Sleep specialist Russell Rosenberg, who was an adviser on the International Bedroom… Read More
Having trouble sleeping? Check for a glow, inches from the pillow.
Using a smartphone, tablet or laptop at bedtime may be staving off sleep, according to Harvard Medical Schoolscientists, who have found specific wavelengths of light can suppress the slumber-inducing hormone melatonin in the brain.
“We have biologically shifted ourselves so we can’t fall asleep earlier,” said Charles A. Czeisler, a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School. “The amazing thing is that we are still trying to get up with the chickens.”
Bergen Record once again looks to savage Steve Lonegan with a public misinformation smear campaign.
January 8, 2014
PJ Blogger and the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Jackson claims “Lonegan’s in-your-face campaigning style helped him cut down what was expected to be a more lopsided losing margin in last year’s U.S. Senate race against Democrat Cory Booker. But that could be a tough sell in the district, which includes many military families and several large townships dominated by retirement communities. ”
Really is that why Lonegan garnered more votes than then Mitt Romney state wide in a off year election mind you and particularly in District 3 with overwhelming support of military personnel and the 65 and over crowd who still remember what a great country this once was .
Jackson points out his carpet bagger status , but that didn’t hurt Hillary in New York State and given the political land scape in New Jersey its a bit late for that criticism . Lonegans District 3 predecessor a former Philadelphia Eagle was tarred with that very claim . At lest Lonegan is from the same state .
Jackson then goes on to degrade the Tea Party which were the very people who gave both his predecessor Rep. Jon Runyan and himself big victories in the district .My favorite digg is his supposed lack of support by local “republicans” . Funny is that why Chris Christie himself is hosting a $1000 a plate fund raiser for Lonegan and using his very own mailing list .
We all know the Bergen Record went to great lengths keeping from the public the terrible record of our Senator in hiding then mayor of Newark Cory Booker ,and of coarse we see no questioning of Booker by the media on charges of corruption in Newark , the sky rocketing murder rate , horrible over priced schools and of coarse his head long support for Obamacare which has lead to over 800,000 people losing their healthcare in the state of New Jersey ?
While we do not expect papers like the Record to come clean we do at lest expect the Record to pretend its somewhat unbiased and give in to the pretense that it is attempting to report news instead of being a propaganda tool for the Democratic party and its allies .
BITTER COLD WIND CHILLS EXPECTED FOR MOST OF THE TRI-STATE AREA FROM LATE TONIGHT INTO TUESDAY
URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
419 PM EST MON JAN 6 2014
…BITTER COLD WIND CHILLS EXPECTED FOR MOST OF THE TRI-STATE
AREA FROM LATE TONIGHT INTO TUESDAY…
…WIND CHILL ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO
6 PM EST TUESDAY…
* LOCATIONS…NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY…SOUTHWEST CONNECTICUT…AND
SOUTHEAST NEW YORK EXCEPT FOR EASTERN LONG ISLAND.
* HAZARD TYPES…BITTER COLD AND WIND.
* WIND CHILL VALUES…AS 15 TO 25 BELOW ZERO IN ORANGE…PUTNAM
AND WESTERN PASSAIC COUNTIES…AND 15 BELOW ELSEWHERE.
* WINDS…WEST 20 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS 40 TO 50 MPH…HIGHEST
ACROSS THE CITY…COAST AND HIGHER ELEVATIONS.
* TEMPERATURES…DROPPING TO THE SINGLE DIGITS TONIGHT…AND
RISING ONLY TO 8 TO 13 ABOVE ON TUESDAY.
* TIMING…LATE TONIGHT INTO TUESDAY.
* IMPACTS…PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO THE BITTER COLD AND WIND COULD
LEAD TO FROSTBITE AND HYPOTHERMIA.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS
WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS. THIS WILL RESULT IN
FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.
IF YOU MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS…MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND
GLOVES.
EDUCATION ISSUES WILL HELP SHAPE CHRISTIE’S SECOND TERM — AND POLITICAL FUTURE
Running in GOP primaries might push governor further to the right on school reforms
After four years of political drama involving school reform and education policy in New Jersey, could Gov. Chris Christie’s second term be even more eventful?
Three major speeches by the governor over the next two months are sure to highlight education.
In the meantime, many observers are already speculating about Christie’s unfinished education-related business as he begins his next term – and possibly embarks on a run for certain higher office.
