WyBlog

UN Agency: All your BlackBerry are belong to us

If a UN mucky-muck gets his way all of our BlackBerry emails will soon be decoded and delivered to the governments of India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. These long-time sponsors of civil liberties and human rights are entangled in a dispute with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion over access to encrypted communications which pass through the company's Canadian servers.

RIM says the emails can't be decoded except by the intended recipient. In turn those countries (and several others) are in the process of banning BlackBerry services from being used within their borders unless RIM grants them unfettered access.

Noting that he sees "legitimate security concerns" ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure came down solidly on the side of totalitarian dictators worldwide when he said that all governments have the right to demand access to users' information from the maker of the BlackBerry.

Because yeah, everybody wants their favorite totalitarian dictator to read their email. What could possibly go wrong?

Why exactly is it this turkey's business anyway? Because the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) is the arm of the UN tasked with establishing worldwide standards for telephones and other electronic communications systems. Among other things they define country codes, assign radio frequencies, and allocate satellite orbits. They're also the guys behind the guys responsible for the proliferation of hundreds of new area codes in the US.

Since the BlackBerry is at heart a phone the ITU has jurisdiction. Or more precisely, they claim to have jurisdiction, and our internationalist president isn't about to dissuade them of that notion.

I hope for our sake that the Canadians are made of sterner stuff. Because if the UN succeeds here the next email you receive may very well have already been read by a Mullah or 2 in Saudi Arabia while being passed around the terrorist camps in the Bekaa Valley.

Wouldn't you think that was a "legitimate security concern" too?

Posted at 14:52 by Chris Wysocki   [/tech]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: BlackBerry UN ITU email encryption

Is your state college a five star resort?

Colleges and universities seem to be offering increasingly lavish amenities to attract students. Gourmet meals. Fitness centers. Concierge services. Upscale dorm rooms. Two 18 hole championship golf courses.

Wait a sec, did he just say "two 18 hole championship golf courses"?

Yes!

Welcome to the Seaview Resort, now owned and operated by Richard Stockton State College in Galloway, New Jersey.

And they just paid $20 million of our tax dollars to buy it!

How magnificent is it? Let me put it this way, Animal House it ain't.

Hah! How many golf courses does Princeton have? But if Tiger Woods decides to send his kids here it'll so be worth the expense! Won't it?

Remember your crummy college cafeteria? Not at Stockton!

From casual outdoor cocktail parties to elegant weddings, Historic Seaview boasts event spaces as diverse as the Oval Room where Grace Kelly celebrated her Sweet Sixteen to the stunning Bayview Ballroom featuring an open air veranda and indoor seating for up to 350 guests.

Grace Kelly was here! It's a bargain at twice the price!

But wait, there's more! Seaview boasts a full-service Elizabeth Arden Red Door spa! Don't miss the Friday night seafood buffet, complete with sushi, lobster, raw bar, and king crab legs. Top that off with Sunday champagne brunch before hitting the links or one of their 3 indoor tennis courts. Then enjoy a refreshing dip in either of their two pools.

All of this (and more) can be yours when you enroll at Stockton for the low, low price of $5,696.74 per semester.

Our tax dollars at work play!

Posted at 17:13 by Chris Wysocki   [/education]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: college Richard-Stockton Seaview-Resort

Forget fiber, here's a sure-fire cure for constipation

UPDATE 02 Sep 2010 09:51:
Endorsed by Bob Belvedere!

And Bob is a man who knows a thing or 2 about constipation. Or so I'm told.

Posted at 09:29 by Chris Wysocki   [/democrats]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Obama Joe-Biden Harry-Reid Nancy-Pelosi Chris-Dodd Barney-Frank Tim-Geithner

The new TBF poll is up, please support Scott Sipprelle in NJ-12

Scott Sipprelle is another New Jersey conservative who deserves our support. (You already did donate to Anna Little, right? Right?!) Scott is running for Congress in NJ-12 against uber-liberal Rush Holt (D-Hamas).

Rep. Holt also has a 100% rating from the progressive Drum Major Institute. And last year the National Journal labeled him one of the 8 most liberal members of Congress.

Do we really want to see Rush Holt elected to another term as a rubber-stamp for Nancy Pelosi?

