Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Not that we expected anything different

Restaurants in South Brunswick are saying that the smoking ban has had no effect on their business. Should we be surprised? It has seemed pretty clear to me that the vast majority of folks out there have given up on the tobacco, and most of those who have don’t want to breathe in second-hand smoke. This direct impact is why the libertarian argument — i.e., this is a free country and I’ll pollute my lungs if I want — fails on its face. Go ahead, pollute your lungs in the safety and comfort of your own home, but do not pollute my lungs.

And let’s clear the air at township parks, too. Here is our editorial from today’s paper.

Channel Surfing, The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Another bad day in Iraq

The bad news continues.

From The Washington Post:

Four American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter died Thursday when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle northwest of the capital, the U.S. military command announced. The names of the dead were not released.

The explosion was one of three deadly attacks launched around the country as Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki was preparing to unveil his new cabinet.

Channel Surfing, The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

In tomorrow’s South Brunswick Post

Tomorrow’s South Brunswick Post will feature stories on:

  • How students and coaches feel about a new state plan to test athletes for steroids
  • A local Scout collecting books for the South Brunswick Family YMCA as part of an Eagle Scout project
  • An update on lockdown drills at township schools
  • The county and state farmland preservation programs
  • A student’s call to ban smoking at township parks
  • How local restaurants are fairing with the state ban on smoking in eateries
  • How the two Democratic mayoral candidates feel about open space preservation and the township budget

And my Dispatches column, on gas prices and their impact on the average driver.

Channel Surfing, The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

More bad news from Iraq

This is from Juan Cole’s Informed Comment site (which I highly recommend):

The Iraqi Civil War took the lives of another 42 persons on Tuesday. The most horrible attack was in the Shaab district of the capital. Drivers of two minibuses attacked a market. The first shot 7 persons down, then when a crowd gathered, a second minibus driver detonated his payload near a petroleum truck. The truck became a fireball, killing another 17 Iraqis and wounding at least 38. (Aljazeera is reporting the death toll from this attack at over 40.)

“At least 17 Iraqis were killed in other attacks in and around the capital and two police officers shot dead in the northern oil hub of Kirkuk.

A US soldier was killed by a bomb in the south of the capital, the US military said, adding that two soldiers were killed in a similar incident in Balad, north of the capital, the previous day.”

Al-Zaman says that fighting continues between the US military and guerrillas in Ramadi, with 12 dead and 12 wounded on Tuesday.

Yet, as the folks in Washington seem to want us to believe, things are going swimmingly.

Channel Surfing, The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.