December 9, 2007

While there are a lot of things I missed about not living in NYC anymore, one of the things I didn't miss (besides having Eliot "Job Killer" Spitzer for a governor) was the relative safety from terrorism here in Colorado Springs. NYC is Al Qaeda's number one target. The last time they struck, I was about 5 miles downwind from the towers. One of the priests from my parish at the time (St. Francis of Assisi on W 32nd St) was killed in those attacks. I knew at least 3 people who barely made it out of lower Manhattan alive. Nearly every parish in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn has a plaque or memorial of one of their parishioners who died that day. No American should have to go through what thousands of New Yorkers had to go through back in 2001. And one would think with President Bush's War on Terror and Al Qaeda on the run in Iraq that America is safer now. And certainly, a mid sized city on the edge of the Rocky Mountains that is probably unknown to the head killers at Al Qaeda would be safer than NYC, wouldn't it?

Not at all.

Around 1PM MT today, someone decided to shoot up the New Life church, which is about 3 miles from where I'm writing this blog. They got as far as the parking lot, and 4 people (including 2 young girls) were wounded by the gunfire. Now most of the area near Voyager and Interquest is on lockdown. About 13 hours before the New Life shootings, another gunman shot up a Protestant youth missionary site in Arvada, killing 2 people.It's pretty obvious that the New Life and Arvada shootings are anti-Christian terrorist attacks. (For the record, I have major theological disagreements with the New Life crowd.)

No one knows yet if the Colorado church shooters are involved with Al Qaeda. It certainly wouldn't be beneath Al Qaeda to kill a few Americans at a soft target such as a church- in fact, it might be their Christmas wish for the year. But more likely, these shootings were single or dual party cells, fomented by extreme religious hatred. There are numerous examples of anti-religious bigotry in this country. At least one odious example is a so-called religious group called Westboro Baptist in Topeka, KS. Their hatred includes such infamous websites such as godhatesfags.com, godhatesamerica.com, and godhatessweden.com. But the bigger purveyors of religious hatred in this country are on the American left, aided by the ideology of politicians such as Eliot "Baby Killer" Spitzer (see the Dec. 1 2007 blog for his war on NY's Catholics), Hillary Clinton, Sheldon Silver, Air (anti) America, and the liberal Hollywood and atheist movements. In some ways, the anti-religious left has become a type of Al Qaeda ideological movement. But up until now, that movement hasn't driven anyone to kill.

Now it has.

Pat Buchanan may be extremist on many issues, but he was dead on in the 1990s about the culture war. This is why it is vital to the survival of the United States of America that someone not on the anti-religious left becomes President next year. An anti-religious President will polarize this already fractured country, and since the militia movements tend not ally themselves with the anti-religious left, the next bloodshed in the culture war could lead to another civil war. Imagine the Irish Troubles, with 200 times more victims, 200 times more guns, and millions of casualties.

Maybe regardless of who wins in 2008, I should be looking for jobs and real estate in Ireland.

December 1, 2007

I have been busy on my first day of unemployment. I have a couple of interviews scheduled for Monday (the 3rd). And for the first time in a long while, I have been able to submit media opinions to widely-read (or viewed) outlets. The following are a comment to the NY Sun's website and an e-mail to Lou Dobbs of CNN, both concerning the slimeball who is still governor of New York:

Submitted by Thomas D. Clarke, Dec 1, 2007 14:30 (NY Sun)

On Day 1, everything changed. Instead of getting an increasingly inept Republican governor (Pataki), 70% of New Yorkers (I was not one of them), elected Spitzer into office. Somehow, they were conned into thinking Spitzer would be a reformer and a fiscal conservative. Never mind the fact that the greatest threats to reform and fiscal responsibility (i.e. the Democratic Assembly) were the biggest supporters of Spitzer to begin with. And of course no one knew or cared that in Spitzer's previous job (Attorney General), he did more to chase jobs out of New York than anyone not employed by Al Qaeda. His actions against Marsh and McClellan alone (6000+ jobs destroyed in a lawsuit Spitzer filed and lost while prosecuting) should have disqualified him from being governor.

And now, his attempted (but so far unsuccessful) achievements as governor include:

Trying to force Catholic and other pro-life health care providers to perform abortions
Pay raises for the most dysfunctional legislature in the United States
Increased taxes in the most taxed state after campaigning against tax hikes in 2006
Allowing non-legal residents of New York to have official NY Drivers' Licenses (for some reason, this is the only Spitzer atrocity that has elicited outrage outside the Northeast)

At the very least, Spitzer and his cronies in the state legislature should be impeached or recalled. Ideally, the state Constitution should be amended or re-written to where reforms are enacted, the legislature is pared to one chamber (similar to Nebraska's unicameral legislature- this restructuring alone could save NY billions in taxpayer money), and a clear statewide recall statute which if enacted could prevent Spitzer, Shelly Silver, and other snake oil lawmakers from ruining the state further.

