Remembering Phil Everly - A Legendary Musician

The Everly Brothers were the first persons inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.
H/T: Everly Family Fansite

Christie Announces Two Appointments

Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie filed the following direct appointments with the Secretary of State’s Office.

DIRECT APPOINTMENTS

CASINO REINVESTMENT DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

Appointment by the Governor Upon the Recommendation of the Senate President

Appoint William T. Mullen (Succasunna, Morris)

NEW JERSEY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

Appointment by the Governor Upon the Recommendation of the Senate President

Appoint the Honorable Fred B. Dumont (Hamilton, Mercer)

Al Gore Speaks Out On Frigid Temperatures

10 Things NOT To Do Indoors On A Snowy Day

Many of us here in the mid-Atlantic and northeast region are stuck inside today -- trapped by a massive snowstorm they call "Hercules."
Don't ask us how they came up with the name. We're still trying to cope with the weather-induced confinement.
There are lots of things you can do inside on a snowy day. Reading and/or writing (as you can probably tell) are two of our favorites. Watching an old movie on TCM is another one. And you might just have the time to cook -- or even bake.
If you can get outside to clean your walkways and/or clear the snow off your car, that's fine.
But, back to the Great Indoors, here are ten things NOT to do:

1) Clean more than one closet. One is more than enough -- for now.
2) Try to sign up for Obamacare. Somehow, that never works out.
3) Make a doctor's appointment. They're short-staffed today and the phone lines are jammed with people canceling appointments.
4) Get too chummy with your neighbors. Trapped togetherness is fun, but only for the first few minutes. And remember -- good fences still make good neighbors.
5) Call Comcast. Everybody else is calling and the customer service is still spotty, at best.
6) Clean with strong detergents and/or abrasives. It's not like you can open the window to clear the scent out.
7) Watch daytime TV shows. Totally mind-numbing!
8) Read a book about Global Warming. Surely you've trashed that by now, haven't you?
9) Gorging yourself. Never a good idea but even worse in such a sedentary environment.
10) Sleep. Resist that temptation. Wait till tonight!

AFP To Sweeney: Chart New Course In '14

Americans for Prosperity has a proposed New Year’s resolution for New Jersey State Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-03): If you want to create jobs in New Jersey, give up your failing, big-government agenda and embrace free-market ideas that work.  

“AFP welcomes Senator Sweeney’s concern about reviving New Jersey’s sluggish economy and creating an environment where jobs can flourish. We therefore suggest the following New Year’s resolution for him: start cutting taxes and spending, and get Trenton off the people’s backs,” stated Daryn Iwicki, AFP-New Jersey state director.

“The fact of the matter is we can cite all the cold hard statistics about how bad things are in New Jersey, but that doesn’t help people’s lives. While politicians in Trenton bicker and claim they cannot cut even a little from a $33 billion budget, hard-working New Jerseyans struggle to make ends meet, put food on the table for their families and achieve the American Dream here.”

“Frankly, I’m tired of going around the state and talking to people who are fed up,” lamented Iwicki. “People who were born and raised in New Jersey, one after the other, telling me they plan to leave because they can no longer afford it—that their property taxes are out of control and unbearable. The tax burden in New Jersey isn’t just about dollars and cents, but our quality of life. Taxes here have become unfair and unjust and that’s why we see so many of our friends and neighbors heading for the exits.”

“I met a gentleman at the young age of 91, WWII veteran. He has owned his home since he returned from war, fully paid off, and yet lives pay check to pay check not because the state taxes his pension as income tax, but because he pays $11,000 in property taxes.”

“Senator Sweeney and his party have been setting the agenda in Trenton for a dozen years now and the results he’s complaining about are of his party’s own doing,” continued Iwicki. “Prosperity will not be achieved in New Jersey with another government program, another corporate welfare handout, or another giveaway to Big Labor. Prosperity will be achieved when the Trenton stops giving handouts and starts giving a hand up to hard-working New Jerseyans, allowing them to pursue their dreams here.”

“Senator Sweeney has an opportunity with the new legislative session to chart a new course for New Jersey and show he can work with the governor and the minority party to achieve some real results. But if the senator digs his heels in and continues to push the same tired, liberal ideas, then he will have no right to grumble when those policies continue to fail.”

“If the senator really wants to turn New Jersey around, he’ll embrace our resolution with gusto.”

