Clip It

New Jersey governor Chris Christie held a town meeting in Caldwell last week, and I wanted to ask him about the cancellation of tax rebates and about the Gateway Project, which is a planned Amtrak tunnel between New Jersey and New York under the Hudson River.  While I didn't get the chance to ask my questions, I granted that he had an opportunity to change my negative opinion of any of his policy positions, or at least have me consider them from his own perspective and accept them as valid arguments that I happen to disagree with.  I left the meeting with my opinions and attitude unchanged.  He pretty much spun his words on everything from taxes to pensions to judicial appointments in my home county of Essex.  All he's really accomplished is getting Tesla banned from direct sales of cars in New Jersey without dealerships and initiating computer-printed license plates (which, unlike plates in New York and Pennsylvania, still have no more than six characters and thus have letter-number combinations difficult to remember).

And then there's gun control.  Although that didn't come up in the town hall meeting, Christie's veto of a gun bill that would have lowered the maximum number of bullet clips allowed in magazine has everyone up in arms.  (No pun intended.)  Christie says it doesn't matter whether a gunman has ten or twenty bullets, so reducing the clip size doesn't solve the problem.  That may be, but fewer bullets mean fewer victims, thus more lives are saved.  (See what I mean about how I still don't appreciate his perspective?)  His position helps his presumed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, but no one else.

Anyway, the Democratic majorities in the New Jersey legislature have decided that the best time to try again for gun control is after Christie leaves office, whether or not he finishes his term.  Wow, what a great rallying cry: "What do we want?" "Gun control!"  "When do we want it?" "2018!"                 

But how about those new license plates, huh? :-O