NO!

Go to Right Klik's site and vote for Scott Sipprelle in this week's Ten Buck Fridays poll. Do it for America. Do it for your wallet. And yes, do it for the children.

Posted at 21:13 by Chris Wysocki   [/election]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Ten-Buck-Fridays Scott-Sipprelle Rush-Holt

Will we have to build our own camps?

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Chief Obamacare Cheerleader, has hit upon the winning formula for persuading us to accept the magnificence of national socialized healthcare.

Reeducation Camps!

"Unfortunately, there still is a great deal of confusion about what is in [the reform law] and what isn't," Sebelius told ABC News Radio in an interview Monday. "So, we have a lot of reeducation to do," Sebelius said.

Reeducation. Hmmm. Or should I say, "Mmm, mmm, mmm"? C'mon kids, sing the praises of Dear Leader and his plan for socialized medicine!

They haf vays of makink you like it.

Will the Purple People Beaters of the SEIU force us American Zeks to build our own camps?

Posted at 09:39 by Chris Wysocki   [/obamacare]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Obamacare Kathleen-Sebelius reeducation

Exactly whose rights are being protected here?

Common sense is sorely lacking in our justice system. Although the civil libertarians among us will undoubtedly cheer this absurd ruling:

There is no doubt this animal clearly understood his "rights" when he lined four college students up against a brick wall and shot them in the back of the head at point-blank range.

There is no doubt that had his mother been as concerned for his welfare before he joined the MS-13 street gang as she claims to be now those 4 kids just might still be alive.

Once again we see the power of the no habla Ingles defense.

We coddle this piece of shit because too many liberals fetishize "rights" above common sense. He confessed. He is guilty. But every day this charade drags on he laughs in our faces thanks to the best lawyers our tax dollars can buy.

Meanwhile Terrance Aerial, Iofemi Hightower, and Dashon Harvey are still dead. Natasha Aerial barely survived, and is scarred for life. Nobody protected their "rights". Not when it counted.

Go ahead, tell me "justice" was served today.

Posted at 13:03 by Chris Wysocki   [/rants]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: NPD Gerardo-Gomez Miranda rights

Raindrops keep falling on my head

Everyone seems to be having fun with this photo today.

Best caption by far: A Village in Kenya Is Missing Its Idiot.

Personally, I think he's going in for a layup.

Attention Peasants: The Great Hussein-ini will now pass this umbrella handle through the metal bar.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

The Round Peg does not fit in the Square Hole.

Here's something I'd like to know — how many presidents does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Posted at 10:34 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Obama village-idiot

Offered without comment: Pride

Backstory here and here.

Posted at 09:18 by Chris Wysocki   []   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: LGBT TrogloPundit

Forget double-dipping or triple-dipping, meet a quadruple-dipper

Jack Kelly wears a lot of hats. Four of them to be exact. The newly hired Business Administrator for Jersey City is also the current Finance Director in the City of Orange and municipal tax assessor for both Caldwell and Essex Fells.

When does he sleep?

Four government jobs. Four government salaries. And of course those four salaries all count toward his inevitably lucrative government pension.

Forget double-dipping, Jack Kelly is a quadruple-dipper. And it's perfectly legal (not to mention hardly unique) thanks to the brain trust in our state legislature who haven't got the political will to put a stop to such blatant plundering of the public pension system.

Probably because they're all doing it too. Pension padding is de rigeur for political hacks of all parties and stripes in New Jersey.

If they ever copy this Ohio public defender and figure out how to "work" more than 24 hours in a day we'll really be screwed.

Posted at 17:40 by Chris Wysocki   [/nj_politics]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: NJ-Politics pension Caldwell Jack-Kelly

Chris Christie says Bye Bye Bret

Don't lie to Chris Christie.

That video is painful to watch. Five educrats. Five bozos clearly out of their depth, unprepared for the meeting, and more importantly completely clueless about how to get the required information.

It's a microcosm of our state's disfunctional education bureaucracy. They can't get out of their own way. Not one of these clowns thought to pick up a phone and have the relevent data faxed or emailed over?

Besides Schundler in the middle, I can't make out the names of the other four people from the video. But I'm sure Chris Christie knows (or can find out) who they are.

