Tag: Chris Christie

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (June 25, 2015) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Susan Wilson’s Last Word column, “Fashion Backward” …

This was fabulous! As a mother of three (yes, three!) teenagers who wouldn’t know a fashion statement if it hit her, I can completely relate.

Jen W.

Oh puhlease. I shopped at Banana Republic plenty when I was a size 12 and pushing 14. Some of the employees were bigger than me. They don’t shun bigger gals.

Nobody

Nobody: It’s called humor — H-U-M-O-R — something you seem to be lacking.

Pamela Cates

I find it best to wear anything that does not attract harpoons.

Crackoamerican

About Toby Sells’ cover story, “Embracing the Big Muddy” …

Wow, what a great issue, especially the wonderful story and pictures about Toby Sells’ paddle down the Mighty Mississippi. Seriously, it motivated me. I’m going to go buy a kayak this weekend and get out there and explore our “Himalayas.” Or at least our sandbars.

Darren

The moniker “Big Muddy” belongs to the Missouri River (the 150-odd mile Big Muddy River of Illinois notwithstanding).

C.L. Hartsfield

About Les Smith’s column, “Passing for Black” …

I think Rachel Dolezal is an opportunist. If two percent of the population in her city is black, are her job opportunities better in the two-percent pool or the 98-percent pool, especially considering hiring quotas?

She is also wacky, given the staged acts of discrimination she alleged. But she also said she was (part) Native American — which her parents deny. She said she felt isolated and unwelcome in “white” Mississippi, which is probably 50 percent black. But she obviously felt comfortable in Spokane’s 98 percent white population, since she’s lived there for 10 years.

Jenna C’est Quoi

She appears to be a nutjob. Aside from the comic relief value and perhaps more reflection on birth privilege, this story should have faded long ago.

Carbon-based

Les Smith makes more sense on this subject than all of the national “talking heads” put together. Memphis is so fortunate he shares his voice with us in the Flyer.

Mark Jones

About Wendi C. Thomas’ column, “Black Lives Matter” …

There are variations on the “do these three things to escape poverty” theme that have been around for years, but they all include a version of this:

1. Finish high school (at a minimum).

2. Wait until age 20 to have children.

3. Marry before you have any children.

I certainly agree that all those government-supplied things make folks a lot more comfortable. The issue is: Have we gone too far, and instead of helping people out of poverty, have we just made them comfortable enough that they choose to stay in it? I am not at all sure I believe every poor person wants to escape. Or maybe they would like to escape, but escaping takes more effort than they are willing to give.

Arlington Pop

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter From the Editor, “Strike Up the Brand” …

Re Chris Christie: Body shaming? Really? Good thing no one around here is fat.

Frank in Midtown

So tell me which socio-political group has PC policies related to “body shaming.” I’m perfectly okay with it, but it’s always good to know who considers you to be a boor and whether it matters. If I must look at a candidate whose politics I dislike, I prefer that he at least goes easy on my eyes. It’s not like any of them has an intellectually taxing or time-intensive job that precludes spending some time working out.

A handsome nitwit could replace almost any of them. And for a few, that would be redundant.

Brunetto Latini

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (November 6, 2014)

CREDIT: Arindam Banerjee | Dreamstime.com

Arindam Banerjee | Dreamstime.com

Nik Wallenda

I wish that man would stop walking on that high wire. That Nik Wallenda guy who just this past Sunday walked between two 50-story Chicago skyscrapers not once, but twice, the second time blindfolded. That stuff gives me horrible nightmares. And next, he told NBC, “I’m working on recreating my great-grandfather’s greatest walk, which was over Tallulah Gorge, Georgia — 600 feet high, 1,000 feet long. He did two headstands on the wire. I’ve never done a headstand on the wire in public, and I’m training for that. I want to recreate that walk.”

The guy does this with no net, so logic would have it that if he falls, he would fall 50 stories and splatter all over whatever surface is underneath him. I can’t even watch two seconds of the clip without coming very close to throwing up and my legs turning ice cold and cramping.

Why do people want to do things like this? And why must every television commercial for prescription medication feature someone standing on the tiny peak of a very tall mountain — like climbing up into the clouds on a mountain is going to cure erectile dysfunction or high blood pressure. I think it would do the exact opposite to me.

