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Non-functioning School Districts in New Jersey

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The Asbury Park Press ran an article this morning talking about how Governor Money Bags signed a provision into law that can lead to the elimination of non-functioning school districts. What is a non-functioning school district? These are districts where a school board exists, but there are no schools.

For you non-New Jerseyans out there: Yes, we have school districts and school boards with no schools for them to “district” or “board” over. Welcome to another example of New Jersey’s fiefdom mindset.

The newspaper presented a case where there is a school district with 5 or 6 kids, all who are placed in local schools outside of their district. The most interesting quotes that I found in this article are as follows:

“They want to shut down the nonoperating school districts because they don’t realize how efficient we are,” a borough resident said. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

and

“Keep your hands off,” said the president of the Lake Como school board. “It sounds good in the newspaper (to cut nonoperating districts). In reality, it’s ridiculous.”

I would never take anything away from the arguments that these fine citizens are making, but in reference to the first quote – did it ever occur to this resident that the school boards are running efficiently because there is NO SCHOOL for them to preside over? “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” How can something be broken when it doesn’t even fulfill its primary goal to begin with!?

And with respect to the Lake Como school board President, I’m sorry but it is not ridiculous to eliminate egregious expansion of government bodies in New Jersey. It’s just not, period.

So as this battle seems ready to rage in New Jersey, I wonder what the rest of the nation is like with their school boards. Anyone with any information is more than welcome to add their thoughts.

Bored with Presidential Candidates

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Now I may be the only one, but I am completely bored with the crop of Democratic and Republican candidates. If I have to look at John Edwards’ smarmy, sneaky mug one more time, I’m going to flip out. And I can’t stand to watch John McCain struggle through a campaign that has nothing of the luster of his 2000 attempt.

Giuliani is alright with me, but I just know that something big will pop up and be a disaster for him (not sure what yet). And – as many far-left liberal bloggers correctly point out – Clinton is just out for more power for herself and her legacy. Now THAT is scary…

I’m still not quite sure what the big deal is about Obama. The only policy stances that he’s taken are that he’ll raise taxes and he’d consider invading Pakistan if the situation called for it. Both of these are wildly unpopular stances and yet he still gets cheers from audiences around the nation. Makes no sense. And you might as well lump Fred Thompson in this category, too. What does he stand for that makes him so popular?

I like Romney only because he seems to represent the most down-to-earth ideals that I’ve heard yet. But even Romney is missing something – maybe a good Vice Presidential candidate.

As for the rest of the crew – I’ve got no particular feelings on any of them other than that I can’t stand Dodd, Kucinich, or Biden. Hunter, Paul, and Tancredo mean nothing to me (or any other voters out there). Brownback and Huckabee seem like they’ll be good Secretaries in the Cabinet at some point, but they’re not US President material in my view. If I missed any other candidates, oh well – they’re not worth remembering!

Wii Poised to Take Over #1 Console Position

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As if the excitement around Nintendo’s Wii hasn’t already been burning at a fever pitch, news came out today that the Wii is poised to take over Microsoft’s XBox 360 console in total units sold. There are even reports that the Wii is on pace to beat Sony’s Playstation 2 in overall lifetime sales. That, my friends, is an accomplishment.

In fact, both of these stories are HUGE accomplishments. Why? Well, let’s look at the first accomplishment – beating the XBox 360 in total sales. XBox 360 is a high definition console with a ton of sweet accessories ranging from 120 GB hard drives to headsets to use in an online gaming community. Plus, you can get an XBox 360 ANYWHERE in the world right now. Just go to your local Circuit City, Best Buy, or Wal-Mart and I guarantee that there will be a mountain of XBox 360 consoles in all of their different makes and models.

The big kicker here is that XBox 360 came out a full year before Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s Playstation 3. You would think with a full 12 month head start that XBox 360 would be head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. It’s not.

Now there may be many reasons why they are not beating Wii. My belief is that the system is too complicated at the point of sale. For example – when Mr. Casual Gamer (ahem…me) walks into a store to buy a console, I don’t want to have three or four of the SAME console to choose from! Why not? Because I know that if I splurge on the ridiculously priced console, I’m getting the best, but I also know that I can’t afford that. So (in my mind at least) why would I buy anything other than the best? And the prices for these games are just out of control.

In fact, without getting too far into it – the Playstation 3 has the same problems in addition to poor third-party support. Before any of you dorks go nuts about that last statement, yes I know that they do have a good collection of third-party developers, but there just aren’t that many GOOD games out for the system yet. And you know what? The games are too damn expensive for PS3.

Wii? You can’t find these things in the stores and that will certainly hurt Nintendo in the long run (no consoles in the stores = no sales). But, there is only one version of the Wii. Yes, there are rumors that a DVD-enabled Wii will be released soon, but I have a DVD player and entertainment system already. Also, it is worth mentioning that the Wii is Wi-Fi enabled and gives you the ability to play against other Wii owners for free. No Wi-Fi on XBox 360 and you have to buy a subscription to play against other XBox 360 owners. Blech.

