Pennsylvanian in exile

John Kerry, Pseudo Catholic

Lurch spoke with the St Louis Dispatch about Archbishop Burke's decree that Catholic politicians had better start acting like Catholics if they wish to receive Communion. Here is some of the rubbish that Kerry spewed:

What I've learned is that the separation of church and state in America is a critical component of who we are as a nation. President Kennedy took that on in Houston in 1960 and made it clear that there is a separation and we have to honor it.

"What I believe personally as a Catholic as an article of faith is an article of faith. And if it's not shared by a Jew or an Episcopalian or a Muslim or an agnostic or an atheist or someone else, it's not appropriate in the United States for a legislator to legislate your personal religious belief for the rest of the country. Now that's the oath you take when you swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
"So I respectfully, disagree (with the archbishop) and I have to do what I think is important with respect to the Constitution, my obligation as a legislator, and that's what I do."

Where to begin with this idiocy? As a Catholic I am not asking Catholic politicians to amend the Constitution to make Catholicism the official religion of the US. Archbishop Burke is not really trying to tell Catholic politicians how to vote; what he is telling them is if they wish to call themselves Catholic and participate in all the benefits of the faith, such as the sacraments, then they need to follow the catechism of the church. Mainly, this concerns abortion. Abortion, Mr. Kerry, is abhorred by many "a Jew or an Episcopalian or a Muslim or an agnostic or an atheist or someone else". Orthodox Judaism is very strict against abortion, as is Islam, church of Mormon, and the orthodox churches. There are pro-lifers who have no connection to religion, George Orwell was one such person. We know by his actions what Kerry thinks about other Catholic teachings, such as divorce and adultery, so why should this come as any surprise?

Religious leaders and tyrants

Last week I wrote about the Ecumenical Patriarch naming Castro a member of the Order of St Andrew. This week we have Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams getting chummy with Arafat. Thanks to MCJ for the link. The caption states that Williams is receiving a medal from Arafat. How disgusting that the successor of worthy men such as St Thomas Becket would wallow with murderers like Arafat.

One Less Pervert in the World

In New York, the father of a 2 year old rid the earth of a convicted child molester who he thought had molested his daughter.

The enraged father of a 2-year-old Yonkers girl pumped nine bullets into a paroled sex offender, killing him, because he thought the man had sexually assaulted the child, cops said yesterday.
But an investigation revealed that while Richard Tunley had engaged in "inappropriate conduct," he had not actually assaulted the girl, cops said.

Good riddance, dirtbag. And what the hell is "inappropriate conduct"? The guy is a convicted pedophile, who knows what he was going to do next?

Tunley, 50, a Vietnam vet who has 15 arrests on his rap sheet, was paroled in April 2001 after serving 2 1/2 years for raping a 13-year-old girl.

The incident began at 2:30 a.m. Monday while Tunley was baby-sitting for the child, the daughter of one of his sisters.

2 major problems here; first he only served 2 1/2 years for raping a 13 year old??? That is inexcusable. Second, who in their right mind lets a convicted pedophile babysit a child, relative or not?

Yonkers Police Commissioner Robert Taggart said the girl's father, Joshua Torres, 24, returned home and interrupted Tunley during the inappropriate act, which he did not explain.

While a medical exam revealed the girl hadn't been sexually assaulted, "it is very likely that he was preparing to assault the child," the commissioner said.

The shooting sounds justifiable to me, I'm a parent and don't want any harm to come to my son.

Torres, who has a history of violent criminal acts, beat the stuffing out of Tunley, then let him leave the apartment, police said.

But once the sex offender left, Torres had second thoughts and decided to go after him, police said.

He and four other people drove to Tunley's sister, Leandra DeGree, who told them her brother, a recovering crack addict, often bought drugs on Riverdale Avenue.

A half-hour later, the posse found Tunley walking along the street. Torres got out of a car and riddled his body with nine bullets - hitting him in the head, chest, arms and legs, Taggart said.

Tunley was pronounced dead at the scene.

I like that mental image of "a posse" being formed and hunting down pedophiles. Given the recidivism of the pervs, at least one child out there is safer with this dirtbag taking a dirt nap.

DeGree told The Post Torres overreacted.

While Tunley was baby-sitting, "the girl wet her pants and developed a rash and he was applying Vaseline to the rash," she said. "He went to wipe her down and Torres walked in and took it out of proportion."

DeGree said that before her brother was shot, he called her to say, "They're chasing me. They beat me up. I didn't do anything.

"He didn't get what he deserved," she said. "He didn't need to get gunned down in the street."

We have a convicted pedophile caught rubbing vaseline on the bare bottom of a 2 year old girl. There was no overreaction here, the goblin got what was coming to him. And I believe he didn't get what he deserved, getting gunned down in the street. It was probably too painless and quick, some sustained medieval-Spanish-Inquisition-Cardinal-Torequemada-call-your-office kind of torture was what he deserved. Good bye dirtbag, the kids of New York are safer without you.

I Don't Feel Good



This is James Brown's latest booking photo, he is not so carefully coiffed as usual.

Kerry's just a gigolo, and everywhere he goes.....

...people know the part he's playing. Ann Coulter slams Kerry by showing how he has made a career out of marrying wealthy women.

For over 30 years, Kerry's primary occupation has been stalking lonely heiresses. Not to get back to his combat experience, but Kerry sees a room full of wealthy widows as "a target-rich environment." This is a guy whose experience dealing with tax problems is based on spending his entire adult life being supported by rich women. What does a kept man know about taxes?

In 1970, Kerry married into the family of Julia Thorne – a family estimated to be worth about $300 million. She got depressed, so he promptly left her and was soon seen catting around with Hollywood starlets, mostly while the cad was still married. (Apparently, JFK really was his mentor.) Thorne is well-bred enough to say nothing ill of her Lothario ex-husband. He is, after all, the father of her children – a fact that never seemed to constrain him.

When Kerry was about to become the latest Heinz family charity, he sought to have his marriage to Thorne annulled, despite the fact that it had produced two children. It seems his second meal ticket, Teresa Heinz, wanted the first marriage annulled – and Heinz is worth more than $700 million. Kerry claims he will stand up to powerful interests, but he can't even stand up to his wife.

Teresa had better keep a lookout for any single women out there with more money than her and keep her hubby away from them. Ann closes her column with her usual subtlety:

If Democrats want to talk about middle-class tax cuts, couldn't they nominate someone who hasn't been a poodle to rich women for the past 33 years?

Ouch! To finish the song: "I'm just a gigolo, life goes on without me".

Another candidate for the "Anglicanism's Least Wanted" deck of cards

This is a great fisking of a review of "The Passion" which quotes a Pharisee named Mark Stanger, an associate and Canon at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. I see him as a Jack perhaps. Anyway, here some of his more infuriating comments:

It's probably the same feeling that people in Guantánamo Bay have, having had soldiers barking at them in English for two years. (about the use of Aramaic in the movie)

Not really, except that Jesus' crucifixion was made too singular. This was an ordinary event.

(When asked about the violence of the crucifixion)" I thought it was sickening. At the screening they were handing out boxes of Kleenex -- they should have handed out barf bags.


There's a lot of criticism against the film that it gives a bad picture of Jews -- I think it gives a worse picture of Christians. Holding this up as somehow emblematic of something central to our belief -- this preoccupation with both sin and blood sacrifice -- is just absolutely primitive.

When asked about the movie inciting anti-semitism: Oh, I think it definitely could. It made a big deal of Pilate trying to save Jesus, which doesn't appear in all the Gospels.

Cintra: So Mel's vision is morbidly preoccupied with sin and retribution?

Stanger: Oh, absolutely. And he said so in the interview afterward: "To forgive human sin, there had to be a blood sacrifice." The idea that God is so pissed off that God needs blood to satisfy him -- that is such a primitive notion.

I think a 5-year-old who has to get cancer surgery and radiation and chemotherapy suffers more than Jesus suffered; I think that a kid in the Gaza Strip who steps on a land mine and loses two limbs suffers more; I think a battered wife with no resources suffers more; I think people without medical care dying of AIDS in Africa suffer more than Jesus did that day. I mean, I don't want to take away from that but this preoccupation with the intensity of the suffering, I think, has no theological or spiritual value.

More education insanity

I'm not even trying to find these stories, they have just been on the front pages of various newspaper websites that I read. The latest one is in New York City where teachers inflate students' grades to pass them on to the next teacher.

Gotham's schools are famous for rushing kids through the system, ready or not. So Carl Campanile's story in The Post last Monday about teachers adding points to test scores shouldn't surprise.
After all, the system has already tried dumbing-down exams, lowering passing grades and easing back on other requirements.

He's got a pulse, he's ready for 4th grade!

When kids still fail (and far too many do) they're passed along anyway. Now comes another trick: Adding points to bump up Regents scores just enough to nudge them into the passing zone.

It's known as "scrubbing."

"Scrubbing is something we do to help the kids get their asses out of high school," one Manhattan English teacher told Campanile - shamelessly.

Think about that: The goal isn't to prepare kids for later life; it's to remove them as the source of school headaches.

What if the Marines adopted this tactic at Paris Island? Take a lackluster recruit and inflate his marksmanship scores and his physical fitness prowess so he can be passed into an infantry unit. That would have disastrous results in battle.

Staffs that feel incapable of educating kids sufficiently simply pretend they did a great job, by inflating grades.

Of course the teachers and their schools - and even the kids - look better.

But kids lose out, big time.

Starting with the fact that they are cheated of the education they're legally entitled to. How is "scrubbing" different from grand larceny?

They're also cheating Gotham, which is working overtime to improve its schools.

Never mind that this makes a diploma from the New York City public schools even more worthless than it already is. These same teachers belong to unions that oppose school vouchers; I guess they are afraid to have their incompetence exposed.

"The school benefits because the pass rate is up," one staffer said. "But . . . it's cheating . . . It's totally corrupt."

Without accurate scores - without evidence that more kids than thought are failing - the higher-ups can't identify problem schools and move to fix them.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein says he's seen no sign that "scrubbing" is prevalent in the system - and that if he does, he won't tolerate it.

Klein's made other comments, too, suggesting he cares more about properly preparing students than producing favorable stats. Case in point: his plan to end social promotion for third-graders.

That's encouraging.

But will things really change?

Who knows? But one thing's for sure: New York will be watching.

If this was a business, it would have gone belly-up decades ago. Abolish tenure, and hold teachers and administration responsible for the results they produce, or the lack thereof. A good education is a lifeline to keeping kids from being wards of the state and instead turning them into productive, tax paying, law abiding members of society.

Stalinistic Principal

The final entry for the day about education concerns a Brooklyn Principal conducting a purge worthy of Stalin of teachers that cross him. Some are considered among the best in the city.

Dr. Lee D. McCaskill, principal of Brooklyn Technical, one of the city's elite high schools, has been at war with many of his teachers. As reported in this column a year ago, the school was plagued by management problems that repeatedly resulted in the canceling of popular student activities, including one of the city's finer Shakespeare programs and trips to state and national competitions for the debating, chess and robotics teams. To recall briefly two examples: Teachers and students complained that the principal heavily censored the student paper; it had six advisers in six years, came out only twice a year, and in June 2002, so upset Dr. McCaskill that he ordered all 4,000 copies destroyed. And then there was the robotics club, which spent months building a robot, raised money to compete at a national meet in Florida and an hour before boarding the plane, had the trip canceled by Dr. McCaskill.

A gulag in Brooklyn, wonderful. In the hellhole that is New York, we have a school with dedicated teachers and a brutal dictator enforcing a cult of personality.

What is not in dispute is the animosity. At most city schools, it is rare for faculty members to request one union conciliation hearing a year with the principal to resolve education issues like book selection; Brooklyn Tech had four in 18 months. In the last few years, about a quarter of the 30-member English department has left, and seven reached for interviews faulted Dr. McCaskill.

More proof that this Stalin-in-training is out of control. I'm expecting there to be paintings of him in each classroom.

