Commencing Operation Shark-Jump... now!

My thanks to Sharon for her typically generous invitation; may the family trips be safe and enjoyed by all. Having recently watched The Jerk for the first time in years, I feel a bit like Steve Martin, running the gas station in Jackie Mason's absence. Hopefully, no one will drive off with the church next door before Sharon returns.

I can't say for sure what I'll be contributing, but I can say regular readers can expect the following:

1) Not much politics. It's not that I have no opinions to offer, but I rarely follow issues as closely as Sharon does, and would not have the eye for the telling detail that she often brings to bear. The proprietor's been giving you fine dining, so I'm don't want to degrade her kitchen by offering substandard fare. (Of course, in the likely event that Bush, Rove, Coulter, etc. do/say something asinine, I will likely chime in. Easy targets, I can hit.)

2) Nothing NJ-specific. I'm posting from Indianapolis. Besides, you've seen The Sopranos.

3) Nothing about Sharon's home life. If you need a fix, watch Animal Planet. Or get yourself a wonderful husband and ridiculously adorable children.

One thing I can offer -- a call-back to a topic I helped introduce to this site. The aptly named Band Madness (http://bandmadness.net) is about to wrap up the tournament that began months ago, with 512 artists whittled down to a remaining 8 "greatest of all time". Many of you will be surprised to learn that voters on this site have managed to push Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode and The Cure into this rarefied territory. (Fine artists in their own right, perhaps... but... wow.) Of course, if you've ever seen the Internet, you will not be surprised at what happened along the way. As the site's author tells it:

In the past week, our once enjoyable little site has mutated into an orgy of dick-comparing, homophobic slander, people arguing a band’s importance by saying the band’s name with exclamation points or by a list of their songs, and just generally uninteresting, mean-spirited idiocy.

So organized niche voters? Check. Mean-spirited idiocy? Check. It seems like if we substitute "9/11" for "the band's name" in the above quote, we might start to develop a metaphor for something.

(This is why I didn't claim "NO politics.")

Summertime fun

I have a few vacations planned this summer; we're off to New Hampshire one week, and Down the Shore for another. That means I'll have some time when I won't be able to update CoNJL as regularly as I'd like, so I've asked someone to join the writing team here for the season (well, at least now it is a team.)

Welcome Chris A. to the CoNJ Summer Staff.

Faint praise

Every weekend, the Times of Trenton has a "Hits and Misses" editorial, reviewing news bits from the week. From today's (which I can't find online):

HIT: Republican U.S.Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr's achievement in actually attending his own fund-raising event Tuesday whiel the guest speaker, First Lady Laura Bush, was present. In fact, Kean was early by a couple of hours. In March, the candidate somehow was unable to get to a Newark fund-raiser in time to greet and be photographed with Vice President Dick Cheney, a figure far less popular with New Jersey voters than Mrs. Bush.

That's the way, Junior! Lower expectations and keep your name in the press by not managing to fail at the most basic duties. (Hey, it worked for W in 2000...)

Prom Heat

(Wow, I wonder what kind of hits I'll get from the title alone. But I digress...)

North Hunterdon Regional High School has been under fire lately for the handling of some kids at the prom who were apparently drinking:

Administrators were following school district policy when they pulled the students out of last Friday's dance and required them to go to a hospital for blood tests, Hughes said. School board policy does not provide for use of an on-site Breathalyzer or oral swab tests, he said.

Kids? Drinking at a prom? Unheard of! No wonder parents are upset! That would NEVER happen, right? Well, MY kid wouldn't do it, anyway...

So the parents of some of the kids raised a stink, and demanded an apology because their kids of course were completely innocent. Ya-huh. They want a public apology, preferably at the upcoming graduation:

They may be waiting a while.
"I'll take the heat," Principal Michael Hughes said yesterday. "If it means everyone made it home safely? I'll take the heat."

Yay! Principal Michael Hughes!

"I think (the incident) was way blown out of proportion," (Asst. Superintendent Frank) Helies said yesterday, adding the emotional comments directed at the school board Tuesday night were "normal parent complaining."
And while the board is still investigating the incident, the district "probably just won't have a response," Helies said.

As well they should not. Look, kids do stupid things. Some of these kids were checked out negative for alcohol, some were positive and were suspended. So, hopefully the ones who were clean learned a lesson- stay away from jerks who are doing things they aren't supposed to do or you may get caught up in their mess. But the parents who are demanding an apology and reimbursement for all prom expenses? Dream on. You aren't owed anything. Be glad your kid didn't get a ride home from one who was drinking, and sleep well knowing that tonight.

Ahh, but here's where the professional muckrakers step in. NJ101.whine has decided to aggrivate the situation to get attention, the way they do with everything else:

Feeding the controversy, 101.5 FM radio personalities "The Jersey Guys" are staging a second prom -- all-expenses paid -- for the North Hunterdon senior class, co-host Craig Carton said.
Students proven to have consumed alcohol on the night of the original prom will not be allowed, he said.
"We obviously take underage drinking very seriously ... but we're not going to pass judgment on any of the kids there," Carton said, adding the dance will be "100 percent alcohol free," with security officers searching the students and sniffing their breath as they enter the event. "Prom 2" will take place Friday, June 23 at the Nash Dance Center in Randolph Township in Morris County.
Listeners of the afternoon show have volunteered to provide a variety of services, including a disc jockey, photographer and free beauty salon appointments, Carton said. Donations are expected to cover 90 percent of the costs, he said, but he declined to provide an estimated total bill.
Carton and co-host Ray Rossi -- who have made headlines in recent years for on-air attacks against former Gov. Richard Codey and Edison Mayor Jun Choi -- are also encouraging North Hunterdon students to protest their classmates' treatment by standing in unison at graduation and turning their backs when Hughes speaks.

So, what these kids will be shown here is a gimme-gimme attitude; when things don't exactly go your way, you should react by demanding things, disrespecting people and pushing for attention. Remember, kids learn from everything they see, not just what you teach them.

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.85; Citgo, Fresh Ponds Road and Rt. 130, Dayton; 2:27PM.

Quick comment on tracking

So, earlier this month I made the switch- I added SiteMeter because Blogpatrol couldn't get their act together. BP periodically went down- for hours or days often not counting visitors, had lousy response time when I tried to log in and sometimes wouldn't let me at all, you name it. My "count" icon was completely whacked, too, so I took it down. I was finally sick of it. I added SiteMeter.

But I never discontinued BlogPatrol.

I just checked BlogPatrol out- they updated their interface, quick response time, full information, and they have the same stats as SiteMeter- it looks like they haven't gone down in days. Once I finally bail on them, they turn it all around.

So I'll leave 'em both out there. Do you have any preference?

New Quinnipiac Poll- Senate race

A new Quinnipiac poll shows the Senate race here in NJ is pretty close. The big headline numbers are that Senator Robert Menendez leads challenger Tom Kean JUNIOR by 43%-36%, with 17 % undecided. No, that doesn't sound too close, until you read the rest.

The non-headline "rest of the numbers" are always the most interesting, to me anyway.

50% of responders said they haven't heard enough about Menendez to have an opinion about him, where 56% haven't heard enough about Kean Jr. Of those who did have a definite opinion on how to vote in the election, 40% said they might change their minds before the election. Also, even though Junior is trailing Menendez, his "honest and trustworthy" poll numbers are at 42%, whereas Menendez is riding at 38%. This far away, the election is a lot closer then the Dems would want it to be, or than those headline numbers display.

Some of the numbers were well in Menendez's favor, however. 49% of us agree with Sen. Menendez when he says Junior is a "George Bush Republican who would support the Bush administration policies."- and that hurts him, with 50% of responders who agreed saying it makes them less likely to vote for Junior. However, when Junior calls Menendez "a political party boss who is unethical," only 23% of us agree.

Oh, and 68% of us disapprove of Bush's handling of Iraq. The only thing surprising about this number is that it isn't higher.

Beer- is there nothing it can't do?

Turns out, beer is good for men. Hops contain an ingredient which has just been shown to help prevent prostate cancer!

Don't go stock up just yet, however:

He noted an ingredient in tomatoes, lycopene, has previously been linked to prostate cancer prevention. "It's every man's dream to hear that beer and pizza can prevent cancer," he said. "However, the 17 beers and four large pizzas needed to get enough xanthohumol and lycopene to help prevent prostate cancer is unfortunately not advised."
Atkins noted that drinking 17 beers a day can lead to alcoholism and cirrhosis of the liver, and overdoing it on pizza can lead to obesity and other health problems.
"Food, no matter how helpful it may be, is not a full preventive for prostate cancer," he said.

