As you scroll down the page just mouse over some empty space where the menu was, and it will pop back into view.
|
|
In The ...News?
Mendham:
Town Stuff:
In The ...News?
     By 06. 06. on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 8:23 am: |
This "King[s] Bee" story provoked me to do some pondering. I first wondered how much the "emergency" bee extraction cost, and who was paying, the town, or the private enterprise? Then, on noticing the "photo courtesy of the Mendham Police Department" I wondered if the Daily Record was charged, at the rates I have to pay, for "the courtesy". The other day I requested a copy of the franchise agreement (ordinance) the town has with Patriot media-- they demand I pay 10.50 for the 16 pages-- you can probably get a whole book of best-selling ordnances at Amazon.com for that kind of money.
From my perspective, a more interesting news story, might be the story behind how this story became News. I would bet the Police Department has plenty of photographs of their bowhunting trophies... I wonder how I get some of those photos in the newspaper? No doubt, more interesting stuff than the migration of some bees happens every day in Mendham. Unfortunately, "we the people" have elected a town government that wants exclusive control over what news, becomes news. Worse, they willfully abuse that control to sanitize and white wash reality into a fairy tale of honeybees and parades.
This story also got me wondering how other people might handle the situation if they had the responsibility. Being a cheapskate, and a nature nut who has been stung over a hundred times (over 50 stings in one incident), I certainly would not have called any professionals. Bees in relocating swarms are not particularly aggressive, as they are usually tired and just making a rest stop. I think, the cart could have been safely loaded on a pickup truck and just driven to a remote location until the bees decided to be on their way. Alternatively, a more aggressive approach might have been to just throw a tarp over the shopping cart, and put a couple of bug bombs under it. In a recent battle I had with a basketball size hornets' nest down at India Brook Park (had to do something as I had been stung twice when I was standing more than 40 ft. away) the stone age solution of a big rock and gravity proved quite effective.
So what would you have done?... or what would have been your weapon choice? ...maybe they could have just run over the shopping cart with one of our $450,000 firetrucks. |
| By 06. 108... on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 5:52 pm: |
| I do not know about the cost but I do know that honey bees are threatened by some sort of disease. I beleve killing them is a crime, and the bee keeping comunity Will pay you to allow them to remove bees from your property. Any body out there know a bee keeper, we need am expert here! |
| By 06. 78... on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 - 8:40 pm: |
It's amazing what info makes it to the Daily Record. The local defective has an "in" there as most items usually involve and/or mention him. By the looks of what is published on occassion in the record, it is obvious that the paper didn't come looking for the daily police blooter.
I figure the planning/zoning board will go after the shopping center owner for running an apiary(bee lingo) without proper approvals. |
| By 06. 2....... on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 12:41 pm: |
There's another Pollyanna version of the story in The Freaking Star-Ledger. The fact that they would close a major highway without at least one person having their ass stung seems a bit overreactionary. The story does say the beekeeper was "hired" ... but considering what closing the road for three hours must have cost, that was likely a small change part of this public emergency.
Considering that council members can threaten to condemn my house, and rewrite the United States Constitution, without peeking any interest from the news media... yet this bee tripe makes the papers... I would say we are officially in a 1984 Time Warp. Big media, big business, big government... it's all one big brother parasite, and it's eating your brains. |
| By 06. 2....... on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 1:21 pm: |
Local Disgruntlorist Scores A Victory in the Heart of Corrupt Government's Green Zone.
In a story local media can't cover, because it's not about someone waving a flag or honey bees, a feeble Don Quixote in the disgruntlorist movement has successfully used the arm of one corrupt bit of government to punch another bit in the nose. Details are not sketchy, but good 2006 journalism requires this story be kept vague and primarily focused on describing any exposed blood and guts. There are initial reports that casualties may number in the trillions, but some unreliable sources say that's just bullshit intended to sell newspapers. When interviewed over the phone the disgruntlorist said he was too busy having celebratory cheese-its and beer to comment, but he did reveal that "he was going to" watch the "Disney World" Channel. As for local corrupt officials they were too busy trying to put their panties back on over the painful new asshole they were drilled to provide comment beyond "ouch" and "it was all your dumb idea" a comment presumably directed at the lamebrained, and lame-duck, mayor.
