This week’s Atlanticville ran a story talking about one of the remaining holdouts in the Long Branch Broadway Arts redevelopment project. What I found upsetting about the article (and thus my impetus to write this post) is what the Atlanticville either forgot or chose not to add in this article. From the article:

A city minister will have until July to find a new place to call home and a new building where he can practice his ministry.

State Superior Court Judge Lawrence M. Lawson denied Broadway resident Kevin Brown a stay of the city’s use of eminent domain to take the building where he lives to make way for the Broadway redevelopment project.

Brown has also been trying to establish a place of worship in the building at 162 Broadway for more than a decade. The building is owned by The Lighthouse Mission and is located in the Broadway Corridor redevelopment zone.

This little blurb provides a decent background on the situation in Long Branch. And what an outrage it seems, right? Here is a Pastor who is trying to establish a place of worship for his congregation and attem — wait. There IS a congregation that is being displaced, right? Back to the article…

Brown has been battling the city for more than 10 years to open the Lighthouse Mission Church at the Broadway location.

So there isn’t an actual mission located at this location? There isn’t an actual place of worship that is waiting to open its doors? Hmmm… When I mix that up with other information that the Asbury Park Press has run on this story and you’re talking about a different story entirely.

Instead of a Pastor, his congregation, and his mission being ousted from their only home we have a Pastor with no congregation and no mission being removed from this building. And what of this building? A recent Asbury Park Press article talked about how this building was vacant on the first floor (the proposed location of the mission) and how the Pastor lived upstairs.

Folks, there are a conglomeration of financial institutions who WANT to infuse this area of Long Branch with money, economic advancement opportunities for residents (i.e. jobs), affordable housing options, and artistic/entertainment space. And this plan has not been able to go through because of a non-existent mission and a liquor store?! This is why it takes decades for any real change to happen in our communities.

I’m as much against eminent domain as the next guy. I think it’s vulgar that in the great American political experiment we’ve allowed a pro forma increase in tax revenues to replace existing taxpayers and homeowners. We’re not supposed to operate that way in this country. Yet, this is also a country where we try to work in the best interests of each other. When an entire area is asking for redevelopment, asking for an infusion of private, non-taxpayer money, and asking for their community to get a face-lift, then we should be for that change. In other words, just as strongly as we defend our rights to own our property without eminent domain, we should be fighting just as strongly against lone holdouts in these projects who have questionable ideas on the possibility for their future development.

The Broadway Arts Center project needs to get moving and it needs to get moving immediately. I wish Godspeed to Pastor Brown in finding a place to live in this crazy market (though $450,000 will find you a great place in a nice area of Long Branch) and I admire Pastor Brown’s use of the legal system to plead his case at any and all levels of the judiciary, but now is the time to move forward.

One of today’s society issues which gets me fired up is this growing environment where today’s college graduates are shellshocked by getting a job and moving on with their life after they graduate. It seems that I see these types of stories on CNN during the day and now the New York Times is reporting on it. What is there to be confused or aggravated about?! You go to college, you graduate, and you either get a job or go back to school. Where’s the room for being shellshocked? Alright, if you want to feel sad that you’re moving on with your life after four years of a presumably good time, that’s fine. Take a week and get over it. But make sure you DO get over it!

Today’s society has infantilized this graduating class (and the last one or two graduating classes) since the time they were born. These are the kids that played in tee ball leagues where every team won because no one could be a loser. The same kids who played for CYO basketball teams where everyone had an opportunity to play even if they were the dumb kid who didn’t know how to dribble a ball. These are the kids whose parents harangued 30-year veteran elementary school teachers because their dear, sweet, brilliant child failed a test. Obviously if their angel failed a test, then the teacher has no idea what she’s doing and she needs to be fired (this situation actually occurred at my old grammar school a few years after I graduated eighth grade - ridiculous).

And now society is reporting on the fact that these young adults - who have been coddled through high school and college by overprotective parents, scared teachers, and miserable on-campus administrators - are having issues adjusting to life after college? Well what the F did they expect?!? You can’t raise a fish in a bowl for 22 years and then drop it in the ocean and expect it to survive! In that situation, the very best you can hope for is that the fish finds a little place to hide and survives without really becoming a part of the large ecosystem.

That’s what we’re making in America today - scared fish.

