No run today — sore legs, too many Press Association contest entries to wade through and meetings in the afternoon. Back on the road — or treadmill — Monday. I have an 18-mile race to think about in September.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Blue Jersey has opened voting for its annualy Screaming Carrot Award — not sure where the name comes from, but hey — and Channel Surfing is nominated as are some other fine New Jersey blogs of a progressive bent.
Go here to vote (I won’t tell you for whom to vote, but….).
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
State Senate President Richard Codey is looking to kick of the year the right way. He announced today a sweeping package of bills that he says will “close some remaining loopholes (in existing ethics law), and we can begin to help restore the public’s confidence in government.”
That’s obviously necessary, given the questionable behavior of so many of our elected representatives.
According to a Live from the Ledger posting, the package will include:
— A complete ban on any meals, gifts or travel payments from lobbyists to lawmakers and their staffs;
— A ban on nepotism at every level of state and local government, including municipal governments and school boards;
— A requirement that any lawmaker or state agency seeking changes to the proposed state budget submit detailed written requests for the funding in time for them to be reviewed by the public before hearings on the state budget;
— An independent review of the Legislature’s Code of Ethics by Rutgers professor Alan Rosenthal, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at the Eagleton Institute of Politics.
Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts endorsed the plan, according to the Ledger:
“Good, honest government should be something we don’t just strive for, but something we actually deliver,” Roberts said.
Let’s hope the pair follow through and the fixes actually fix things.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Technology doesn’t always bring happiness — or common sense.
Consider two recent incidents here in South Brunswick. First, a couple of high school students were charged after they allegedly drew a third student to an empty hallway and assaulted her.
Then, this week, five teens were charged in connection with a rather extensive vandalism spree at the old Bank of America complex next to Indian Fields School.
In both cases, the desire to capture the action on digital video — using cell phone cameras — and post the video to the Web seem to be the motivation, a disturbing trend that probably says a lot about the times in which we live.
Everyone, it appears, aspires to Andy Warhol’s 15-minute moment — and are willing to do just about anything to stake their claim to fame.
Bill O’Reilly would blame it on the secular-progressives, claiming that that movies and music make people act stupid and that a good dose of conservative values would fix it. As I wrote last month after the great bloviator offers a classic tautology — he interprets an event to fit his world view and then uses the event to prove he’s right.
I, on the other hand, do not have a handy explanation. My best guess is that some people are just stupid and are all too willing to share their stupidity with others.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Dispatches is up on the Post site — a consideration of Saddam Hussein’s execution, a state commission report on capital punishment and my belief that we need to abolish the death penalty.
The governor agrees. The Star-Ledger agrees. So do The Record and the Courier-News.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 