Hi Marcy,
I posted Michael Pickens newsletter, or at least his New Year's message,
at the LP Kings County Yahoo group
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lpny_kings/messages/6918?l=1). I also
posted Michael Denny's link for stopping SOPA. You guys are chock full
of good stuff.
I saw your "Guerrilla posting" at the MLP's web site. (Funny thing when
I typed "mlp.org," I saw these peculiar religious postings, until I saw
I was at the "More Light Presbyterians" website. Do type
"manhattanLP.org.") Thanks for posting it. You might like to know I left
a comment. BTW, Adam Weissman is a remarkably dedicated, well versed and
enthusiastic libertarian. He's also under 35, so he's not dead :-). He
came out of no wheres, as I was told, and he wanted to help revamp the
MLP's website, emphasizing the Serf City link. (Serf City is the MLP's
publication, which hasn't published a "hard copy" in over one year. But
the online edition is very much alive. Adam immediately wrote several
articles at the revamped site.) I think Adam will be a great asset for
our cause. You might like to know that during last month's MLP meeting,
I saw him and Rob Power connecting and exchanging business cards. Let's
hope we will see a synergy between them.
You work a 12-hour day job? Are you getting minimum wage? How about
overtime pay, which your City leaders probably mandate employers to pay
their employees after they work more than four hours? Speaking of City
leaders, how did they determine that raising the minimum wage 32 cents
from $9.82 to $10.24 is the right amount? Why not 50 cents, or $1? What
tea leaves did they read? What Marxist wage charts did they refer to?
Did labor unions have any input?
I chuckled when you said the "City is indeed left of extreme liberal."
I'm saddened at how SF's ultra-liberal politicians are seemingly
plotting to destroy your lovely "City by the Bay." I wonder which will
destroy SF first. These politicians or "The Big One."
As for my boxes (and bags) of unopened mail, I hardly have room to store
them. Indeed, they're a nuisance and a trip and bump hazard. They're
also a source of stress, as is the general condition of clutter in my
abode. It was once worse, until the Property Manager two years ago did a
mandated inspection of all the apartments in my building. When she
arrived, she said, "Clutter." I said, "No, the apartment is too small."
She replied, "I'll be back in six months." And that's a story for
another time. Still, I did barely pass the inspection. But since then,
I'm afraid the "jungle" had returned. 
What happens is I'd get an average each day of ten mail pieces, which
includes letters, "bulk business mail" (which is the Postal Service's
preferred and official term for what we mortals call "junk mail"),
magazines and newsletters. I'd scan them for anything especially
important and dump the rest on the entrance table. When the pile gets
too big, into a box it goes, along with previous mailpieces. Your
workflow to handle your mail sounds like it works for you. Mind you,
Marcy, every now and then I go through the boxes and toss out a
"regulation size" plastic grocery bag of a little less than one cubic
feet filled with unwanted mail and other paper. (Don't get me started on
my paper clutter!) I don't do it often enough, however. But at least I
do shred my sensitive stuff into tiny bits. (Oh, too bad SF had mostly
banned plastic bags, else you'd know how handy these bags can be.)
As for charities no longer accepting "donations" but "dues renewals," I
have to check if any of my charitable solicitors were gauche enough to
send me "dues renewals." But whichever, I sometimes feel as if I were
sending "dues renewals," instead of donations, especially to political
concerns.
Are you glad for RP's great showing in Iowa? As expected, most
mainstream media "talking heads" ignored it. (Vlad, a colleague was glad
they were calling RP a "racist," which he considered a good sign that RP
is instilling fear in those low lifes.) BTW, Gary Johnson is scheduled
to speak at the Manhattan LP convention on January 21. You and all your
colleagues are invited. I hope to see you there.
That's all for now
"All the best for 2012" to you too. Let's hope 2012 will be a fateful
one for all libertarians.
Alton
--- In lpsf-discuss@yahoogroups.com, "lpsfactivists" <amarcyb@...>
wrote:
Hi Alton,
Regarding the Michael Pickens newsletter, yes it was pretty good.
Michael has a lot of interesting stuff to say, and I would encourage
folks to friend him on Facebook!
Regarding your question as to what we are doing out here, I will
choose to speak for myself only, and say that I am focusing on posting
libertarian thinking on the Internet. Thank you to Adam of Manhattan
Libertarian Party for inviting us to be guest posters on the website; an
opportunity I took a few days ago. Guerrilla posting is something I can
do at the end of my usual 12-hour day job!
