Posted on

Hurricane Preparedness Week is May 26 – June 1, 2013

08132009_wizardofoz

Hurricane Preparedness Week is May 26 – June 1, 2013

The Ridgewood Office of Emergency Management (OEM) reminds residents that the 2013 Hurricane Season begins June 1st.

A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone or severe tropical storm that forms in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. A typical cyclone is accompanied by thunderstorms, and in the Northern Hemisphere, a counterclockwise circulation of winds near the earth’s surface.

Hurricanes can cause catastrophic damage to coastlines and several hundred miles inland. Hurricanes can produce winds exceeding 155 miles per hour as well as tornadoes and mircrobursts. Additionally, hurricanes can create storm surges along the coast and cause extensive damage from heavy rainfall. Floods and flying debris from the excessive winds are often the deadly and destructive results of these weather events. Slow moving hurricanes traveling into mountainous regions tend to produce especially heavy rain. Excessive rain can trigger landslides and mud slides. Flash flooding can occur due to intense rainfall.
Ridgewood OEM is asking residents to begin preparations NOW by building an emergency kit and making a family communications plan. Please review the recently updated bookled from the National Weather Service entitled “Tropical Cyclones: A Preparedness Guide” and the “Hurricane Survival Guide for New Jersey” published by New Jersey State Office of Emergency Management.

Additional resources are available at oem.ridgewoodnj.net.

Hotwire US

 

Posted on

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

RHSBridgeflood_theridgewoodblog.net

Photo by Boyd Loving

FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
928 PM EDT THU MAY 23 2013

…A FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1045 PM EDT FOR
FAIRFIELD…EXTREME EASTERN PASSAIC…NORTHWESTERN NEW HAVEN…
WESTCHESTER…BERGEN…EAST CENTRAL ESSEX AND HUDSON COUNTIES…

AT 924 PM EDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
THAT HEAVY RAIN HAD ENDED…BUT FLASH FLOODING OF SMALL STREAMS AND URBAN FLOODING ARE STILL OCCURRING IN THE WARNED AREA. IN BERGEN COUNTY…THE HOHOKUS BROOK AT HOHOKUS WAS STILL JUST ABOVE FLOOD STAGE…AND THE PASCACK BROOK IN HILLSDALE WAS OUT OF ITS BANKS AND FLOODING LOCAL BUSINESSES.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

EXCESSIVE RUNOFF FROM HEAVY RAINFALL WILL CA– USE FLOODING OF SMALL CREEKS AND STREAMS…URBAN AREAS…HIGHWAYS…STREETS AND UNDERPASSES AS WELL AS OTHER DRAINAGE AREAS AND LOW LYING SPOTS.

BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE
DANGERS OF FLOODING. IF FLASH FLOODING IS OBSERVED ACT QUICKLY. MOVE UP TO HIGHER GROUND TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS. DO NOT STAY IN AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING WHEN WATER BEGINS RISING.

Posted on

Special ops halted from responding to Benghazi attacks, U.S. diplomat says

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Special ops halted from responding to Benghazi attacks, U.S. diplomat says
By Ernesto Londoño, Published: May 6

As the weakly protected U.S. diplomatic compound in eastern Libya came under attack the night of Sept. 11, 2012, the deputy head of the embassy in Tripoli 600 miles away sought in vain to get the Pentagon to scramble fighter jets over Benghazi in a show of force that he said might have averted a second attack on a nearby CIA complex.

Hours later, according to excerpts of the account by the U.S. diplomat, Gregory Hicks, American officials in the Libyan capital sought permission to deploy four U.S. Special Operations troops to Benghazi aboard a Libyan military aircraft early the next morning. The troops were told to stand down.

Defense Department officials have said they had no units that could have responded in time to counter the attack in Benghazi, but Republicans on Capitol Hill have questioned whether the Obama administration could have saved lives with a nimbler, more assertive response. They say that the reluctance to send the Special Operations troops may have, at the very least, deprived wounded Americans in Benghazi of first aid.

Congressional investigators released a partial transcript of Hicks’s testimony Monday ahead of a hearing Wednesday at which he is scheduled to appear. His remarks are the first public account from a U.S. official who was in Libya at the time of the attacks about the options that were weighed as militants mobbed the American diplomatic outpost and CIA station in Ben­ghazi, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other government employees.

