Ridgewood Police Chief John Ward have a Safe Holiday
From the Chiefs Desk
With the holiday season upon us, most people are preoccupied with the details of holiday planning and shopping. Unfortunately, the safety precautions we normally take can be forgotten as the excitement of the season causes us to let our guard down. I want this to be a safe holiday season for all, so I would like to remind you to follow these simple tips while you enjoy the season.
Leaving the house for a bit? Be sure to lock your doors and windows! Don’t leave the drapes open with your presents in plain view. Christmas presents displayed around your tree can be a pretty sight, but can also be quite tempting to burglars. It’s better to scatter the gifts around the house, in closets or cupboards, where they can’t be so easily seen. Out of town for the holidays? If you are leaving town for the holidays, make sure your home appears occupied. Leave inside and outside lights on timers and have your neighbors pick up newspapers, mail, and take flyers off your door. Ask neighbors to park in your driveway. Put a timer on a talk radio station for several hours a day. Contact our department and have you home placed on our confidential vacant house list. Going shopping? During this time, many of us will be busy shopping and running errands. We must not forget that criminals will also be out and about looking for easy targets to make a big score. Here is some Holiday Crime Prevention Tips While Shopping: • Stay alert to your surroundings and the people around you particularly when walking through parking lots. • Shop with a friend, there is safety in numbers. • Avoid carrying large amounts of cash. • Pay for purchases with a check, credit or debit card. • If possible, carry only your driver’s license, personal checks, or necessary credit or debit cards. • If you must carry a purse, do not wrap the straps around your arms or shoulders. Carry a clutch purse tightly under your arm or wear a fanny pack. • Do not carry a wallet in a back pocket. It should be placed in a front pocket of your pants for safety. • Be alert that crooks look for the “high dollar” shopping bags with your purchases. When possible, slip bags/purchases in a plain nondescript bag. • Watch purchases while eating in mall food courts; bags can easily be switched or taken. • Educate your children about what to do if they are lost as well as “Stranger Danger”. • Don’t overburden yourself with too many packages. Use store’s package pick-up. • Have your car keys ready in hand before leaving the store. • If you do return to your vehicle to unload purchases, place them in the trunk of the vehicle. • Try not to shop until the store closes. Remember, fewer people are present at this time. ‘Tis the season to be jolly, but it is also the season to be wary of burglars, thieves, pickpockets, and other holiday grinches. Nothing can ruin the holiday spirit faster than becoming the victim of a crime. But remember, just by using a little planning and some good common sense, most holiday crimes can be avoided. Finally come visit the Village’s Central Business and shopping district, offering safe and convenient access to a wide variety of retail shops and eateries.
Video Tour the Stewart Family’s Backyard Halloween Maze
October 27,2012
Ridgewood NJ , In the spirit of Halloween, SPACEStv toured The World’s Only Life-Size “Loops and Traps” Halloween Maze located in the Stewart family’s backyard in Ridgewood, NJ. The maze – which takes up the Stewart’s entire backyard – has become an annual family tradition for the past 18 years attracting over 1000 people every Halloween season.
In this exclusive tour, viewers get an insider’s look into how this 1,500-sq-ft maze is constructed and how the Stewarts are able to scare the pants off the children of New York and New Jersey every season! This year’s maze features a zombie clown, snakes hanging from the ceiling, and real hands popping out of nowhere as you try make it out alive. It can take the average person up to 50 minutes to find their way out!
Ridgewood Middle Schoolers accepted into the Bergen County Honor Band
The following students were accepted into the Bergen County Honor Band:
Benjamin Franklin Middle School: Jennifer Jin (8) – Flute, highest score; Brian Noh (8) – Oboe, highest score; Darius Karoon (8) – French Horn; David Song (8) – Mallets, highest score; Brian Caine (8) – Percussion (traps ) section high score; Christian Seremetis (8) – Timpani
George Washington Middle School: Liam Roumila (7) – Alto Sax; Jonathan Sloan Ruhl (8) – Tuba
Pay gap between government, private sector widens to 34 percent
Friday – 10/19/2012, 6:42pm EDT
By Jack Moore
More Reports
The gap in pay between federal employees and private-sector workers has jumped 8 percentage points since last year, according to new data presented at a Federal Salary Council meeting Friday.