They ought to be sacked too. Because if these are the people leading our school system it's a miracle any kid learns anything.

Posted at 14:23 by Chris Wysocki   [/education]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: NJ-Politics Bret-Schundler Chris-Christie education RttT

Obamunism is still dragging our economy down

"Summer of Recovery" my ass.

We're in a full-blown 1930's style depression only Barry's Keynesian brain trust is too clueless to notice.

Ben Bernanke doesn't know what to do next:

Bernanke described the economic outlook as "inherently uncertain" and said the economy "remains vulnerable to unexpected developments."

Yeah, everything is "unexpected" with these turkeys. Higher unemployment? It was unexpected! Cratering home sales? Unexpected! Anemic GDP? Of course that was unexpected too.

Bernanke stopped short of committing to any specific action.

That's because he doesn't have a clue what to do next. Or perhaps he does know what needs to be done, but his puppet-masters in the White House won't let him do it. They want to keep borrowing money to waste on bogus "stimulus" projects and bailouts of bloated state governments and public employee unions.

Government is not the solution. Government is the problem. We have too much government. Too many regulations, too many bureaucracies, too many mandates and requirements, too many useless programs. Too many "economic advisors" who've never owned a business, created a job, made a payroll, or worked outside of academia.

All of that produces a pervasive aura of uncertainty.

People don't know what the Obamunists will regulate, tax, or take-over next.

The borrowed money is gone with nothing to show for it. And looming on the horizon is the impending implosion of Social Security coupled with a tsunami of woefully underfunded public employee pension fund bankruptcies.

The Keynesians can't print enough money to dig us out of those holes.

But you just know they're going to try. Weimar America, here we come.

Is it any wonder that rational people are hunkering down to ride out the storm? We won't see private sector growth until government decides to get the hell out of the way. But the progressives take our unwillingness to spend money as an opportunity for them to exercise more control over us. If we won't spend then they'll confiscate our money and spend it for us.

Forget income taxes; those only bring in the cash when people are actually working. The progressive Holy Grail is a wealth tax, couched in their mantra of "fair share".

We are doomed.

Yes America, "We the People" are staring a genuine nightmare scenario in the face. A nightmare that will last for years, have consequences that stretch far beyond the financial, and dramatically alter not only your future, but that of your children and grandchildren as well.

It is going to end in tears.

Posted at 12:22 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: recession depression Obama Ben-Bernanke Fed

Dear Leader will once again address the nation's school children

You just knew he was going to do it again. The Obama cult of personality wouldn't miss another chance to indoctrinate our nation's school children.

Mark your calendars for September 14^th. Dear Leader will speak directly to our kids.

Last year's talking points, helpfully distributed by Education Commissar Arne Duncan to every teacher in the nation, called for students to write letters to their Dear Leader promising to help him make the country better. Oh, and they were drafted into the Census effort too, with instructions to remind their parents about the duty to fill out and return the forms.

This year Barry's minions will undoubtedly call for the kids to sing Dear Leader's praises. It is a pretty catchy tune.

I'm told the song is even more beautiful in the original German Swahili.

Posted at 10:56 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Obama education Obama-youth

The deficit graph the "Blame Bush" crowd doesn't want you to see

Just last night I was treated to yet another "Bush's wars caused all the deficit problems" speech from a liberal. There are a few commenters here who keep making the same claims as well.

So when TrogloPundit pointed me at this graph, I said, "Whoa."

Now let's see here. When liberals blame the Bush tax cuts or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for our current deficit woes they really are blowing smoke out of their asses, aren't they.

C'mon. Prior to 2008 the deficit was headed down. Pretty darn near zero too. Then something very interesting happened in 2008.

Democrats happened.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, followed shortly thereafter by Barack Hussein Obama. That's what happened.

Of course they had a little help from the RINO crowd, like the two nitwits from Maine. And Bush did sign that TARP boondoggle so he gets some of the blame. But those tax cuts? It seems like they were doing just fine until the Democrats took over.

Ole Trog has a daily double of interesting graphs too. His next one plots the debt burden per citizen. It's how much baggage we're dumping on our kids, and on their kids. And it's not pretty.

