New Jersey transportation officials say a year-old state law banning cell phone use while driving has resulted in nearly 109,000 summonses issued in the past 11 months.

That’s almost double the amount of tickets handed out during the previous five years for the offense.

A state law signed on March 1 last year makes talking on hand-held cell phones while driving a primary offense. That means police are now able to stop motorists just for talking on the phone.

Division of Highway Safety director Pam Fischer says the primary law is making a difference, resulting in about 10,000 tickets a month.

New Jersey is among four states and the District of Columbia that have made using a cell phone while driving a primary offense.

Alright. I call bullshit on this law “working.” What measure, exactly is being used to judge whether or not this law is working? Go ahead – go back and reread the article and tell me how we know the new law is working. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Did you see anything? More tickets being written? Yeah, okay. And? What does this prove? Nothing!

I hate this type of crap because today’s society is so consumed with doing a million things in a day that it is a rare thing to read and critically review information that is presented to us by the media. This is the main reason why the mainstream media is garbage and there is a rising class of entertainment-as-real-news that is taking over the ratings.

Most people will read this post on My FOX NY and just read the headline and scan for a quote from someone official affirming or refuting the headline. In other words, there are probably masses of people out there who saw this bogus article and now, in passing, would comment that the cell phone ban in New Jersey is working. Let’s shed some reality on this situation…

Nearly everyone in New Jersey has a cell phone crammed in their ear while they are driving or their thumbs are going a mile a minute texting away in traffic. Don’t deny it, my fellow Garden Staters – you know that you’re guilty of this in the car. Don’t deny it! And that includes some of the worst offenders – our law enforcement officers!

Anyway, this cell phone ban is not working. And for the love of God, just because more tickets are being written does not mean that a piece of legislation is success! Just like most of the other traffic-related laws on New Jersey’s books, this cell phone ban is yet another way for local municipalities to raise more money off of the already broken backs of our overtaxed population.

In the mean time, check out New Jersey Carpet Cleaning for the best carpet cleaning in the Garden State!

I don’t know. Maybe it’s because this is something new for a President, but his loose attitude at Leno last night was a little bit much for me. Just as it was refreshing to have a President break that austere facade that we have grown accustomed to seeing from the Oval Office, I was a little uneasy that the leader of the free world was yucking it up on a talk show. And as for his comment about the Special Olympics, it was absolutely insulting and another in a line of gaffes from the Obama/Biden combination.

It seems to me that the President hasn’t really evolved from that campaign mode into the leadership role that he needs to assume. He needs to stop worrying about whether or not people like him and get back to swinging the hammer at against the “Washington-as-usual” crowd. Then you have the inherent bias against the Republicans where if a Republican President had visited Leno he would have been universally panned and if he had made the Special Olympics comment he would have been told to resign from office.

It just made me uneasy to have the President on late night television when there is so much crap going on in the country that need strong leadership right now. You can read an even better description (with links from around the blogosphere) about what President Obama’s appearance on The Tonight Show means at Fausta’s Blog.

Really, President Obama needs to liven things up a bit. We’re looking for change from him, not the same old boring “what the hell is he talking about?” crap! I will say, though, that it was nice to watch the President of the United States and not have to worry about him saying something that made absolutely no sense. On the other hand, while the rest of country goes crazy over Obama’s speaking style, I really, really hate it. I know that the biased liberal media will never publish a negative thing about his speaking style, but this man relies on “ehhh” and “ihhh” WAY too much when he talks. Go back and listen to the entire speech (if you can stomach it) and try to count how many times he interjects “ehhh” and “ihhh” in a single sentence. It’s alarming.

Again, the alternative could be, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…you can’t fool me twice.” Good grief.

But even as I take my own potshot at President George W. Bush, I have to say that it was a little gross that Obama cited the federal leadership of the last eight years as the reason for the current economic downturn. Look, I agree with the rest of the gang that the folks running the world down in Washington were a little goofed up, but that includes the Democrats, too. Further, the biggest perpetrators of our current problems were the greedy people on Wall Street and the ignorant people on Main Street. The root of this downturn is the devastated housing market. The root of the devastated housing market are people who were buying $500,000 homes when they could only afford $150,000 homes. The side-root of that same problem were the bankers who gave mortgages to people who couldn’t afford their homes!