On average, federal employees earn 34 percent less than their private-sector counterparts, according to the council’s analysis.
The pay gap, which is calculated using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics based on pay in 34 locality pay areas, was 26 percent last year.
The council, which is made up of labor representatives and pay experts, makes recommendations on federal pay to the President’s Pay Agent.
Over the last several years, the council’s analysis has shown the pay gap increasingly widening.
Still, two years after President Barack Obama proposed a two-year pay freeze for civilian government employees, the issue of whether and how much feds are underpaid remains contentious.
A Congressional Budget Office study released in January found, overall, federal employees actually earn about 2 percent more in wages compared to private-sector workers, with wider differences based on education level.
But a June 2011 report from the the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, indicated government pay outstripped private-sector pay by 14 percent.
In reviewing various statistics on federal pay, the Government Accountability Office said the widely divergent results were due to the different methodologies the various studies used. Attempting to compare or extrapolate from them would be “potentially problematic,” GAO auditors said.
More evidence of White House deception on Benghazi attacks in Libya
By Jennifer Rubin
President Obama’s attempts to wriggle free from his own words and actions on Libya are making things worse.
American Crossroads, taking exception to Obama’s announcement last night that he really had declared Benghazi to be an act of terrorism, has sent out a memo, which reads:
The President clearly misled the American people with this claim, because if Obama’s Rose Garden speech was indeed the White House position, it did not inform any subsequent statement by the White House press office — and was even directly contradicted by his own spokesman several days later.
On September 20 — eight days after Obama claims to have called the Benghazi attack an “act of terror” — Jay Carney affirmed to reporters that the White House had never called it “a terrorist attack.”
From the gaggle on Air Force One, en route to Miami, 9/20/2012: Q: Can you — have you called it a terrorist attack before? Have you said that? MR. CARNEY: I haven’t, but — I mean, people attacked our embassy. It’s an act of terror by definition. Q: Yes, I just hadn’t heard you — MR. CARNEY: It doesn’t have to do with what date it occurred. Q: No, I just hadn’t heard the White House say that this was an act of terrorism or a terrorist attack. And I just —
MR. CARNEY: I don’t think the fact that we hadn’t is not — as our NCTC Director testified yesterday, a number of different elements appear to have been involved in the attack, including individuals connected to militant groups that are prevalent in eastern Libya, particularly in the Benghazi area. We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda’s affiliates, in particular al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Here, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney actually affirmed Gov. Romney’s position that the White House did not call the Benghazi attack an act of terrorism. Carney also said the now infamous video “precipitated some of the unrest in Benghazi” the day before.
The memo goes on to argue that Obama’s position on Libya is “untenable.” That’s about the shape of things. Did he call it an act of terror and go around misleading the country for two weeks that it was a spontaneous reaction to the anti-Muslim movie? Or did he not call it terror on Sept. 12 and lie to the voters last night?
There is another problem with Obama’s response. Recall this part of his answer: “So as soon as we found out that the Benghazi Consulate was being overrun, I was on the phone with my national security team, and I gave them three instructions. Number one, beef up our security and — and — and procedures not just in Libya but every embassy and consulate in the region. Number two, investigate exactly what happened, regardless of where the facts lead us, to make sure that folks are held accountable and it doesn’t happen again. And number three, we are going to find out who did this, and we are going to hunt them down, because one of the things that I’ve said throughout my presidency is when folks mess with Americans, we go after them”
So there was no actual meeting of the National Security Council at which everyone could share information and get on the same page? (David Axelrod has refused to say.) It doesn’t sound like it. But you know Obama was busy that day — flying to Las Vegas for a campaign event. So really, why have a meeting? Well, the weeks of confusion and dissembling that followed should answer that.
Moreover, if he actually did instruct his team to heighten protection for the Libya Consulate, why was the consulate left unsecured so that CNN could waltz in to grab Ambassador Chris Stevens’s diary? Did Obama not make himself clear, or were his instructions not followed?
The more we learn the more we see how both dishonest and incompetent has been the handling of this entire incident. The Obama White House may be out spinning the press to buy into the Obama-Crowley line, but no one is buying it. As the rest of the information comes to light, the president retains less and less credibility. Like a fish on a line he flops this way and that, trying to break free of his self-created trap.
