Putting A Little English On It: Year End Awards By Bob English

The John Connally Most Money Spent For The Fewest Results Award (named after former Texas Governor John Connally   who spent $11 million in seeking the Republican 1980 Presidential nomination   only to win only one delegate goes to: Rick Perry.  Perry raised almost $20 million however despite climbing to the top of the polls when he first entered the race, his campaign soon turned into a total flop after numerous mis-statements and debate performances that were so poor that some questioned his physical and mental stability.

The Not Crazy Enough For A Republican Debate Audience also goes to Rick Perry who was booed at a Republican   Presidential debate over a compassionate Texas law that gives in-state college tuition to children of illegal immigrants.

• Tweet

Marlboro Mayor’s Moxy

By Matt Rooney, cross-posted at SaveJersey.com

Marlboro’s Mayor Jon Hornik is standing by the community’s decision to introduce an armed presence into its schools, Save Jerseyans.

I admire this guy’s moxy!

Our Governor and other like-minded pols are opposed to turning schools into ”armed camps,” but I wholeheartedly disagree with their premise. It’s an logical leap, particularly when so many of our high schools already have a regular police presence. The fact also remains that there seems to be little or no political will on either side of the aisle to address the real problem: an over-medicated, under-parented generation whose less stable members are shielded from meaningful psychiatric action by asinine post-deinstitutionalization laws and administrative regulations.

Read the rest of this entry>>

• Tweet

Post Shooting Debate

• Tweet

Poll: Christie Viewed More Favorably Than Rubio Among All Voters But Trails with Republicans

By Matt Rooney, cross-posted at Save Jersey

I love politics. Always have. But after living through the 2012 GOP Primary, Save Jerseyans, I’m psyched to be three years away from another borish Republican debate.

I’m sure you agree!

Three years out, Chris Christie finds himself in a strong position relative to the rest of the hypothetical field according to a new national registered voter poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Naturally a lot can still change. And as predicted by your Blogger-in-Chief, the same Obama-related interactions that have elevated Christie’s brand in the minds of Indies and Dems have also potentially damaged his standing among Republican primary voters outside of the Garden State.

The numbers:

Right now, the FDU poll found Christie’s name recognition to be superior to FL Senator Marco Rubio’s by 12-points, 68% to 56%, among all voters. Christie is also viewed more favorably than Rubio by 9-points, 55% to 46%, though their unfavorable rating is about the same (20% and 21% respectively).

Read the rest of this entry

• Tweet

Christie Administration Announces Extension for New Jerseyans Affected by Hurricane Sandy to Register for Disaster Assistance

Trenton, NJ – The Christie Administration today announced that New Jersey residents affected by Hurricane Sandy now have until January 30, 2013 to register for disaster assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

“The single most important step people can take in this recovery period is to register with FEMA, if they haven’t already,” said Governor Christie. “The process of a family receiving any type of federal disaster assistance begins with registering as a disaster survivor with FEMA and working with a coordinator to determine what sort of relief they are eligible for. This extension will help us ensure that anyone who has been affected by the storm gets registered and the help they need and deserve.”

People with storm losses in all counties can register online atwww.disasterassistance.govor via smart phone or tablet here.

Survivors also can register by phone or 711/VRS by calling 800-621-3362, TTY800-462-7585. The toll-free telephone numbers operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week until further notice.

At the request of the state, FEMA extended the registration deadline beyond the original 60 day window due tothe magnitude of the Hurricane Sandy disaster.

The disaster registration process serves as a referral point for FEMA programs and those of partner agencies such as the U.S. Small Business Administration, American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the Small Business Administration.

FEMA disaster assistance for individuals and families can include money for rental assistance, essential home repairs, personal property losses and other serious disaster-related needs not covered by insurance.

• Tweet

Will Sandy Hook get America to take brain injury seriously?

By Patrick B. Donohue, Founder, The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation,

According to a 2008 CDC study, 82.8 percent of male prisoners in Minnesota reported having had one or more brain injury over the course of their lifetime. Marlena M. Wald and her colleagues found the causes ranged from assaults (37%), auto crashes (25%), sports-related (11%) to falls (11%). Another study showed that 87 percent of a county jail population had a history of brain injury (Slaughter, Facc & Ehde, 2003). This study also showed that many of these prisoners experience mental health problems such as severe depression and anxiety. Other studies have shown co-occurring problems such as alcohol and substance abuse, suicidal thoughts and attempts as well as significant anger management issues for this population.

In 1986, Dr. Dorothy Lewis and Dr. Jonathan Pincus published a study of 15 death row inmates and found every one of them had suffered severe brain injuries in childhood, about half were caused by assaults and six were chronically psychotic. Another study of 14 juveniles sentenced to death found all of them had suffered from a brain injury, most in auto crashes but assaults as well. Twelve had been brutally physically abused and five were sodomized by relatives.

