Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
i can’t think of a more apt solution to teaching the youngsters about corrupt local politicians…
Corruption is king in NJ, but at least once they are convicted we don’t re-elect politicians like the residents of Wash DC did when Marion Barry returned to office after getting out of jail.
All exits on the Jersey Turnpike lead to Newark. All ofthem.
Lex, I figure it would be a whole lot smarter to bring some of these people more south. I figure they might enjoy the pine barrens. They could have the ultimate joy of dealing with the beloved “sugar sand”. But the real education would be in dealing with those, respectfully and affectionately known by the local population as “Pineys”. We are talking of the region south of Warren Grove, the bombing range, which caught fire not too long ago. Just a thought.
Grumpy,
You really know your NJ geography. It seems Lex has more NJ site visitors than I thought.
Sounded goofy at first, but (aside from the Jersey snarks) sounds reasonable. Those officers will be expected to be hand in glove with IPs, mayors, civil servants, etc. And unless they are civil engineers, do they know what goes in to infrastructure building (besides just allocating money to someone else)?
Anyone know if they are getting language training (Arabic and/or Afghan Persian / Pashto) all four years at the service academies these days…?
I’ve got my own New Jersey story.
Back in 1989 my wife and I lived in Philadelphia. Wife was pregnant with our now 18 year old daughter. We were kind of car poor at the time and when I’d get the car bailing wired back together the truck would break down. Decided it just wouldn’t do to take the little woman to the hospital in a cab, being originally from the Western States, so we decided we needed a new car. Bought our one and only “Brand New” car.
We decided to try it out by taking a quick trip across Jersey to Atlantic City. On the way back I was passing a car in one of NJ’s infamous traffic circles. Young man realized he needed to turn left into the circle and cut right in front of me. I braked hard, cut left and “almost” missed him. We met right front to left side.
Understandably I was a little ticked off, new car and pregnant wife and all. Young man finally climbed out of the right side of his car, left side being stove in. First words out of his mouth? “I am so sorry, that was all my fault!”
Couldn’t argue with that, so we struck up a conversation while we waited for the police. Turned out he was a recent Naval Academy graduate who was on leave before reporting to Pennsacola. Called me back later to make sure his insurance took care of my car.
Now my daughter, who was pre-birth then, is a Naval Academy candidate. Things sometimes come full circle, even if it starts with a traffic circle.
Padraig, I better know my South Jersey history, in fact we made some of it. Both sides of my family come from this region. The family roots go back to the early 1700′s. But from that starting point, both families were all involved with the different wars of this Nation, in one way or another. I have a brother and I were both in the Air Force, we both wound up doing the same job. We never knew because we never talked about it for over 30 years. The neat thing is we both know and never communicated it. I had to leave the military because of a neurological impairment. Yes, it was determined to be a service-connected disability, it was best for me to leave. (to be continued)
Best memory from Jersey: Being with my dad surveying a site in the Toxic Triangle for rail access. Commentary from him was, “Did you know they made (some percentage) of all Agent Orange in that building over there?” Amazing what the bosses would tell you.
Idaho Joe, your beloved circles near Atlantic City are GONE!
As we continue on some history, there was one character who meant a great deal to me, it was my Father. He was extremely intelligent, top 1% IQ. He went to enlist in the military and was turned down. A Dr Jonas Salk, asked the Military not to touch him, because he was designing and building the machines, by hand, to make the glassware used in his medical research. Back in March 1968, when it came time for me to leave for the Military, it would be a Tuesday. On the night before, I essentially said all of my “Good-Bye’s”. On that fateful day, I got up showered and shaved, then I made some coffee and breakfast. I look up and my Dad is standing there. I didn’t expect it. He said, “Do you mind?” I said, “of course not, sit down and make yourself miserable.” He said, “I’m proud of both of my sons. I would like to leave you with the same thought I left with your brother when it came time for him to leave. It goes like this, ‘When you think you are a smart ass, and because of this, you go out and act like a bad ass. Everybody will look at you like a dumb ass. The fact is you will really be a garden variety ass hat.’” The last term, he used the proper nomenclature. This little adage has kept me out of more trouble than anybody can believe.
Grumpy
New Jersey! AKA “Doity Joisey”. Not because of what was made here or spilled here or transhipped here over the years, (Remember “What Jersey makes the world takes”? Paterson with its falls was the first industrial town in the whole of the Americas after all, beginning back the days of George Washington) It’s Doity Joisey now because of the unbelievable corruption within all levels of government. Newark, the jewel in the crown, just happens to be in Essex County. One of the troika of “Unusual” counties, Hudson, Essex, Bergen. (Think three dogs trotting in a circle with their noses under one another’s tails). This area is sometimes known as “The heart of darkness”, or the “Land of the Sopranos, or the home of the “Black mushroom” releasing spores of poisen into the rest of the world. Pick one or make up your own.
We seem to like it, damn me if we don’t. Or at least not mind it so much that we want to change it. Go figure.
Well, there is a certain internal logic to living with corruption. Fear may play a role. What-the-hell.
