLeaks’ founder is Australian and the Web site’s server is now hosted by a Swiss company, their offenses, whatever they are, are not treasonous. I understand the outrage over disclosing secrets that can endanger American lives, but find it hard to take seriously coming from people who had no problem sending our military into two theaters of war without proper supplies, or on a hunt for weapons in Iraq that weren’t there.

And for all its faults, and assuming the worst about its founder and its intentions, having information public is better than not in a democracy. We the people should always err on the side of free speech and free access to information. However bad too much information can sometimes seem, it’s always better than the alternative.