Easter Day, 2014, Bridgewater, NJ

This morning in time zones throughout the globe, the sun rose over a planet in which there is no significant space that the name of Jesus has not been heard.

This man, born as a Jew, who lived and taught as a Jew, who died as a Jew, and who was crucified under the Roman Empire as a common criminal by a means so barbarous, that Roman law reserved that form of slow, gruesome death solely for non-citizens of the Empire.

By all accounts, by any manner of sociopolitical analysis, that should have been the end of it.  As the French say, C’èst fini:  It’s over.  Good riddance.

  

He was just another rabble-rouser from that unmanageable Roman colony – only one among hundreds of others who dared to cause turmoil in Palestine of the first century – nailed to a cross, now gone and forgotten.

Recreational Pot in NJ: A Misguided Endeavor

Yesterday, The Journal of Neuroscience released a study by medical researchers from Boston’s Harvard University and Chicago’s Northwestern University on the inherent dangers associated with recreational pot usage

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 The analysis concludes that even “light to moderate recreational use [of marijuana] can cause changes in brain anatomy.”  The study was conducted with youths in the 18 to 25 age bracket.  All participants were from the Boston area

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The results are quite disturbing.

 

This study calls into question the quality of judgment and the nature of research demonstrated by proponents in favor of legalizing pot consumption for recreational use in New Jersey.

Bridgewater-Raritan School Board Presents Budget

At a meeting of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education which was still in session at this writing (10:15 p.m.), Interim Superintendent of Schools Cheryl Dyer presented a budget update for the 2014-2015 school year.

The school district’s proposed operating budget for 2014-2015 stands at $143.1 million an increase of $3.6 million (2.54%) from last year's $139.5 million spending level.  That includes state aid of $9.3 million.

Taxes are scheduled to rise by $22.30 for every $100,000 of a home's assessment in Bridgewater.  In Raritan, due to a state-mandated formula that is based on the relationship of ratables between the two communities, there will be a scheduled decrease of $36.06 per $100,000 of a home's assessme

Overboard on Myers

In the beginning, it seemed reasonable enough.  The editors of the Newark Star Ledger, (NSL), buoyed by intensive investigative reporting shone a bright light on the sex scandal swirling around Michael Fugee.  Simultaneously, it focused its attention on the role of the Archbishop of Newark (NJ) in this matter. 

Fugee has since been removed from the Roman Catholic priesthood.  Others alleged to have had responsibility or influence over him have been disciplined, demoted, or removed from contact with youth.

Once the Fugee matter was resolved, the NSL refocused its attention on the planned Hunterdon County retirement home of Newark Archbishop, John J. Myers. 

The NSL’s editorial staff considers the place too extravagant and too expensive.  It wants him to sell it and to donate the money to charity.  It further insists that Myers quit his job as archbishop.