“Education is always an important political issue, because it involves two things everyone cares about: kids and money,” said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University.
“Even in a second term after a first term that saw some significant accomplishments, Chris Christie will still prioritize it,” Dworkin predicted. ”There are still schools that don’t do well, still issues in fully funding the state’s school funding law, and challenges around charter schools and vouchers. (Mooney/NJSpotlight)
Are You Ready for Some Taxpayer-Subsidized Nonprofit Sportsball?
Jan. 5, 2014 11:00 am
With the NFL playoffs underway and the BCS National Championship Game kicking off tomorrow night, now seems like a perfect time to remind every American just how screwed up the economics behind these games actually are.
Here is the original text from the Dec. 2, 2013 video:
Whether you like football or not – whether you’ve ever bought a ticket to a high school, college, or NFL game – you’re paying for it.
That’s one of the takeaways from The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on America, Gregg Easterbrook’s fascinating new book on the cultural, economic, and political impact of America’s most popular and lucrative sport.
“The [state-supported] University of Maryland charges each…undergraduate $400 a year to subsidize the football program,” says Easterbrook, who notes that only a half-dozen or so college teams are truly self-supporting. Even powerhouse programs such as the University of Florida’s pull money from students and taxpayers. “They do it,” he says, “because they can get away with it.”
At the pro level, billionaire team owners such as Paul Allen of the Seattle Seahawks and Shahid Khan of the Jacksonville Jaguars benefit from publicly financed stadiums for which they pay little or nothing while reaping all revenue. Easterbrook also talks about how the lobbyists managed to get the NFL chartered as a nonprofit by amending tax codes designed for chambers of commerce and trade organizations.
Mr Mayor its not Civility its Overdevelopment thats a threat to our Village
Civility has its place, yet I am not sure the Mayor’s call for “civility” is a proper response to what is going on the Village. And, it is just a bit difficult to be civil when you have worked hard all your life to buy and live in a nice home in Ridgewood, something you plan to retire in and serve as your nest egg once the mortgage is paid off, and you see that crumbling before you. Overdevelopment will surely destroy the quality of life along with all of our home values. And, I don’t say overdevelopment “threatens” our way of life, I say it will surely destroy our way of life.
There are some who feel the overdevelopment can be managed and controlled, but all i hear from them are pipe dreams that bear no relation to the development plans under consideration: Won’t it be nice to have housing for empty nesters and seniors who want to downsize? Won’t it be nice to have diversity? Won’t it be nice to attract more people to spend money downtown? Won’t it be nice to have a modern, up to date hospital?
Yet, I have never heard anyone explain how the present over expansion plans will achieve these purported goals. Nor do I believe these are the goals of the developers — I suspect they are in business to make money (and rightfully so.) But, perhaps the larger point is, are we not already where we want to be as a Village? We have nice range of housing stock for different income brackets. We have nice apartment complexes and more than enough, it seems, to accommodate residents who want to downsize or one would not see “for rent” signs on any of the existing complexes. Our schools are good, if overcrowded. Our population will continue to diversify and no one has explained why or how greater diversity is achieved through minimizing housing standards (and, frankly, that suggestion is a bit odious). The notion that we need more people to “save” the downtown is equally obnoxious — a downtown exists to serve the community, and a community should not be expanded in the vain attempt to keep a downtown’s status quo. Finally, face it, Valley Hospital is a gold mine for its doctors and administrators. The reality is Valley is not going anywhere if the expansion plans are denied and it will stay a top notch facility.
We are sticking our heads in the sand about some things that are obvious. The never ending hospital expansion will drag down housing prices on the East side. That in turn will drag down the West side. The downtown apartment projects will lower the value of the Heights, the Prospect street homes and the homes around Graydon. That will again affect the entire Village. And, as schools become more overcrowded, streets become overburdened with traffic and the quality of life lessens, our nest eggs will further dissipate.
So, although I hear a call for “civility” and open debate, not once have I heard our Council really dive into the concerns facing existing Villagers. The debate seems to be framed by Valley and the Developers, what they want to achieve for themselves. Valley speaks in terms of the need to stay modern so it can continue to be “the” hospital serving the Northeast. The Developers put out propaganda about the need to accommodate more people in town. Yet, are these reasons to change our existing Master Plan? Are these goals for which we should sacrifice the hard work of those who have and are paying taxes? Are the profit motives of the Expansionists and Developers more important than the financial security of our current homeowners?