Louise Maher-Johnson received years of positive or excellent classroom observations, served on several school committees and was the environmental club adviser. In 33 years, she never had an unsatisfactory rating. Then, after criticizing Dr. McCaskill in the press, Ms. Johnson received six unsatisfactory observations and five letters of misconduct in six months. She loved supplementing lessons with her collection of educational videos, using a documentary on post-Civil War Reconstruction when she taught August Wilson's play "Fences." Suddenly, she was barred by the principal from using a VCR. She always had her own classroom; suddenly she had to share two classrooms on two floors. "At 60 years old, I became a floating teacher," she said. "He wore me down; it affected my health." Last summer, she gave up and retired.

More examples of the abuse of his power. I have seen "Fences" and it is a wonderful play and a good lesson for children. This isn't a teacher slacking by playing videos; she is using them to supplement the lessons. This is very petty behavior.

Todd Friedman, a 15-year veteran, received many good ratings, served as a mentor for new teachers and wrote curriculum for the Academy of American Poets. But as a critic of the principal he was vulnerable, and in June 2002, a parent who was friends with Dr. McCaskill complained that Mr. Friedman had assigned a "pornographic" book, "Continental Drift" by Russell Banks.

It didn't seem to matter to Dr. McCaskill that "Continental Drift" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, written by one of America's most respected novelists. Or that the school's summer reading list, which went out under Dr. McCaskill's signature that very week, included "Secrets" by Nuruddin Farah, a novel that in the first 17 pages describes group masturbation and a man having intercourse with a cow.

Dr. McCaskill put a warning letter in Mr. Friedman's file, calling "Continental Drift" "inappropriate" and "sexually explicit" and threatening possible dismissal.

Mr. Friedman appealed. Under the city grievance procedure, the first hearing is conducted by the principal, who, not surprisingly, ruled that his reprimand of Mr. Friedman was entirely correct.

The lesson learned here is that Pulitzer Prize finalist books are bad, books about groups beating off and screwing cows are OK. I'm glad McCaskill has a PHD to explain that to me.

Alice Alcala is one of the most respected Shakespeare teachers in the city. At Brooklyn Tech, she won a $10,000 grant, bringing the Royal National Theater of Britain to do student workshops and spending Saturdays preparing her classes to do their own performances. But she spoke out against the principal. When he tried killing her Shakespeare program, she went over his head to the central administration and got it reinstated.

The day after she was quoted in news articles criticizing Dr. McCaskill, she received an unsatisfactory classroom observation rating for the first time in 28 years of teaching. She was repeatedly denied access to the auditorium and in June, got an unsatisfactory for the year. "At 53, I almost lost my livelihood," she says.

But she got a break. The principal at Murry Bergtraum High in Manhattan knew what a gifted teacher she was and gave her a position.

"I'd been so beaten down," Ms. Alcala said. "When I requested the auditorium, I couldn't believe the next day I got permission. I kept thanking them. They said, 'Relax, this is not like Brooklyn Tech.' I felt like I'd come out of a nightmare."

Wayne Gagnon, the Bergtraum assistant principal who supervises Ms. Alcala, says they are "absolutely thrilled" with her work.

Ms. Alcala has won $1,800 in grants, had a local Shakespeare company come to work with her students, and in December put on several student performances of "Macbeth," featuring the witches in a step dance that brought down the house.

Great teachers inspire, and after seeing Ms. Alcala's witches dance, another teacher, Wil Hallgren, plans to do Aristophanes' "Frogs" with his class, featuring a rap-style debate between Euripides and Aeschylus.

As for Brooklyn Tech, there's no course solely devoted to Shakespeare anymore.

Here is a teacher dedicated to her subject and to her students, and whose excellence brings in money in grants. However, she dared to criticize the Politboro and Stalin, and became a persona non grata along the lines of Trotsky. The kids are the ultimate losers in this. It is hard enough to attract quality teachers into New York City; having this bastard in power and ruining the livelihoods of all who would oppose him is infuriating.

Another teacher of the year candidate

This is from the Erie Times News, I can't link so I will just cut and paste it. This is another horrible example of some of the dregs that are teaching our children.

MEADVILLE — Former Conneaut Valley High School coach and teacher Jim Carr learned Monday the legal price of providing drugs to two teenage girls who were students at his school.

The price is 111/2 to 24 months in the Crawford County Correctional Facility and $800 in fines, plus costs.

He was sentenced Monday on four counts of corruption of minors as part of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors.

However, that price is a minimal one in the eyes of the father of one of the girls to whom Carr provided or offered marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. She was 14 at the time.

"I think he's getting off really easy," the father said after Carr's sentencing. "We went through a lot of problems because of this."

The father briefly addressed the court before Judge Anthony Vardaro issued the sentence. The father's name is being withheld to protect the identity of his daughter.

"He gave my daughter drugs," the man told the judge. "She's been to rehab, and she's still having problems in school because of this. I ask you to think if it was your 14-year-old daughter."

The second victim was 17 years old at the time.

The father did not specifically object to the plea agreement that Carr worked out with prosecutors, dropping six other corruption charges and enabling him to serve his sentence in the county prison rather than a state prison.

It was revealed at Monday's sentencing hearing that the plea agreement was being worked out prior to Carr's preliminary hearing in April. Carr pleaded guilty under the deal in November.

Conneautville police in early April charged Carr with 10 counts of corrupting the morals of minors for events that occurred between Dec. 24, 2002, and March 12, 2003. The incidents occurred at his home, at a Conneaut Lake-area motel and at a Conneautville business.

Carr provided or offered marijuana, cocaine and methaphetamines to the girls.

He also asked the 14-year-old to smoke marijuana topless with him and to "dress up in a French maid outfit and clean his house," according to the original criminal complaint.

The investigation was launched after the 14-year-old went to a high school guidance counselor.

Carr resigned his teaching and coaching positions in March, during the investigation but before criminal charges were filed, and sought treatment in a drug and alcohol program. Carr had taught health and coached football and basketball at Conneaut Valley High School.

Carr's Attorney, Mark Stevens, spoke at length on behalf of his client, saying Carr's actions were the result of a longtime problem with drugs that went untreated.

"At no time did he intend to harm or create a problem for kids," Stevens said.

Heaven forbid what would have happened if he HAD intended to harm or create a problem for kids. He gave coke, meth and pot to 2 teenage girls, what the hell did he think would happen to these girls?

More education news

Here is a story about another superintendant getting into trouble.

The fate of Montour Superintendent Ronald Mento is up in the air this week, as district officials begin to review preliminary findings of a state audit into district finances.

Mento was placed on paid leave by the board in a closed-door session Jan. 15. It was not announced to the district staff until eight days later, with no reason being given for the sudden action.

Board President Charles Snowden would say only that the decision was based on information that became available in December. He would not confirm that it had anything to do with the draft audit recently issued by state Auditor General Robert P. Casey Jr.

Mento has been under fire since he began the job. His hiring in March 2002 infuriated many taxpayers who were suspicious of his role in the financial mismanagement that resulted in a state auditor general's investigation of the Duquesne School District, where Mento had been superintendent from 1992 to 1999.

That's it, hire a guy who has shown an ability to screw up one school district and give him an opportunity to do it again. Remember stories like these when the teachers unions and professional education lobbyists say we don't spend enough on education. This school district is paying $110,000 a year to a man suspected of cooking the books at another school district in the past.

Spotlight on education

First is this story about teachers being disciplined. It makes me wonder what the hell is going on in our schools.

Some examples:

Nancy L. Mogle, also known as Nancy L. Erwin, 51, a math teacher at Marion Center Area School District, Indiana County; license revoked after conviction for complicity to aggravated assault. In June 2002, Mogle, who earlier had lost her teaching job in the district, had accompanied her husband to the district administration office where he shot a secretary.

Brian M. Keller, 31, a former computer teacher at West Allegheny Middle School and basketball coach at Our Lady of Sacred Heart; license revoked after being convicted of corruption of minors. He was charged with having sexual conversations with students online in 2001. Keller resigned from the middle school shortly before he was charged.

John R. Carpenzano, 27, an elementary teacher from Leechburg Area School District, Armstrong County, surrendered his license to avoid disciplinary action for an alleged sexual relationship with a female student.

Ryan K. Newman, 32, an art teacher in Central Bucks School District; license revoked after being convicted of statutory sexual assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old student. Amy K. Picklo, 32, a French teacher in Lancaster School District; license revoked for forging a teaching certificate.

Gregory H. Yarbenet, 57, a science teacher in Girard School District, Erie County; license revoked after his conviction for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault and corruption of minors.

Robert J. Lester, 45, a social studies teacher in Upper Merion Area School District, Montgomery County, surrendered his license to avoid discipline after being convicted last year for e-mailing child pornography to an FBI agent who posed as a 12-year-old girl.

I want to know what kind of system is in place to try to keep these scum away from our children. Can anyone become a teacher?

Anglicanism's Least Wanted

In the spirit of the deck of cards featuring the Iraqi most wanted, I thought a deck of cards for Anglicans might be a good idea. Here are some of the entries so far:

Ace: Frank Griswold, Peter Carnley

King: Charles Bennison, Peter Lee

Queen: Katherine Ragsdale, Vicki "I AM GENE" Robinson, Jane Holmes Dixon, Barbara Harris

Please submit your choices!

Speaking of cars...

Toyota has passed Ford as the world's Number 2 automaker. Not suprising to me, as I owned a Ford and now own a Toyota truck and a Nissan Altima and the difference in quality is like night and day. My Contour had so many things go wrong with it, but my Nissan and my Toyota are very dependable and well built with very few things going wrong with them.

For those that want to use the "made in America" argument, my Toyota truck was built in CA and my Nissan car in TN, as opposed to my Ford Contour which had parts from Mexico and Canada.

The worst cars of all time

I found this interesting article about the 10 worst cars of all time. The usual suspects were there, such as the Edsel, the Pinto, the Vega, Yugo and the Pacer. Most seem to be from the 70's and early 80's, and some were just ugly, some were unreliable, and some like the Pinto were dangerous. I remember in science class discussing how GM screwed up with the Vega by using an alumnimum engine block and aluminum pistons. The aluminum wasn't strong enough for the pistons, so they switched to steel, not taking into account the different expansion rates of the metals.

Here is a slide show for these lemons.

My church dilemma

I have a dilemma involving my church. I am Catholic and attend a parish that I am becoming more and more displeased with. The parish is full of great people and has great education programs for youth. I am involved in many activities in my parish, but I feel more and more disconnected from the church.

Why am I displeased? First and foremost is the mass. 3 years ago the priest changed the Mass, adding yelling and cheering to the Mass which drove this traditionalist insane. No, I'm not some fogey, I'm 34. That was bad enough, but in the past year the traditional Gloria has been eliminated and replaced with some gospel version, and frequently the Nicene Creed has been replaced with this song "I Believe" which is very un-Catholic. One of the biggest atrocitities was "The Rose" as an offertory anthem. These changes were not asked for by the parishioners, in fact the parishioners are downright hostile to many of the changes. We are held hostage by a revisionist Amchurch priest and a progressive music director.

The second beef that I have is the browbeating for money. We tried to give free tuition to those families that gave 10%, it was abused and we are now severely in the red. The priest sent out "The Devil Letter" saying how the devil deveives and tricks folks into not giving money. Fundraisers were banned, and many groups were majorly irritated by this, we were supposed to go to the parish council with our hands out instead of raising our own money.

The bottom line is, I'm stuck. I try to find excuses to attend Mass with friends at other parishes as I feel like a stranger in my own parish.

More consultant craziness

The consultant craziness with the Lancaster City school district gets more and more infuriating.

A local church group was hired to provide tutoring and "cultural translators'' for city school students.

A Philadelphia man was hired for private consultations with district superintendent Ricardo Curry.

A Delaware County woman also was hired for private consultations with Curry.

