The best news of all

388 of Our Fair State's National Guardsmen came home yesterday.

Not that far to the left

Times of Trenton columnist George Amick begs to differ with the old NY Times assessment that Our Fair State is as progressive as it gets:

For example, national polls show a growing willingness to allow homosexuals to marry, especially among younger voters. Same-sex marriage is going to be commonplace in a few years. But it won't be because New Jersey showed the way.
...
New York is on the brink of repealing its draconian Rockefeller-era drug laws, which robbed judges of discretion in sentencing and filled the prisons with nonviolent offenders, a disproportionate number of whom were black or Hispanic. But New Jersey clings to its law establishing no-drug zones in the vicinity of public schools, which has had the same result. Senate President Dick Codey, D-West Orange, has hinted that he might allow a proposed modification to come to a vote this spring, but so far there has been no sign of it.
Medical marijuana? Thirteen other states, including Sarah Palin's Alaska, have legalized the use of pot for medical purposes under tight restrictions. Their laws suddenly became significant rather than merely symbolic when the Obama administration announced that federal drug officials henceforth would honor those laws, rather than override them, as happened under President George W. Bush.

So, what happened to Our Fair State's liberal bent? Five other states allow everyone to marry, but not here; we stuck with separate-but-unequal civil unions. Massachusetts has near-universal health care. California is studying whether or not they should legalize and tax marijuana.

Here? We're re-electing Chris Smith. How's that fit in to "progressive leadership"?

Amick is right; New Jersey is no longer a progressive leader in many issues. How sad.

Bad to the Bone release

Didja see that cool widget to the right there, that says Jeri Smith-Ready's Bad to the Bone will be released on May 19, 2009?

Didja realize that it's only two days away?

Didja order your copy yet?

Finished

I finished my iPod project yesterday. I have now officially listened to every song on my iPod in alphabetical order.

Some things I've learned:

• iTunes capitalizes numbers at the end, after letters, which is the opposite of how we do it in the library.
• There are lots of songs that start with "I" and "You".
• I really gotta clean up my library- there's tons of stuff on there I don't need to have, particularly stuff I got free from iTunes.
• Time for some new music! I have a couple of CDs I haven't ripped yet, and at least two songs I want to buy.

It was a neat project, and took a lot longer than I thought- close to a year. Granted, I only listen to my iPod when I'm walking by myself or gardening, but also I don't have that many songs on it.

Now, I'm going to listen to a book for a change.

Someday, the fans will get over it.

Betrayed, say the fans- where is the wooden acting and pontificating?


Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Greenwashing with bottled water?

Seen on the back of a Poland Spring .5 L bottle:

Smaller Labels = More Trees

We could write more on a bigger label, but saving trees is important. By keeping it short, we've saved almost 10 million lbs. of paper per year in the U. S. - that's about 30,000 trees.
Be Green.

Never mind that the product is essentially tap water in a non-biodegradable petrolium-based container that's been transported in deisel-chugging trucks across the country! What's important is that they use fewer trees!

More on protests

From today's editorial, the Times of Trenton, about the protests: (emphasis mine)

Shared by most of the country, their concerns are genuine.
The "tea parties," though, were not so authentic. Ignited by Fox News announcers and talk-radio pundits, the protests were less a popular uprising for fiscal reform than a platform for Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.
In an Associated Press report, neoconservative and president of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist said as much: "All you have to be is a mildly awake Republican candidate for office to get in front of that parade."
Amid all the machinations and the bellowing, though, we're left with the stunning illogic of it all. The majority of those who joined in the protests Wednesday will realize a tax cut under President Barack Obama's plan. It's all those howling conservative commentators who will be hit with a tax increase.
Secondly, the effects of the enormously expensive but hugely needed stimulus plan will soon be evident. A Times' investigation has identified $40.8 million so far in federal stimulus funding headed our way, $23 million of which is designated for Mercer County road projects. Add to that federal stipends for housing repairs and
energy conservation, and the sum total will be a lot of jobs and a bracing
infusion into the local economy.

Do remember that- it's those howling conservative talk-show blowholes who make enough money to get any kind of tax increase, but they got their followers to protest for them. How nice.

How sad.

Margulies on tax protesters

Right on target, by Jimmy Marguiles. Hat tip Blue Jersey.

Teabagging and the modern conservative sheep

Better than I could've said it: Gary Stein of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

You want to complain about taxes and bailouts and how the government spends your money, terrific. That's legitimate frustration. Activism and protest is great, and necessary. But do it because you want to, not because you are following orders from egomaniacal talk show hosts.

And, spend a minute or two to learn why a cute reference to a landmark historical event turns your manufactured "protests" into an even bigger joke.

