Saturday, June 28, 2008

Hamilton Heights is city's most earsplitting neighborhood



Hamilton Heights is city's most earsplitting neighborhood
BY CAITLIN MILLAT and KATHLEEN LUCADAMO DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Saturday, June 28th 2008, 11:32 PM

Hamilton Heights wins again.

The Manhattan neighborhood remains the noisiest neighborhood in the city with 5,686 complaints to 311 since last July 1, when the city introduced a hard-knuckled new noise code.

But a year after the code promised to hush noisemakers, residents in notoriously loud communities say the volume is as high as ever.

"I can't sleep. I can't talk on the telephone. I can't hear my TV. It's so noisy, I can't hear my own voice," griped Marsha James, 79.

Mesiyah McGinnis, 38, agreed. "It's always noisy here," he said. "I can hear sirens at all hours nonstop, but the noise is the pulse of the city."

The overhauled code cracked down on a host of noise culprits including jackhammers, bars and clubs, lawnmowers, barking dogs and even ice cream trucks. Fines can hit $175.

Noise complaints to 311 jumped 8% this year to 294,953 and the chief woe was loud neighbors.

Emily Lloyd, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, said the spike in complaints is proof New Yorkers are getting the message that noise won't be tolerated.

"Not that you have to do much to get New Yorkers to complain, which is a good thing, but now they know what to do when they see noise is a problem," said Lloyd.

Neighborhoods that produced the most noise complaints were Williamsburg and Flatbush in Brooklyn, Norwood in the Bronx and the East Village.

"Every year, it gets noisier because more and more people are moving here," said Sunny Kang, 53, who owns Sunny's Florist in the East Village. "The more people, the more business."

Danny Thomas, 56, said his East Village block could use some relief. "The horns, the music, the drunk people screaming all night. It hasn't changed a bit down here," he said.

Lloyd estimated it would take three to four years before the number of noise complaints starts to decline and New Yorkers notice a quieter city.

Still, the statistics should be read with caution, advised one expert.

"For the average New Yorker," said Eric Zwerling, director of the Rutgers University Noise Technical Assistance Center, "it's whether or not a specific complaint has been resolved in a reasonable matter."

Friday, June 27, 2008

Landmark Ruling Enshrines Right to Own Guns

Washington


Landmark Ruling Enshrines Right to Own Guns

Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press
Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court on Thursday after the justices’ decision on the District of Columbia handgun ban.

By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: June 27, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday embraced the long-disputed view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun for personal use, ruling 5 to 4 that there is a constitutional right to keep a loaded handgun at home for self-defense.

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The Majority and Dissent
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Interpreting the Second Amendment
Related
News Analysis: Coming Next, Court Fights on Guns in Cities (June 27, 2008)

Back Story With Linda Greenhouse (mp3)

Court Weighs Right to Guns, and Its Limits (March 19)

Text of the Decision (pdf)

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Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press
Dick Anthony Heller, a security guard, challenged the District of Columbia’s law.

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Susan Walsh/Associated Press
Dick Anthony Heller and his attorney Alan Gura, right, on the steps of the Supreme Court on Thursday following the ruling upholding the rights of the residents of the District of Columbia to own guns.

Enlarge This Image

Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency
Brent Willard helping a shopper on Thursday at the handgun counter of the Bulls Eye pistol range in Wichita, Kan.

The landmark ruling overturned the District of Columbia ban on handguns, the strictest gun-control law in the country, and appeared certain to usher in a new round of litigation over gun rights throughout the country.

The court rejected the view that the Second Amendment’s “right of the people to keep and bear arms” applied to gun ownership only in connection with service in the “well regulated militia” to which the amendment refers.

Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion, his most important in his 22 years on the court, said that the justices were “aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country” and “take seriously” the arguments in favor of prohibiting handgun ownership.

“But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” he said, adding, “It is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”

Justice Scalia’s opinion was signed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens took vigorous issue with Justice Scalia’s assertion that it was the Second Amendment that had enshrined the individual right to own a gun. Rather, it was “today’s law-changing decision” that bestowed the right and created “a dramatic upheaval in the law,” Justice Stevens said in a dissent joined by Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. Justice Breyer, also speaking for the others, filed a separate dissent.

Justice Scalia and Justice Stevens went head to head in debating how the 27 words in the Second Amendment should be interpreted. The majority opinion and two dissents ran 154 pages.
Justice Stevens said the majority opinion was based on “a strained and unpersuasive reading” of the text and history of the Second Amendment, which provides: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

According to Justice Scalia, the “militia” reference in the first part of the amendment simply “announces the purpose for which the right was codified: to prevent elimination of the militia.”

The Constitution’s framers were afraid that the new federal government would disarm the populace, as the British had tried to do, Justice Scalia said.

But he added that this “prefatory statement of purpose” should not be interpreted to limit the meaning of what is called the operative clause — “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Instead, Justice Scalia said, the operative clause “codified a pre-existing right” of individual gun ownership for private use.

Contesting that analysis, Justice Stevens said the Second Amendment’s structure was notable for its “omission of any statement of purpose related to the right to use firearms for hunting or personal self-defense,” in contrast to the contemporaneous “Declarations of Rights” in Pennsylvania and Vermont that did explicitly protect those uses.

It has been nearly 70 years since the court last examined the meaning of the Second Amendment. In addition to their linguistic debate, Justices Scalia and Stevens also sparred over what the court intended in that decision, United States v. Miller.

In the opaque, unanimous five-page opinion in 1939, the court upheld a federal prosecution for transporting a sawed-off shotgun. A Federal District Court had ruled that the provision of the National Firearms Act the defendants were accused of violating was barred by the Second Amendment, but the Supreme Court disagreed and reinstated the indictment.

For decades, an overwhelming majority of courts and commentators regarded the Miller decision as having rejected the individual-right interpretation of the Second Amendment. That understanding of the “virtually unreasoned case” was mistaken, Justice Scalia said Thursday.

He said the Miller decision meant “only that the Second Amendment does not protect those weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, such as short-barreled shotguns.”

