Dear Readers after suffering a major “HACK” attack last week the Ridgewood Blog is under going a very major up grade to its servers .
After finishing our first phase of blog redesign we are also continuing a long term project for better indexing the 80,000 plus older posts making them easier to search . This includes a more usable streamlined set of categories as well as a simpler tagging system .
The second major project we are currently working on is fixing the 3000 or so broken , non working or inaccurate links . When finished this will give blog users faster access to blog posts and a more robust feel for surfers.
thanks for your patients , the blog should return to service sometime today ,
Anonymous Blogger says Civility you can start with :WHO SENT THE ANONYMOUS EMAIL TO COUNCILMAN SEDON’S EMPLOYER??????
Many people are intimidated from speaking up using their own name. They fear retribution and so they stay silent. And why would they fear retribution? – because it happens all the time. You complain about (this is a random example) garbage collection, and suddenly your garbage bags are breaking open in your driveway. You read such stories all the time. A parent fears complaining about his child’s teacher because the child may be made to suffer in the classroom. Yes, it happens. You complain that your mother’s caregiver in the nursing home is being rough with her, and then you get sick with worry that the caregiver will be angry about the reprimand and God-forbid somehow take it out on your mother. Years ago I reprimanded a paper boy (back when The Record came later in the day and was delivered by local teens) for taunting my elderly dog who was sitting on the porch. The very next day I had a flat tire, and a line of nails was seen in my driveway. The police officer who came to take the report asked if anyone in the house had been in a recent dispute with anyone. The officer was almost saying “well, what did you expect.” We learn early that complaining out loud can be disastrous.
Then along comes the internet, and we now have a chance to state our opinions loudly and clearly without fear of retribution. This is a huge benefit to the average Joe and Jane who have a right to an opinion but a fear of stating it. LONG LIVE THE BLOG !!!!! In terms of our own elected officials, we know they read this Blog every day and we know they act upon some of the comments. Or sometimes they react to some of the comments. But it does get their attention. It is a wonderful thing. As a regular reader of, and anonymous poster on, this Blog, it is glaringly apparent that some of the anonymous posts come from mission control. The language, the defensive tone….. at times you know exactly who from the Village Council is posting. They cannot have it both ways – they want to eliminate anonymity when they practice it themselves. Seriously.
Moreover, when you go in person with your face in plain sight and make a comment at the Village Council meetings, you might get severely reprimanded. Heck, they even reprimand their own elected colleagues, village employees, and the chief of police. This council in particular has been hideous with their behavior at times, just embarrassing, and in fact The Record has published a couple of articles and editorials chastising their inappropriate behavior. The put a timer on when someone steps up to the microphone and you are not allowed to ask any direct questions of any person and the speaker is often met with a “thank you for your comments” sort of response which accomplishes nothing. One person I know told me she was watching on TV (which many of us do) and got so mad that she jumped in the car to go speak her mind, but then she got afraid and slunk back home instead of going in to the meeting. Of course she was afraid. Who would want to chance being publicly humiliated?
All of this makes it all the more disingenuous that THIS mayor is trying to pose as a civility in public discourse guru. A leopard cannot change its spots. We see right through these elaborate smoke and mirrors.
And yes……WHO SENT THE ANONYMOUS EMAIL TO COUNCILMAN SEDON’S EMPLOYER?????? Care to step forward and identify yourself?
Its thats time again , over the next several months the Ridgewood blog , will be making some major up grades , including a more updated format and a faster server .We apologize in advance for the inconvenience ,from time to time the blog may be off line . Every effort will be made to minimize these disruptions .
Reader says Ridgewood’s Mayor should go on record voicing his support for Charlie Hebdo and the Ridgewood blog in support of Free Speech !
By any chance, is Ridgewood’s Mayor on record voicing his support for Charlie Hebdo in the wake of the brutal attack on free speech in France? Or is White Horse Strategies only interested in representing clients who benefit when people are afraid to freely speak their minds?