Got our Summer Wheat beer out of primary fermenter last night- it's still bubblin' after almost 3 weeks on the yeast, which is too damn long. Hope to brew more this weekend and bottle this stuff soon- we need it for summer, after all.

Better than I could've said it

As often happens, Princess Tata hit a bull's eye. What is our actual goal here? Notice the goal and the outcome aren't the same.

Panter v. Skinny Bleach-Blonde Evil

Gusciora was unable to make the Hannity and Colmes show, so my own Assemblyman Michael Panter stepped up instead. He did well; he held his own, and didn't get too flustered when they refused to let him speak or insisted he go off topic by pushing Cindy Sheehan quotes for him to react to. He wasn't able to make too many comments, because it doesn't pay for Hannity or Coulter to let him finish anything he says, but he did get a few good quotes in:

Panter to Coulter: "None of them has a book for sale. YOU have a book for sale." After Coulter went off the deep end, baselessly insisting several times that Panter wanted to burn her book, Panter stated "Your hyperbole is exciting, but no one is calling to burn your book." When they tried to throw partisanship at him, he reminded them that Republican Rep. Chris Smith had brought the 9/11 widows to Washington.

They called him a no-name politician from Jersey, and Hannity even pulled the insulting trick of calling him "Mr. Politician" instead of using his real name. Well, some of us here in Jersey sure know his name, and after watching him stick up for these women while in the lion's den of wickedly slanted "journalism," I'm glad that I do.

Colmes did what he does best- kept his mouth shut 95% of the time, then made an inappropriate comment at the end about burning Coulter's book to keep warm next winter. Lovely.

UPDATE 2PM TUE. JUNE 13TH: Here's the video. Yes, you have to go to Fox News to get it- maybe you should wait until you're about to take a shower anyway.

Here's the PoliticsNJ poll as to who won the debate. As of right now, Panter's got it. Not that we're biased here in Jersey...

Skinny Blonde Evil Vs. Reed Guciora

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora will be taking on heartless horror of a human being Ann Coulter on Fox News tonight at 9PM, due to her remarks on the 9/11 widows.

It's a rare thing that I'll watch Fox News- this is worth it. Unfortunately, Fox isn't know for giving dissenters a lot of screen time, but I expect Gusciora is aware of that.

AFL-CIO mailing

Today, I (and you, probably) received in my mailbox a flyer from the AFL-CIO, along with the NJEA and the Communications Workers of America, requesting I fire off postcards to be sent to my state senator and assemblyman on my behalf, urging them to "Pass Governor Corzine's budget today."

They sent only two preprinted postcards; I guess they see no point in my lobbying my assemblywoman, Jennifer Beck, a Republican.

I've written extensively on this subject, especially when Corzine introduced the budget. I support it. There are cuts in it, regardless of what stupid, sensationalist radio announcers and extreme-partisan bloggers will tell you, and the tax increases are reasonable at this time- plus there is a significant reduction in gimmicky one-shot revenue tricks. We got a thumbs-up on it from the Wall Street types- folks who know about finance, fans and friends, way more than you or I- who are also the folks who set our bond rating, which determines how much we pay in interest on our massive state debt. No, I'm not happy about paying an extra percent on sales tax, but increasing our debt or even deeper cuts to services will make this a worse state to live in, and that's unacceptable to me. No one is happy about every provision in this budget, but overall it makes sense, and I support it as the most fiscally responsible thing to do at this time.

This union mailing made me realize I'd never asked my legislators what they think, nor have I written them to tell them what I think. D'oh!

I'm not sending the postcards. I sent an email, which should get responses from them rather quickly. I'll let you know what they say.

Oh, if you haven't written your legislators about the budget, go do it now. Tell them what you think, and be specific- if there's a provision you specifically appreciate or dislike, tell them.

Make Your Voice Heard.

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.97, Rt. 1 & Franklin Corner Rd., Lawrence, 6/10 4:18PM.

Stop Smiling

Have a nice weekend. Drive safely.

Evil has a skinny bleach-blond face

Satanic Minister and poison Kool-Aid distributor Ann Coulter is at it again. In her new book, named something ridiculous I'm sure, she labels a group of 9/11 widows from Our Fair State "The Witches of East Brunswick" and declares, "I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much."

Let that sink in a moment. This heartless horror of a human being has the damned nerve to pass judgment like that.

From Senator Frank Lautenberg:

"Ms. Coulter's shameless attack on the victims of the worst act of terrorism in American history can only engender disgust," Lautenberg said in a statement.
"Her bookselling antics and accompanying vulgarity deserve our deepest contempt.
"Her foul remarks trivialize the deaths of every single person who died that terrible day, including .. .those brave police officers and firefighters who ran into those burning buildings."

What a sleezeball she is. This is probably the lowest she's sunk, so far anyway.

(cross-posted at Blanton's and Ashton's.)

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.87, Getty, Yardville-Hamilton Square Rd., Hamilton Sq. NJ, 5:15PM 6/7.

Independents for Senate

Today, from PoliticsNJ.com:

So far, four Independent candidates have filed to run for the United States Senate: Socialist Party candidate Gregory Pason, who is making his third Senate bid; Edward Forchion, aka the Weedman, is running under the "Legalize Marijuana" slogan, except in Burlington County, where his slogan is "Judicial Christianization Victim"; J.M. Carter, who ran in 2000, using the "In God We Trust" slogan; and Angela Lariscy, the Socialist Workers Party candidate.

Glad to know Weedman hasn't given up. He is nothing if not persistent. I'd love to hear the platform for "Judicial Christianization Victim," but it probably consists of:
1. Legalize Marijuana
2. Legalize Marijuana
3. Legalize - wait, do you have any chips? Or maybe Oreos?

Go Vote!

I voted about an hour ago, and I was number eighteen.

Eighteen.

Only eighteen people have voted in my district so far today. If that holds true throughout the state, we're in for record low turnout- and that's saying something, my friends.

You can even declare your party affiliation right at the polling place, if you never got around to doing that before. Polls are open until 8 PM.

GO VOTE!

What???!

I heard him say it, and I gasped. My kids in the back seat shouted, "What? What?" because they don't listen to NPR news on the radio, nor would they have understood the ridiculousness of Bush's statement.

"When judges insist on imposing their arbitrary will on the people, the only alternative left to the people is an amendment to the Constitution, the only law a court cannot overturn."

ARBITRARY WILL?? ARBITRARY??? Could we possibly give our federal judges a little credit, that maybe they are interpreting the written laws? That's kinda their job. They're sure as hell better at it than Bush is, who doesn't seem to have much respect for laws, anyway. Many of those judges were even appointed by Republicans.

It's just classic Republican smoke and mirrors- deflect attention away from the issues at which they're failing, like the monsterous and ballooning national debt, the disasterous war, Haditha, illegal wiretapping, a complete lack of coherent energy policy, the Medicare prescription plan fiasco, human rights abuses in Guantanamo, etc. etc. etc. From Harry Ried: "This is another one of the President's efforts to frighten, to distort, distract and confuse America. It is this administration's way of avoiding the real problems American Citizens are confronted with each and every day."

I don't know why I gasped out loud like that. I shouldn't be shocked by anything this administration says at this point, even by labeling judges who disagree with him as "activists" and "arbitrary." I guess I was more angry about the attempt to shift focus again toward something where Bush can pander to the religious right, and about one more effort, as Sen. Russ Feingold called it, to write discrimination into our constitution.

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.93 at Riggins, across the street from $2.85 at Getty, Mercer St., Hightstown, NJ 1:40PM 6/6.

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.85, Getty, corner of Rt. 571 and Old Trenton Road, West Windsor, 7:30PM.

Snakes on a Plane

No, not the Samuel L. Jackson movie that we can't wait to see; I mean an actual snake on a plane.

Ebert says it all

Roger Ebert's review of An Inconvenient Truth is great. Go read it now.

Global warming is real.

It is caused by human activity.

Mankind and its governments must begin immediate action to halt and reverse it.

If we do nothing, in about 10 years the planet may reach a "tipping point" and begin a slide toward destruction of our civilization and most of the other species on this planet.

After that point is reached, it would be too late for any action.

...

In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.

Here in the Center of NJ, it's playing in Montgomery, Princeton Garden Theatre, and at Clearview's Red Bank Theatre. I was hoping to go see it tonight, but for lack of a babysitter I cannot. We will see it soon.

Oh, and go solar. But you knew I'd say that, didn't you?

Some random bits

I haven't got enough of anything to make one long blog post right now, so here's some random notes from the week so far:

Governor Corzine flew to Ohio to have his annual physical earlier this week. You'd think there should be someone closer who would've accepted his insurance.