I’m not saying that parents shouldn’t be protective of their kids or that teachers shouldn’t acknowledge and help students who need extra help, but if we don’t start putting some self-sufficiency back into America’s youth, then the future of this country is in trouble. Hell, on the very face of it we can all look forward to paying some 40% - 50% in income taxes because we’ll be a society that needs our government to take care of us! Seriously, though, we need to get back to business in this country, but it doesn’t need to be all or nothing…

For example, if you’ve got a kid in college who keeps coming home so you can do his laundry then it might be time to teach him how to do it on his own. Yes, I know that parents get great pleasure out of seeing their kids come home and the truth is that many kids love going back home to see their families. But if they’re coming home so their parents can perform basic tasks (laundry, grocery shopping, calling professors for class scheduling or asking questions about a test, etc), then the parents are actually hurting their kids. Cut the cord. Let the kids handle their own business, but teach them how to do it so they can be a fully functioning adult when they graduate. Don’t worry - you’re not alienating your kids. They’ll keep coming home because they like you!

Of course my commentary, as always, goes beyond the scope of the New York Times article linked above. However, this is a growing issue that I see with the guys I advise all over the state for the fraternity (hello GGL and Walnuts). Thankfully, these guys aren’t from the type of backgrounds that I talk about above, but the lack of proper preparation for post-collegiate life for today’s graduates is frightening and something that we need to reverse as soon as possible.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is probably one of the best public policy minds in the United States today. Speaker Gingrich wrote Real Change before the term “change” became the buzz word of the 2008 election and when you read his book you can’t help but be impressed with the real changes that he suggests for America.

To the brainwashed folks out there let me say no, this book is not slanted towards a conservative point of view. In fact, Speaker Gingrich spends quite some time berating the current Republicans in Congress (and the White House) as well as those from the last few years. And yes, he gives it to the Democrats pretty hard, too. And for any independent minded American out there (* raises hand *) you can’t help but know exactly what Speaker Gingrich is talking about when he dresses down both parties.

So what are some of the changes that Speaker Gingrich suggests for our future? Well let me tell you a little bit about my favorite chapter in this book. First, Speaker Gingrich suggests a massive overhaul of the education system in America. As I work with schools of choice on a daily basis, I absolutely loved reading Speaker Gingrich’s ringing endorsement for charter schools. In case you do not know, charter schools are public schools of choice that hold lotteries to determine which applicants may attend.

The innovation here is that these schools are not regulated by the local school board and can choose to teach students in their preferred manner. The students are subjected to standardized testing and their test scores are highly scrutinized by the naysayers, but time and time again charter schools meet or exceed the local district’s achievements. Charter schools (in New Jersey at least) usually have a better rate of high school seniors who go on to college than their public school counterparts. But I digress…

Newt Gingrich tells a great story about the Detroit school system and how it rejected a multi-million dollar investment because the local bureaucrats (i.e. teachers and the teachers’ union) did not want to be held to a higher standard or put to shame by charter schools. Who winds up getting hurt when these people reject such help? The students.

Speaker Gingrich suggests at many points in this book that tax-free government prizes need to be established in order to get America’s scientists thinking about the same issues that America’s people are thinking about. For example, Speaker Gingrich suggests a tax-free $1 billion (with a “b”) reward for the first person/company to design a gas-free car that can be mass produced for the public. Anyway, Speaker Gingrich talks about the need to have better space travel and for America’s needs to lead the world’s innovative breakthroughs for this century.

I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in reading about what real change can mean for America take a look at Speaker Gingrich’s book. What makes the ideas in this book so compelling is that Speaker Gingrich’s new think tank, American Solutions, backs up all of the ideas with nonpartisan poll results showing an overwhelming majority of Americans agreeing with the changes proposed. Again, this is a great read for those of us who are looking for real change that puts America on the right path.

Last month Joe Biden took to the microphones and commented about how something President Bush had done was “bullshit.” Interesting that a sitting Senator would use that term in a public. If you don’t believe it’s true, our friends at CNN.com actually repeated the comment on their website. Take a look:

Because that’s really an appropriate word for a respected news company to post on their website…

It’s all about the new media these days, folks. Everyone start looking for a new news source because if CNN is going to this type of sensationalism to get hits on their website, then all hope is lost in the traditional media outlets (which I’ve believed strongly for quite some time now).

The talking heads on television keep telling us how historic this election is in that we have the first black nominee (presumptive though he may be at this point) and the oldest person to run for a first term as President. Obviously Obama’s campaign is more historic that McCain’s campaign so I think the future will remember this as the Obama election - whether he wins or loses.

With such an historic campaign there are a few things that we do NOT need this time around. First and foremost, I get physically ill every time I hear Barack Obama say that John McCain is running for George Bush’s third term. What a disgusting catchphase to use in this “historic” election! John McCain is John McCain. George Bush is George Bush. John McCain is running for his first term. Obama’s comparison of John McCain to George Bush is obviously rooted in politics and polls since most of the nation is sick of Bush at this point and the Obama team is trying to capitalize on that disgust. THIS is the new politics that Obama promised? Count me out, thank you. As soon as I heard these words come out of Obama’s mouth, I immediately shut off my brain from listening to any other drivel come out of this man.