Events of this nature, if they are to be held at all, should be privately organized. For elected representatives to be the planners, hosts and organizers seems like a tactic employed by the National socialist party. Does anyone know their Great Depression and WWII-era history? Even Roosevelt sought to corrupt and coopt public discourse by secretly training thousands of so-called “four minute men” and quietly dispersing them around the country to attend local public meetings where they would take full advantage of open microphone time to proselytize regarding issues near and dear to the collectivist heart of the executive branch. Are we seeing a return to this tactic, 70 years hence?
If the puerile, atheist, nihilist rag Charlie Hebdo and it’s anemic typical print circulation of 60,000 is to be defended arm-in-arm by 40 world leaders marching in solidarity against attack by Islamist barbarians, certainly free-market, free-speech and We-the-People-oriented theridgewoodblog.net with its 90,000 unique electronic visitors per month can expect to be effectively defended against gratuitous depredation by two and 499/1000ths amigos bent on incessantly holding non-public public meetings calling for “civility in public discourse” until we collectively cry “Uncle” for fear of being bored to death. Hey PJ, by any chance, do you have a cartoonist on staff capable of amateurishly lampooning the prophet Aronsohn in honor of tonight’s gala free-speech-chilling civilapalooza?
Since the Ridgewood Christmas tree fiasco the Ridgewood blog has not celebrated Festivus . While some blog critics would argue the the blog is the very embodiment of Festivus ,because readers are constantly posting grievances we noticed some of the politicos in DC took to the occasion of Festivus to air their grievances about their peers .
What is Festivus, the holiday ‘for the rest of us’?
10 things you may not know about the oddball holiday and the ‘Seinfeld’ episode that spawned it
By Dylan Stableford Yahoo News
“Seinfeld” fans around the world gathered to air their grievances on Tuesday in celebration of Festivus, the holiday created by Frank Costanza on the popular 1990s sitcom, which has since become real annual tradition for thousands of people.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was one of them.
“Christmas is a time for joy,” the Republican senator wrote on Twitter. “It is not a time to air grievances. That’s what #Festivus is for.”
The alternative gathering calls for a metal pole instead of a tree, the airing of grievances(“You gather your family around and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year,” Frank Costanza explains) and the “feats of strength” — a father-son wrestling match that concludes the oddball holiday, dubbed a “Festivus for the rest of us.”
Like Frank Costanza, Paul has “a lot of problems with you people,” at least in Washington.
In honor of Festivus, here are 10 things you may not have known about the holiday and the“Seinfeld” episode that spawned it.
Reader says Brigadier General Abraham Godwin should be the Patron Saint of this blog
“You have to keep asking yourself PJ , what would Brigadier General Abraham Godwin do? “
Brigadier General Abraham Godwin Monument
E. Ridgewood Avenue and Van Neste Square
Ridgewood Municipal Park
Plaques on the monument tell the story of Brigadier General Abraham Godwin: [5]
“Brigadier General Abraham Godwin – Soldier, Statesman, artist, poet, engraver, musician and gracious host. Born July 16, 1763.
“His career began at the age of thirteen when his brother, David, aged eleven, he left home at Totowa to join Captain Woolverton’s Minute Men with the mother’s consent. The boys were musicians. Abraham playing a fife, David a drum. Their destination was a station at the corner of Partition and Horse and Cart Streets, New York City, now Fulton and William Streets. There the boys saw their father who had been commissioned Captain of Marines aboard the Lady Washington lying in port.
“Abraham went to Fishkill joining his brother, Captain Henry Godwin’s regiment, the Fifth of the Line, January 17, 1777, as a fife major.
“The regiment was ordered to Fort Montgomery to lay the chain across the Hudson River. He was in the Governor’s life guard at Schenectady protecting the frontier at Lake Otsego under General Sullivan during the Finger Lakes campaign and at Yorktown, where he witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington.
“After the war he married, settled in Totowa, now Paterson and devoted himself to the fine arts, and the pursuit of civil life; was elected to the Legislature 1803-07; Rose to Rank of Brigadier General New Jersey State Militia in 1814 marched a Company of Paterson volunteers to Sandy Hook was received with great acclaim and worked on the entrenchments; 1828 nominated for Presidential elector on the Jackson ticket.