The Valley Hospital Is First in Northern New Jersey to Employ the Solitaire Device
The Valley Hospital Is First in Northern New Jersey to Employ the Solitaire Devicefor Minimally Invasive Removal of Blood Clots During Episodes of Stroke
September 25, 2012 — Neurointerventionalists at The Valley Hospital are first in northern New Jersey to use an effective, new tool in the fight against stroke. The Solitaire device is now being used to surgically retrieve blood clots in patients suffering a stroke. The device is being utilized by Director of Neurointervention Sean Lavine, M.D., and Dorothea Altschul, M.D.
The Solitaire is inserted through a small incision in the groin using a thin catheter that is threaded to the location of the clot in the brain. The device has a self-expanding, stent retrieval design that compresses and traps the clot. The clot is then removed by withdrawing the device, thus reopening the blocked blood vessel.
The device was approved by the FDA earlier this year, and Valley is one of the first hospitals in the nation to acquire and use the technology.
“The Solitaire device is the first of its kind in clot-retrieval systems,” says Dr. Altschul. “It has been demonstrated to be more effective than previous devices for removing blood clots in the brain and restoring blood flow.”
The clinical trial SWIFT (Solitaire With the Intention for Thrombectomy), which was performed to determine the effectiveness of the Solitaire FR Revascularization Device, in acute stroke was halted almost a year earlier than planned because of significantly better outcomes reported with the new device.
The results of the study were released at the 2012 American Stroke Association’s international conference in New Orleans.
Neurointerventionalists use the Solitaire device to restore blood flow to the brain in patients suffering acute ischemic stroke by mechanically removing blood clots from blocked vessels. The minimally invasive procedure is performed in a specially equipped interventional neuroscience operating room at Valley.
The first case at Valley involved removing a clot from the brain of a 69-year-old man who suffered a major stroke while driving. “A timely intervention combined with the use of the Solitaire device, meant we were able to prevent the patient from experiencing any debilitating effects from the stroke and he is now enjoying a normal, productive life,” says Dr. Altschul.
“This is a very promising device that is working very well for our stroke patients,” says Dr. Altschul.
“At The Valley Hospital, we are providing world-class neuroscience care for patients suffering acute strokes and are among the leading medical institutions in the nation using the newest technologies.” says Dr. Lavine.
For more information, please call Valley’s Neuroscience Center of Excellence at 201-447-8647.
Postal Service Prepares for Second Default in Two Months
By Amanda Palleschi, Government Executive
Updated: September 26, 2012 | 6:37 p.m.
September 26, 2012 | 6:36 p.m.
The U.S. Postal Service will default this week on a $5.6 billion congressionally mandated obligation to pre-fund retiree health benefits, marking the second time in two months the cash-strapped agency has done this.
The Postal Service last month failed to pay $5.5 billion for its fiscal 2011 prepayment obligation, which originally was due in September 2011 but was deferred by Congress until Aug. 1. That was the first time it ever defaulted on a payment to the Treasury Department. The $5.6 billion due this week, on Sept. 30, represents this fiscal year’s obligation.
Before this year, Congress helped USPS defer pre-funding payments required by a 2006 congressional mandate. Postal reform has challenged this Congress. Lawmakers warn that when they revisit the issue after the November election they likely won’t reach agreement on as major an overhaul as some deem necessary. USPS lost $5.2 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2012, $2.1 billion more than during the same time period in 2011.
The case for liberating physicians from the dictates of third-party payers
Of all the people in the healthcare system, none is more central than the physician. As I explain in my book Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, fundamental reform that lowers costs, raises quality, and improves access to care is almost inconceivable without physicians leading and directing the changes. Yet of all the actors in modern healthcare, none are more trapped than our nation’s doctors. Let’s consider just a few of the ways your doctor is constrained, unlike any other professional.[1]
Sometime in the early part of the last century, all the other professionals in our society—lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, and so on—discovered the telephone. It’s a handy device. Ideal for communicating with clients. Yet, telephone consultations are not on Medicare’s list of about 7,500 tasks it pays physicians to perform. (At least, it’s not there in a way that makes telephone consultations practical.) Private insurance tends to pay the way Medicare pays. So do most employers.
