News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
One questions the wisdom of the Republicans letting a Comcast-affiliated network host a presidential debate then one sees what candidate Ted Cruz does to the sickeningly dishonest moderators tasked to making the GOP look bad and realizes it was an act of genius.
He actually makes Carl Quintanilla blush with shame.
Here it is if you haven’t seen it:
Temple University’s minor league NFL franchise is surging and the “state related” university wants a $100 million stadium. Twenty million of the cost is coming from a state grant with the rest coming from donations.
Tuition, at the non-profit institution that now has eight other campuses throughout the world apart from the main one in North Philly, starts at $14,398.
Can you just imagine if the Temple rulers took that $100 million and use it for scholarships for neighborhood children? Why, 6,945.4 poor minority kids would learn how to be teachers and lawyers and dentists, and wouldn’t have to sacrifice their bodies and minds for the entertainment of soft and hedonistic academic progressives and other rich, powerful types.
Can you say “Hunger Games”?
If the academic honchos really want to keep getting their vicarious gladiatorial thrills, there is an publicly -owned $512 million stadium just a short subway ride down Broad Street that isn’t used on Saturdays. What’s wrong with continuing to use that? The football team’s fans aren’t adverse to using environmentally responsible public transportation are they?
By Sen. Scott Wagner
This is in response to an email sent out by my Democratic colleague Senator Vincent Hughes (D-7) on Oct. 15 from his official Senate website.
The title of the email was, “Pennsylvania Needs a Budget, So GOP Must Compromise.”
His closing line in the email was “Let them know it’s time to end the political games, and it’s time for them to compromise.”
In my short 18 months in the PA State Senate I continue to be entertained and amused by what Senator Hughes says.
It is important for everyone to know that Senator Hughes has served in the PA Legislature since 1987 – he served in the House from 1987 to 1994, and he has served in the Senate from 1994 to today.
Do you think Senator Hughes has looked in the mirror recently and said to himself, “Wow – I have been in Harrisburg for 28 years – is it possible that I am part of the problem ?”
Do you think Senator Hughes realizes that he has been in Harrisburg for over one-quarter of a century ?
Would you agree that Pennsylvania has a pension crisis?
Does Senator Hughes remember casting his “yes” vote in the Senate on May 8, 2001 for Senate concurrence on House Bill 26 of 2001.
For those who do not know – Senator Hughes “yes” vote increased his own pension by 50 percent, increased other state pension participants by 25 percent, increased his own and others pension multiplier from 2.0 to 2.5, and the changes he voted “yes” for made his pension changes and others pension changes retroactive back to when he joined the legislature.
In addition, Senator Hughes voted for the infamous midnight pay raise on July 7, 2005 which took place at 2 am without public review or commentary.
Depending on position, the raise increased legislators’ base pay anywhere from 16 percent to 34 percent.
Senator Hughes continues to beat on the GOP over the current budget impasse.
Several months ago during an appropriations meeting I asked Senator Hughes to respond to the “no bid contracts” that were entered into by the Philadelphia School district that have caused the district to spend approximately $4 Million dollars in legal fees to defend the “no bid contracts”.
I also asked for a response to the “ghost teachers” in the Philadelphia School District who were paid $1.7 Million Dollars in salaries and never stepped foot in the classroom, but in fact were working for the Philadelphia teachers union.
Below are links to each of the news stories referenced above.
No Bid School Contracts Is Costing Millions – http://articles.philly.com/2015-07-20/news/64599372_1_ibs-communications-inc-contractors-eligible-dougherty-case
Philly Ghost Teachers Made $1.7 Million Last Year – http://watchdog.org/213400/philly-ghost-teachers-made-1-7m-last-year/
It seems Senator Vincent Hughes doesn’t want to talk about corruption in the Philadelphia School District – so why should I as a Senator vote for a ridiculous budget when everyone who receives money from Harrisburg should be held accountable first – enough is enough – it is time for accountability and not more money.
How do you feel about the suggestion of accountability?
By the way – I would like to know what Senator Hughes’ annual pension amount will be when he leaves the Senate.
It is time for Senator Vincent Hughes, and many others, to be held accountable for the votes they made in the past which have resulted in the poor financial situation Pennsylvania is in today.
Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.
Update: Office Depot CEO and Roland Smith has apologized. “We sincerely apologize to Ms. Goldstein for her experience and our initial reaction was not at all related to her religious beliefs,” he said. “We invite her to return to Office Depot if she still wishes to print the flier.”
It should be noted that Office Depot assistant general counsel Robert A. Amicone and corporate spokeswoman Karen Denning initially defended the decision.
Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life composed a prayer for the elimination of the abortion industry and the conversion of those whose hearts are hardened to support it.