Yes, Alton, this City is indeed left of extreme liberal. Democrats
operate unfettered. City leaders determined a decade ago that they would
provide denizens with a "living wage," and they have stuck with their
promise, with more to come. Problem is, of course, there will never be
enough. Just like there can never be enough homeless shelters.
Regarding your boxes of unopened snail mail...WHY?!? Oh, I bet I know
why; you must have room to put the boxes! In my small quarters here,
whatever comes through the mail slot, and is not a bill to be paid, a
check from a client, or a letter from a long lost friend, gets torn to
bits instantly. Regarding donations, "dues renewals" (they don't call it
donation any more) to my charities, they are done the last week of
December each year, period.
All the best for 2012!
Marcy
>
> New Year Greetings from New York City.
>
> What are you guys doing out there?
>
> I''ve just read this disturbing article from the San Francisco
> Chronicle: "Minimum wage in S.F. up to $10.24, highest in U.S."
>
>
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/01/MN711MEVP1.D\
\
> TL
>
> The gist of the article reports, "Today [January 1, San Francisco]
will
> be the first city in the nation where the minimum hourly wage will
top
> $10. The lowest-wage workers will earn $10.24 an hour, up from the
> current rate of $9.92."
>
> I liked how Heather Knight, the staff writer who penned that
article,
> liberally quotes David Frias, 34, "who makes the minimum wage
working at
> a movie theater." Knight quotes Frias: "It's definitely a
psychological
> boost. I know I'm going to have a little extra money in my wallet.
San
> Francisco is a model for low-wage workers - it's full [of] respect,
I
> guess."
>
> Knight also reported that "Frias is a graduate of San Francisco
State
> University who majored in broadcast and electronic communication
arts
> and aspires to make documentary films. And woe to Frias, because
> "earning the minimum wage isn't enough to afford rent for his own
> apartment - he still lives with his parents in a small Mission
District
> unit."
>
> Knight concludes the article by saying: "Frias, for one, believes
that
> if employers set up shop in a pricey city, they have to be prepared
to
> pay a decent wage." And she quotes his sagacious last words: "Bottom
> line is workers have to get paid a livable wage, and $10.24 is a
start.
> It can only get better, but we'll take it for now."
>
> It was bad enough that Knight liberally used this obvious loser to
prop
> her apparent liberal bent, but it got worse when she reported about
the
> "City Hall's mandates that employers pay a payroll tax of 1.5
percent,
> provide nine paid sick days and provide health care," which
> understandably, results in "many employers . . . feeling squeezed."
>
> Here's a kicker: In fact, the mandatory fee employers who don't
provide
> health insurance must pay to the city to support its universal
health
> care program will also rise today. It will jump from $2.06 to $2.20
per
> hour per employee for businesses with more than 100 staff members
and
> from $1.37 to $1.46 for businesses with 20 to 99 employees. Those
with
> fewer than 20 employees aren't required to pick up their health care
> tab.
>
> What are you guys doing out there? Even in NYC, it's no where this
bad.
> We don't have a "universal health care program," and employers don't
pay
> a payroll tax, nor must they provide nine paid sick days or health
care.
> At least not yet. (But employers here must pay for workers'
compensation
> and unemployment "insurance.")
>
> I'm sure you libertarians know about the jobs minimum wages kill.
> Coupled with all those mandated costs, SF has the dubious honor of
> having the highest-in-the-country minimum wage. It's no wonder that
> Daniel Scherotter, the chef and owner of Palio D'Asti, an Italian
> restaurant in the Financial District, who Knight interviewed,
poignantly
> asked, "Who the hell would hire a teenager for $12 an hour?" (I
wonder
> what this doubtlessly depraved, rapacious capitalist would pay to
hire
> an unskilled, semi-literate teenager. Probably $3 or $4 an hour. No
> wonder we need caring politicians to mandate a minimum "living" wage
and
> protect workers from depraved, rapacious capitalist employers! God
bless
> them. And God bless San Francisco.)
>
> BTW, has anyone read the Constitution lately? Here's a titbit from
> Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1 which said, partly, "No State shall
. .
> . pass any . . . Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts . . .."
> Doesn't it seem to you that by mandating that employers pay a
minimum
> wage (and all those sundry extras), SF's politicians are
> unconstitutionally "impairing the Obligation of Contracts" between
> employers and their employees should employers and employees agree
to a