“January 1st 1829 occurred the great event of interest to this community: its first name was Godwinville in honor of Abraham Godwin. This section covered Paramus, Newtown (Wortendyke) Midland Park, Ridgewood and Glen Rock and was known as Franklin Township.
“Godwin Avenue, formerly Godwinville Road is the only remnant of the honor conferred on him and was much cherished by Abraham Godwin.
“He passed to the greater life 1855.”
Sources:
1. ^ Sign Erected by the Cons. Story Body – Old Paramus Reformed Church 1966
2. ^ The official website of the Old Paramus Reformed Church:www.oldparamus.org/history/history.html
3. ^ Charles Lee, Sir Henry Bunbury The Lee Papers 1754 – 1811/ Volume 3 (1778 – 1782) (New York; New York Historical Society, 1874) pg 30 – 89
Available to be read at Google Books Here
4. ^ Sign placed by the Bergen County Historical Society
5. ^ Text from the plaques on the Abraham Godwin Monument, Erected by the Village of Ridgewood NJ 1951.
FACT : Midland Park Memorial Library hosted its Summer Concert Series, and featured a performance by the Jersey Blues Fife and Drum Corps, celebrating General Godwin Day, honoring Brigadier General Abraham Godwin on July 16.
On Sunday, September 28, 2014 our Nation honors our Gold Star Mothers and families.
The Presidential Proclamation in 2011 commemorating this day pronounces, “As members of a grateful Nation, we owe a debt we can never repay, but hold this sacred obligation forever in our hearts, minds, and actions. We honor their sacrifice, and stand with our service members, military families, and Gold Star families as they have stood for us.” The
American Legion Post 53 and Ridgewood NJ’s Blue Star Families are committed to bringing awareness to our community and to commemorate the sacrifices these mothers and their families have made for our Country.
In the aftermath of World War I, Washington D.C. resident Grace Darling Seibold formed an organization called Gold Star Mothers to support the moms who had lost sons and daughters to the war. Grace’s son, First Lieutenant George Vaughn Seibold, was an aviator killed in combat over France in 1918. In 1928, the small D.C.-based group decided to nationalize its efforts. In 1936, a joint congressional resolution established the last Sunday in September as
Gold Star Mother’s Day. The Gold Star Mothers grew from a support group of 60 women to today’s extensive nationwide network with tens of thousands of members and hundreds of local chapters.
In Ridgewood, NJ the Gold Star Mother’s Day Committee will sponsor our fourth annual event commemorating Gold Star Mother’s Day on Sunday, September 28, at Van Neste Park.
RBSA Getting Desperate ? Coward Anonymous Poster Makes Threats against the Ridgewood blog
Nice blog you got here James, I hope you have been paying State and Federal income taxes on the income you get from this blog. If not it may be a bit difficult to keep it going from jail…..I think I am going to have to find out if you have been paying your “fair” share.
then resort to NAZI tactics making threats
Anonymous 0 approved 108.59.11.116 Submitted on 2014/05/02 at 3:37 pm
Author : Anonymous (IP: 67.159.5.242 , 67.159.5.242)
E-mail :
URL :
Whois : https://whois.arin.net/rest/ip/67.159.5.242
Comment:
Nice blog you got here James, I hope you have been paying State and Federal income taxes on the income you get from this blog. If not it may be a bit difficult to keep it going from jail…..I think I am going to have to find out if you have been paying your “fair” share.
Let me get this straight. This political blog is based in New Jersey and after 20 subpoenas are issued for the office of the Governor of New Jersey, you only have one article and its about the Governor’s fall girl. Ok, so much for Laissez-faire Point of View to New Jersey State. Nothing to see here. You must think she dreamed the whole thing up herself. She’s a secretary, for crying out loud. What makes anyone think she makes policy decisions like shutting down the George Washington Bridge. She gets coffee and relays messages for the Governor. Anyone thinking she has anything to do with this is delusional. Is Christie that big of a con man that he can convince one person that this rogue employee hatched up some scheme of political payback that looks eerily similar to all the payback schemes he has been involved with. He is vindictive, petty, a bully and I can only hope that she finally wakes up and spills the beans on her “fine” boss.
