Category: Delco

Why We Need ‘Right To Work’


Reader Cathy C submitted an email she received from Mark Mix of of  National Right To Work Committee.

While Mix’s group is pushing for national reform,  Pennsylvania becoming a “right to work” state would likely do as much if not more to save the Delaware River refineries than relief from thoughtless environmental regulation.

BTW, Delaware County Daily Times columnist Gil Spencer, with this column and one written Friday, is joining the crusade to highlight the havoc stupid, quasi-religious regulations are creating with the lives of Delaware Countians.

Welcome Gil and thank you, Cathy.

Here is Mix’s letter.

Dear Cathy,

“You guys slash my tires, stab me in the neck, try to beat me up,” the construction company official explained to the union organizer.

Given all that, he asked, why should the company hire such aggressive union militants?

“The positives are that the negatives you are complaining about would go away,” the union operative reportedly replied.

According to the Buffalo News, the “negatives” include hot coffee thrown at independent-minded workers, sand dumped into the engines of company vehicles, and the wife of a company representative threatened with sexual assault.

And the union toughs just might get away with it.

You see, ever since the Supreme Court’s infamous 1973 Enmons decision, union bosses have been granted immunity from federal prosecution for acts of violence and vandalism they orchestrate in the so-called “pursuit of legitimate union objectives.”

AFL-CIO union lawyer Jonathan D. Newman told the Buffalo News that “we simply want to make sure that the [federal law] is not interpreted in a way that could have a chilling effect on legitimate union activity.”

The union violence in Buffalo is hardly an isolated incident.

As you may recall, the Associated Press reported that hundreds of Longshoreman union militants held security guards hostage for hours at the Port of Longview in Washington State on September 8.

Union thugs reportedly committed numerous acts of vandalism and violence including breaking windows, cutting brake lines on railroad cars, and threatening police officers with baseball bats.

Weeks later, local police have only made two arrests in connection with the September 8 raid.

And now Longshoremen union officials have launched a Wisconsin-style recall campaign against the county sheriff investigating the raid.

Union officials know that if they intimidate local authorities, they can get away with anything.

The loophole in federal law ensures that union officials who may have orchestrated and encouraged the union violence may never be brought to justice, especially where they can intimidate and use political connections to stop local or state prosecutions.

That’s why the Freedom from Union Violence Act (FUVA) is so vital. To learn more about FUVA and how you can help urge Congress to take action, please click here.

Your National Right to Work Committee has an aggressive plan of action to force the politicians in Washington, D.C. to stop turning a blind eye to union violence.

Thank you once again for helping us fight back.

Sincerely,
 
Mark Mix

How Oenophiles Can Cope In The Obamapression

With money getting ever tighter in these Obama years, wine lovers need not resort to suffering with Franzia to partake of the fruits of the vine.

They do, however, have to be unafraid of a little DIY.

Wine & Beer Emporium is a great little shop in the Old Ridge Village Shopping Center off Route 202 in Chadds Ford, Pa.

They sell everything you need to make your own personal vintage. The less expensive kits will come out to less than $3 per bottle the quality of which frankly exceeds the $20 bottles that you would get from one of Pennsylvania’s government-owned “Wine and Liquor Shoppes”.

Granted that doesn’t include supplies that will double the cost of a bottle for the first-go round. The supplies, however, are reusable except for the corks and cleaning powder.

If you go say hi to Joan or Paul.

New Season For ‘With Pen In Hand’

With Pen In Hand, the program for writers of all ages run by Dr. Cecelia Evans has begun a new season.

It meets 10 a.m., Saturdays at the Media Fellowship House, 302 S. Jackson St. It’s a wonderful time with warm people.

Here is a rather old link with some information about the program.

Blame Democrats For Sunoco Closings

Sunoco announced, Sept. 6, that it will be closing its refineries in Philadelphia and Marcus Hook next July if it can’t find a buyer for them. Blame Democrats For Sunoco Closings

Sunoco CEO and Chairman Lynn Elsenhans said the refineries have lost $772 million since 2009, which not coincidentally is the first year of the Zerobama Administration.