The primary elections are next Tuesday, as you probably well know. If you haven't declared a party, you may declare at the polls. New Jersey has a high number of undeclared voters, which is more a function of the fact that you can't declare easily when you register than that we're an undecided bunch. Since next year our presidential primary matters, you may want to get named to a party.

I attended the local Memorial Day celebration, which was a great success, with both Assemblyman Michael Panter and Senator Ellen Karcher attending. Also in the crowd were canvasers for Carol Gay, handing out flyers to get involved in her campaign for the 4th district Congressional seat. I guess we're considered mostly Dems here in the Center of NJ; the Republican Assemblyperson, Jennifer Beck, didn't attend, nor did I see anyone campaigning for Chris Smith. (Not that Chris Smith ever bothers to campaign much, not does that hurt him come election time.)

Central NJ smackdown

It's a big Central Jersey fight- between Serenity An-An Fung of Somerset and Austin Tamutus of Bordentown- for the Best Speller title in the Scripps National Spelling Bee! Good luck, kids.

Maybe one of them could tell me the preferred spelling of "smackdown."

Carnival of NJ Bloggers 54

The Carnival of NJ Bloggers is up at eCache.

Waving goodbye to Sluggo this weekend- he's shutting down the blog after three years. Let's all raise a glass...

Before you head to the shore this weekend

If you're from Jersey, you'll go to the shore at some point, even if it's not this weekend. Shamrocketship has a list of rules for Bennies, complete with glossary in case you're unfamiliar with any terms.

Another reason why I love where I live

Because Michael Panter is my Assemblyman.

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.85, Gulf, Rt. 130 N, Village of Windsor (Washington Twp.)

Actually, that's the one I wrote down because I was near the traffic light, but there were several gas stations in that area that were $2.85 for a gallon of regular. Prices seem to be on the slight decline here in Central NJ, down from $2.87 a week and two ago. Not what I expected, going into Memorial Day Weekend.

Brewing news

I haven't talked much about beer lately. I do so love beer. Here's an update on the homebrewing activities in the Did I Say/Center of NJ house:

We have a Marzen in secondary fermentation, where it can stay for a long time, but since it's been about two months we have got to get it into bottle soon (maybe this weekend.) We put a Wheat beer into primary fermentation this weekend, and it's bubblin' away! We used German hops and a Belgian Wit yeast, so it should be a simple wheat beer with a lot of flavor. The ESB we bottled a while back is good- strong, strong hop presence and flavor, almost IPA-like in character.

We get most of our homebrewing supplies from The Brewer's Apprentice in Freehold. It's a brew-on-premises operation as well, and they handle both beer and winemaking. It always smells great when you walk through the door there.

Maybe I'll go see what's cold right now...

Practicing what you preach

At their annual meeting last Saturday, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton approved a proposal to go solar. This is in keeping with the Seventh Principle of the Unitarian Universalist Association, "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."

This is the quintissental example of practicing what you preach. Woo-hoo! They join the Church of St. Helena in Edison, Holy Trinity in Brant Beach, and the Unitarian Society in East Brunswick, among others in Central NJ and across Our Fair State, in using the sun for energy.

If you don't know much about UU, here's a primer from the Colbert Report (disable pop-up blocker first. It's about halfway into the clip.) It's essentially accurate, and illustrates the dilema in explaining the faith. Here's how the Unitarians explain.

The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly

BlueJersey has this video from the New Jersey Legisative Correspondents Dinner last week. If you know anything about Our Fair State's politics, it's hysterical. Even if you don't, it's still lol-funny to see how they depict things in Trenton.

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.87, Route 33 and 527A, Millstone Twp, 5/20 3:57PM.

Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers LIII

Welcome to the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers #53! We're glad you've joined us on this breezy day in the Center of Our Fair State. Let's check out the week's writings...


Our Stories

Truthfully, they're not happier than you are. Picking up and going- the fantasy for some, reality for others. Headin' for the dentist makes us more approachable and knowlegeable of grocery locations. Fabulous dinners, smiling spouses and dashing duds make a happy anniversary. Do you need a new, pricey, space-age washer and dryer? Who won the Caddy- cancer or diabetes? A friend, taken too soon. We're not the only ones wrapping up the week's posts. Sometimes, the code dragons are serious dragons.

New Jersey

Predictablility in PR for the new book. The Schools Construction Corp. isn't in the money yet. Immigration and corruption- sounds like a senate race to me. It's pretty hard to pick the most evil politician in Our Fair State. A discussion of a recent Supreme Court decision.

In the Headlines

Anarchist Robin Hoods are having fun in Hamburg. Who's that searching for sex on the internet? It's time to come home and repair the damage done. Don't expect big changes this November. High Schoolers are able to get the job done where big business didn't. Did he really mean to say- that?

Fun and Beauty

He'll keep trying, but no patent this time, Damon. Beautiful "Pictures" in New Brunswick. Astronomical timepieces and Rainbow's End, but don't wait too long for coffee. Just think about being one hundred years old. Late harvest, and tasty. Beauty, lakeside. Fourteen formulas are cinematic sure-fires. It's all Greek to me, and enjoyable. Mad Libs rush- rounds 13 & 14 and 15 & 16 are happening now. The weather is getting better- now for some summertime music!


Thanks for joining us! At press time, there's no carnival host listed for next week, so I'm not sure where to send the big top and the funhouse. Maybe you'd like to host? Email the carnies and let them know when you can set up the tents on your blog.

Have a great week.

Last Call for Carnival

Please send your submission to njcarnival@gmail.com by 11PM tonight* to be included in this week's Carnival of NJ Bloggers, to be held here at the Center of NJ Life.

*Let's face it, I'm up late doing these things, so the 11PM deadline is flexible- if you get it in before I publish, you get it in.

The Religious Left

This week I'm in the rather uncomfortable position of agreeing with George Will:

An aggressively annoying new phrase in America's political lexicon is "values voters." It is used proudly by social conservatives, and carelessly by the media to denote such conservatives.
This phrase diminishes our understanding of politics. It also is arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values and everyone else votes to . . . well, it is unclear what they supposedly think they are doing with their ballots.

I am sick of being told I don't have values or don't have morals because I believe all people are equal and should have the same rights and freedoms as others. I vote with my conscience, too. I find it odd that George Will should be the one to point this out.

It's interesting that he should make this point right now as the religious left is making a comeback, according to a WaPo article:

Religious liberals say their faith compels them to emphasize such issues as poverty, affordable health care and global warming. Disillusionment with the war in Iraq and opposition to Bush administration policies on secret prisons and torture have also fueled the movement.
...
Recently, there has been an increase in books and Web sites by religious liberals, national and regional conferences, church-based discussion groups, and new faith-oriented political organizations. "Organizationally speaking, strategically speaking, the religious left is now in the strongest position it's been in since the Vietnam era," said Clemson University political scientist Laura R. Olson.

I'm glad to see a rise, any rise, in activism by the left, and this one is long overdue. The Republicans put in a such a strong claim on "faith" and "values" that it seemed anyone with any actual values was afraid to speak up. Progressives with faith have been there all along, just not as well organized and galvanized as the right.

The article brings up the question of whether the progressive faithful are increasing in number or just becoming more organized and vocal. I personally don't think it matters (from a political standpoint) which is true. As the Republican poll numbers tank and the country continues to swing away from the ultra-cons, the left is getting more bold and willing to reclaim the spotlight. This is one more sign of that, and a hopeful one.

(cross-posted at the Blanton's and Ashton's)

The score today

Three-legged greyhound: 1
Small furry creature who used to live in the yard: 0

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.89, Gulf, Mercer St. Hightstown, 5/18 3:52PM.

Corzine Town Hall meeting tonight

Gov. Corzine will be in Hamilton tonight for a town-hall style meeting about the budget. You know how I love to go to these things, but I can't tonight; maybe you can!

7-8PM, Hamilton Township Senior Center, Cypress Lane.

The tents are coming...

I like the NJ Carnival of Bloggers, I think it's a great idea. I don't want to see it die. So, I signed up to host again this weekend. Send your favorite post of the week to njcarnival@gmail.com.

There is no one signed up to host for May 28, June 4, June 11, or June 18. Take your turn. Email the carnies and sign up to host. It's a lot of fun, and you'll be glad you did.

"Death by a million paper cuts."

That's how the property tax problem was described last night by a resident of East Windsor Township. In the pouring rain a few hundred people came out to talk to and hear from the 12th LD's elected representation: State Senator Ellen Karcher, Assemblyman Michael Panter and Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck in a School Funding Forum hosted by the East Windsor Regional School District. The district consists of E. Windsor and Hightstown Borough; along with more than 50% of the districts statewide, they voted down their budget this year. (All comments in quotes are from residents at the forum.)

