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JerseySmarts.com

Some of the new “Jon Corzine Taxes”

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Thanks to the Asbury Park Press’ “What taxes are going to be raised?” article from today. The following items were not taxed before, but will now be taxed at 7%:

  • carpet and upholstery cleaning services
  • downloaded movies, music, software and videos
  • flooring and carpeting installation
  • golf, gym and health club memberships
  • landscaping services
  • massage, tanning and tattoo services
  • non-subscription magazines
  • parking lots and garages
  • private investigation services
  • security services
  • self-storage units
  • shipping and handling charged separately

    • I don’t know what shipping and handling charged separately means, but it sounds ridiculous. And what a deplorable, despicable human being this Governor Money Bags is that he’s taxing fucking gym memberships and parking spaces. Is he for real? That’s disgusting. And this slimy swine says that he “understands” that these taxes will hurt us in the beginning, but are needed in the long-run? He has no idea what it’s like to be a working class guy trying to live in this state. He’s fucking delusional.

    This deplorable asshole also raised business taxes and is raiding the state’s disability trust fund of $50 million. Like that’s not a bait and switch maneuver…

    He increased the daily surcharge on rented cars from $2 to $5. Who does that? Who sits in their luxurious Hoboken condo and says, “Hmmm…maybe I’ll raise the car rental surcharge. Yeah! That’s it! Let me raise revenues by imposing an extra surcharge on a service that the state should be disgusted that they’re even taxing anyway…”

    And for those of us with SUVs that don’t quite make 19 miles per gallon? Fuck us! That’s right! We get to pay a random one-time fee for having an automobile that isn’t up to Corzine’s gas standards. I wonder how this one-time bait-and-switch fee is going to fix our state’s fiscal problems? It’s not. It’s obvious that it’s not. And it’s obvious that for guys like me – who would love to drive a new hybrid or a more fuel efficient car if we could afford to buy a one – that our goal of even getting a new car will be set back by this ridiculous, deplorable one-time fee.

    I said it before and it still holds true – New Jersey has a “deplorable” Governor.

    Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest

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    Like we do every Friday night during the summer, some of the guys and I got together and went to the movies to see the latest release. This week, it’s Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Kiera Knightly in Pirate of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest.

    Disney did a great job with this film. It looks great, the cinematography is awesome, the soundtrack was good, the story is fun and intriguing – great job all around. I do have two minor complaints, though (one movie-related and one not movie-related). First, our seats absolutely sucked. We were sitting in the two left-most seats in the fifth row back so our heads and backs were contorted the entire time as we tried to take in the entire screen from an odd angle. Why do they even make those seats? No one likes sitting in them – why not just make more seats in the upper rows?

    Second, I thought that the ending – while brilliantly done – could have done more to tie up some loose ends with this particular movie. For those of you that don’t know, there will be another Pirates movie next summer that was filmed concurrently with this installation of the film. That’s cool with me and it’s a smart way to do a movie (just like they did with Lord of the Rings). But at least at the end of the first two Lord of the Rings movies, there was some conclusion, though something always loomed on the horizon. At the end of Pirates 2 there were minimal conclusions, no major “end” to any subplots or storylines, and at least one gigantic unanswered question (which you’ll have to watch the movie to find out).

    A completely wrong, 100% jaded Entertainment Weekly Review did make one good point about the ending of the movie:

    Without an artistic stake in eliciting joy (or sadness, or concern, or something other than a glazed giggle at Depp’s finery), there’s nothing to keep producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski, and their screenwriting galleymates from piling on another big false ending, and another, and another, “Caribbean” without end, until a pummeled audience begs for a toilet break and, for mercy’s sake, a real conclusion.

    I don’t agree with some of that, but I certainly agree about the false ending and the need for a real conclusion.

    Other than those two somewhat minor points, I thought that the movie was great. Depp does a great job at being his Richards-inspired pirate and Bloom plays the role of hero/good guy very well. Some suggestions for your movie viewing, though…

    Don’t go see this movie when there are a bunch of little kids in the theater – they were all laughing at parts of the movie that were completely unfunny last night. For those of you who did see the movie, think of the very last scene and what happened – our theater had a bunch of kids laughing at the very last moment. Made no sense whatsoever. This also goes for generally “family-friendly” times at the theater because it appeared to us that a lot of older women were laughing at every word that Depp said, which was really distracting.