Francis: Seek Desire To Expand Your Heart

This morning, Pope Francis celebrated the Mass of the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in the Church of Jesus, to give thanks for the new Jesuit saint Pierre Favre. Concelebrating with the Holy Father were Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar general of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome; Bishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Bishop Yves Boivineau of Annecy, France, in whose diocese Favre was born, and the vicar general Alain Fournier-Bidoz; the superior general Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., and seven young Jesuit priests.

Canonized by Pope Francis on 17 December, Pierre Favre, was the first companion of St. Ignatius of Loyola - for this reason he is known as "the second Jesuit"ˇ - and one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, of which he was also the first priest. The tombs of St. Ignatius and St. Pierre Favre are located in the Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in Rome.

Pope Francis dedicated his homily to the new saint, and said that he was a "restless"ˇ man of "lofty desires"ˇ: "it is necessary to search for God to find Him, and to find him in order to seek him again, and for ever. Only this restlessness brings peace to the heart of a Jesuit, a restlessness that is also apostolic, so that we never tire of proclaiming the kerygma, of evangelising with courage. And it is restlessness that prepares us to receive the gift of apostolic fruitfulness. Without restlessness, we are sterile"ˇ.

"And this was the restlessness of Pierre Favre"ˇ, continued the Pope, "a man of lofty desires, another Daniel. Favre was a 'modest, sensitive man with a profound inner life. He was endowed with the gift of making friends with people from every walk of life'. However, his was a restless, indecisive spirit, never satisfied. Under the guidance of St. Ignatius he learned to unite his restless but gentle - indeed exquisite - sensibility with a capacity to make decisions. He was a man of lofty desires; he took charge of his desires, he recognised them. Rather, for Favre, it was precisely when faced with difficult tasks that he demonstrated the true spirit that sets into action".

"An authentic faith always implies a deep desire to change the world. And this is the question we should pose ourselves: do we too have great visions and zeal? Are we bold too? Do our dreams fly high? Are we consumed by zeal? Or are we mediocre and satisfied with our theoretical apostolic plans? Let us always remember that the strength of the Church does not reside in herself or in her organisational capacity, but is instead concealed in the deep waters of God. And these waters agitate our desires, and our desires expand our hearts. It is as St. Augustine said: pray to desire and desire to expand your heart. It was precisely in his desires that Favre was able to discern the voice of God. Without desires, one cannot go forth, and this is why we must offer our desires to the Lord. In the Constitutions it is said that we help our neighbours with the wishes presented to the Lord God".



Favre, affirmed Pope Francis, "had the true and deep desire to open up in Godˇ: he was completely centred in God, and for this reason he was able to go everywhere in Europe, in a spirit of obedience and often on foot, to enter into dialogue with everyone, with gentleness, and to proclaim the Gospel. I think of the temptation that perhaps we experience, to which many people succumb, to link the proclamation of the Gospel with inquisitionary bludgeoning and condemnation. No, the Gospel must be proclaimed with gentleness, in a fraternal spirit, with love. His familiarity with God led him to understand that inner experience and apostolic life always go together. He writes in his Memorial that the first movement of the heart must be that of desiring that which is essential and originary, or rather that priority must be reserved for seeking God, our Lord. Favre experienced the desire to let the centre of his heart be occupied by Christ. Only when centred in God is it possible to go out towards the peripheries of the world! And Favre journeyed without respite even to geographical frontiers; indeed, it was said of him that he appeared to have been born never to stay still in any one place. Favre was consumed by the intense desire to communicate the Lord. If we do not have the same desire, then we need to pause a while in prayer and, with silent fervour, ask the Lord, through the intercession of our brother Pierre, that we might again experience the fascination of the Lord who led Pierre in his 'apostolic follies'", concluded Pope Francis.

Obamacare: A Disaster Of Titanic Proportions?

Christie Declares Snow Emergency, Closes Offices

In anticipation of the severe winter storm expected to arrive in New Jersey beginning Thursday evening, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declared a State of Emergency, authorizing the State Director of Emergency Management to activate and coordinate the preparation, response and recovery efforts for the storm with all county and municipal emergency operations and governmental agencies. Governor Christie also authorized the closing of state offices on Friday, January 3rd for all non-essential employees.

“The impending weather conditions over the next several days will produce a variety of dangerous travel conditions throughout the state,” said Governor Christie. “I’ve authorized state officials to take all necessary action in advance of the storm, and my Administration will continue monitoring conditions throughout the remainder of the storm. I encourage all New Jerseyans to stay off the roads if possible so that our first responders and public safety officials can safely respond to any emergency situations.”