Justice Stevens said the majority’s understanding of the Miller decision was not only “simply wrong,” but also reflected a lack of “respect for the well-settled views of all of our predecessors on the court, and for the rule of law itself.”

Despite the decision’s enormous symbolic significance, it was far from clear that it actually posed much of a threat to the most common gun regulations. Justice Scalia’s opinion applied explicitly just to “the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home,” and it had a number of significant qualifications.

“Nothing in our opinion,” he said, “should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

The opinion also said prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons would be upheld and suggested somewhat less explicitly that the right to personal possession did not apply to “dangerous and unusual weapons” that are not typically used for self-defense or recreation.

The Bush administration had been concerned about the implications of the case for the federal ban on possessing machine guns.

President Bush welcomed the decision. “As a longstanding advocate of the rights of gun owners in America,” he said in a statement, “I applaud the Supreme Court’s historic decision today confirming what has always been clear in the Constitution: the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear firearms.”

The opinion did not specify the standard by which the court would evaluate gun restrictions in future cases, a question that was the subject of much debate when the case was argued in March.

Among existing gun-control laws, just Chicago comes close to the complete handgun prohibition in the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old law. The district’s appeal to the Supreme Court, filed last year after the federal appeals court here struck down the law, argued that the handgun ban was an important public safety measure in a congested, crime-ridden urban area.

On the campaign trail on Thursday, both major-party presidential candidates expressed support for the decision — more full-throated support from Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and a more guarded statement of support from Senator Barack Obama, his presumptive Democratic opponent.

Mr. McCain called the decision “a landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom in the United States” that “ended forever the specious argument that the Second Amendment did not confer an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

Mr. Obama, who like Mr. McCain has been on record as supporting the individual-rights view, said the ruling would “provide much-needed guidance to local jurisdictions across the country.”

He praised the decision for endorsing the individual-rights view and for describing the right as “not absolute and subject to reasonable regulations enacted by local communities to keep their streets safe.”

Unlike the court’s ruling this month on the rights of the Guantánamo detainees, this decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, No. 07-290, appeared likely to defuse, rather than inflame, the political debate. The Democratic Party platform in 2004 included a plank endorsing the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment.

The case reached the court as a result of an assumption by the Cato Institute, a libertarian organization here, that the time was right to test the prevailing interpretation of the Second Amendment. Robert A. Levy, a lawyer and senior fellow of the institute, looked for law-abiding district residents rather than criminal defendants appealing convictions, to challenge the law.

Mr. Levy, who financed the case, recruited six plaintiffs. Five were dismissed for lack of standing. But the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of one, Dick Anthony Heller. He is a security guard who carries a gun while on duty at a federal judicial building here and was denied a license to keep his gun at home. The court said Thursday that assuming Mr. Heller was not “disqualified from the exercise of Second Amendment rights,” the district government must issue him a license.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/washington/27scotus.html

NB- Of course there are those who will continue to repeat that that oxymoron, "guns kill people", I must extrapolate that if a few people are killed with wrenches then they'll say "wrenches kill people".

Duh! Guns are made for two purposes "killing" and "target shooting" not necessarily in that or that one excludes the other order.

The fact is that people PEOPLE kill people using whatever means they have at hand whether a kitchen knife, strangulation with a garrote, or a 10-penny spike nail in the ear or a six by four whack to the head. In fact most killing is done via automobiles but no one seems to want to ban cars.

A Free people can only be assured of that Freedom by the Right to Own and Bear Arms just as the our Citizen Soldiers Founding Fathers did in 1776. The best defense against a despotic government is a well armed citizenry. - JRM

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Spain Gives Rights to Apes


Inside Cover

Spain Gives Rights to Apes

Thursday, June 26, 2008 1:12 PM

Spain’s parliament on Wednesday voiced its support for the rights of great apes to life and freedom, Reuters reports.

Spain adopted this new policy at the behest of the "Great Apes Project," a plan developed, in part, by Peter Singer and other philosophers and scientists who say the animals deserve the same rights as their closest genetic relatives.

Australian-born Singer, dubbed the “godfather” of animal rights, has stirred up controversy by asserting, among other things, that Christianity is a “problem” for the animal rights movement.

A professor of bioethics at Princeton University's Center for Human Values, Singer attacks "speciesism," which he defines as the belief that being a member of a certain species "makes you superior to any other being that is not a member of that species." He has also stated that a "severely disabled" infant may be killed up to 28 days after its birth if the parents deem the baby's life is not worth living.

Spain’s environmental committee of parliament approved the resolution with cross-party support. If the resolution becomes law, it will mean that potential experiments on apes will be banned within a year. In addition, apes used for commercial purposes, filming or circuses would also become illegal.

"This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity," Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes Project, tells Reuters.

"We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain, but there is currently no law preventing that from happening," Pozas notes.

Apes in Spanish zoos, of which there are currently 315, will remain legal, according to the legislation, but living conditions reportedly will improve substantially.

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/spain_apes_rights/2008/06/26/107595.html

Intro No. 476-A benchmarking and Preconsidered Int. No. ? disclosing efficiency

From: reysmont@hdfccentral.org
To: gennaro@council.nyc.ny.us
Cc:
viverito@council.nyc.ny.us
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2008 06:47 pm
Subject: Intro No. 476-A benchmarking and Preconsidered Int. No. ? disclosing efficiency

Hon. Hon James F. Gennaro, Chairman
Environmental Preservation Committee
The Council of the City of New York

Dear Chairman Gennaro:

Jim, as I will not be able to attend tomorrow's Hearing on captioned subject I am sending you a copy of my very short testimony for the record, I will send copies directly to Gary Alman and to Melissa Mark Viverito whom I have known for some time and consider a friend.

If there are any questions from me I will be happy to answer them at a later time or by e-mail.

