From Crain’s New York Business:

The cityÂ’s debt per capita has more than doubled since fiscal 1990, to $5,083 per head, according to a new report from the city comptrollerÂ’s office. The figure was $2,490 per citizen in 1990. That rate of growth exceeds the inflation rate by 63% and the growth in city tax revenues by 55%, the charter-mandated report said

In addition, the comptroller found that debt service costs will grow about 25% by fiscal 2006, reducing the funds available for city services. The costs are projected to approach 20 cents of every tax dollar, compared with 16 cents of every dollar today.

Aren’t we glad Giuliani used the boom years of the 90s to get NYC in better financial shape, fix up all of the roads and bridges, improve public transit…

Not that most of you want to read more political blogs, I suspect, but she is really good. On the state of the Washington Post:

The point is, it just feels like such a waste of time to try to read stories by journalists who are really just reporting on what’s going on inside their own heads. Fair enough for me to do it on my own weblog, but no one’s paying me for this. But in The Newspapers of Record? It’s like a horrible joke, except that it’s not funny.

[via Rittenhouse]

I’m going to the White Columns and Schroeder Romero openings tonight. I should be at the latter (in Williamsburg) at 8ish. E-mail me or call me if any of you want to meet up there.

Danziger on Leave No Child Behind.

[via TBOGG]

Gay men, lesbians and bisexual people are to be offered the same rights as married couples, a government minister indicated today, although she said this will not amount to "gay marriages".

I love the Guardian! They have a link to Peter Tatchell’s home page at the bottom under “useful links”.

Nicole Kidman isn’t the only fabulous woman in Australia.

The Evolutionary Control Committee … have topped themselves with this stroke of genius. It’s months worth of Dan Rather speaking on the CBS Evening News, edited down to its essence - Rather naming one calamity after another … and set to a cut up and rearranged AC/DC groove. … This could easily be cute and nothing more, but the ECC has made it an actual song… The B-side has a very long string of Rather disasterspeak on its own. Mix your own hit!
- College Music Journal (CMJ), 8/98

Go and download it right now!

I get regular emails of poetry from RealPoetik. They don’t put the stuff they send out on the web right away, so I’ll post the latest one, from Stacie Barrie:

I Sold You, You Sold Me
(a poem in Newspeak)

From the age of pavement
From the age of split seconds I salute:
Not files
Not papers
Not pictures
No need
No mini
No maxi
No need
Minus time
Minus space
Plus persons
Plus statues
Plus corporations undead
Freeway, landfill, proving grounds
Newthink bellyfeels prolefeed
Old behind
Old below
Oldthink always new
Victory is apathy

A couple more, found while researching her on the web:

Outskirts, by Stacie Barry

Jesus in the Psych Ward, by Richard Jordan

untitled, by Sal Salasin

Bin Laden Used Your Gas Money

Sept 12: Sell Your SUV Day

Protest Bumper Stickers

US troops are losing battle of the bulge

As American troops prepare for war in Iraq a report is about to reveal that more than half of them are overweight.

A panel of nine medical experts commissioned by the Pentagon is expected to say that 53.9 per cent of US military personnel over the age of 20 would be classified as too fat to fight under federal obesity standards.

A fifth of those aged under 20 would also fail the fat test, The Times has learnt. Iraq may not have such sophisticated weapons, but its soldiers at least fit their uniforms better.

…

A successful method used to recruit teenagers is to allow fast-food chains such as McDonaldÂ’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken to operate restaurants on bases. Mess food is no longer obligatory.

[Via TBOGG]

Maybe these guys can provide some fitness tips.