New York's Response to the London Bombings

In the wake of the terrorist bombings of the London Metro, NY has reacted with an all out security blitz that includes armed military personnel in a lot of the subway stations in the city, bomb sniffing dogs all over the place, radiation detectors (actually they were placed all over Grand Central about a month before the London bombings, but have now expanded in coverage) all over, a shutdown of cell phone service in the 4 tunnels that go into Manhattan (Brooklyn Battery, Holland, Lincoln, Queens Midtown), and police officers on every car of every subway train in the city during peak periods (rush hours). There are also MTA police and armed military with bomb sniffing dogs in White Plains Station (Metro-North Commuter RR), in White Plains where my office is located.

Now not for nothing, but I doubt that bombers would go after a train station in White Plains. It is about a half hour north of Grand Central by express train and is on the outskirts of a very small city. If they wanted to cripple that railroad they should bomb 125th Street-Harlem Station. Every single Metro-North train goes through there on its way in or out of Manhattan.

The Metro North RR is the main method of transportation used by around 6 million people every month to go in and out of NYC from the east side of the Hudson River (NY and CT).

Going after the bridges, tunnels, subway, commuter trains (LIRR & MNRR), ferries, landmarks, and ports (both air and sea) is an obvious target. Going after something more under the radar, like the MNRR station in Harlem would be easy.

The PATH Train has already been hit with the bombing of the WTC, the bridges and tunnels are on lockdown, and the airports are allegedly impossible to get throught with a bomb.

I see no security in Harlem Station when I get off there on Wednesday afternoons, around 5:30, to go to my pool league at Amsterdam Billiards. Is it because it is not as important, i.e. wealthy, enough as midtown is? Is it because this is something that they, the MTA, are oblivious to? I don't get it. Hopefully someone in that giant beaurocracy mislabeled as a privately held, state-subsidized company will read this and wake up. It is a real threat.

I understand that they have to have a strong, visible, mobile security force throughout the city in areas that are considered "high value targets," but they also need to make sure that they keep the back door locked, meaning...no way for the terrorists to sneak an attack in what is considered a less valuable target, but is in reality the highest value target in the entire city. Without tracks through that station, Grand Central is rendered useless. People from Connecticut and Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties have no trains into the city and will be forced to drive on already overcrowded highways on that side of the river...food for thought is it not?

In a bit of good news, all the people I know who live in London, including my Aunt who lives right near King's Cross Station, are ok. My friend who lives up in Birmingham is also ok after what happened with the evacuations up there also. Everyone is fine. My aunt was actually in New Jersey visiting my grandmother when the bombs all went off.

I always listen to Virgin Radio at work. That day I had no clue the bombs went off until I loaded the stream online and started hearing all of the accounts, emergency bulletins, news, etc. It freaked me out a lot because it reminded me of how all the radio stations here in NY were when 9/11 happened. It was eerie. Those poor people all died for no reason. Such a god damn shame.

My (short) Argument for Legalizing Drugs

...as opposed to My Long Argument for Legalizing Drugs...

After seeing shootout after shootout make the front page of the paper; seeing ghetto hoodlum and ghetto hoodlum end up in the paper, then in jail; and seeing countless other reasons why this should be I have decided to lay my argument out to the general public and see what the response is...Either way I am right and you are wrong. This blog is my world, I just let you co-exist in it. Let me state, beforehand, that I cannot verify the legitimacy of all my sources, but for sake of argument I will use the statistics provided purely as an example.


1. Taxes: Think about it, if the federal government legalizes drugs they can tax them like they do cigarettes, alcohol, clothes, cars, and anything else we choose to piss our money away on. According to NarcoNews.com, the US illegal drug trade is valued at anywhere between $100-$200 Billion. So based on that comparison lets do a little math. If we tax drugs at the same rate we tax income for a middle class salaried employee, roughly 35%, we will end up with an extra $350-$700 million in the government's coffers. Our national debt currently sits at $7 trillion, according to brillig.com. Imagine how good it would be if we used half of that money to pay off the debt, and the other half to be reinvested, on a formula based upon the student/teacher ratio, into the public schools. Then, these kids who end up spending their teenage years selling crack on a street corner, packing heat, and hoping they don't end up in jail can put their minds to greater use by having computers in school, newer text books, etc...People, at first, derided the lottery as legalized gambling, but last year the NY State Lottery put $1.9 Billion into the school system. 5% of their total funding. The stats are right here on their website.