Some time around 2020 per capita GDP will fall under the debt line. Our kids will then owe the government more than they'll ever be able to pay back.

That's assuming we as a country are stupid enough to continue believing in Obamanomics and progressive idealism.

Are we? I don't know. But from where I sit, I can see November from my house.

Posted at 17:30 by Chris Wysocki   [/democrats]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: deficit Obama Bush democrats Congress

Happy Robo-Activation Day

Exactly one year ago today in a secret underground lab deep in the heart of the Real America a humble robot achieved sentiency. He soon discovered the blogosphere whereupon he set about providing much thoughtful commentary on the sad state of affairs which has befallen our great nation.

My friends, the Mind Numbed Robot is one year old. And what a fine year it has been.

Bob Belvedere is helping him celebrate with some balloons and a comely lass or 3.

But what a tin man really needs is someone of his own kind, to keep him company during the long cold nights ahead. And so I humbly suggest that Seven of Nine should be dispatched to his lair forthwith.

You wanna know how cool the 'bot is? He got his very own Day By Day shoutout from Chris Muir. Not bad for a bucket o' bolts, eh?

Live long and prosper!

Posted at 14:54 by Chris Wysocki   [/misc]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: blogoversary Mind-Numbed-Robot

Iran goes nuclear, does anyone care? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

Bride of Rove depressed me.

It's just all so unreal lately. The news is — it defies fiction. Not to go off on a tangent but did we really not even blink at Iran going nuclear via Russia? JFK's great stare-down during the Cuban Missile Crisis — all for nothing. Anyone not holding their breath right now is not paying attention. And because I can actually see the seam ripper taking us apart, I think my brain has just gone into some weird "protect mode" hibernation.

John Bolton sounded the warning. Apparently they don't get newspapers on The Vineyard; Caliph Barack I and his Queen are still on vacation. Watching DVDs.

Who's minding the store?

Maybe it would help if his sycophants in the media took Iran seriously? Jon Stewart mocks their new drone bomber, placing a cartoon character "Ambassador of Death" at a round table of fake diplomats. Will he still be laughing when Tel Aviv is a smoking crater?

Ahmadinejad has made no secret of his desire to strike Israel. He's building bombs while Barry sells ours for scrap.

Our intelligensia has deluded themselves into believing Iran is "at least 12 months away" from a deliverable nuclear weapon. Tick Tock kids. Time flies when you're playing golf.

You go to war with the president you have. This one has already conceded defeat, hasn't he. He's got no clue what to do. So he retreats to an island saying "inshallah" — whatever will be will be.

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
— Albert Einstein

Yeah, pessimism is all I've got today.

Posted at 10:42 by Chris Wysocki   [/terrorism]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Iran nuclear Israel John-Bolton Obama

Back in my RPI days we spelled it "knurd"

Via Instapundit:

IF IT'S NOT TRUE, IT OUGHT TO BE: Dr. Seuss coined the word "nerd."

Back in my RPI days we spelled it "knurd", which of course is "drunk" backwards.

And it worked equally well as a verb — "knurding" being the most common usage. "Where's Chris?" "He's knurding in the library," meant I was studying (instead of partying).

Rather than having its current pejorative meaning, "knurd" was a perfectly acceptable moniker among the "in" crowd. As I recall there even was a knurd superhero in The Poly.

Faster than a speeding derivative,
More powerful than Reverse Polish Notation,
Able to leap tall integrals in a single bound,
Yes! It's Super-Knurd!
He can plot the course of mighty flowcharts,
Sharpen pencils with his bare hands,
And disguised as mild-mannered Myron T. Spaceshot
He leads the quest against the Tute Screw
While agitating for longer recitation sections.

Any resemblance between me and Super-Knurd is purely coincidental.

Posted at 14:59 by Chris Wysocki   [/odds_n_ends]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Dr-Seuss nerd RPI knurd

Well, who's gonna monitor the monitors of the monitors?

Via Doug Ross we learn that DHS plans to spy on itself:

Life imitates Enemy of the State?

They're watching you. They're watching themselves watch you. Who's watching them?

Don't you just know that if Bush was doing this Frank Rich would be having a cow right about now?

