Jersey Flags to Fly at Half-Mast to Honor Whitney Houston

Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie offered a muscular defense yesterday of his decision to lower state flags to half-staff this Saturday, in honor of Newark native Whitney Houston, whose funeral will be live-streamed by the AP that day. Christie—who recently came out as more of an advocate for treatment over prison for non-violent drug offenders than one might have guessed, given his affiliations—is catching flak from constituents for his decision. Many say it's inappropriate, given that A) Houston had a well-documented drug problem and B) fallen New Jersey soldiers and cops are accorded the same honor. (Also Bruce Springsteen’s former saxophonist, Clarence Clemmons, “the Big Man”; Christie’s a big Boss fan.) But the Gov. is having none of it. He told the AP: “I am disturbed by people who believe that because her ultimate demise—and we don’t know what is the cause of her death yet—but because of her history of substance abuse that somehow she’s forfeited the good things that she did in her life. I just reject that on a human level. What I would say to everybody is, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’” Christie also mixed it up with some naysayers on Twitter.