Regards,

Jordi Reyes-Montblanc
Cooperative Coalition to Prevent Blackouts
c/o The HDFC Council
601 West 136th Street, Suite 1
New York, NY 10031
Tel: (212) 926-6425
Fax: 212-926-1765
No Walk-Ins - By Appointment Only

The HDFC Council........ 601 West 136th Street, Suite 1,
Cooperative Coalition to Prevent Blackouts..New York, NY 10031-8101
Tel: (212) 922-6425...........................................Fax: 212-926-1765



J. Reyes-Montblanc
Before
The Council of The City of New York
Committee On Environmental Protection
June 27th, 2008


Re: Proposed Int. No. 476-A; In relation to benchmarking the energy and water efficiency of buildings.
Preconsidered Int. No. _____: In relation to disclosing the energy and water efficiency of 1-4 family homes, co-ops and condominiums

Good morning Chairman Gennaro and honorable Committee Members, my name is Jordi Reyes-Montblanc and I am the President of the HDFC Council a City-wide association of Housing Development Fund Cooperatives for persons of low and middle income.

I am also the Chairman of the Cooperative Coalition to Prevent Blackouts (CCPB) and as such have testified before you on several occasions.

We find ourselves in a quandary in wanting to support legislation that promotes energy efficiency and lower costs to consumers and understanding the good intention of the legislations being proposed.

However, well intended those good intentions are misdirected in these cases.

This legislation will mandate an additional burden to cooperatives in general and to HDFCs in particular as most HDFCs are self-managed by volunteer Board of Directors.

The information that these Intros pretend to want to develop is readily available to City agencies and Consolidated Edison.

NYC DEP reads every water meter in every building in the City and their professional staff should be able to develop a computerized routine to calculate the efficiency profiles sought. Particularly after the last two water rate increases I find it very difficult to assume their responsibility at my own cost.

Consolidated Edison reads the electric meters of every building and every apartment on direct billing. Again the professionals at ConEd are in a perfect situation to develop computer routines that will develop the legislation desired efficiency profiles. Again I find it very difficult to assume a utility’s function at my own cost.

DEP and ConEd should provide that service and make the information available on line so that anyone interested may access it.

Additionally ConEd should be mandated to promote the use of “smart” interval meters in all of the installations they serve and read including master-metered buildings.

The legislation should be redrafted accordingly and place the burden where it belongs.

Sincerely,

[signature]
J. Reyes-Montblanc
President

Grey Wolf-6

http://forums.delphiforums.com/HDFCCentral/messages/?msg=.903.1

Supreme Court Voids D.C. Gun Ban - SECOND AMENDMENT UPHELD!!!!


Newsfront

Supreme Court Voids D.C. Gun Ban
Thursday, June 26, 2008 10:31 AM

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

The basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual's right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for four colleagues, said the Constitution does not permit "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home."

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority "would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons."

He said such evidence "is nowhere to be found."

Joining Scalia were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. The other dissenters were Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter.

The capital's gun law was among the nation's strictest.

Dick Anthony Heller, 66, an armed security guard, sued the District after it rejected his application to keep a handgun at his home for protection in the same Capitol Hill neighborhood as the court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in Heller's favor and struck down Washington's handgun ban, saying the Constitution guarantees Americans the right to own guns and that a total prohibition on handguns is not compatible with that right.

The issue caused a split within the Bush administration. Vice President Dick Cheney supported the appeals court ruling, but others in the administration feared it could lead to the undoing of other gun regulations, including a federal law restricting sales of machine guns. Other laws keep felons from buying guns and provide for an instant background check.

Scalia said nothing in Thursday's ruling should "cast doubt on long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons or the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings."

The law adopted by Washington's city council in 1976 bars residents from owning handguns unless they had one before the law took effect. Shotguns and rifles may be kept in homes, if they are registered, kept unloaded and either disassembled or equipped with trigger locks.

Opponents of the law have said it prevents residents from defending themselves. The Washington government says no one would be prosecuted for a gun law violation in cases of self-defense.

© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


NB - Some people tend to forget that everyone of the Framers of the US Constitution owned firearms of various types for many purposes. The same people tend also to forget that everyone fo the Founding Fathers owned firearms and used them to create our Republic and separate us from England.

Personal ownership of firearms is the best guarantee of the Citizens and Citizen Soldiers to defend our communities and country against all enemies, foreing and domestic as the old saying goes.

This decision by the Supreme Court should be applauded by every Freedom loving Citizen and Legal Resident of our Country and should serve as an example to New York as all of the restrictions on gun-ownership only empowers the criminals. It is time New York laws were changed to allow Citizens to own firearms and even carry with minimal restrictions. - JRM

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Is Columbia Ready for Our Recession/Depression?

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Is Columbia Ready for Our Recession/Depression?
Posted on June 25th, 2008
by Ed Kent in All News
Read 111 times.

Is Columbia Ready for Our Recession/Depression?

CAUGHT OFF GUARD — BUT WHY?
Economic downturns are part of a painful and predictablereality for universities, but — perhaps purposely — few have long term strategic plans to deal with budget cuts.
http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/24/statecuts

…………………………

None but the most optimistic of stock brokers (paid to buy or sell regardless) are not deeply worried about the state of the economy — U.S. and also global. The stock markets have been dropping rather precariously this month and the job picture — particularly for college grads trying to get launched — is grim.

Where in this picture does Columbia stand? Yale and Harvard have been putting great efforts into planning for their undergrads — now tuition blind admissions for them allow the choice of the best, regardless of family incomes. It can make a vast difference for students, particularly when families are being hit by economic hardships induced by health, death, job emergencies.

Is Columbia revising its plans in light of the obvious? To date it has been laying out astounding funds for administrative salaries and perks. I don’t know where its faculty are in this picture, but they presumably will be feeling the pinch with inflation and increased living costs. One has to wonder how Columbia is going to manage its ambitious expansion plans into Manhattanville? It has sunk considerable monies there with high expectations for fund raising and NY State loans.

But will both of these sources be able to meet this high risk project’s demands? NY State, itself, is not in the best of shape — one of the states with the largest debt pictures and its own public universities to maintain. My department of philosophy at Brooklyn College alone was matching Columbia’s students with awards of prestigious grants and fellowships — quite a bargain for the expenditures for a college education which increasing numbers were taking on with our special CUNY honors programs designed for gifted students.

