{"id":3854,"date":"2008-10-03T08:56:09","date_gmt":"2008-10-03T13:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/?p=3854"},"modified":"2008-10-03T08:56:09","modified_gmt":"2008-10-03T13:56:09","slug":"lately_it_seems_no_one_has_any_principles_whatsoever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/10\/lately_it_seems_no_one_has_any_principles_whatsoever.html","title":{"rendered":"Lately It Seems No One Has Any Principles Whatsoever"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was on for 14 months<\/a> — why give up now? Oh, right<\/a>:<\/p>\n

After growing his “protest beard” for 14 months, [Staten Island Judge Phil] Straniere, presiding judge of the Civil Court, had it shaved off yesterday at Liberty Barber Shop, West Brighton. <\/p>\n

No, New York state judges have not suddenly gotten the cost-of-living pay raise they’ve been deprived of for the past decade — the reason Straniere decided to grow his beard in protest over a year ago. <\/p>\n

Nor does it look like they will any time soon. While the state Senate has in the past OK’d a pay hike for members of the judiciary, the Assembly has always blocked it because the measure hasn’t included upping legislators’ salaries as well. <\/p>\n

“And in this economic climate it doesn’t seem likely,” reasoned Straniere, as he sat in barber Tahir Taravari’s chair. <\/p>\n

Besides, he said, “I was getting tired of my protest beard. It didn’t work.” <\/p>\n

Add to that the fact that voters traditionally prefer clean-shaven candidates — although Straniere opted to keep his mustache, which he has had for 40 years — meaning they’re more electable. <\/p>\n

“I think Benjamin Harrison was the last Republican elected with a beard,” quipped Straniere, who admitted he was also tiring of the jokes about cough drops — think the Smith Brothers — and Christmas — think Santa Claus.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was on for 14 months — why give up now? Oh, right: After growing his “protest beard” for 14 months, [Staten Island Judge Phil] Straniere, presiding judge of the Civil Court, had it shaved off yesterday at Liberty Barber Shop, West Brighton. No, New York state judges have not suddenly gotten the cost-of-living pay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,6,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-follow_the_money","category-staten_island","category-well_what_did_you_expect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3855,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3854\/revisions\/3855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}