Posted at 10:42 by Chris Wysocki   [/terrorism]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: DHS Democrats immigration Obama crime

NJ spent $141 million for Obamacare, and only TWO people signed up

Your Obamacare dollars at work.

New Jersey signed on to the first new set of plans, designed to allow uninsured people with pre-existing conditions to purchase health insurance. The policies provide coverage from day one, with no exclusions whatsoever.

Premiums range from $212 to $768 monthly depending on age.

After much fanfare, after all the hullaballoo about people without insurance clamoring for health care, after the federal government allocated $141 million dollars to cover the costs, the results are in.

Two people signed up.

TWO.

At $70.5 million a person that Obamacare sure is a real bargain.

Posted at 14:20 by Chris Wysocki   [/obamacare]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: NJ-Protect Obamacare

US Attorney Paul Fishman: No "Culture of Corruption" in New Jersey

When President Obama nominated Montclair resident Paul Fishman to succeed Chris Christie as US Attorney for New Jersey I wrote:

Mr. Fishman's forte appears to be keeping corrupt union officials out of prison. That puts him in marked contrast to Mr. Christie and it's probably one reason why our state's two Senators (both democrats) and a whole host of other democratic party panjandrums are such enthusiastic boosters of his nomination. They will sigh with relief when he is confirmed.

Mr. Fishman's prior gig was as lead defense attorney for (allegedly) corrupt public employee union head Carla Katz, former Governor Jon Corzine's main squeeze. Ms. Katz was fired by her union for (alleged) improprieties.

Yesterday Mr. Fishman was asked to comment on the rampant corruption undercovered by his predecessor. After the latest round of arrests Ed Kahrer, the FBI agent in charge of the office's public corruption unit, told a press conference, "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation."

Fishman's response?

No Mr. Fishman. It is "demoralizing" to know you live in the most corrupt state in the union only to find out that your chief federal law enforcement officer is a "see no evil" kind of guy.

And while dismissing past allegations of politically motivated prosecutions it isn't helpful to backhandedly lend them credence by noting:

"It's the responsibility of every United States attorney to guard against that perception. Perhaps, I feel that responsibility a little more acutely because the accusation was made."

See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil. It's a trifecta of prosecutorial mendacity!

Rod Blagojevich, I think you've found your new home.

Posted at 10:54 by Chris Wysocki   [/democrats]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Paul-Fishman NJ-Politics corruption democrats

Among 6 people I'm the only guy with a job

No wonder my taxes are so high! There are a lot of mouths to feed out there.

Six of us spent the weekend at a lake house in the Poconos. The couple who own the house are retired. My wife has been out of work for more than a year. The other guy is a freelance graphic artist who's sucking wind and his wife just got sacked on Friday.

I'm the only working stiff in the bunch.

From the delicious irony department — she got canned by Pinch Sulzberger. Yup The New York Times is hemorrhaging so much money they're dumping ad sales reps. A business which is cutting its sales force is like a farmer who eats his seed corn. They don't plan on growing any time soon.

I guess ole Pinch can report her layoff as another "unexpected" jump in the unemployment rate. There seems to be a lot of that going around.

To be fair the retired couple planned well, invested wisely, and are content with their standard of living. When I cracked this joke (hey, I'm supporting all you layabouts) after dinner and my second glass of Macallan 12 he shot back, "we're not on Social Security, and don't plan on it being there for us." They're a few years shy of 60; and with the way things are going in Washington these days his pessimism seem warranted.

People are hurting. Folks are scared. Families are hungry.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting.

Caliph Barack I and his Queen are still on vacation....

Posted at 16:16 by Chris Wysocki   [/odds_n_ends]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: unemployment recession Obama

I miss 1010wins.com

Yes, I'm a news junkie. And until recently I got my fix from 1010wins.com. It was the perfect news website — everything at a glance. Local news, national, world, sports, science, entertainment all gathered together on one page of headlines. Scanning it took under a minute. If something caught my eye I clicked and got the info I needed to know.

So naturally they had to "improve" it. WINS is one of the 2 news radio stations in New York (WCBS being the other). CBS owns them both, although their operations appear to be separate. Of they were. Now 1010wins.com redirects to CBSlocal.com, a generic page for Channel 2 news, WINS, WCBS, and WFAN.

