First of all, welcome to New Jersey. A new writer for NJ.com has moved here from Alabama.

Second, you really wouldn’t guess a guy named Karim Shamsi-Basha had spent 33 years living in Alabama, a state with an Arab-American population of less than 0.02% (nine times fewer than our diverse state). Shows what I know.

Third, could you have gone to the wrong side of New Jersey history any quicker, Karim?

He wrote an article about what shocked him regarding our state as a very recent transplant. He joked about not knowing what Taylor ham is, or who Bruce Springsteen is. He wrote of how things are faster here and accents are different here.

But it’s this part that leapt out at me:

“And an attendant pumps your gas! If there was anything worthy of pride, it’s this — whoever is keeping self-serve gas out of New Jersey should be rewarded with a tomato pie (I’m still not sure what this is).”

Really Karim? Don’t act like you hated pumping it in Alabama. You were there 33 years. You know you didn’t even think twice about it it was so second nature.

And if you think this is such pampering just wait until next time you fill up and the dope doesn’t even greet you and won’t get off his Bluetooth cell call to a country in a different time zone then takes forever to come take the pump out when you’re done.

With legislation finally introduced that would end the decades-long ban on self-serve gasoline in New Jersey, this is the time to think long and hard about which side of this you’re on. You’re either on the right side of history or you want to cleave to this ridiculous ban. I’m pretty sure it was self-serve gas that led Anakin to the dark side. In fact, I’d bet Karim a tomato pie on it.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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