YELLOW AND GREEN HOUSE

A house with great detail I saw while fleeing Sandy's aftermath.

Seals Frolic in New York Harbor

The NYDN has the photos.

Small, puppy-like heads begin popping up out of the water.
It takes a moment to realize that they’re seals.

And, yes, they are cute. The cruises end in April, but the company has whale and dolphin jaunts that run through August.

I can't imagine how the harbor is clean enough for the creatures, but apparently it's so. Who am I to argue with such cuteness?

It won't be long before we're overrun with seals, and people start complaining about them.

Related: White Kiwi Chick (Not a New Movie)
NY Airport Geese to Be Cooked and Given Away

Earthquake?

New York is rockin', and not in a good way, although it's bouncy!

Gay Marriage in New York: Dates to Know and Where to Go.

July 5th is the first date that you can obtain a marriage license. The City Clerk's office has the details of what to do to get one. We hear they've been running the presses to get gender-neutral language copies printed, whatever those might look like. I don't think they will be available in colors or anything. Note that the license requires a wait of 24 hours afterward for the actual marriage ceremony, and it is only good for sixty days, unless you are in the military (in which case, DADT has not been implemented, so you can't actually invoke that provision without another kind of headache). Marriage itself becomes legal on July 24th, 2011, 30 days after the signing of the bill by Gov. Cuomo.

That's why, perhaps, you should look into scheduling the actual ceremony to fall within that scope. You can line up for a marriage ceremony at the same office of the City Clerk. No reservations are required or accepted. There are fees that seem to add up to about $60, but please read any details for yourself.

There's also a fun option I heard about. The Pop-up Chapel, which will do weddings for free, with some trimmings, in Central Park. It looks like it's only serving cupcakes during the first weekend after marriage becomes legal. Read up on this option, since I have no idea whether this will be slammed with couples who heard about it on twitter.

Do whatever you like, where gay marriage is concerned, whenever you want to, but do some research first. Rushing into these things is for drunken celebs in Vegas!

Half a Billion Dollars "Tainted" in CityTime Scandal

I'm surprised the press hasn't linked the CityTime scandal to the massive cutbacks. Or maybe not so surprised:

 Reddy Allen and Dr Padma Allen have been indicted on federal fraud and kickback charges in relation to the scandals surrounding Mayor Michael Bloomberg administration's CityTime project to modernise the municipal payroll system.

A grand jury said on Monday that more than $600 million of the project's bloated budget is "tainted" by fraud. The couple secured a lucrative, no-bid subcontract for the CityTime that made it look like their firm, TechnoDyne, was "a successful and fast-growing company," the New York Post
reported.

Gee, another "no-bid" contract. How did that happen? Anyone know?

In New York, Marriage Has Always Been a Function of the State. Period.

Even in early Euro-American history, marriage was regarded as a state function. Churches, even official ones, married couples, but only under the laws of whatever colony it was. Other officials were also allowed to marry people.

No one could just go around marrying people without recognition by law, and that is true to this day.

I know of at least one case where a very minor official tried doing it. It was beyond his office and he was immediately up on charges. The marriage was also considered null and void.

Nontraditional forms of other-sex marriage also had to gain approval over time.

At least in this country, marriage has always been a function of the state to define by its own rules. Anyone pretending otherwise is lying to you.

Sheldon Silver Gives Away the Store on Rent Regs.

He seriously sent me an email touting this gawdawful deal on rent regs.

I wrote him back that it had to be some sort of joke. 2500 is the threshold or 200K income? Not indexed?

I told him the message to anyone who works for him was that they should move. Maybe he'll be able to get recent immigrants sleeping in shifts to staff his office.

Democrats... NOW FIVE PER CENT BETTER THAN REPUBLICANS!

Republicans, Catholic Church Still Blocking Gay Marriage in New York

photo Roger D in NYC. Gov.'s office detail.

The Times seems to think it will turn around, saying Gov. Cuomo is sounding confident.

I'm thinking that the Republicans went from 'this is a vote of conscience,' to, 'OMG, some gay people will try to rent out St. Pat's Cathedral.' The Senate majority is stuck in a dilemma: Let the bill go forward and the far right will blame the whole R delegation, regardless of the lack of a called party-line vote. Stop the bill, and several Senators in downstate districts are in jeopardy of losing their seats and tipping the majority away.

The Republicans seemed to have it in hand last week, but then big bad Bishop Dolan chimed in with Medieval-style bombast, threatening to rend his garments and call down clouds of locusts.

To wit:

Please, not here!  We cherish true freedom, not as the license to do whatever we want, but the liberty to do what we ought; we acknowledge that not every desire, urge, want, or chic cause is automatically a "right." And, what about other rights, like that of a child to be raised in a family with a mom and a dad?

The Church is always a factor, but the bigoted shrieks have been deafening this week. After what this RICO-worthy institution has gotten away with? Who is Dolan fooling? No one around here. He could have just said: "It's a free country for the right people who do things our way."

Meanwhile, liberty waits for a reply.

Please! Here!