"Living with a flawed formula"

The Assemblyfolk and Senator opened with statements on their positions on school funding, with Jennifer Beck going a bit off topic and sticking to her NJ Repub Talking Points. It was clear that they get it, that there is a huge problem with school funding and they need to solve it. Assemblyman Panter clearly railed against Home Rule. He also stated unequivocally that the Abbot decision is unfair to "the bulk of suburban New Jersey." The 12th is one of the few legislative districts in this state without an Abbot school district.

"Teachers should not be a scapegoat for this."

An interesting point is that no one seemed to be angry about the quality of education in the district; indeed, many people praised Superintendant Ron Bolandi and the job the district has done in educating their students. The vote was not about education; it was a "taxpayer revolt." The problem of high funding of teacher benefits was discussed- apparently, 20% of the state budget will be benefits by 2010, according to Beck, but that is a contractual issue and not much can be done. Michael Panter touted his bill to let teachers opt out of health benefits if they can recieve them through a spouse.

"Legislature is fully empowered and capable to do something about it and does not need a convention to deflect the heat."

Beck said several times that we need to work through the summer and get this fixed; all of the representatives encouraged a special session or a constitutional convention to work on property taxes. When pressed on a timeline to hold them to, the Assemblywoman reminded us that they're up for reelection in 2007. (No wonder she wants to work all summer on it.)

"You seem like nice young people, but you're politicians. You're liars, as far as I'm concerned."

Ellen Karcher took this one pretty well, and told the citizen in no uncertain terms how she disagreed, having been a champion of ethics for years in Monmouth county. They all made it clear several times that they're working in our interests but they are a grand total of 2.5% of the legislature, and have a lot of uphill climbing to do.

"Whatever you do, people are going to hate."

Several folks were very clear that it was time for legislators to do the right thing, whether or not it was the popular thing. Along those lines, a great deal of attention was paid to regionalization. Panter brought up the need for greater regionalization, the use of a stick as well as a carrot. Nice idea, to praise that to the residents in a regional district- but regionalization hasn't solved all our problems yet. One resident mentioned a recent Times of Trenton editorial about changing to a county-wide district system. Panter in particular felt that regionalization of administrative function would reduce redundancy and costs.

"Things take time. But we don't have time."

I was surprized at how little discussion was done on a shift of school funding from property taxes to income taxes- Panter called the idea "a fiscal shell game." He did tout increasing Developer Impact Fees. Several people commented on how the rebates were "corrosive" and a silly gimmick to buy votes.

"You guys seem on board. Who else do I call?"

Senator Karcher replied, quickly, "I'll give you Wayne Bryant's number." Assemblyman Panter pointed out that if you have a strong opinion, contact your rep., who will give you the names of who else to contact. We were reminded to be loud and consistent with our voices, and we will be heard.


The forum didn't cover much new ground- the discussions have all been had several times over. Probably the most important thing to be brought out of the evening is the reminder that our elected represenatives need to hear from us. A lot. Don't stop there, thought- also the committe chairs, party leaders, and- very, very important- the media. If you support a bill or think an idea is just plain bad, tell them, tell them all, then write a letter to the editor to tell everyone else.

(cross-posted at BlueJersey.net)

Update- Carol Gay has a web site

Updating this post.

Carol Gay, who is running against Chris Smith in NJ-04, now has a proper web site- complete with policy positions, biography, and information.

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.89, Raceway at Schibanoff Road and Rt. 9, Freehold; 4:24PM 5/14.

Carnival of NJ Bloggers 52

The anniversary carnival is over at Enlighten.

Next week, it will come back here. I took up the hosting because there's only one carnival host signed up for the next two months, and that's June 26th.

This isn't a hint; I'm flat-out telling you to go sign up now for a turn hosting. Email the carnies and let them know when you'll take your turn.

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.89, $2.95, $3.01- all for a gallon of regular gas- at three separate gas stations at the circle of Rt. 571 and Rt. 1, Princeton NJ at 8:24PM.

What Mommy Wars?

I'm so sick of hearing about the Mommy Wars.

If you're not a parent, you still may have heard of this. It's the idea that stay-at-home moms and job-holding moms are constantly at odds with each other and disagree about which way is the better way to parent.

Full disclosure- I've been both a SAHM and a job-holding mom; now I'm a job-holder again. (I refuse to say "working mom" because, trust me, all moms work and work damn hard, whether they get a paycheck or not.) So I've seen both sides.

Very rarely did anyone ever criticize my decision to stay home or to hold a job directly to my face. Essentially, I believe, most folks know it's none of their business how I raise my kids or support my family, and whether or not they agree with my choice, they respect the fact that it's my decision.

The few, let me stress the word few, moms I've known who made anything of this whole Mommy War thing seemed to be the ones who weren't comfortable with their decision. The ones vehemently defending their choice to work often wished they could stay home more, and the ones loudly defending their domestic status wished they could wear big-girl shoes once in a while and get paid again. Mostly, however, the moms I've known here in Central NJ are pretty happy with the decisions they've made and don't talk much about it. We talk about how much we need an extra two hours in every day.

So, who's making a big deal of this issue as a war, if it's not the moms?

Media. Because it sells.

There was a book that came out a while back called Mommy Wars, essays from moms on their choices. It got lots of press and lots of attention. I just found out reading Ellen Goodman's column Getting Over the Mommy Wars that the title was changed:

On the literary front, Leslie Morgan Steiner's collection of testimonials, a fine-tuned orchestra of ambivalence, was originally going to be named ''Ending the Mommy Wars." But it came out of the publishing house packaged as ''Mommy Wars."

Surprize surprize. Make it more controversial so it'll sell more. I haven't read it, but I wonder if there are any essays in it from moms who don't get a choice- single parents who are the sole source of income, for example?

The title of Goodman's column says it all- get over it. We're pushed into thinking this is a big fight we're having between ourselves, but it's not. It's a personal decision to be a SAHM or a job-holder- and we should feel damn lucky if we get to make a choice- and we don't need pressure to look down on other women who went the opposite way than ourselves.

Happy Mother's Day.

Better than I could've said it

(Well, really, I've said it, but not like this.) It's always a heckuva lot easier to criticize than to solve the problem. Steve Adubato has the story on why it's not so good to be the king.

Central NJ gas price watch

$2.81, Mobil, Rt. 130N in Washington Twp. (Mercer County- aka Robbinsville)

A bear dies in Trenton

A bear found yesterday in Trenton- near the offices of the state DEP- was killed, and was the first bruin killed under the no-tolerence rules for urban New Jersey.

The Bear Exclusion Zone, which covers heavily urban areas in northeastern New Jersey, also extends westward like a belt across the center of the state to include Mercer County, and it calls for killing bears caught within the boundaries.
But when the Trenton bear was caught by city animal-control agents at 4:30 a.m., some state wildlife authorities questioned the wisdom of the rules even before DEP biologists euthanized the bear seven hours later.
"That bear never should have been killed. It's a waste of the wildlife resource, and it's just bad publicity for the state. The biologists don't want to do this, no one wants this," said Len Wolgast, a member of the state Fish and Game Council, which sets state hunting regulations.
Wolgast co-authored a state bear-management policy last year that included the exclusion-zone rules. But Wolgast said the "red zone" and the euthanasia requirement was a provision placed into the policy by the DEP and its former chief.
"This red zone and other things I hated to see were put into the larger Black Bear Management Policy as a compromise so that we could get the policy together and have DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell sign off on it," Wolgast explained.
...
"I think it's disingenuous for the council to say the former commissioner
is responsible," DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura said yesterday. However, the
Bear Exclusion Zone remains troublesome for animal rights groups,
environmentalists and hunting organizations alike.

Guess that bear hunt didn't help as much as they hoped, huh?

Blaming Campbell won't help anything. Since the policy was put into effect, we have a new DEP commissioner, Lisa Jackson. I've found nothing from her or her office about her position on the bear hunt, but after this incident I hope we find out her stand on the subject.

It's spring; the bears are coming out of hibernation, and they're moving around. This bear was not acting aggressively; it was probably looking for food or a mate, just like most folks who are cruising city streets at 4:30 in the morning.

It's a sad event, nonetheless.

(cross-posted at bluejersey.net)

Property Taxes- Hightstown follow-up

April 28th I wrote a post about Hightstown and property taxes, mentioning Councilman Patrick Thompson's letter, posted on BlueJersey and in the Windsor-Hights Herald about how he did not want to cut the school budget regardless of the voters' having voted it down.