PS: I hope the cadets, all of them, learn alot and return unscared and wiser, bless their little hearts.
Never thought I would read so much about Jersey here. Definitely a different conversation than the talk about Durango.
re- “Cadets will shadow politicians, police and religious leaders to learn how the city works. ”
Works? Perhaps “operates” or “exists”.
I like Grumpy’s view of Jois-ey as the “Garden State”. Leave Patterson and Newark out of it.
A truly diverse place in both the new and old meaning of diverse.
b2
Badbob,
Re: Your #13 comment.
“Works? Perhaps ‘operates’ or ‘exists’” I would add as it hopefully survives, as it grows evolves in a process to maturity.
About your defense of New Jersey, there are no perfect states. Many of the southern parts of the state have some neat history attached to them.
In the community that I live in, there were 5 people who worked with Albert Einstein on the atom bomb, they were living here. They were an interesting group of people to just and talk with my wisdom at the ripe old age of 18. I just kept my mouth shut, but that didn’t work. They just drew you right into the discussion.
With everything said, it was really sharp to see this area come into action on 9/11/2001. This was true for the Military, Construction People and First Responders. The last two groups immediately started to gather into groups and were getting ready to head up with equipment to “Ground Zero”. The Military base was a victim of a previous BRAC round. It was “chilled” from a “Hot 24/7 Ready Base.” Believe me, it didn’t take long to start the fires up to heat up the base. It was only minutes from that base to either “Ground Zero” or “The Pentagon”. People who came by the base and were not listening to their radios were astonished when they saw the rapid take off of groups of F-16′s. But for one old timer, that was not his major concern. It really hit home, when he went past the gates he went through daily for work were now being guarded by armed Military guards. The thing was the fact that the guards were there with “EVERYTHING HANGING OUT”, weapons.
Grumpy,
When I drive north to NE on 295/NJT to exit 12 (14?) GP to TZ bridge about that exact area is where the real rat race begins. Plus, I can pump my own gas- thank you, and those oppresive tolls! Democrats in action- creating “jobs”….In some ways it reminds me of driving in Napoli orTijuana- there are no rules! Staying on 95N across George’s Bridge is just a more enhanced experience! I wish the end of 295 had an express way that attached to 78 instead of a narrow 2 lane though Princeton.
Despite all that, the many military folks I have known from Jersey during the last 30 years all have been great Americans and Patriots.
b2
Grumpy,
Someone has to be from New Jersey…and it might as well be you…you have my deepest sympathies… Best
PS, B2… Stand by your snark…MAN…no Kumbaya final moments please it’s embarrasing
Kumbaya?
Take your Kumbaya/Karma/Zen/Dr. Phil and stuff it, you rancid maple sugar Vermont Yankee and pedantic, pusillanimous old peckerhead! Back on your belly and crawl quick afore I send that fat woman outta that comic B.C. to stomp ya!
Await predictable response so i’ll help ya out- My meds? Sure. I’ll take a shot o’meds.
Bottomline- Jersey’s OK as long as it ain’t the part I described and Grumpy’s one of the good guys!
b2
Hey, Pixelkiller,
Yo, it’s “Trenton Makes, the World Takes.” Read the sign on the Delaware River Bridge in Trenton. The rest of Jersey “Uses What the World Refuses.”
Jersey has a lot of everything: best pizza in the world; best beaches; best sausage pepper and onion sandwiches, great cheese steaks and it even used to make Champale Malt Liquor.
The fabled Pines residents still serve poached deer at most meals. There is a great military reserve in and around the Fort Dix / McGuire AFB area. Jersey still has the only site in the country where you can see with your own two eyes where 11 grams plutonium was released during a Bomarc missile bunker fire back in the 60s. That base is still abandoned to this day — though great history!
Hazardous waste sites? We got them too! The very building in which I worked in back in the 70s, right next to Exit 8 of the Jersey Turnpike, is a solid EPA Superfund site, and abandoned to this day. One lab had a sign, “Wisdom is Silver. Silence is Golden. Welcome to National Lead!”
Jean Shepard, the great radio personaltiy and comic, made up a large percent of his schtick from driving the beautiful and once famous Route 22. I’ll betcha there’s traffic cirles up there, and oil refineries.
On top of that, the state has the highest property taxes in the country and the resting place of Jimmy Hoffa.
Where you gonna get that outside of Jersey? Russia?
Great stuff, Jersey! Great stuff! You do me proud!
Hey B2, Sorry if I offended re the meds…absolutly nothing personal…it’s just a snark….and for the record “that fat woman outta …outta ???( you Navy gomers are flippen hopeless ) that comic B.C. ” is B.C. s… nemises … Fat Broad…yes the ever glorious and sumptuous … Fat Broad… and not “that fat woman” … another of your Kumbaya moments maybe ? Best
PS, I may be many things but by no stretch of anyones fevered imagination am I a Vermont Yankee.
Snake,
“Fat Broad”? What is that? A river in S. America? ; -)
Well you went to college thar, I didn’t say you were the B-in-law of Howie Dean!
b2
b2