Sundries Four and ¾

4. One of my email alerts contained the following item: "Snubbed in Washington, Bruce is the Boss in Trenton." This is how it goes:

Sometimes state legislatures step in where federal lawmakers fail to act. In that spirit, the New Jersey Senate has passed a resolution honoring native son Bruce Springsteen on the 30-year anniversary of his breakthrough Born to Run album.

Well, if that spirit isn't going to rule on education, taxation, the drinking age, abuses of Eminent Domain and the Commerce Clause, or the First, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments, at least it's still alive somewhere.

[State] Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) sponsored a resolution after the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate refused to consider a similar resolution proposed by New Jersey’s federal senators, Frank Lautenberg and now Gov.-elect Jon S. Corzine.

Good for the GOP for refusing to waste all of our time, for once. Political views have nothing to do with it, either, as I don't think Ted Nugent or Alice Cooper should be a drain on the limited mental wattage of the US Senate. (Of course, some still think that the eeeeevil conservatives must still be clueless fogeys threatened by the energy and rebellion of rock. Aaaahhh, saxaphone solo! Dean Martin, help!)

Springsteen, who has roots in Long Branch and Freehold and lives in Rumson, stepped away from the political sidelines for the first time and got politically involved in the 2004 presidential election, lending support to Democrat John Kerry.

That was a big winner. By all means, you folks go ahead and resolve to honor the guy's savvy political sensibility. I'm going to spend my time wondering why Sen. Kerry (D-MA) doesn't mind the conflict of interest, voting on resolutions honoring the guy after he worked on his campaign, instead of before, when he was simply a superb musician.

Springsteen has a big fan in Corzine. The incoming governor attended the rocker’s first concert in Trenton in decades at the Sovereign Bank Arena recently and has said he’d enjoy having Bruce perform during next month’s inauguration.

Syntaxacosis is going around; cover your mouth at the computer, kids. Translation: Corzine is a big fan of Springsteen's music. He attended his recent concert at the Sovereign Bank Arena, Springsteen's first in Trenton for many years, and has said he'd enjoy having Bruce perform during his inauguration next month. See, commas are our friends!

(One more post after this, with three items. Enjoy!)