This Friday, the Windsor-Hights Herald's Editorial was in response to the Councilman. Unfortunately, I can't find it online, so I'll hit the hightlights here:

And now that local voters have once again rejected the budget for East Windsor Regional Schools, it is the responsibility of the governing bodies of East Windsor and Hightstown to review the budget.
They have the right to cut the budget, leave it alone or even add to it.
They don't have the right, in our opinion, to ignore their responsibility.
But that seems to be the plan of Hightstown Borough Councilman Patrick Thompson. ...
Mr. Thompson says the school budget should be the sole purview of the local school board and schools Superintendant Ron Bolandi. He salso says that a regressive systm of taxation has created the local budgeting problem and the education of local students is too important to support any financial cuts.
These are reasonable opinions. They are also safe and easy statements to make.
But using those opinions to justify a course of non-action is wrong if you've made the choice to run for a municipal governing body in New Jersey.
Essentially refusing to take part in a process to which you are legally bound is simply irresponsible
...
Mr. Thompson says that taking his stated position shows leadership. We think leadership involves doing your job, even when it's tough and/or distasteful.
Upon learning of this editorial, Mr. Thompson said that he would "obviously" review the budget and "reserve the right to change my mind."
We hope he reviews the budget with an open mind and takes the will of the voters seriously.

I just re-read the Councilman's letter, and nowhere do I see that he would refuse to review the budget or decline to be part of the process. Indeed, I see that he said "I intend to hold Mr. Bolandi accountable as much as the next taxpayer." Also, remember that 45% of the taxpayers who came out and voted in the school election did vote to approve the budget as is; someone should be representing their interest in the town administration reviews. He may be the only dissenting vote (ok, I'll bet he WILL be the only dissenting vote) when the councils review then cut the schools' budget, but he gets that right. I expect also that if he finds an obvious, non-harmful cut that can be made, he will support it- he said as much in the recent editorial.

He is doing his job. I believe that sometimes, being an elected official requires doing something unpopular, if it is in the public interest. (And if the voters don't support his actions, they'll vote him out next election, as is their right.)

No time

I just started working on Monday. I've had lots of things going besides my regular gig as SAHM for the last eight years (including school, other jobs, watching kids for friends, prof. baker, etc.) but this is a regular job I've taken. Part-time, yes, but the mommy thing is full-time-plus, so I feel overwhelmed right now. Also, I have to hold the youngest's birthday party Saturday, and they're predicting thunderstorms. Whoee!

So, anyway, why I'm telling you all of this is by way of explanation. CoNJL will be updating a little less frequently for the next few days, probably until next week at least, when we should settle into a new routine. As always, I appreciate your stopping by, and feel free to leave snarky comments wherever you like.

Fun stuff elsewhere on the web: Rob S. at Laughing at the Pieces is having the world's slowest Mad Libs right now, with all sorts of fun suggestions. Jeri Smith-Ready and a few of her writer pals wrote a quick procrastination-inspired piece here. Round 2, Brackets A and B are up for voting at bandmadness. And, dammit, I still get this stuck in my head from time to time.

See ya soon.

Better than I could've said it

The editiorial in this morning's Times of Trenton:

The price of gasoline is high because of the most basic economic law of all: supply and demand. We Americans are feeling the pain at the pump because of years of national self-indulgence, abetted by the government, in which we came to consider cheap and plentiful energy a God-given right.
...
Now that gas prices are soaring again, the politicians responsible for our plight are competing to see who can come up with the least effective ideas for dealing with it. Watching Republicans and Democrats in the capital doing what comes naturally is even more depressing than usual.
Republicans in Congress are proposing a $100 rebate to taxpayers to offset rising gas prices. That would cover the cost of about two tankfuls, and do nothing to encourage more efficient use of fuel. They have linked the idea -- no surprise -- to allowing drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, the oil companies' enduring dream. Even if there should prove to be commercially extractable oil in ANWR, drilling there would cover only a small percentage of the country's consumption -- and not deliver any oil at all for a decade or more.
The Democrats, for their part, want to temporarily suspend the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gas tax. This is a tax that should have been substantially increased years ago, as prophets like H. Ross Perot proposed, to encourage conservation and put the price markup into the U.S. Treasury rather than the pockets of oil companies, Saudi princes and Iranian bomb-rattlers. Suspending the tax would send the message that it's OK to continue to drive the Hummer to the corner store for a loaf of bread. What's needed today is the opposite message.
President Bush has temporarily suspended environmental rules to excuse refiners from having to use certain additives to meet clean-air standards. What a convenient idea for a pro-oil, anti-environment president to put forward; it's as if clean air is simply a luxury to be dispensed with whenever an excuse can be found. The tradeoff is unjustifiable. The president also wants Congress to give him the power to rewrite the CAFE rules -- an alarming thought, given that Mr. Bush and his administration for 5 1/2 years have opposed any legislative increase in the standards.
Mr. Bush is right about one thing: Congress should take back some of the billions of dollars in tax incentives it gave the oil companies in last year's energy bill. With record profits, the companies don't need the breaks, he said. Not that they ever did.

There's more. Go read it. You can just feel the frustration seeping out between every line.

Better late than never

SmadaNek has this week's carnival of nj bloggers #50 , posted late last night.

Pumping your own gas follow-up

The whole state apparently agrees that they don't want self-serve: 14 out of 907 voters who contacted the Gov yesterday told him to skip the idea. AAA said they doubted it would save any money. I understand the political position, that Corzine had to look like he was trying anything to help out drivers, but I sure hope this test baloon is shot down.

We have the cheapest gas in the region. We don't pump it ourselves. If it ain't broke, don't fix it- expecially when "fixing" it won't make a difference cost-wise.

Well, that's a relief.

From the AP: "Former Gov. James E. McGreevey's tell-all book about life as the nation's first openly gay governor will explore his own struggles as a closeted homosexual but will not venture into anyone else's bedroom..."

Well, good. Personally, I hope it stays away from his bedroom, too. I'm interested to hear his take on his political struggles and scandals, not the details of his very private life.

Property Taxes- Hightstown speaks out

(Quick background on Hightstown: It's a small town, just over a square mile with 5,000 residents. Hightstown is in a regional school district with East Windsor Township; the voters voted down the school board budget this year and last year. The town councils of both municipalities must now review the school board budget and may make changes before submitting it to the state. Hightstown has the highest property taxes in Mercer County.)

Today is Q&A Friday over at Assemblyman Mike Panter's blog, and he focused on a question from Hightstown Borough Mayor Bob Patten. Well, it isn't a question so much as a plea:

Please initiate a special legislative session to act on much needed property tax reform through a constitutional convention. No need to wait! Do it now... before July. With too many defeated school budgets and unhappy property owners, “It’s the right thing to do!”

The Assemblyman supports a constitutional convention on property taxes, and has his name on ACR-108, a resolution calling for a special session, which he feels would be a faster resolution.

Also from Hightstown, Councilman Patrick Thompson posted a letter on Bluejersey.net about the school board budget. The councilman is very clear that although he sympathizes with the voters, he will not support any cuts:

Why else will I be respectfully disagreeing with the voters who came out last Tuesday? In addition to the regressive system of taxation that has created this problem, we have failed to adequately leverage our economies of scale as municipal governments, resulting in cumbersome duplications of bureaucracies across the state. The finger-pointing needs to end - we must do better for our tax-payers and must do better for our children. I make this statement cognizent of the fact that I - as a municipal office holder - am a part of this problem.

Finally, I will not supporting any cuts simply because our children's eduction is too important. While I intend to hold (school superintendant) Mr. Bolandi accountable as much as the next taxpayer, it is his job along with that of the school board to chart our course on this front. I like much of what I see so far, but we have a long way to go. We must allow this process to proceed on the established course. I am making the leap of faith to believe that the voters who came out last Tuesday were making a statement about taxes, due I believe to many of the reason I indicate above. Not because they disagree with the current course of our school district. Perhaps we should finally put our munipal tax increases up for public referendum and allow this dissatisfaction to be more holistically and appropriately directed.

The councilman is right. Most voters who voted against school budgets in Our Fair State aren't doing so because of a wish to change the education their and their neighbor's children recieve- it's a knee-jerk reaction to higher taxes. It's the same one Gov. Corzine is experiencing against his proposed budget, the most responsibile budget proposed in this state in at least a decade, probably more.

Two specific ideas were in the items I quoted from this small Central Jersey town's leaders: the mayor wants a convention- now, and the councilman wants us to "leverage our economies of scale as municipal governments"- the nice way of saying we have to rethink the high-holy home rule principle.

Two ideas whose times have come.

