Taylor Swift Greatest Female Leader

Taylor Swift Greatest Female Leader
World’s greatest female leader.

Fortune magazine has declared Berks County, Pa. native Taylor Swift the world’s greatest female leader — and fifth overall.

It kind of makes you want to cry on your guitar.

On the upside, Katie Perry is not on the list.

Nor is Hillary Clinton for that matter

Taylor Swift Greatest Female Leader

 

Detroit Residents Face Foreclosure

Detroit Residents Face Foreclosure
Thank you liberals, for all you have done.

Today, March 31, is the deadline for property taxes to be paid on 62,000 Detroit homes else they will be owned by the county, in this case the County of Wayne, Michigan.

Granted only 18,000 of the delinquent  homes are occupied but assuming a three-person household that’s about 8 percent of the city’s population which is now down to 688,701. In 1950, it was touching 2 million and Detroit was considered one of the world’s great cities.

What happened? Democrats. Motown was run by Republicans in its glory day up until 1962.

Property taxes, of course, are a local tax used to fund services such as police, schools, and spa massages for the mayor.

For what it’s worth, Detroit public service retirees expecting a stable financial future have already taken a big hit. It’s something Pennsylvania public workers ought to recognize in working to resolved this state’s existing crisis. In any battle between ink on paper and reality, reality wins.

Detroit Residents Face Foreclosure

Religious Specifics Unnecessary For PSSA Opt Out

Joanne Yurchak has sent us the following for those parents wishing to opt-out of the PSSA and/or Keystone exams:

It is well known that the only reason available for parents to opt their children out of the PSSA’s and/or the Keystone exams is if they find that the test(s) are in conflict with their religious beliefs. Religious Specifics Unnecessary For PSSA Opt Out In order to establish this, the parent has to follow a specified procedure that involves (1) contacting the school administrator; (2) viewing the test; (3) signing a confidentiality agreement; and finally, (4)notifying the district Superintendent that you are opting out your child because of religious beliefs.  The opt-out procedure is detailed on the web site: http://optoutpa.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-to-opt-out-of-pssa-and-keystone.html.

The parent is NOT required to note any specific religion or specific objections.  In fact, a reputable attorney associated with legislators in Harrisburg has said that it is ILLEGAL for districts to demand to know specific religious objections and for them to “validate” other people’s religions.

Unfortunately, there are many school districts who are misinforming parents as to proper procedures for opting out.  Many are telling them that they have to cite specific religious reasons for opting out, while others are telling the parents that they must explain why specific problems on the tests conflict with their religious beliefs.  The latter instruction could actually put parents in legal jeopardy since a part of the test-viewing procedure requires that parents sign a confidentiality agreement promising that they will not divulge the contents of the test to anyone!

Religious Specifics Unnecessary For PSSA Opt Out

Je Suis Rush Limbaugh

Californian John Adams, who Ed Driscoll of PJMedia.com calls the most famous and important classical composer in the world, premiered his new work Scheherazade.2, March 26, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the heart of hip Manhattan. Je Suis Rush Limbaugh

Adams introduced his work saying he was motivated by an exhibition he saw in Paris concerning the legendary Islamic queen Scheherazade. If you don’t know the story, it concerns  an Islamic Persian king who upon marrying a new wife would behead the old one. He had gone through a thousand women by the time he got to Scheherazade.

Scheherazade, of  course, had a plan. Before her beheading, she asked to bid farewell to her sister.  The king consented and during her farewell she told the sister a story which the king overheard. She stopped in the middle as dawn was breaking and the king asked her to continue. She said should couldn’t as it was time for her beheading. The king postponed the execution for a day so she could finish it for him. She did the next night but started another which again stopped in the middle before dawn. So the king again postponed things and this went on for 1,001 nights and become the inspiration for Bugs Bunny cartoons and Walt Disney movies.

Anyway by the time the stories were finished, the king had fallen in love with Scheherazade and she lived happily ever after with a serial killer.

Adams said that after seeing the exhibit he read One Thousand and One Arabian Nights and was appalled by “casual brutality toward women” it depicted. During this time, he also began reading of the treatment of women in various third-world Islamic-influenced places such as Egypt and Afghanistan.

So he explained this to his audience at his work’s premier, and then for some bizarre reason felt obliged to add regarding the oppression of women: “find it on Rush Limbaugh.”

This sanctimonious twit compared Rush Limbaugh to people who kill girls because they had been raped and women because they had affairs.

There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with Limbaugh. There is nothing wrong with calling Rush a blowhard.  But bearing false witness is a big wrong and that’s what Adams did.

We seriously doubt that the has every listened to Limbaugh live and in any sort of context but is merely parroting the conventional wisdom of the his insular crowd.

What’s even sicker is the reaction of his crowd which gave a long round of applause to the slander.