2. Organized Crime: It is a widely known fact that organized crime is funded by a variety of activities including, but not limited to drug/arms/human trafficking, racketeering, money laundering, and so on. It is also known that a majority of these activities, atleast in the immediate past and present, revolve around the drug world. They launder the profits from selling drugs, they bribe politicians/police/federal agents to look the other way, smuggle arms into the country to arm their henchmen with the best weapons to intimidate the rival gangs/families off of their turf. Once politicians accept bribes for one thing they have it hanging over their heads and they are now under the influence of these criminals. That can only lead to further corruption. Also, these rival gangs often end up killing eachother fighting over the territory/drug profits. You take out the drug profits you take out a huge chunk of the money, and influence, they have over just about anyone. Terrorists also use drugs to fund their operations. If you think for one minute that those opium plants growing in Afghanistan aren't funding terrorism you are kidding yourself. Think about it.

3. USDA Regulation: The USDA would be able to regulate the purity of these drugs. People don't generally die from drug use, they die from the use of impure drugs, tainted needles that transmit disease, and so on. For example, cocaine is "cut" with all kinds of things ranging from baking soda, to household cleaners, to liquor. (neonjoint.com-How to Make Crack Cocaine) If the drugs are sold legally the ingredients must be listed, the needles must be sterile, the recommended dosage indicated. For all intensive purposes it makes sense to legalize drugs purely for this reason alone, aside from all the other positive benefits. If ingredients are listed there would be no such thing as a bad hit/trip, a gunned down dealer who dealt a bad batch, and so on.

4. Common Sense: If these above reasons don't convince anyone yet then I never can. I can expound on this topic endlessly, but don't want to bore you, the reader, with my unorganized ramblings. I feel I have made my point in this post. If anyone feels otherwise leave a comment and I can expand on it.

Assimilation

Assimilating back into American culture has not been easy. I am still fighting it. FIghting against eating fast food all the time, watching retarded tv shows, becoming ignorant as much of my fellow countrymen, and losing track of happenings and friends in Japan. It has been really tough. I have a lot of great friends in Japan with whom I had a lot of great times. I'm hoping they'll still be around when I go back, I know it won't be the same...it'll be different; but in a good way. I am looking forward to it.

That is all fine and good, but it is not the assimilation I am actually referring to. The one I am having the most difficulty with is the one into the American corporate culture. In Tokyo the companies I worked for were very liberal, young, fast paced, fun to work in offices. Nothing was all that serious most of the time. I had more fun at work than I did outside of it.

Working for a large investment bank here in NY has been an awakening, at times a most unwelcome one. Certain things that upset certain people in the office make you shake your head and wonder how people like that function in society. How can they walk around and not be constantly offended. I have been labeled a racist, a chauvinist, and so on.

For example...Ray Killen, the "Mississippi Burning Killer," who was made famous by a movie of a similar name, was on trial for a while. He was found guilty. The judge, after a great explanation and diatribe about how each life is held in equal regard no matter how old the defendant is and each should be treated with respect, tossed my man in jail for 3 consecutive 20 year terms. This guy is in a wheelchair on an oxygen tank. He might last 1 year in prison. With that being said there were two reactions in my office...one of total disgust at the fact they would put such an old man in such a terrible condition in prison...the other reaction of complete victory, one person actually said "they're going to love him in prison." Which I'm sure they will. In the lobby of my office building, where I joined close to 100 people watching the verdict read live on CNN, all the black people were screaming and cheering and hugging eachother like it was a victory for civil rights.

Not for nothing, but two white men were killed...1 black man. I think they seem to forget that. Not that their lives mean any more than the black man's life, because they don't...but don't treat this as some major victory for civil rights when it really isn't. It is a victory for morality...for justice as a whole. This guy got what he deserved, just wish it could have been back when he committed the crimes because this piece of shit got to live a full, complete life...the young men he killed, all younger than me, never got to. As much as I have done in my life, there is so much left to do. I couldn't imagine having it all end that soon. He robbed them of something much more valuable than anything money can buy...hopefully his last years of life in prison will make him wither away more painfully than he could have in the care of his family, at home, in a nice warm bed.

All of the blacks in my office disagree with me...they see it as a civil rights thing...everything is a civil rights thing with them. It all reverts back to slavery with them. Not to take away from that atrocity, but it was over 160 years ago that slavery was abolished and the country was left in tatters to make sure it never came back. Somehow I am a racist, according to a black co worker, because I thought that Mandom debacle in Japan was funny. It was...period end. I don't get how finding that funny makes me racist.