Yes, Mayor, we should all be civil. But we shouldn’t allow what we have achieved to be taken away. If you really want to prove your mettle, stand up now for Ridgewood’s taxpayers. Use your pulpit to put an end to the overdevelopment. Be bold enough to take a stand against the destruction of the Village. Express the frustrations that are boiling over into civil unrest. Here’s an idea: Let’s bring the current meetings to an end with a “no” vote. Make your vote the first, and the others will follow. Then, we can move on to more pressing civil matters.
URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
446 AM EST WED JAN 1 2014
…A COASTAL STORM WILL BRING THE POTENTIAL FOR HEAVY SNOW…NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ALONG THE COAST…AND DANGEROUSLY COLD WIND CHILLS THURSDAY EVENING THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON…
…WINTER STORM WATCH NOW IN EFFECT FROM THURSDAY EVENING THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON…
* LOCATIONS…EASTERN PASSAIC…BERGEN…ESSEX…AND UNION
COUNTIES IN NEW JERSEY.
* HAZARD TYPES…SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS…5 TO 9 INCHES.
* WINDS…NORTH 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 30 MPH.
* TEMPERATURES…TEMPERATURES DROPPING INTO THE LOWER TEENS THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON WITH WIND CHILLS OF 5 TO 10 BELOW ZERO.
* VISIBILITIES…ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF MILE AT TIMES LATE
THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY MORNING.
* TIMING…THURSDAY NIGHT INTO FRIDAY.
* IMPACTS…THE ACCUMULATING SNOW…ALONG WITH SOME BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW…WOULD PRODUCE HAZARDOUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT SNOW…SLEET…OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS.
Camille Paglia: A Feminist Defense of Masculine Virtues
The cultural critic on why ignoring the biological differences between men and women risks undermining Western civilization itself.
By Bari Weiss
connect
Dec. 27, 2013 6:55 p.m. ET
‘What you’re seeing is how a civilization commits suicide,” says Camille Paglia. This self-described “notorious Amazon feminist” isn’t telling anyone to Lean In or asking Why Women Still Can’t Have It All. No, her indictment may be as surprising as it is wide-ranging: The military is out of fashion, Americans undervalue manual labor, schools neuter male students, opinion makers deny the biological differences between men and women, and sexiness is dead. And that’s just 20 minutes of our three-hour conversation.
When Ms. Paglia, now 66, burst onto the national stage in 1990 with the publishing of “Sexual Personae,” she immediately established herself as a feminist who was the scourge of the movement’s establishment, a heretic to its orthodoxy. Pick up the 700-page tome, subtitled “Art and Decadence From Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, ” and it’s easy to see why. “If civilization had been left in female hands,” she wrote, “we would still be living in grass huts.”
By John H. Cochrane
This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal on December 25, 2013.
The unraveling of the Affordable Care Act presents a historic opportunity for change. Its proponents call it “settled law,” but as Prohibition taught us, not even a constitutional amendment is settled law—if it is dysfunctional enough, and if Americans can see a clear alternative.
This fall’s website fiasco and policy cancellations are only the beginning. Next spring the individual mandate is likely to unravel when we see how sick the people are who signed up on exchanges, and if our government really is going to penalize voters for not buying health insurance. The employer mandate and “accountable care organizations” will take their turns in the news. There will be scandals. There will be fraud. This will go on for years.
Yet opponents should not sit back and revel in dysfunction. The Affordable Care Act was enacted in response to genuine problems. Without a clear alternative, we will simply patch more, subsidize more, and ignore frauds and scandals, as we do in Medicare and other programs.
There is an alternative. A much freer market in health care and health insurance can work, can deliver high quality, technically innovative care at much lower cost, and solve the pathologies of the pre-existing system.
The U.S. health-care market is dysfunctional. Obscure prices and $500 Band-Aids are legendary. The reason is simple: Health care and health insurance are strongly protected from competition. There are explicit barriers to entry, for example the laws in many states that require a “certificate of need” before one can build a new hospital. Regulatory compliance costs, approvals, nonprofit status, restrictions on foreign doctors and nurses, limits on medical residencies, and many more barriers keep prices up and competitors out. Hospitals whose main clients are uncompetitive insurers and the government cannot innovate and provide efficient cash service.
