Why always New Jersey?

Neil Cohen, once the liberal champion for all liberal causes in NJ, has resigned. The guy who every year wanted to set the beaches free from the requirement of a beach pass resigned this morning, effective immediately. When there are allegations of child porn on your office computer, I guess 'resignation' is the next step.

It’s a slow news summer, so, unfortunately, this news will play around the country’s local news outlets on the same page with sidebars re-covering NJ’s gay governor as well the Corzine/Katz email incident. I am sure that stand-up comedians over the next few weeks will use this information as grist for their comedy mills.

So, why is it always New Jersey? I don’t know. I am from New York, and I chose to live in the ‘burbs of Hunterdon County just about twenty years ago. I did not choose Flemington, as much it chose me. But the whole New Jersey jokes thing may have begun when Ben Franklin said, "New Jersey is like a beer barrel, tapped at both ends, with all the live beer running into Philadelphia and New York." Not funny now, but back in 1776 that line killed.

Sometimes Franklin would tour taverns around the colonies with Jefferson on the violin. He even made fat jokes about John Adams.

This is an actual line from the Federalist Papers, but rejected at the 1789 convention: : "The Adams from Massachusetts is so fat [then the Congress would yell out 'how fat is he?']....that he should have his own constitution!" Bada bing!

So, Ben, thanks for electricity, the pot bellied stove, the Farmers Almanac, and ----initiating the jokes about New Jersey.

Have the British been watching “John Adams” at all?

Obviously, the British Royal Family does not spring at all for HBO. All those billions and they cannot afford to pay to watch “John Adams”. If they did, they’d realize that ‘monarchy’ is so 18th century.

Their biggest problem right now: Seeking to abolish the male royal succession law.

Yup, right now if you’re a royal chick, and have a younger brother ---even a goofy one with just three brain cells working, the ‘he’ gets to be king before you get to be ‘queen’. And some in the UK say that’s not fair. M’thinks their standards should be higher than that: Move to scrap the monarchy all together. But that’s just me. The law was passed waaaay back in 1701, just after the 17th century ended.

And today Solicitor General Vera Baird told the Sunday Times that the 1701 law was “unfair” and "a load of rubbish." Come Baird, watch your language. You’re never gonna get the House of Commons to agree with you if you trash talk them like that. And by the way, Queen Elizabeth II became queen because brothers she had none.

However the Queens daughter, Princess Anne was number three in succession to the throne, behind Prince Charles. But it did not matter if she tried hard or not. Once Andrew and Edward were born, she dropped in the British ranking. Now with Prince William and Prince Henry –Chuck’s kids---she’s dropped out of the top ten.

The Liberal Democrats think the succession rule should be "confined to the dustbin of history." The paper also says that Baird wants to “repeal the law banning the heir to the throne from marrying a Catholic.”

Whoop-dee-doo for them for going out on a limb like that. Hope the Pope hears about this ---he will flip his pope hat right off.