Sometime toward the end of the last century, all the other professionals discovered email. In some ways, it’s even better than the phone. But reading and responding to emails doesn’t make Medicare’s list in a practical way, either.[2]
At a time when doctors feel that third-party payers are squeezing their fees from every direction, most are going to try to minimize their non-billable time. Because patients cannot conveniently use modern media to consult with physicians, they make unnecessary office visits. The result is more rationing by waiting at the doctor’s office, which imposes disproportionate costs on chronic patients who need more contact with physicians. This might be one reason why so many are not getting what they most need from primary care physicians and what is most likely to prevent more costly problems later on: prescription drugs.[3]
The ability to consult with doctors by phone or email could be a boon to chronic care. Face-to-face meetings with physicians would be less frequent, especially if patients learned how to monitor their own conditions and manage their own care.
Allendale is seeking operator for its water system
Thursday, August 30, 2012
BY JAMES M. O’NEILL
STAFF WRITER
The Record
ALLENDALE — Faced with rising costs to meet state drinking-water standards and upgrade its old pipes, the borough plans to contract out the operation of its municipal water system to a larger company.
The move reflects a growing trend nationally, as cash-strapped local governments look to save money by hiring large water companies that have the economies of scale to run their water systems and bring down costs.
“Regulations are becoming very stringent, and it’s difficult for a small water department like ours to keep up with all the testing and other requirements. It’s getting more and more costly,” Mayor Vince Barra said Wednesday.
After Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, the initial regulations covered no more than a handful of pages. Today, they cover some 300 — not including the manuals issued to help interpret those rules, said Howard J. Woods Jr., a private water-industry consultant. Technology to identify contaminants in water has leapfrogged since the mid-1970s.
“The business of operating a water system continues to grow more complex,” said Woods. “Small water systems are really going to be challenged to keep up, and that costs a lot of money and requires a lot of expertise.”
SPEECH: CONDOLEEZZA RICE STAKES STAGE AT CONVENTION
Wed Aug 29 2012 19:05:34 ET
**Prepared Remarks at Republican Convention
Good evening. Distinguished delegates, fellow Republicans, fellow Americans.
We gather here at a time of significance and challenge. This young century has been a difficult one. I will never forget the bright September day, standing at my desk in the White House, when my young assistant said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center – and then a second one – and a third, the Pentagon. And then the news of a fourth, driven into the ground by brave citizens that died so that many others would live. From that day on our sense of vulnerability and our understanding of security would be altered forever. Then in 2008 the global financial and economic crisis stunned us and still reverberates as unemployment, economic uncertainty and failed policies cast a pall over the American recovery so desperately needed at home and abroad.
And we have seen once again that the desire for freedom is universal – as men and women in the Middle East demand it. Yet, the promise of the Arab Spring is engulfed in uncertainty; internal strife and hostile neighbors are challenging the fragile democracy in Iraq; dictators in Iran and Syria butcher their own people and threaten the security of the region; China and Russia prevent a response; and all wonder, “Where does America stand?”
Indeed that is the question of the moment- “Where does America stand?” When our friends and our foes, alike, do not know the answer to that question – clearly and unambiguously — the world is a chaotic and dangerous place. The U.S. has since the end of World War II had an answer – we stand for free peoples and free markets, we are willing to support and defend them – we will sustain a balance of power that favors freedom.
To be sure, the burdens of leadership have been heavy. I, like you, know the sacrifices that Americans have made – yes including the ultimate sacrifice of many of our bravest. Yet our armed forces remain the sure foundation of liberty. We are fortunate to have men and women who volunteer – they volunteer to defend us on the front lines of freedom. And we owe them our eternal gratitude.
I know too that it has not always been easy – though it has been rewarding – to speak up for those who would otherwise be without a voice – the religious dissident in China; the democracy advocate in Venezuela; the political prisoner in Iran.
It has been hard to muster the resources to support fledgling democracies– or to help the world’s most desperate – the AIDs orphan in Uganda, the refugee fleeing Zimbabwe, the young woman who has been trafficked into the sex trade in Southeast Asia; the world’s poorest in Haiti. Yet this assistance – together with the compassionate works of private charities – people of conscience and people of faith – has shown the soul of our country.
