New Jersey is poised to approve the use of medical marijuana, making it the 14th State in the nation to approve marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Having grown up in New Jersey, I have to say I’m surprised that it happened there.  But they are taking steps, at least for now, to see that it doesn’t get ‘out-of-control’ like it has in California, where a doctor will write you a prescription if you have a headache or have trouble sleeping and, you’ll then be allowed to grow your own. For personal use only of course.

link: New Jersey Assembly Approves Medical Marijuana |  Medical Marijuana States and Guidelines

Winter Could Be Worst in 25 Years for USA…
CHILL MAP…
3 Deaths Due To Cold in Memphis…
PAPER: GAS SUPPLIES RUNNING OUT IN UK…
Vermont sets ‘all-time record for one snowstorm’…
Iowa temps ‘a solid 30 degrees below normal’…
Seoul buried in heaviest snowfall in 70 years…
Historic ice build-up shuts down NJ nuclear power plant…
Beijing — coldest in 40 years…
Miami shivers from coldest weather in decade…

Superstation WGN America will show highlights of the 2010 Mummers Parade, the String Bands, Sunday, January 3rd at 1 pm. CST. Check your local cable listings for WGN America. On satellite, Brighthouse Ch.20, Direct TV Ch.307, Dish Network Ch.239

Always anxious to watch the Mummers strut their stuff up Broad St., I have some information from WPHL-TV in Philly about how us folks who have left the area for warmer climes can still see it.

For the parade tomorrow, Jan 1, 2010, it will be available online at this LINK.

A note from C.J. Leonard at the station explains.

Good afternoon,

While we are not actually STREAMING the parade for various reasons, we will have the clips of each group (string band, fancies, & comics) as we get the footage back to the station and up on the web. Video should be viewable on myphl17.com.

http://www.myphl17.com/community/mummers/video/

Parade begins at 10am Friday (unless inclement weather strikes…then it will be 10 am Saturday or Sunday). Accordingly, video clips should be available shortly thereafter.

I hope this answers your questions.

Thanks for your interest in myphl17 and the Mummers!

C.J.

Well, it’s not live but it’s better than nothing.

For all those who haven’t a clue what a Mummers Parade is or what a Mummer is, you must check it out. It’s fun, and entertaining. The way I explain it to people down here in Florida is this, it’s like Mardi Gras except the people don’t ride on floats, they are the floats.

Enjoy the mummers.

—–

UPDATE 1/1/10: On The TV

Superstation WGN America will show highlights of the 2010 Mummers Parade, the STRING BANDS, SUNDAY, JANUARY 3RD at 1 pm. CST. Check your local cable listings for WGN America. On satellite, Brighthouse Ch.20, Direct TV Ch.307, Dish Network Ch.239

related links: WPHL-TV 17 | Mummers History |  The Mummers Museum |  Mummers On National TV

UPDATE 11/28/2010: If you have not already done so, contact WPHL-TV 17 and ask them, like I’ve already done, if, when, how, and whether they will be covering the 2011 Mummers Parade. I’ve not heard back from them yet. It’s only been a few days, and the holiday and all.

UPDATE 12/24/2010: 2011 Mummers Parade On The Internet

If I may leave politics for a moment and enlist the help of somebody a lot smarter than I in the poetry of code called html.

Here’s my challenge, or request.

There’s this plugin that is activated here but isn’t working where I want it to work. It was written to work in the sidebar, and it works as advertised when I use it there. But I don’t want to use it there. I want it to work in my LINKS page, which is a blogroll fashioned inside a table.

What it does, when it works correctly, is it will read 4 or 5 post titles if you mouseover a link and that link happens to have an rss feed. If it does, then the last 4 or 5 post titles will appear in a little popup box and they will be clickable to go right to that post.

Problem is I can’t get the author’s ‘fix’ to work, and I’m guessing it is because the links are inside a table ? but I don’t know.

According to the plugin author, it’s a simple (yeah right) matter of putting a span class statement before, and an end class statement after, each link.

I can’t show you his ‘fix’ here because it doesn’t show up. For the details, I’ll refer you to his blog’s forum where you can see the relevant code.

If you think you know what the heck he’s talking about and can show me how to implement it, please let me know. It’s worth at least a few cheesesteaks to me.

UPDATE 11/15/2010: NEVERMIND: I gave up on it and moved the blogroll back to the margin on the home page where it was designed to work.

Not only are gun sales up, but ammunition has been in terribly short supply ever since Obama won the election. But the fact that murder rates are down has no correlation to the President.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports a ten percent drop in murders during the first six months of 2009, while at a time US gun sales are going through the roof, according to reports obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police. Meanwhile, gun sales to private citizens soared almost 30 percent during that same period.

Gun rights advocates claim that these numbers are further proof that there is no correlation between gun ownership and violent crime, state officials from the Second Amendment Foundation, a civil rights group. Further, the SAF contends that the increase in private citizen gun-ownership may have had an impact on reducing violent crime.

A survey conducted by the National Association of Chiefs of Police of the nation’s police executives found:

• 93.6 percent of the respondents supported civilian gun-ownership rights.
• 96 percent of the police chiefs and sheriffs believe criminals obtain firearms from illegal sources.
• 92.2 percent revealed they hadn’t arrested anyone for violation of the so-called “waiting period” laws.
• When asked if citizens’ concealed-weapons permits would reduce violent crime, 63.1 percent said yes.

Percentage increase over last year of background checks of firearm purchasers for the first six months of 2009:

“What this shows,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “is that gun prohibitionists are all wrong when they argue that more guns result in more crime. Firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens are no threat to anyone. Perhaps violent criminals were actually discouraged by all of those gun sales earlier this year, because the media made a point of reporting the booming gun market.

“Anti-gunners,” he continued, “have lost another one of their baseless arguments. Millions of Americans bought guns during the first six months of this year, many of them for the first time. Yet with all of those new guns in circulation, coupled with an increased demand for concealed carry licenses around the country, the streets have not been awash in blood, as gun banners repeatedly predict.

link: FBI: Gun sales up, murders down