Also, I am of the strong opinion that Spitzer and the state legislature should be forced to take a 40-70 percent pay cut.

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E-mail to Lou Dobbs at CNN, December 1, 2007:

As a longtime resident of New York who recently moved to Colorado, I am intrigued by Lou Dobbs's comments on my former state's atrocious governor Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer lied about his record as attorney general (and how many jobs he destroyed as part of his politically motivated anti-Wall Street crusades), and lied about being a reformer and a tax cutting "fiscal conservative". In 2006, I was one of the few (29%) of NY voters who was not conned by his bovine excrement. And while his crackpot scheme to allow people not in the US legally to obtain NY Driver's Licenses failed, he is still doing a lot of harm to my former home. He pushed through increased state spending (mostly to his pet projects- just like he did when he was Attorney General) and is now flip-flopping on his promise not to raise taxes- in the most overtaxed state in the Union. He has brought Albany corruption to a new low by using state troopers to spy on his biggest political rival (Senate Leader Joe Bruno, who is no saint himself). And Spitzer has declared war on New York's largest religious group by trying to force Catholic health insurers to pay for abortion and by attempting to decertify any Catholic-run hospital that refuses on moral grounds to perform abortions.

Eliot Spitzer is not fit to be Governor of New York. He should resign. The right-wing talk shows and blogosphere should not be the only ones bringing the atrocities Spitzer has wrought upon New York to light. And the illegal drivers' license scheme is not even the worst thing Spitzer has done. Spitzer is not an idiot. He is far worse.

Thomas D. Clarke, Colorado Springs, CO 80920; formerly of Ridgewood, NY 11385, and Brooklyn, NY 11235

(note: these letters were also printed on my MySpace blog, available at www.myspace.com/tdclarke)

October 27, 2007

Normally, I don't like discussing politics on this blog. 2006 and the Spitzer debacle was the big exception. Here was a fraudulent, rich, elitist, anti-private sector attorney general who bought his way into the attorney general's position, started suing every business he could, and lied and conned his way into the NY governor's mansion. There was a lot of blame to go around there- the NY Democratic Party (easily the most obscenely corrupt and liberal gaggle of politicians in the United States), the NY Republican Party (for bending over to Spitzer and not even bothering to fund their candidates in 2006), the NY Post (a normally conservative paper that until recently believed Spitzer's lies about cleaning up the state). Sad to say, but I put out probably the only independent website that opposed Spitzer before his election. But that webpage completely changed focus after I moved back to Colorado Springs.

Now 2008 is coming up. The Democratic National Convention will be held about 60 miles north of my residence in 10 months. Which Democrats will prevail there? Will they be the common sense Democrats like Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, PA Senator Bill Casey, and Tom Suozzi, or the misled leftist Democrats like Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and John Edwards, or the lunatic fringe Democrats like Dennis Kucinich, Pete Stark, Nancy Pelosi, and Howard Dean, or the true slimeballs like Eliot Spitzer, Sheldon Silver, and Hillary Clinton? And for the record, I will seriously consider renouncing my US citizenship if Hillary Clinton is elected President next year. After all, I did move out of my longtime home of New York City after Spitzer got elected. His job killing crusade against my longtime seasonal employer (the New York Racing Association) also helped there.

October 14, 2007

5 months ago, I moved back to Colorado. I have a new home now, in the Briargate section of Colorado Springs. The rent is a bit cheaper, and the amenities are a lot nicer. And instead of a human roommate who shares my first name, I now have a feline roommate who shares my first name.

More to come when I have more time to write.

July 1, 2007

A lot has changed since I moved back to Colorado on May 11. I still don't have a car. I have a decent paying warehouse/assembly job that is about 15-20 minutes by foot from my residence. Before that, I had a very disastrous stint with Goodwill Staffing that resulted in me getting fired, my supervisor attempting to blacklist me from ever using any Goodwill services (or stores), a few calls to Goodwill NY's Member For Life program (because the blacklisting threat violated Goodwill policy far more than anything I did while I was employed by Goodwill Staffing of Colorado Springs), and a renewed claim for NY's Unemployment program. Normally, an unemployment claim in NY takes 6-8 weeks to process, but I got the unemployment money last Friday. I faxed them a report about my experiences with Goodwill Staffing, the name of the [bleep] who fired and threatened to blacklist me, and my complaints to Goodwill of NY about their Springs office's practices (along with the number and extension of the NY Goodwill lady who handled my complaint against their Springs office). Within 5 days of sending that fax, I got my money. Now July's rent, groceries, and the first student loan payment I've been able to make in years (excluding those income tax repossessions of the last 2 years) are taken care of. I don't expect any more unemployment money now that I am employed, but with my new salary, I can handle rent, groceries (even at Colorado Springs prices), student loan payments, and (hopefully by August), a car. I started the Woodford job 10 days ago, and in that time, I have made more money and had far fewer work issues or problems with management than I did in my brief tenure with Goodwill Staffing. I just wish I qualified for Holiday Pay on Labor Day instead of the following week.