If you want details here is the text of a letter sent to the mayor from the Council on affordable housing... I of course did the "made aware" part.
quote:Dear Mayor Kraft:
Recently the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) has been made aware of Mendham Borough's guidelines for its rental assistance program funded through its affordable housing trust fund, which are not in accordance with the Uniform Housing Affordability Controls (U.H.A.C). According to Resolution 143-06 adopted by the Borough and the accompanying agreement between the Borough and Mendham Area Senior Housing (MASH), the Borough is utilizing affordable housing trust fund monies to indirectly subsidize the medical expenses of tenants. This is not a permissible expense.
Please provide clarification of the following:
1. Why are "very low" and "low" income households as determined by the HUD income limits, not eligible for USDA rent subsidies?
2. Does the MASH rental complex always use the Net Tenant Contribution when determining the rents charged to occupant households, or just for the purposes of utilizing the rental subsidy program?
3. According to the rents included in the agreement, the maximum rent charged per month for a MASH unit is $465. According to the formula used for calculating a tenant's rent, only households earning less than $18,600 annually would be eligible for the rental subsidy program. Why is the program available to households earning less than $41.700 annually?
The Borough may not subtract Medicare, supplemental insurance and out-of-pocket health care costs from a tenant's.income for the purpose of determining the rental subsidy amount if funds from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund are used. If the Borough has begun implementation of this program, it must cease implementation until such time that the above questions are answered and COAH can review the program guidelines as part of the Borough's spending plan.
|
| By 07. 2....... on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 3:12 am: |
I caught the second half of a very weird "Court TV" program at a neighbor's house. It was some psychic detective show profiling the crime-fighting superpowers of some local psychotic... psychic, and co-starred a couple of Mendham Township police officers. There are a lot of tax dollars wasted in the Mendhams but I would not have figured public officials were being paid to effectively endorse witchcraft.
I did a little searching on the Internet and found this Daily record editorial (that is strangely no longer available on the Daily record website). I guess "Court TV" isn't the only media, exploiting the gullibility, and yes insanity, of the consuming public.
quote:Psychics lacking any credibility
To the Editor:
In the Daily Record stories for 1982, there is no mention of a psychic providing real clues that helped solve the horrific murders of Amie Hoffman and Deirdre O'Brien before James Koedatich was arrested. In fact, according to the Daily Record at the time, the crime was solved by determined and professional police work.
Now, well after the fact, a story hints at the possibility that a local psychic may have contributed to the investigation.
Herein lies the truth about people who call themselves psychics. They never make public statements about occurrences before they happen. This is why we had no psychic warnings about the greatest American disaster on Sept. 11. For the past 100 years or so, huge sums of money have been offered to anyone who can demonstrate a single verifiable instance of the paranormal. No one has been able to accomplish this despite an outrageous number of claims of paranormal abilities.
Of course, the way "psychics"weasel out of this is to declare they would never use their "special"powers for personal gain. Fine, but I know of many wonderful organizations who help starving and dying children. What's wrong with giving them the money?
I understand the need many people have to believe in nonsense --it's easier and more comforting than having to deal with reality.
I think this is perfectly OK for them as long as they are not scammed out of their life savings. But please, don't try to drag the rest of us down to their level of obvious foolishness.
JIM SMALL
Denville
I also found this tribute to the miraculous contribution of the lying silly person who believes she has the power to compel people to feel enough guilt for their crimes to stab themselves... too bad she apparently has not felt the need to compel the president to perform a similar act of attrition.
It seems pretty ironic that one of the ex psychic enhanced cops would become a polygraph examiner... yet it apparently didn't occur to him to oblige his psychic to submit to a polygraph test.
Getting back to the crappertainment Court TV show, it had some really funny moments. It basically implied that the police would not have figured out to look for tire tracks at the scene of the crimes, if the psychic hadn't envisioned their existence... And the re-enactment, where the psychic and her "students" clasp hands to psychically compel Koedatich to stab himself-- in an effort to deflect attention from himself as a suspect-- was pretty crazy-ass priceless.
The show was made obviously dishonest by the fact that it showed no written records from the time of the crime demonstrating the actuality of anything claimed. |
| By 07. 1... on Thursday, June 16, 2016 - 3:40 am: |
|