We need to permit the Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com and Apples of the world to bring to health care the same dramatic improvements in price, quality, variety, technology and efficiency that they brought to air travel, retail and electronics. We’ll know we are there when prices are on hospital websites, cash customers get discounts, and new hospitals and insurers swamp your inbox with attractive offers and great service.
The Affordable Care Act bets instead that more regulation, price controls, effectiveness panels, and “accountable care” organizations will force efficiency, innovation, quality and service from the top down. Has this ever worked? Did we get smartphones by government pressure on the 1960s AT&T phone monopoly? Did effectiveness panels force United Airlines and American Airlines to cut costs, and push TWA and Pan Am out of business? Did the post office invent FedEx, UPS and email? How about public schools or the last 20 or more health-care “cost control” ideas?
Only deregulation can unleash competition. And only disruptive competition, where new businesses drive out old ones, will bring efficiency, lower costs and innovation.
Health insurance should be individual, portable across jobs, states and providers; lifelong and guaranteed-renewable, meaning you have the right to continue with no unexpected increase in premiums if you get sick. Insurance should protect wealth against large, unforeseen, necessary expenses, rather than be a wildly inefficient payment plan for routine expenses.
People want to buy this insurance, and companies want to sell it. It would be far cheaper, and would solve the pre-existing conditions problem. We do not have such health insurance only because it was regulated out of existence. Businesses cannot establish or contribute to portable individual policies, or employees would have to pay taxes. So businesses only offer group plans. Knowing they will abandon individual insurance when they get a job, and without cross-state portability, there is little reason for young people to invest in lifelong, portable health insurance. Mandated coverage, pressure against full risk rating, and a dysfunctional cash market did the rest.
Rather than a mandate for employer-based groups, we should transition to fully individual-based health insurance. Allow national individual insurance offered and sold to anyone, anywhere, without the tangled mess of state mandates and regulations. Allow employers to contribute to individual insurance at least on an even basis with group plans. Current group plans can convert to individual plans, at once or as people leave. Since all members in a group convert, there is no adverse selection of sicker people.
ObamaCare defenders say we must suffer the dysfunction and patch the law, because there is no alternative. They are wrong. On Nov. 2, for example, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote movingly about his friend who lost employer-based insurance and died of colon cancer. Mr. Kristof concluded, “This is why we need Obamacare.” No, this is why we need individual, portable, guaranteed-renewable, inexpensive, catastrophic-coverage insurance.
On Nov. 15, MIT’s Jonathan Gruber, an ObamaCare architect, argued on Realclearpolitics that “we currently have a highly discriminatory system where if you’re sick, if you’ve been sick or you’re going to get sick, you cannot get health insurance.” We do. He concluded that the Affordable Care Act is “the only way to end that discriminatory system.” It is not.
On Dec. 3, President Obama himself said that “the only alternative that Obamacare’s critics have, is, well, let’s just go back to the status quo.” Not so.
What about the homeless guy who has a heart attack? Yes, there must be private and government-provided charity care for the very poor. What if people don’t get enough checkups? Send them vouchers. To solve these problems we do not need a federal takeover of health care and insurance for you, me, and every American.
No other country has a free health market, you may object. The rest of the world is closer to single payer, and spends less.
Sure. We can have a single government-run airline too. We can ban FedEx and UPS, and have a single-payer post office. We can have government-run telephones and TV. Thirty years ago every other country had all of these, and worthies said that markets couldn’t work for travel, package delivery, the “natural monopoly” of telephones and TV. Until we tried it. That the rest of the world spends less just shows how dysfunctional our current system is, not how a free market would work.
While economically straightforward, liberalization is always politically hard. Innovation and cost reduction require new businesses to displace familiar, well-connected incumbents. Protected businesses spawn “good jobs” for protected workers, dues for their unions, easy lives for their managers, political support for their regulators and politicians, and cushy jobs for health-policy wonks. Protection from competition allows private insurance to cross-subsidize Medicare, Medicaid, and emergency rooms.
But it can happen. The first step is, the American public must understand that there is an alternative. Stand up and demand it
‘One Newark’ Reform Plan Proves Divisive Even Before Official Release
Superintendent’s plan calls for sweeping changes to address poor academic performance and exodus to charter schools
The public battles over Newark school closures, consolidations and other reconfigurations have started up anew.