The new details are certain to reignite a debate over whether the Obama administration has been sufficiently forthcoming in its public accounting of the events and missteps that resulted in the first death of a U.S. ambassador in the line of duty in a generation. If Republicans in Congress succeed in portraying the administration’s response as feckless, the episode could dog any future political aspirations of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was secretary of state when the attacks happened.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-ops-halted-from-responding-to-benghazi-attacks-us-diplomat-says/2013/05/06/c3f311d4-b677-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_print.html

Posted on

N.J. car insurance rates, already the nation’s highest, on the rise

crash2_theridgewoodblog.net_

Photo by Boyd Loving

N.J. car insurance rates, already the nation’s highest, on the rise
Sunday, April 28, 2013    Last updated: BY  RICHARD NEWMAN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Northjersey.com : News

N.J. car insurance rates, already the nation’s highest, on the rise

Sunday, April 28, 2013    Last updated: Sunday April 28, 2013, 10:39 AM
BY  RICHARD NEWMAN
STAFF WRITER
The Record

Vehicles damaged by superstorm Sandy, such as this car in Moonachie, are not the reason regulators have approved rate increases for 26 New Jersey insurance companies so far this year.

Auto insurers are raising rates in New Jersey this year, in some cases by double digits, unwelcome news for motorists in the nation’s highest-priced market.This time, motorists might be willing to cut the insurance companies some slack in light of the hundreds of millions of dollars they paid to policyholders whose sedans and SUVs were wrecked by superstorm Sandy in October.

However, insurers and the state regulator say Sandy is not the reason the state has approved rate increases for 26 insurers so far this year. The rate hikes are driven by factors such as losses related to Tropical Storm Irene and the Halloween nor’easter from two years ago, medical costs that are trending higher, reinsurance expenses and lackluster forecasts of investment income, industry experts say.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/205053701_Driven_up_and_up.html

Posted on

Lisa’s Mediterranean Cuisine in Ridgewood

l

Lisa’s Mediterranean Cuisine in Ridgewood
April 23,2013
By Tony Mangia
https://devilgourmet.com/lisas-mediterranean-cuisine-in-ridgewood-new-jersey/#

Lisa’s Turkish Kitchen is a Ridgewood, NJ institution for Middle Eastern, namely Turkish, cuisine.  A few months ago, the restaurant moved from its original location on Chestnut Street one block east to 28 Oak Street and changed its name to Lisa’s Mediterranean Cuisine.

I have never been to Lisa’s at its original location, but have heard great things.  So recently I decided to pay Lisa’s a visit for a solo lunch.  I love Turkish food.  It’s delicious and shares similar flavors with other Mediterranean cuisines.

https://devilgourmet.com/lisas-mediterranean-cuisine-in-ridgewood-new-jersey/#

Posted on

The U.S.A. and the Middle East in a New Era of the Clash of Civilizations

memap

The U.S.A. and the Middle East in a New Era of the Clash of Civilizations
by Vassilios Damiras, Ph.D. (ABD)

CEO
Geostrategic Forecasting Cooperation – (GSFC)

Chryssoula Katsikoudi
Director of International Relations and Middle Eastern Affairs

Geostrategic Forecasting Cooperation – (GSFC)

Events since the terrorists’ attacks of September 11, 2001, have dramatically and drastically changed the political environment in the Arab and Muslims worlds, a vast diverse region incorporating the band of nation-states with significant religious Muslim population that extends from western Africa to the southern Philippines, as well as Arab and Muslim communities and diasporas stretching throughout the globe.

The United States are concerned with three types of serious threats to U.S. national interests.

Direct physical threats against American citizens and military/diplomatic installations

Serious political destabilization of friendly nation-states in the Arab and Muslim worlds

Significant growth of anti-American, anti-Western, and antidemocratic ideologies in the
Middle East and in the wider Arab and Muslim Worlds.

Preventing direct threats against the various American interests is the aim of the global war on terrorism with the defeat of Al Qaeda and related terror networks the paramount U.S. national security priority. The Bush administration in 2002 in the “National Security Strategy of the United States of America” declared that the United States of America is combating a war against brutal terrorists of global reach. The enemy is not a single political regime, or government, or person or religion or political ideology. The main enemy is terrorism premeditated political motivated violence perpetrated against innocents.

