Nazi Midwinter Holiday Reprise

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has repented like The Grinch and returned Christmas to the Christmas Village sign at the traditional seasonal outdoor market outside City Hall.

But why did he even consider taking it down in the first place? Should Christmas be a dirty word? Those who want to make it so should remember whose footsteps they are trying to follow.

The Nazis hated Christianity and Christmas posed a problem to them since it was Germany’s most popular holiday. Rather than ban it, they tried to replace it as described in this story at the TimesOnline, the website for the paper most of us in the U.S. know as The Times of London albeit in the U.K. it is simply the Times.

The Nazis replaced carols praising Jesus with secular songs about the season — winter wonderlands so to speak. They insisted Christmas trees be called fir trees, light trees or Jultrees.

They insisted the event, Julfest or Wintersonnenwende (Winter Solstice), be one  to remember Germanic ancestors and soldiers. Here is an example of how it was supposed to be done according to a popular women’s magazine at the time:

 

 Nazi Midwinter Holiday Reprise

Something like that could never happen in Pennsylvania or the United States, right?

Nazi Midwinter Holiday Reprise

HB 2497 Pension Bailout Unconstitutional

HB 2497 Pension Bailout Unconstitutional  — HB 2497 aka  Gen Theft was sent to the governor’s desk for a signature Nov. 15 after a 165 to 31 vote in the Pennsylvania House. The sick thing is that 32 minutes earlier a vote to declare the bill unconstitutional passed the House on a 128-68 vote. This means that 37 legislators ended up voting for a bill they had voted to be unconstitutional.

Bob Guzzardi of LibertyIndex.Com lists the bovine 39 as:

Republicans: Matthew Baker (Tioga), Kerry Benninghoff (Centre), Martin Causer (Bradford), Jim Christina (Beaver), Paul Clymer (Bucks), Gary Day (Berks), Sheryl Delozier (Cumberland), Garth Everett (Lycoming), Will Gabig (Cumberland), Matt Gabler (Elk), Mauree Gingrich (Lebanon), Glen Grell (Cumberland), Marcia Hahn (Northampton), Ted  Harhart (Fayette), Sue Helm (Dauphin), Tim Hennessy (Chester), Rob Kauffman (Cumberland), Mark Keller (Franklin), John Maher (Allegheny), Sandra Major (Susquehanna), Ron Marsico (Dauphin), Ron Miller (York), Dan Moul (Adams), John Payne (Dauphin), Tina Pickett (Bradford), Jeffrey Pyle (Armstrong), Thomas Quigley (Montgomery), Marguerite Quinn (Berks), Kathy Rapp (Forest), Dave Reed (Indiana), Doug Reichley (Lehigh), Todd Rock (Franklin), Curtis Sonney (Erie), Katie True (Lancaster), Randy Vulakovich (Allegheny) and Katherine Watson (Bucks).

Democrats:  Retiring Speaker of the House Keith McCall (Carbon), Dwight Evans (Philadelphia) and Brendan Boyle (Philadelphia).

HB 2497, which will certainly be signed by Gov. Rendell, bails out the Pennsylvania’s near bankrupt public pension system and was strongly supported by the Pennsylvania State Education Association and other public employee unions.

Is it stating the obvious to note that the very sweet legislative pensions are also saved by the bailout? What heroic public servants we have voted to represent us.

Commonwealth Foundation estimates that the bailout will cost the average homeowner $1,360 annually by 2012  in state and local taxes.

Will our state courts find the bill to be unconstitutional? People, the bill bailed out the judges’ pensions too.

HB 2497 Pension Bailout Unconstitutional

HB 2497 Pension Bailout Unconstitutional  -- HB 2497 aka  Gen Theft was sent to the governor's desk for a signature Nov. 15 after a 165 to 31

Day Dollar Died

Day Dollar Died — A friend who has had a very successful career in banking sent me this and asked if I’d post it. He asked that his name not be used. Read what he wrote and watch the video. As I said he’s had a successful career in banking.

Please take the time to view this seven-minute video.

The odds of this financial crisis scenario have jumped from 1/100 to 1/5 IMHO in the past 3 months

Having worked in banking in South America during their hyper inflation period,  may give me the credibility with you to take this fictional account seriously.