Assemblyman, I'm glad you're supportive of the convention. I hope you're supportive of incentives for cost-cutting regionalization as well as negative financial consequences for municipalities who refuse even to study or consider it. Sixty-five percent of residents of Our Fair State would rather see their state taxes raised than their property taxes: we must listen to them, and in a special session if need be, we must reform how our schools are funded from a regressive property tax to a progressive income tax. We have to solidly change the way funding is done now, across the board, including the Abbots.

The one thing we have learned is that we can't keep this up as it is.

Let's talk about pumping your own gas

Let's talk about the Gov's plan to introduce pump-your-own.

It's all over the papers this morning- Corzine wants a three-month pilot program for the Turnpike for pumping our own gas, to see if it will really save us 5-6 cents a gallon.

The governor has other ideas too, including possibly lowering the speed limit back to 55 in order for us to be more efficient in our gas usage, allowing hybrids to use HOV lanes, gas card incentives for carpoolers and NJ transit rider incentives. From the Times of Trenton:

Corzine last week created the post of director of energy savings to increase energy efficiency in state operations. In a symbolic move, he plans to trade the state-owned SUV he is chauffeured around in for a more fuel-efficient vehicle after working through security concerns with the state police, he said.
"We're serious about trying to hold down consumption. The nation's going to have to do it. New Jersey has to do it, and we are going to have to do this as individuals," he said.

Wow, personal responsibility and reduction of consumption. Wouldn't that be great? But I digress...

The arguments are pretty obvious on both sides. It's incredibly convenient to drive up to a service station in the rain and have the attendant do the work for you. It's incredibly inconvenient to drive up to a service station and wait fifteen minutes until the attendant can get to you, and then an extra five minutes if you pay by credit card for the attendant to process payment. It's unfair to seniors and disabled drivers if they have to pay more for full-serve. It's a job for a worker in Our Fair State, but he has to breathe in all those fumes for 8-12 hours a day.

Let's face it- the driver safety issue that was a big deal in 1949 when this law was enacted is long gone. Forty-eight states allow their drivers to pump their own gas. Since gas prices jumped 14 cents a gallon on the toll roads this morning, I bet we'll try anything.

But the real question is, will a change to our gas-pumping rules really change the price? Will it make a damn bit of difference?

My personal guess is- no, not really, or maybe in the beginning but not for long. Gas station owners set the price for their gas, and they get what they can for it. They have the confines of what they paid for the gas, overhead, and-big one here- competition. After a while prices will creep back to essentially the same level.

What do you think?

(Cross-posted at Bluejersey.net)

New Jersey Treasure #5

There are so many good things about living here in the center of NJ, I could go on and on about them. And I've decided to do just that. Periodically I'm going to pick something that has recently made itself a pleasure in my life and tell you why it's a NJ Treasure, in hopes that you'll enjoy it too and have more pleasures in your life.

Today's installment features the NJ State Museum and Planetarium. Right now, the main museum is closed for renovation, but the Planetarium and the galleries on West State Street are open.

The Planetarium is our favorite. It's dirt cheap ($4 adult, $3 kid for sky shows- plus there's a download coupon for another buck off!), easy to get to, and a lot of fun. They run both sky shows and laser shows, which are a few bucks more. The first time we went was for a sky show. My oldest had just studied in school an old slave song called "Follow the Drinking Gourd," which sounded like a spiritual but was really a mnemonic device for runaway slaves to get north using the stars to guide them. The planetarium had a sky show on the song and we thought it would be educational to follow up the lesson with a visual, so we went for an educational experience we thought the kids might remember. Turned out, we had a lot of fun! It was great! For weeks afterward the kids were bugging Daddy to get out the telescope at night.

While the main museum is being renovated, the Auditorium galleries are open. Currently they have exhibits on Trenton and its history, and one about how native and European peoples clashed and combined in Our Fair State's early history.

The reason for the timing on this is that this weekend is Super Science Family Festival from 11 to 4 on both days. Mad Science will be doing demonstrations on Saturday, there will be a baby dinosaur display on Sunday, Hubble Vision on both days, and currently the West State Street galleries have on display Heavens Above: Photographs of the Universe from the Hubble Space Telescope.

All this and on weekends, free parking in the employee lots next door. How can you go wrong? Head out to the State Museum and experience one of New Jersey's Treasures.

Treasure #1
Treasure #2
Treasure #3
Treasure #4

Carol Gay for Congress NJ 4th

Carol Gay has replaced Gary Schiavone as the Democrat running in NJ-04 and has started to campaign. She has a web site up, which is under construction as you can see.

UPDATE: Carol Gay now has a new, operational web site. Check it out!

Bits and pieces

During my ice-pick-in-the-face sinus infection of the last few days, I missed a lot. Am trying to wade through a couple hundred emails and stuff. Don'tcha hate being away from the computer for too long?

What's this about a Fox News guy becoming Press Secretary? Didn't see that comin'. Heh. They're having fun trotting out the fact that Snow has been critical of this administration in the past. I expect that'll change immediately.

I missed linking to last week's carnival. So here's the link: No-W-here. It's the very first time something I made for a banquet was pushed behind the flower arrangement. Nice job, Anonymous B. They still need carnival hosts for the second half of May and all of June- email the carnies to get a prime spot.

There's a comet out there! Well, parts of one anyway. Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 broke up eleven years ago (citing creative differences) but some of the larger pieces should be visible through medium-sized telescopes. I wonder if our telescope qualifies as medium-sized or not?

New Quinnipiac poll out today, showing the honeymoon's over for Corzine. 91% of us know the budget problems are serious, and 87% of us realize that the budget was inhereted by the gov, but we clearly don't like to pay taxes to take care of it, nor do we want to see services like schools cut because of it. Very important in this poll: 65% of us would support an increase in state taxes (v. property) to ballence a budget, but 60% of us think it's a bad idea to raise the state sales tax to do it. (I guess we're still holding out for money to fall from the sky.)

Governor's Schools Saved!

Private donors have jumped in and raised $1.7 million of the $1.9 million needed to keep the Governor's Schools in action! Woo hoo!

One blissful hour

Didn't sleep well last night. I was up about every hour or so, so when that alarm went off I was in no mood to get up. But up I got, dressed I got, and hauled myself down to the local high school pool, miserable the entire time.

Then I got in the water, which was cold. As always.

It took about five minutes before I began to feel better. I was fine, for the first time in a couple days. I was great! The clean, clear, chlorine-filled water kept everything away and I was just fine. I swam my full regular routine, just like it was still winter. I stayed clear of problems, all the way home.

Maybe ten minutes after I got home, it started again. The itchy throat, the reflexive rubbing of the eyes, the runny nose. The source of my misery, what kept me up all night, was back. Damn friggin' allergies.

But for one blissful hour, I could breathe normally. There are no flowers or trees in the indoor pool.

Such is Life in the Center of NJ in April. It's filled with tree pollen.

Eating more and liking it less

An article appeared today in several newspaper food sections discussing a new Pew Research Center surveywhich finds that we're eating more but enjoying it less. 39% of us "greatly" enjoy food, down from 48% 17 years ago, whereas the reported enjoyment of food has decreased, especially among the overweight- 56% to 42%. According to the article:

And the reason we're eating more but enjoying it less? In a word: guilt, says Thomas Wadden, director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine.
"People are feeling guilty" about what they eat, says Wadden. "Two-thirds of women report they're dieting. One-third of men say they want to lose weight. They're forever checking their conscience before digging into that ice cream sundae."

While guilt may be a contributing factor, I beg to differ with the director. I think the main reason our enjoyment of food has dropped while our consumption has increased is that the majority of food we're eating is cheap and crappy.

I look at my kids' school lunch menu to see it. When I was a kid, we had hot turkey sandwiches (on white bread, yes I know,) with salad, hoagies, spaghetti- actual meals on our lunch menus at school. There was no "snack" menu available nor vending machines. Now, my school system offers chicken nuggets, pizza, bagels, and a snack line where the kids can buy all sorts of ice cream, soft drinks and cookies when they're done lunch. If they ate any of the lunch, anyway. Sorry folks, but we aren't building healthy brains and bodies out of soda and chips. But instead of addressing the problem, we just buy XL car seats and go on our merry way.

Or go out for dinner. There are so many more dining-out choices now than when I was a kid, but much of them aren't good- healthwise or tastewise. You can order a pasta dinner and you'll get, in that one serving, the amount I'd cook at home for a family of four. Or, enough french fries with your sandwich to contain a whole day's calorie requirements and two day's worth of fat. Only 39 cents to supersize it! They may taste good- thanks, IFF and Firmenich for that- but they're nutritionally bankrupt.

Ironically, given the decline in eating enjoyment, Americans report they're enjoying cooking more, with the biggest increase among men who cook.
In 1989, 25 percent of men told the Gallup poll that they enjoy cooking; in the Pew survey, that number had jumped to 32 percent. Among women, however, enjoyment of cooking has decreased from 39 percent in 1989 to 35 percent today.

