Tag: New York City

Exploring the Arctic for Fame and Headlines

 

Before reality television, people satisfied the urge to see new places and do new things by reading about the exploits of risk-takers, including explorers. Before the internet or radio, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the way to do that was through the newspaper.

Back then, the modern mass-market daily newspaper was still new.

In “Battle of Ink and Ice: A Sensational Story of New Barons, North Pole Explorers, and the Making of Modern Media,” Darrell Hartman threads together two themes: the rivalry between New York City’s major newspapers and polar exploration.

Former NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly discusses the state of crime policy in New York with CBS law-enforcement analyst James A. Gagliano.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

There’s nothing quite like a radical change in lifestyle, location, and vocation to bring out the podcaster in Ricochet’s Dave Carter.  After a year and a half’s hiatus, Dave is now safely and happily ensconced in Florida, on “The World’s Most Beautiful Beaches.”  As it turns out, the thing he most wanted to accomplish after getting settled in was setting up his in-home studio and firing up the microphone to talk with us.  And we’re glad he did!  Rob Long joins the fun, talking with Dave about the contrasts between New York City and Florida and pausing to counsel Dave on his unique sense of ebullient pessimism over the country’s trajectory. The conversation changes pace with Rob advising Dave on his new line of work in radio sales before the two discuss tentative plans regarding an upcoming Ricochet Meetup in New Orleans. The conversation concludes on a fun note, but not before Dave makes a shameless plug for his new internet radio station called The Tiger, Bayou Blues & Rock (which includes some notable and notably funny Christmas music for the holidays).

Finally, Ricochet’s Jenna Stocker calls in and Dave doesn’t miss the opportunity to solicit a comparison between the balmy weather in Florida and the single digit temps in Minneapolis where Jenna resides with her husband and delightful one year-old son.  The two discuss Jenna’s remarkable writings on her substack page, as well as The Federalist, Newsweek and elsewhere. Then Jenna turns the tables on our host and interviews Dave to find out exactly how his move to Florida went and what life is like now that he’s settled in (Hint: Dave’s attitude on the Christmas holidays has radically changed). You’ll want to listen in to learn more about this one.

A Letter to the NYC Mayor

 

To the Honorable Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City

Mr. Mayor,
My apologies for sending this to you so late, but congratulations on becoming Mayor of New York. This is quite an accomplishment and I commend you. I sincerely hope that you are more successful than your predecessor, although I think you and I would both agree that he set established the world’s lowest bar for mayors. Just getting through your first term without killing a groundhog will probably do it.

Religious Liberty in the Dock

 

This past weekend, Yeshiva University took a dramatic step that many observers thought would never happen: it decided to suspend the operation of all undergraduate on-campus clubs indefinitely, rather than to accede to a June 2022 order from New York State Judge Lynn R. Kotler “to immediately grant plaintiff Pride Alliance the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges afforded to all other student groups at Yeshiva University.” Judge Kotler issued the order after determining that Yeshiva was not a religious corporation under applicable New York law, and was thus subject to New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), which makes it unlawful for a business in “all places of public accommodation” to discriminate against any person because of his or her “sexual orientation.”

For its part, Yeshiva had claimed the protected status as “a religious corporation incorporated under the education law,” given that it had always organized its undergraduate institution to that end. It did so even though one of its other divisions, namely Cardozo Law School, had, as its irate faculty had noted in a recent letter to Yeshiva President Rabbi Ari Berman, long given full recognition to LGBTQ+ individuals and organizations. But for Judge Kotler the key point was not what Yeshiva does today, but what it wrote about itself in 1967 when it expanded its charter from the study of Talmud to a wide range of Jewish and secular studies. This expansion, Judge Kotler explained, qualified Yeshiva as an “educational corporation under the Education Law of the State of New York.” In effect, Yeshiva was barred by its own fifty-five-year-old declaration from claiming a protected religious status today.

But why? By any functional account, the reasons New York City (like so many other government entities) created this religious exemption was to ease the nasty conflict between forced association under antidiscrimination laws and the exercise of religious liberty, as protected by the First Amendment. That conflict remains in place no matter what the state charter says. The underlying theory is that it is appropriate to impose a nondiscrimination rule when the various suspect attributes of a given person are irrelevant to any rational decision about the performance of the protected parties under statutes like NYCHRL, but that this logic does not cover activities that fall outside the public realm—such as the practice of religious education. That theory was given voice by Justice William Brennan in Roberts v. United States Jaycees (1984), when he ordered the Jaycees, a large men’s civic organization with many branches, to admit women. But, at the same time, Justice Brennan noted that the antidiscrimination laws were displaced by the principle of free association that covered “certain intimate human relations . . . in pursuit of a wide variety of political, social, economic, educational, religious and cultural ends.”