We know where this tipping point begins. Over 765,000 American youth suffer a new brain injury every year, over 80,000 are hospitalized and over 11,000 die annually. Every 40 seconds another American family enters an Emergency Room with a new brain injury. And these are the ones who are actually identified, when two to three times are not identified. These numbers do not include the tens of thousands of non-traumatic acquired brain injuries such as meningitis which President Obama’s daughter had as an infant to strokes, brain tumors and seizure-disorders.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Monmouth County Freeholders Join “Jersey Shore Open” Campaign

By Thomas A. Arnone

Super storm Sandy and the following nor’easter may have dealt us quite a blow, but I am pleased to report that the county is actively working to get our businesses up and running as we move toward the next year and the next tourism season.

Through a coordinated effort, we are encouraging visitors to return to Monmouth County’s beaches, parks, historic sites, cultural attractions and shopping venues.

We are doing this by actively participating in the “Jersey Shore OPEN” campaign. This is a grass roots effort to encourage businesses to display a specially created “Jersey Shore OPEN” sign for Monmouth County. This regional approach will help further our many public relations efforts to spread the word that Monmouth County is recovering and open for business.

I encourage your business to join this campaign. By displaying this sign, your local business can clearly show that you are open and supportive of other Monmouth County tourism efforts. You can download the sign from the county website at www.tourism.visitmonmouth.com. The “Jersey Shore OPEN” campaign is a joint program with Ocean County Tourism and the Jersey Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Tourism is important because as an industry it supports thousands of jobs and typically generates nearly $2 billion in business activity for the county. We are confident that Monmouth County will return to prominence as one of the best family vacation spots in the state.

I will convene a roundtable meeting with mayors from various municipalities in January. We will address the 2013 tourism season and offer the help and assistance of the county’s tourism division. Our local leaders will be of great assistance as we focus and target the county’s 2013 promotional program.

The county’s 2013 tourism promotion activities will include creating focused radio, print and internet promotion on recovery efforts and business and attraction reopening. We are also expanding social media efforts to promote and engage visitors and residents. Keep in mind that we will also distribute the 2013 Visit Monmouth Travel Guide  that is the cornerstone of the county’s efforts to promote Monmouth County as a tourism destination.

Monmouth County will also participating in targeted, key travel shows such as the Philadelphia Inquirer Travel Show, the Atlantic City Boat Show and the Montreal Hunting and Camping Show. These travel shows are uniquely suited to the visitors who enjoy vacationing at the Jersey Shore.

Remember, the county tourism division is here for you. If you have out of town visitors, call 732-431-7310 and they will put together a packet of information to help you entertain your guests. Likewise, if you have a business that relies on tourism, the office can help you connect with many ways to reach visitors. Together we will strengthen our economic vitality and restore the wonderful quality of life that Monmouth County enjoys.

Happy Holidays and get ready for a great 2013.

• Thomas A. Arnone is Freeholder Deputy Director Monmouth County and Liaison to the Department of Public Information and Tourism

• Tweet

America Is To Blame For The Massacre In Connecticut

By Jordan B. Rickards, The Rickards Review cross post

I believe in the right to own a gun.  As a conservative, I believe in a right to be able to defend myself and my home, and I believe that right is all the more necessary in today’s America.  As a skeptic, I doubt that an outright ban on firearms would accomplish much more than to disarm the law abiding people who we don’t have to worry about in the first place.  And as a freedom loving person, while I certainly don’t believe in armed insurrection, I do confess discomfort with the idea of a world where the government controls all the weapons.

But I can’t avoid how I feel right now in the wake of the slaughter in Connecticut.  I feel angry.  I don’t remember feeling this way after Columbine, or Virginia Tech, or the Aurora Colorado movie theatre shootings.  I remember being sad and dejected, but not angry.

When tragedies happen, it’s natural to look to somebody to blame, and groups like the N.R.A. are always the first and easiest targets.  I’ve defended them in the past.  After all, you don’t see N.R.A. members committing massacres. That’s because, in addition to being obsessed about guns, they’re also obsessed with gun safety and education to ensure that guns are used in a responsible way, so that the right to own them is not compromised.

But in their seemingly reflexive opposition to even the most reasonable and common sense regulations, they fail to consider that maybe America as a whole is simply not capable of responsible gun ownership within the framework of the current regulatory scheme.  Or perhaps I should say, “no longer capable.”

Conservatives receive a lot of criticism for wanting to “take us back to the 1950′s.” That might not be a bad idea. I’m not talking about rolling back civil rights, or technological advances. I’m simply stating the obvious, which is that a lot of the problems we have today didn’t exist back then.  Families were intact.  Drug use was comparatively rare.  Cities were livable.  Violent crime was a fraction of what it is today.  Schools didn’t get shot up.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

A Proper Response to the Connecticut Murders

By Dan Gallic

We, as a nation, decided three or four decades ago, that we didn’t have the will or resources to create safe, reliable and appropriate facilities for those who suffer with mental illness. One reason we started to lose our appetite to deal with the mentally ill appropriately was the ever expanding definition that was being associated with the diagnoses. Eventually, every drunk and drug user was labeled mentally ill, and resources allocated to the mentally ill were quickly filled and demand for more and more and more resources taxed the mental health support system.

• Tweet

Mayan Calendar

• Tweet