Ugh…it’s not all about Bush! I had hoped that Obama would bring this country past the Bush derangement syndrome, but after his campaign-style speech last night, I guess that real change hasn’t come…yet.

I was also glad to see that Freshman Joe Martinek did some respectable running at the end of the game to help Rutgers cinch it up. Martinek is from Hopatcong, which is right down the way from where I grew up so it’s always nice to see someone from the hometown area doing well.

So Rutgers finishes this season with an 8 – 5 record and a PapaJohns.com bowl victory. Not so bad for a team that started 1 – 5. Obviously, much credit needs to be given to guys like Mike Teel, but Greg Schiano has succeeded in building a resilient program at Rutgers. Any team that can come back from a 1 – 5 start and win a bowl game (even if it’s just the PapaJohns.com bowl) is doing something right.

And what’s the deal with that stupid name for a bowl game? The PapaJohns.com bowl? Couldn’t it just be the Papa John’s Bowl? Does is it have to be the “.com” bowl game? What crap!

Congratulations, again, Rutgers!

Here is a brief review of one of my more annoying stories which relates to the unnecessary complication of the day…

I was an English major. I loved every bit of being an English major because I love books, reading, new ideas, old ideas, etc. All of the corny crap that an English major likes – you get it. Due to scheduling conflicts, I had to take an English course during the summer to graduate on time. The only course I could fit into was African Women’s Literature. I figured that at the very least, it would be awesome to read new material from a topic area that I never studied before.

Then I walked into the classroom on the first night of class and I knew I was doomed.

I was the only white male in the room. That didn’t bother me, but when I looked at the professor she gave me a look that would have stopped a charging bull right in his tracks. If looks could kill, I wouldn’t be here right now. So I quietly went to the back of the room and endured a summer of writing A-quality papers and receiving D’s on them, being treated like a third class citizen, and generally being disliked by my professor. For example, I was literally told that all of my opinions were wrong because I had no basis for them (the woman actually said this to me in front of everyone). Meanwhile, a female friend of mine in the class would wait a while and say the exact same things (word for word) and she would be praised for them. Talk about a sexist professor…

It’s probably worth mentioning that this woman is an African (actually born and raised in Africa) and that she generally despised everything I did in class (including when I would show up early to review notes). I couldn’t win with this woman because I was a white male. Hey? What can you do, right? Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. With this woman, I had no chance. I was fine with it…because I filed a complaint against her after I graduated (she controlled the internships for the entire department so you didn’t want to piss her off as an undergraduate).

Then I became an Adjunct Professor at the school last fall. She taught a course that ended 10 minutes before my class began. She routinely kept her class in session until about two or three minutes before my scheduled start time. I don’t know why – I didn’t care, but I just wanted to get into my classroom to get set up for my class.

Last night I arrived at campus at 7:05pm for my class, which begins at 7:25pm. Guess who is teaching before my class again? That’s right! At 7:05pm, her class was still in session and since her scheduled end time is 7:15pm, I decided to go take care of some paperwork. At about 7:12pm, I heard a shuffle of students leaving the classroom, but I just wanted to finish reading a quick memo that was in my inbox. After I read the memo, I looked around the corner from where I was standing and I saw my students now sitting in the classroom. As such, I walked over to the classroom and put my pack down on the front desk. This was about 7:14pm.

Turns out the woman was still “packing up.” Let me explain “packing up.” She had logged out of the computer in the front of the room such that the log-in was the only thing on the screen and her bag was packed, zippered, and buckled. She was literally standing there with one hand on her bag and the other hand on her mouse making circle motions around the log-in prompt. CIRCLE MOTIONS! I’ve never seen a scene like that before in all my years in the classroom – like she was daydreaming.

Anyway, I popped open the buckle of my bag and took a sip from my water bottle and she looked at me and said, “Are you teaching a class here now?” To which I replied, “Yes.” So she gave me that same look I got all of those years ago and said, “I still have the classroom.”

Shocked (literally), I turned to the clock in a deliberate motion and said, “For another minute?!” And she said, “Yes.” So I tried to play nice and I said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll go wait outside.” To her credit, she quickly said, “No, no, it’s okay.” She said this in a mean voice, no less. And I replied, “Are you sure? It’s no big thing.” And she replied, “I just feel rushed is all. I don’t like being rushed out of the classroom.”

