Category: Bob Small

Raw Milk Is Good For You And Can Be Bought In Delco

By Bob Small

The harassment of Amos Miller continues but hopefully will be soon resolved.

Our whole family, animal and human, are raw milk consumers.

The anti-raw milk campaign began before most of us, though not Joe Biden, were born. The Defender, traces it to a 1945 article in the gone but unlamented magazine Coronet titled“Raw Milk can Kill You.” Coronet cited a non-existent brucellosis outbreak in the imaginary town of Outlook.

Fast-forward to 2007, and we find the Food and Drug Administration attacking raw milk in a Power Point presentation using flawed data.

And now the Department of Agriculture declared there were symptoms of avian flu in it despite the lack of confirmed viral presence.

The authorities pointedly ignore the other side.

Farmers’ Almanac say that pasteurization killing odd bacteria “is actually a problem” as it also kills many beneficial microorganisms, including  probiotics, naturally found in milk. It notes that people had been drinking raw milk, straight from their own cows, sheep, and goats, for millennia without getting sick.

Everyday Health notes raw milk sales are surging. It quotes Raw Milk Chairman Mark Mcafee saying “There is yet to be one case of avian influenza in humans from raw milk consumption.”

And no less an establishment organ as The New York Times says that none of the three reported cases of avian flu virus in the United States has been tied to drinking milk.

The title of the article was Raw Milk’s Risks Don’t Stop Right-Wing Commentators From Defiantly Pushing It.

Raw Milk is legally sold in Pennsylvania. Two places were it can be purchased are Martindale’s Natural Market in Springfield and the Swarthmore CO-OP | Your Community Food Market.

Those sneaky right wingers.

Parking Kiosks And Cameras Are Undesirable Tech For Swarthmore

By Bob Small

Swarthmore Council, May 6, tabled a plan to introduce parking kiosks. The introduction of parking kiosks had been discussed at previous meetings.

That the plan was tabled doesn’t mean it still won’t happen

This is from an unpublished letter sent to the Swarthmorean;

Armond White had spoken of “technology and it’s worship” and this Swarthmore Borough change to parking kiosks has many potential problems, some of which are described in this article by Megan Hills from The Columbus Dispatch.

Swarthmore Borough is currently unable to keep up with the maintenance of their parking meters. How will they then keep up with an even higher level of technology and keep the kiosks operational?

Many of us have already battled with the Media kiosks, and, having admitted defeat, rarely attempt to go there. Many of their machines refuse to accept coinage.

Is this the best that Swarthmore can do?

In The Pros and Cons of Parking Meter Solutions other negatives listed are;

As an honor system parking meters traditionally provide less revenue capture

• Customers sometimes forget their license plate number or have difficulty entering information into the system (Pay-by-License-Plate)
• Some systems do require proof of payment on a dashboard (Pay-and-Display)
• Validations are challenging because it is a pre-pay system
• Regular parking enforcement for compliance is required (additional labor costs)

It turns out that the condo developer decided not to pay his share of any parking changes, so they have been put on hold. We will now have diagonal parking become parallel parking and there will now be a charge for meters on Saturday rather than free parking.

Meanwhile, the proposed Town Center cameras have been tabled. Initially, the rainbow crosswalk(s) were approved as it cost the Borough nada. However, the crosswalk(s) were defaced and the Swarthmore Police Department wants to find the perp. These cameras would cost $8,675, with a possible split in cost with Swarthmore College i.e. $4,337.50.

One of our favorite councilpersons, Scarlett McCahill, said “For instance in the U.K., it’s widely used in public spaces, and it hasn’t demonstrated much reduction in petty crime, and it’s susceptible to abuse, whether that’s criminal abuse, personal, or institutional.” She went on to say “I don’t think this is something that enhances our public life.” For full remarks, see The Swarthmorean article.

Parking Kiosks And Cameras Are Undesirable Tech

America First Then And Now

By Bob Small

America First. What exactly do we mean when we say America First​?. Well, it depends on which organization or political party that we consult. We came across America First P.A C.T., in an internet comments section. America First P.A.C.T. , which has a Pa. Chapter. Some of their priorities are secure borders, along with freedom of speech and term limits, among others.

There is also the America First Policy Institute, with its Pennsylvania chapter America First Pennsylvania | State Chapter. One of the “advisors” is Ivanka Trump. They list some of their Policies as “expanding Pennsylvania’s energy leadership and Keeping Pennsylvania’s streets safe”

The most recent America First Party is the brainchild of Patrick Buchanan America First Party and they have a currently active website, without an active Pennsylvania Party, though they are seeking someone to start one. Their current platform — Platform of the America First Party — includes The Constitution does not empower the Federal Government to police the world or protect other nations. The Constitution does not allow our nation’s armed forces ever to be under foreign command, which has become common practice under present UN and NATO deployment. It also notes that there are US Troops in over 100 countries and discuss the Federal government taking private control of lands in California and Oregon.

America to these groups seems open to anyone who shares their viewpoints, not just white Christian males as their opponents allege.

This is unlike the 1943 America First Party, which was a gathering of American fascists and isolationists. One of their more well-known leaders was the noted Anti-Semite Gerald L. K. Smith who eventually ran for president on the 1944 America First ticket where he and Harry Romer (a Father Coughlin acolyte) garnered 1,780 votes out of a total of 47 million cast.

The mistrust of many to the America First rubric can be traced to this party.

Lastly, there is also the America Second theory — America Second by Isaac Stone Fish: 9780525657712 — espoused by Issac Stone Fish in which he describes Henry Kissinger as“an agent of Chinese influence”.

We’re sure this is slander, right?