The bottom line here — will Columbia be driven into even higher tuitions for undergrads to keep its heat and light bills paid. I would hate to be a parent of a Columbia student with such possible prospects entering the picture during the grim financial years to come.–“A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope.” (Livy cited by Machiavelli)

–Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]

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Remembering George Carlin


Remembering George Carlin
The Man Who Took the Stand
By Andy Thomas
Epoch Times New York Staff
Jun 24, 2008

Late comedian and actor George Carlin
at the "Conversation With George Carlin"
event, May 8, 2008 in Beverly Hills,
California. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)


When you talk about the legends of comedy, certainly Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, and Rodney Dangerfield come to mind.

There is no doubt that George Carlin belongs with such a group. Yet in his style, George Carlin seemed like a man made from his own mold.

Raised in Morningside Heights in upper Manhattan, he was much more than a guy who would grab the mic and make people laugh.

For a man who questioned whether vegetarians could eat animal crackers, or if it was possible to have a civil war, there was much more under the humor that he longed to answer.

He inspired people to think, to question, to do a double take and recognize when we were being sheep.

He had a way of looking at humanity, life, and politics that smashed the box that we were told to think out of. He was the crazed old uncle that would tell you like it is, leaving the cushion of subtly and political-correctness to the wind.

Brute honesty would be called his angle by historians, yet he had no angle at all. Honesty was a part of who he was.

What others would think but not dare say, Carlin would say loudly with a punchline crescendo.

A memorial wreath stands near comedian
George Carlin's star on the Hollywood Walk
Of Fame on June 23 in Hollywood,
California. Mr. Carlin died Sunday at the
age of 71. (Charley Gallay/Getty Images)

He refused to recognize the boundaries others feared to cross, or if he saw them, he would drive past them as if they were a traffic light along a journey of self-reflection that he and his audience were taking.

And he was one of the few that was courageous enough to do so. Yet this wasn't done for the sake of causing controversy, like most comedians today who test or cross the line. Carlin did it for the sake of coming to an understanding of who we are as a society.

He was just as lost as all of us, but he yearned to know the answers, and spoke out loud about the questions that still lingered in the back of his mind.

And despite his profane crankiness, there was this sense that after the whole routine or interview, after all the supposed complaining stopped, and after you thought he had no more questions left to ask us all, that he would invite you into his world even more, to grab a coffee and talk shop about the world.

If there are seven words to describe George Carlin: He was a man that inspired, humorously.
Thanks George!

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-6-24/72374.html

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Comedian George Carlin, A New York Native, Dies Of Heart Failure


Jun 24, 2008
On NY1 Now: News All Day
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Comedian George Carlin, A New York Native, Dies Of Heart Failure
Celebrated comedian and social critic George Carlin died of heart failure Sunday in Santa Monica, California at 71.
Carlin, a native New Yorker who was born and raised in Morningside Heights, told people to look in the mirror, question their own behavior, and laugh at the ridiculous nature of American life. "That's the whole meaning of life isn't it, trying to find a place for your stuff," said Carlin.
"That's all your house is, your house is just a place for stuff."
After a stint in the Air Force, Carlin entered show business, first as a radio disc jockey then as a comic. Carlin found his niche far away from the safe comedy of his predecessors.
He spent decades ridiculing society and popular culture, pushing the accepted boundaries of free speech with bits like the "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television."
Carlin was arrested for that routine, but the charges were later dropped under First Amendment rights. When the routine was later played on New York radio station WBAI, the station was fined and censured by the Federal Communication Commission, leading to a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding a ban on offensive material during hours when children might be listening.
New Yorkers said that he will be missed.
"I thought he was a great comedian," said one New Yorker. "You know, he always made me laugh. And I'm a young guy, and even I understood where he was coming from."
"I have memories of him, cracking me up," said another.
"Carlin had a lot of guts to come in front of people and say a lot of things people say we shouldn't mention," said a third.
Carlin produced nearly two dozen comedy albums, wrote three books, and won four Grammys. He was also the first host of "Saturday Night Live."

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=82965

Monday, June 23, 2008

Comedian George Carlin dies at age 71




Comedian George Carlin dies at age 71
By KEITH ST. CLAIR – 17 hours ago


LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) — George Carlin, the dean of counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalized in his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine, died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.


This is an undated file photo originally released by HBO of George Carlinto promote his HBO special, "Its Bad For Ya". A publicist for George Carlin says the legendary comedian has died of heart failure at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., Sunday June 22, 2008. (AP Photo/HBO, Robert Sebree,file )

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

Carlin's jokes constantly pushed accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" — all of which are more or taboo on broadcast TV and radio to this day. When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail — and typically unapologetic on his release.

This is a March 19, 2004 file photo of actor and comedian George Carlin posing in a New York hotel . A publicist for George Carlin says the legendary comedian has died of heart failure at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., Sunday June 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull/file)

A Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying the language was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.

When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1978 upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Carlin hosted the first broadcast of "Saturday Night Live" in 1975. He noted on his Web site that he was "loaded on cocaine all week long."

He also produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies. He was a guest 130 times on "The Tonight Show."

He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

When asked about the fallout from the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction," Carlin told the AP, "What are we, surprised?"

"There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body," he said. "It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

Carlin was born May 12, 1937 and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of high school in the ninth grade, he joined the Air Force in 1954. He received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments, according to his official Web site.

While in the Air Force he started working as an off-base disc jockey at a radio station in Shreveport, La., and after receiving a general discharge in 1957, took an announcing job at WEZE in Boston.

"Fired after three months for driving mobile news van to New York to buy pot," his Web site says.

From there he went on to a job on the night shift as a deejay at a radio station in Forth Worth, Texas. Carlin also worked variety of temporary jobs including a carnival organist and a marketing director for a peanut brittle.

In 1960, he left with a Texas radio buddy, Jack Burns, for Hollywood to pursue a nightclub career as comedy team Burns & Carlin. He left with $300, but his first break came just months later when the duo appeared on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. r Carlin said he hoped to would emulate his childhood hero, Danny Kaye, the kindly, rubber-faced comedian who ruled over the decade that Carlin grew up in — the 1950s — with a clever but gentle humor reflective of its times.

