New York City Thoughts

I've been in New York City on business for the last couple of days. Jeez, what a place. It's nice enough to visit, but I couldn't live there. It's too noisy, too dirty, too bustling, and too much everything. It's one of the world's best cities and it beats Boston hands down. But, I'm still glad I live in a small town in New Hampshire. I'm also glad I live where I can own guns and shoot them with a minimum of fuss. Unlike New York or Boston.

It made me think of a book I read recently; Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She talks about relearning how to grow their own food and poultry. It partially inspired this post. Kingsolver is more than a bit of a leftist and I soon tired of reading about global warming, evil corporations, and other cant. Still, some ideas were quite good and I agree with her that it doesn't make sense to transport a watermelon from New Zealand during watermelon season in the United States.

One thing she mentioned was her family's decision to move from Tucson to rural Virginia. She was concerned about "sustainability" in Tucson pointing to water use and other issues. There may be some validity, but all cities are not "sustainable" whatever that really means.

Look at New York City. It's a hotbed of statist thought and practice. It's the home of the United Nations, Michael Bloomburg, and so much else that's a challenge to anyone who believes in individual rights and self-reliance. It's also the home of many environmentalists who decry logging in Oregon, water use in Las Vegas, drowing polar bears, and anything else that pops their corks.

These so-called environmentalists can't eat a meal unless it's brought to them. They can't live without corporate trade and support. They fear guns and want to take them away from the rest of us. They view hunting as a savage necessity at best or something that should be banned. They barely tolerate the "hicks and rubes" from flyover country that make their city-bound lives possible.

If they look in the mirror, they'll realize that they are ones who have a truly "un-sustainable" lifestyle. Yet they're always blaming someone else for global warming, corporatism, and everything else they consider wrong.