A convicted felon, Curry's brother-in-law, was hired to give two seminars and a consultation.

Is this the Clinton White House? Guess again, it's the Lancaster City School district and its esteemed superintendent. I know what MY mind thought of when I heard of a female being hired for "private consultation".

From records and other reports, here is what is known about the four consultants:

? The Shalom Partnership is a consortium made up of three churches: Bethel AME Church, El Redentor United Methodist Church and St. Paul's United Methodist Church.

Formed in 2000, the group has worked to revitalize the city, particularly focusing on educational efforts.

In its contract with the city schools, the group provided tutors and "cultural translators,'' or people who could help bridge the gap between urban students and teachers.

Earlier this week, it was reported the Partnership owed the district $25,000 from its consulting contract.

The Rev. Edward Bailey, the pastor of Bethel AME, said earlier this week the debt was the result of a misunderstanding.

Bailey said Monday the Partnership did not realize the $25,000 was an advance payment for its services during a three-year grant.

"Cultural translator"? And where is the ACLU, there is a church group getting a grant from a school district? Just kidding on that one, but they would be up in arms over an evangelical group or a Catholic charity getting a grant.

? Harold Benjamin of Philadelphia was paid $13,800 for 23 days of work in 2003.

Curry, who formerly worked as an administrator in the Philadelphia school district, said he hired Benjamin because he was "a close confidant of mine, someone whose opinion I respect.'' Benjamin worked as a long-term substitute from 1995 to 2003 in the Philadelphia district, a district spokeswoman said.

An invoice submitted by Benjamin in January 2003 indicates he was providing "professional development and consultation for small learning community facilitators'' as well as "System Consultation with Mr. Curry.'' The January invoice, for $3,000, lists three "session titles//Consultation Topics'' provided by Benjamin.

Those topics are, word-for-word, the titles of chapters in a $17.50 book titled "Leading Change.'' At a press conference last week, Curry said he asked Benjamin to work with him one week a month.

Benjamin met privately, "one-on-one'' with Curry, the superintendent said.

Curry said Benjamin's consultations involved examining "several critical issues'' and "how to reorganize the system.'' "He did legwork, homework, book work on how systems are organized,'' he said.

"I asked him to look at where the district was. ...He provided direction on where we need to go,'' Curry said.

When asked whether verification of Benjamin's work could be provided through reports, schedules, secretaries, receptionists or others, district spokeswoman Hope Banner said she would "not be releasing any information about that.''

"Ric is sticking by his statement,'' she said. "Mr. Benjamin was hired to do work with him, only with him.''

Sounds to me like he paid his drinking buddy to hang out and play golf with him and charged it to the taxpayers. Mr. Curry could have bought the book for $17.50 and saved the city $13,000.

? Valeria D. Booker of Darby was paid $5,400 for nine days of work in 2002.

Booker, who has been described by Curry as a private child-care worker, does not have a college degree.

But Curry said last week that Booker "has more knowledge about literacy and the developmental needs of children than people with a degree.'' As did Benjamin, Booker met with Curry in private, day-long sessions, Curry said. Each of Booker's sessions cost the district $600.

The meetings, in August and December of 2002, took place while Curry was the director of the district's Office of Teaching and Learning.

Curry said Booker advised him on developmental reading, urban children and literacy.

Booker, in her invoice, said she was a "Reading Consultant and Session Facilitator.'' The invoice documents contained two errors. She listed the wrong dates of the services provided, and misused the word "except'' when she wrote, "Please except this as the invoice for services...'' The proper verb is "accept.'' Repeated attempts to reach Booker at home were unsuccessful.

I guess she does have understand of illiteracy, seeing as she is illiterate. She is a "private child care worker". We used to call them baby sitters.

? David K. DeShields of Sharon Hill was paid $13,000 for 36 days of work this summer.

DeShields is Curry's brother-in-law, or his wife's brother. He has an extensive criminal background.

The district has since acknowledged that some of the work -- specifically, a summer seminar DeShields was paid $5,000 to hold -- was never done.

Earlier this week, via an attorney, DeShields returned his $13,000 payment, in the form of a check to the district.

DeShields' invoices include a $5,000 July bill for providing "strategic planning, organizational development, facilitation of meetings and information sharing regarding Transformational Leadership and Reflective Practice.'' DeShields billed the district $3,000 for two days of consulting work in May for "organizational development consultations,'' according to an invoice.

DeShields has been arrested and served several prison sentences, dating back 20 years.

In 1984, DeShields pleaded guilty to burglary and the theft of four vehicles and later was sentenced to five years in prison and seven years' probation.

In 1990, police in Dover, Del., reportedly found him "clutching five $20 bags of cocaine in his right hand.'' DeShields pleaded guilty to resisting arrest, criminal impersonation, and possession of cocaine, according to records. He was given a concurrent sentence with the probation violation, according to records.

In 1998, DeShields was released from prison once again after his mother, Geraldine, posted $200 bail, according to records.

In 1999, he was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants.

It seems to me the only seminar he is qualified to lead is a seminar on choosing the proper bong or which denomination of money works best for snorting coke.

The sooner this sorry excuse for an administrator is gone, the better the kids will be. This money spent on his cronies could have hired a real reading specialist to help the kids of Lancaster learn to read. Mr. Curry's supporters are trying to play the race card, trying to portray him as being attacked by "the man" but a crook is a crook, be he white, black, brown, or purple. Seeing as how the schools in Lancaster are predominately black, Mr. Curry's supporters should be glad to see him go as he is wasting money that could be used to help black students. Maybe his supporters are mad that they won't get to be paid $13,000 to "privately consult" Mr. Curry.

Don't know what religion she is a priest of, but it ain't Christianity

This butchering bitch that happens to wear a priestly collar of the Episcopalian church came out saying that churches need to support butchering innocent children.

The abortion rights movement needs support of churches to keep abortion legal, an Episcopal priest told a gathering of about 30 people, including several state legislators, on the eve of the 31st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

"We must be active in every election and in every realm of government," said the Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, a Massachusetts priest who addressed Naral/Pro Choice Colorado at the Native American Trading Co., 1301 Bannock St.

Ragsdale said churches must join all aspects of the abortion-rights fight, including the blocking of so- called "conscience clauses" by physicians and medical personnel personally opposed to providing abortion services.

If you can't perform abortions, then find another job says the witch:

"We believe in conscience, but if you can't provide the full range (of services) choose another field," she said to applause.

To show even further how out of touch the sorceress is:

Ragsdale called conservative evangelicals opposed to abortion "a small and wacko fringe" and said an abortion-rights stance is a natural position for a Christian.

The 65 million Catholics, 16 million Southern Baptists, 4 million Orthodox in this country are certainly not small and consitute more than a fringe. 2 million is a fringe, especially a small subset of that 2 million. 2 million is the number of ECUSA members, and at least some remaining members are still pro-life. I haven't even included the Evangelicals, other Baptists, and the number of folks in denominations like Methodist, Presbyterian Church USA who are pro life even if their denominations leaders won't take a strong stance against abortion.

As far as the "natural position for a Christian part", I almost expect that from a member of a denomination, the Episcopal church, which disregards other tenets of the faith are merely advisory.

A jury with a clue

A jury found in favor of Southwest Airlines over a suit filed by 2 passengers who alleged they were "humiliated and degraded" on a flight.


KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Southwest Airlines is not liable for a flight attendant who upset two black passengers by using a version of a rhyme with a racist history, a jury determined Wednesday.

The two passengers, sisters Louise Sawyer and Grace Fuller, were heading home from a Las Vegas vacation nearly three years ago when flight attendant Jennifer Cundiff, trying to get passengers to sit down, said over the intercom, "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat, we gotta go."

The sisters say the rhyme was directed at them and was a reference to a racist version that dates to before the civil rights era.

I'm glad the jury did the right thing. With so many real problems in the world, I am weary of folks looking for offense.

He's black so you are racist if you criticize him

Back in Lancaster, PA the Superintendant of schools, a Mr. Ric Curry, is in a lot of hot water for paying consultants for work they didn't do, such as paying his ex-con brother in law $13,000 for work he never did.

Now, Mr. Curry's supporters are throwing around words like "lynching" for the treatment of Mr. Curry, stating that as the first black superintendant of schools for Lancaster City that ""I knew someday we would be in a forum where someone would be lynching that man.'' as said the good reverend Edward Bailey of Bethel AME church. ""Moses was a murderer, Paul was a murderer. All of us make mistakes.

"For the board to go behind closed doors and throw dirt on the fallen... I challenge the school board to admit the mistakes that they've made.''

I know Moses killed somebody, but Paul? I admit as a Catholic I lack the encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible that many Baptists have, but Paul did not directly kill anyone to my knowledge. This is a stupid analogy anyway, as Mr. Curry is accused of misappropriation of funds, not murder. To cry "wolf" during the week of Martin Luther King's birthday strikes me as an insult to the legacy of Mr. King. Nobody is faulting Mr. Curry due to his race, they are faulting him due to this and other "hirings" totalling $32,000. Living in Florida I had no knowledge of Mr. Curry's race until his "supporters" tried to make it an issue. I have one word for it: appalling.

Chomps Returns

It's Wednesday so it is time for another installment of Frank J's "In My World". In this episode, Rumsfield's faithful pet, Chomps the dog, goes wild on the democrat candidates and a few CNN reporters. Mega-thermonuclear drink alert in effect! You have been warned, so put the drink down or get some Brawny.

Pedophiles cannot be cured, exhibit 158453248

A former state trooper in PA, already under house arrest for possession of child porn was sentenced to an actual jail yesterday for violating his parole. He was found to have files on his computer at his parents' house, where he was serving his house arrest.

While a trooper in the Waynesburg barracks, prosecutors said Mason, of Aliquippa, downloaded three movie files and more than 500 photographs of young boys nude or engaged in sexual acts onto a state police computer. Other images were found on his home computer.

Mason was sentenced in August to nine to 18 months in prison, but Grimes allowed him to serve his sentence under house arrest at his parents' home.

A month later, authorities in Skippack Township, Montgomery County, arrested Mason after probation officials said they found printouts of young boys in bondage, videotapes in the basement and a laptop computer hidden under the former trooper's bed.

Lock him up and throw away the key. There is no reliable evidence that these trash can be rehabilitated, which is one (of many) of the mistakes the Catholic churches made in believing that abusive priests could be rehabbed. Whatever causes these monsters, they need to be locked up, and not just for short home arrest violations. Yes, I know there is no proof that this guy actually harmed any children, but for all of my free speech/libertarian leanings, possession of this rubbish deserves strong punishment.

Clark Craziness

In today's Pravda-on-the-Potomac, aka the Washington Compost, David Broder writes about the appeal of Wesley Clark. If Broder weren't so far to the left, he might actually see that Clark's appeal might not play in Peoria, or any other flyover states.

A New Hampshire Republican who walked into the gymnasium at the Pembroke Academy on Saturday afternoon and saw the crowd assembled to hear retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark had a one-word reaction: "Wow!"

At least 1,000 people had jammed the building in this Concord suburb (Clark's Web site estimated it at 2,000) for a rally 10 days before the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary.

John McCain was the last person to draw crowds of that size as he moved toward an 18-point win over George W. Bush in New Hampshire four years ago.

McCain lost. I don't think I would be so eager to compare myself with a loser.

While they (his opponents) have been busy in the cornfields, Clark has been camped here, polishing what now has become an effective stump speech. It is Reaganesque in tone -- consigning most of the policy specifics to the Web site and focusing on what he calls the core values of his campaign: patriotism, faith, family and leadership. Each of them, while evoking universal approbation, is given a sharp partisan edge.

Funny how libs like Broder spit on everything Reagan, unless it is to favorably compare one of their ilk to the 2nd greatest president of the 20th Century. Only Roosevelt was better: Teddy, the one that shot bears, not the one in the wheelchair. Anyway, on to the core values:

True patriotism, the wounded Vietnam veteran and retired four-star general says, is the opposite of the spectacle of George Bush "dressing up in a flight suit and prancing around on the deck of an aircraft carrier."

