Shocked & Appalled

Random rants

10/04/2002

Two acres of farmland are lost to sprawl each minute, according to a new study.

Good. I come from the New Jersey, land of sprawl. I like sprawl. I like sidewalks and streelights, and schools you can walk to, and shopping centers. And malls. I love malls. I love being surrounded by capitalism.

And clearly, a lot of other people like sprawl, otherwise no one would be building all those houses and shopping centers. But no one wants to admit this. Sprawl is like the supermarket tabloids. Everyone says it's awful and horrible, yet they have a larger circulation than every other newspaper in the country. (Maybe the aliens are reading them).

Most people want to move to the suburbs, but want everyone else to stay away. "I can come, but once I'm here, all transition should stop!" Feh.

And really, I'm getting a little tired of "we need to save the family farm!" Why exactly? Do we need to save the family plumber, or the family accountant, or the family dot-com? Life's tough all over bud, why is it that your business is more important than everyone else?

10/02/2002

Art imitates life. Imitates art.

The Barenaked Ladies and Aimee Man will appear on The West Wing at a fictional "Rock the Vote" concert.

But Rock the Vote will host an actual fundraiser later where people can watch the fake fundraiser on TV. Got that?
Reason number 105 why I'm proud to be from New Jersey. What other state gives its political reporters so much fun stuff to work with?

And I don't quite understand the "shocked, shocked" reaction. I mean, here are a few other stories from the Star-Ledger's web site.

* A former West New York gas station owner said yesterday that he collected thousands of dollars in illegal bribes for a confidant to Assembly Speaker Albio Sires during Sires' first three years as mayor of the Hudson County town.

* Ending months of turmoil for the Piscataway High School girls soccer team, coach John Menza was sentenced yesterday to one year of probation and ordered to give up his teaching career after he pleaded guilty to a petty disorderly persons offense of harassment against one of his players. Menza, 48, of Westfield, had been charged with assault, harassment and criminal sexual contact for allegedly biting two players' legs at the soccer field.

* Former Woodbridge School Superintendent Kenneth Kuchtyak pleaded guilty yesterday to official misconduct, admitting that he solicited $3,000 in kickbacks from the district's insurance broker.