Only problem was, it didn't work for him.

"I was doing superficial comedy entertaining people who didn't really care: Businessmen, people in nightclubs, conservative people. And I had been doing that for the better part of 10 years when it finally dawned on me that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong things for the wrong people," Carlin reflected recently as he prepared for his 14th HBO special, "It's Bad For Ya."

Carlin's first wife, Brenda, died in 1997. He is survived by wife Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law Bob McCall; brother Patrick Carlin; and sister-in-law Marlene Carlin.

Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed to this report.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ina7M8zC1QQGSxe-e-PxBrf9kl0gD91FLN5O0

Comic pioneer George Carlin dies at 71




Comic pioneer George Carlin dies at 71
BY DAVID HINCKLEY DAILY NEWS TV CRITIC
Updated Monday, June 23rd 2008, 2:30 AM
George Carlin, an extraordinary standup comedian whose dark social satire won him multigenerational popularity and a starring role in the most famous broadcast obscenity case of modern times, died Sunday of heart failure in Los Angeles. He was 71.

The Manhattan-born comedian, who always said his often-cynical satire simply reflected his real-life disdain for mankind's greed, stupidity and inconsideration, had a history of heart problems. He also did a stint in rehab in 2003 for drug dependency.

The TV network Comedy Central in 2004 named him the second best standup comedian of all time, behind Richard Pryor.

Late last week the Kennedy Center announced he would receive its annual Mark Twain prize for American humor this November.

Carlin became one of the most popular standup comedians in America in the 1960s and early 1970s through programs like "The Ed Sullivan Show."

He seemed ambivalent about that success, though, and gradually shifted much of his act to a counterculture posture reminiscent of the late Lenny Bruce. Carlin admired Bruce and was in the building when Bruce was arrested for obscenity.

Carlin was one of the first comedians to dress "naturally" for a standup routine, in jeans and a beard, and his most famous routine became "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television."

The comic point of the bit was that everyone says the words, but that we hypocritically pretend to find them offensive in the media. He was arrested for performing that routine in Milwaukee in 1972. A year later the routine was broadcast by radio station WBAI in New York, which was sanctioned by the FCC for broadcasting obscene language during daytime hours.

The case eventually worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the sanction was upheld in a 5-4 vote that has continued to guide broadcast obscenity and indecency policy through today.

Carlin said that ruling simply reinforced the original point of the routine - and his own frustration with America. He stopped voting after George McGovern was defeated by Richard Nixon in 1972, he said, calling elections "the illusion of choice."

The "Seven Dirty Words" case did reinforce his stature as a counterculture hero, though, and he was the first host of a new TV comedy show called "Saturday Night Live" in October 1975.

A year later he unexpectedly quit live performing. He returned five years later with the acclaimed album "A Place for My Stuff" and began a series of HBO specials he would continue until early this year. He also performed regularly in Las Vegas.

He took a number of TV and movie roles over the years, introducing himself to a new generation of fans with the "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" series and an even newer generation with children's shows like "Thomas the Tank Engine."

He did voiceovers in films that included "Cars" and in 1993 he got his own sitcom on Fox, "The George Carlin Show." He played George O'Grady, a New York cab driver, and the show ran 27 episodes.

Carlin also wrote several best-selling books, including "Brain Droppings." Columnist Mike Barnicle, a big fan, was fired from the Boston Globe after borrowing too liberally from a Carlin essay there.

He was a frequent guest with radio host Don Imus, one of many performers who hailed Carlin as a deity of modern comedy.

Carlin grew up on W. 121st St., which he would later joke that he and his friends "called 'White Harlem' because it sounded tougher than 'Morningside Heights.' "

He attended Cardinal Hayes High, dropping out at 14. He was in the Air Force before he tried his hand at show biz.

While growing up he developed a lifelong love of New York street-corner rhythm and blues and remained a lifelong fan even after he moved to the West Coast.

Off-stage, he was married for 26 years to the former Brenda Hosbrook, until she died in 1997. They had one daughter, Kelly.
dhinckley@nydailynews.com

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216 comments so far. Add your comment below!. [Discussion Guidelines]

fat_wallet Jun 23, 2008 6:00:32 PM Report Offensive Post http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVeFVtcdSYY

blkpwr Jun 23, 2008 6:15:20 PM Report Offensive Post "Cloud nine gets all the publicity, but cloud eight actually is cheaper, less crowded, and has a better view" > (George Carlin)> (see above)

drivertoni Jun 23, 2008 6:29:23 PM Report Offensive Post Good evening burph, I can see from the following sentence that Harvard didn't care whether you knew how to spell or not: "My parents thought not educated taught me the difference between rght and wrong, the power of Fatih and the value of an education." You may want to proof read your writing before submitting it, though not thought, faith not fatih and you left the i out of right. I never said that I hated the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, I simply stated that our country is not always right and still has a lot of learning to do, nothing and no one is perfect. As far as hating god, how can I possibly hate someone I have neither seen nor met. Me, self-loathing, NEVER, I BELIEVE IN MYSELF and LOVE the PERSON THAT I AM. I have also taught my children to do the same. It's really ashame that you and so many other AMERICANS can't see that slowly but surely our freedoms are being taken away. Little by little, but it is happening and not many of us see it. Have a nice life burph, good night an

blkpwr Jun 23, 2008 6:36:15 PM Report Offensive Post Because SATIRE often combines ANGER and HUMOUR it can be profoundly DISTURBING - because it is essentially IRONIC or sarcastic, & it is often MISUNDERSTOOD. >>> if it affects somebody personally, they tend to be more SENSITIVE."

blkpwr Jun 23, 2008 6:38:20 PM Report Offensive Post "What was the best thing before sliced bread?" > (George Carlin)

blkpwr Jun 23, 2008 6:43:30 PM Report Offensive Post “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?” . .This title offends all three major religions, and even vegetarians!" > (George Carlin)

blkpwr Jun 23, 2008 7:03:34 PM Report Offensive Post George... my brother from another mother.........sublime, and ridiculous, you blazed a trail, you followed no man’s path » like a modern-day Davy Crockett. . .loaded for bear > > (blkpwr)

heinekenskywalker Jun 23, 2008 7:27:28 PM Report Offensive Post "show me a tropical friut in the middle of winter & i'll show you a c**ksucker from guatemala"...LOL

