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JerseySmarts.com

I’m Going to be an Adjunct Professor!

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The other day I received a phone call from the Chair of my local university’s Political Science Department. She asked me if I would be interested in becoming an Adjunct Professor for one of their intro courses and, of course, I told her that I was interested.

After a few e-mails and some discussion, I’ll be teaching an American Government course at the university this fall! This is pretty exciting, as teaching at a college is one of the things that I’ve always wanted to do. And I should admit, I am really looking forward to this opportunity.

I ordered the books for my class the other day and I’m in the process of putting my syllabus together. As of this writing, I have only 12 seats left in my class with a potential total of 35 seats. With a little less than a month left to go until school starts, I’m sure that we’ll fill up in no time.

Monmouth University Can Build New Dorm, Tennis Courts

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The local news media are reporting that the West Long Branch Zoning Board vote of 5 to 1 in favor of expanding the Monmouth University campus has been upheld by a State Appellate Panel. Some of the folks living around the university took it upon themselves to fight against this approval, citing petty collusion between the university and township officials. Someone even blasted a local Committeeman because his daughter received an academic scholarship from the university. What a disgraceful charge to levy at the Committeeman…

That’s the problem with local politics in America today – anyone with a voice feels that they are entitled to their day in court and this holds up the progress of the greater good. An article in today’s Asbury Park Press cites that 36 families have been fighting against the expansion of the university…but you do NOT see it listed anywhere that well over 200 families in the town have supported the university and many more families just don’t care either way. I live down the street from the university and while I do not publicly support Monmouth’s desire to expand, I can certainly agree with the vast silent majority in West Long Branch that we don’t mind the expansion.

Now, some people will claim, “Well I live across the street from the university and quality of life is low and blah blah blah.” Sorry, but if you live next a community swimming pool, do you complain that people are swimming there? If you live next to a gym, do you complain that people are coming and going all day to work out? If you live next to a university do you complain that college students are being college students?

No.

And this is obvious – none of these thoughts are new in the debate. The small minority who feel that their opinion outweighs the majority in West Long Branch oftentimes comes back with the statement that they were in town before the “university” was. In this argument, the word “university” is key. In 1994, Monmouth College became Monmouth University. So many of the locals take 1994 as the starting point of the “university” not mentioning that the college was started in 1933.

Yes – this “We were here first” argument HAS been used to defend the minority’s right to blast the university. I’ve even had it used against me in informal discussions about the university with other people in town. It’s mind-boggling, really.

Anyway, congratulations to Monmouth University for winning the right to expand their campus. Best of luck.

The Duke Lacrosse Players Go After Nifong

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The three young men who were falsely accused and publicly abused by disgraced former District Attorney Mike Nifong have filed criminal complaints against him. Good for these guys! A few comments on the overall situation…

College students all over the country know how their civil liberties are trashed on a near-constant basis because the few “bad apples” in the bunch ruin the image for the greater group. As I’ve said time and time again, as an undergraduate I routinely had police officers just open my front door and walk through my house at all hours of the day from the early morning to the late night. It got to the point where it was near-comical. We went so far as to even call the FBI for their help (our reasoning was – when the police are the ones who are breaking the law, who do you call?).

What Mike Nifong did to these boys is criminal. He attempted to prosecute them while KNOWING they were innocent and that the evidence proved them to be innocent. He ruined their college years, he ruined their immediate post-college years, and he greatly damaged the justice system in his district. He’s disgusting and a fraud and he deserves both jail time and to give these boys a just financial sum. Imagine if you were in the place that these boys were in – imagine that you were Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty or Dave Evans.

First, you are falsely accused of rape and while you KNOW you’re innocent, a corrupt system keeps beating you down. Then you have to endure public criticism from the anti-collegiate crowd. Furthermore, you have racist groups threatening to “take care of” your situation if the legal system does not (how are these groups allowed to hold the legal system hostage like that?). Your parents are blowing through millions of dollars to defend you in court because – as we now know in America – you are guilty until you PROVE yourself innocent. Oh, and to top it off – your own SCHOOL convicts you before the justice system by suspending you as soon as you are charged! Another epidemic affecting America’s college campuses are administrators who feel that they are judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to adjudicating off-campus activities. These administrators were not at the event, had second and third had FALSE reports about the event, and still decided to suspend the students.