Cooperation in fighting terrorism and its networks is therefore a very critical component of the U.S. diplomatic relations with the various Arab and Muslim countries, but it is not the only element. Beyond the problem of terrorism lies the crucial issue of the future socio-political shape

and form of the Arab and Muslim worlds and whether these religious and political worlds will be amicable to U.S. interests, values, and democratic ideas.

Political destabilization of friendly but authoritarian nation-states poses a very serious and complex set of dilemmas and challenges. Statesmen, diplomats, and scholars of the realist school of thought, who direct and influence the U.S. policies and decision-making toward the Arab and Muslim worlds, valued regime stability nearly above democratic values and ideas. At the end of the 1991 Gulf War, serious fear and concern of the strategic consequences of the political destabilization of Iraq informed the George Bush administration’s decision to stop short of toppling Saddam Hussein and to permit him to crush the Kurdish and Shiite revolts. For the following decade both the Bush and Clinton administrations had to live with the serious
consequences of that military decision. Because of that dramatic geostrategic experience, some policymakers now support and vigorously promote that American national interest are sometimes better safeguarded or even protected by regime change in antithetical brutal authoritarian regimes. President George W. Bush faced that dilemma of regime change in Iraq and President Barrack Obama encounters that dilemma in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria with the emergence of the Arabic Spring.

Obviously in some cases, promote for regime change is clearly a suitable sociopolitical option. There is little question, for example, that most alternatives to the current suppressive Iranian theocratic government would create a government more respectful of the Iranian people’s political and human rights, less likely to pursue and finish with the development of nuclear weapons or to support or finance vicious terrorist groups or causes, and more favorable positioned toward cooperation with the American administration and other democratic countries.
This specific policy questions relate to the cost-benefit calculus implicit in any set of United States military or diplomatic actions adopted to bolster and promote viable democratic change.

It is evident differentiating between political transitions from authoritarianism to democracy that can be expected to lead to more pluralistic and republic political regimes and those that probably that lead to more repressive and regressive political systems is more difficult in the case of friendly authoritarian nation-states. This demands a more fine-grained analysis of the relative strengths and long-term aims of the sociopolitical forces at play in the region.

The best-case political scenario in the process of democratization of friendly authoritarian countries assumes that a sociopolitical transition from authoritarianism, although in the beginning disruptive and difficult, will create a more democratic and benign political environment over the long term. Thus, a democratic or democratizing Arab and Muslim worlds would significantly reduce or even remove of the structural social and political causes of Islamic extremism and anti-Americanism.

Nonetheless, pushing political change in friendly authoritarian or dictatorial regimes could be significantly destabilizing in short term, specifically in the absence of democratic political

alternatives and strong civil society institutions and values. The removal of the Shah of Iran is a very cautionary study case. Furthermore, Algeria is a story of democratic transition that in the end generated an Islamist electoral majority, but instead of directing the Algerian sociopolitical system toward more inclusive politics, it produced a military crackdown and a radical Islamist insurgency of significance and unprecedented violence. In Egypt the Mubarak administration’s tactics drove the political opposition into underground. In 2011, under the banner of the Arabic
Spring the Mubarak regime collapsed. It is ambiguous if Egypt will become more democratic. In the Saudi Arabia, the most serious sociopolitical menace to the regime’s stability and survival comes from religious Islamic radicals supporting a more extreme version of the official religious/political ideology. Last but not least in Pakistan, an ambiguous ally in the U.S. counterterrorism and counterinsurgency strategies, extreme religious Islamic groups threaten the fragile democracy.

A major concern is the disruption of Jihadist terrorist networks, which potential can carry a biological or nuclear terrorist attacks across the globe, thus undermining democratic developments and endanger the American national interests across the world. An important question is how the American intelligence community can identify hostile use of these lethal networks. It is imperative to analyze the profiles of certain Muslim communities that harbor or maintain violent Islamic networks and the nodal and communicable aspects of these convoluted groups. Methods and process of indoctrination, influence, communications characteristics, and religious rituals necessitate to be better comprehended. Once the U.S. intelligence are identified
the aforementioned methodology of specific jihadist groups, then their recruitment procedure and weaknesses need to be examined and analyzed. Then the American government can design a specific strategy of how to penetrate, disrupt, and destroy menacing jihadist groups.

