Another week has passed and today is Sunday, March 3^rd.  According to the Groundhog, we only have two more weeks of winter.  It is the birthday of Alexander Graham Bell, Jean Harlow and Tone-Loc.  On this day in 1791 congress enacted the first Internal Revenue Act taxing spirits and carriages; in 1849 the US Department of the Interior was established by Congress and in 1934 John Dillinger broke out of jail using a wooden pistol.  Today is Admission Day in Florida, Japanese Girl’s Day in Hawaii and the Hina Matsuri (doll festival) in Japan.

First off, I am pleased to say that I had my first mandatory quarterly bladder review (aka cystoscopy) the other day and am still tumor free.  No return of bladder cancer, so everything is good.  I will say that I am far more familiar with the inside of my bladder than I feel I need to be, thanks to the guided tour my doctor gave me.  But clear is clear and that is the bottom line.

The next item on my agenda is the mild winter we have had this year.  We had one last year also.  I have been claiming for some time that the reason for these easy winters is because the earth is turning over.  Whenever I say that, people always give me that look.  I think my wife gives classes on how to do it.  I still maintain that we are going to end up where Australia is and will have our winter weather in June and July.  My suggestion to you is to get your Christmas Hawaiian shirts now, so that you don’t have to pay more for them when we are having Christmas in the 80-degree range.

I read an article recently that stated that our governor was riding a popularity wave that had him at a 74% approval rating.  I was amazed!  I thought how crazy it was that this brash, sometimes rude, obnoxious man was that popular.  That being the case, more people probably like me than I thought. Perhaps I should take a poll.  But I digress … I read further and saw the information that they put at the end of the article.  You know, where they hide the stuff most people don’t see because they get bored and stop reading before they get to it.

By reading the whole article I found that only 1149 people were polled.  According to what I have found, the estimated New Jersey population for 2012 was 8,864,590.  That means that the people doing the poll only asked about 0.012% of the state’s population what they thought of the guy.  That does not strike me as a reasonable sample to allow them to say that he is that popular.  They could say that out of a small group of people, more liked him than didn’t.  But to say that 74% of voters in the state give him a favorable rating is misleading.   

  

Even if you assume that only half of the estimated population are voters, some 4,432,295 people, that would mean that 3,279,898 approve of him.  If the pollers want a true sample they should come hang out with me at the doctors’ offices, the Shop Rite and the hospital ER.  They would get a far different reading, based on what I have heard.  They probably would not be able to print most of the comments, but they would have a much more accurate sample.  Based on what many people have called him, it should make it simple to check his prostate.

But seriously, a 74% approval rating?  For what?  If you get approval because you are crude and insulting then I don’t understand why the rating wasn’t higher.  If the rating is based on performance, then it is severely skewed.  If I was his boss, he would be working through a PIP by now.  Keep in mind that this is my opinion.  I did not poll 1149 people.  We have had better governors and we have had worse ones.  Maybe if he stayed in his own state more often, he would be able to do a better job.  All I am saying is I think that a 74% rating is not realistic.

I think that is probably more than enough about that subject.  If I have offended anyone with my comments, too bad.  I spoke my mind in an effort to voice my opinion, not to assuage (this week’s vocabulary word) the feelings of others.  I trust you will forgive my attitude.

Anyway, I hope you all have a good week and remember the words of President Eisenhower who said, “We are more the way we are now then we have ever been before.”