WhiteKingRex Jun 23, 2008 7:41:14 PM Report Offensive Post To me George Carlin was not only the best comedian since the 1960s began, but also as close to a hero of mine as I've ever had! I took my future wife to a George Carlin concert on our first date in 1983 and she said it was the funniest experience of her life and was instantly hooked. My wife and I were getting ready for work this morning when we heard ther very sad truth of his sudden death. we were both overwhelmed and teary eyed. Rest in peace George;in the eyes of your devoted fans the world lost an irreplaceable talent and the world will be a much less humorous place. In the words of the super talented Jackie Gleason: "George you're the greatest'!!!!!!

lump516 Jun 23, 2008 8:18:56 PM Report Offensive Post At his best, Carlin was paralyzingly funny--I remember a thoroughly-political routine he did on the ED SULLIVAN SHOW (poking--hard--at the Vietnam War) back when he was a "square" that can still reduce me to breathless agony, just as it did that very white and middle-class audience. His "seven words" routine used a string of obscenities to wander off into odd and whimsical places that no other comedian could get by just swearing. "Baseball vs. Football," a routine that even grandfathers probably liked, was actually a sly dig at driven, angry people (just RELAX was the real message). But there was also the smug, nasty side. People who still voted, believed in God, etc., were fools and brainless sheep. Such a view of the world can sometimes produce brilliant and acid satire. And sometime it just produces grumpy rants about how the world is going the way that YOU want it to. In his later years, Carlin was basically just an angry old man--sometimes witty, but a lot of the time jus

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http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/2008/06/22/2008-06-22_comic_pioneer_george_carlin_dies_at_71.html

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Some See Gaps as School Aims To Be Diversity Model



Some See Gaps as School Aims To Be Diversity Model

By ELIZABETH GREEN, Staff Reporter of the SunJune 19, 2008

When Columbia University opened a private elementary school, the vision was bold: By hiring the most talented educators in the business, the school would be a model of best practices. It would also be a model of diversity, taking both neighborhood and university children.

Today, the School at Columbia University is ending its fourth year further from this dream than many who started out there would have wanted.

Parents heap praise on the diverse student body, which is split 50-50 between the children of Columbia faculty and children in the surrounding neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Harlem, and the Upper West Side. Yet some have also been soured by a change in the financial aid allocations two years ago that led to an exodus of about a dozen parents, all middle-class New Yorkers with no Columbia affiliation — "community" people, in the parlance of the school.

A Democratic Assemblyman of Manhattan, Daniel O'Donnell, said yesterday that after the exodus, he wrote several letters calling the change a betrayal of the university's commitment to include both neighborhood and faculty children. He is the one who provided the dozen parents figure.

Much diversity remains, yet parents said that, although the younger children embrace it, parents are slower to form a cohesive community.

One parent, Lysa Vanible, said race and class differences sometimes cause discomfort, such as when friends of her children inquire about their fathers or make references to African Americans' history as slaves. She said that she and other parents — black parents as well as parents of children with disabilities and other minority groups — are forming an independent committee to discuss sensitivity issues next year.

"We have to find out how to get along," she said.

Teacher turnover is another concern. Of about 100 teachers this year, roughly two dozen will not be returning in the fall, the head of school told teachers in an end-of-year memo this week that listed departing staff members. The memo was shown to The New York Sun.

A parent who asked not to be named said that while teachers have overall been of excellent quality, the ritual of turnover is becoming worrisome.

"We've always ended every year with anxiety," the parent said. "Five years later the school is still like a new school. It's still creating itself."

In a series of e-mail messages, the head of school, Annette Raphel, described the School at Columbia University as a thriving community where spots are greatly coveted. More than 80% of current staff are returning in the fall, she said.

Ms. Raphel said the financial aid issue was not a policy change but an effort to correct a discrepancy; Almost 90% of families not affiliated with the university receive financial aid, she said.

The third head of school in four years, Ms. Raphel came to the school after spending two decades at the prestigious Milton Academy.

A Columbia professor whose sons attend the school, Cory Abate-Shen, praised the school's diversity, describing a recent playdate as an example: Her twin sons, the children of professors, invited as their guests a boy from Turkey, a boy from Israel, and two boys from Harlem.

Another parent, Delphine Durugordon, said the school has been a gift.

"It's the kind of school, when you walk in, you are happy walking into it," she said.
Ms. Vanible, a single mother of seven children, said she is grateful too, but also careful not to become complacent.

"I'm not going to accept everything that's given because I'm poor," she said. "I push the envelope a little bit, because I have black males, and I don't want them to grow up to be in jail or to do crimes or to be mixed up."

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/some-see-gaps-as-school-aims-to-be-diversity-model/80295/

Thursday, June 12, 2008

USMC RECON Fitness Training







USMC RECON Fitness Training
by Stew Smith

There are two types of RECON Marines: "Battalion" & "Force" RECON. The training paths for Marines in both RECON units are similar. The RECON Marine's advanced training focuses on a platoon's likely missions while deployed, so Battalion and Force RECON Marines basically differ only in who their boss is - either the Battalion Commander or the Task Force Commander.

Initial training consists of Marine Recruit Training, and the School of Infantry, which is the standard training where EVERY Marine learns to be a rifleman. Recently, changes in recruiting have enabled young recruits with little experience to attend the RECON Indoctrination Program (RIP). Students with the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 0321 RECON Marine are then assigned to the Basic Recon Course (BRC). The new Marine will be placed in BRC with Marines with several years experience as well. But upon successful completion of the BRC, all Marines report to their assigned recon unit & receive various professional, technical and tactical training. Ask your recruiter about the RECON MOS Option if interested in becoming a RECON Marine.