One other thing I also don't get...if they can convict Ray Killen after 41 years how is OJ walking a free man, how is Jacko innocent? If Jacko is honestly innocent then OJ will eventually find the real killers...might they be his caddies?

My fetish for Asian girls has led some of the cute white girls in my office, who came on to me when I first started working there, to call me a chauvinist. The fact that I speak Japanese, eat Japanese food, watch Japanese tv, and read Japanese newspapers has nothing to do with it...just my interest in j-girls...I think, if nothing else, my interest in J-girls stems from my interest in all things Japanese...I have always been really interested in Japan, even before I lived there. Living there was like pouring feul on the interest fire, if you know what I mean.

Those girls, whom I turned down, said the only reason I like J-girls is because they are brought up to be submissive slaves that are their boyfriend's personal whores, and that they practically throw themselves at good looking white guys...it's funny because I have also noticed that. However, the one girl I ever truely loved was the most American acting, thinking, and mannered J-girl I ever met. Ask Paul, he knows her fairly well.

I guess I am screwed because once I finally get used to the ass backwards, uptight, stuffy, bullshit political correctness of NY I will be on a plane back to Tokyo. I can't wait to escape.

On a side note, my room mate Ion is being transferred to London next week...lucky bastard. I'm going to miss him. I'll be over there to visit him soon though. Oz better watch out. He'll be within striking distance : )

Sorry I haven't posted more often lately, I have had serious writer's block as a result of the stress work is putting me through with all the studying for My Series 7 and the rediculous work load I have...will try to update more often.

Going to the Yanks-Mets game today at the Stadium....GO YANKS!!!

Yet Another Step Closer

The last week has been nuts. I got tickets to the Caesars on June 16th at Bowery Ball Room. The Caesars sang the iPod commercial song...Jerk It Out. I also got tickets to Dave Matthews on Governor's Island at the end of June (I think), and i also am going to get tickets to see Coldplay at the Garden at the end of the summer.

Not to mention the fact I have started studying for my Series 7 and am now well on my way towards my end goal of getting back to Tokyo, and to the girl I somehow still love.

Speaking of Miho, we have been talking a lot recently and have ironed out a lot of things. We have gotten back to being friends...we talk without problems for the first time in a while. If only she would give my Roger Clemens signed baseball to Paul before I rip her head off all would be right with the world.

The Yanks got ripped up by the Sox today...score was 15-1...yikes!

Will update this thing again soon.

Pure Genious

I just read this post by Maddox...anyone who hasn't should...it is spot on...

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=trippin

Things That Found me

I haven't done this in a while and I saw a rediculous search on Yahoo! on my visitor log...

"1 million japanese men bedroom blogspot"

and also I saw "drunk naked"

and "WHO'S YOUR DADDY? SUBWAY SERIES"

All I have to say is.....I know nothing about the first one, lots about the second one, and am sad about the Yanks losing 7-1 today to the Mets.

Operations/Back Office People...

are the bain of my existence. Oh my god do i want to hurt them sometimes. I know that I am no picnic to work with and have a tendency to talk down to people when I am annoyed/frustrated; but they are almost always the reason I am!

"The Cage," where they all are, is all the way on the other side of the office from my desk. So when I drop off things I need done after I put a lot of time into doing them if they are missing one thing why do you call me and tell me it's not right, then refuse to tell me till i get to the cage, then make me walk back to my desk, then back up with the remaining required docs?? Holy Shit!! Tell me on the phone so i can make one trip!

Or, if it is missing a signature, just get the god damn signature yourself!!! The compliance lawyers are all right next to you. For you to leave your enclosed area you actually have to walk through one of their offices. Stop wasting my time, and your's. Don't be so anal retentive...help me help you. I have been with this firm for only 2 months...I don't know any better.

When I ask you questions don't get annoyed with me. I ask cause i want to learn, not because I am questioning your actions/motives/reasoning/authority...I am trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can...not be talked down to by a bunch of dimwits...

Speaking of dimwits...the lady who answers the phones is such a nice lady. She is one of my favorite people in the office, but sometimes she can be a real pain in the ass. She calls back and tells me that two people are here to see my boss. So I ask their last names and she snaps back at me "They didn't tell me!" Well dipshit, we have more than one client with those very common names...FUCKING ASK THEM!!! Common sense no? And if I ask you something don't get annoyed...just answer it or tell me you don't know the answer and refer me to someone else...as you so proudly proclaimed one day: "I have been doing this for over 20 years! I know what I'm talking about." Seeing as how this is all new to me maybe you would want to help me learn what I need to know so I stop making small mistakes like signature/paperwork ommissions, etc that waste both of our time?? Just an idea hot shot.