Unfortunately John people are more worried about the lunch delivery ban at the High School , perhaps if the press would have put half the energy they have in this story in to the last 500 corruption scandals in New Jersey over the last 20 years and far bigger ones at the national level you might actually have a point but alas the media particular the north jersey media has ignored over looked or po po-ed everything so the public is just numb to it.
NYT: Woman Says Bridgegate Closings Didn’t Cause Her Mother’s Death
January 10, 2014 – 8:43 am
FORT LEE, N.J. — The daughter of a 91-year-old woman from Fort Lee, N.J., who died on the day of a major traffic jam precipitated by top aides to Gov. Chris Christie said on Thursday that she did not believe the inability of an ambulance to reach her mother’s house was a factor in her death.
“I honestly believe it was just her time,” said Vilma Oleri, whose mother, Florence Genova, died on the morning of Sept. 9, the first day that the closing of local lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge set off the snarls.
A Fort Lee emergency official has said that the traffic jam prevented an ambulance from Englewood Hospital from reaching Ms. Genova’s home.
Christie’s critics have seized on Genova’s death, even calling the traffic jam scandal “Bridgeghazi” in an accidental acknowledgement that Benghazi is a legitimate scandal — now that it can somehow be aimed at a Republican. Some have even suggested that manslaughter charges should be on the table. In the bridge scandal, not Benghazi, of course.
DWI legislation would replace drunken driving suspensions with ignition locks
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 2014 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 1, 2014, 10:49 PM
BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Most convicted drunken drivers in New Jersey could avoid mandatory license suspensions under a new bill making its way through the Legislature — a proposal that constitutes a major shift in how the state deals with the offense.
The bill would require all drivers convicted of DWI to install an ignition interlock device on their cars that would prevent them from starting the engine unless they are sober. More than 35,000 drivers are convicted of DWI in New Jersey every year, including more than 3,200 in Bergen County and more than 1,500 in Passaic County, according to state court figures.
But the proposal to eliminate license suspensions — a sanction which has long been a fixture in the state’s drunken-driving laws — has provoked debate among lawmakers, anti-drunken driving advocates and defense attorneys. Among the bill’s staunch supporters is Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, which said the bill is its top legislative priority in New Jersey.
“Taking away the license of a driver is not the best approach,” said Frank Harris, state legislative affairs director for MADD. “This is about a change in behavior and saving lives. It’s more of an effective approach to stopping drunk driving.”
Sandy babies flood local hospitals
Posted: Thursday, July 25, 2013 6:45 am | Updated: 3:28 pm, Thu Jul 25, 2013.
By Peg Quann Staff writer
Bonnie Prince George isn’t the only newborn in the news these days.
Sandy’s babies are arriving.
They’re filling hospitals along the Jersey coast, nine months after the superstorm struck last fall.
Those candlelit nights in late October and November, when many couples found themselves without lights or television, have led to a bumper crop of births now at some area hospitals, particularly in areas hit hard by the storm.
“We have seen an increase about 25 percent over what we expected, and some mothers have said their babies were conceived during Superstorm Sandy or during the power and cable outages afterwards,” said Jennifer Tornetta, a spokeswoman for AtlantiCare, the health system that oversees AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center’s two campuses in Atlantic City and Galloway, Atlantic County.
Maternity wards at hospitals in Monmouth and Ocean counties apparently are bulging. The Asbury Park Press reported that Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch had a 34 percent increase in births, and there was a 20 percent increase at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Brick over last year.
Bill making medical marijuana program more accessible to sick kids wins final passage
As the mothers of two chronically sick children cried tears of relief, the Assembly approved a bill today that would remove some of the legal barriers that have prevented kids from benefiting from New Jersey’s medicinal marijuana program.
The 55-13 vote with nine abstentions in the Assembly was the bill’s last stop before going to Gov. Chris Christie, who has reluctantly implemented the medical marijuana law and has said he is “not inclined to allow” children to participate in the program, even though state law allows it. (Livio/Star-Ledger)
Justice has been served for a few infants and one mother whose lives were taken within the filthy walls of 3801 Lancaster Avenue.