Marine Recon INDOC

1st Force Recon's current "indoc" or RIP is a 48 hr. evolution. Previously, in order to even get invited to attend the indoctrination course, you must have between 3-4 years of experience in the field and should be scoring at least 285 on the Marine Corps PFT: As with any Special Operations units, you must be a stellar Marine with a near flawless record. Recently, the new program mentioned above will allow highly motivated new recruits a chance to attend RIP. As long as they are physically above average and are able to reach the scores above (275 enlisted - 285 officer) they can attend after boot camp. Below scores represent a perfect 300 on the USMC PFT:

  • - 3-mile run (18:00min 100pts)
  • - 20 pull-ups (dead hang) 100pts
  • - 100 sit-ups/2min. 100pts.

You will be required to perform two obstacle courses in under 2:00 each time, swim 500 meters in full cammies in 17:00, and other fun water activities. 10-mile ruck with 50lbs pack in less than 2 hours is also graded.

It helps to prepare months in advance with swimming at least 4-5 times a week. Wear cammies and fins at least once a week too. Minimum swim practice time should be an hour daily.

You will also be required to perform what is called a Level Test, which is:
  • - Max Push ups 2min.
  • - Max Sit ups 2min.
  • - Max Pull ups 2min.
  • - Max Flutter Kicks 2min.
  • - Max 8 Count pushups in 2:00
  • - Max scissors in 2:00
Your calisthenics workouts should consist of the above exercises performed every other day for a total of 3-4 times per week. The day of PT rest will help your muscles recover and be able to gain more reps in two minutes. Also practice perfect form but do each of the exercises as fast as you can. Speed and endurance is your goal.

Running is also a major part of INDOC. You should run at least 4-5 times per week and perform a rucksack run once a week in order to prepare for the following:

  • - Forced March (or "Hump") for 20 miles @ 4-5mph
  • - Rucksack Run 3-4 miles timed (with 50 lb)
After repeating the Marine PFT again you get to interview with the Team Leader and Company CO/XO. You may physically make it but still not get selected. Usually, it is attitude and teamwork difficulties that get you rejected at this phase of INDOC. Once selected, the Marines are assigned Recon Indoctrination Platoon. This is similar to going back to USMC Recruit Training. The Marines have only supervised liberty, physical training and classes at all time of the day and night at the Amphibious Reconnaissance School (ARS) in Little Creek, VA or Coronado, CA. Once the Marine finishes ARS, he is a Reconnaissance Marine.

PT programs used to train for the Marine Corps PFT can be found in the following Military.com links:

Other Marine Corps Fitness Related Links:

Stew Smith is a former Navy SEAL and fitness author certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

If you are interested in starting a workout program to create a healthy lifestyle - check out the Military.com Fitness eBook store and the Stew Smith article archive at Military.com. To contact Stew with your comments and questions, e-mail him at stew@stewsmith.com.

USMC Special Operations
RECON Fitness Training
The Combat Swimmer Stroke
Performing for Special Forces
SpecOps Fitness Prep
SpecOps: Who's Toughest?
MORE

http://www.military.com/military-fitness/marine-corps-special-operations/usmc-recon-fitness-training?ESRC=soldiertech.nl

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Hamilton Home Heads to a Greener Address


N.Y. / Region

Hamilton Home Heads to a Greener Address

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times
After being raised over a church’s side porch, Alexander Hamilton’s country home was perched on Convent Avenue. Its journey to St. Nicholas Park on Saturday should take three to six hours.


By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: June 7, 2008

No matter that Alexander Hamilton’s country home, the Grange, is 206 years old. Until now, it had been in a perfectly contemporary Manhattan real estate bind: not enough space.
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Multimedia


Interactive Feature
Moving a Historic Home






David W. Dunlap/The New York Times
Interior of the Grange, Alexander Hamilton's country home, braced for the impending move.






Robert Caplin for The New York Times
The Grange, Alexander Hamilton's historic home will be moved to greener pastures.


What to do? Move, of course.

So on Saturday, the two-story, 298-ton wood-frame house will be rolled conspicuously — and slowly — from its cramped site on Convent Avenue to an appropriately verdant new location a block away in St. Nicholas Park, facing West 141st Street. That is as close as it can get these days to the rural setting for which it was originally designed.

Once new foundations are completed, a yearlong, $8.4 million restoration and reconstruction will undo decades of unsympathetic alterations to the house, known formally as the Hamilton Grange National Memorial.

Stephen Spaulding, chief of the architectural preservation division in the National Park Service’s Northeast region, said the 500-foot move on Saturday should take three to six hours.

But in a sense, the journey has taken almost half a century. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy authorized the Interior Department to assume ownership of the house on the condition that it be moved to a suitable location.

As redevelopment sagas go, the story of the Grange ranks among the most protracted. For want of money and almost any concerted political will to get the deed done, at least until recent years, the Grange languished in near-obscurity as other historical landmarks gained a higher profile.

Visitors have found the Grange jammed between a six-story apartment house and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, its formal front facade abutting the church and all but invisible. Nor is this even its original location. Until 1889, when it was moved for the first time, the house was on 143rd Street, west of Convent Avenue.

Lost in the intervening years was any public sense that the founding father on the $10 bill, the nation’s first treasury secretary, had lived in Harlem; that a creator of the federal government passed his last two years in a refined country estate designed by John McComb Jr., an architect of City Hall, from which he departed in 1804 for the duel with Aaron Burr that cost him his life.

Now, in the house he left behind, Hamilton is again coming to life. To their joy, National Park Service officials have discovered that the front stairway, though much modified over time, is essentially the one built for Hamilton, complete with original risers, treads, balusters, ornamental scrollwork and support structure. It will be rebuilt in its original form.

“Alexander Hamilton ran up those very treads!” said Steve Laise, chief of cultural resources of Manhattan sites for the National Park Service, which owns and runs the Grange. “It just puts you in such close proximity with the past. For those of us who really wish we were living back then anyway, it’s probably more of a stimulus to our imagination than we really ought to have.”

Lovely exterior details are also evident for the first time in more than a century, including a triple-hung sash window. Smaller windows on either side have an alternating star-and-circle tracery. “That kind of pattern is well rooted in 18th-century Anglo-American design practice,” said Seth Joseph Weine, a fellow of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America.

