TRENTON, N.J. - If you were pulling for "New Jersey: You Got a Problem With That?" as the new state slogan, forget about it, buddy. The winning entry in the slogan contest was: "New Jersey: Come See For Yourself."Full article. You can really tell that the AP reporter enjoyed writing the story. Most wire stories don't provide an opportunity for the reporter to address a group of readers as "buddy." ;)
...The contest was launched after [New Jersey Governor] Codey rejected a marketing company's proposal, "We'll Win You Over." He said it reminded him too much of when he was single and asked girls out on a date.
His office and tourism officials chose the finalists from about 8,000 ideas, including "You Got a Problem With That?" and "Most of Our Elected Officials Have Not Been Indicted."
I was born and spent the first seven years of my life in Ridgewood, which is in Bergen County in northern New Jersey. No jokes! I have heard them all. My personal selection for a good slogan would be "New Jersey, birthplace of Justice Antonin Scalia" (the Associate Justice was born in '36 in Trenton, NJ). That would definitely be an enticement to come visit. Then again, not everyone is as huge a Scalia-phile as I am :)
Interesting. Which Scalia do you like better? The white one or the Black one? I like the Black one because you have to give him points for being the token minority, but on the other hand he doesn't do anywhere near as much talking as the white one.
ReplyDeleteBy "the Black one" I assume you mean Justice Thomas? I don't think he would really enjoy being known either as "the Black Scalia" or "the token minority." I don't really think that's fair; if he and Justice Scalia are no more the same person than, say, Justice Stevens and Justice Ginsburg are. They just share a similiar judicial philosophy. It doesn't mean they're clones.
ReplyDeleteAnd would you say that Justice Ginsburg is just "the token Jew"? Not fair at all; both Thomas and Ginsburg are intelligent and accomplished jurists, although one is very liberal and one is very conservative. They are not "token" anything.
Now, I think Justice Ginsburg is wrong pretty much 100 percent of the time, but that doesn't cause me to impune her intellectual independence. This is why I hardly ever "do" politics any more, because it just devolves into a kind of mindless, blind condemnation of the other side, without any acknowlegment that the other guy is not, in fact, a moron... Conservatives do this kind of awful thing, too...
It's true Justice Thomas doesn't say a word during Supreme Court proceedings, while Justice Scalia practically invented the modern environment on the Court, where Justices now routinely ask questions of the lawyers presenting the cases. He is quite loquacious. I don't know why there's a difference. Perhaps Justice Thomas thinks the old way was more in keeping with the dignity and proper role of the Court. Or perhaps he's slow on his feet in a debate* like me :)