Originally Posted by greymule
I have lived in the once-great Garden State for more than 50 years, and it is indeed run by idiots, particularly of the nanny-state variety. We had a governor known unaffectionately as "Flim-Flam," for example, who saw to it that restaurants were forbidden to serve eggs that were the least bit runny. (Public outrage put an end to that one.) Our legislature has decreed that as soon as the attorney general of the state deems the technology "available," every firearm sold in the state will have to contain a sensor that prevents it from being fired except by the "hand" programmed into it. (Don't think—vote!) In case you hadn't looked, our attorney general was recently fired for, among other things, being a scofflaw who didn't take care of her mountain of traffic tickets. (The fact that she was utterly incompetent was immaterial.) And one former governor has apparently returned to trolling highway rest stops.
(Of course it has long been common knowledge that New Jersey is run by crooks, too. Frankly, I'd take crooks over nanny-state idiots any day.)
So it's no surprise that our legislature is considering banning metal bats. Don't look into the matter. Don't ask anyone who knows anything about sports equipment. TheTrenton Times simply ran an editorial glibly claiming "advantage batter" from non-wood bats, and demanded a ban.
Not all that long ago, New Jersey was a low-tax, business-friendly state. But it is now fast becoming very much like New York City: OK if you're rich or poor, but not if you're somewhere in the middle. In fact, if it were not for immigration, mainly from the Far East but also from Mexico and Guatemala, New Jersey would be losing population rapidly—the old residents are leaving in great numbers. And the people of New Jersey complain but keep returning the high-tax nanny-staters to office.
I am very partisan in my politics, and I used to write to my legislators. But in NJ today, believe me, there is no bigger waste of time. They do not care what a constituent thinks, because it's all fixed. New Jersey sends 13 representatives to the U.S. House (7 Democrats, 6 Republicans). In 2004, all 13 won by 17 points or more.
So we will ban metal bats. Meanwhile, the guy who murdered 7-year-old Megan Kanka (in 1994) watches TV and plays cards. I predict, incidentally, that before our present governor leaves office, he will commute the sentences of all the killers on death row. In a great example of cost-effectiveness, that governor bought a seat in the U.S. Senate 6 years ago. He served 5 years and botched every job his party gave him to do, then quit to run for governor. It cost him, out of his own pocket, $29,000 per day for the time he was a U.S. Senator.
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