    I suggest going to see the movie after having watched the first movie. I was going to do this, but between work and a tight schedule, it didn’t happen. There were a lot of references that you wouldn’t have been able to pick up unless you watched the first movie or at least had it in mind while watching Pirates 2. But these are all not that important (for example, the use of the term “poppet”).

    This movie was, I think, one of the best that we’ve seen so far from the summer movie offerings. Superman Returns was a general bore and the Da Vinci Code was so-so. Pirates of the Caribbean is the movie to see this summer – I strongly recommend it and go ahead, spend the big money to see it in a good theater.

    For those of us who have seen it, I would recommend this one for a cheap matinee replay. Good job Disney!

    Book Review: Bush Country

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    I read this book about a month and a half ago, so I hope I don’t forget anything about it in the review.

    What I remember most about John Podhoretz’s Bush Country is the near-infallibility of all of Bush’s moves in Podhoretz’s eyes. True, I believe that a lot of what President Bush has done as the leader of our country is admirable and will mark him as one of the most dynamic Presidents in the history of our country, I’m not entirely sure that a book can be written discussing his Presidency without talking a bit about some blemishes on his record.

    If nothing else, I would have liked to see an inclusion of at least some of Bush’s faults. However, this book’s subtitle was, “How George W. Bush Became the First Great Leader of the 21st Century—While Driving Liberals Insane” and this is something that Podhoretz shows time and time again in the book.

    You all know that I don’t give away much about the books that I read, but one thing that really made me laugh was how Podhoretz explains how completely out of touch the liberals are with simple Americana references. For example, both Presidents Ronald Reagan and the current George Bush have been called “cowboys.” Now, for those of us who’ve ever watched a western or who know half a dime’s worth about Americana, we know that simply owning a ranch a cowboy does not make.

    These men own ranchers, but are by no means cowboys! But, as Podhoretz explains, it doesn’t matter to liberals that they’ve completely jumbled Americana and simple American imagery because the masses will believe just about all of what the liberal media puts before them.

    Podhoretz also proves how Bush is not a puppet and how he’s not a moron like most liberals wish he was – some of these topics are covered with a grain of salt since they really don’t warrant full lip service for being so outlandish. I mean anyone who says, “President Bush sounds like a moron,” either only listens to his handful of vocal gaffes from 2000 and 2001 or they don’t like that Texas accent. I worked with an older woman who was from Texas and she had the same accent and I like it!

    Overall, I would say to hold off on reading this book if you’re already 110% behind the President. There’s no need to read stuff that you already know. If you’re a leftist thinker who hates the President, then you may want to read this to see how the other side thinks. I got this book on sale, so it was worth it for me to read!

    But Ocean Township Will Go After College Kids

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    In Ocean Township, you can have problems like getting mugged in front of your home…

    And potentially having your 16 year old daughter getting kidnapped by some scoundrel…

    But when the school year starts, this out of control town will put 100% of their time and effort behind going after college kids.

    Make sense to anyone? It’s time for Ocean Township to get over its fixation on college students and to focus on the above problems as well as the numerous non-collegiate drug arrests that take place in this town. They may also look into focusing on the fact that during the summer months, New Yorkers stay out in the streets (breaking every noise ordinance in the book) until the wee hours of the morning.

    They could also attempt to focus on the non-collegiate underage drinking scandals that rocked Ocean Township time and time again in the spring season.

    But no – you watch. The fall semester will start and this town will go ape shit all over again about how college students are ruining their community. Not the predators in their cars going after teenage girls, not the high school kids getting wrecked out of their minds as their parents sit in the other room, not the numerous drug dealers and drug-related activity that takes place in the north and west ends of the town, and not the summer renters who have no respect for those of us who live here year round…none of that means anything when college kids come into town.

    It’s disgusting.

    Waiting for the Backlash

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    Now that Governor Deep Pockets successfully scared his fellow Democrats into raising this state’s sales tax from 6% to 7%, I (along with hundreds of thousands of other New Jerseyans) cannot WAIT to express my displeasure at the polls the next time that we get a chance.

    I’ve never ventured into working for a campaign or doing much jaw-jacking about a state campaign, but I might look into working for one this time around. By the way – there is YET to be someone to take the public stage, besides Governor Money Bags, and say, “YES! We WANT this sales tax increase! It doesn’t matter that we’re the most over-taxed state in the union – New Jersey residents want to give MORE money to the state!”

    I’m waiting for the hero politician to stand up and say that. And if they don’t say it publicly, that’s fine too. Because they already said it by voting for this debacle of a budget and their vote on this budget will define their various re-election campaigns come November.