Thanks, Food Network, for making cooking glamourous again. But with our busy schedules we probably cook less often then we ever have, and what we cook isn't the same. The nice thing is we can get presliced veggies, pre-trimmed meats, and the like; but what are we mostly cooking when we cook at home? Prepared foods, often frozen or boxed and reconstituted. No wonder our enjoyment has gone up- most of the work is already done. With the loss, however, we've lost control over what we and our kids put into their bodies. How much salt was in that frozen dinner, anyway?

Sometimes, I think the "healthy" or "lite" prepared foods are worse. Remember SnackWells, the low-fat cookies that had more sugar and just as many calories as regular cookies? The frozen yogurt that has just as much fat and sugar as ice cream? The lowered-fat microwave popcorn that takes twice as long, has twice as much trans-fat and costs five times as much as if you'd used an air popper and added a little real butter? Even things such as baked chips screw us up. These types of foods pretend they're healthier and therefore OK to eat, and we invariably eat too much.

We're also having problems with portion control, the survey revealed. Nearly 60 percent of Americans say they find themselves eating more than they should either often or sometimes, and 55 percent say they eat more junk food than they should.
The biggest reason Americans say they eat so much junk food is not because they like it (44 percent found that reason enough), or because it's cheap (24 percent), or even because it's heavily advertised (37 percent), but because it's convenient (73 percent).

It's convenient. We're eating ourselves into early graves for convenience.

Food is sacred. It's part of the rituals of most religions (or, the absence of it, in fasting) and it is life itself. What holiday, what event in our lives doesn't have a meal associated with it? Now that we have a superabundance of food, it has ceased to have some of that special meaning. From the article:

It's also a matter of having food available all the time, he adds. "People are eating continuously now. Food has become a recreational pastime. It's lost its ability to mark a special occasion."

And that's a damn shame. Food deserves our respect and our care. We should be eating mostly whole, fresh foods and instead we're cramming our mouths with cheap, crappy garbage that we readily admit we just aren't enjoying very much. Why??


Rant-related reading:
Fast-Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser (HIGHLY recommend- everyone should read)
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World, by Greg Crister
Food Politics, by Marion Nestle

Go Vote!

School elections are today. Polls are open in your town right now until 9PM.

This directly affects your property taxes and your children's (or your neighbor's children's) education. Go Vote!

No challenger

NJ-4 is without an official Dem challenger to Rep. Chris Smith. Gary Schiavone apparently withdrew from the race late last week.

I emailed the contact address on his web page a while back asking to be on his email list, but I never even got the email that MrLiberal did.

So much for that.

Random bits

I'll be rather busy over the next couple of days and won't get much of a chance to blog, so here's a few bits-n-pieces:

Assemblyman Panter will have his Friday Q&A up later today. I still haven't sent the Assemblyman a question for this forum, but the folks who did last time had great questions and the Assemblyman did a good job responding. Go read up on what he has to say.

The NJ carnival will be at This Full House this weekend.

Happy Easter! Happy Passover! Happy Weekend! You have until Monday to file your taxes.

Tomorrow will be the one-year blogiversary of The Center of NJ Life. Thank you, fans and friends, for visiting and reading about Life here in the Center of NJ.

Smoking Ban Begins Tonight

Starting tonight at midnight, smoking is banned from all indoor public spaces (except cigar bars and casino floors.) The last-ditch effort by a group of restauranteers and bar owners to stop the ban from taking effect failed yesterday. So, smoke 'em if ya got 'em- it's your last chance.

Do our local business owners a favor, and make a point of going out for dinner or drinks at a formerly-smoky place this week. Many business owners are worried that this will hurt their business, although statistics show that's not the case. They can read that too, but it's tough not to be worried about your business- so a little extra support is a nice thing to do.

Here in the Center of NJ, we're all about being nice.

Cross Your Fingers!

According to an article in the Gloucester County Times, some Democrats are breaking ranks to criticize the budget and decry the sales tax hike. State Sen. Stephen Sweeney and Assemblyman Jon Burzichelli are both looking to scuttle key provisions of this budget:

Two Democrats confirmed lawmakers are looking to pare down Corzine's $1.8 billion payment into the state pension system, trim his expanded list of items covered by the sales tax and hope for better-than-expected income tax collections in order to avoid a hike.

Hope? Hope for better-than-expected tax collections? That's a budget strategy? I hate to tell you, folks, but "hope" just doesn't work as part of a logical, well-thought-out plan for anything. Especially when data just doesn't back it up; The Office of Legislative Services advised the Assembly Budget Committee last week that they expect New Jersey to take in $186 million less than Corzine estimated over the rest of this fiscal year and the next. So much for hoping for more money to show up in the mailbox- it may be even less.

It's time for serious solutions, not crossing our fingers.

Sweeney, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, said Corzine has failed to demonstrate the need for increasing taxes without shaving any spending from the budget.

No spending was shaved? How about 1000 state jobs cut for $53 million shaved, $169 million cut from higher ed, $40 million cut from aid to municipalities, the Governor's schools cut for $1.9 million, etc. According to Newsday and others, the cuts in this budget add up to more than $2 billion. So much for no spending shaved.

Failed to demonstrate the need? This governor has held town meetings around the state, made speech after speech about the budget, and actively recruited suggestions and commentary from both lawmakers and citizens. He has gone out of his way to show the public the justifications for this budget. If you disagree with him, fine, say you disagree- but don't accuse him of not demonstrating the need for revenue.

Let's see, the revenue raisers add up to about $1.9 billion. What would the Assemblyman and Senator like to cut to make that up? How about Child Welfare reform and state-sponsored school districts- oh wait, that's mandated. We're already masively underfunding our public pension obligation, even with the increase it recieved over last year. Or would you rather cut medicare? Let's hear some plans for where you plan to get the money or what you want to cut, instead of just gripes.

The Wall Street folks- folks who aren't worried about their reelections, folks who set our bond rating and therefore determine how much interest we pay on our debt- are in favor of this budget. It's a reasonable plan with concrete figures and expectations.

See, gentlemen, figures and reasonable estimates are part of a budget plan. Hoping for more money to fall out of the sky is not a serious budget strategy.

(cross-posted at bluejersey.net.)

How to increase traffic to your blog

I got 175 hits yesterday, way over my average of about 45/day. Why?

Well, Tuesday night I put up this post, about a fun timewaster of a site where you can vote on bands. When I put up the post it was late and I was tired, plus my friend Chris A. is a better writer than I am anyway, so I asked for and obtained his permission to reprint his email as a post. In the post/email he listed some of the funny pairings in the current bracket, as well as some of the contenders.

Including Clay Aiken.

I got 122 hits yesterday from a Clay Aiken fan site, which has my post listed prominently near the top.

Ravings on the budget? The deceptions in Hamilton? Central Jersey life and news? Nope. A cursory reference to an American Idol runner-up? That'll do it.

The Fleecing of Hamilton and NJ- The wetland report

Klockner Woods is 1/3 wetland, according to a long-awaited study of the Hamilton Twp. property*. However the study was not definitive on how many homes could be built on the remaining land, and that will be the subject of debate for some time, I'm sure.

But based on a concept plan submitted in 2004 by the land's owner, Doylestown developer Fieldstone Associates, the wetlands would cover all but 31 of the proposed homes along with a storm water basin.
Based on $100,000 per lot, the purchase price would come to $3.1 million, saving the township $1 million.
More homes also could be lost once state-required wetlands buffers are
actored in.
But township officials said yesterday the 31 acres not covered by wetlands could hold closer to 40 homes.
That number may be crucial in determining how much the township actually ends up paying for the property.
...
In her ruling ordering the township to begin paying interest, Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg left open the possibility the price could be reduced if the number of homes the land can hold is substantially lower than 41.
Since then, the township has paid $218,664 -- $27,333 per month -- in interest payments on the $4.1 million.
Feinberg also gave the township hope on that front when she hinted that she might allow the already-paid interest to be credited toward the purchase price of the land.
John Buonocore, a lawyer representing Fieldstone, said yesterday he had not seen the township's report and could not comment on it.
But during last fall's hearing, Buonocore argued that the $4.1 million was not based on the number of lots and so should not be reduced if the number is lower.
Both parties agreed to the price, Buonocore argued, and should be binding. Feinberg is expected to rule on the price once the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has approved the study.

Mayor Glen Gilmore immediatly struck the vindication bell:

"What is clear from this application is that our experts have determined that there is a significant amount of buildable land in Klockner Woods and it doesn't come close to being a swamp as some people claimed it was," Mayor Glen Gilmore said in a statement.
Gilmore blamed partisan politics for the eight-month delay in buying the land and said opponents of the deal misrepresented the amount of wetlands.