Maria Goldstein thought it would be nice to distribute it at her Catholic parish’s Sunday mass and ordered 500 copies of it at the Office Depot in Schaumburg, Ill.
Office Depot refused do it. It violated corporate policy it claimed. The prayer advocated religious discrimination it claimed. Yes, they actually said that without even comprehending the irony.
And the corporate headquarter people are defending the decision so we can’t blame some misguided store manager.
Pope Francis gets criticized by conservatives for the things he has said about American corporations and that is quite unfair as he is dead right.
Our big businesses are more often than not run by selfish people with distinctly anti-Christian mindsets.
The strident advocacy for gay marriage and the ensuing corporate celebration of the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision is mind-boggling from the economic standpoint. It’s not, though, if those that run things think their gravy train will last forever and don’t want to be bound by old-fashioned morality regarding how to treat spouses, employees and others whom they think can’t retaliate.
But gravy trains don’t run forever and consequences are never ultimately escaped.
Ms. Goldstein is preparing legal action against Office Depot. It really doesn’t matter if she is successful in forcing them to do the right thing via this route.
Office Depot will not escape the consequences of its bigotry. The knowledge of what they did will quietly and slowly become known to the tens of millions of Americans who feel the very profitable “non-profit” abortion business is vile and tens of millions of Americans will put Office Depot last on the list when seeking the services it provides. This decision-making change won’t be announced or declared or even be a full-fledged boycott. They will see something they want in an Office Depot ad and they will look for it online or at Staples or at Walmart first.
Yes, shareholders, it will affect the bottom line.
Here is Father Pavone’s pro-life prayer that offended the corporate suits:
Lord, for whom all things are possible,
We are confronted once again today
With the evil of the abortion industry
And the corruption found
In the world’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood.
Lord, we pray for all who plan to be parents,
And we ask your mercy on those
Who teach others to reject parenthood.
In the light of your Word, Lord,
We affirm today that children are a blessing from you,
And that the origin of all parenthood
Is likewise in You, the God of life and love.
Therefore, Oh God,
We stand against the evil that has been exposed
In Planned Parenthood
And in the entire abortion industry.
We stand today for the triumph
Of truth over falsehood,
Of light over darkness,
And of life over death.
Bring an end to the killing of children in the womb,
And bring an end to the sale of their body parts.
Bring conversion to all who do this,
And enlightenment to all who advocate it.
Close the doors of the death camps in our midst,
And open the doors of your mercy and healing!
Close the grisly trade in baby body parts,
And open the abundant gifts of your salvation and life!
Hasten the day when our land
Will no longer be stained with innocent blood,
And when the bodies of all your children
Will be raised from the dead
And set free forever.
We pray in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen!
A claim shouted by those whose luxurious lifestyles are based on government — either directly or via special privileges such as mandated dues – is that Tea Party types are anti-labor and anti-union.
They are not. They are anti-hypocrisy and anti-corruption. Most believe that collective bargaining is a very good thing in many circumstances and that labor laws have made our lives generally better.
When they hear but silence, however, from organized labor when American workers are made to train their foreign replacements; when they see the hipster doofus with the Foxconn-made iPhone demanding the hard-working pizza shop owner pay his staff wages he can’t afford; and when they are confronted by those with $477,591 pensions demanding that working families cough up another 1K to keep their pensions funded, they fully understand what the union leaders and their progressive allies are about, and fully understand that they must be fought.
Anyway, here is the latest illustration of the character of those imposing “the progressive” agenda upon us. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is among the big-government special interest groups fighting the mild state pension reforms being pushed by Republicans in Harrisburg. The reforms would stop existing employees from spiking their their average salaries and put new state workers and public school teachers in a 401K type program.
What kind of pension plan does the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers offer its employees? That’s exactly right LOL. Can you spell “hypocrisy”? I knew you could.
That those proclaiming themselves “progressives” are thoughtless people who don’t care a whit about anyone but themselves is something to take to the bank.
A crowdfunded documentary depicting the consumer review site Yelp as a “billion dollar bully” is causing angst among the hipsters.
Yelp is a San Francisco-based firm founded in 2004 that allows customers to post online reviews of restaurants and businesses.
It’s hip, supports Obama, and is used and trusted by millennials. The problem is that it makes its obscene profits selling ads. The documentary claims that it withholds good reviews from businesses that don’t advertise while giving the bad reviews high exposure.
In other news regarding hypocrisy, the hipster news site BuzzFeed is being accused of running favorable stories regarding the Marriott hotel chain, which is a big advertiser.
of Brietbart.com notes that BuzzFeed has been unremittingly hard on Donald Trump whose hotels compete with Marriott. We kind of think that might be stretching the point. How is BuzzFeed any different than Fox News in that regard?