Blech.

What used to be a convenient (and fast loading) set of informative links is now a multimedia hodge-podge of flash gimmickery obscuring what little information might still be there. All sizzle and no steak.

The unique identity and quirky personalities of 1010 WINS are gone. The brand is now CBS and it's about as enticing as store-brand beer. Maybe it's less filling but it sure doesn't taste great.

I hate it. So I headed on over to Google News and, WTF!, somebody screwed that up too! What is this "redesign stuff that's great" month on the internet? Where did the columns go? I gotta fill out a survey before I can read the news? No thanks!

It's gotta be a plot. The newspaper guys have obviously infiltrated the web news sites and turned them into unusable muddled "media portals" so we'll give up and go back to reading their dead tree editions.

I want my 1010wins.com back.

Posted at 13:12 by Chris Wysocki   [/media]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: CBS 1010wins NewsRadio88 WCBS

Rule 5 interlude: 80's girl groups

Bob Belvedere has been delayed in his quest for hump-day Rule 5 by a request from his grand-niece. She wants him to make an 80's mix tape for her birthday party on Saturday. And she said, "No punk allowed!"

So no Ramones, eh Bob? Although I'm sure you'll wanna be sedated after the party's over! In their place I suggested some of the quintessential 80's girl bands. And in the interest of helping a fellow blogger carry the load, how about we let Rule 5 take its course.

My first suggestion? The B-52's, who I saw at Radio City Music Hall back in the day. Watch out for the Rock Lobster. And lead singer Kate Pierson has still got it goin' on. Yes Bob, I know how you're partial to redheads. You're welcome.

Just don't let your niece head on out to the Love Shack, OK?

Next up on the hit parade, The Go-Go's! They've got the beat.

Like the Obamas, Vacation's all I've ever wanted. Vacation, gotta get away. From the Obamas.

Here's some Belinda Carlisle. Yes Bob, she's a redhead now too. And she's definitely still got it Go-Go-ing on!

But whatever you do Bob, don't walk like an Egyptian. Even for The Bangles. Because you never know when it's just another manic Monday.

One more thing Bob. Love (even the totally hetero manly kind) is a battlefield. So like Pat Benatar says, hit me with your best shot!

So tell me Bob, is that niece of yours a real heartbreaker?

Posted at 22:43 by Chris Wysocki   [/rule5]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: B-52s Go-Gos Bangles Pat-Benatar

A penny for your tax protest

Sam Corkin is The Man.

Fed up with his escalating property taxes he decided to protest his latest increase in a unique way.

I'm pretty sure that legally they can't refuse your payment just because it's in pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters. It's not like they don't handle any loose change, how else did Mr. Corkin remit the 66 cents?

Can you imagine the look on their faces if everybody did this?

UPDATE 20 Aug 2010 09:44:
It helps to spell the man's name right! In my defense, I relied on CBS news for the spelling ("Corcan"). I've corrected the post thanks to an alert reader who noticed the error.

Posted at 15:44 by Chris Wysocki   [/nj_politics]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: NJ+Politics property-tax Lyndhurst-NJ

Beautifying Caldwell, one begonia at a time

A dedicated group of volunteers has made downtown Caldwell more colorful. The Project Main Street design team purchased hanging flower baskets for the lamp posts along Bloomfield Avenue. Three local landscapers stepped up to install them, plant the flowers, and most importantly, water them every day.

And so our town is now adorned with beautiful, bountiful baskets of cascading dragon wing begonias in full bloom.

Their next project is a "Downtown Cleanup Day" scheduled for Saturday September 25^th. And they need your help. To get involved e-mail ProjectMainST@gmail.com, call 973-228-8900.

Community spirit is truly a beautiful thing.

Posted at 10:59 by Chris Wysocki   [/caldwell]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Project-Main-Street Caldwell-NJ

Who knew that "annoying people" was a crime?

Prosecutors charged Jersey Shore star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi with a new crime today, related to her arrest last month on the beach in Seaside Heights.

Annoying people.

Yes folks, "annoying people" is an actual crime. Punishable by a fine of up to $2,000.