And I know too that there is weariness – a sense that we have carried these burdens long enough. But if we are not inspired to lead again, one of two things will happen – no one will lead and that will foster chaos — or others who do not share our values will fill the vacuum. My fellow Americans, we do not have a choice. We cannot be reluctant to lead – and one cannot lead from behind.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand this reality — that our leadership abroad and our well being at home are inextricably linked. They know what needs to be done. Our friends and allies must be able to trust us. From Israel to Poland to the Philippines to Colombia and across the world — they must know that we are reliable and consistent and determined. And our adversaries must have no reason to doubt our resolve — because peace really does come through strength. Our military capability and technological advantage will be safe in Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s hands.
We must work for an open global economy and pursue free and fair trade – to grow our exports and our influence abroad. In the last years, the United States has ratified three trade agreements, all negotiated in the Bush Administration. If you are concerned about China’s rise – consider this fact – China has signed 15 Free Trade Agreements and is negotiating 20 more. Sadly we are abandoning the playing field of free trade – and it will come back to haunt us.
We must not allow the chance to attain energy independence to slip from our grasp. We have a great gift of oil and gas reserves here in North America that must be and can be developed while protecting our environment. And we have the ingenuity in the private sector to tap alternative sources of energy.
And most importantly, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will rebuild the foundation of American strength – our economy – stimulating private sector led growth and small business entrepreneurship. When the world looks at us today they see an American government that cannot live within its means. They see a government that continues to borrow money, mortgaging the future of generations to come. The world knows that when a nation loses control of its finances, it eventually loses control of its destiny. That is not the America that has inspired others to follow our lead.
After all, when the world looks to America, they look to us because we are the most successful political and economic experiment in human history. That is the true basis of “American Exceptionalism.” The essence of America – that which really unites us — is not ethnicity, or nationality or religion – it is an idea — and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things. That it doesn’t matter where you came from but where you are going.
Ours has never been a narrative of grievance and entitlement. We have not believed that I am doing poorly because you are doing well. We have not been envious of one another and jealous of each other’s success. Ours has been a belief in opportunity and a constant battle – long and hard — to extend the benefits of the American dream to all – without regard to circumstances of birth.
But the American ideal is indeed endangered today. There is no country, no not even a rising China, that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves if we fail to accomplish the tasks before us here at home.
More than at any other time in history –the ability to mobilize the creativity and ambition of human beings forms the foundation of greatness. We have always done that better than any country in the world. People have come here from all over because they believed in our creed – of opportunity and limitless horizons. They have come from the world’s most impoverished nations to make five dollars not fifty cents– and they have come from the world’s advanced societies – as engineers and scientists — to help fuel the knowledge based revolution in the Silicon Valley of California; the research triangle of North Carolina; in Austin, Texas; along Route 128 in Massachusetts – and across our country.
We must continue to welcome the world’s most ambitious people to be a part of us. In that way we stay perpetually young and optimistic and determined. We need immigration laws that protect our borders; meet our economic needs; and yet show that we are a compassionate people.
We have been successful too because Americans have known that one’s status at birth was not a permanent station in life. You might not be able to control your circumstances but you could control your response to your circumstances. And your greatest ally in doing so was a quality education.
Let me ask you, though, today, when I can look at your zip code and can tell whether you are going to get a good education – can I really say that it doesn’t matter where you came from – it matters where you are going. The crisis in K-12 education is a grave threat to who we are.
My mom was a teacher – I have the greatest respect for the profession – we need great teachers – not poor or mediocre ones. We need to have high standards for our students – self-esteem comes from achievement not from lax standards and false praise. And we need to give parents greater choice – particularly poor parents whose kids – most often minorities — are trapped in failing neighborhood schools. This is the civil rights struggle of our day.
If we do anything less, we will condemn generations to joblessness, hopelessness and dependence on the government dole. To do anything less is to endanger our global economic competitiveness. To do anything less is to tear apart the fabric of who we are and cement a turn toward grievance and entitlement.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will rebuild us at home and inspire us to lead abroad. They will provide an answer to the question, “Where does America stand?” The challenge is real and these are tough times. But America has met and overcome difficult circumstances before. Whenever you find yourself doubting us – just think of all the times that we have made the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect.