In 2009, Limbaugh was part of a group that was attempting to buy the St. Louis Rams football team. The old media reported that he said on his radio show that James Earl Ray deserved a medal for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. and that slavery was beneficial. The quotes were fabricated but still placed in his Wikipedia biography as fact. Those who know of the scrutiny Limbaugh faces  for every word he utters — which one would reasonably think is everyone in professional journalism — would reject the quotes out of hand. Yet they were reported as true and hence ended his chance at becoming a team owner.

All decent people have a responsibility to defend those being slandered not just if but especially if they disagree with them. Further, all intelligent people should be suspicious of those who use slander to further a political cause.

What Adams and his crowd did was shameful.

For what it’s worth,  Wiki, in the latest editing of Rush’s bio, does not even mention the Rams incident.

For those interested in a first-hand take, Rush can be heard in the Philadelphia area from noon to 3 p.m. on WPHT 1210 AM or on the web here.

Below is Adams introduction to  Scheherazade.2

Je Suis Rush Limbaugh

Free Stuff At Holy Myrrh-Bearers Church

Renovations continue as  historic Leiper Presbyterian Church becomes Catholic, Byzantine-rite Holy Myrrh-Bearers Church, 900 Fairview Road, Swarthmore, PA 19081 (Ridley Township).  Free Stuff Holy Myrrh-Bearers Church

There are some useable items being discarded. They are free and available by the dumpster

Free Stuff At Holy Myrrh-Bearers Church

Chick-fil-A H8er Karma

Chick-fil-A H8er Karma
Gene Ontjes, the manager at the Chick-fil-A in Springfield, Pa., happily directs the overwhelming traffic at the drive-through on Aug. 1, 2012.

A national appreciation day was held, Aug. 1, 2012, for the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain after leftist activists targeted it because it supported Christian causes and a principle in the business expressed disapproval of gay marriage.

Well, the chain is known for giving free water to those who ask for it so one bright progressive figured he would drive up, ask for one. He would then video his harangue at the worker who brought it to him, and put it on the world wide web.

That bright progressive is Adam Mark Smith, who at the time held a $200,000 a year job — that’s almost a 1-percenter considering the $1 million he had in stock options– as CFO of Vante, a medical device manufacturer.

The bad vibes created by his obnoxious performance caused Vante to send him on his way. Smith has since been unable to find another job. He says he has had to sell his home and that he and his family are now living in an RV.

Hey, Adam, move it down by the river and give inspirational talks. Better yet, get a job a Chick-fil-A. It would teach you things, like empathy, decency, humility, and, of course, tolerance.

Chick-fil-A H8er Karma

 

 

 

Religious Freedom Law Outrages Usual Suspects

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed  into law, March 26,  the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the usual suspects that bow before the altar of political correctness howled. Religious Freedom Law Outrages Usual Suspects

The White House said “it doesn’t seem like a step of equality and justice and liberty”.

The NCAA said it was “especially concerned”

The NBA also criticized it.

So what does this law do? It establishes a legal test for judges to use when deciding whether or not a government act goes too far in burdening someone’s exercise of religion.

Here is the text of the law which has generally been omitted from the media outrage.

The law is motivated by instances were religious business-owners were sued under anti-discrimination laws for being unwilling to espouse views praising homosexuality in violation of the tenets of their faith.

For those objecting to this law ask yourself if you would condemn a black baker for refusing to bake a cake for a KKK chapter that celebrated lynching. How about a gay caterer refusing to hang a sign saying “God hates gay” at a function for the Westboro Baptist Church?

Unfair discrimination is refusing to sell the kind of jelly doughnut just sold to the black guy to the gay guy next in line. It’s not refusing to make a special rainbow jelly doughnut for the gay guy.

For what it’s worth, Pennsylvania is among the 19 other states that have such a law. Kudos for us.

Religious Freedom Law Outrages Usual Suspects

 

 

Tears Shed For Villanova

Tears Shed For Villanova
By Chris Freind

Dear North Carolina State:

Really? Did you really have to rip our hearts out by beating our Number One seed Villanova?

Congratulations. We hope you’re proud. You single-handedly kicked eight million Philadelphia sports fans in the teeth, sending us right back into our perpetual state of depression. We may be one of the nation’s biggest cities, but somehow, we are dead last in championships.

Sixers? Horrendous. Twenty-two years since their last title. And for good measure, the franchise owns the NBA record for fewest wins in a season. Flyers? Do we even have a hockey team anymore? (Gerry Ford was President the last time we won the Stanley Cup). Phils? Most losses of any team, in any sport, in American history (over 10,000). And our beloved Iggles? Always close, but zero Super Bowl trophies.