I do praise Clark as a patriotic man, as he went to West Point and served his country. However, he is more correctly described as a "fired four star general" and not retired, as Clinton relieved him from duty. As I watched the reaction of the sailors on the carrier, they were quite happy to see the Commander in Chief attempt a dangerous deck landing. This man also risked his neck to serve thanksgiving dinner to the troops in Iraq.

True faith, says this son of a mixed marriage of a Jew and a Methodist, who now considers himself a Catholic but attends a Presbyterian church, consists of heeding the religious obligation to help lift those who are in need -- "and the only party that does that is the Democratic Party."

Where to start with this one? I consider myself Catholic and actually attend a Catholic parish. Yes there is a "religious obligation to help those in need"; I consider fetuses to be a particular group in need, a need to be protected from the butchers of abortion-on-demand, who would murder a fetus well into a stage where the fetus is viable. Those precious children need to be protected and lifted up, and the only party that does THAT is the Republican party. The GOP has also lightened the tax load for millions of folks, to help them lift themselves up.

But the dilemma for the Clark campaign is that the things that might enable him to wrest the win from Dean in New Hampshire are not the things that would help him later on in the South.

Dean's support here is skewed liberal -- not just on the war but on social issues as well. As Clark competes for that vote, he finds himself moving left. He implied, for example, that he favored the right to abortion throughout pregnancy -- and then corrected himself. He promises not only to cut taxes for the working poor and middle class but to raise them for "the super-wealthy."

He has surrounded himself here with super-liberals and people whose rhetoric about Bush makes Dean seem like a pussycat. Civil rights activist Mary Frances Berry told the rally here that as a "peacenik," she believed Clark was the last person who would take the country to war. Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore called Bush "a deserter" for his unexplained absences from Vietnam-era Texas Air National Guard duty and said he loved the fact that Clark's tax plan "sticks it to the rich." On Sunday, Clark welcomed the endorsement of George McGovern, the symbol even to many Democrats of the political ruin that can result from veering out of the mainstream.

Michael Moore is poison; nobody with a brain would listen to his endorsement. He doesn't play well here in the south. Peaceniks still whining about the war or insulting Bush won't play well here in the south either. The war was/is pretty popular down here, and there is a higher concentration of military installations down here than in other parts of the US: Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune in NC, Parris Island in SC; Jax NAS, Pensacola and Eglin AFB in Florida, Fort Bennig in GA. McCarthy won 1, I repeat 1 state in 1972: Taxachusetts. Clark isn't doing himself any favors hanging with this crowd. We won't even start about Madonna.

D'oh!!! Bart!!!!

It seems the Cubans have built a Greek Orthodox Church, and The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I is going to honor Fidel Castro for his part in building the Cathedral.

HAVANA (AP) - The spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians will honor Fidel Castro with a church order in recognition of Cuba's construction of a new cathedral, regional church leaders said Friday.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will arrive in Cuba Wednesday to begin a visit, the first ever by the Orthodox Christian patriarch to Latin America.

Bartholomew will bestow the church's Order of St. Andrew on Castro for his government's construction of the new St. Nicholas Cathedral, to be consecrated by the patriarch on Jan. 25, regional church leaders said.

I looked on the website for the Patriarch and
found the Order of St. Andrew whose members are named by the Patriarch. Here are the criteria:

An Archon is an honoree by His All Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch, for his outstanding service to the Church, and a well-known distinguished, and well-respected leader of the Greek Orthodox Community (at large).

It is by the grace of God that the Archon has been able to offer his good works and deeds of faith. Further, it is the sworn oath of the Archon to defend and promote the Greek Orthodox faith and tradition. His special concern and interest is to serve as a bulwark to protect and promote the Holy Patriarchate and its mission. He is also concerned with the human race's inalienable rights wherever and whenever they are violated - and the well-being and general welfare of the Church.

I added the emphasis. Castro has never been confused with "being concerned with the human race's inalienable rights" given his brutal record of human rights violations. Maybe they should give him 30 pieces of silver, too, while they are at it.

Yet another reason to despise the French

This is another example of France sucking up to Islamofascists, in this case Syria, per the Jerusalem Post.

Nizar Nayouf has not only seen hell, he has even lived to tell about it. Barely.

Just 41 years old, Nayouf suffers from permanent spinal injuries, a failing left kidney, a bleeding gastric ulcer, and deteriorating eyesight. He also has paralysis in his lower extremities and unsightly disfigurements caused by cigarette burns that were anything but accidental.

The source of Nayouf's ailments, and the scene of his own personal hell, was Syria's Palestine Prison, which is run by the Syrian Intelligence Service or "Mukhabarat," famous for its unrelenting cruelty.

His crime? Founding a human rights organization and speaking out against a Ba'athist regime that has held Syria in a totalitarian grip for four decades.

Another example of the enlightened regimes in the Middle East. The assclowns of the left that like to criticize the US, especially their criticisms of Bush and Ashcroft, need to check out how dissidents are treated in places like Syria.

Despite his injuries Nayouf, an award-winning journalist, poet and human rights activist, remains committed to the cause that has guided his life for two decades: promoting a free and democratic Syria. Only now Nayouf has a new and surprisingly inhospitable base for his pro-democracy activities: Paris.

Nayouf was granted political asylum in France in July 2002 and fully expected his vocal opposition to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's regime to be welcomed by his new hosts. After all, it was former French prime minister Lionel Jospin who, in 2001, urged Assad to release Nayouf so he could receive proper medical attention in France.

Assad, eager to strengthen Syria's European ties, quickly consented. But after a promising start, Nayouf's French experience quickly turned sour.
Despite repeated requests by Nayouf during the last 18 months, the French government has refused to grant him access to official documents that would allow him to travel freely and continue his human rights work. Moreover, upon asking French authorities last month for the political refugee passport he was legally granted in 2002 (and is due to him by French law), Nayouf was denied yet again and told, much to his surprise, that he "already had" a Syrian passport.

No matter how many former Prime Ministers lobbied for Mr. Nayouf, the man in charge of France currently is Jacques ChIRAQ who loves cozying up to Ba'athist regimes. Given that reality, it comes as no surprise that France once again finds itself on the wrong side in a conflict involving a middle East dictator.

Agnes Vondermull, an official at the French Embassy in Washington, DC, said last month that Nayouf had been asked to turn his Syrian passport over to French authorities in 2002 but refused to do so. But Vondermull admitted that a refugee does not need such a passport to begin with, and that the two issues should not be connected.

In any case, Nayouf has an official document issued by French police stating that his Syrian passport has been missing since December 2002. It would appear, then, that there must be another reason behind Nayouf's bureaucratic nightmare.

THIS PAST November, according to Syrian sources, Ba'ath party official Haitham Manaa'? in a calculated effort to restrict the movement of Syrian opposition leaders ? falsely informed French authorities that all Syrians living in France had been granted Syrian passports. The French government's apparent decision to follow Manaa's guidelines has enabled Assad's regime to successfully inhibit the physical movement of some of its most outspoken opponents.

As a result, Nayouf remains confined to Paris, denied permission to attend Syrian human rights conferences, where he has often been invited as a featured speaker. Most recently he was unable to attend a November conference of Syrian democracy advocates in Washington, D.C. that spawned a fledgling Syrian Democratic Coalition led by the Syrian-born Farid Ghadry.

Damn frogs. Have they ever met a dictator they didn't fall down before and support? Is there a more useless nation in Western Europe?

Nayouf says he was "advised" by French police not to attend the conference and speak out against the Ba'ath Party. According to Basheer Bakr, a journalist from the newspaper Al-Hayat, a senior French official confirmed that his government did not want Nayouf participating in the conference.
While Nayouf is not the only ex-political prisoner on Syria's list of gag-order targets, his case is unique in that, like President Assad, he is an Alawite and hails from a family connected to the country's Ba'athist ruling apparatus.

For all the complaints about our "police state" we don't prohibit our citizens from going abroad to protest. Hell, let them all go overseas. Anyway, we have a bunch of Inspector Clouseaus "advising" an activist to not go to a conference. Again, whose the hell side are the frogs on?

A recent statement by US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice quoting Nayouf as the source for the location of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction buried in Syria could make his situation even more tenuous.

Indeed, during his most recent conversation with an official from the French Ministry of Interior, Nayouf was rudely dismissed and told to address his situation directly with France's Department of State.

This sheds some possible light on France's actions. Ch-Iraq was the leader of the axis of Weasel, not wanting Iraq to be invaded. France is alleged to have violated the embargo against Iraq and traded in arms, and it wouldn't surprise me if France helped Iraq with their weapons program.

Nayouf's case, following the vociferous French opposition to the American operation in Iraq, raises concerns about France's close relations with Middle Eastern dictatorships. Vongermull assured us that France is unwavering in its support of freedom and will be the last country to stop Nayouf, or any other activist, from continuing their pro-democracy work. But until the French government shows an inclination to put Vongermull's words into practice, questions will remain.

As for Nizar Nayouf, while he suffered many lasting wounds courtesy of Syria's Ba'athists, he vows that as long as his fingers can still touch a keyboard he will continue his resistance ? with or without French help.

Hell yes questions remain. France seems to value its relationships with Middle Eastern dictatorships more than values good relations with the UK or the US. Can we invade France? Let's have the next Boy Scout Jamboree in Paris, the French would blow out their rotator cuffs raising their hands to surrender to an invading army, even if they were just a bunch of teenaged American boys armed with nothing more than scout pocketknives and canteens.

The quagmire in California

George Will gives us the details of the mess in Cali, and it's not pretty.

Being director of California's department of finance is not for the faint-hearted. "Breathtaking" and "staggering" were among Donna Arduin's initial descriptions of the state budget, which is triple the size of Florida's, although California's population is only double Florida's.

She guesses that 75 percent of California's budget is controlled by constitutional or other state and federal mandates. None of the other states where she has done budget diagnostics matched California's entanglement in union contracts that limit competitive bidding by private-sector providers of services.

Government unions tend to be a bad thing, you gotta love having a contract that limits competitive bidding against you. Hopefully the Governator can be the Terminator with some of these unions. A favorable business climate would help revenues, but Arnold has major challenges there, also.

Then must come measures to decrease the cost of doing business in California. Concerning which, consider Buck Knives. Favored by sportsmen around the world, they have been made in San Diego since Hoyt Buck arrived there in 1947. By next year they will be made in Idaho, where the firm's immediate savings will include $500,000 in workers' compensation costs and a 60 percent decrease in utility bills.

The owner of five Hungry Howie's Pizza franchises near Fresno scrapped plans to add five more, with up to 70 new jobs, when energy costs tripled and workers' compensation quadrupled.

Multiply the businesses that do not come to, stay or expand in California and you have . . . Argentina, which in 1900 had a per capita income as high as Canada's. Or sub-Saharan Africa, which in 1950 had a per capita income as high as Southeast Asia's.

Argentina in 1900 was on the verge of becoming a world power, and I believe was in the top 5 countries for per capita income. Then came corruption, coups, and other upheaval. Could CA be next? Even those of us that love to hate Cali, and I am one of them, have a stake in the recovery of CA. It has an economy bigger than France, and is a major part of the US economy.

10 rules in making an SUV

Courtesy of today's Allentown Morning Call is the review of the Nissan Armada. It gives it a favorable review, but what I found funny were the "10 rules of SUV's". A sample:

Rule 5: You want fuel economy? Buy a Sentra.

For toting your two off-spring to school or running to Wegmans, doing so in an Armada is like dressing in a dinner jacket to go to a barbecue. It's overkill of major proportions. Gas mileage turned out to be about 13 mpg, which included a lot of highway driving. Thankfully, the Armada dines on regular fuel, lots of it.


Rule 7: Safe. Of course.

It's big isn't it?