America’s victorious revolutionary founding – against the greatest military power of the time; a Civil War – hundreds of thousands dead in a brutal conflict – but emerging a stronger union; a second founding – as impatient patriots fought to overcome the birth defect of slavery and the scourge of segregation; a long struggle against communism – that ended with the death of the Soviet Union and the emergence of Europe, whole free and at peace; the will to make difficult decisions, heart-wrenching choices in the aftermath of 9/11 that secured us and prevented the follow-on attacks that seemed preordained at the time.
And on a personal note– a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham – the most segregated big city in America – her parents can’t take her to a movie theater or a restaurant – but they make her believe that even though she can’t have a hamburger at the Woolworth’s lunch counter – she can be President of the United States and she becomes the Secretary of State. Yes, America has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect. But of course it has never been inevitable – it has taken leadership, courage and an unwavering faith in our values.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have the experience and the integrity and the vision to lead us – they know who we are, what we want to be and what we offer the world.
That is why this is a moment – an election – of consequence. Because it just has to be – that the most compassionate and freest country on the face of the earth – will continue to be the most powerful!
May God Bless You – and May God continue to bless this extraordinary, exceptional country – the United States of America.
Gritty N.J. city of Camden to scrap police department amid budget woes
By Perry Chiaramonte
Published August 26, 2012
FoxNews.com
Crime-ridden Camden, New Jersey – often referred to as the most dangerous city in the United States—is getting rid of its police department.
In the latest example of a cash-strapped municipality taking drastic measures to deal with swollen public sector liabilities and shrinking budgets, the city plans to disband its 460-member police department and replace it with a non-union “Metro Division” of the Camden County Police. Backers of the plan say it will save millions of dollars for taxpayers while ensuring public safety, but police unions say it is simply a way to get out of collective bargaining with the men and women in blue.
“This is definitely a form of union-busting,” Camden Fraternal Order of Police President John Williamson told FoxNews.com. “This method is unproven and untested, to put your faith in an agency that doesn’t even [yet] exist.”
Back to School: Race to the Top for School Districts: More Federal Education Intervention
Lindsey Burke
August 17, 2012 at 4:04 pm
The Obama Administration’s new Race to the Top District (RTT-D) competition, a competitive grant program on top of the more than 100 programs the Department of Education (DOE) already operates, entices cash-strapped school districts with another $400 million to implement the Obama education agenda.
For the past half-century, federal education funding and control have been growing at the expense of state educational autonomy. The last thing our struggling education system needs is for local school districts to become dependent on Washington for education funding, further centralizing school-level policies in the hands of federal bureaucrats.
RTT-D is an offshoot of the original Race to the Top (RTT), the Obama Administration’s $4.35 billion competitive grant program to states carved out of the “stimulus.” The DOE says the new district-level program will “help schools become engines of innovation”:
Race to the Top, launched in 2009, has inspired dramatic education reform nationwide, leading 45 states and the District of Columbia to pursue higher college- and career-ready standards, data-driven decision making, greater support for teachers and leaders, and turnaround interventions in low performing schools. The next phase proposes to build on those principles at the classroom level to support bold, locally directed improvements in learning and teaching that will directly improve student achievement and educator effectiveness.
Concern about the Administration’s push to nationalize the content taught in schools across America through the Common Core State Standards led some states to pass on the original RTT competition. States like Alaska, Texas, and North Dakota have never applied for RTT grants. Under the new district-level competition, the feds will appeal directly to school districts, offering up millions in exchange for adoption of the White House’s preferred policies.
Rush Limbaugh : Has America Already Slipped Away?
July 09, 2012
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I read a couple of pieces yesterday that really touched a nerve with me. One of them was by Michael Goodwin in the New York Post. Let me set it up by describing something personal. And I’ve mentioned this many times during the course of this program. When I was in my twenties and thirties, and I saw people in their sixties and seventies, I vowed that there were certain things those people did that I would never do. For instance, I vowed I would never become, in the eyes of anybody else, an old fogy. I would never be someone who looked at the younger generations as the beginning of the end of our culture. My parents did. My parents, the Beatles and all of that, was just the end of the world as far as they were concerned. It was the long hair. It was the rebel characteristics, all of that.