On the flipside...the people in my group are awesome. I could not have more fun at work then I do with these guys/females...they are the coolest coworkers...we laugh all day...I usually look up at my clock and it's already lunch time...I love that feeling.

I quit smoking for good!!!

I joined a pool league at Amsterdam Billiards.

I saw Hot Hot Heat last night at Webster Hall.

Going to see The Caesers at Bowery Ballroom in a few weeks...Coldplay at the Garden in September.

I'm now studying for my Series 7. Will keep y'all posted on my progress...

Thanks for all the emails you, my faithful, have sent me. I am well, have no fear...I have just been busy making steady progress towards my return to my home....uchi wa toukyou desu.

A Long Month

The past month has been a struggle..mentally, physically, and economically. It has been hard to wake up some days, hard to deal with the fact that Miho is really gone. That she isn't ever going to be there again when I wake up in the morning. I still miss her very much, inspite of all the mean things she has said about and done to me since I left Tokyo.

Mentally, I am shot. My job is very difficult. The lady who got me the job...the wife of my old high school English teacher...is one of the most difficult people I have ever had to deal with. If I ever disagree with her she takes it as me arguing with her. She cuts me off, jumps down my throat, and accuses me of things I don't do. One of the being lying. I never lie...not at work atleast. if you lie in the financial industry it always eventually caught...see under Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, etc. I will get more into that at a later date.

Physically I am dead. I wake up everyday at 5:30 am to get to work by 8 am. It takes me an hour and a half to get there. I moved to the city to be close to work, not to commute back into the country. Shou ganai deshou?

Financially I am tapped. I make good money, but not nearly enough. I want to start paying off debts but I just don't have the resources. It sucks. i have friends making more than me, paying less rent living in Manhattan, not having to spend over $300/month on transportation, etc. It sucks. I just got to deal with it I guess.

The only bright spot in this whole thing has been Susan, my new girlfriend. Yes, she is Asian hahaha, she is ABC (ask your Chinese friends what it means if you don't know), first gen American. She is great. Also, my friend Natalie has been great too. She has been there for me inspite of the problems with her now ex boyfriend (2nd time she left him), I in turn have been there for her. She's also great.

I saw Kung Fu Hustle twice e the past week. First with Natalie, 2nd with Susan. Susan deadpanned the whole thing before she saw it, then she walked out in awe. Great movie. I can't wait to see Night Watch...it comes out July 29th.

I have a whole lot more to expand on from the last month. Including Susan, work, my family, the charities I am now working with, etc. I am going to start updating this thing a lot more often. I have neglected it lately.

One more thing...I QUIT SMOKING!!!!!!!!!!! A month and a half since my last smoke. I have no desire whatsoever to smoke. I feel so healthy since I quit. It's great.

The Past Month

Has been a god damn rollercoaster. First, Miho tells me she is going to visit her new boyfriend in Vienna expecting it not to make me mad. She didn't call me to let me know, she emailed me...what a fucking joke.

Then she has the nerve to say...is your love for me strong enough to survive this test?? Fuck that!! Test my ass! You are off fucking some euro-trash muppet Austrian guy (I am 25% Austrian by the way) and I am supposed to still want to see you?? Lick my balls like you so often did in the past. Give me a fucking break. I don't know why I torture myself over you...I don't know why, no matter how hard I try, I cannot shake the fact that I love you...I still love as much as the day I left Japan, despite the fact you have left me for euro trash, slept with two of my friends, and nailed someone that knows my friends...you sure showed me. Good work, your parents would be proud.

Next, I am now working for a large investment bank...I have no time for any kind of life. No email, no hanging out with friends, no blog, no anything...just work! So if I do not write back to anyone emailing me it is not cuz I am a jerk, it's cuz I just don't have the god damned time.

Third, I found a lil Chinese hottie at "Off the Wagon" a week ago and couldn't be happier. She is great...smart, beautiful, funny, and STILL IN COLLEGE! She goes to NYU and since she is an RA she has a whole studio apartment in one of the dorms to herself...it's huge! Dwarfs my room I had with Gary in Utica...damn.

Finally, it is so nice out. So I will update this bloody thing when I have the time. Sorry if all of my readers...all 3 of you...are upset at no more new material from my cynical depressed Irish ass...you'll have to wait longer.

I have a huge project relating to this site I am working on with any of the spare time that I have. Will clue you all in on it if it comes to fruition...