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This Year’s Early Easter Sunday

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For my fellow Catholics out there, you may be wondering why Easter is so incredibly early this year. The folks over at FOXNews.com had a great article about this topic posted today. What it comes down to is…the moon!

Pretty weird, huh? From the article:

Easter always comes on the Sunday after the first, or Paschal, full moon following the first day of spring.

Spring arrives on Thursday and the moon will be full on Friday, the earliest Paschal moon since 1913. And that means Easter, the Christian holiday marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is this Sunday. It won’t come this early again for another 220 or so years.

This is a mundane bit of news to some, but to others this can be a fascinating look at the history of the Catholic Church. As many theologians will tell you, there are little pieces of other religions that were integrated into Roman Catholicism at the Council of Nicaea. One of the common traditions of many religions at the time was to use the lunar cycle to provide dates for their feast days (for example, the stars were used to date some Jewish and Pagan feast days at the time). It would appear that the Council took some of this mindset and applied it to setting the date for Easter.

Pretty interesting stuff. Maybe we can all discuss it again in 2228 – the next time Easter will be this early in the year!

Super Smash Brothers Brawl Sells 1.4 Million

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Thanks to my roommate (and new Wii owner) Dave for pointing out that Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers Brawl recently topped the 1.4 million mark. That means that since March 9th this game has sold about 120 copies per minute. PER MINUTE! Actually, VGChartz.com reports that the game has sold almost 1.6 million so far. Wow.

On the game’s release day, Nintendo reported that 874,000 copies were sold. So, for all of you who thought that hardcore gamers couldn’t get behind the Wii because it doesn’t have high definition graphics or because it doesn’t have an unnecessarily large internal hard drive – it looks like you might have been incorrect.

The Next Generation website that I took some of these stats from also noted that the previous Smash Brothers title – Super Smash Brothers Melee – was the highest selling GameCube game with some 7 million titles sold. What’s amazing is that this is now Nintendo’s quickest selling franchise in company history. That means that from back when they were making playing cards 100 years ago in Japan through the handheld revolution of the late 1970’s/early 1980’s up through the home console wars and into the “next generation” of hardware – Super Smash Brothers Brawl has sold more copies quicker than any other game in company history.

Faster that Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Mario Kart, Brain Age, Big Brain Academy…all of them!

Kudos to Nintendo for not only solidifying their spot on top of the video game console wars (and thus knocking off Microsoft and previous king Sony), but for creating a non-high definition franchise that is selling like wildfire. Before I end this post, according to my rudimentary math, Nintendo has already grossed $70 million in sales from this title (1.4 million x $50 per game). Amazing.

And for those of you not interested in video games, check out Jersey City Locksmith for the best locksmith service in the Garden State!

The Democrats Raised Your Taxes – Did You Know?

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Did you know that the Democrats have already voted to increase your taxes three years from now? Okay, so they didn’t raise your taxes, per se, but they did endorse a plan that WILL raise your taxes in the coming years. I understand that taxes weren’t raised so much as the existing “Bush tax cuts” are now set to expire, but for the millions of workers who have entered the workforce since 2001 and for the millions of families who can barely afford to get by as it is – this is nothing more than a major tax hike.

Believe it or not, though, I don’t place the blame on the Democrats. I don’t place the blame on the Republicans, either. Who is to blame? We are. This is a country whose contemporary populous demands to be taken care of from cradle to grave. As a perpetual student of American history, this is sickening. America was once a country put together by revolutionaries who not just fought against being taxed without representation, they waged a war against it. Now, Americans are being taxed into oblivion by a government that would prefer to spend money on entitlement programs instead of a comprehensive plan to fix America’s finances once and for all.

But hey, no one cares…so what’s the point in complaining? No one is going to change it. Of the 3 major Presidential contenders, the two Democrats have already claimed that they are raising taxes and I’m not sure if the Republican even has a financial plan.

Oh well. Another day in America.

Excessive Force = Excessive Payout

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Anyone who lives in New Jersey knows that there are two kinds of police officers. The first (and more prevalent) type of officer is the man or woman who is out to do some good for his or her community. These are the folks who always wanted to be police officers and who always wanted to serve the greater good. The second (and more talked about) type of officer is the complete asshole. You know this guy – this is the one who pulled you over and got in your face just because he felt like it. This is the police officer who broke up your college party, but also punched three people in the face while doing so. This is the guy who stops you on the boardwalk and slams you down on the ground because there’s nothing you can do about. This is the prick with the snide comments while he’s writing you a ticket or standing outside of your car.

And this is the type of police officer that just cost Seaside Park $1,271,000. Wait – you think that’s bad? Here’s a clip from the linked article:

The borough’s insurance carrier, the Ocean County Joint Insurance Fund, has previously settled five excessive force claims for more than $1.5 million over the past 2 1/2 years. A total of 14 excessive force lawsuits were filed against the police department over the past three years.