Has anyone seen Nancy Pelosi? I want to make a citizens arrest. C'mon, admit it. She annoys the crap out of you too.

Posted at 23:36 by Chris Wysocki   [/odds_n_ends]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Snooki Jersey-Shore Seaside court

Taking Avastin? Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee

The anti-breast-cancer drug Avastin is expensive. It's also the drug of last resort for women who have no where else to turn. Now the FDA is considering rescinding its approval of Avastin. Which of course will mean that it will no longer be available in the US.

Not because it isn't "safe and effective". There's no denying that. Thousands of women are reaping the benefits of Avastin at this very moment.

Avastin is being yanked from the shelves to spare Barry a political headache because Medicare and Medicaid don't want to pay for it.

And so the FDA is doing Donald Berwick's dirty-work.

How else can Barry control costs and reassure the public that he's not, as maintained by his critics, denying useful and effective drugs to seniors in order to free up money for ObamaCare?

And so it begins. The first of the Death Panels has convened.

Posted at 16:57 by Chris Wysocki   [/obamacare]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: Avastin Obamacare FDA Donald-Berwick

Proud to be a teabagger!

One of the anonymous denizens of the NJ.com Caldwell Forum has a hard-on for me and my humble little blog. I'm not exactly sure why, but as Stacy McCain says, "hits is hits". This nut and the loopy legions of limpdick losers who cheer him on keep checking back for my latest updates.

So when they saw my Caldwell Tea Party announcement, well let's just say their foaming at the mouth aspired to Olbermann-esque heights. Note that I said "aspired", not "achieved". <grin>

Meet "NotOnMYLawn":

You know, I do believe he sees our Tea Party efforts as a bad thing. In fact he doesn't have very much that's nice to say at all, does he?

That's some mouth you got there Bud. Care to say that crap to my face? How about to Tom's face?

No? That's what we thought. You're all talk and no balls, hiding behind a fake name.

You think you're so fucking smart? You could do a better job? Why don't you run for Council? But you're not running, are you? In fact, nobody from the Caldwell Democrats is running. Three open Council seats and the Mayorality are up for grabs. The Republicans are running unopposed.

You clowns got nothing. Except sour grapes of course. Bushel baskets full of sour grapes. Oh, and $120,000 bucks that's missing from the municipal coffers. Which one of you bozos is starting to sweat heavily now that this news has broken?

Let me spell it out for you Chief. We're proud to stand up and be counted. We're working hard to restore honor and dignity to our government.

What have you done to make our town better?

I stand with the do-ers.

We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Posted at 11:28 by Chris Wysocki   [/tea_party]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
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John Quincy Adams understood Islam better than Barack Hussein Obama does

I'm not the only person who casts a wary eye on the motivations of the worldwide Islamic Ummah. My friend Bob Belvedere while opining on Barry's endorsement of Cordoba House uncovered this magnificent quotation from America's sixth president, John Quincy Adams:

In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar (mohammed), the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent god; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. The essence of his doctrine was violence and lust: to exalt the brutal over the spiritual part of human nature ... Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant ... While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon the earth, and good will towards men.

Now here we are, another 200 years later. The current successor to Mr. Adams offers mealy-mouthed platitudes about "religious tolerance" in response to Mohammedan provocations. Apparently we have to let them build their Victory Mosque or the terrorists will have won.

Would that our president extended his notion of religious tolerance to the Jews of Jerusalem, whom he constantly lectures on the need to cease building synagogues and houses. Which of course turns out to be exactly the course of action desired by, you guessed it, Muslims.

Seems like that with Mr. Obama, whatever the Muslims want, the Muslims should get. It's no wonder considering how he's one of them.

Speaking of promoting tolerance and building bridges, get a load of how the Cordoba House guys reacted to a sadly erroneous report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that they'd agreed to accept Gov. Paterson's offer and relocate their mosque. Here is the Mel-Gibson-eqsue response posted to their official Twitter feed:

PARK51: On a side note, if Haaretz likes publishing fables, perhaps they could go back to the Yiddish ones with parables #welikethosebetter.