I just don’t get it. Just like I don’t get the new measure that was on Mississippi’s ballot during the election this week: the Mississippi Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment. I love the way that is worded, but I really don’t understand why they are having to vote on that. I can’t hunt or fish because a) I would never be able to shoot an animal, even for food and b) the last time I went fishing the only thing I caught was a little baby trout, and I still haven’t reconciled the guilt from having ruined the little fellow’s day by ripping his mouth up with a hook. There he was minding his own business and trying to be a good young trout and swimming the beautiful river with the sun shining on it and bam! Hook in the mouth. I definitely wouldn’t want someone to do that to me.

But the vote… This is what I read about it that piqued my interest: Specifically, the language of the ballot initiative declares “hunting, fishing, and the harvesting of wildlife, including by the use of traditional methods, is a constitutional right, subject only to such regulations and restrictions that promote wildlife conservation and management as the Legislature may prescribe by general law.”

This is so far up the chain of importance that it has to be a “constitutional right?” I think I must be missing something. Don’t you just go get a license and some guns and some minnows and fishing rods and go out and do it? So what happens if it is voted down? Not that it will be, but if it is, does that mean Mississippians will no longer have the constitutional right to hunt and fish? Will hunting and fishing in Mississippi be outlawed? Uh, Bass Pro Shop moving into the Pyramid, what say you about this? Even the national spokespersons for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the National Humane Society say this is unnecessary and that it’s just political jockeying and a waste of voters’ time.

The article did go on to offer information on more legitimate election concerns including that you have to have a proper photo I.D. to vote. But it didn’t mention whether a hunting or fishing license would suffice.

There are so many things in the world that baffle me. People walking on high wires 50 stories in the air, people having to vote on whether it’s a constitutional right to hunt and fish in Mississippi. My real concern here is whether it is legal to hunt in restaurants and bars as long as you’re not drinking. Wait, I think that’s a Tennessee law. Oh, well.

I’m actually happy about the Mississippi Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment because I’d rather ponder that one than think about the actual people who are running for office — not just in Mississippi but everywhere.

I’ve turned my back on politics because it’s just too much to think about. Half the people running for office or who are in office already shouldn’t even be allowed to have a hunting or fishing license, much less run the government. Why is it that so many people running for office now are just plain nuts? I used to actually like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for his outspokenness and not taking any crap off anyone, but this latest stunt with him telling a protestor to “sit down and shut up” was just obnoxious and ruined his credibility for me.

And the new thing, from what I can gather, is that many of the candidates are using Ebola and ISIS in their platforms to try to scare people into voting for them. They are saying that if they are elected, they will stop both before we all die from one or the other. I say, just take away everyone’s hunting and fishing privileges and we’ll all be fine. Unless someone kills a moose with Ebola, or ISIS converts Americans into fishermen, what’s the big deal? It wouldn’t be as bad as watching that guy walk on that high wire.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

“Busting loose to my love Jones; Busting loose to each his own;

Talking ’bout busting loose y’all; Busting loose to my love Jones;

Busting loose to each his own; Gimme the bridge y’all!”

Okay, okay. Someone’s probably already written that or referred to Chuck “The Father of Go-Go” Brown’s lyrics in relation to New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s new big disaster: Members of his staff apparently shut down lanes on the George Washington Bridge for four days in September as political punishment for Fort Lee, New Jersey, Mayor Mark Sokolich not supporting Christie in his gubernatorial reelection campaign.

Don’t you love the word “gubernatorial?” I have no idea from what it is derived, and I have been far too busy with other matters to look into it, but I always love the “guber” part of it and wonder why that has never been changed.

So I looked it up. Seems like it’s from the Latin word gubernator for “governor.” I took Spanish in school, not Latin, because the Latin teacher at my high school used to drink a lot of beer and throw books at her students. Looking back, I should have been in there for that. At least I did have an English teacher who came to school stoned out of his mind every morning and read Shakespeare to us in a voice like, and with the talent of, Morgan Freeman, which had us all on the edge of our seats. He also “floated” dollar bills with us in the restroom, often winning our lunch money.