Interrupting these brutal terrorist groups does not mean closing down various Muslim institutions such as, health and welfare organizations, cultural centers, mosques, youth organizations, and student unions. Rather, it needs dismantling the trust nexus upon which Jihadists depend and promoting Muslim moderates to obtain control of these institutions. The Obama administration needs to continue to promote educational reform, reforms in various Madrassas combine with reforms in several Mosques. It is vital also the American government to promote economic development in the Arab and Muslim worlds. The U.S. intelligence assets need very carefully
to execute psychological operations targeting the various jihadist cells. Inside the U.S. borders, decision-makers need to be pay attention to radical recruitment in various prisons and within the American armed forces to monitor the role of Muslim prison clergy and military chaplains in disseminating radical ideas of Islam.

Evidently, it is extremely difficult in forecasting the consequences of regime change may generated from a failure to comprehend the growth of political ideologies drastically opposed to American national interests, values, democratic ideas, and policies. The American government has a difficult road ahead to promote democratic ideas in the Middle East and in the wider Arab and Muslim worlds and to persuade other American allies mainly in Europe to support that sensitive and important task ahead. One way is United States to sustain a significantly military force in the region that reflects the American commitments to her allies and her military interests. America will be the sole catalyst for democratization in these sensitive aforementioned
areas.

The outcome of the “war of ideas” in progress throughout the Muslim and Arab worlds
is possibly to have significant consequences for the U.S. national interests in the region; nonetheless it is also extremely difficult for the American government to influence or alter Muslim ideas regarding the relations between the West and various countries in the Islamic World. Even pro-American governments wishing to work together with the U.S.A. on various important regional issues may be limited by domestic pressers and public perceptions. It is fundamentally and extremely difficult for a nonwestern power to influence or alter ideas and perceptions of Muslims about their religion or political affiliations. The historical evidence vividly illustrates that only Muslims themselves have the sole credibility to challenge or change the misuse of the Islamic religion by radicals or Jihadst fighters. Thus, the American administration current and future have a serious and difficult task to tackle. The future will
indicate the relations between U.S.A. and the Muslim and Arab worlds.

The Middle East has been the most conflict-prone regions. The lack of economic development and growth is one of the major factors why conflict in the Middle East continues in all likelihood to increase. The significance of ethnic dominance in Islamic countries equal well to the long-lasting and ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, already hosting two international wars with the participation of Iraq in 1991 and 2003 as well as the Iran-Iraq war in 1980-1988.

Ever since the 1950’s, civil war in the Middle East has been the dominant type of conflict. As a conflict ridden region, one cannot deny that Afrcia and Asia has not been on the same path, but by closely analyzing and comparing the three regions, the Middle East is clearly characterized by current authoritarian regimes, oil-dependent economies, and above all Islam.

Civil war in the Middle East is mostly associated with either religious or ethnic conflict or/and economical, political, and social discrimination. The region’s resistance to democracy and the lack of economic and social development is due to bring a movement of exceptionelism to the surface by reflecting the regions beliefs through their ideology and historical circumstances. Has conflict in the Middle East been shaped by exceptional factors vulnerable to the region, or is the Middle East just an “unfortunate” region; wrong place, wrong time?

After World War I, the boarders were drawn in the form of the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement. The core regions of the Ottoman Empire became Turkey, some were given to Russia, parts of Syria and Lebanon to France, and Iraq and the rest of Syria to Great Britain. Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia were controlled by France, and Egypt, Palestine, and Jordan by Great Britain. By the end of 1960, most of those regions have gained their independence, except with the establishment of Istael in 1948, regional conflict in the Middle East started to spread like wild fire. Ethnic and religious conflict between Muslims and Jews became known as the another “holy war.”

However, throughout all the conflict and civil war, the Middle East still today is one of the most influential strategic importance in world politics. The unique and close relationship with Israel and the United States has influenced external intervention such as the U.S./U.K invasion of Iraq in 2003.