And yet some of you folks have chided me for sowing the seeds of discord? Here' the thing, Jew-hatred runs in the Rauf family. His father's mosque is a hotbed of radical Islamic nut-jobbery. And of course Holocaust denial; these guys are always Holocaust deniers.

Anyway, back to the "not all Muslims are radicals" line of bullshit.

Here's video of a 3 year old girl, barely old enough to recite her ABC's who nonetheless has already assimilated enough Jew hatred to make Heinrich Himmler proud.

Now let's consider a few things. This isn't a western TV expose playing gotcha. This is Saudi state television. They praise this pint sized bigot. They hold her up as a shining example of Hitler youth Saudi childhood, and pray for all children to emulate her.

That my friends is child abuse. Child abuse at the hands of the most powerful and extant strain of Islam in the world today.

So long as little girls are being taught to hate from the moment they are born there is nothing we can do or say which will change the direction upon which Islam has embarked. And as John Quincy Adams noted, we ignore their hatred at our peril.

Posted at 20:50 by Chris Wysocki   [/islam]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
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Uncle Sam wants you to buy an FM radio

First the government decreed that every citizen must purchase health insurance. Having crossed that Rubicon the pressure is on to impose additional mandates. Every special interest group sees government directives as the key to their survival.

If the National Association of Broadcasters get its way Congress may soon require that every American will buy an FM radio.

I wish they were kidding.

As part of some kind of nefarious backroom copyright deal between NAB and RIAA the broadcasters will drop their objection to "performance royalties" for radio if RIAA gets Congress to force gadget manufacturers to include an FM radio chip in every cell phone, PDA, laptop, and portable electronic device sold in the United States.

In their twisted minds consumers want the "choice" to listen to FM radio instead of downloading (illegal) MP3's.

Because yeah, I always dreamed of having some nameless faceless RIAA toady tell me what I music I want to hear. FM radio sucks. It sucks bad. Forcing people to listen to it won't make FM radio suck less.

Like I said, I wish this was some kind of bad joke. But it's not.

It's what happens when the government decides they know what's best for us.

What's next? Forcing all of us to subscribe to The New York Times?

Posted at 13:11 by Chris Wysocki   [/media]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
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NJ may extend the school year to 200+ days

Just last week my wife said to me that her cousin's kids in Georgia had already started school. I replied, "do they end earlier?" Nope. The school year in Georgia is longer than ours. She asked, "who do I call to get that here in New Jersey?"

Funny she should ask! Chris Christie and Bret Schundler are thinking along the same lines.

Back in the day, when I was but a wee lad, it didn't make sense that we got 3 months off from school each summer. When my grandparents grew up the concept had merit; they were needed to work the farm.

Now many of our kids live on a farm today?

State law requires that students attend 180 days of school each year. Most districts schedule 183 days on the theory that they'll have 3 snow days. You know what kills me? If they don't use all 3 snow days they create extra holidays to keep the schedule at exactly 180 days. Couldn't the kids benefit from those extra days?

As Sarah Palin would say, you betcha!

We shouldn't be looking for ways to shorten the school year. With all of the subject matter which needs to be covereed it's absurd to deny the children an opportunity to spend more time in school.

But Chris, I hear you say, if the teachers have to work 20 or so extra days they're gonna want more money. We're broke!

Ayup. The teachers might want more money to work all year. But we don't have to give it to them. The union takes pains to counter any attempt to paint teachers as only working nine or ten months per year. They claim teaching is a full-time job. Good. Let's make it a full-time job.

I'm sure there will be a certain number of intransigent union hacks who will refuse to work even one additional hour. Fine. With teacher unemployment at an all-time high, and seeing as how so many recent college graduates are facing grim job prospects, I have no doubt we'll be able to fill all the teaching slots we need to fill. And we'll fill them at a salary that is compatible with today's budget realities.

Extending the school year makes educational sense. A ten week break each summer means that September is spent playing catch-up. Cutting that to six weeks still leaves adequate time for summer vacation while helping to maintain curriculum continuity. And twenty extra days of school will allow teachers to cover subjects in more depth or introduce additional topics.

Commissioner Schundler has put forth an excellent idea. It merits serious consideration.

Posted at 22:46 by Chris Wysocki   [/education]   | Trackback | Perm Link |
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