Humanity

Syracuse Tobacco Retailers Map

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Syracuse Tobacco Retailers Map

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh on Friday signed a new city law that limits how many retailers will be able to sell tobacco products and where they can sell them. The mayor’s signature follows a public hearing on the law held Monday. Four people spoke, all in support of the measure. The Syracuse Common Council passed the law unanimously at its Sept. 5 meeting. The new local law creates a tobacco product retail licensing system within the city. Businesses licensed by the state to sell tobacco products, including vaping materials, will now have to apply annually for a city license, as well.

Same Sex Marriage Used to Be Illegal? Really?!

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Here is why I think future generations wll find that so shocking:

  • Same-sex marriage is not a tax. It doesn’t cost anybody anything, unless they choose to go out and get a marriage license to marry their partner.
  • There are no penalties if you choose not to get a same-sex marriage. It’s entirely voluntary. If you choose not to marry a partner of the same sex, you won’t go jail or face a fine.
  • Same-sex marriage is not a mandate. Businesses and local government will not have to do anything to adopt to the change, and indeed all of the same tax forms and paperwork as it continues.
  • Nobody loses any rights under same-sex marriage. Don’t like it, then don’t marry somebody of the same sex.

People who oppose same-sex marriage are really going to look backwards, when we look back, years from now.

What price the glory of one man?

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It always bothers me that it seems like every other street is named after some dead government worker, but true American hero like William Moore rarely get any kind of monument, are mostly a footnote of history. There are parades and whole celebrations for dead government workers, but rarely do ordinary courageous citizens get much commemoration. While William Moore, nearly 50 years after his death, got a monument to his life in Binghamton, it’s rare that you hear much about him compared to endless streets and monuments to long dead soldiers and politicians.

I am mentally ill, I guess 🤪

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You know that’s one of those terms I think about a lot these days. I like to point that out to my psychoanalysist, and he likes to point back to me, asking myself to explain what I mean by that.

It’s pretty easy to see a cut or a broken bone. You can test if someone is infected with the COVID virus or has the flu. Symptoms are pretty obvious. Mental illness is a much more complicated thing, if it really exists at all or is just in your head. There really is no right or wrong way to view the world.

One of the things I struggle with is figuring out whether or not a thought it mentally ill or not. What part is my beliefs, and which part is the illness? Are my beliefs right or wrong? But it’s not that simple. My analyst — and honestly most of the books I’ve read on mental illness point out — that beliefs are only harmful if they cause actual harm to myself or others.

I think part of my problem, is I don’t fully agree with the liberal consensus that is so dominate in Albany-area. But that also doesn’t make me a Trump-loving conservative. I believe in the right to be left alone, especially out in the country and in the woods. I believe in the second amendment and gun rights. I’m not worried about a little smoke in country — things that happen on the farm or in the wilderness are far less impactful then what happens in the cities, multiplied over thousands of people.