Hank Kalet

Jocelyn Diana Kalet — born Saturday, Sept. 9, at about 9 a.m. She was 5 pounds at birth and is doing well, as is her mom, dad and brothers. Welcome to the world, little one.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

I’m thinking there is only one logical place for a skating park in South Brunswick: Reichler Park.

1. It is close to the police and EMTs.
2. It is centrally located.
3. Woodlot, the other suggested location, does not offer stable ground on which to build it.

So let’s put it in Reichler and give the kids a place to skate.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

I’ve pointedly avoided all the 9/11 festivities because I sense in them something outside their intentions, a foreboding built on a foundation of partisanism and division that casts the people we are supposed to be remembering in the rolls of political props or stage sets and the vast crater that Ground Zero remains as the stage.

The president is a chief member of the production team, as his primtetime speech tonight made clear, again using 9/11 to push his failed Iraq policies. Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Condie Rice have all taken their turns, as well.

But the reality is that the administration has askes us to sacrifice little on a personal level for his war. We take our tax cuts and complain about gas prices even as our soldiers die in Iraq and Afghaistan — and the entirety of Washington panders to ensure we can remain fat and happy.

As we drift off into an oblivious sleep, we fear that we are in constant danger, not seeing or perhaps not minding that the freedoms we’ve always said we hold dear are eroding or being converted into consumer values.

It is a sad legacy five years later.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Liberals like me are supposed to be really worked up about this so-called docudrama about Sept. 11. Liberals are angry that the film blames President Clinton and lets President Bush off the hook. Liberals are supposed to be incensed over the mutilation of fact and truth. And I get all that. I agree that what has been reported about the film makes it appear that it will be a Bush propaganda piece.

But I just can’t get that worked up about it, especially given the way we libs rushed in to defend the terrible Reagan docudrama that canned by CBS back in 2003. The film was supposed to be pretty unflattering toward Reagan and caused the conservative media to freak out. Liberals were aghast at the response.

So here we are three years later and liberals (including some blogs like Talking Points Memo that I truly respect and others that I read on a regular basis) are braying over another docudrama — only this time it is one that offends our sensibilities.

I don’t disagree with the criticisms. But I wonder whether engaging in this kind of fight after defending the Reagan film leaves liberals open to the charge of hypocrisy. I think we have to stop agitating for it to be pulled, but also speak up loudly and clearly about its inaccuracies while demanding equal time from the network.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

I’m not sure how I feel about this, but I seem to be leaning toward supporting it.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment is reviewing plans tonight for a diner at the corner of New Road and Route 1, on the northbound side adjacent to the jughandle. The plans call for a 6,000-square-foot building on about 2 acres.

A couple of things to consider:

1. A diner will bring traffic — though something is likely to be built at the corner and it will act as a traffic magnet, as well.

2. There is a paucity of culinary options in town — especially given our physical size and the number of people living here. And diners tend to have good food and plenty of variety.

So the question, I think, will come down to the plan’s specifics — will there be enough parking, enough buffering and will it be designed to minimize the traffic impact?

First, let’s get answers. And then we’ll see where this leads.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick