Alternate-Side Parking Brings Peace

An ode to alternate side of the street parking from the New York Times Op-ed pages.

As European countries try to integrate immigrants from Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, they have found the transition from a homogeneous society to a multicultural one painful. The economic fallout from the euro zone debt crisis is likely to make assimilation even harder.

In its search for solutions, Europe would do well to look to the streets — of New York City. Seriously.

And what is this God-send?  Alternate side of the street parking, of course.

Over decades, the calendar has grown to include numerous holidays that are sacred to various religions. And we’re not just talking Passover and Good Friday, Yom Kippur and Christmas. There’s Id al-Fitr and Id al-Adha for Muslims; the Solemnity of the Ascension, the Feast of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception for Roman Catholics; and a raft of Jewish holidays from Shavuot and Succoth to Shemini Atzeret and Simhat Torah. The parking rules are also suspended on certain cultural holidays, like the Asian Lunar New Year, Rosh Hashana [sic] and Diwali, the South Asian festival of lights.

I know that Jews cannot drive on their religious holidays and that public employees don't work on national and state holidays, but Diwali?  Id al-Fitr?  They have no similar work restrictions; the same for the Feast of the Assumption.  So, let's do it for Halloween, after all, the Great Pumpkin is acomin'.

Should have known it was written by a "political scientist."


Read the full Op-Ed Alternate-Side Parking Brings Peace.

A different take on the rainbow from Rabbi E. Zwickler

Rabbi Zwicker of Congregation AABJ&D in West Orange addresses the colors of the rainbow.  Are they distinct and why are they so?

Well, that's what I have to say. Stephen M. Flatow

Joe Biden, Jonathan Pollard and the Jews

One has to hand Vice president Joe Biden some credit. For a guy with no filter between his mouth and brain he has risen very high in national government. Not only is he vice president under Obama, in many ways he's the Obama Administration's point man with the Jewish community.

I don't have access to the latest polls, so I don't know the answer to this question: Do American Jews favor the release from prison of Jonathan Pollard? Pollard pleaded guilty to an espionage charge that resulted in a life sentence. Many people think that was a harsh sentence for someone who admitted to spying for an ally, in this case Israel, and a sentence that was the same for men convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. In the latter case, American agents died.

Comes today Dry Bones commenting on the Biden remarks:

And now the artists's comments-

Biden: Pollard pardon over my dead body "The NYT reported Saturday that in a recent meeting between Biden and 15 rabbis in Florida – meant to bolster the Jewish community's support of the presidential campaign – the vice president was asked about the Obama administration's reluctance to release Pollard, who was imprisoned in 1986, after he was convicted of spying for Israel. “President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, 'Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time,'" Biden reportedly told the group. “If it were up to me, he would stay in jail for life.” (Ynet)

 And more details here:

Biden prevented Pollard clemency, NYT reports October 2, 2011 (JTA) -- "President Obama was considering clemency for convicted spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard until Vice President Joseph Biden prevented it, the New York Times reported. “President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, ‘Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time,’ ” Biden said during a meeting with rabbis in Boca Raton, Fla., according to the newspaper. “If it were up to me, he would stay in jail for life,” he reportedly added. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for spying for Israel. He is scheduled for mandatory parole in November 2015. In recent months, Obama has received a flood of appeals from Congress members and former government officials to grant Pollard clemency. Pollard recently successfully underwent kidney-related surgery. Obama is relying on Biden for help in his reelection campaign with American-Jewish voters, the New York Times article said."

I met Joe Biden once at an intimate fundraiser that had a similar sound, he was critical of then Israeli prime minister Sharon.  I guess I'm waiting to see if there's any financial price to pay for Biden's remarks.  I suppose there won't be much among my co-religionists.  After all, we like being dumped-on as long as we get the photo-op.

Well, that's what I have to say.

Stephen M. Flatow

alisa terrorism

Weather reporting back in the day

Sitting down the Jersey Shore looking at the fog roll in made me think back to the earlier days of TV and weather reports.

What made me nostalgic for those days was the inconsistent and, ultimately, wrong, weather reports touted on all the TV networks over the July 4th holiday weekend

Oh, how I hate the phrase “back in the day” but I now have some inkling as to what it means.

Back in the day of TV, there was no doppler radar, there was no satellite imagery, and the weather was not broken up into 3 minute tidbits spread throughout the half-hour and hour long newscasts we suffer through today.

Back in the day, we had weathermen and weatherladies. We didn’t have professional meteorologists (or optometrists masquerading as meteorologists.)

No, instead of meteorologists, we had Joe Bolton, Jan Crockett, Gloria Okun, and the king of them all, Tex Antoine and his prognosticator puppet-head Uncle Wethbee.

And instead of news hosts turning to their professional weatherperson time and time again during the broadcast, we had a succinct 3 minutes of weather in which we’d learn the forecast—in other words, do you bring the umbrella to work tomorrow or leave it home? And that seems to have suit the viewing public just fine.

I suppose we all like the sound of authority around us, after all, we like to rely on others. And there's no better person than the person who speaks with confidence. And that applies to our meteorologists, too. Unfortunately for us, that authority has overlooked one inescapable fact—being a weatherman is the only job you can keep even when you are consistently wrong.

In fact, our meteorologists cost us millions each year as we rely on their forecasts of highs and lows, storms and hurricanes, rain and snow, and plan accordingly. A forecast for bad weather keeps people away from resort destinations, such as the Jersey Shore, and weather forecasts promising sunshine and clear days that turn out to be wrong cause folks to waste their money on those trips. There’s nothing worse than a damp motel room, soggy boardwalk or over-crowded game room.

And there's nothing worse than hearing about weather in Manitoba that's coming our way in a week.

So how about a return to those thrilling days of yesteryear when weather was 3 minute report? No radar, no US Weather Bureau, nothing fancy. Just tell me, is it going to rain or be sunny, and let me take it from there.

Well, that's what I have to say.

Stephen M. Flatow

Organ donation, can't live without it.

Heart recipient Jessica Melore speaks at the NJ PBA's 2011 convention on behalf of the New Jersey Sharing Network.



Thanks to all who have signed organ donor cards.

Stephen M. Flatow

Obama salutes Sharpton.

To those civilized humans who find the "Reverend" Al Sharpton nothing more than a loquacious huckster, James Taranto paints a grim picture of where we're now at.

He asks, "Why would the president of the United States give such a vicious demagogue the time of day?"

It seems that politics is the answer. And, I suppose, politics does make for strange bedfellow, but does it require a sitting president of the United States to cozy up to the Reverend Al?

As my grandmother would have said, "it's a shonda!"

What do you think?

Read the full column- Sorry, Christina - WSJ.com

Attention Runners - Share NJ 5K - Race to Save Lives

The New Jersey Sharing Network is northern New Jersey's designated organ procurement network assisting nearly 5,000 folks on transplant waiting lists.
If you run, you can help by participaing in the Share NJ 5K run. Here's how-

Where's Assemblyman John McKeon on union negotiations?

West Orange's New Jersey State Assemblyman John McKeon made an appearnace at the union rally in Trenton. And whose side is he on? Doesn't seem to be the taxpayers.

As reported in PolitickerNJ, "The Democratic Party Crack-Up" By Jeff Michaels, the state's Democratic party is controlled by the unions. Of course, Senate President Stephen Sweeney is bucking that trend. But what about the minions in the Statehouse?

John McKeon was in attendance and spoke on behalf of police and fire unions at the March 7, 2011 rally. As you can hear on the video, John says,

“Less public safety officers means equals more law abiding people being less protected. Bottom line.” [A typical McKeon faux pas- all citizens are entitled to police and fire protection, not just the law abiders.]

As Michael's writes,

It is telling that voter esteem for public employee unions is at an all-time low. It appears that voter approval of public employees bears a corresponding inverse relationship to their ability to afford them, in light of NJ’s historic high property taxes and the recession, which has lightened taxpayers’ wallets.

No one is saying that police and firefighters are not entitled to a living wage. Yet, Michaels continues,

In their desperate effort to hold onto gold-plated benefits, the unions appear arrogant. But their arrogance is understandable, when they have for so many
years influenced one party (Republicans) and completely controlled the other.
Why should they not expect to prevail now?

The difference, of course, is Governor Christie, who has completely altered the playing field, for the first time putting taxpayers at the center of the discussion. It is a playing field on which the unions are not accustomed to playing, hence the shrill cries, the rallies, and the desperation.

So, there we have it, Dems and Unions and McKeon v. Christie. Is McKeon acting in the best interests of his constituents, already paying the highest property taxes in the state? I think not. At least he hasn't asked me for my opinion.

Heaven knows how much I have depended on graciousness and good works of the West Orange Police Department over the years. But we need a discussion, a civil one, on the future of public workers and their benefits. John McKeon has thrown gasoline onto the fire.

Well, that's what I have to say.

Stephen M. Flatow

From AP, Libya's mayhem Witnesses report bodies in the streets in Libya

The Associated Press reports

The bodies of slain protesters were left on the streets of the Libyan capital Tuesday and frightened residents hunkered down in their homes as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi sought to crush anti-government demonstrations by shooting on sight anyone outside, residents and an opposition activist said.

I did a blog scan today to see what the "left" is saying. Not much, it seems. Where's the outrage from those who cry crocodile tears every time an Israeli occupies an apartment in Jerusalem? Where are the crocodile tears of those who moan every time a Palestinian protester is hit with tear gas during a violent demonstration near Israel's security barrier? Where are the crocodile tears from those in the so-called B, S & D movement and their allies in the GLBT movement, because of Israel's "occupation" of Jerusalem? Where is their outrage in the face of Libyan slaughter?

Let's face it--outrage is reserved by these protectors of human rights for those situations when Israel reacts to violence directed against its citizens and soldiers or builds an apartment in its capital city. Libyans, in their opinion, are just not worth the rage. Hypocrites all.

Read today's report, Witnesses report bodies in the streets in Libya - Yahoo! News.

The New York Sun, ‘Bound Together’

Worth reading on line at ‘Bound Together’ or in full below. President Obama's Tucscon speech:

President Obama and Sarah Palin Embrace a Nation
Editorial of The New York Sun January 12, 2011

President Obama spoke beautifully at Tucson this evening in a much-needed speech. It is hard to imagine how his remarks could have been improved. No doubt there will be some less generous in their appraisal, but that is our reaction. We haven’t heard such a performance from the president since his “one America” speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. At Tucson the president capped a week of shock, grief, and anger by reaching for the best in all of us and bidding America to recapture the wonder and the dream of a nine-year-old girl who had gone to hear her congresswoman.

One of the remarkable things that came through in the broadcasts we watched of the event was the way a whole nation turned to embrace what is, in Tucson, a relatively small, university town. The congresswoman, the judge, the student hero, the university president, and Republican governor, the former Democratic governor, the Mexican-American physician with Indian ancestry, they all, among others, know each other in the intimacy of a small town. Yet they represent themes that reach out to our whole vast country in an inspiring way.

The most surprising, and admirable, element of the Mr. Obama’s speech, was the pointedness with which he rejected the accusations against Sarah Palin and her colleagues in the Tea Party movement to whom the left wing of the president’s own party has been trying so shamelessly these past few days to attach the blame. Mr. Obama welcomed a wide debate on all the issues, but he made no plea for gun control, no call for regulations on political speech, nor bid for censorship of the images our politicians use in targeting their opponents. He may join in that; we shall see. This evening, he had a different message.

“At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do — it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds,” he said in a none-too-subtle rejection of the Paul Krugman, New York Times line that has emerged in the wake of the shootings. “[W]hat we can't do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another.”

The president’s remarks were consonant with the statement earlier in the day by Sarah Palin, who has borne the brunt of the left-wing attacks with such admirable restraint since the New York Times and others began tuning up against her without so much as a quark of evidence that any of her rousing political rhetoric these past two years had anything to do with the killer’s motivations. The president’s point was Mrs. Palin’s point when she warned that journalists and pundits “should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn.”

Mrs. Palin, by speaking up for herself when so many turned on her, was speaking up for the rights of all Americans to participate vigorously in our national debate — and she was marking the same point the president made, when he called on each of us to enter the fray with “a good dose of humility.” We liked the way he put it when he said: “Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.”

Israelis rush to Tel Aviv

We in the States think we know traffic. Let me tell you, the people in Israel know traffic, too. Traffic jams getting to and out of Israel's major cities have increased greatly in the past 10 years. A country whose citizens could not embrace the automobile for 50 years because of the price of cars and fuel, now finds itself jammed with them.

So, no surprise that Israel, a technologically advanced country, is thinking outside the box when it comes to its highways and alleviating traffic flow problems. Privately owned toll roads are now being planned for a Tel Aviv highway that will charge drivers for when they drive.

Here's the report: Tel Aviv fast lane is a world first - Globes.

Be sure, if it works, look for similar thinking to occur in the United States.