Category: News and Politics
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A simple response to the North Korea threat
The Wall Street Journal headline today reads “U.S. Struggles for Response to Sony Hack” and talks about how advisers from President Barack Obama ’s intelligence, military and diplomatic teams were having daily meetings about the situation, Meanwhile, Americans everywhere were quick to denounce Sony’s decision to cancel distribution of the movie this week. Some of…
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Clarifying my strongest political conviction
I clarified my strongest political conviction on the topic of immigration reform after the recent statistic in this week’s news that 1 in every 7 people here in this country today was born elsewhere. This is reported to be the highest ratio since the early 1920s. The majority of us are living here in the U.S.…
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What I learned this week ending 12/6/2014
Local issues I learned that the weapon cache firepower of my South Jersey neighbors greatly exceeds the weapons cache of our local police forces. There was never much cause to think about this issue in the past but with all the talk about riots this week… It looks increasingly like something is not right with…
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Unhelpful vs. antagonistic government actions against Money Island
Untangling the bureaucratic mess that hampers Sandy recovery is undoubtedly a complicated task. A number of well-intentioned people continue to work on the issue bet we’ve not seen any results here at the tiny community of Money Island NJ. From a pragmatic perspective we can break down the problems we face at Money Island into two…
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Post-Sandy Government Shame List
In the two years since Sandy, I have found myself on the front line of an unfortunate number of unjustifiable actions taken by government against my small business clients and neighbors in the bayshore region of South Jersey. This list compiles ten of the most terrible government actions taken in the two years since Sandy. New…
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reflections on Kent State 1970
In 1970 the Ohio National Guard, armed with bayonets on M1 rifles, marched on and shot unarmed students at Kent State University who were engaged in a civil protest event that authorities had not approved. Although there were political agitators at Kent State that week, all of those shot were university students. I was only 9…
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Ehealth financial results and strategy are surprising to Freedom Benefits
The most recent financial operating results reported by health insurance industry leader E-health were startling to me as the owner of the much smaller Freedom Benefits. Submitted applications for individual and family plan products decreased 78% in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the prior year. We consider Ehealth to be our most direct and…
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The spiral effect of southern New Jersey’s economic slide
Today the Atlantic City Press published another bleak economic forecast for the southern New Jersey region at http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/business/stockton-report-details-series-of-job-loss-scenarios-as-atlantic/article_3fcce228-1769-11e4-bbe4-0019bb2963f4.html. This new report is based on a Stockton economic professor’s report. Another earlier study released last month by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and HIS Global Insight predicts that for the rest of this decade the Atlantic City/Hammonton…