January 18, 2013 at 2:34 P.M. I was assigned to computer #2, NYPL, Morningside Heights branch. This computer was already being used, strangely enough, requiring me to change my reservation to #5. This confusion on the part of the computer system is most unusual.
January 16, 2014 at 1:36 P.M. I will try to post most of this essay in the time allowed to me at NYPL, computer #12, Morningside Heights branch. If there is not sufficient time to complete the work -- or I am prevented from writing -- I will finish the text at another public or private computer.
Jenna Portnoy, "Christie's New Woe: Probe of Sandy Ads," The Star Ledger, January 14, 2014, p. 1. (Despite Portnoy's complaint, there is no smoke -- let alone fire -- concerning ads featuring the governor's friends and family that are about N.J.'s recovery and not Mr. Christie's reelection campaign. "Conversion" of public funds would require personal monetary benefit to Christie: "Crooked Broker Paid-Off Menendez.")
Christopher Baxter, "State AG to Probe Top Cop for Bias: Veteran Trooper's Suit Claims Fuentes Tried to Destroy His Career," The Star Ledger, January 14, 2014, p. 1. (State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes "racially discriminated" against the force's retired head of minority recruitment by making him the target of bogus internal investigations. This is typical of New Jersey officials' abuse of power and much worse than anything Christie is accused of doing.)
Ted Sherman & Steve Strunsky, "Funding Choices Fuel Port Authority's Political Clout," The Star Ledger, January 14, 2014, p. 7. (More corruption, politics, waste at the Port Authority.)
Thomas Zambito, "Car Services File Suit Against Christie Over Lane Closures," The Star Ledger, January 14, 2014, p. 7. (Everybody is jumping on the band wagon.)
Sean Singer, "Amiri Baraka 1934-2014: Remembering a Newark Giant," (Op-Ed) The Star Ledger, January 14, 2014, p. 17. (Great poet, revolutionary, humanist.)
Michael Gerson, "How He Rebounds From Adversity a Key Test For Christie," (Op-Ed) The Star Ledger, January 14, 2014, p. 17. (The true test of leadership is dealing with the inevitable crises that develop, some orchestrated by the political opposition, while continuing to discharge the duties of office. Thus far, Mr. Christie has turned this crisis into an advertisement for his presidential run.)
Jed Rubenfeld, "A Jurisprudence of Anonymity," (Op-Ed) The Star Ledger, January 14, 2014, p. 17. (Is the question not whether privacy should be honored, but whether anonymity should be protected? We need both in our society. Privacy first; then -- if you are lucky! -- you may also preserve anonymity.)
Mary Ann Spoto, "Man Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charge," The Star Ledger, January 14, 2014, p. 19. (Andrew Johnson, 30, admitted to distributing child porn over the Internet. This is one of several incidents involving networks of possibly "protected" child porn users in North Jersey alone. "Edward M. De Sear, Esq. and New Jersey's Filth.")
Steven Radas, "14-Year-Old Brings Handgun to School," Star Ledger, January 14, 2014, p. 19. (We teach our children -- sex for girls and violence for boys -- producing school shootings and child porn. Why are we surprised by this behavior by our children?)
Kate Zernike, "Another Mayor Felt Christie-Tied Reprisal: Meetings Cancelled in Jersey City," The New York Times, January 14, 2014, p. A18. (Steven Fulop in Jersey City is upset that Christie snubbed him, especially since Hudson County's Democrats are so fond of Mr. Christie. What did you expect?)
The Rachel Maddow brigade in the U.S. media is astonished at the continuing unwillingness of the benighted masses to follow their instructions concerning what "we" are supposed to feel about Mr. Christie, the bridge crisis, or anything else for that matter. ("Skinny People Dressed in Black.")
The "kiwi-munching," as it were, Perrier-drinking, skinny-people-dressed-in-black metrosexuals -- am I being politically incorrect? -- insist that we should be appalled at Christie's toughness in dealing with Hudson and Bergen Democrats. ("Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics" and "More Mafia Influence in New Jersey Courts and Politics.")
Well, I've got news for you, we're not "appalled" by Christie. Most people who know the tri-state area realize that Bergen and Hudson Counties have traditionally been mafia safety zones producing far greater "inconvenience" for residents stolen from for years than is created by one of the region's regular traffic jams. ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State.")
Efforts to transform "bridge-gate" into a career ending crisis for Christie have failed. Mr. Christie, after all the attacks, is at 59% popularity in N.J. and his numbers are rising.
If this crisis becomes an indication of the "Governator's" ability to deal with emergencies and the irrational hostilities of political fashionistas of all genders, then we may be looking at a highly successful future President of the United States of America.
Mr. Christie is stronger than the storm. The paraphrase of Ronnie Reagan at the recent news conference was brilliant: "Mistakes were made."
Use of the passive voice in this statement allowed for an absence of personal accountability while conveying the appearance of acknowledging responsibility.
Will Mr. Christie be able to deal with my matters? I do not know. However, one good sign is that Christie seems to have avoided the worst consequences of this absurd and media-generated frenzy by undermining -- while accepting (also avoiding!) -- responsibility for the zealotry of well-meaning partisans. This is a pretty neat trick.
Christie questions the motivations of those attacking him by suggesting that they are "politically self-interested" even as these enemies are arrogant enough to complain that the governor is sometimes "political" in his targets of reprisals.