Like any vehicle worth its salt these days, the Armada comes with the usual blizzard of safety features, including standard side curtain airbags, stability control, traction control and electronic brakeforce distribution. This ensures that you can stop and steer this leviathan without rolling over. Of course, you may be safe, but the guy in that fuel-efficient hybrid car is dead meat if you hit him. (Darwinism of the road, I like it!- ed.)

Rule 10: Ignore the tree huggers.

The Armada is certainly up to the full-sized SUV competition in every respect. It's obscene in its appetite, size and style. Just like any Big Three SUV, it will haul you through snow without having to miss a minute of the latest movie rental from Blockbuster.

The Taxman cometh in Pennsylvania

Taxes are on the rise in PA, as the income tax, cigarette taxes, cell phone taxes, and turnpike tolls are all on the rise, and the city of Pittsburgh chipped in by hiking the parking tax 50%. The Pittsburgh P-G does a piece with 3 fictional people and how much the hikes will affect them. It ranges from $71 to $2100 for this year.

My home state needs to attract business and people, and turning into Taxachusetts is not the way to do it. The P-G says this in
Todays editorial:

Responding to a fiscal mess that was allowed to fester for too long, City Council and Mayor Tom Murphy raised a tax under their purview that would draw dollars from more than just Pittsburgh residents. But, with the highest rate in the nation of 50 percent, it was too much. What brought them to this day was that they had done too little.

As if anyone had to draw a road map of where such folly leads, Federated, at the cost of 115 jobs and a 5-year-old building, laid it out. Downtown will not attract shoppers if more obstacles are thrown in the way -- astronomically high parking rates and tawdry blocks with no hope for revival. The list of impediments is too much. Those who want a better Downtown have done too little.

Today it's the death of Lazarus, the closing of Lord & Taylor and slow suffocation by a 50 percent parking tax. Tomorrow it's the departure of the Penguins, a glittering yet empty convention center and the loss of major companies. You can connect the dots; it's as easy as child's play.

Interesting piece about apostasy

I am Catholic, but I enjoy reading and learning about the Orthodox Churches and Judaism. While reading through some things on an orthodox web page, I came across this piece called "One Man in the face of Apostasy" about an Archbishop Averky. I admit, I don't know who he is, but the piece makes some good points for all Christians, even though he is definitely writing from a strong Orthodox viewpoint. I particularly liked these points:

For Archbishop Averky, the modern "ecumenical movement" was indicative of something else: the widespread disbelief in absolute Truth. Through this comes an unwillingness to take a stand for anything and a weak-willed acceptance or even justification of evil, all in the name of the most superficial ideas of "Christian love" and "peace. " Archbishop Averky expressed it thus:

In our times, when there are such strong doubts about even the existence of Truth, when every "truth" is considered relative and it is considered legal for each person to hold to "his own truth," the struggle for the Truth acquires a particularly important meaning. And the person who does not sympathize with this struggle, who sees in it only a manifestation of "phariseeism" and suggests "humbling oneself" before falsehood by falling away from the Truth, should naturally be recognized as a betrayer of the the Truth, whoever he might be, whatever he might call or consider himself.

Wow does this sound familiar, especially in ECUSA and other mainline protestant denominations, but also in the Catholic church with groups like Call To Action and various "Catholic" politicians whose voting records and speeches indicate a hostility to the catechism of the Church.

Archbishop Averky explained why the Orthodox Church, as St. Athanasius the Great once said, "must not serve the times." [20]

The Church never conforms to the world. Indeed not, for the Lord said to His disciples at the Last Supper, "You are not of this world." We must hold to these words if we are to remain faithful to true Christianity—the true Church of Christ has always been, is and will always be a stranger to this world. Separated from it, she is able to transmit the divine teachings of the Lord unchanged, because that separation has kept her unchanged, that is, like the immutable God Himself.

Again, the arguments of the revisionsists that the church "is out of touch" fail against this line of reasoning. As Christians we are not of this world.

"The Church," emphasized Archbishop Averky in another place, "was given to us for the salvation of our souls and for nothing else! We cannot make it a tool or an arena for the play of our passions and for the settling of our personal accounts."

This is a strong rebuke those trying to advance their political agendas using scripture. While it especially irks me when some lefty does it, I will concede that even those whose politics I agree with are guilty of this, and I have done it also. All in all it was an interesting piece and holds truths for all Christians.

"Freedom of the press", just don't tell the truth

Especially if you work for the BBC. Former MP Robert Kilroy Silk was fired from the BBC for expressing his views on Arabs forgetting that "the BBC's other employees are being forbidden to express controversial views in the press.". He also faces a criminal investigation for racism. What were the horrible things he wrote?

"Apart from oil - which was discovered, is produced and is paid for by the west - what do they contribute? Can you think of anything? Anything really useful? Anything really valuable? Something we really need, could not do without? No, nor can I.

"What do they think we feel about them? That we adore them for the way they murdered more than 3,000 civilians on September 11 and then danced in the hot, dusty streets to celebrate the murders? That we admire them for being suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors?"

The truth was always accepted as a defense in libel cases. What part of his words can be declared untrue? Name a vehicle produced by a company from the Muslim world. Or a television. Or a medicine. How about any esteemed centers of higher education? Nope, me either. They are suicide bombers. They do amputate limbs, such as chopping off the hands of thieves. They do oppress women, witness Afghanistan under the Taliban.

I'm Catholic, and I don't see any of my co-religionists blowing themselves up and killing innocent Orthodox over the filioque. My friend is Episcopalian, they are not into amputating the limbs of anyone violating the Book of Common Prayer (they make them bishops instead). My Jewish friends in college did not repress women; on the contrary their houses were run by a stong willed woman who oppressed them.

Victims of Terror

This page lists stories of the Palestinian attacks against innocents in Israel.

Immigration

Does this sound familiar:

The consequences for race relations in this country are grievous. As we should have learnt over the years, public confidence in government's ability to control entry from overseas in an orderly fashion is the key to decent race relations. That is why the increasing amount of eye-catching episodes caused by illegal migrants confirms an impression that ministers are not in control.

It's not the US, though; it's Great Britain. They are having a problem with immigrants, legal and otherwise. For instance, an Iraqi who illegally entered the UK has racked up 400,000 pounds worth of medical care due to an auto accident. The man was a passenger in a car that crashed. Oh, I forgot to mention it was a stolen car.

Go Teddy, it's your birthday



What the hell is Teddy doing? At least he isn't driving.

"Caravan of Love"



Supporters of Jacko are converging on the courthouse to support their "idol".

SANTA MARIA, Calif. ? A "caravan of love" made up of Michael Jackson fans converged on the courthouse here Friday, jostling for space as a crowd of media awaited the pop superstar's arraignment on child-molestation charges.

"There's strength in numbers," said Amber McCrary, 26, who got on a bus in a suburban Los Angeles Kmart parking lot along with her two young children.

A mother of 2 is going to support an alleged child molester??? What is her major malfunction? It could have been her children that were molested.

About 100 people of all ages prayed before the two chartered coaches left the Sunland area at about 4:30 a.m. Friday.

Other fans were streaming in from northern California and Las Vegas.

In Santa Maria, about 100 supporters gathered outside the courthouse, many singing Jackson's "I'll Be There" and hoisting signs that read "Stay Strong Michael" and "100% Innocent. We Believe In Michael Jackson. Leave Him Alone."

200 villages are now searching for their idiots. I have some other songs for Jacko that are apropos: "Pretty Young Thing" comes to mind, as some real big lifer gets a new bunkmate. Or "Beat It". Thinking of what happens to child rapers in prison, Jacko is about get hit by a bunch of "Smooth Criminal(s)". Prisons often have rats, maybe we should cue up "Ben".

In Los Angeles on Friday morning, six TV news camera crews shot footage of the Jackson supporters boarding buses before their expected three-hour journey to Santa Maria.

Sitting in the front passenger seat of one bus was a woman dressed as Charlie Chaplin.

"I'm Michael's favorite character," said Audrey Ruttan, 28, of suburban Van Nuys. "He loves Charlie Chaplin, and I'm here to support him and he's innocent."

Old Charlie had his demons too as he liked them young also, but with him it was young girls. Maybe not the best role model for Jacko. I realize this is happening in California, but I am amazed at the stupidity of these people.

Global Warming???

The Chicken Little warnings of Al Gore notwithstanding, it is pretty darn cold for much of the country. I'm in Florida but, as the title of the blog indicates, I'm a native of PA. Here is a sampling of temperatures in the northeast as of 8:45 am:

NYC: 7
Boston: -5
Hartford: 0
Portland: -7
Pittsburgh: 5
DC: 15

Pretty please put your hands up

The PC police are after the real police in Portland, Oregon for swearing too much. I wish I was making this up, but I am not.

The political correctness police are going after Portland's real cops, telling them to clean up their language or else.

The city's police review commission spent weeks conducting a profanity audit and found that there were 63 complaints over a year-and-a-half.

A "profanity audit"??!!?!?!?!? What the hell, oops, what the heck is going on there? I've been to the "Rose City" and enjoyed my stay, although my rental car was broken into at my hotel within 12 hours of my stay. I was staying near the big mall with the skating rink.

Under a new profanity policy, officers are only allowed to curse when they think it will help them avoid using force. And when they do, it's up to them to justify the obscene word in a written report.

That could lead to some funny reports. "Officer called suspect an SOB as the officer has arrested the suspect's mother and knows her to be a bitch."

Also, cops who curse will be tracked by the Portland Police Department (search) and could be disciplined if they receive too many complaints. But some officers say profanity is a tool that can help them get the respect and attention of crime suspects.

"You say 'put the God-damned gun down' and you say it in a way that communicates the seriousness of your intention, so that you avoid having to use deadly force," said Robert King, president of the Portland Police Association.

Some of the scum they deal with have limited vocabularies, and profanity is one of the few things they understand.

While some city leaders justify the attention paid to cursing, they admit that the flap shows that their department isn't plagued by more serious problems such as corruption or excessive force.

But critics of the profanity probe say it reveals a city out of touch, more concerned with a cop's language than making the job safer by cutting crime.

My brother is a cop, and he certainly isn't a vulgar man but he gets the attention of the bad guys. I liken police work to sausage. I want my sausage on a plate with some eggs and home fries. I do NOT want to know how it got there. Similarly, I want my criminals arrested, tried, convicted, and jailed. If the guy got mouthy and happened to resist arrest, well I don't need to know how he was put into custody.

Photo Caption time

Create your own caption to this classic:

Stupid celebrities bashing Bush

Drudge has posted transcripts from Move On's banquet to announce the winner of the anti Bush ad. Some excerpts of celebrities being stupid:

Margaret Cho: "I mean, I'm afraid of terrorists, but I'm more afraid of the Patriot Act."

Julia Stiles: I was afraid that Bill O'Reilly would come and, with a shotgun at my front door and shoot me for being unpatriotic.

Margaret Cho had a failed TV show and dated Quentin Tarentino. That's the extent of her fame. Julia Stiles, the snaggletoothed actress, doesn't strike me as an intellectual heavyweight. They wish they important enough that Bill O'Reilly and John Ashcroft would notice them.

"How are you supposed to kill the bunny?"

"You're so money and you don't even know it!" My son has decided sleep is optional tonight, but to my delight Swingers is on one of the many HBO channels. Great guy flick.

Shooting fish in a barrel

This link has a download to a cool video from an Apache helicopter helping some sand fleas meet Allah and the 72 virgins. Be patient, as the download takes a minute or 2 even on my high speed connection, but it is worth it. It has sound also.

Blasting the boomers

I found Victor Lams blog about the Boomers which states many things I have thought about the boomers. I found it thanks to Mark Shea.

the Boomer generation was the first generation to really selfishly turn on the next generation (my generation) and try to wipe it out through the holocaust of abortion and contraception. The boomers looked/do-look at the very existence of the Gen Xers as a threat to their youth ("Who are these youngsters? I'm the kid! I get the sex and the toys!") and when exterminating us failed (completely failed, I mean -- the Boomers have succeeded in severly crippling the welfare and future of this country by not having children), they robbed us of our innocence by, among other things, over-sexing us in our schools and media and tried to turn us into adults as quickly as they could.