According to the “war of ideas” in concept with Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations,” Islam an the West are engaged in a clash of civilizations as two competing ideologies. As Islam is conflicting with secular democracy and basic civil liberties, the spread and the replacement of the current world with the caliphate are proceeding through two forms of how terrorism is defined nowadays. One, is the extremist Islamist group known as al-Qaeda, and second, the Party of Liberation which is more oriented towards ideological struggle. Known as a radical Sunni Islamist organizatio, PL has not been classified as a terrorist organization, therefore, its ideologies are more accessable to the masses. Other Islamist groups focus more on single, religious issues, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, but PL reaches out to unite all Muslims under one Islamic banner such as – in Huntington’s case – the clash of civilizations suffered by Muslims all around the world.

After the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, modern Islamist movement emerged through some ideologues believing that the decline of the Islamic world can only be reversed if “real” Muslims unite and spread the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, doing so, replacing the existing governments ruling the Muslim world with Islamic ones. When the Party of Liberation was formed in the early 1950s, its followers, without a doubt, rejected capitalism and preached democracy as “godless.”1 The only way to liberate Muslims from the beliefs of nonbelievers was to replace the Christian dominated nation-states. Furthermore, followers of the PL also believe that Western civilization was seeking an ideological dominance within
the Musim societies, and that capitalims and socialism were anathema because they failed to recognize the superiority of Islam.

Today, the PL is active in more than forty countries with a hierarchical approach aiming to resurrect the caliphate by overthrowing the government, and to prevent Muslims in the West to assimilate into Western culture. One of the party’s main focuses is Turkey – conflicted within a war of ideologies. Although Turkey is currently reforming its legal and constitutional systems in order to join the European Union, in the recent years it has become very vulnerable to domestic Isamist extremists. The PL is trying to convince Turkey not to enter the EU because otherwise they would lose their Islamic identity and instead raise their Islamic flag.

Zeyno Baran, “Fighting the War of Ideas,” Foreign Affairs , Vol. 84, No. 6 (Nov. – Dec., 2005), 70.

Huntington’s clash of civilizations thesis predicts that the increasing conflict between Islam and the West has to do with Muslims being involved in violent conflicts between religious and ethnic groups; with the Middle East being a region where Islam dominates. Ethnic dominance between Shia and Sunni proves his argument that any dominant ethnic group increases the risk of conflict incorporating Islamic dominance. In core content, Huntington’s Clash of Civilization thesis
states that states belonging to different civilizations are more likely to fight each other, while states belonging to the same civilization are less likely to fight each other.

According to Huntington, the Clash of Civilization emerged in the post Cold-War era as a result of different factors such as increased economic regionalization, the interaction amongst people of different civilizations, and most of all a global resourgence of religious identity. Huntington identifies a civilization as “the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species.” 2 Religion is evidently the single most important factor in a civilization. It is the central defining characteristic of a civilization; whether it is Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, or a Western religious faith, civilizations are most likely to clash with each with different religions.

Huntington places a major emphasis on Islamic belief as a source of cultural strain in the modern world. His thesis predicted that the fundamental source of conflict in this world would be ideological or economical; and he was right. With a sligh emphasis on Weberian theory, combined with his theory of the clash of civilizations, it is evident that there is a troublesome attraction and comparability between Islam and the rest of the cultural world today, which translates into a fatalistic self-empowerment and individualism. Islam’s fatalism is the concept of traditional value system that are unreceptive to the idea of the process of modernization. For that, Huntington’s Clash of Civilization thesis is a perfect comprehensive analysis of the fatalistic
qualities inherited in Islam.

Errol A. Henderson and Richard Tucker, “Clear and Present Strangers: The Clash of Civilizations and International Conflict,” International Studies Quarterly , Vol. 45, No. 2 (Jun., 2001), 319.


Posted on

WINTER STORM TO IMPACT THE TRI-STATE TODAY AND TONIGHT

WinterWeatherAdvisory250x2
WINTER STORM TO IMPACT THE TRI-STATE TODAY AND TONIGHT...

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EDT
TONIGHT...

* LOCATIONS...NORTHEASTERN NEW JERSEY...NEW YORK CITY...AND LONG
  ISLAND.

