[Renaming Newark Airport]

Meanwhile, the Statue of Liberty, an icon of New York City, is barely a wingspan away.

Sure, but I'm not sure what your point is. While it may be an icon of New York City, it is squarely in NJ. Like the "New York Giants" and "New York Jets", which are also firmly in NJ, there are many things NYC claims that NJ has as large or greater claim to. Hell, NYC itself is far more economically and physically tied to NJ than to NY. You'd think NYC would have enough going for it that it wouldn't feel the need to claim icons of NJ, but then NJ does have so many I suppose it can spare a few for its poor cousin across the river.

I did enjoy the "Grumpy Old Pilot" theme this week even though you never yelled at the damn kids to get off your lawn. Was this just a collection of bits that you wanted to mention that wouldn't make a column on their own?

Where does using a work in another work as a tribute fit in? I was discussing music with some friends today and Queen came up. Their two best albums are Night at the Opera and Day at the Races, both named after Marx Brothers films. How would that fit into today's copyright insanity? If I had a band and I wanted to name an album Bull Durham or Silence of the Lambs or even Charlie's Angels to pick some movies totally at random, would I be able to?

What I mean is why do the idiot rantings of an out-of-touch gasbag have such power? Why wouldn't the obvious response be to blow him off, ignore him, the same way the players wouldn't give a second thought to an opposing fan who yelled, "Rutgers sucks"?

I don't know King, maybe we should ask Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly. After all, letting those two out-of-touch gasbags rant on unmolested for a decade hasn't hurt our country any, has it?

It isn't, or shouldn't be, about this specific incident. This was, or should have been, simply the final straw in a career of hate filled ranting. Limbaugh and the other hateful liars should be off the air for the same reason. Using the public airwaves (yes they're still a public resource, just leased to private corporations) to spew such anti-American bile should be something we as a society shun. If we consider racism, sexism, homophobia and the like to be values incompatible with freedom, equality and liberty in this day and age, why should we try to just ignore those that use this nation's public resources to spread these misbegotten ideas?

I'm not saying they should be silenced by the law. They should have every right to be the hateful pricks that they are. They have every right to go start their own newspaper, blog, community ranting meeting (until they actually commit violence or violate Federal anti-discrimination laws), and what have you, they just shouldn't be given showcases for these views on the public airwaves.

We as a society are making slow progress in eliminating such attitudes. It'd be faster if we didn't discourage them with one hand and encourage them with the other.

The problem with RealName, Solomon, is that he does this every time in every letters column. If it is a joke, it stopped being funny ages ago. If you go read his (her?) other letters, you'll see it isn't a joke. He jumps into every letters column and starts blaming others for blaming the Jews and it is getting annoying.

I will ALWAYS call out haters, bigots and hypocrites

Then I look forward to seeing you do that for a change instead of charging in and blindly screaming "why do you hate the Jews? Oh, wait, you were all just talking about Orange Juice? I'm sure you were about to blame the Jews for something!"

You do this with such frequency that I do exactly what you suggest and skip your posts 'cause they're all the same. Perhaps if you only complained when there was something to complain about, I'd pay attention. As it is, you're essentially a troll/bot and I only posted here to let someone else know about your tired schtick.

It's take a twisted logic to conclude that "the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" somehow means something other than the people.

Lets try the whole amendment, shall we?

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

See that first clause? That's what we call "context". Lets try taking other amendments out of context.

7: and no fact tried by a jury, shall be re-examined in any Court of the United States

11: The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity

22: No person shall be elected to the office of the President

That last one is especially telling. I'd have to say: It'd take a twisted logic to conclude that "No person shall be elected to the office of the President" somehow means something other than an animal.

It is baffling how so many people are willing to make sweeping statements based on a sample size of 1. The average person seems so entranced by unusual occurances that they give weight to these events entirely out of proportion with their larger meaning. Perhaps statistics needs to be taught in high schools, or at least start hiring science teachers because they know science, not because they can coach a sport.