Sky high divorce rates, soaring illegitimacy rates, STD's, drug abuse, abortion: some legacy the boomers leave behind. They are a generation that left the world in worse shape than when they inherited it.

Rachel's song

Aaron the Liberal Slayer has written a song for Rachel, "Pali Girl". A sample:

You know…
Saint IHOP Under the Bulldozers
But like, I don’t know, it’s going to be cool, y’know
So you can see my smile
It’ll be like really cool
Except martyrdom means like no more tofu with Ahmed
But NO BIGGIE…
It’s so AWESOME
It’s like TUBULAR, y’know
Well, I’m not like really violent or anything
It’s just like
I don’t know
You know me, I’m just like into like the hate the West stuff
Like JIHAD and like, I don’t know
Like my mother like makes me do the keffiyehs
It’s like so GROSS. . .

I found some fat in the US budget

I know, there's a lot of fat. But, courtesy of a anti-Israeli/pro-Paleswinian website I found that the US gives $568,744 a day to various Paleswinian agencies. Here is a chart of US expenditures:



That is $207,591,560 every year spent on homicidal, suicidal swine. That will pay for some prescriptions for granny, raises for the military, and a lot of DVD's for the manned missions to Mars and the moon. The money spent on Israel is a sound investment, as they are our only ally in the region and the only nation over there not sending thugs over here trying to blow us up.

LGF's Fiskie of the Year

Little Green Footballs presents the Fiskie of the Year to Rachel "The Pita" Corrie, for being flattened by a bulldozer trying to "protect" a house from being bulldozed by the IDF. Here is a picture of the wench in action, teaching the Paleswinian kids how to burn a mock US flag, before she met her destiny:


Aaron the Liberal Slayer has some fun at her expense, with an "Oh no, they've killed Rachel" picture:

Jesse Jackass looking to shakedown more corporations

Kenneth Timmerman in today's NY Post takes Jesse Jackass to task for Jesse's 7th Annual Wall Street Project conference.

Yesterday, self-appointed civil- rights activist Jesse Jackson began his seventh annual "Wall Street Project" conference, a fund-raising extravaganza intended to put on display the dazzling array of Jackson's corporate sponsors and shakedown victims. Unlike earlier years, however, this year's event is turning out to be less a show of force than a demonstration of Jackson's waning influence.

During the Clinton years, Jackson could count on keynote speeches from the Rainmaker-in-Chief and top cabinet members, whose blessings translated into millions of dollars in income for Jackson's supposedly nonprofit enterprises. This year, he's glad he could attract the former first lady, now the junior senator from New York. It's not certain how many big corporate donors Hillary will attract.

I hope that corporations are learning to not be afraid of Jesse, that his protection racket is being seen for what it is. One wonders if Jesse had an Italian last name if he would have convicted under RICO years ago?

Jackson still has his friends, and his backers. This year, as last, Time Warner will be a major sponsor, hosting the opening reception and two workshops. Jackson has long had a friend at TimeWarner's CNN, which hosted his weekly talk show, "Both Sides with Jesse Jackson," shortly before the 2000 elections. Perhaps they are thinking of a remake, just in time for this year's open season on George W. Bush.

One thing Jackson has understood with the savvy of the former street operator he is: Corporate America is easily aroused to guilt, and is willing to pay big money to assuage it. In recent years, Jackson has focused on two industries and milked them for millions of dollars in contributions to his Citizenship Education Fund and Rainbow PUSH Coalition: the telecoms, and the consumer banking and brokerage industry.

Both industries fit Jackson's bill as potential shakedown victims. Operating nationwide, they serve large numbers of consumers, including those in traditionally minority communities. That gives Jackson leverage for his satisfy-my-demands-or-I'll-boycott technique.

Victims have included telecoms SBC Ameritech, Verizon, AT&T and GTE, brokerages such as Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Solomon Smith Barney and banks such as Citicorp and Bank of America.

In case you don't remember, the merger of SBC and Ameritech was going to be protested by Jesse until some cash was thrown his way, at which point he gave them his blessing. Another victim was Toyota, who gave advertising contracts to minority owned advertising agencies to keep Jesse from boycotting them. The agencies were owned by close friends of Jesse.

These days, Jackson no longer needs to rely on the Blackstone Rangers to enforce his threats, the infamous Chicago street gang whose close ties to Jackson I exposed in my book "Shakedown." (Jackson's half-brother, Noah Robinson, is serving multiple life-sentences for drug-trafficking, murder-for-hire and racketeering in connection with gang-related activities, and was Jackson's business partner in his early Chicago days.)

Instead, he invites the authorities with the power to investigate his activities to keynote his conference and embraces them.

Under Clinton, Jackson hosted Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, whose portfolio included the Internal Revenue Service, which failed to investigate alleged financial improprieties by Jackson and his groups. He also invited New York State Comptroller Carl McCall, and later stumped for his ill-fated gubernatorial campaign.

McCall sat on the compensation committee of the New York Stock Exchange when it awarded $140 million compensation packages to former chairman Richard Grasso and invited Jackson to ring the closing bell. In 2000, the exchange gave Jackson $194,634, tax records show. With McCall and Grasso gone, so went the favors.

This reminds me of The Godfather, particularly the book version. Don Corleone's capos, Tessio, Clemenza and Sonny had thugs at their disposal eager to intimidate. Jesse has his Chicago gang members. As the Don grew more powerful he had bankers, judges, and Congressmen and needed his thugs less. Jesse has his congressman, controllers, and other pezzonovante.

Jackson also has invited as keynote speaker New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whose office is responsible for regulating charitable corporations operating in the state.

"This has all the appearance of a conflict of interest," says Ken Boehm of the National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group.

Jackson's groups present "a dog's breakfast of sloppy accounting," Boehm says. But with Spitzer in Jackson's camp, don't hold your breath for the AG's office to show any zeal in investigating complaints against the good Rev.

That's it, invite the man who should be investigating you to come speak at your conference and wine and dine him. Don Jesse knows how to run his enterprise.

More liberal hypocrisy from Fat Bastard

aka Ted Kennedy. There is an article about in NY Slimes about Texas A&M eliminating preferential admission policies for legacies, the sons and daughters of alumni of the university. Two parts of the article are what really interest me. The first:

Senator John Edwards of North Carolina has made the issue part of his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, saying legacy programs give an "unfair advantage" to those who do not need it.

While I oppose most things that Edwards favors, I respect that the son of a factory worker became the first member of his family to attend college. He graduated from NC State and the University of North Carolina's law school. What he did with his law degree, chase ambulances and drive up costs for everyone, doesn't detract from the Breck girl's academic accomplishments. So far so good, then we get this item:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, has also introduced legislation to require universities to put out detailed statistics on the race and income of the students who benefit from the practice.

The poster child for legacies, Ted "Fat Bastard Kennedy", coming out against legacies. He got his, nobody else get benefit. Per YTedK.com, a site dedicated to Teddy's scandals, come these examples of how he benefitted:

- Ted managed to graduate from prep school (Milton Academy) in 1950 with only a C average.
- Teddy was never a scholar, and his brother Jack once referred to him as "the gay illiterate".

- Despite his terrible grades, Teddy (like brother Robert) was admitted to Harvard as a "legacy", because his older brothers and father had graduated form there with such distinction.
- Yet even at Harvard, young Ted floundered.
- In his sophomore year he was expelled for cheating. He had been failing Spanish and feared it would keep him off the varsity football team.
- He paid a friend to take the exam for him.
- Ted's friend, however, was recognized when he turned in the exam book.

It is so easy to pick on the old Tedster, but it is still always a good time.

More Celebrity Stupidity

Per the entertainment section of MSNBC, Gwyneth Paltrow weighs in with her criticism of George Bush.

Last week, Madonna caused a stir with a strongly-worded endorsement of the presidential candidate on her Web site, as well as some tough words for the current administration.

Now, Paltrow is raising eyebrows by also blasting the president. “I think George Bush is such an embarrassment to America in the way that he doesn’t take the rest of the world at all into consideration,” the star said while promoting “Sylvia,” according to the Scottish Daily Record “And it all seems to be for him and his friends to keep getting richer at the expense of a nation, at the expense of the environment.”

Some are expecting Paltrow to take a cue from her fellow blond American transplant, Madonna, and throw her weight behind Clark, too. “Madonna is very serious about Clark, and is working hard to get people in her circle to join her,” says a source. Paltrow’s rep didn’t return calls for comment.

Considering Paltrow once played a very obese woman in Shallow Hal I find the line "throw her weight" pretty funny. Another airheaded celeb who is upset that Bush didn't have the full approval of the EUnich weasels before ridding us of Saddam.

Give 'em hell, Zell!

Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) has returned from a trip to Iraq and liked what he saw, and pulled no punches in his commentary about the Iraq invasion.

Sen. Zell Miller's support of President Bush and the Iraq war effort was confirmed last week after a trip to the beleaguered country.

He met L. Paul Bremer, chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, visited some of Iraq's 22 universities and some of the 240 operating hospitals, and marveled at the newfound religious and political freedoms that the Iraqi people now enjoy since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

22 universities. 240 hospitals. 0 plastic shredders.

In fact, Miller said, he visited the spot where Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed by American soldiers, as well as the warehouses that now hold their gold-plated AK-47s and $8,000 bottles of wine which "they enjoyed while their people starved and suffered."

Ah, the spawns of Satan, wondering where those 72 virgins are since they died as "martyrs." $8000 bottle of wine? My $10 red in my fridge tastes just fine, thank you very much.

"And yet, we have the anti-military crowd -- not just anti-war but anti-military crowd -- wringing their hands and fretting, 'What good can come of this?' " said Miller, a former U.S. Marine. "What good can come of this? We've given 26 million people the greatest gift of all: their freedom. That is the good that has come from this."

Amen, Zell! 26 million people don't have to worry about being gassed with mustard gas, fed into shredders, raped and tortured by the fedayeen, thrown off of buildings, or just simply shot. Iraq's neighbors no longer need worry about Hussein's evil intentions towards them.

Miller spoke Monday night at the annual meeting and dinner of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, which kicked off the 2004 session of the General Assembly.

The Democratic senator, who has angered some in his party with his conservative and pro-war views, has become one of the most visible and outspoken leaders in Washington because he has resisted party politics.

He has been a staunch supporter of Bush and the use of military force, once declaring on the Senate floor, "Bomb the hell out of them," after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Miller even likened Bush's strong stance on the war and against terrorism to the voice of Winston Churchill during and after World War II.

He said he was disgusted when America did virtually nothing after terrorist attacks in 1993 (World Trade Center), 1996 (the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia), and 1998 (when 263 people were killed in attacks in Kenya and Tanzania).

"I had come to believe that unless America found its own version of Winston Churchill, that the same spirit of appeasement, that same kind of softness and self-indulgence was turning my country into a land cowering before the world's mad bullies," Miller said.

Yes!!! Neville Chamberlain Clinton is gone, and GW Bush is in charge, and we are making our enemies pay. The Al-Qaeda's of the world had no incentive to NOT attack us, as we had shown an unwillingness to retaliate, even going back to my favorite president Reagan. The Beirut bombing should have been met with fierce retaliation, one of the few mistakes in foreign policy that Reagan made, or at least the State department under Reagan. We emboldened our enemies by letting them commit progressively more brazen attacks with no consequences.

Blasting the child protection racket

Wendy McElroy takes some deserved shots at the horrible state of the child protective services racket in our country. This is one of Emperor Misha's pet peeves and he has devoted many entries to the criminal neglect and downright kidnapping of children, and how they are more concerned with their own image than actually helping the most vulnerable members of our society. Wendy sums it well:

I've been staring at a photograph of Anthony for the last half-hour. His death is a microcosm of the brutal indifference of bureaucracy, a brutal indifference that I sometimes feel creeping into my own heart. Perhaps the only way to push back the darkness is to care about the details, about the individuals. Because, ultimately, if our system and its rules doesn't serve the individual, then it doesn't serve anyone.