The woman’s bag was packed. She was logged out of the computer. She was literally making circles with the pointer of the mouse around the log-in prompt. At that point…YOU’RE DONE IN THE CLASSROOM! LEAVE!

Bear in mind that 5 or 6 of my students are now in the classroom watching two Professors have a brief, yet awkward argument. I try to constantly be the good guy in the classroom so I said, “No rush, please take your time. In fact, you can stay – we’d love to have you!” I said that last part in a joking voice trying to break the awkward tension. She only replied, “No, I’m being rushed. No.” Then she glanced at the clock, saw 7:15pm, grabbed her bag and left.

I was literally left standing with my mouth open, shocked at the unprofessional conduct that I just witnessed. As a student, I knew that this woman hated me and all those like me, but I thought as a professional colleague she would at least have the courtesy to make some small talk and send beginning-of-the-semester greetings to a fellow professor. Nope. I was treated like garbage.

For me, that seals the deal. This woman is an atrocious professor both in the classroom and professionally. She should be fired on the spot. Her ratings at RateMyProfessor.com are abysmal (not that they should matter, but they do) and her conduct towards a colleague she did not know was vicious, full of contempt, and confrontational. That is unacceptable.

And worst of all, she did this in front of my students. I then had to explain to my students that she was a rough professor even when I was an undergraduate and apparently that hadn’t changed much over time. The real shame of it is that she made herself look like a fool in front of a few students who will now likely never take her course (I might not have properly captured how awkward and distant she was during our brief conversation, but she came off like a person off of their medication).

Plus, she ruined my night and ruined my day. I had a great day at the office, a great day preparing for class, and a great class after she left. But her arrogance and downright rude demeanor really put a damper on a great day for me. So I’m going to be mad about this for the next few minutes before I go to bed and then wake up tomorrow and ask for a classroom assignment change. I’m not trying to fight this woman who obviously has personal issues – I just want to teach my class and continue to have fun while doing it.

September 11, 2001 Update: I asked for a room change and when the room assigner asked why, I simply mentioned this Professor’s name and she said, “No need to say any more – I know what the problem is.” The room assigner went on to tell me how this Professor causes problems each semester and that the issues regarding this Professor range from arrogance to intimidation to completely off-the-wall antics. The woman also mentioned that there are more complaints filed against this Professor each year than any other teacher at the university. What fun!?

I’m not going to get a room change, though, as the options didn’t fit the needs of my class. I’ll just deal with Professor Arrogance and continue to make a paper trail in case I need to file a complaint at some point. What a shame that people like this are employed as teachers…

Forget about just sitting back and watching an episode of Family Guy any more. The marketing geniuses at TBS actually PAUSE the show to allow Bill Engvall to talk for 15 seconds about his new show. Then the bastards have the unmitigated gall to say, “Back to the show,” before the show unpauses and we get literally 2 seconds of crap before going to commercial. If TBS was ever looking for a way to get their fans to hate them – they found it!

This is a horrible trend and I hope some television executives get a chance to read this post because this BS has to end…now!

That promise is a marketplace where YOU can pay for services that are to your liking and receive them on a limited interruption basis. For the purposes of this entry, I absolutely believe that Howard Stern is delivering on the promise of specific content tailored to a certain demographic. His channels are not only the most listened to on all of satellite radio (including the higher subscribed to XM), but they actually have a variety of topics and personalities that appeal to a broad audience (you’d be surprised). I’ve personally become a big fan of Bubba the Love Sponge since I first heard him on Howard 101, but that’s a different story.

However, Howard Stern and his crew are NOT delivering on the promise of limited interruptions for this PAY service. I understand that the talk channels do have some degree of commercial interruption and that’s fine by me. Gotta pay the bills, right? But the commercial breaks on Howard 100 and Howard 101 are – at this point – out of control. And I stress “at this point” because this was not always the way it was on these channels. When Howard started on Sirius XM, he had such limited interruptions that they amounted to some 20 minutes or so on his first show and even that was just a musical break or two.

