YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY, they drive too fast yakking on their phones, just look at those tattoos and piercings. They’re prisoners of technology…. How can they possibly take care of me in the way I expect if they behave as foolishly as I did when I was their age?

This is not an idle question when you live here in the third oldest county in the state. And that rank is an improvement over the last census, when Columbia County was the second grayest county in New York as measured by the part of the population 65 and older. The only counties that had a larger percentage of old folks are Hamilton, in the middle of the Adirondack forest, and Delaware, in the heart of the Catskills.  Must be the something in the water. Read more…

THIS IS A TEST. The subject is math. You, over there, sit down and stop groaning. First question: If John and Jane leave for school at the same time headed in opposite directions, how long will it take before county taxpayers spend $165 million?

News stories last week uncovered state exams with multiple choice questions that had no correct answer or, in some cases, more than one correct choice. But my question does have a right answer. If you said “One year,” you get a gold star. That $165-million figure represents, roughly, the total amount public school districts in Columbia County have proposed spending over the next school year. Read more…

I HAVE NO SYMPATHY for poverty. You want to wallow in poverty? Suit yourself. But do it somewhere else. If I had my way, I’d stop it right at the border. I’d say to poverty: Go back wherever you came from. Good riddance.

I’m a capitalist, a media mogul wannabe. We’re trying to run a business here, and poverty is not part of the plan. It’s a distraction and it’s expensive. Think of how much it costs us to keep people poor. Plenty of people are involved when you talk about poverty, even here in Columbia County. The Census Bureau says that almost 10% of the county’s population between 2006 and 2010 lived on incomes at or below the poverty level. Do the math and you find that’s 6,000 of our neighbors who live in poverty as defined by the government. Read more…