Here is a link to the story about Anthony's death and absence of any punishment to the caseworkers.

UPDATE: The Emperor Misha lets his feelings be known on this story. As usual, there is no holding back from him, unless you consider that he has not driven from Texas to Indiana with his impressive arsenal to deliver some justice.

The Methodists have their nutjobs too

Such as the minister staging a hunger strike to "call attention to human rights abuses of Iraqi citizens by American troops."

The Rev. Frederick Boyle of the Titusville United Methodist Church in west-central New Jersey attracted attention in February when he spent more than a week in Iraq before the anticipated bombing campaign to call attention to its potential impact on civilians.

With U.S. and other coalition forces still occupying the country 10 months later, Boyle's attention has remained on the war's civilian victims.

Iraqis have been subject to searches in the middle of the night, detentions without charges, destruction of their homes and property, and injury and death, Boyle said.

"What matters now is how we allow Americans occupying a foreign country to portray our values as a nation under God," said Boyle, 54. "We are a compassionate nation and we must not allow our fear of terrorism to transform us into the very thing we detest."

In October, Human Rights Watch, an independent investigatory group, reported 20 documented deaths in Baghdad between May 1 and Sept. 30, and "credible" reports of 94 deaths, involving what the group characterized as "questionable legal circumstances that warrant investigation."

During that same period probably 100 people were murdered in DC. I'd love to know the full story of the Iraqis that have been detained and searched, they most likely gave the troops good cause to detain and search them. What the report fails to mention that since the invasion not one person has been fed feet first into a plastic shredder, raped or threatened with amputation.

Clinton surfaces...

....and proceeds to waste oxygen while speaking in Qatar, telling Muslims not to judge the US based on Israel and for Americans not to judge Muslims based on 9/11. This part shows how clueless some folks are about the situation:

"Sometimes I feel that our country is judged by many Muslims based on how they think the Mideast peace process is going, and whether they think we are doing enough to try and give the Palestinians a state and a decent future. That is not the only standard," Clinton said. "America's support for Israel is not rooted in hostility to the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians," Clinton said.

Those poor "stone throwers" of Palestine. By the way, those "stones" are concrete building blocks:

Loony Lefitists on Lake Erie

This article was in the Erie Times News but I can't link it, as their web page is not user friendly with linking stories. A collection of vegans, Indian activists, pacifists and other loonitarians gathered in Erie for a "Total Liberation Fest 2004". Here is the article, with my smart aleck comments:

Back in the days when American Indian activist Russell Means was firing pistols at U.S. military jets flying over Wounded Knee, S.D., it was big news.

So, too, would have been the treatment received by a weekend festival in Erie, he said.

"The way you've been treated, it would have been national news," Means told about 200 people at Total Liberation Fest 2004.

Means, one of the members of the American Indian Movement who occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days in 1973, was a featured speaker at the two-day festival. It also drew representatives of radical environmental and animal liberation movements.

Unfortunately this thug isn't serving time along with Leonard Peltier, another darling of the left. Too bad the jets didn't fire back at him. I can see where this conference is headed:

The event, which also included bands, was billed as "a revolutionary conference on state repression, political prisoners, social justice, and earth and animal liberation."

But Means and the others almost didn't have a place to speak.

Festival organizer Ian Hamilton was turned away by several halls and clubs.

The festival finally found a home Saturday at the Continental Ballroom before moving Sunday to the Erie Art Museum Annex in downtown Erie.

Despite the trouble finding a venue, Hamilton said the event went well, with "hundreds" of people going in and out over the two days.

"It's been a total success," he said Sunday evening.

The festival drew people from around the world.

People came "from around the world" and they only drew "hundreds?" This is a "total success"? I'd hate to see what a complete and utter failure would look like.

One young man, who gave his name as Hallgeir, said he came from Norway.

"I wanted to check out all the speakers," he said after getting Means to sign a copy of his autobiography.

Mike Leppla traveled from his home near Cleveland to hear and talk to Means.

Leppla, 47, said he's concerned about the "complete breakdown in community." He said he wants a better life for his 19-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter.

Many in the crowd were not much older than Leppla's children. Means spoke to the young people about the world left to them.

"This is the world your folks and their folks have given to you, a world of graft and corruption at every level of leadership," he said.

Means, who was born an Oglala/Lakota and described himself as "a Libertarian politically," said he used to favor militant and armed insurrection.

Instead, he urged his listeners Sunday to know the U.S. Constitution and the rights it gives them.

He also pushed for the replacement of patriarchy with matriarchy.

Means said thousands of years of history record that men are incapable of leadership.

"Matriarchy is a balanced society, in which you celebrate all sexes' strengths," he said.

No offense, because Margaret Thatcher kicked ass as the Prime Minister of the UK, but that is stupid.

Prior to Means, the crowd heard from Steven Best, an author and philosophy professor from the University of Texas.

Best talked about animal rights to an audience wearing patches and pins with messages such as "meat is murder."

He gave statistics, such as 48 billion for the number of farm animals killed around the world annually. He said "billions more die in the name of so-called" science, entertainment and fashion.

"Animal rights is the next step in human moral evolution," Best said.

Excuse me while I finish my slice of meat lovers pizza and kick off my leather loafers. I had chicken earlier, it was quite tasty. If the best these folks can do is meet in ERIE of all places, in single digit temperatures in January, then I don't think we need to pay any more attention to these goofs.

Welcome Visitors

And thanks to Chris at Midwest Conservative Journal for linking me. It appears my comments program is down, so please come back if you wish to comment.

I am a native of PA who lives in Gainesville, FL, near the craziness of the University of Florida. I am a former ECUSA member who swam the Tiber a few years ago, but still follow and like to comment on the mess. I am on the conservative side of most issues, and am a strong supporter of the police as my brother is a police officer. Other than that, I post whatever strikes my fancy.

ECUSA meets The Lion King



I bought The Lion King DVD the first day it was available. My excuse was "it's for my son" but he is only 7 months so it's really for me. I was struck by the similarities between the movie and ECUSA.

In the beginning, the prideland is a veritable Eden, plenty of water and food for everyone, and there is peace. Then there is a coup, and the evil Scar assumes power, makes a deal with the parasitic hyenas who consume and lay waste to the pride lands. The rightful heir to the throne Simba, is driven from the pride lands after his father is murdered, but eventually returns home and restores the pride land.

Up until the 1960's, ECUSA was "the Republican party at prayer." It was a conservative denomination, fairly orthodox, and was strict about matters such as divorce. It also had a large membership. Starting in the 60's with bishop Pike, the irregular Philadelphia ordinations (which revisionists conveniently forgot when criticizing the AMiA consecrations), the 1979 Prayer Book, and then finally bishop Griswold and I AM GENE, the "Scars" of ECUSA made their pacts with various hyenas, and have turned ECUSA into a theological wasteland.

Are there any Simbas out there? Are there any Anglicans who have been driven into exile who wish to return to try to salvage things? I admit, I fled the church and swam the Tiber and am now a Catholic. My family's heritage is Catholicism so it was pretty easy for me to do. I went from someone earnestly interested in following my calling to the priesthood to completely leaving ECUSA.

Ironically, it was a week spent at The General Theological Seminary in New York that finally drove me from ECUSA. I am looking forward to becoming a deacon in the Catholic church when my son is older, but gave up any chance at the priesthood to follow true orthodoxy.

Reasons for being a democrat (satire)

This hilarious parody is from Iowahawk and is spit out your drink funny, so put down your drink:

I sometimes hear the question, "Why are you a Democrat?" and frankly, I have to laugh. Laugh and laugh, because perhaps this person may tire of my laughing, and he will eventually wander off. Sometimes I ponder seriously when I hear this question, because I'll look around and around and there's nobody there asking the question. Why am I a Democrat?

I am a Democrat because I believe everyone deserves a chance. And if necessary, a second chance. And if, by the eighth or ninth chance, this guy needs another chance, I mean, come on. This guy is due.

I am a Democrat because I believe in helping those in need. All of us, you and I, have an obligation to those less fortunate. You go first, okay? I'm a little short this week.

I am a Democrat because I believe in the equality of all people, regardless of their race. That is why I think we should give free medical degrees to minorities because, well, duh. Like any of those types are going to make it through medical school.

I am a Democrat because I fervently believe in tolerance. Tolerance is critical in our diverse society, and if you have a problem with that, mister, then I will inform the authorities and I bet that after a few hours in their "special room" you too will agree that tolerance is critical.

I am a Democrat because I believe that we should take our noses out of other people's bedrooms. I say we move the noses to their banks and storage sheds and scout troops, and so forth.

I am a Democrat because I hold sacred freedom of the press, as well as freedom of the TV and freedom of the movie. Where I draw the line is freedom of the talk radio, and don't even get me started about that damn Internet business.

I am a Democrat because I recognize that education is important. Very, very, extremely very important. We must increase spending on education and enact important education reforms, such as eliminating standardized tests. Because we can never hope to measure this beautiful, elusive, important thing we call education.

I am a Democrat because I believe in the separation of church and state. We must stop the religious extremists who want school-sanctioned prayers. Now, you tell me - with all that chanting and praying and incense-burning going on, how can our kids concentrate on the big condom-and-banana midterm?

I am a Democrat because I believe in the rights of women, be they lawyers or housewives or skanky interns. For too long women have been the victims of discrimination, and we must target programs to help these women, and also the various people who have descended from women.

I am a Democrat because I believe in women's right to choose. I mean, not a church school or a tax shelter, or something like that, obviously. Let's be reasonable.

I am a Democrat because I believe in the rule of law. Or, at least, lawyers. Because hey, according to my attorney, I could have been on the Number 7 bus when it crashed yesterday. As far as you know.

I am a Democrat because I believe a healthy economy depends on good jobs at good wages. So fork 'em over, you fat bastard boss man.

I am a Democrat because I believe the government should step in to create good jobs when that fat bastard boss man moves my good job to Mexico. Hey, I know! Maybe we can take all the money that boss man spends on non-job-creating stuff, like solid gold yachts and mink spats, and use that money to create jobs.

I am a Democrat because I fear the power of giant unrestrained monopolies, such as Microsoft, Nike, Parker Brothers, Univac and the Erie Canal Company. The government must wage an unrelenting, all-out war to crush these scary monopolies to a pulp before they get too powerful.

I am a Democrat because I believe in a strong military. Strong, yes, but caring and thoughtful too, and ready to face new challenges. A military that enjoys long strolls on the beach, cuddling in front of a warm fire, unafraid to show its vulnerable side. Must be NS/DDF.

I am a Democrat because I believe there is too much violence in society, especially in our schools. To avoid another Columbine tragedy, we should have mellow "rap" sessions with at-risk teens, such as the Goths. The violence will only end after the teen Goths see that we adults really care, and are "hip" to their groovy teen Goth scene.

I am a Democrat because I believe in campaign finance reform. Sadly, our politics are dominated by advertisements, paid for by the contributions of giant corporations. All too often, these drown out legitimate grassroots opinions, like the kind heard on TimeWarner-AOL-CNN, TimesCorp, or Disney-ABC.

I am a Democrat because I believe in public support of the arts. By "the arts," I of course mean those things made by, or excreted by, an artist of some sort. It is especially important that art be provocative and take controversial stances, like opposing Jesse Helms, and so on.

I am a Democrat because I believe in the environment and conservation. For instance, we must raise the price of gasoline, like they do in Europe, to increase conservation. If we don't, there will soon be a big gas shortage, and this will mean higher gasoline prices for you and me.

I am a Democrat because I detest greed. Especially the sickening greed of those who struck it rich in the 1980s, and greedily refuse to give me any of their stuff.