* HAZARD TYPES...WET SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS...SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 2 TO 3 INCHES WITH
  ISOLATED AREAS UP TO 4 INCHES.

* WINDS...NORTHEAST 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH.

* TEMPERATURES...AROUND 40.

* VISIBILITIES...LESS THAN 1 MILE AT TIMES.

* TIMING...LIGHT SNOW IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP THIS MORNING...AND
  CONTINUE INTO TONIGHT.

* IMPACTS...ANY ACCUMULATING WET SNOW ON UNTREATED SURFACES WILL
  RESULT IN DIFFICULT AND SLIPPERY DRIVING CONDITIONS.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW...SLEET...OR
FREEZING RAIN WILL CA-- USE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR
SLIPPERY ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES...AND -- USE CAUTION WHILE
DRIVING.

Posted on

Anglers Unite : Trout Season Opens April 6th

Saddle_River_theridgewoodblog.net

Anglers Unite : Trout Season Opens April 6th

TROUT STOCKING HOTLINE: 609-633-6765

We know it hard to believe with snow on the ground but yes Trout Season officially open s in New Jersey on April 16th

The stocking trucks from the Pequest Trout Hatchery will begin rolling on March 18 as the spring pre-season distribution of this year’s trout gets under way. By year’s end, approximately 600,000 trout will be stocked throughout the state, but the action really got going on Opening Day, April 6, at 8 a.m.

The “production trout” average 10.5″ but were kept company prior to opening day by some of the more than 6,000 three to eight pound breeder trout which are also being stocked. This spring, trout will be placed in 88 streams and 90 ponds and lakes throughout New Jersey. Those trout will be in addition to some of the 26,000 bruisers still in the water from stockings in the fall and winter. Fortunately for the state’s anglers, trout remain available throughout the summer in many waters.

troutgirl10tpsm

HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2013

Trout fishing in New Jersey continues to be some of the best available on the East Coast. The average size of the trout stocked is larger than trout stocked in neighboring states, and the Bonus Broodstock Lakes and the breeder stocking programs provide plenty of trophy size fish within a short drive from anywhere in the state. Aside from some allocation changes, noted below, the 2013 season is expected to provide the normally superb trout fishing opportunities New Jersey anglers have grown to appreciate.

Driving directions to some of the state’s better know trout water access points can be found at www.njfishandwildlife.com/accesswater.htm. Anglers are reminded that access to locations along trout stocked streams may be available only through the good graces of private landowners. Please be respectful of their property and take care not to damage trees and shrubs. Leaving your fishing location cleaner than when you arrived helps maintain good angler-landowner relations and ensures continued public access to trout streams.

The in-season stocking schedule, covering the seven weeks following opening day, is available online at www.njfishandwildlife.com/trtstk13.htm and through the trout stocking hotline at 609-633-6765.

troutonleaves

SPRING TROUT SEASON BASICS

Anglers should be aware that most trout-stocked waters are closed to fishing during the 3 weeks leading up to opening day (March 18 – April 6 at 8 a.m.). During this time most trout-stocked waters are stocked with trout to provide anglers with great fishing opportunities on Opening Day, April 6.Successful trout angler

During this pre-season period you might want to try fishing one of a handful of trout-stocked waters that remain open for fishing. Farrington Lake (Middlesex Co.), Lake Hopatcong (Morris/Sussex counties), Lake Shenandoah (Ocean Co.), Prospertown Lake (Ocean Co.), and Swartswood Lake (Sussex Co.) are open year round to fishing. Designated Trout Conservation Areas (Seasonal and Year Round) and Holdover Trout Lakes also remain open to fishing. (Note that fishing is not permitted on Seasonal Trout Conservation Areas from 12:01 a.m. to 8 a.m. on April 6, 2013). Trout caught in any of these waters during the pre-season period must be released immediately.

Those looking to fish during the pre-season period and keep their catch can cast a line in either of the state’s two Trophy Trout Lakes, Merrill Creek and Round Valley Reservoirs.

Be sure to check the trout regulations (https://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/2013/trtregs13.pdf)  pertaining to all the above waters.

