Port Authority PD Inspector Now Highest Ranking Woman in the Department

PAPD Inspector Norma Hardy

Photo: PA NEWS

Hell’s Kitchen Life has learned that Norma Hardy, a 19 year veteran of the Port Authority Police Department, was promoted to the rank of Inspector and received her shield in a private ceremony at PAPD Headquarters in Jersey City, on March 14, 2011. Hardy becomes the highest ranking woman in the PAPD, and one of the highest ranking African American women in New York City law enforcement (Note: The PAPD is a joint NY/NJ Agency). Hardy is only the third female Inspector in PAPD history, and the first African American female.

Currently the only female out of six inspectors in the PAPD (the highest rank below Chief), Hardy will command the PAPD’s Northern Zone, which includes; The Lincoln Tunnel, The George Washington Bridge, and The Port Authority Bus Terminal.

In her most recent role as Captain, Hardy was in charge of the Lincoln Tunnel, and prior to that the Holland Tunnel.  Prior to her promotion to Captain, she worked as a supervisor of the Ground Zero site from 2002 - 2008, where she began as a Sergeant and ended her tenure there as the Lieutenant in charge of the site for the PAPD.

Hardy was also the recipient of the PAPD’s prestigious Medal of Valor for Individual Acts, the agency’s highest honor, for her role in the February, 1993 World Trade Center bombing.  She was working below ground that day when a truck bomb exploded underneath the North Tower in the parking garage, killing six people and injuring over a thousand.  

As recently reported in the New York Post (Read it HERE), the PAPD is currently suffering from a shortage of Captains due to a recent overhaul in its Senior command, amongst which the promotions of Hardy and Richard Brazicki from Captain to Inspector have left only four active Captains to supervise approximately 1,700 officers.

How can we stop a Dictator when we can't even spell his name?

Fox News spells it: "Qaddafi"

CNN spells it: "Gadhafi"



MSNBC spells it: "Khaddafy"

So am I the only one catching this? How exactly is it that one very important Dictators name (whose been in power for 41 years) is spelled three different ways by three of the largest news organizations in the world ? (See photos above)

Best I can tell the only major news organization that has picked up on this factoid is New York Magazine, in this weeks issue in their Intelligencer column in a small (and as usual) odd little sideways chart which shows the Google search results for each of the various spellings. Interestingly, the number of search results for the spelling "Gaddafi", is the highest of all, yet its not used by any of the the aforementioned major news organizations, though the Washington Post does use this spelling (See it HERE), as well as a few European news agencies and Wikipedia. Of course the chart is not on the New York Magazine website so click on the image of the chart below to see.

For the record, for those that believe the New York Times is the news bible of the universe, they spell it the same as Fox News, "Qaddafi" (See it HERE).

Don't even get me started on the fact that they all spell his first name differently as well, but at least there are only two variations of that, not counting of course the "El" and "Al" prefixes; CNN and  MSNBC spell it, "Moammar", while Fox News goes for the more old-school, "Muammar", as does the New York Times and Wikipedia.

So, ladies and gentlemen of the esteemed mainstream press, can you all please figure out how to spell this delusional maniacs name so we can find him and get rid of him? Its hard to find his address when you don't know how to spell his name!



Time Warner Doesn’t Care About Disabled People (or anyone else from what I can tell)

I haven’t written an article since September 22^nd and I feel guilty. The primary reason is that I’ve been tied up with other projects, and the secondary reason is that quite frankly I have not had the motivation.

Thanks to Time Warner Cable, I found the motivation this week.

While I am a very private person and I generally don't share much of what I do, even with friends, I thought this was important and worth revealing, as perhaps it would help others. 

I recently began volunteering several days a week helping a disabled person; his name is Barry and he lives in my building. Barry also goes to the same dog run as I do so I have seen him frequently over the years in the elevator, around the neighborhood and at the dog run. Recently Barry’s condition has worsened, and he has been in and out of the hospital. He has substantial difficulty with his speech, as well as with walking, motor skills, and balance.

The Nielsen Ratings Scam: The joke is on us

I am not the first person to question, actually to be outraged, at the fact that the monstrous $49.6 Billion dollar annual television advertising market (according to Magna, a company that tracks advertising trends) is controlled by Nielsen, a private company who uses .02% of the viewing households (yes, that’s just two-tenths of one percent) which equates to approximately 25,000 out of the total 114 million viewing households to determine the entire television advertising market.  Even with its long ago plans (2007) to increase the size of its sample to 37,000 households in 2011, the increase and the sample size are still insignificant and meaningless. Now I didn’t do well in my statistics class in college, however, I think you need only an 8^th grade education to realize this is not a reliable sample. Period. End of discussion.

But wait, the larger question is this; why are these monster networks and cable companies at the mercy of (and relying on and paying) this ridiculous company, who with its antiquated measurement sample controls television, when the answers are right in front them? The solution is obvious; the top 25 cable companies in America (see the list HERE). These 25 companies have 96.4 million subscribers between them, and as there are 114 million viewing households, this is 83% of all households. Now that’s a reasonable sample.

Since most cable boxes in America are now two-way digital boxes that can send and receive information, my cable company not only knows what I watch and when I watch it, they know when I change channels, pause the show, what I record, when I turn my box off, and even when I unplug it. They probably know what I had for breakfast too.

This is one of the problems in America, we don’t question enough things, and we have a habit of believing and trusting someone (be it a company or a person) who we in reality know nothing about. It’s called naïve.

So can someone tell me why in the hell we need Nielsen and their ludicrous guesstimates when the precise total viewership (and household information) is available? Answer; we don’t need them at all. Dump Nielsen and let’s get some accurate information straight from the source so that we can finally find out who the 15 million people are who are watching Two and Half Men, because I refuse to believe that there are that many idiots in America.

Vote....or Shut Up

Tomorrow as many of you may not know is primary day here in New York State and there are a lot of very important elections for us, such as deciding who the candidates will be for Governor, Senator, Congress, and many State Senate and Assembly seats.

Voter apathy is pretty high here in New York City with perhaps the exception of the 2008 Presidential Election. In 2009, a big year for New York City voters as it was a Mayoral election year, there were only 1.1 million people who voted in the mayoral election citywide. Now that may sound like a lot, but not when you consider that it was a hair under 25% of the total number of registered voters, 4.5 million, who voted in that election (See it HERE), which is pathetic and sad. And by the way, yes, I voted in that election.

I would love to tell you who to go and vote for, but I'm not going to, and frankly that isn't the point, its simply that you need to go out and vote for someone, and hopefully spend a little time on Google reading up on who exactly you will be voting for if you haven't already. If you don't vote then you need to keep your pie-hole shut as you have no business complaining. Period.

DON'T BE AN IDIOT. VOTE. TOMORROW. DO IT.

Thanks...

Rest in Peace

John Dennis Levi, Port Authority Police Officer

John Dennis Levi, Port Authority Police Officer

On this day let us remember all of those who gave their lives for the freedom we breath, the words that we speak, and the soil that we stand on.

Rest in peace my dear friend

The U.S. Unemployment Rate is 22%....really

Yes, it’s true; the total percentage of unemployed workers in the U.S. is 22%. Before you laugh this off and dismiss it as a joke or the ranting of a radical lunatic, let me be clear; I am neither joking nor am I a radical lunatic, so take a look at the chart above and the facts below.

The U.S. markets have been swinging wildly for the last few months every time a new unemployment figure comes out, and the problem with this is that the reported numbers are NOT accurate and do NOT reflect the actual number of people who are unemployed in this country. This is not an opinion; it is a well documented fact.