This is true for every generation. Every older generation looks at the younger generation and thinks, “My God, they’re gonna blow it, country’s finished, we’re all done.” I vowed that would never happen to me. I vowed I would keep an open mind and try to remember always the way I looked at the world when I was in my twenties and thirties. Well, there are things that have happened here that befuddle even me. You and I — and I’m gonna take the liberty here of speaking for you, ’cause I think this is pretty accurate when discussing most of you.
You and I look at what’s happening to the country, and we are a multitude of things. We are appalled, we’re angry, and we’re really scared. Despite every effort not to be an old fuddy-duddy, an old fogy — despite every effort to avoid falling into that trap as I’ve gotten older, as I have matured and aged — I haven’t been able to avoid it. It’s not that the younger generations are to blame. It’s not that they’re at fault. That’s not my point. We’re losing the country right in front of our eyes.
It is astounding, the transformational changes leading to the destruction. It actually has me depressed at times. Now, you and I see this the same way to one degree or to a bunch of varying degrees. But then you realize that other people don’t! They’re living it, and they don’t. In what I would consider a sane, normal world, anybody from any party who had presided over this kind of not just economic destruction, but national transformation, wouldn’t be considered a serious candidate for reelection. Not at any time in this nation’s history.
Anybody who had been in charge during these three years would be looking at a 30% approval number or reelect number, in what I would consider to be a sane world. For the past two years, every Thursday we talk about the unemployment number in this country on this program. And on Thursday of every month, we look at it in great detail because we get the number for the previous month before it’s revised downward. And it seems to me that like it’s almost like a slow-drip water torture.
This is obviously cultural rot and decay taking place. There is economic decay taking place. But it is so gradual that it’s not accompanied by any shock value. And since there’s no shock value attached to it, there’s no high degree of outrage. There’s more like resignation. People are just resigned to it. We got 8.2% unemployment? “New normal! It’s not something about which you need to get excited about and make a big change; it’s just the way it is.” Not for you. Not for you and me, don’t misunderstand.
Not for you and me, but for a seemingly large part of the country. And of course this election is gonna tell us how large a part. This is the great unknown. This is the great unknown question. Just how many people in this country think this is the United States of America? This is all it can be. This is it, and this is normal. And how many of them vote. When you look at 8.2% unemployment — when you look at more people going on disability than getting jobs — folks, we are in uncharted territory.
We now have eight million people on disability.
We have 48% of the people in this country not paying income tax, and yet all of them… And this is important in trying to assess all this. All of these people are eating. They’re not going hungry. And they all have their cell phones. And they all are able to afford to use their cell phones. And they all have their plasma TVs, and they’re all able to sign up for cable and use them. Despite all of the economic malaise. Now, the reason for this is that we’re $16 trillion in debt. We’ve got an administration which is happily paying for this result.
There is no longer a stigma to being unemployed or a stigma to being on welfare. And so, just as we used to look at the younger generation (we who are seasoned and mature), and be a little worried about what they’re gonna amount to because they seemed to be such degenerates and reprobates, now instead of looking at it that way, this whole generational thing has become one view of the country versus another view of the country. Whereas I promised myself I would never look — as a seasoned, mature individual — at younger people as worthless degenerate perverts.
Like my parents looked at my generation and every other generation has. Now, instead of doing that, I’m sitting here looking at an unknown percentage of the country and asking myself how many of them know what it is to be an American. How many of them know what that means anymore? Or how many of them have a different definition of it entirely? And I worry because the architect of all this transformation, the architect of all this destruction, has a legitimate chance as winning reelection!
In a real, sane world this guy’s party woulda thrown him out and they woulda put Hillary or somebody else in there.
AFP Takes Wind out of Environmental Extremists’ Sails on “Global Wind Day”!
June 15,2012
Steve Lonegan, State Director AFP
Asbury Park NJ , So much for having the wind at their backs? Today, AFP activists made the trek to Asbury Park and Ocean City to combat the radical environmentalists’ wind energy claptrap!
