Final and Official

While you don't like to see your candidate winning by 5 votes for a town seat or 8 for a county seat, we'll take it.

Empires Fall

I listened to an NPR chat on the rise of China and thought to myself, "How do I feel about the notion that China will be the economic world power by the time O is my age?"

The inevitability of our descent makes my feelings moot, I suppose. America has followed many of the traditional paths of declining empire--overextension in foreign fields of battle using mercenary adjuncts to a weak standing army, leadership in disarray with corruption and self-interest trumping founders' ideals, concentration of wealth in the hands of the few while the majority views the empire's riches as unattainable and thus feels disenfranchised and disconnected. . . .

But I don't think this will be a simple transfer of power or a pleasant decline. The speaker on NPR was a Brit, with inbred memories of what it's like to lose influence to an upstart. But the Brits didn't have to contend with the racial and ideological conflicts that are bound to emerge as China rises.

Johnson City to Andrew Cuomo: Take That!

Despite its name, Johnson City is not a city at all; it's a village of 15,000 in Broome County, making it a little bit bigger, population-wise, than the town of Dryden. Unlike Dryden, at 110 square miles, Johnson City occupies around 4 1/2.

Our attorney general has created a commission that is looking into ways in which NYS municipalities can consolidate for greater efficiency. Johnson City, which hasn't been solvent in some time, was a candidate for merger with its surrounding town, Union. After an absentee count, the referendum was turned down by the voters, who chose to pay more rather than lose their shoe mogul-inspired identity.

I venture to say that Cuomo is rapidly learning, as I did several years ago, that history trumps common sense when it comes to these battles.

Reading List

It's slight compared to some of his others, and the symbolism is sometimes heavy-handed, but I just love the way he loves his characters, warts and all. A sweet book.

Another Day, Another Absentee Count

Pat Pryor, once considered a long shot for County Legislature in Lansing, is ahead of Mike Sigler by 8 votes (3 of those contested by the Dems) and will have to wait for the drop-dead date for military ballots to know her fate.

Never doubt that your vote counts.

Fresh from MA

Paul came home from Althea's bat mitzvah with these treyf items. Clams, too, but those are all gone. . . .

Required Reading

Like Hofstadter, whom he quotes here, economist Krugman has become one of my favorite observers of American political life.