Our last true hope was Villanova. Sure, they made history once before as a Cinderella, but this was a powerhouse team. This time it would be different. This was the year that would finally be ours, with the dynamic Wildcats surely advancing to the Championship game, then knocking off those other Wildcats. It was so close, almost in our grasp.
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But instead, you just made ‘Nova coach Jay Wright the next Andy Reid. Great regular season leader, but underachiever when it counts most. And so our mammoth inferiority complex continues. So thanks —- and maybe we’ll see you next year, when our Groundhog Day in the NCAA’s will no doubt continue.

Yours in Suffering,

Philadelphia

****

March Madness.

It is, without a doubt, the best sporting event on the planet.

Sure, the Olympics stoke nationalistic fervor, and Americans sometimes excel in sports where they aren’t favored (who can forget the Miracle on Ice?), but America is virtually never the underdog, because we almost always lead the world in the medal count.

And stop right there. No, the World Cup absolutely, positively, cannot compare. First, soccer isn’t a sport; it’s a recreational activity. Second, enough with the theatrics of players writhing on the turf for ten minutes because they injured a nail. Third, what’s up with that running clock and the fact that we really don’t know when the game will end? Even worse is the offsides rule, which kills the .001 percent excitement level in professional soccer by stifling aggressiveness and encouraging pansy play. A rule, by the way, that virtually no American understands.

Finally, can we just admit that all those “cards” —- which come in more colors than the Homeland Security threat-level chart —- are really dumb? Refs don’t warn basketball players not to hack a guy after the fact. They actually call the foul. A simple concept, yet one lost on the soccer fanatics.

But the NCAA Tournament is different, in so many ways. And when it comes our way each spring, some miraculous things occur throughout America.

March Madness teaches us that anything can happen, and that miracles do occur. Its lesson that sportsmanship, confidence, and work ethic can achieve the impossible are timeless for young and old alike.

On game days, very little work gets done. And you know what? That’s okay, even with most bosses. Americans work harder than anyone else on earth. Hell, we’re still being productive while the Europeans are taking a siesta —- from their earlier siesta. If there was ever something to which we can legitimately feel “entitled,” it’s taking a little time to watch the tournament together.

And that is the most important thing: being together. For a few short weeks, Americans suddenly become blind to our prejudices. Political partisanship and the management-labor caste go out the window. The only colors we care about are those worn by our favorite teams.

No longer do we see ourselves, and each other, as black and white, male and female, liberal and conservative. Instead, we become friends, neighbors, and countrymen, all side-by-side, cheering in unity. In lunchrooms, bars, and cubicles, even crowded around cellphones, we huddle. Screaming. Smiling. And sometimes even crying.

We come together to cheer for our teams —- some of whom we’ve never heard of, hailing from places we don’t know —- watching breathlessly as a Number 14 seed comes agonizingly close to slaying a giant.

We experience the unbelievable moments, sometimes forgetting to breathe, as seniors —-some destined for the NBA, but most for an “ordinary” life —- play their hearts out, knowing that one misstep will end their collegiate career. And just as often, we see 18-year-old freshmen step to the foul line with the game literally in their hands, as an entire nation —- including the President of the United States —- watches.

And alma maters and home teams notwithstanding, the vast majority of Americans always pull for the underdogs, the teams that the “experts” don’t give a snowball’s chance in hell to win. Yet year after year, many find a way to knock out Goliath. We find this endearing not just because it’s fun, but because it personifies who we are as Americans.

From our very beginnings, the odds have always been stacked against us:

-Defeat the British, merely the most powerful nation the world had even known? Dream on. But we did, making the dream of liberty and freedom a reality, on an unprecedented scale, for hundreds of millions.

-Win the Civil War? Forget it. Even if Lincoln’s army prevailed, the defeated South’s resentment would never subside, and its people would never, could never, assimilate into a northern-dominated America. If Vegas had odds, it would have been a sure bet that the tattered Union would not prevail. But it did.

-Save the world from the tyranny of the Axis Powers? With an under-equipped army and industrial base not suited for defense production? Not for decades could victory be expected. And to engineer a weapon so awesome that it could end the war after just one or two uses? Forget about it. And yet, the Greatest Generation not only accomplished those things, but provided the blueprint for America’s postwar mega-boom.

-Put a man on the moon? Save the Apollo 13 astronauts? Beat the Soviet Union and defeat communism? End segregation? Elect a black man to the presidency? The list goes on.

And yet despite America’s track record of beating the odds, the naysayers are still out in full force, predicting gloom and doom. Maybe they’re right this time. Maybe America really is in its twilight, as the country’s seemingly insurmountable problems —- and the politicians’ inability to solve them in a civil manner —- attests.

Maybe.

But no matter how many times America has fallen, and how often its back has been to the wall, it has always —- always —- prevailed. For the record, my money’s on the world’s biggest underdog coming through in the clutch once again, turning it on when it has to, and finishing the game stronger than anyone else. It’s what we’ve always done, and it’s what we must do now.

And why? Because that’s what a true champion does.

Now back to my bracket….

Tears Shed For Villanova