National Library Workers Day

That's right! Today is National Library Workers Day, "a day for library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers."

So, thank a library staffer today for all the work they do for you. Just remember to say it quietly.

Senator Franken?

Al Franken is one step closer to being a senator. There's still another legal challenge that could go, however.

Who would've thought something like this would have taken this long to figure out? Besides Al Gore, I mean.

The Governor answers our questions

Governor Corzine stopped by BlueJersey yesterday to answer some questions. Go check out his answers and post a few more if you have 'em.

Lazy Sunday

While I get some work done for school, the children are in the next room watching The Chronicles of Narnia. I just can't focus- I have this song just running through my head...

Being asked to give less, not more

...in which I must disagree with Carla Katz. Ms. Katz, former high-profile union leader, comes out strongly against furloughs on PolitickerNJ:

The fight over furloughs has been characterized by the press in a variety of ways. The Governor's "tough times budget" spin-the state is in an economic meltdown, everyone must share the pain, and 14 unpaid days and a wage freeze is better than layoffs. The unions' collective message-a contract is a contract and furloughs (AKA pay cuts) and demands for givebacks of negotiated wages undermine the collective bargaining process and unfairly penalize middle class working families who have already made massive concessions and cannot afford to give more in this troubled economy any more than their neighbors can.

My neighbors? They gave their jobs. In the last three months I've had several friends laid off and unable to find new jobs. These are parents, homeowners, spouses. They have NO JOBS. I must disagree, Ms. Katz; asking state workers to give up 12 paid days of work is a heckuva lot less than these guys have had to give up.

I'd rather take that cut in pay and we all get to keep our jobs.

Ms. Katz makes a great case later in her commentary about class distinction; how the AIG executives got their contractually-guaranteed bonuses but we may not keep our contractually-guaranteed wages. Sure it's a good point, but it's not like Our Fair State's government is the one giving away these AIG bonuses.

I understand contracts and collective bargaining.* I'm not saying furloughs are the best or only answer. I'm just saying that this arguement against the f-word isn't the way to go.

*I've said it before, but just in case, here's my full disclosure: I am both a public employee and a union member.

Libraries are the places to be

Hat tip: Librarian.net

Mercer County Electronics Recycling and Chemical Disposal

This Saturday, March 28th, Mercer County is holding its Household Chemical Waste Disposal and Electronics Recycling day!

8AM-2PM at the Dempster Fire School, Baker's Basin Rd, Lawrence Twp. Full details are here.

Double-dippers in Mercer County

Politicker NJ has a great story on pension abuse in Mercer County. Seems that Sheriff Kevin Larkin is receiving an $85,000 per year pension- for a job he's still doing, and getting paid $129K a year to do.

That's insane. That's unconscionable. Especially when Mercer County may have to layoff up to 125 people this year*.

And, apparently, the Hamilton Township administrator has been pulling a similar stunt- receiving a public pension and a salary for a public job.

Even if it is legal- and it sure sounds like it is- the wise move is to forgo the pension while you're still drawing from the public funds. Better still, make it illegal to do so.

*Including, possibly, yours truly or her coworkers. Full disclosure: I'm a county employee.

In which Fox News discovers that, with effort, they can sink even lower!

The crew over at Fox Newz has essentially made up a story about Vice President Joe Biden, by splicing a six-month-old campaign video where he was ridiculing John McCain's position. They used it in a montage of "recent interviews this week" about the condition of the economy.

Their mommas must hang their heads in shame every day. I'm sure they tried to teach their kids good manners, such as not to make stuff up and to keep their mouths shut if they had nothing to say.

Cooper

When we first got Cooper, the very first night, he was just a young kitten and was a little nervous about exploring. After a while of sitting on the couch with us, he got brave and wandered around a little bit. He made his way down the hallway and into a dark room. After a few minutes, I heard a very loud "Meow!" from down the hall. I went to check on him.

"What?" I said.

"Meow meow meow!" he said.

"Ok.' I said.

He promptly ran into the other bedroom. He was fine- he'd just wanted to tell me what he found. And from that day on, he always talked to me. He would "meow" and tell me what the problem was, what was going on, and that he wanted food. He always wanted more food.

After years of health problems, he finally turned the corner. We knew it was time when he didn't want to eat any more. We made the painful decision, and he went to the vet last night for the final time. He would have been sixteen in May.

Bad to the Bone

Jeri Smith-Ready's next book, Bad to the Bone, will be out on May 19th! There's a lovely picture of the cover over there on the sidebar.

Pre-order is available now at Mysterious Galaxy, Amazon.com, or Barnes and Noble.