Starting Thursday evening, the storm is expected to bring high winds, heavy snow, mixed precipitation, storm surges and sub-zero temperatures throughout the state. A potential mixture of hazardous travel conditions, fallen trees and power outages and coastal, stream and river flooding are anticipated.

Philly, N'East Cities Hit By Snow Blast

Center city Philadelphia early Thursday evening as the storm began.

Photo copyright 2014 by Dan Cirucci.

Review: American Hustle's Funhouse For Con Men

There's a scene in the new David O. Russell film American Hustle where Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams have an monstrous cat fight. It's all sheer shrillness: taunting, shouting, groping, slapping. Not since Bette Davis and Joan Crawford tangled in Whatever Happened In Baby Jane has there been such a bitchfest.
But, here's the deal: In this tour de force, Lawrence and Adams are fighting over a guy who's nothing more than a tin horn grifter -- a total loser, superbly portrayed by Christian Bale. This guy's claim to fame lies somewhere between the few neighborhood dry cleaners that he purportedly owns and his cheap, elaborate combover.
And in many ways, this swindler is the center of the movie's story, loosely based on the FBI's 1978 Abscam investigation which eventually led to the convictions of one United States senator, six members of the US House of representatives, three members of Philadelphia City Council and the mayor of Camden who was also a New Jersey state senator.
American Hustle is a companion piece to The Wolf of Wall Street. Like Wolf, it's loud, raucous, in-your-face and profanity-laced. And like Wolf, its characters seem to have absolutely no redeeming social value. The characters are constantly threatening one another, lying to each other, humiliating one another and putting themselves and others in harm's way for nothing more than their own greed and/or false egos. We say "false" because nearly all of the main characters here are rough hewn and hopelessly insecure.
These sorts of personalities and their attendant behavior seem to be a hallmark of Russell's films. So, this is like The Fighter meets the FBI. But even the vaulted FBI comes off as amateurish and base in this movie. In fact, the film coaxes you to take pity on the bad guys while laughing at and mocking the good guys.
And the story takes so many con-induced turns that it's sometimes hard to keep up with.
Well, there was a time when the narrative [the story itself] was king in Hollywood. The legendary studios and their powerful movie moguls saw to that. The  story came first.
But the studios and the moguls are gone. And now the narrative is what we call the way the public perceives a political campaign -- or the way politicians want you to perceive things. So now, the narrative is nothing more than the latest round of phony image manipulation.
Today's movies are said to be character driven, if they're driven by anything at all. And what we get in American Hustle is over-the-top acting by an ensemble cast that seems to have been told to simply go at one another with a fearless ferocity.
So, Lawrence and Adams use everything at their disposal to steal scenes. And in the end, you give a slight edge to Adams just because this seems to be such a surprising role for her and because, incredibly she interjects a bit of subtlety into her character. On top of that, she proves to be wonderfully seductive here, especially in her sizzling almost-sex scenes with Bradley Cooper, a guy who seems to have been born to be a movie star. And then there's Christian Bale who completely inhabits yet another persona to the point where you're nothing less than astonished.
But we mustn't forget Jeremy Renner who plays Camden Mayor Carmine Polito (actually the late Angelo Errichetti, often called Ange or Eric). Since we knew Errichetti, all we can say is Renner absolutely nails it. He's managed to virtually clone Errichetti's look and mannerisms. When Renner's eyes get full and watery, Ange is alive again. Magnificent!
Louis C. K. is also wonderful as a paper-shuffling, bureaucratic FBI middle manager who bedevils his ambitious, bombastic (and perhaps coke-snorting) underling ably played by Cooper. And keep an eye out for Jack Huston (John Huston's grandson) as Pete Musane. This young actor (who's also a regular on Boardwalk Empire) has a bright fixture ahead of him.
Oh, one other thing. There's a Very Famous Movie Legend in this flick but he takes no screen credit. You'll recognize him instantly and you'll love the way he plays his role.
Okay, at the beginning of American Hustle the screen announces that "Some of this actually happened." And, indeed some of it did. But, even though Abscam was a messy scheme that many regarded as entrapment, the way it's depicted on the screen gives us only a broad-brushed, hyperbolic and sometimes even cartoonish version of the facts.
But who wants to deal with the boring, everyday business of government or the plodding nature of law enforcement or all those dusty old law books, anyway?
This is exaggerated history played as grainy comedy with a clear-cut message that finally manages to emerge from all the dim-witted, riotous behavior: Don't try to out-con a con artist.