State-appointed Superintendent Cami Anderson this week has begun to unveil her “One Newark” plan for remaking what she called the “portfolio” of the city schools, as they face a growing exodus of students to charter schools while grappling with greater needs and tighter budgets.
The families and staff of 15 schools most affected by Anderson’s plan heard details at meetings held last night across the city. Another 15 affected schools are to host meetings tonight.
An internal draft of the plan appears to lay out a sweeping and complicated series of moves, ranging from transforming Weequahic High School into separate single-gender academies to recruiting charter organizations to manage low-performing elementary schools.
There are proposals for “redesigning” some schools, “dissolving” others and “re-siting” still others. But what that means is not always specified, and Anderson’s plan does not give a timeline for these changes. (Mooney/NJSpotlight)
Flawed bid process will delay Maple Field cleanup in Ridgewood
TUESDAY DECEMBER 17, 2013, 10:32 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Ridgewood Council has rejected the lone bid it received for the Maple Park turf cleaning job, a move that will delay a much-needed procedure at one of the village’s most used fields.
According to a council resolution unanimously passed last week, the village will put the project back out for public bid because the initial bid process was declared flawed.
REPORT: Colorado school gunman ‘very opinionated Socialist’…
December 14, 2013 10:38PM
A TEENAGER who may have had a grudge against a teacher opened fire with a shotgun at a Colorado high school, wounding two students before killing himself.
Quick-thinking students alerted the targeted teacher, who quickly left the building.
The scene unfolded on the eve of the Newtown massacre anniversary, a sombre reminder of the ever-present potential for violence in American schools.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson identified the shooter on Friday night as 18-year-old Karl Halverson Pierson.
The shooter entered Arapahoe High School armed with a shotgun and looking for a teacher he identified by name, Sheriff Robinson said.
“(The teacher) knew he was the target and he left that school in an effort to try to encourage the shooter to also leave the school,” the sheriff said. “That was a very wise tactical decision.”
Reader says Once the Village downtown is destroyed, there will be no turning back and the rest of the Village will follow
We seriously need to stop this train wreck from happening. Once the Village downtown is destroyed, there will be no turning back and the rest of the Village will follow. To protect our homes, our schools and the Village way of life for future generations and people, we need to speak up now.
The approaching holiday season provides the perfect opportunity to pull your elected representatives aside whenever and wherever you see them, and politely but earnestly let them know these projects can’t go through. The current zoning allows plenty of room to build new units for empty nesters and new comers alike (too much room probably.) Lets enforce the zoning as currently written.
Why is Brancheau going down this path? Why is the planning board going down this path? We don’t need these hearings. We need to put a stop to them now and just say “no” — we like the Village just the way it is, thanks. Go build in Wychoff or another Town.
Make that your holiday message to the Village council.
It’s designed to be an impressive show of force: Thousands of unionized teachers plan to rally Monday in cities from New York to San Francisco to “reclaim the promise of public education.”
Behind the scenes, however, teachers unions are facing tumultuous times. Long among the wealthiest and most powerful interest groups in American politics, the unions are grappling with financial, legal and public-relations challenges as they fight to retain their clout and build alliances with a public increasingly skeptical of big labor.
“I do think it’s a moment of truth,” said Lance Alldrin, a veteran high-school teacher in Corning, Calif., who has split from his longtime union after serving for a decade as the local president.
The National Education Association has lost 230,000 members, or 7 percent, since 2009, and it’s projecting another decline this year, which will likely drop it below 3 million members. Among the culprits: teacher layoffs, the rise of non-unionized charter schools and new laws in states such as Wisconsin and Michigan freeing teachers to opt out of the union. (Simon/Politico)
Teacher ratings can strain New Jersey school districts
Saturday November 30, 2013, 11:46 PM
BY LESLIE BRODY
STAFF WRITER
The Record
New Jersey’s law requiring districts to start new teacher evaluations this year has become a bonanza for the firms that are helping schools comply.
Many districts have spent tens of thousands of dollars on new online tools for collecting data on teachers’ goals and techniques in the classroom, and training staff members how to use them. Many superintendents are grumbling that on top of the enormous investment of time required to conduct more frequent and in-depth evaluations, these bills are an unfair financial burden imposed by the state.
Ridgewood, for example, has spent $40,000 for a new data system and extensive training on how to use it. Fair Lawn has spent $33,000 so far. And Glen Rock and Hawthorne have paid $25,000.