Last week, the Grange was raised up and over a loggia, or side porch, at St. Luke’s and now sits on steel beams atop nine dollies in the middle of Convent Avenue. On Saturday, it will be rolled down the avenue; turned east onto 141st Street; rolled down a hillside with a 6 percent grade, past Steinman Hall of City College; turned south at Hamilton Terrace; then rolled into the park.

Windows, especially those at the corners, will be among the most vulnerable areas. To reduce any chance that the structure will shift out of shape, it is being bound tightly with wire rope and tied diagonally to the beams on which it is now supported. The chimneys are also to be braced.

Twice during the move, the house will be inspected. Windows will be tested to ensure that they are operable, meaning that no undue pressure is being exerted against the frames. Existing plaster cracks, already documented, will be checked to make certain they are not widening. If problems do arise, Mr. Spaulding said the house can be releveled by adjusting the blocking between the steel beams and the frame of the structure.

For now, he does not anticipate any need to halt the move outright.

As for that 6 percent slope on 141st Street, Mr. Spaulding said the contractor “is very confident that the grade is not going to be a problem.”

“He’s moved houses down grades like that before,” he added. The move itself is being done by Wolfe House and Building Movers of Bernville, Pa. The general contractor is Integrated Construction Enterprises of Belleville, N.J.

Each of the nine dollies has its own propulsion and braking system, Mr. Spaulding said, powered electrically and hydraulically. “If there’s any failure of the systems,” he said, “the brakes lock
up.” There are four brakes on each dolly, for a total of 36 brakes.

Mr. Spaulding and his colleagues will breathe easier on Saturday night, but given the reconstruction and restoration ahead, they will not have much chance to relax. “Our goal for reopening the house would be the fall of next year,” he said. “There’s a lot more work to do.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/nyregion/07grange.html

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N.Y. / Region

Witnessing a House, and History, on the Move

Andrew Henderson for The New York Times
After 119 years on Convent Avenue, Alexander Hamilton’s country home made a well-documented move around the corner to St. Nicholas Park.
More Photos >

By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: June 8, 2008



With surpassing dignity and surprising agility — for a 206-year-old — Alexander Hamilton’s country home, the Grange, lumbered down the West 141st Street hillside on Saturday morning to its new setting in St. Nicholas Park.
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Multimedia
Slide Show
Moving Day for the Grange


Interactive Feature
Moving a Historic Home

Related
Hamilton Home Heads to a Greener Address (June 7, 2008)

Under the eyes of neighbors from Harlem and Hamilton Heights, a moving crew composed mainly of German Baptist Brethren from Pennsylvania, often mistaken for Amish in their plain dress, guided the two-story, 298-ton house on a 3 hour 40 minute trip from its former site on Convent Avenue.

It turns out that the Grange, whose architect also worked on City Hall, is capable of doing about 0.04 miles per hour. (It is unclear how quickly City Hall can move.)

In its new setting, the house will be restored by the National Park Service and reopened to the public next year. The project’s cost is $8.4 million.

On Convent Avenue, the Grange’s formal front facade was jammed so close to the abutting St. Luke’s Episcopal Church that it was invisible. Visitors had to approach the house from the side, through a makeshift entrance, if they bothered to come at all. Though the Grange is a national memorial, it was almost forgotten.

“To the residents of the community, it’s like our brother from the Virgin Islands has come back home,” said Representative Charles B. Rangel, the Democrat from Manhattan who has been involved for decades in efforts to restore the Grange. Hamilton’s boyhood home was on St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.

Watching the proceedings from St. Nicholas Park, Winston Walker said much the same thing about Hamilton. “He’s an immigrant, and that’s important,” said Mr. Walker, who was born in Jamaica and now lives at Convent Avenue and 148th Street. “He was one of us.”

A personal and proprietary sense of Hamilton, co-author of the Federalist Papers and the first treasury secretary, was evident among neighbors. Sheryl Lee, 29, a musician and music producer who lives next door, said: “It was nice to look out my window and see Alexander Hamilton’s home. It’s been here for so long. That’s what makes Convent Avenue Convent Avenue.”

Larry Butler, 52, a hospital security officer, was walking his dog past the newly open lot. His view has improved without the Grange, but he said he approved of the move for other reasons. “Now that it’s in the park, it’ll be able to exhibit its full glory,” Mr. Butler said.

One question hangs over the final situation of the Grange, however. A lawsuit filed last week by Friends of Hamilton Grange, an association of community groups, property owners and preservationists, seeks to prevent the park service from reorienting the house so that its front faces 141st Street. Instead, the group insists that the house be oriented as it was on its original site on West 143rd Street, where it stood from 1802 to 1889, when it was moved to Convent Avenue.

The suit, in federal district court, did not seek to halt the move itself.

That began at 7:30 a.m. The house had already been jacked up so that it could pass over the top of the loggia of St. Luke’s. It was then set down on nine dollies controlled by a remote unit mounted at the front of the assembly. The move was performed by a team from Wolfe House and Building Movers of Bernville, Pa., led by the brothers Jamin, Mark, Nathan and Nevin Buckingham.

Wolfe was chosen in part because it was the only bidder with experience in lifting landmark buildings high off the ground, said Sid Raman, the president of Integrated Construction Enterprises of Belleville, N.J., which is the general contractor.

At 9:35 a.m., the house cleared Steinman Hall of City College with about 18 inches to spare. On reaching the park, it was turned around to its intended orientation. Maria Burks, the commissioner of the National Parks of New York Harbor, called the move “a work of art” in its own right.

Watching from the sidelines was James Wyckoff. In 1652, his ancestors built what is now known as the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House Museum, at Clarendon Road and Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn. That makes it 150 years older than Hamilton’s house.

“This isn’t really an oldie,” Mr. Wyckoff said, as the Grange rolled downhill in his direction. “But it’s a goodie.”

Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/nyregion/08grange.html

N.Y. / REGION June 8, 2008
N.Y. / Region: Moving Day for the Grange
Andrew Henderson/The New York Times
Alexander Hamilton’s historic home in New York City was carted through city streets to a new location.