And we had a history teacher who wore a hearing aid, which screamed with static when we rubbed pennies together. Poor thing. And our driver’s education teacher was always so hung over that we drove only to the nearest place that served coffee and just sat there with her in the parking lot while she came to life. At least we learned how to park at the donut shop. But back to the Latin term gubernator (I hope I have at least a shred of this correct). It also seems that the term for female governor in Latin is gubernatrix. Oh, dear. Why, oh WHY, can we not just use this word? Can you imagine if Sarah Palin had been referred to as the gubernatrix of Alaska? It would have made so much more sense, although it would have conjured up images that might have caused me to have even worse nightmares than I have already. Yes, I know some of you dudes out there think she’s hot, and your online comments often allude to wanting to see her in fishnet stockings and a leather whip, but I think I’d rather just go ahead and have my eyes poked out with an ice pick. It would have been great in the debates, though, with the moderator addressing her as Gubernatrix Palin and Joe Biden spitting out his bottled water laughing. At least it would have made things more interesting. Much more interesting than some lanes on a bridge being closed, anyway.

Of all the things in this country and in this world that have the potential to take a politician out of the game, whoever would have thought it would be lane closures on a bridge that might squelch the hopes of a presidential hopeful? Yes, it is the country’s busiest bridge, and a lot of people were inconvenienced and maybe some laws were broken, but still, we’re talking about four days of some bridge lanes being closed.

With all of the new racist voter-registration legislation, campaign-spending corruption, sex scandals, bribe-taking, and everything else that goes on in the wacky world of gubernators and gubernatrixes, doesn’t it seem like closing some bridge lanes kinda pales in comparison? Hell, if it had happened on the bridge here between Memphis and Arkansas, it’s likely that no one would have even noticed, unless, of course, there was the remote possibility that a snowflake might fall on it in which case everyone would be rushing back and forth for milk and bread.

Much more important to me is the issue to be addressed and perhaps even resolved in the Tennessee legislature that opened session this week: whether or not to allow grocery stores to sell wine. Through my day job, I entertain and interact with lots of people from different states and different countries. Do you know how confusing it is to try to explain to someone that in Memphis, grocery stores can sell beer but not wine or hard spirits, that liquor stores can sell wine and hard spirits but not beer or wine openers or anything else associated with wine or hard spirits, and that if there is a store that can sell beer but not wine or hard spirits next to a liquor store that can sell wine and hard spirits but not beer, there has to be something like a nine-foot thick concrete wall between the two?

Good heavens. It’s like different stores have to sell wet cat food, dry cat food, and kitty litter. Just vote for the wine in grocery stores. If not, I may get some of the lanes closed at Kroger and Cash Saver and then look where you all will be.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

In Christie’s Footsteps

Getting reelected with 60 percent of the vote in a blue state wasn’t going to get New Jersey governor Chris Christie any thanks or praise from fellow Republicans, and he knew it. So the morning after, he gave them the “Jersey treatment,” rubbing it in their faces.

After winning 51 percent of the Latino vote, Christie held court with the national press, boasting he had built the relationships and the trust in Latino communities that Republicans have been unable to build as a national party. He asked rhetorically, “Now find another Republican in America who’s won the Latino vote recently.” Then said, “When you come just six months before an election, people are going to be like, ‘Where have you been? And why should I trust you? This other guy over here he’s been here for years.'”

It didn’t take months, or even weeks, after his expected reelection for things to get prickly with Christie, now an official 2016 contender. He is speaking so much like a future candidate his potential rivals wouldn’t give even one day of honeymoon. When asked directly by NBC’s Chuck Todd whether Christie was conservative enough to win the GOP nomination, GOP governor Rick Perry of Texas not only refused to answer the question, he wouldn’t even say Christie’s name.

It was the same with other Republican presidential wannabes, who belittled or dismissed Christie’s smashing victory among women, minorities, and Democrats. Kentucky senator Rand Paul called Christie a “moderate,” while Florida senator Marco Rubio told CNN that all elections are different and that “some of these races don’t apply to future races.” Though Rubio offered his congratulations to Christie, he said the governor had spoken “to the hopes and aspirations of people within New Jersey.” Key word: “within.” Texas senator Ted Cruz said he appreciated that Christie is “brash, that he is outspoken and that he won his race,” but when asked whether Christie is truly conservative, Cruz walked off without answering.

Christie confidants are already telling the press the governor is seriously prepping to be a candidate for the GOP nomination and that Republican donors across the country are begging him to run — again. For many establishment Republicans, or those not aligned with the Tea Party, Christie represents the only hope of winning the White House, because they see him as the only candidate who could defeat Hillary Clinton. He can — unless someone like former Florida governor Jeb Bush enters the race — expect to run on his electability and appeal among general election voters as a problem solver with a record, while other more conservative candidates paint the governing wing of the party as sellouts.