Overly aggressive police officers have cost Seaside Park $2.8 million. I don’t know about you, but if I was the Mayor or the Chief of Police, I’d be going ape shit at my officers. In fact, I’d be on a firing spree. I don’t think you’ll find that in Seaside Park, though. If you read the article, it goes on to say:

The settlements have included no admission of wrongdoing by Seaside Park or its police department. The officers involved, and their attorneys, have strongly denied using excessive force in any of the cases. No officer has ever been disciplined for any action related to the cases.

So not only have these police officers cost Seaside Park almost $3 million in insurance expenses, but they’re not admitting that they’re wrong. Of course they are admitting wrongdoing via the huge payouts, but there is no official, “Hey, we’re sorry. Our bad.”

What a sad commentary on some of the people who get into law enforcement, huh? And the worst part is that not only are these the type of police officers getting headlines, but they are the only ones getting headlines, period. If the egomaniacs and those with Napoleon complexes would just get out of law enforcement, we wouldn’t have to deal with such aggravating stories.

But that’s New Jersey for you…

New Jersey Screws Up Again: COAH

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Just when you think that New Jersey can’t become a bigger disaster than it already is…surprise! The state has come in and screwed up once again. Only this time, not only does their mistake hit critically close to home, it actually contradicts previous decisions by state agencies and (most importantly) promises to destroy the open area that so many of us fight so hard to preserve.

Some of you may be familiar with the acronym COAH. In New Jersey, this means Council on Affordable Housing. This state is in so many crunches at once that it’s hard to keep a handle on all of the problems that are going on, but we are in serious need of affordable housing. For those of you that aren’t up to speed on what “affordable housing” means in New Jersey – this isn’t government housing, it’s not “the projects,” it’s not the place where the drug addicts live, etc. In New Jersey, a new term has come to take the place of affordable housing: workforce housing.

Believe it or not America, New Jersey’s workers cannot afford to live in this state. Nurses, young doctors, police officers, government employees, cashiers, retail managers, salesmen, waiters – no one can afford to buy a new home in New Jersey unless they come from a two income household that is making at least or above our state’s median income (roughly $67,000 depending on whose numbers you believe). New Jersey is not affordable for ANYONE.

The latest smack in the face comes as a one-two punch from Governor Money Bags and COAH and is directed at most non-urban areas in the state. Just last week Governor Money Bags told many of the smaller municipalities that they were having their state aid drastically reduced. As if that wasn’t bad enough, COAH has announced what they call “Round Three” requirements for New Jersey’s municipalities. Round Three will tell the state’s towns, boroughs, and cities how many units of affordable housing they need to produce.

Aside from Money Bags diverting even MORE money away from the suburbs, it would seem that being told what your affordable housing obligations are isn’t the worst thing in the world, right?

Wrong.

In Round Three many suburbs are facing an obligation that is QUADRUPLE what they were previously held accountable for. Take the case in my hometown of Roxbury Township. Not only does their COAH obligation jump from some 245 units to 837 units, but Roxbury was told by ANOTHER state agency that they can no longer build in the green areas of the township! What does COAH want to have happen here? Would they like it if the existing housing – which has stood for decades, even centuries – was knocked down so higher density homes can be put in their place? Completely outrageous!

Taken from the Roxbury Register article:

Councilman Richard Zoschak said this latest COAH proposal just causes more confusion and presents more contradictions.

“How do we deal with the Highlands legislation and this? The Highlands legislation says no building here. COAH says we have to build here,” Zoschak said.

Sustainable growth in New Jersey? Not a chance. Continued destruction of the non-urban areas so more money can be pumped into Newark and Camden? Absolutely! More from the article…

Smith faulted the state for having what he called “no coherence, no coordination and no central planning mechanism.”

“We are all being told what to do by different parties, all with power, and they all conflict with one another,” he said.

For those of you who do not live in New Jersey, let me explain how this state’s government “works.” COAH says that Township A needs to create 50 units of affordable housing. The Highlands Council says that Township A only has enough space to put up 5 single family homes. The State Planning Commission approves Township A’s master plan that cites no buildings may be built over 3 stories high. The Governor’s Office tells Township A to meet its COAH obligation or it gets no more state money.

What is the Township to do? They only have room for 5 more single family homes, but – assuming that these open lots are all next to each other (which is near impossible) – are they to build an extremely high density 3-story apartment building (in an area likely not zoned for apartment buildings) with extremely small, 600 square foot (if that) rental units so they meet all of the above obligations? Oh, and this would be built in a generic neighborhood setting where there are no apartment buildings and only single family homes. Oh, and for each apartment you need to provide one and a half parking spaces (in a residential neighborhood, mind you). Oh, and these are affordable units, which means they have to be income restricted and not just any citizen can apply to rent a unit. Oh, and with such a high density unit police, fire, sanitation, and civil services need to be increased (spending more taxpayer money). Oh, and Township A may need to create a housing authority (spend more taxpayer money) to oversee this complex.

Listen. I’m one of the many people in this state who NEED workforce housing to exist. I cannot afford to buy a decent home in New Jersey and – right now – I can only afford to pay a very low monthly rent. But if the plan above is Governor Money Bags’ idea of how to plan for MY future housing needs, then he can take this plan and shove it.

When will it stop in New Jersey?