Wii is beating the competition because Nintendo went back to basics. What is a home video game console about? It’s about having fun. The Wii is a system that brings families together, it brings friends together, it brings gamers together – how many times have you seen a group of family members gathered around an XBox 360 going crazy over a game of Halo? Here and there?

Now how many times have you seen family and friends going bonkers over a cartoon-graphic Wii game?

Nintendo will almost certainly overtake the XBox 360 in the next day or two in terms of overall units sold. That’s a huge accomplishment for Nintendo, but one that may be short-lived. If the rumor of a worldwide Wii shortage heading into the holiday season is true…it may be back to XBox 360 at the top of the heap in no time!

The Rider University Case – Here We Go Again

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For those of you that haven’t heard, there was a terribly tragic accident last spring at Rider University here in New Jersey. One of the fraternities on that campus had a “big brother/little brother” night and as one of their local traditions, each family tree had a family drink. Sticking to this local, and stupid, traditional one of the new brothers literally drank himself to death from vodka. It’s a sad, sorry case where fault can be placed on everyone involved from the fraternity brothers to the young man who died after he drank all of these drinks.

However, one location where you absolutely cannot lay any blame is on the administration at the university. And, in case you haven’t seen this in the news, both the university Greek Advisor and the Dean of Students were charged with hazing in this case. Now folks, unless these two individuals either were present for this drink-fest or had prior knowledge of the booze night taking place, they are absolutely not liable at all by any stretch of the imagination.

This is akin to your boss getting a reckless driving ticket because you were swerving in and out of lanes the night before. It’s like comparing apples to t-shirts. It’s crazy.

As a fraternity man, I know that many undergraduates hide their less glamorous, local traditions. Incidentally, this is also why I’m glad to be a brother of Sigma Pi Fraternity – we’re systematically eliminating our bad traditions regionally and throughout the nation and replacing them with good ones. It’s a great thing to be a part of, really. That said, there is absolutely no way that these young men would have put this disgusting tradition out there for the school to see AND there is no way that, once knowing about this, the university would have let the students carry on like nothing bad was happening.

It just doesn’t work like that. That would be like Lee Harvey Oswald telling the FBI, “Hey, I’m going to pop Kennedy in the head,” and the FBI letting it happen. The system just doesn’t work that way.

Should the students who facilitated the young man’s death be charged? Of course. Should the administrators? Good Lord no! The people who are to blame here are the young man himself and the students who facilitated the act. That’s it. I fully believe that the administration’s charges will be dropped. And, if the university had any cajones, they’d go after the Mercer County prosecutor just like those young men down at Duke went after Mike Nifong.

Talk about prosecutorial aggrandizement…

Brian “Crush” Adams Passes Away

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Former WWE & WCW wrestler Brian “Crush” Adams was found unconscious in his home yesterday. He was 44. This is, of course, another tragedy for a profession that has gone through so much turmoil in so short a time. But the only thing that is more depressing about another wrestling star passing away is the manner in which the media is trying to link Crush’s death to Chris Benoit, the WWE, and steroids. It’s scandalous that these media outlets get away with such garbage reporting…

It’s tough to say what Crush was best known for in the wrestling world. If you’re an older fan like I am, then you remember when he debuted in the WWE as the third member of Demolition. This lasted for a little while before he was repackaged as Kona Crush, given his Hawaiian roots. If I’m not mistaken, the highest profile feud he was involved in as Kona Crush was with the Macho Man Randy Savage – Savage was the face in this one!

Adams was then arrested in real life for attempting to purchase steroids and subsequently jailed. When he got out of prison WWE paired him with Clarence Mason and he was given the ex-con gimmick. Eventually, he wound up as a member of Ron Simmons’ Nation of Domination before he was kicked out for the gang battles of the later 1990’s. In these battles he led the Disciples of Apocalypse against Los Boriquas and the Nation. Crush asked for and received his WWE release after he disagreed with Vince McMahon’s double-cross of Bret Hart at the 1997 Survivor Series.

Logically, this led Adams to jump to WCW where he had an uneventful career until he was paired with the former Adam Bomb (Bryan Clark) to form Kronik. The duo won the WCW tag team championship by defeating Shane Douglas and Buff Bagwell.

When WWE bought WCW, the two men were brought over and briefly had a feud with The Undertaker and Kane. The feud culminated in a pay per view match where Kronik had a terrible performance – which led to Bryan Clark getting fired and Adams being sent to WWE’s developmental territory for a short while before he was eventually let go, too.

Adams had the look to be a major player in the wrestling world, but his career never fell in that direction. Our prayers and condolences are with his family.