“Global Wind Day” was being used to indoctrinate kids with kites and coloring books and how windmills will cure the ills of the world, AFP went toe to toe with them to expose the facts about the high costs of wind energy and how it threatens our economy and very way of life.
Dozens of AFP activists went to Asbury Park, listened to a number of expert speakers and handed out literature and flyers to educate the public with the truth about the wind industry. Down in Ocean City, AFP activists, along with our friends at the Liberty and Prosperity group and the Greenwich Tea Party Patriots, were making their voices heard on the boardwalk.
One of our featured speakers in Asbury Park was state Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-25), who has been a staunch opponent of wind energy subsidies. In fact, just this week Asm. Carroll co-sponsored a bill, introduced by Sussex County Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose (R-24), that would repeal wind energy subsidies in New Jersey.
Legislation like this is a critical step towards rolling back the far left environmental agenda in New Jersey. Environmental regulations, fees, and subsidies are a huge reason why ratepayers in the Garden State pay some of the highest electric bills in the nation and our state lags others in economic growth. Asm. Carroll and Asw. McHose deserve our thanks and support for standing tall on this issue.
An Ill Wind Is Blowing ,it’s no coincidence that “Global Wind Day” is also the same day as the kick-off of the 20th Anniversary of Agenda 21 “RIO+20” Climate Change and Sustainable communities initiative.
The environmentalists behind “Global Wind Day” are part of a larger globalist movement that seeks to undermine American prosperity with a backwards, irrational attempt to force you and me to rely on far more expensive and far less efficient “renewable” sources like wind and solar that will wreck our economy.
These methods of generating electricity are not technologically advanced enough to compete in the free marketplace. It is only with massive taxpayer subsidies that they can stay afloat at all. That’s why lobbying by the wind industry has escalated dramatically in the past few years.
Increased reliance on “renewable” energy will result in a much less vibrant and prosperous America.Today was a successful and important effort by conservative activists to combat and refute this radical environmentalist agenda and stand up for economic freedom and the best interests of our nation.
The last thing we need is for America to be turned into Europe and for American exceptionalism to be tossed aside for some misguided quest to cure the ills of the world with expensive and unreliable windmills and solar panels.
Benefit Concert: New York Philharmonic Principal Brass Quintet for Ridgewood Concert Band
Wed, June 27, 2012 – Wed, June 27, 2012
Time: 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM West Side Presbyterian Church, 6 South Monroe Street
Cost: $20 per person
The principal players of the New York Philharmonic Brass section will perform a concert on June 27th at 7:30 at West Side Presbyterian Church. The quintet will play selections from the repertoire they will be performing on their upcoming tour of Japan.
Not only is this concert a chance to hear world-class musicians without having to travel into the city, it is an opportunity to support a great organization. Proceeds from ticket sales will directly benefit the Ridgewood Concert Band as they move into their 30th year of performing.
Tickets may be purchased online at https://www.ridgewoodband.org/purchase/nybrass.htm or at the door.
Adults: $20.00 Seniors: $15.00 Students: $7.00
About the Quintet…
The Principal Brass’ debut came in 1983 when they joined with the Canadian Brass for a concert in Ottawa, Canada. This was the beginning of a regular musical collaboration between these two brass quintets. Subsequent joint performances brought them to the summer festivals of Tanglewood and Wolf Trap, as well as concerts in cities throughout Canada and the United States.
The Principal Brass has hosted an annual Christmas Holiday Concert at Avery Fisher Hall since 1995. Joining as guests on this extravaganza have been Lee Musiker and his jazz trio, the Canadian Brass, the German Brass, the West Point Brass, Percussion, and Vocalists, Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath, and the Salvation Army’s New York Staff Band.
The Principal Brass has been a regular encore feature on the Philharmonic’s tours of Europe, South America, Asia, and the United States, in addition to Philharmonic residencies in Cagliari, Italy, and Vail, Colorado. The ensemble has also performed solo concerts in major universities and cities throughout the United States. International visits have included Germany (Berlin and Munich), Luxembourg, Mexico (Monterey), China (Shanghai), and Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo). Having toured Japan in 1999, 2003 and 2007 the Principal Brass will visit again this summer.