I am a Democrat because I... hey look! A new episode of Survivor! Geez, I hope they don't vote off Jenna, she's my favorite.

Give this guy a medal

Here in Gainesville an irate father pummeled a sex offender with an ax handle.

A Gainesville man was arrested Tuesday morning after authorities said he used an ax handle to beat up a convicted sexual offender who authorities said touched his son.

Roosevelt Henry Reed, 29, just moved into a halfway house at 1580 SE 33rd St. on Monday, Alachua County Sheriff's Lt. Jim Troiano said. Reed got out of prison in July after serving a five-year sentence for lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 16, according to Department of Corrections records.

An 11-year-old boy was staying at the halfway house, which is owned and operated by the boy's relatives.

The boy woke up at about 2 a.m. Tuesday to find a man rubbing his stomach and leg, Troiano said. He screamed and another man sleeping in the room woke up and yelled at the man, who fled. Relatives called the boy's father, who found Reed walking in the 2300 block of Hawthorne Road. The man hit Reed several times with an ax handle.

Good for the father, although I question allowing the boy to stay at a halfway house.

Reed was treated by paramedics and then arrested on charges of battery and burglary.

He wouldn't have been conscious if he touched my son. At minimum, we're talking ICU as I would have beat the guy into a bloody pulp. I am not just talking tough, I'd have beaten they guy.

The boy's father, whose name The Sun is withholding to protect the identity of the victim, was arrested on charges of aggravated battery. Troiano said that while the father's feelings are understandable, authorities can't allow that kind of vengeance.

The guy should get a medal, or 15 minutes alone with the piece of garbage to finish the job.

Reed won't be allowed to return to the halfway house or to go anywhere near the boy, Troiano said. And while some sexual offenders aren't allowed near children, Reed had no such prohibition, Troiano said. Reed has served two prison sentences for lewd and lascivious acts on children.

And this is what really infuriates me. This guy has had two bites of the apple already, and the revolving door justice system lets him out to molest more kids. Thankfully this kid yelled for help. Time to take up a collection for a carton of smokes for the biggest, baddest guy on the cellblock to make this scum his personal bitch before strangling him.

Catholic diocese audits

The audit conducted of US Catholic dioceses is completed and some of the results are being released. I just wish that all dioceses had followed the lead of the diocese of Pittsburgh and their handling of abuse allegations.

The auditors gave Pittsburgh a commendation for "the overall high quality of diocesan response to the spirit and words of the Charter." It noted that Pittsburgh's written policies date to 1993, that Bishop Donald Wuerl or his representative have met or offered to meet with accusers and that the diocese notifies the district attorney of all complaints, even when not legally required to do so.

The return of Frank J

George Bush makes HIS video for Al Jazeera. Let the hilarity ensue!

Mark Steyn and the differences between the US and the UK

He defends gunownership in response to some EUnich expressing disagreement with Mark and his "gung ho hillbilly culture":

"You may criticise the Swedish police," continued Ms Widung, "for being inefficient in solving murders, but I prefer to live in a culture of peace and solidarity to one of fear and gung-ho mentality. Better a nanny-state baby than Mark Steyn's 'citizen'."

Whatever. Steyn is great as usual, check out these excerpts and then read for yourself:

Now I understand Ms Widung prefers her "culture of peace and solidarity". I think this means that, when confronted by a ne'er-do-well, she'd hold hands and sing What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love. I wouldn't personally recommend this, because, if he wasn't in a murderous rage beforehand, he almost certainly will be by about halfway through the middle-eight.

Thanks to burglar alarms, British criminals have figured out that it's easier to wait till you come home, ring the door bell, and punch you in the kisser. In my part of the world, that's virtually unknown. In America as a whole, 12.7 per cent of burglaries are of "occupied homes"; in Britain, it's 59 per cent. Installing a laser system may make your property more secure, but it makes you less so. As for Ann Widung's "culture of fear", it's not American therapists but English ones who've made a lucrative speciality out of treating children traumatised by such burglaries.

Syria, you're next

The President of Syria says we've got our biological weapons and we're keeping them:

Syria is entitled to defend itself by acquiring its own chemical and biological deterrent, President Bashar Assad said last night as he rejected American and British demands for concessions on weapons of mass destruction

And we are entitled to bomb them even further back into the Stone Age, which should only take about 15 minutes. We'll do it during halftime of the Super Bowl, so I can switch to Fox News instead of watching whatever travesty is being called "entertainment".

Kosher Capitalism

A Pittsburgh rabbi has started a Kosher cruise line. It features a kosher kitchen and other amenities for the religiously observant Jews that book a cruise with them.

I'm not Jewish, but I think this man has found a niche that should prove to be profitable. As a Catholic I can't really think of any reason to have a Catholic cruise company, except maybe all night bingo games :-) I wish Mr Shollar well with his venture.

So long to a great one

Tug McGraw died at age 59 from his battle with brain cancer. He was a great pitcher and quite a character, my first memories of him are from the 1980 world series and admiring how cool he was under pressure. Rest in peace and condolences to his family, which includes his son Tim McGraw, the country music superstar.

Don't touch my license plate

I'm a Republican and a strong supporter of the police, but I do not agree with this proposed law. Florida has 88 specialty tags, and this GOP state senator wants to make sure there are no more. I have had 2, currently we have the United We Stand plate on both vehicles. I like the variety and the ability to show my support for various groups or causes.

Keep these bastard behind bars

A cop killing piece of garbage is hoping to be granted parole after

serving 30 years for executing 2 police officers.

Bell is one of three Black Liberation Army terrorists who on May 12, 1971, savagely murdered New York City Police Officers Joseph Piagentini, 28, and Waverly Jones, 33 - for no other reason than that they wanted to "off some pigs."

Bell and his cohorts - Anthony Bottom (a/k/a Jalil Muntaqim) and Albert Washington - set an ambush for the two cops, then gunned them down in cold blood.

Piagentini, hit by more than a dozen bullets, pleaded for mercy. Bell then took the wounded cop's gun from its holster - and fired the fatal shots.

Trendy radicals are mounting a campaign to free Bell on parole. We can do our part to keep him behind bars, make sure the letters get there by February 2nd:

KEEP HERMAN BELL ON ICE

N.Y. State Board of Parole

97 Central Ave.

Albany, NY 12206

Or e-mail your view to:

justice@nypost.com

Headline of the decade

Courtesy of the New York Post

We've found ONE good frenchman

And on top of THAT, he is a reporter who took the french media to task for their blatant Anti-American bias in reporting on Iraq. Courtesy of an editorial in the NY Post:

Alain Hertoghe, a reporter for the daily La Croix, thought it appropriate to evaluate the performance of the French press in reporting the war, from the time of the first strikes on Baghdad to the fall of Saddam's regime three weeks later. His book, "La Guerre a Outrances" (roughly, "All-Out War"), concludes - not surprisingly - that French journalists were so biased that "readers can't understand why the Americans won the war."

So caught up were the reporters in the wave of opposition to the war that "as soon as there were a couple of wounded or dead, they were [making comparisons] to Vietnam and Stalingrad."

Indeed, he wrote, French journalists "dreamed of an American defeat."

Unfortunately for Monsieur Hertoghe, the only newspaper to really pay any attention to him was his own, which fired him citing "a lack of confidence" in his work, and claiming that he'd damaged the paper's reputation.

I'll use the editorial's author's own words sum up the situation:

This isn't the first time the French have responded to embarrassing revelations with stiff-necked denial.

It took decades before the French myth of resistance to Hitler was shattered by proof of the extent of the country's collaboration with the Nazis.

Ah, well. It's not as if they're fooling anyone but themselves.

Even the publick skools are starting to get it

The Gainesville fish wrapper did an article about how kids don't know their history. Samplings:

When U.S. soldiers captured former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein last month, Eastside High School teacher Henry Couch took it as an opportunity to discuss current events with his students.

But not everyone in 12th-grade economics was ready for the discussion.

"Two kids didn't know who Saddam Hussein was," Couch said.

Instead of being the exceptions, Couch said he sees more high school seniors who don't know basic facts, such as: which countries fought on what side during World War II, the importance of St. Augustine to U.S. history and the relationship between the Gettysburg address and the Civil War.

Among fourth-graders, nearly three-fourths could not identify which level of federal government passes law. (Congress)

Among eighth-graders, only 35 percent knew that the number of electoral votes for each state is based on its representation in Congress.

Among 12th-graders, only a fourth could list two ways in which the American system is designed to prevent absolutism and arbitrary power. (The system of checks and balances prevents a certain branch of government from getting too powerful and the amendment process allows laws to be altered to fit the best needs of the citizens.)

What history they do learn is corrupted by PC textbooks:

The nation's schools are telling an unbalanced story of their own country, offering students plenty about America's failings but not enough about its values and freedoms, stated "Education for Democracy," a 2003 report from the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute.

Based on studies of textbooks, research by authors and other reviews, the report contends students get a distorted view that their country is flawed.

In a push to give a warts-and-all account of the struggles of democracy, schools have turned the nation's sins into the essence of the story instead of just a part of it, the report states.

"We give the impression that the entire system is and always has been corrupt - so why be involved?" said Bovee, also social studies coordinator for Collier County schools.

The report criticizes a lack of teaching about undemocratic societies, saying the comparison could magnify the "genius" of America's system.

Poor little skateboarders

A businessman in San Diego has ticked off the skateboard community by inventing some speed bumps called skatestoppers which make sidewalks and curbs unskateable.

"We've got customers that have, just here in San Diego, spent upwards of twenty, twenty-five thousand dollars replacing broken granite simply because of skating and biking," said Loarie, whose business Intellicept sells the product.

But skateboarders are furious that the pastime they're so passionate about is being kicked to the curb.

"It's kind of stupid to put them on the ledges and just ruin a nice-looking park," said skater Jacob Witkowski. "I mean, we don't ruin them that much by skating on the ledges."

Property owners beg to differ, many of them complaining of crumbled, scratched or gashed concrete and granite the skaters have left in their wake.

Let the kids skate in skate parks, they do cause quite a bit of damage to marble and cement.

Keeping us safe

A good article by the always reliable Steve Dunleavy of the NY Post covers the graduation of a police academy class for NYPD, in particular the graduation of a now 3rd generation NYPD officer. One part of the story shows how much Dunleavy appreciates the police, as should we all:

When I heard "The Star Spangled Banner," when I looked at cops who had been shot many times, when I recognized I was safe as a house, I knew why I loved these guys and gals.

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years to all. What a year 2003 was for me. First and foremost my son was born and I became a father for the first time. I could write several entries about all the changes and happy times and stressful times. I started blogging in 2003, I found out I was Type II diabetic, bought a new truck, and served as best man for the wedding of two very good friends. A family friend, who was a Pennsylvania state trooper, died in the line of duty. That hit hard, I went to school with him, his sister and his wife, and my brother is a police officer. Thankfully 2003 had few bad moments in comparison to the good times, and here is to a good 2004.

I like this idea

Per Fox News, recently released British intel reports believed that Nixon wanted to
invade and control Arab oil fields after the 1973 oil embargo.

A British intelligence committee report from December 1973 said America was so angry over Arab nations' earlier decision to cut oil production and impose an embargo on the United States that seizing oil-producing areas in the region was "the possibility uppermost in American thinking."

Is it too late? I like the idea of it. I wish we would have followed through with it.

The committee of intelligence service directors calculated that the United States could guarantee sufficient oil supplies for themselves and their allies by taking oil fields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, with total reserves of more than 28 billion tons.

It warned however that the American occupation would need to last 10 years, as western nations developed alternative energy sources, and would lead to the "total alienation" of Arab states and many developing countries, as well as "domestic dissension" in the United States.

We have had troops over there since the end of the first Gulf War, which was 13 years ago. The Arab states hate us, so I wonder how different "total alienation" would be? Does it mean they wouldn't blow us up? We have quite a bit of domestic dissension now, how different would that be?