But lo and behold the brain trust running McCain’s campaign goes out and tells McCain to say that Obama is running for Jimmy Carter’s second term! Good grief! Is this the John McCain that ran as a maverick politician in 2000 and has based his entire political career off of doing what he believed was right over what his political party believed was right? THIS is what I can expect from John McCain going forward? No thanks. At this point, you can count me out. This is NOT the new politics that these men promised America and I urge everyone else who wants true change to withdraw support from either candidate until they stop throwing this type of mud.

The disguised shots at McCain’s age and the pathetic shots at Obama’s personal advisors are all too much to bear. I encourage everyone to start exploring third party candidates if they are really looking for change this year. For starters, go and take a look at Bob Barr - the Libertarian Party candidate.

Change doesn’t mean voting for the same party or a candidate with flowery speeches, folks. Change means using YOUR vote to make a REAL change in America.

Thanks to Steve over at Vomit Comet for sending me the Newsweek story that talks about the Nine Most Obnoxious Habits of Gym Rats. Anyway, just passing the link along to you guys. Take a look a obnoxious habit #3 and tell me that you wouldn’t smack the hell out of that guy with the blow dryer!

Enjoy!

Wow. What a novel this was by author Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Before I forget, let me give a shot out to my co-worker Jennifer for letting me borrow her copy of the novel. I haven’t read a good story since The Da Vinci Code and, in my opinion, The Shadow of the Wind blew that b-level drama out of the water. For some history on this book - The Shadow of the Wind was released in Spanish in 2001 and translated to English in 2004. It is a worldwide bestseller and there is a prequel planned for English release next spring.

The story is set in a post-war Barcelona and follows Daniel as he tries to uncover the mystery that is author Julián Carax. Daniel’s interest in Carax is sparked by the knowledge that nearly all of Carax’s novels have been destroyed and that Daniel may have the last copy of “The Shadow of the Wind” - a novel written by Carax himself. Once knowledge of Daniel’s possession of this book is spread, he receives an offer from famed book collector (Barceló) and even runs into a deathly looking figure suggesting that he wanted the novel. You can read more about that in the novel itself…

From this point, the story is about Daniel’s desire to find out all that he can about Julián Carax and his life - hoping to determine why this man’s books have all disappeared. We are also launched into Daniel’s burgeoning self-realization that as a young adult, certain hormones are going crazy. However, in that uniquely Spanish way, Daniel seems to completely fall for one love interest (the blind Clara Barceló) before going head over heels for another one. In truth, I felt a bit bad for Clara at the end of the novel, though most would probably feel bad for her from the start.

What I liked about this novel was that Zafón was able to blend two stories into one. And he didn’t just blend two stories together, he intimately intertwined them so that by the end of the novel the reader is left thinking that one could not exist without the other. Really, it’s a brilliant work of literary art and I was very impressed with Zafón’s ability to do this seamlessly.

Included in this story are a variety of secondary characters that all seem to be as intriguing as the title characters. For example, the loquacious Fermín Romero de Torres could have an entire novel dedicated to his life and times. The Shadow of the Wind was 486 pages long, but I imagine a Fermín Romero de Torres novel being at least twice that size. One of the best characteristics of de Torres is his colorful speech. Zafón truly added to this book by creating such a person to augment Daniel’s youth and inexperience.

There are also characters like Nuria Monfort - a secretary at the publishing house where Carax’s books are published - who are steeped in such mystery that the reader wants to know as much about them as possible. This is also true for Inspector Fumero who was once a schoolyard friend of Carax and winds up being a murdering, disgusting human being. There are probably another three or four novels waiting to be written that deal with this particular cast of characters (including Daniel’s parents).

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good summer read. It’s not the shortest book in the world, but once you get into the story the pages fly by quicker than you would expect. Give it a shot - I think you’ll enjoy it.

The original National Treasure was one of the better movies to be released in a long-time. Creating a storyline steeped in American history is challenging enough. However, when you incorporated a treasure hunt into that storyline - and do it successfully - then you have something that will undoubtedly be profitable. Book of Secrets was good, but I don’t think it lived up to the drama and engaging storyline of the first movie.