Still Howley points out that BuzzFeed also pulled a piece criticizing the Monopoly board game, which is produced by BuzzFeed advertiser Hasbro, and also pulled an article that criticized ads for Dove soap, the subsidiary of a site advertiser.
The anti-corporate types sure seem to like corporate money.
Anyway, here is the trailer to Billion Dollar Bully:
The death of Cecil, a wild animal that survived by eating other wild animals, sparked hipster outrage around the world.
Piers Morgan, a talking head that once actually had a news show on CNN, advocated skinning alive the hunter who shot the Zimbabwe lion.
So, who remembers James Foley? Foley was a journalist who went to dangerous places to cover important stories. His beheading by ISIS was uploaded to YouTube on Aug. 19 last year specifically so his family could see it. There was no Twitter outrage by the hipster celebrities or the “social justice” college crowd.
Why? Unlike Minnesota dentists, ISIS fights back. Hipsters and “social justice” warriors, while they certainly enjoy the emotional jolts self-righteous outrage provides them, are not known for their courage.
Oh, and did you see where the impoverished nation of Zimbabwe is going to put up a statue of Cecil?
The New York Daily News says, referring to the animal’s cubs, soon they will have a permanent place to remember their father.
Hipsters and “social justice” warriors are not known for their brains either.
But here’s a tidbit for them: Cecil was named for the British Imperialist Cecil Rhodes.
Yesterday, union boss John Kane expressed outrage about this photo we ran showing the signs on his lawn for the Republican-endorsed candidate in the Aug. 4 special election for the vacated 161st State House seat.
Kane is the business manager of Plumbers Union Local 690 and was the Democrat candidate for the 26th District State Senate seat last fall.
He was singing a markedly different tune about “privacy” and protecting children a year ago when a law was being debated that would do exactly that.
The bill, HB 1154 of 2013, would have prohibited union members from “harassment, stalking and threat to use weapons of mass destruction” activities now actually allowed by union members if it is part of a job action.
The bill was submitted after a female Post Bros. executive named Sarina Rose could not get a judge to stop union members from following her into restaurants and TAKING PICTURES OF HER CHILDREN AT THEIR SCHOOL BUS STOP.
In March 2014, Kane called this kind of crap “an essential right”.
HB 1154 died after it was gutted in the State Senate due to union lobbying.
The man the Republican Party picked to fill the 161st seat is cut from the same cloth as Kane.
Fortunately, there is a choice in the race as Penn Delco School Director Lisa Esler is running a write-in campaign and has a very good chance of winning.
The New York Times, June 29, ran a story regarding a controversy concerning the acceptance by the non-profit Milwaukee Art Museum of a portrait of Pope Benedict XVI made of condoms.
While the premeditated insult pretending to be art is not yet on display due to gallery renovations, Catholics are understandably upset.
The Times, of course, included an image of the offending artwork.
OK, fine. It’s a story and showing the image helps bring an understanding as to what the fuss is about.
The problem is that with regard to a far more relevant story seven months ago, the Times pointedly chose not to print an image that they thought might offend religious sensibilities, even though it was far more integral to the events being discussed.
Why the double standard?
The answer is obvious. Despite its long boast, the Times bases its editorial decisions entirely on fear and favor.
They are gutless hypocrites and a disgrace to journalism.
Oh yeah, and regarding the character of the “I think I’m smart” set, would the Milwaukee Art Museum accept a portrait of Mohammed ? Even if it wasn’t made of condoms?
Conservatives like to pile on Pope Francis — sometimes even we do too — but when he’s right, he’s right and he is right about turning “capitalism” into some kind of idol. 
Here are 37 American businesses that wildly celebrated Friday’s (June 26) nonsensical 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court forbidding states to restrict a marriage to one man and one woman.
Leave aside that the ruling isn’t going to help anyone’s bottom line. Leave aside that it further endangers our already endangered Social Security program. Leave aside it complicates corporate human resources divisions and increases the cost of benefits programs.
It was hip and gives the rich, spoiled, never-bloodied ones who run corporate America to shout “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”
The recognition that homosexuality is a sin is a rather small part of the Bible and, despite what some Democrats claim, God does not hate gays. Rejecting that one part, though, gives license to reject the whole thing.
Taking care of the poor and loving your neighbor for examples.
Victor David Hanson, a week ago, published a heartbreaking column on PJMedia.com describing how the water crisis and environmental fanaticism are causing people to literally abandon their homes in the working class interior of California while the gated-community hipsters in Silicon Valley and Hollywood enjoy rich lawns and expansive carbon footprints.
The people who run America’s institutions whether business, academic or political truly don’t care about gays as individuals unless that particular gay can be of some benefit to them, and they don’t care about non-gays either.
So kudos Pope Francis for having the insight to spell it out.
And what is the Pope’s position on gay marriage? It’s pretty clear.