Going to Mass on Sundays is a bit of a hassle out here without a car. There are no Catholic churches within 2 miles of my residence, and the neighborhood parish system that is used in the Brooklyn diocese is not used in Colorado Springs. Because of the Sunday bus schedule, the easiest parish to get to from my neighborhood is St. Mary's Cathedral in Downtown. I was welcomed warmly by the parishioners there. St. Mary's has been in a bit of transition as of late, too. Their longtime pastor, Father Donald Dunn, retired last week. Their new pastor, Father Frank Quezada, has his formal installation as pastor next week. I was informed today by Bonnie of the parish Welcoming Committee that they are in desperate need of ushers for the 11:45 AM bilingual Mass. If they take my previous ushering experience from St. Pancras into consideration, I could end up being one of those new ushers at that Mass. And it would be nice knowing some Spanish words that are appropriate to use in a church, as opposed to the 10 years of "temp agency Spanish" I learned at various jobs in New York. And maybe I could find out more about that Pope John Paul II novena that some of the parishioners were talking about after mass this morning.

May 14, 2007

A lot has happened since I last posted here. I was without internet service for 4 months at home. And at the end of April, I found out thanks to the NYC Buildings Department that my home was an illegal residence and I had to move. As of Friday, May 11, I have lived in Colorado Springs, in a subdivision less than 2 miles from my childhood home (and in the same ZIP code, 80915) .

There is much to detail on, but I only have 55 minutes on the Penrose Library computers. I sold my computer, TV set, and clothes to help finance the move out here.

January 21, 2007

I started off today like most Sundays- ushering at St. Pancras. I was well bundled because it was about 20 degrees outside. Fortunately, the 9:30 Mass had extra ushers because the Mass was packed. It was a special Mass for the CYO- and it seemed like everyone under 18 that was registered at St. Pancras parish was at that Mass. Overall, between 300 churchgoers (and at least 80 children) and 7 ushers, the Mass went smoothly. Even Father Gallo (the pastor) joinend in by attempting to auction off his CYO team jacket. The bidding was stopped at $100.

I got home after Mass and found my DSL was still on for another day. I got an e-mail from my sister Suz. After the bunnycide incident involving my nephew Jamie, Suz had him institutionalized. For at least the next 16 days, Jamie will be evaluated at Crossroads Regional Mental Health Center in Alexandria, LA. I'm a bit curious as to why there aren't any hospitals in the Baton Rouge area (currently the largest city in the state, and about 100 miles closer to where Suz and Jamie live than Alexandria is) that can handle a messed up 8 year old.

January 20, 2007

The new year of 2007 is nearly 3 weeks old. And for me, it has been nothing short of a disaster. I was forced to apply for public assistance because I was rejected for unemployment. I have not been able to find another job. In fact, pending medical results (which should be due around February 6), I am not even in the typical public assistance job search programs. This means I am stuck at home- without normal phone service (my phone is unable to make calls because I can no longer afford the Lifeline phone bill), and without any money or metrocards to get out of home. The DSL is supposed to be cut off soon, and with it, my last lifeline to most of the outside world.

The world outside doesn't look so hot, either. Hillary Clinton (wife of the worst President in my lifetime) just announced she's running for President, joining a lineup of for the most part, either inexperienced or just plain awful candidates running to take over my distant cousin's job next year.

Closer to home, I found out from my sister that my soon-to-be 9 year old nephew Jamie has problems. Apparently he likes to kill small animals. First it was a puppy last year. This morning, it was a pet bunny he received for Christmas. And while my sister was hauling him off to the local psychiatric center, Jamie was more concerned about his video games than about the dead rabbit in the backyard.

And my former friend Jon seems to be plotting something. After feuding with my friend Tyrone for over a year, Jon decided to be friendly to Tyrone. And Jon also announced to Tyrone that he's suing me over the van incident from 2005. And that ingrate Jon wonders why I won't call him anymore.