It will be unfair to pin all the blame on President Zero, however. First year Congressman Pat Meehan, a Republican, has been practically screaming that this was going to happen since he took office, Jan. 3, while his Democrat predecessor Joe Sestak; and Democrat Chaka Fattah, whose 2nd District includes the Philadelphia plant; and Democrat Bob Brady, whose 1st District borders both facilities and includes many of the workers, have been silent partners in Obama’s plan to wreak economic ruin when they were not loudly marching in lockstep with it.

So blame the Democrats and remember to shake the hand of Meehan, who has still not surrendered on saving the plants.

By the way, the massive new unemployment that will result from the closings — the Marcus Hook plant has about 600 workers while the facility in southwest Philly has about 800 — may not even be biggest problem. What does one do with 2,200 idle acres of tanks, towers and hazardous waste?

The Philadelphia plant is 1,400 acres while the Delaware County facility weighs in at 788.

And let’s not forget how the loss of the property tax revenue is going to affect Marcus Hook Borough, the  Chichester School District and the City of Philadelphia.

And for those of you who do claim to care about the environment, do you really think it better that our oil be refined in Nigeria and Venezuela rather than Pennsylvania?

The Marcus Hook plant is where NASCAR racing fuel is produced.

Blame Democrats For Sunoco Closings

High Speed Chase In Delco

The stream of  police cars screaming east on Springfield Road 10 minutes ago (4:40 p.m., Aug. 10) were responding to a Delaware County-wide request for assistance to chase down a silver Ford Focus.

Units seen passing Brookside Road in Springfield included three State Police vehicles, two Springfield Police vehicles, a county sheriff vehicle, an Upper Providence Police vehicle and a Marple Police vehicle.

18th Century Taverns, Traffic Snarls And Global Warming

After decades of trying to figure out what to do with the building, Delaware County, Pa. is almost ready to move its tourist department into the 18th Century Rose Tree Tavern in the county-owned Rose Tree Park in Upper Providence Township.

The county, in a typical display of its insecurity, calls the department the Brandywine Conference  and Visitors Bureau. It should be noted that the Brandywine River will now be 12 miles away from the new HQ  and the Brandywine Valley is an exceedingly small portion of the historically influential county.

Regardless, the historic building is now about to be put into use and we can now address the real issue. For 200-plus years, the building  had stood about 200 feet to the southwest which meant it was almost directly at the corner of Rose Tree  and Providence roads, the latter of which would become at that particular stretch the heavily traveled State Route 252.

Plans to install  desperately needed turn lanes were always squashed due to the complexities relating to the historic structure. This meant  long exhaust-emitting, gasoline-wasting traffic jams.

So it was moved back on Aug. 10, 2004 with PennDOT bearing the entire $1.25 million bill and fixing the jams became a simple thing.

So where are the turn lanes?

We have solar panels on the Springfield Library, we have brand new rails for the Route 101 trolley but we don’t have turn lanes at a infamous problem intersection the placement of which would have done far more to alleviate pollution — and achieve energy independence — than a hundred  feel-good  projects.

The refusal of “man-made global warming” activists to get involved in the mundane and practical solutions  — like unsnarling traffic — to their various complaints is just one more reason to doubt their sincerity.

When they get around to demanding the end of toll roads and bridges is when you can get around to considering buying a Chevy Volt.

Cecelia Evens Shout Out For With Pen In Hand

Cecelia Evens Shout Out For With Pen In Hand — Big shout-out to Dr. Cecelia Evans who has been running With Pen In Hand  for 11 years.

This wonderful writing workshop at the Media Fellowship House, 302 S. Jackson St., Media, Pa. 19063, gets a varied crowd of those interested word-craft with ages ranging from elementary school to senior citizens.

It meets 10 -noon Saturday mornings and 5-6:30 Wednesday evenings.

For information check out this, unfortunately, dated site.

And congratulations to Jaimson who, during the July 9 session, managed to make 42 three-letter or better words out of the letters found in the word “information.’