Join Jim and Greg as they serve up three good martinis! First, they welcome reports of the Senate Armed Services Committee demanding the Pentagon stop wasting taxpayer dollars searching the Armed Forces for domestic extremists, who seem to be quite rare. They also react to Brett Kavanaugh’s leftist neighbors getting fed up with the vulgar pro-abortion demonstrators who are still infesting the neighborhood. And they’re glad to see Bill de Blasio dropping out of the race for Congress and starting to realize just how much New Yorkers loathed his performance as mayor.

 

Nicole Gelinas joins Brian Anderson to discuss the consequences of inflation in New York City and the impact of rising subway crime.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

[Member Post]

 

He referred to white people on the police force as crackers. I fear he may make de Blasio look good by comparison. The New York City Mayor referred to white people as crackers. Instagram took down the video within 20 minutes calling it hate speech. The public should be able to access this type of […]

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Eulogy for a Police Officer

 

Last week, two cops were executed by a deranged man as they and a fellow officer went to investigate domestic abuse here in New York City. From The New York Post:

Authorities said the officers, along with a third cop, went to an apartment at 119 West 135th Street at around 6:15 p.m. after getting a call from a mother about needing help with her son, identified as 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil.

Tevi Troy joins Brian Anderson to discuss outgoing New York mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, what Eric Adams might bring to the job, and the recent political trajectory of the Big Apple.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

[Member Post]

 

Manhattan’s New District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, has instructed his prosecutors to treat most crimes that the legislature designated as felonies as misdemeanors, and to treat criminals as people who need social workers.  From the New York Post.  In his first memo to staff on Monday, Alvin Bragg said his office “will not seek a carceral […]

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Nicole Gelinas joins Brian Anderson to discuss the state of the New York City mayoral election, the results of down-ballot races, and what the next mayor must do to be successful.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

Greg and guest host Chad Benson appreciate New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang being the only one to admit that mentally ill people committing violent acts are a problem for the city and that residents have the right to not be assaulted. They also cringe as Iran prepares to install a new president who is already under U.S. sanctions for leading the mass execution of political prisoners in the 1980s. And they react to Sen. Ted Cruz saying that he hopes actor Matthew McConnaughey does not run for governor in Texas because he would be a very formidable candidate.

 

Seth Barron joins Brian Anderson to discuss the 2021 New York City mayoral election, the implications of down-ballot races, and the city’s recent history—as told in Seth’s just-released book, The Last Days of New York.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

Rafael Mangual joins Brian Anderson to discuss rising disorder in New York City, the city council’s just-passed package of police reforms, the causes of the crime spike, and the future of public safety in U.S. cities.

City Journal’s special issue, New York City: Reborn, is now available.

Steven Malanga joins Brian Anderson to discuss New York City’s massive expansion in government spending and hiring under Bill de Blasio, the potential long-term impact of Covid-19 on the city budget, and why the next mayor will face a fiscal nightmare.

City Journal’s special issue, New York City: Reborn, is now available.

Nicole Gelinas joins Brian Anderson to discuss New York City’s plan to replace the correctional complex on Rikers Island, how the city’s transit system has fared amid the pandemic, the 2021 mayoral race, Governor Cuomo’s problems, and more.

City Journal’s latest special issue, New York City: Reborn, is now available on the website.

Seth Barron joins Brian Anderson to discuss New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic, Bill de Blasio’s time as mayor of New York City and the race to succeed him, and the condition of city politics today. Seth’s book, The Last Days of New York, is due out in May.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

A New York State of Language

 

New Yawk English. You know it when you hear it. It is unique and serves as a cultural marker.

“You Talkin’ To Me? The Unruly  History of New York English,” By  E. J. White tells the story of New York English. It is as much about why New Yorkers talk the way they do as about how they talk.

A study of New York linguistics, told by someone who is a linguistics expert, it is not a dry, scholarly tome. Rather it is as lively as Brooklynese, told with Bugs Bunny insouciance and Archie Bunker confidence. The book opens up with a study of New Yorkers’ favorite obscenity.  More than a term describing human reproduction, New Yorkers use it as an endearment, a qualifier, and an expression of respect. (Only in New York.)