But today, not only are we (the paying subscribers) subjected to 10 minutes or more of straight non-original, commercial content, but we are subjected to this crap on an increasing basis. I should take this opportunity, though, to point out that my definition of commercial and their definition of commercial is almost certainly different. I define anything that is not original, live content as a commercial. And please, don’t try to use 3rd grade logic with me about how by my limited definition then all of the replays are commercials. That’s BS and anyone with an education higher than grade school should understand that concept.

When Howard goes to commercial and you hear some lead out garbage phone call or sound clip, that doesn’t count as original, live content for me. When it flips to Howard 100 news for 5 or 6 minutes, that is also part of my definition of “commercial” – as is the downright insulting “lead-in” when they are back from commercial break. Why is the lead-in insulting? Well, they generally play some song during the lead-in. That’s what I want from the talk channel…a song. A fucking song?!?! Are you kidding me? I have dozens and dozens of commercial-free channels and one of the few talk channels that I listen to is going to play a fucking song? What bullshit.

On a related note, I can’t tell you how amazingly arrogant and aggravating it is to hear him say with such concern that he and the gang, “have GOT to take a commercial break!” Alright, we understand that Stern has contracts with advertisers and he must live up to his end of the contract. But we’re not dipshits! We’re not stupid! He has these contracts in place NOT because management is forcing him to have a ton of advertisers; rather he has those contracts in place because he’s trying to maximize his profit potential. Any business student understands that and they, like me, are probably fine with it. The problem is that Stern is not living up to the theoretical promise of satellite radio.

In any event, the next time you are on a long trip in the car take out your watch and time how long it takes from Howard to say, “We’ll be right back,” to him actually talking on the air again. It’ll be ten minutes at least (if you can stick with it that long). This is not the promise of satellite radio. In some respects, all Howard has managed to do on satellite radio is re-create the terrestrial radio template. It’s sad. Is it enough to have me cancel my Sirius subscription? Well, I don’t think so – unless, of course, they don’t bring back Bubba the Love Sponge after his contract expires!

Well, remember the stories that we had over the summer months coming out of Ocean Township:

• Car Burgalries
• Child Predators on the Loose
• Slumlords not being dealt with
• The Dirty Developer who Ruined Local Home Prices
• Underage Drinking Problems (non-college!)
• More Underage Drinking Problems (non-college!)
• Poor Planning in the Senior Development
• A Growing Drug Trade Problem
• Even more non-collegiate underage drinking problems!
• And yes, yet even MORE underage drinking problems that have nothing to do with the local university (though this writer feels the need to mention that the university is close by)
• A Pirated CD Ring Busted
• Sketchy Little League structure (even little league is screwed up here!)
• Gas station robberies
• One of the biggest stories of the summer – the capture of a pedophile who had over 400 counts of sexual assault against him
• Purse snatching, marijuana arrests, and more
• Even MORE burgalries
• A massive “summer tenant” party that got busted up as the local police THOUGHT they had their first college party of the year…
• Utility problems in Ocean Township

Yes folks, that was just the crap that took place in this town over the summer months! Now I ask you – with all of this garbage going on in Ocean Township, New Jersey, do they REALLY have room to complain about college students? I think not. As a matter of fact, I think it’s obvious that they put the blame for all of their ills on the backs of college students from September through May. It’s disgusting and it’s blatantly obvious to anyone who actually looks at this stuff to see that this town has got a serious “good old boy” problem that needs to be fixed.

What prompted this post were the following stories:

• Underage Drinking on the Rise
• Peeping Tom Gets Caught

Are you serious? These assholes have the audacity to say that underage drinking is on the rise because of the college? Read your own stories and you’ll see that that’s not true!!!

And the second story – there was a peeping-fucking-Tom staring at people through their windows! Isn’t that a little more serious than some high school kids having a beer (I say high school because the drinking problem is NOT college-related, that’s just the media taking an easy shot at the university)?

Oh, but it gets better. Another local paper publishes the following:

• Prostitution Ring Broken in Ocean Township
• Investigation Continues in Cindy Lane Fire

That’s right, folks. Not only is there that gigantic list above of completely ridiculous problems from the summer months, but now we also have prostitution and 14-year-olds setting fires in town!

But hey…gotta go after those college students, right?

Ridiculous.