On Opening Day and the days that follow, there are a few regulations to keep in mind. On most waters anglers may keep 6 trout per day, and the trout must be at least 9 inches long. Since the trout reared at the Pequest Trout Hatchery average 10½ inches when stocked, most of the stocked trout you catch can be harvested if you chose to. June 1 is an important date, as the daily creel limit for trout on most trout waters drops from 6 to 4 per day.

The state’s sixteen major trout streams are stocked every week after Opening Day for the next seven weeks and they are closed to fishing from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the day of stocking. This allows the trout a chance to disperse following stocking and gives anglers an equal opportunity to fish for freshly stocked trout. All other waters may be fished at any time following Opening Day, including the day they are stocked. Many are stocked at least three times after Opening Day so be sure to check the trout stocking schedule to determine the stocking dates for the waters you plan to fish. Since every county has waters that are stocked with trout, spring trout fishing opportunities are never too far away

https://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/trtinfo_spring.htm

Posted on

.WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EDT THIS MORNING…

severeweather_000

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EDT THIS
MORNING…

* LOCATIONS…BERGEN AND EASTERN PASSAIC COUNTIES.

* HAZARD TYPES…FREEZING RAIN ON TOP OF EARLIER MODERATE
SNOWFALL.

* ACCUMULATIONS…A LIGHT GLAZE OF ICE ON TOP OF EARLIER SNOW
ACCUMULATION OF 3 TO 5 INCHES.

* WINDS…NORTHEAST 5 TO 10 MPH.

* TEMPERATURES…IN THE LOWER 30S.

* TIMING…LIGHT FREEZING RAIN EARLY THIS MORNING WILL TAPER OFF
TO SCATTERED LIGHT RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS LATE THIS MORNING.

* IMPACTS…A LIGHT GLAZE OF ICE ON TOP OF ACCUMULATED SNOW WILL
MAKE TRAVEL DIFFICULT…ESPECIALLY DURING THE MORNING COMMUTE.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW…SLEET…OR
FREEZING RAIN WILL CA– USE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR
SLIPPERY ROADS…AND — USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.

Esurance

Posted on

Who Was St Patrick ?

snakes-out-of-england

St. Patrick: Taken Prisoner By Irish Raiders

It is known that St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D. Although his father was a Christian deacon, it has been suggested that he probably took on the role because of tax incentives and there is no evidence that Patrick came from a particularly religious family. At the age of 16, Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family’s estate. They transported him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. (There is some dispute over where this captivity took place. Although many believe he was taken to live in Mount Slemish in County Antrim, it is more likely that he was held in County Mayo near Killala.) During this time, he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian. (It is also believed that Patrick first began to dream of converting the Irish people to Christianity during his captivity.)
St. Patrick: Guided By Visions

After more than six years as a prisoner, Patrick escaped. According to his writing, a voice—which he believed to be God’s—spoke to him in a dream, telling him it was time to leave Ireland.

To do so, Patrick walked nearly 200 miles from County Mayo, where it is believed he was held, to the Irish coast. After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation—an angel in a dream tells him to return to Ireland as a missionary. Soon after, Patrick began religious training, a course of study that lasted more than 15 years. After his ordination as a priest, he was sent to Ireland with a dual mission: to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to begin to convert the Irish. (Interestingly, this mission contradicts the widely held notion that Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland.)

St. Patrick: Bonfires and Crosses

Familiar with the Irish language and culture, Patrick chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish. Although there were a small number of Christians on the island when Patrick arrived, most Irish practiced a nature-based pagan religion. The Irish culture centered around a rich tradition of oral legend and myth. When this is considered, it is no surprise that the story of Patrick’s life became exaggerated over the centuries—spinning exciting tales to remember history has always been a part of the Irish way of life.

https://www.history.com/topics/who-was-saint-patrick

Posted on

Internet freedom showdown looming: US

big-brother-theridgewoodblog.net

Internet freedom showdown looming: US

AFP – A number of countries are aggressively trying to control the Internet, a top US diplomat cautioned Thursday, insisting Washington would give no ground when it comes to curbing freedoms on the Web.

“Many Middle Eastern countries, Russia, China and others are I believe going to take an increasingly aggressive stand to try to control the Internet,” Alec Ross, the State Department’s outgoing senior adviser on innovation, told reporters in Geneva.