Nicholas Cage is back as treasure hunter Ben Gates and this time around he’s looking to clear the name of an ancestor who was recently accused of helping to plan the Lincoln Assassination. This is certainly an interesting storyline which is only helped by adding larger parts for his father Patrick Gates, played by Jon Voight, and former fling Abigail, played by Diane Kruger. The addition of Helen Mirren as Professor Emily Appleton - Ben’s Mom and Patrick’s ex-wife - was a good decision on the part of the writers. She adds a great deal to the movie and another level of complexity in the family drama that is the Gates clan.

What I didn’t like about this movie was the villain storyline. Don’t misunderstand me, though. Ed Harris played Mitch Wilkinson - a descendant of one of Lincoln’s assassins - perfectly. In fact, he played the part so well that I almost overlooked the fact that the “bad guy” part of this movie was aggravating to the larger storyline. In other words, if you watched the first movie, then you already saw a similar scenario play out: Ben looks for treasure, a bad guy is after him, good guys win in the end. It’s just so repetitive and boring that I think the movie is hurt by it in the long-run.

Although on the one hand, one has to wonder what else is possible in terms of a storyline when you’re dealing with treasure hunters. Since the movie ends with the possibility of a third movie (the folks at CinemaBlend.com report a third movie is on the way), I hope that the writing for the next installment of this franchise is more creative.

In the end, though, this is still a fun movie to watch and absolutely worthy of a fan’s DVD collection. If you’re not into buying the DVDs, then I would recommend renting this one for a boring night during the week. It’s a fun movie with lots of “intelligence puzzles” scattered throughout. However, if you’re looking for something that is a step-up from the first movie, then you may have to wait until the third installment is released.

Today on CNN.com there was an article that began by talking about how a middle class family doesn’t feel so middle class any more. The article went on to give some statistics about the current economic climate - one of which jumped out at me:

All this financial stress comes at a time when most Americans have the thinnest savings cushion to fall back on. They have been loading up on debt in recent years, drawing on the equity in their homes, in particular. The percentage of their disposable income that goes toward debt payments is at 14.3%, near the all-time high.

Good grief! More than 14% of the average American’s disposable income is going towards debt payments. Ugh - what a disaster. Let’s do some math…

Assuming that the average American family $120,000 per year in a two-income household, that means that take home pay after taxes would be something like $90,000 (possibly less). Now, if we believe CNN’s statistic above, then almost $13,000 of that take home income is directed towards debt payments annually. Gross!

Sure, I pay a bucket load of student loan debt, but that’s to be expected from someone who only stopped going to school two years ago. Imagine the typical American family with 2 or 3 kids who not only has to pay this much towards consumer and housing debt, but also has to put food on the table and clothes on the kids!

It’s rough out there. Now more than ever people should be socking money away into a savings account (after paying off as much consumer debt - credit card debt - as possible).

Is there anything worse than going to a website and having it automatically start blaring some video, jingle, or promotional material at you? A little earlier I was flitting around the internet and I came across some gaming website that automatically started some video promoting a new game and it was the most annoying thing in the world. Why was it annoying? Because the video was loud, obnoxious and paired on the same page as an article that was completely unrelated to the advertisement! So I go to this website to read about emerging technologies from software companies and I get to hear some Japanese-inspired music on a video that isn’t even viewable unless you go all the way down to the bottom of the page? No thanks.

TNAWrestling.com also has this problem. If you head over to their site you immediately get a blaring loud version of their “TNA Today” video or one of Don West’s Insane Deals yelling at you. This is one of the primary reasons why I stay away from that site. Why can’t they just leave the YouTube video there in an “off” position? Are they afraid that I won’t be able to figure out how to push the “play” button? Are they afraid that I won’t push that play button at all? Don’t I have a right to not push that button if, let’s say, I’m on my lunch break at work? Annoying.

And the most aggravating advertisements of all are those ones that say, “Congratulations. You’ve been selected to receive a free Apple iPod.” Bullshit! Those advertisements are total crap. For those of you that don’t know, they are for “freebie” sites where you essentially turn yourself (and whatever digital platform you can offer such as e-mail, blogging, personal site, etc) into a marketing tool for a variety of companies. Once you reach a certain number of people, you get a free iPod sent to you. The catch? You’re marketing services that sometimes cost $1 or $2 for the “trial” period and you need to include your credit card information in the required information. Plus, you need something like 5 or 6 people to sign up underneath you before you can get anything for free. The advertisement should say:

“Congratulations. You’ve been selected to have your identity stolen. We think that you just might be dumb enough to click on this link and give us your credit card information. Oh, free Apple iPod.”

Morons. To all website designers and developers out there - STOP this crap! Do NOT have automatic videos playing, do NOT put up advertisements that talk to the web surfer, and do NOT put up your own promotional propaganda and set it to auto-play. It’s incredibly annoying!