Needless to say, Politics never motivates the actions of public officials in New Jersey -- from either party -- so that the public is shocked to hear that politicians from both parties have political enemies and try to hurt one another, also politically. We thought it was always a "love-fest" in Trenton. ("Trenton's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest.")
"Predictably, the scandal has unleashed a billiard table full of careening calculations. Democrats engage in hyperventilation because they fear that Governor Christie is an electable moderate conservative." (Gerson, p. 17.)
Has Mr. Gerson been reading David Hume on "causation"? ("David Hume's Philosophical Romance.")
Perhaps the governor's resilience this week and his ability to make clear what he is up against from the liberal media -- I say this as a socialist -- in terms of hypocrisy and double standards, to say nothing of bogus self-righteousness, can only be compared to Ronald Reagan's poise under pressure in the Iran-Contra scandal.
Mr. Christie's actions this week have suggested, deliberately, highly apt comparisons to Mr. Reagan. I expect Ollie North to accept responsibility for all bridge delays soon.
I did not particularly like Ronald Reagan -- nor did I vote for him -- but many Americans sure did. They tend to be the same Americans who like Chris Christie.
If Republicans were smart, for once, they might develop a Rand Paul (Vice President) and Chris Christie (President) ticket that could cross political boundaries, appealing to blue collar and ethnic or Catholic Democrats, as well as Republicans. Like Democrats in New York, Republicans tend to form firing squads in a circle.
In New Jersey, given the mafia's involvement in Democrat politics, Christie may be the leper with the most fingers. This is the best I can do in terms of a ringing endorsement, Chris.
Many of the self-loving opponents of Reagan and Christie may be far worse persons and candidates for high office than Chris Christie. One thing you can say for both Reagan (during his lifetime) and Christie (today) is that neither could ever be a hypocrite or fraud. With both men, what you see is exactly what you get, both for good and ill.
Mr. Christie is a pragmatist, smart if not an intellectual (he could have used my help in Constitutional Law!), and a fierce opponent of New Jersey's traditional corruption, especially when it does not involve the enrichment of his Republican friends -- and there are few of them, luckily. Best of all, in a state with very little of either of these things, Christie is a "law-and-order" guy. ("New Jersey is the Home of the Living Dead.")
I was not surprised that Rudy Giuliani was quoted, immediately, in support of Mr. Christie because Rudy knows the "families" that Christie is up against and their friends in the media. ("Another Mafia Sweep in New Jersey and Anne Milgram is Clueless.")
Christie is detested by the party-going Upper West Siders and L.A. "swingers" because he is conservative on some social issues. Even they like him on economic issues and may approve of the Christie doctrine on defense: let's get out of Afghanistan. Regrettably, Chris Christie may be the Republicans' best choice for presidential candidate in 2016. Things are so bad for the G.O.P. that Christie looks good compared to the likes of Rick Santorum or Marco Rubio.
It is certainly true that many people, including minorities, see Christie as the best hope for getting the nation's finances in order. Let us hope that it will not come to a choice between Christie and Biden. I may have to flip a coin in such a scenario.
Please deal with my situation, Mr. Christie. It is hurting your state's Supreme Court, damaging every lawyer, judge, and litigant to continue the lies and cover-ups in these matters, also undermining what little respect remains to your state's institutions and soiled politicians that no one has the decency or integrity to tell me the truth in 2014 about crimes like rape, theft, interrogational torture and obstructions of justice by so-called "ethics" officials acting on the orders of political bosses.
This festering wound that is the so-called "ethics proceeding" against me disgraces New Jersey's legal system every day that you hide from me and fail to provide the truth and justice that we all deserve:
"Presidential candidates -- who are often human beings -- have been known to face draft record controversies, bimbo eruptions, early DUI revelations, drug-use allegations, questions about discreditable pastoral associations and the like. The successful ones share Christie's talent for crisis containment." (Gerson,p. 17.)
What is disturbing about this bridge crisis -- and others like it -- is the use of the events by insiders in the media, as political footballs (Benghazi), and the tendency of politicians from both parties to see personal loyalty from staff members (rather than competence) as the key criteria for governmental employment in important positions.
Mr. Paul was subjected to a liberal media firestorm for trusting a staff member with the draft of a speech. This is something that can happen to any politician.
This criticism applies to Christie, again, as well as to every other political figure in this hyper-partisan climate in American politics: Please hire people who will tell you the truth; who will disagree with you; who will tell you NOT to do something that seems attractive, but which may be dangerous to your future prospects. Invite staff members to persuade you on a controversial issue through rational arguments. Consider multiple points of view on complex issues regardless of party orthodoxy.
This was certainly Bill Clinton's policy. Whatever criticisms may be made against Clinton, no one suggests that he was unreflective or careless about language. There is the "is" of identification versus the "is" of predication. Accordingly, we must ask what is meant by saying there "is" a GWB political crisis? After all, Mr. Christie may respond by wondering what the meaning of "is" is.
It is too easy to develop a bunker mentality in politics by seeing ALL others as the enemy so that whatever they are "for" you must be "against." Worry about being right, not just popular or "successful" in terms of winning political fights -- fights where you will develop long-term and powerful enemies anxious to get even:
"The problem is that stupidity is scalable. Transported to the White House" -- or New Jersey's Supreme Court (Ms. Poritz? OAE?) -- "such attitudes and tactics might have been Nixonian. Some in Christie's circle of trust were not worthy of that trust. Though he asserts, 'I am not a bully.' ... [Christie] apparently employed some bullies." (Gerson, p. 17.) ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption.")
