Hank Kalet

You know you’re getting old when all your favorite bands are going into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame (read this). I’m not talking Beatles, Dylan, Stones or even The Boss. I’m talking about R.E.M., my first real adult favorite. I’m talking about Patti Smith, the punk-poet priestess. And the first great hip-hop act, the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

R.E.M. is on the short list of my favorite bands, has been since I first heard Murmur, with its lo-fi jangle and Michael Stipe’s mysterious mumble buried deep in the mix. There was a freshness, something that would come to be called Indie rock, something that existed apart from the New Wave that was fast growing stale.

I finally got to see the band in 1987, on my 25th birthday on its Document tour at the height of the band’s recorded powers. I’ve seen them twice since then — in 2003 and 2004 (pictured) — and have stayed with them through some less-than-stellar albums (Up, for instance, which has some good material on it but not enough).

My argument with those who have been what I think is overly critical of the later material is that the band is being judged against its peak; that’s an impossible standard and is not entirely fair to the music it makes now and has made beginning with Monster, much of it being pretty good. (If Around the Sun had been made by another band, it would have been rated far more highly than it was by the critics — sort of like that Borges story.)

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

We are considering doing something we haven’t done before in the South Brunswick Post and something we haven’t done in a long time: endorse in the 14th District Legislative races and South Brunswick school board. We’re hoping for the readers to help us decide. Any thoughts?

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

Common Dreams News Center picked up my death penalty column, which ran Thursday in the Post and today in the Press.

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

Does anyone really understand how bad of an idea this is? The Cranbury Board of Health wants the township to grant the animal control officer the right to kill “menacing dogs” or those that “pose a threat ‘of bodily injury or death to a human being.'”

The proposal said that if a dog is caught walking freely in the township without its owner, it could be “impounded or killed” by an animal control officer or dogcatcher.

The Township Committee wisely refused to introduce it last last month but the health board plans to bring it back — a foolish move.

The best explanation of why comes from resident Robert Bartoletti in a letter to the editor in the Press:

I agree that dogs need to be leashed. The current ordinance addresses that issue. Should pet owners choose to ignore the ordinance, which is designed to protect the public as well as the pet, then the pet owner should be held accountable. However, to allow the animal control office to discharge a fire arm to kill a dog just does not seem reasonable.

There are times when even the most conscientious pet owner’s dog gets loose and frantic pet owners begin to search for them. It would be disturbing to me to see an animal harmed by an overzealous animal control officer who makes a decision to use a firearm against a pet. When one thinks of the lengths that animal lovers around the nation go to protect wild life and pets alike through the use of tranquilizers to subdue wild animals, why in the world would we consider an ordinance that provides for the use of deadly force to subdue a pet?

Furthermore, the absurdity of the proposed resolution was out-matched by the comment made by a resident who happens to live in the zone she called “the pound” — Petty Road, Nicola Court and Lenape Court. Her comments were as far from reality as one could imagine. True, there are many pets living in the area. However, their owners are responsible for them and attend to their needs. To my knowledge they do not allow their pets to bark to the point of disturbance.

I have lived in the area for almost nine years. However, on occasion we do hear a barking dog, just as we hear cars, trucks, airplanes, helicopters, honking geese, quacking ducks, hooting owls, snorting deer, laughing children and many other sounds of life which any reasonable person might expect to hear in a community such as ours. (We even see a partridge in a pear tree!) All of which are sounds and sites of our community.

I urge our neighbors of Petty Road, Lenape Court and Nicola Court to be heard on this subject. I do not believe the citizen who referred to her life in the “pound” speaks for the residents of our neighborhood.

Well said, Mr. Bartoletti.

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

I take back some of what I’ve written lately about the new Democratic leadership and its flirtation with the so-called “surge.” The reason? Read this:

“We want to do everything we can to help Iraq succeed in the future but, like many of our senior military leaders, we do not believe that adding more U.S. combat troops contributes to success,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, wrote to Mr. Bush.

“Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain,” the Democrats’ letter said.

Reid, remember, had publicly said only a week or two ago that he’d consider the surge option. Glad he’s come to his senses.

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