Opponents misrepresented the amount of wetland? Mayor, this study doesn't exactly paint you and the council as in the right. The number of housing lots available is most likely 75% of what you agreed to shell out other people's money for. Don't forget township planners knew years ago that 41 lots wasn't feasable. The land should be saved from development, you betcha, but at a reasonable and fair price- for instance, one that was studied in advance.

The study now has to go to the DEP for approval. The agency has said it does not have enough information to decide whether they will contribute the money for purchase through the Green Acres program. Does that mean that Hamilton will get stuck with most of the bill on this, with only Mercer County chipping in its portion?


*Hamilton Twp. sold the property to Fieldstone Developers in 2001 for $375,000 with the intent of development. Four years later, Hamilton agreed to buy it back for conservation for $4.1 million. Hamilton foots part of this bill but monies come mostly from the county and the state, through the DEP- hence the fleecing of all of us on this deal. The key posts of the Center of NJ Life continuing series:
The Fleecing of Hamilton and NJ, Deal postponed, 41 lots not feasable, Klockner Woods, Deceptions, Wheeling and dealing, Lawsuit, Paying interest, Money flow

Looking for a waste of time?

This qualifies.

http://bandmadness.net/

Essentially, somebody with too much time on his/her hands set up a bracket system with 512 musical artists... a battle of the bands in NCAA Tournament format, if you will. Site visitors vote in as many pairings as they want, and in a few weeks, one of the artists (The Beatles? Led Zeppelin? Tupac? Clay Aiken?) will have the honor of winning.

So what are the stakes? Nothing. No consequences or prizes whatsoever. But you may have the rewards of going from the ridiculous (Abba vs. Hole) to the Sublime (vs. Psychedelic Furs), from who-the-hell-is-that? (Dillinger Escape Plan vs. Muse) to I-can-really-only-pick-one-of-these-in-the-first-round? (The Doors vs. Cheap Trick). Mostly, you'll say "Wow, I haven't heard ____ in a while."

But occasionally, you'll feel like you helped stop an injustice. Will you let Tom Petty take Sade's crown? Will you let the Goo Goo Dolls beat Kenny Loggins?

Voting for one bracket is already over, but at this writing, Stone Temple Pilots vs. Al Green is too close to call. How will you sleep if this goes the wrong way?

(This post is written by Chris A. He doesn't even live in NJ, let alone in the Center of NJ, but he wrote a great email that worked as a post and he said I could use it. It's Tuesday, and you know how tough it is for me to come up with good content on Tuesdays.)

Congressional seat challenge

Rep. Chris Smith will be challenged in NJ-4 by Gary Shiavone, who I expect will get someone to put some content on his web site someday soon.

Every Congressional race in NJ has a challenger- BlueJersey has a list here.

Carnival of NJ Bloggers 47

Roberto has this week's Carnival at Dynamobuzz. Have fun reading!

Assemblyman DeCroce and the New Math

In an AP article yesterday about the Governor's visit to Burlington County for a budget discussion, Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce is quoted as saying,

"We see the anger, we hear the anger every day since Gov. Corzine issued his budget and people realize it'll cost them tens of thousands of dollars in additional taxes every year."

Tens of thousands of dollars in additional taxes every year? Wow! I have to move! Tens of thousands of dollars additional every year due to this years budget??

Or maybe DeCroce should come up with something to back that up.

Let's see now: Average household annual income in 2004 (best numbers I could find) in NJ was $56,772, second highest in the country. Our state and local tax burden was 21.1% in 2005- which by the way ranks us 14th nationwide. So, 21.1% of $56772 is... ummm, carry the one... $11987.89. These are averages, folks, your own numbers will vary. In other words, state/local taxes would have to DOUBLE for the Assemblyman to have been close to right.

Now, let's look at the budget as proposed. No increase in the income tax, increases the sales tax by 1 percentage point, and a water tax of 4 cents on the thousand. You must be using a whole lot of water and buying a lot for that to add up to tens of thousands!! For the increase in sales tax to add up to a mere $5,000, you'd have to spend half a million dollars a year on taxable goods. Good luck with that on your average $56,772 family income.

Let's throw in the increases in cigarette tax-affects maybe 21% of residents- and liquor taxes- maybe 58% of us, best guess, really- but you'll still be crazy to say this adds up to tens of thousand dollars in extra taxes a year for a taxpaying family in Our Fair State. (If the increase on cigarette taxes or alcohol taxes means tens of thousand of dollars out of your pocket, you've got bigger problems than finances. But I digress.)

Even if property taxes increased substantially as a result of flat state aid, we wouldn't come close to ten thousand. Average property taxes in Our Fair State were $5867 last year, according to a January Star-Ledger article. To increase only $5000- not even ten thousand!- they'd have to increase 85%; to put that in perspective, property taxes went up 29% in the four years 2002-2006. There are a few other sales taxes, such as on tanning or limo service, but these aren't going to come close to $10k.

In his budget address, Gov. Corzine said:"Reluctantly, I am forced to seek net new tax revenues of about $1.4 billion." According to the US Census, in 2000, New Jersey had 8,698,879 people. That works out to $160.94 per person. To be "tens of thousands" for anyone, the full effect of tax increases would have to be felt by no more than 140,000 people. What are the odds on that?

Assemblyman DeCroce, these are serious times in Our Fair State for taxpayers. We face a serious crisis in Trenton with our finances. I understand that you're just trying to drum up support for your petition, your party and yourself, but this state doesn't need any more of these lowball 101.5-type tactics where you pull numbers out of your- I mean, out of thin air solely to get people angry so they'll rally around you. Back up what you say with real math, or don't say it.

(hat tip to jmelli for article link, and to Xpatriated Texan for the census paragraph. Cross-posted on Bluejersey.net)

Another good program, cut from the budget.

The Governor's Schools have been put on the chopping block for this year's budget. The Governor's office has been looking into private funds to save the 22-year-old program:

Spokesman Anthony Coley said there are no assurances that using private funds is allowed under current statutes, or that enough money could be raised in time to save the program.

But, he said, several individuals and organizations have stepped forward to say they could come up with enough money to keep the program afloat this year. In each of the past five years, the program has received $1.9 million in state funding.

"There are people who say they can do it," Coley said. "This is on the fast track. ... We hope to have a resolution and answer to this soon."

Coley refused to say who has offered to donate money.

Yesterday's announcement came the same day that The Star-Ledger reported Corzine had cut the program from his $30 billion spending plan now before the Legislature. Elimination of the program has sparked an outcry from alumni, prospective students and other supporters.

I went to the Governor's School in Political Issues and Future of New Jersey, twenty years ago. It was an amazing experience that I could never forget. Scholars had a specific focus class; mine was in education. At the time I was living in a town with what was universally regarded as one of the top (bottom?) two worst school board in the state, with constant infighting and a horribly overpaid and underuseful superintendentant, so I had a whole lot to discuss. I met people from all over the state, listened to lectures and had great debates. It was the most shaping experience of my life up to that point.

So why haven't I pointed you to the petition yet, or encouraged you to lobby for continuing the schools?

Because I haven't made up my mind yet.

It's a lot of money- nearly $2 million in each of the last 5 years. We're facing a huge budget crisis, with every special interest desperately clutching onto their funding. Plus, and this is in hindsight but may still be true, many of the kids there came from families that could afford specialized summer camps/schools for their kids, so why is the state picking up the tab for everyone?

So, I'm torn: between my memories of what a great experience it was and how important it is for the current batch of high schoolers to have that opportunity, and my cynicism as a taxpayer.

Maybe they'll get the private funding. That would be the very best thing. I'd even kick in a few bucks to a fund to kep it going- I bet a lot of alumni would. Maybe even the gov or the past govs, from their own money.

Interesting side note- I searched through the signatures on the petition, and only one alumnus from my year and school has signed. I wonder if many of them don't know about it, or if it's a similar quandry of position for them as it is for me. We would've argued for hours about it, of that I'm sure.

Carnival of NJ Bloggers 42- wait, I mean 46

El Zorro Viejo has this week's carnival at the Old Fox's Den.

Death Penalty interview

The latest podcast over at Bluejersey.net is a short interview with Kirk Bloodsworth, the first person to be exonerated from death row due to DNA evidence. It's only about ten minutes; I listened to it yesterday in the car, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

A civilized society can't call itself a civilized society if it kills people. It makes 'us' no better than 'them.' The death penalty should be abolished.

If you're not convinced, go listen to the podcast. Well, go listen anyway.