 

Cecelia Evens Shout Out For With Pen In Hand

 

Cecelia Evens Shout Out For With Pen In Hand

Curt Weldon Resurfaces In Libya

Curt Weldon Resurfaces In Libya — Former Congressman Curt Weldon, the Republican who represented Pennsylvania’s 7th District from 1987 to 2007, is leading a small, private delegation to meet with the Libyan leader Co. Muammar el-Qaddafi and  attempt to get him to surrender power.

Weldon, in an op-ed article in today’s (April 6) New York Times, says the meeting is at the invitation of Qaddafi and is being done with the full-knowledge of the Obama administration.

Weldon was part of a Congressional delegation that meet with Qaddafi in 2004 to show support for Qaddafi’s abandonment of a nuclear weapons program.

Weldon says in the article headlined “Time’s Up Qaddafi” that the Bush and Obama administrations “squandered many opportunities” to build a new Libyan government without bloodshed.

Weldon notes that he visited Libya last summer and met with an engineer named Ahmed Gadi who told him that the money from recent $500 million contract awarded by the Libyan government to an American engineering company was kept between the government and the company. Weldon did not name the company.

Weldon recommended that the United States identify and engage with leaders of Libya “who if not perfect are pragmatic and reform-minded”. He cited Qaddafi’s son, Saif, as a possibility noting that Saif had pushed his government to accept responsibility for the bombings, which killed Americans, of a Pan Am flight over Scotland and a disco in Germany and to provide compensation of the families of victims. Weldon also said that Saif led the effort to free a group of Bulgarian nurses from Libya who had twice been sentenced to death by his father’s government.

Weldon also suggested that Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi and rebel leader Mustapha Abdul Jalil meet with United Nations envoy Abdel Ilah al-Khatib to work out a schedule for fair elections.

Weldon’s congressional career ended following his defeat to Joe Sestak in November 2006, a race which involved one of the dirtiest tricks every played in an election to national office by federal law enforcement agencies.

Curt Weldon Resurfaces In Libya

As Bedbug Assault Looms, Do We DIY DDT?

Bedbug Assault Looms, Do We DIY DDT? — Experts are predicting an bedbug explosion this summer so is it time to sneer in the face of the enviro-Nazis; invoke the spirt of Walter Steuber and follow the Delaware County tradition of homebrewing our own dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane?

Steuber was a  chemist who in the final days of World War II made DDT in the basement of his Swarthmore home. The desirable insecticide had been exclusively for military use and when it popped up for sale at two hardware stores in Media and Swarthmore the authorities investigated. When it was found that Steuber was not using priority chemicals, the government allowed civilians access to the near-miracle stuff.

And this led to the almost complete eradication of bedbugs in the USA.

Which have now made a comeback.

So do we start moonshining the stuff while petitioning our elected officials to rescind the 1972 DDT ban?

Probably best not.

While the near-absolute ban on the chemical strikes many as being irrational, emotion-driven and quasi-religious — especially given as to how DDT was indiscriminately misused and highly abused during its heyday — bedbugs  seem to have maintained the resistance they have developed to it.

So using it wouldn’t do much good.

There is, however, an effective anti-bedbug insecticide, propoxur,  that was pulled from the market after its manufacturer declined to spend several millions of dollars on testing the EPA was demanding .

Apparently, the EPA is concerned about toxicity to children after chronic exposure. One wonders exactly how much “chronic exposure” children would receive if it were restricted to hotels and such which are a major source of the spreading of the infestation.

Freeing propoxur, which was sold as Baygon , would be something about which to petition our elected officials.

In the meantime, here is a link to the EPA search engine of pesticides that it claims are safe and might have an effect on bedbugs.

As Bedbug Assault Looms, Do We DIY DDT?

As Bedbug Assault Looms, Do We DIY DDT?

A Great Experience At DN Supply

Had a great experience, yesterday, at DN Supply , 80 E. Baltimore Pike, Lansdowne.

The shop, which we use for plumbing materials, is not just for contractors. We had to replace a 50-year-old commode and amazingly enough they had one that was a remarkably close color to our 50-year-old sink that we did not have to replace.

Even more remarkably it was two-thirds the price of the one that we were considering at Home Depot that was not a good color match.

The staff is friendly, knowledgeable and patient with questions from novices.

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