And this is in America, people!

I hope that Reade, Collin, and Dave take Nifong to the limit. I hope they bankrupt him and send him straight to jail. All these kids did was be college students and you know what? There’s NOTHING wrong with that! And for you idiots out there who are completely against college students being college students, go see a psychiatrist. Yes, students should be respectful when living off-campus. But when they ARE respectful and you don’t hear a peep out of them – STOP trying to look into their homes and their lives and passing judgment on them.

Because you know what? Sometimes the chickens come home to roost – just ask Mike Nifong about it.

Mike Nifong Is a Disgusting Human Being

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Earlier today Mike Nifong was found in breach of nearly every professional, ethical code of conduct that was charged against him. For those of you that don’t know, Nifong is the former District Attorney who waged a jihad (the word is appropriate here) against the three Duke lacrosse players who were falsely accused of raping a stripper who came to their off-campus house to perform at a party.

Nifong embodies the worst of our judicial system. This is a man who had obvious evidence in front of him that proved these boys were innocent and that their accuser whored herself around with many men other than these boys. What did he do with that evidence? He declined to make it public and instead he took up the cause that was the “popular” cause in the community.

Many college students out there know what I’m talking about. While you are in school, you live in a college setting and there are non-college people who live there, too. In most situations, these non-college citizens are always at war against the college students and the university for “quality of life” issues. This results in students losing their civil rights when dealing with the local justice system.

In other words, local citizens expect their local government to be the whip that is constantly bearing down on the college student community. And 99% of the time, that is exactly what happens.

Well, Mike Nifong played his role in this disgusting true-life setup and he got what was coming to him. He’s a disgusting human being. What he did to those boys’ lives was wrong. It was dishonest. It was abhorrent. He is a gross human being and he does not deserve to ever practice law in these United States again.

Many of you know that I am very “into” the Founding Fathers of this country and what they wanted when they made the United States of America. They did NOT want Nifong. They did NOT want communities that treat people differently because of age, sex, or color. Sure, some idiots point to the fact that the Constitution doesn’t include women in equality, but they neglect the reality that the Founding Fathers wrote their documents in very broad terms that were appropriate to the day.

Nifong is NOT what they wanted in our justice system. The North Carolina State Bar has done themselves a great credit by putting this man up on charges and then publicly defaming him. I feel no remorse for him or for what he did. This is a man who saw his position in the legal system to be that of a puppet for what the public wanted.

That is NOT what our legal system was meant to be! Our legal system was meant to be a place where the accused are innocent until proven guilty. The burden of justice is on the accuser; the burden of proof of innocence is NOT on the accused.

Thank God this filthy creature was reprimanded and found in breach of standard ethics. I’m not going to watch the rest of these proceedings, but I’m hoping that they throw the book at him now that he’s been found in breach.

Arrogant Abuse of the Summer #1 & #2

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You know when summer hits Deal, New Jersey when the New Yorkers are keeping you up at all hours of the night. Tonight, we had the first gathering of 10 – 15 year olds outside of our window. The cops were called and the kids dispersed a little after midnight. Completely ridiculous that kids this age are allowed to prowl around town without any supervision.

And even more ridiculous that the Ocean Township Police Department told them to just “go home” when – if they were college students – they would have called in the paddy wagon (don’t laugh, I’ve seen it happen before).

Now, at about 2:30am, there’s no way you can sleep because three and a half blocks away a bunch of the older New Yorkers are having a dance club party such that the bass on their music can be heard blocks away. We just drove by and there were probably 50 people standing OUTSIDE of the house.

Again, I’ve seen college parties in this area get broken up with less than half of that amount of people and the party completely contained to a living room or a basement. This party is taking place outside of a house, on a main road, with music that you can hear more than 3 blocks away…

No paddy wagon, no police, nothing.

Anyone who doesn’t think that there is a preconceived dictate in this town to “go after” college students and “leave the New Yorkers alone” is out of their mind.

And here we go again, with another “fantastic” summer in Deal… Ugh…