Late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder in the deaths of three infants who were born alive after botched abortions performed in his run-down West Philadelphia clinic. He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old woman who died from an overdose of anesthetic drugs during an abortion procedure.
The jury’s deliberations came after six weeks of harrowing testimony detailing the brutal deaths of newborns and unthinkable mistreatment of women. The gruesome murder of moving, breathing infants after botched abortions allegedly became a regular occurrence at the filthy West Philadelphia facility, with one clinic worker estimating nearly 100 living babies were killed shortly after birth.
Many of those murders followed failed abortions performed after Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit. In addition to the four murder charges, Gosnell was also convicted of more than 200 other criminal counts including violating Pennsylvania’s informed consent law and performing illegal late-term abortions.
In wake of the trial’s disturbing revelations, many are left questioning how the oft-repeated slogan of “safe, legal, and rare” abortions can continue to encompass late-term procedures—especially of the kind that can produce live births.
There is broad consensus that abortions like those Gosnell performed should not take place, whether in a run-down Philadelphia clinic or the sterile facilities of other abortion providers. Nearly two-thirds of Americans generally oppose abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy, while 80 percent oppose abortions in the third trimester.
“The first degree murder conviction of Kermit Gosnell brings some closure to this horrific case, but we must act to address the broader problems highlighted by this tragedy,” remarked Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL). “Congress should conduct a thorough investigation into the practices of late-term abortions in America with the goal of ensuring that these atrocities are never repeated in the future.…Life is precious at every stage, and America’s policies must reflect this fact at every turn.”
That policy work got underway last week, when the House Energy and Commerce Committee began investigations into current state efforts to monitor clinics and protect the rights of born-alive infants and their mothers.
Yet much more needs to be done, especially as current policy entangles taxpayer dollars in the abortion industry.
The leader in that industry, Planned Parenthood, performs roughly one out of every four abortions in the United States. The organization that holds the title of the nation’s largest abortion provider also allegedly turned a blind eye to the safety of women in Pennsylvania and Delaware, opposes legal protections for infants born after botched abortions, and faces repeated accusations of fraud.
This is the organization that President Obama vowed to support at its recent annual fundraising gala. This is the multibillion-dollar industry to which the government sends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year. And the abortion subsidization through taxpayer funding will only increase under Obamacare.
In light of the brutality that became commonplace at 3801 Lancaster Avenue and has appeared elsewhere, policymakers should rethink continued financial support for an industry that creates and supports the likes of Gosnell.
Americans must likewise reexamine the prevailing ethic of abortion-on-demand for any reason—even in late-term abortions.
“[I]n our justice system premeditating and exacting the demise of babies is only a crime if a child is fully outside the womb,” stated Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC). “We would do well as a society to consider what deciding murder based upon geographic technicalities reveals about our collective conscious.”
For over four decades since the Roe v. Wade decision, American medical practice, politics, and laws have separated the health of mothers from the well-being of the children they carry. Gosnell’s “house of horrors” should demonstrate that the severing of that connection does a disservice and risks the health and lives of both child and mother.
I want to wish all the mothers and grandmothers in Bergen County a Happy Mother’s Day and let you know how special I think you are.
There is no job more difficult, more demanding or more important than that of being a mother.
Mothers give love unconditionally and everlastingly. Mothers comfort us when we are down, forgive our mistakes, and offer us a haven from the world’s troubles. Mothers love us for who we are.
Mothers are taxi drivers, cooks, doctors, teachers and psychologists all rolled into one. Mothers inspire greatness as well as kindness.
For those of us whose Mothers have passed, we remember her with great affection and love on this day and everyday.
To the Moms everywhere, I hope you spend the day surrounded by the children you love and the families you created.
And to all you sons and daughters, take a moment to show your mother that you appreciate all the things she has done for you — all the sacrifices she made, without complaint, year after year. It is her unconditional love that has taken you this far.
Happy Mother’s Day! Bergen County Executive Kathleen A. Donovan