The fact that many countries appeared to be investing heavily, “billions and billions of dollars”, in next generation surveillance technologies was an indication of their intentions to clamp down on Internet freedoms, Ross warned.

The clamp-down was coming amid a clear shift of power all over the world from governments and other state hierarchies towards citizens and networks of citizens, he said during his last press conference before leaving his government position.

“Anyone who understands power understands that power is not given up willingly,” he said, adding that the rush to buy surveillance technology appeared to have really taken off after the Iranian election protests in 2009.

https://www.france24.com/en/20130307-internet-freedom-showdown-looming-us

Posted on

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY

WinterWeatherAdvisory250x2

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY

URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
355 AM EST THU MAR 7 2013

…A PROLONGED PERIOD OF ACCUMULATING SNOW EXPECTED…

WESTERN PASSAIC-EASTERN PASSAIC-WESTERN BERGEN-ORANGE-PUTNAM-
355 AM EST THU MAR 7 2013

…WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS
EVENING TO NOON EST FRIDAY…

* LOCATIONS…PORTIONS OF INTERIOR NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY AND
INTERIOR PORTIONS OF THE LOWER HUDSON VALLEY OF NEW YORK.

* HAZARD TYPES…SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS…FROM 2 TO 5 INCHES.

* TEMPERATURES…FALLING TO AROUND 30 THURSDAY NIGHT.

* TIMING…FLURRIES ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH EARLY AFTERNOON. A STEADY
SNOW WILL DEVELOP THIS EVENING AND CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY
MORNING.

* IMPACTS…ACCUMULATING SNOW ON ROADS COULD LEAD TO DIFFICULT
TRAVELING CONDITIONS BY FRIDAY MORNING.

* WINDS…NORTH 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW…SLEET…OR
FREEZING RAIN WILL CA– USE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR
SLIPPERY ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES…AND — USE CAUTION WHILE
DRIVING.

Posted on

John Kerry says Americans ‘have a right to be stupid’

cn_image.size.johnkerry

John Kerry says Americans ‘have a right to be stupid’ and tells how he lost his diplomatic passport at age 12 after sneaking out to Soviet-controlled East Berlin in 1950s

    ‘In America, you have a right to be stupid, if you want to be… and we tolerate that,’ Kerry said to a packed Internet cafe in Berlin
    Kerry stopped in Berlin as part of his nine-country trip abroad – his first trip as secretary of state
    He recalled how he learned about the divide in postwar Berlin as a young man living with his American diplomat father

By Hayley Peterson

PUBLISHED: 00:00 EST, 26 February 2013 | UPDATED: 16:17 EST, 26 February 2013

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recalled for young Germans Tuesday when he snuck out of the American embassy in divided postwar Berlin at age 12 for a clandestine bicycle ride into the Soviet-controlled eastern part of the city.

Kerry told the story to a group of young people in a packed Internet cafe in Berlin as he defended U.S. freedom of speech laws, saying that ‘In America, you have a right to be stupid.’

‘As a 12-year-old, I saw the difference between the east and the west,’ said Kerry, who had lived in Berlin in 1950s with his family and American diplomat father. ‘I saw people were in darker clothing and there were fewer people in the street. There were fewer cars. I didn’t feel the movement and the energy that existed elsewhere.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2284792/John-Kerry-says-Americans-right-stupid-tells-lost-diplomatic-passport-age-12-sneaking-Soviet-controlled-East-Berlin-1950s.html

Posted on

Rising voice of gun ownership is female

banner3

Rising voice of gun ownership is female

PAINESVILLE, Ohio — Mary Ann Froebe stood feet apart with knees slightly bent and aimed the .22-caliber Ruger semiautomatic. 

“You’ve got some adrenaline running through you right now,” said Esther Beris, the coordinator of the northeastern Ohio chapter of A Girl and a Gun Women’s Shooting League. “It’s O.K., just relax.”

Ms. Froebe, 42, a small-business owner who described herself as a “virgin gun shooter,” concentrated and pulled the trigger. “It was awesome,” she said, her face flushed, after emptying the 10-round clip. “The sense of control, of being in charge of me.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/us/rising-voice-of-gun-ownership-is-female.html?ref=us&_r=0