As candidates begin quietly jostling for support among consultants, elected officials, donors, and interest groups, it appears Christie could soon take up valuable space Rubio had once hoped to occupy on the left of Tea Party candidates like Cruz and Paul. After all, he made a high-risk choice to take a beating from conservatives for leading on immigration reform, which he has since retreated from. To move back to the right, Rubio backed the failed “defund” movement Cruz led, which resulted in an unpopular government shutdown that tainted the GOP as a whole but didn’t defund Obamacare. Rubio wants to be seen as a fresh new leader, but, now stained by the gridlock in Washington, he will find Christie arguing that no leadership is emerging from the nation’s capital, while governors like himself are bringing solutions and changes to the country for the better.

Rubio said the key message from last week’s gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, where GOP candidate Ken Cuccinelli lost his gubernatorial bid, was that it’s necessary “to abandon the politics of big government and embrace free enterprise and limited government.” Rubio said Cuccinelli had made that argument in Virginia while Christie had “tried to make it” in New Jersey, and he declared that on a national level “that’s a winning argument no matter who our nominee is in 2016 and certainly for our candidates running in 2014.”

Should he run, Christie will certainly make that argument. To potential candidates like Rubio, it’s the other arguments he makes that will be the problem.

A.B. Stoddard is a columnist and editor at The Hill newspaper.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

CREDIT: Laurence Agron | Dreamstime.com

I think I have a man crush on Chris Christie. Yes, I know the New Jersey governor is a Republican and might be the next president if his lap-band weight-loss plan works out, but I love him. He’s like the Ralph Kramden of politics.

Oh, I forgot. Probably 80 percent of you reading this have no idea who Ralph Kramden was. He was the hilarious bus driver played by Jackie Gleason on the hit television series The Honeymooners back when television first became a thing in almost every home. My gosh, it was in black and white even. Do any of you remember that? When Christie was being interviewed by David Letterman (who has relentlessly poked fun at his weight) and he pulled that donut out of his pocket and said he didn’t know the interview was going to last so long — that was pure brilliance. I hope he came up with that on his own. And when he unabashedly gave Barack Obama props for his swift action after Hurricane Sandy for the world and the rest of the Republican Party to see, he proved that he’s his own man and not like the rest of those lemmings who try to thwart every single one of the president’s actions and blame everything bad that happens in the world on him. I’m just waiting for them to find a way to blame him for those three women being kidnapped and held hostage in that house in Cleveland, the explosion in West, Texas, and the return of the cicadas to the East Coast.

No, I don’t want Christie to be the next president. I want that to be Hillary Clinton with Newark, New Jersey, mayor Cory Booker as vice president (can you imagine how cool that would be?). But if the Republican Party big dogs that are in power now don’t do something to become more like Christie, they are going to stay smack where they are: in the dark. Not that I want them to shine and take over anything, but at least if more of them were like him the country would get out of the rut it’s in and move into the future.

So I hope Christie’s weight-loss surgery works, for health reasons if nothing else. I kind of like the way he looks now (I would love to see him bossing people around with a big cigar shoved in his mouth) and he carries himself well, but he probably does need the benefits of shedding a few pounds (as do I!). You never know. He might turn around and decide to be a Democrat and take revenge on those who dissed him for being friendly with Obama.

That, actually, would be pretty damn genius of him to do. He is a popular guy with a great sense of humor and sense of fairness and a level head and isn’t afraid to speak his mind. And he’s smart and doesn’t drone on and on and on and on and on like that wretched Lindsey Graham or that lunatic in South Carolina — what’s his name — Jim DeMint, who I guess resigned to go head up the brain-trust at the Heritage Foundation.

I’m no expert on politics, but I think Christie would do very well in the Democratic Party. I guess he would have to change some things about his philosophy since he is, after all, a Republican (I wonder why?) but he would probably be an easy convert. Can you imagine having that bulldog at Obama’s side when all of the rest of the Republicans are trying to stalemate everything he does? Christie looks like he might not be below punching some people out to make things happen.

Better yet, let’s get him converted to a Democrat without letting anyone know and get him to take over as president of the NRA. He would be a great infiltrator and get in there and smack some people around. And chasing all those nuts would be good exercise to help get some of that weight off.