Buy some gold(however few coins) and stock up on non-perishable  foods,so you can ride out the crisis/adjustment period, IF it comes.

My guess is it will take  2-3 months for things to calm down,if this  scenario plays out.



Day Dollar Died

Bobby Casey Aye On Porkmarks

Bobby Casey Aye On Porkmarks — Little Bobby Casey, who is Pennsylvania’s other Democrat senator, voted no yesterday, Nov. 30, on an attempt to place a three-year moratorium on earmarks.

Earmarks are a legislative  provisions that directs approved funds to be spent on specific projects, or that directs specific exemptions from taxes or mandated fees. They are also known as pork, which makes it puzzling why Little Bobby would vote for such an unpopular thing as he is not known for being able to bring home the bacon. Of course, he is known for being able to take orders so it’s probably not that puzzling.

Bobby is up for re-election in 2012.

Sen. Arlen Specter, as expected, also voted for the earmarks. Arlen’s long and storied career as a public hack is forcibly coming to an end, so this vote gave him one last chance to be spiteful.

The attempt to put a three-year halt to the process came via S.Amdt. 4697 which was an proposed as an amendment to S. 510  and failed on a 56-39 vote .

S 510 aka FDA Food Safety Modernization Act,  which many fear will destroy family farmers , passed 73 – 25. Little Bobby and Arlen were ayes on that one as well .

Bobby Casey Aye On Porkmarks

An Evening With Newt

New Gingrich is coming to Bucks County courtesy of the Kitchen Table Patriots on Jan. 29 as part of its An Evening To Celebrate Restoring America.

The event runs 7 to 10 p.m. at the Washington Crossing Inn, 1295 General Washington Memorial Blvd., Washington Crossing, Pa. A VIP meet and greet starts at 6 p.m. Many victorious local and statewide candidates will be on hand as well.

Tickets are $150 per person and $250 per couple. For information visit TheKitchenTablePatriots.Org;  email TheKitchenTablePatriots@Gmail.com or call 215-534-1851.

Pa. Impoverishment Act Could Be In Tea Party’s Sights

The Pennsylvania Legislature jumped on the big green bandwagon in 2008 and overwhelmingly passed the Pennsylvania Impoverishment Act otherwise known as Act 129. The law mandates a 3 percent reduction in the retail consumption of  electricity — 4.5 percent for peak demand — by May 31, 2013 and creates an unelected commission that is empowered to make further demands as it sees fit.

The baseline is the electric power consumed between June 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010.

The idea isn’t to cut CO2 emissions by doing things such as replacing coal plants with nuclear plants or ending traffic bottlenecks. Nor is the plan to improve our lifestyles via increased energy efficiency in which less amount of energy will do the same amount of work causing us to have a financial windfall.

What the fools we elected to lead us plan for us is to raise the cost of electricity to such an extent that we have to watch our pennies as we ration the usage. In other words, we are all going to be much poorer. Well, not all. If you are going to get an automatic $1,300 raise you really aren’t going to worry too much about the rationing.

The final wording was passed by both houses on Oct. 8, 2008 at height of Obamamania and before it was revealed that much of the global warming movement was based on a hoax.

The bill was signed into law a week later by Gov. Rendell.

Only four House members — Maher, Reichly, Hutchinson, and Metcalf — voted against it, which was one more than the Senate dissenters who were  Folmer, Eichelberger, and Rhodes.

Bill Adolph who represents Springfield in the House did not participate in the final vote although he was an aye in the House’s initial passage that happened six months earlier. Ted Erickson who represents the township in the Senate was an aye.

Tea Party groups are expected to be making repeal of Act 129 a big part of their agenda. One activist who plans on making this so is Judy Brown who grew up in Havertown but now lives in Allegheny County and who is on the Republican State Committee.

“The nickname for this bill is Pa Cap and Trade,” she said. “While we are fighting this on the federal level our Pa. Legislature already passed it and only seven republicans voted against it.”

Pa Cap and Trade is a fine name, Judy, but I still prefer Pa. Impoverishment Act.

Rendell Vetos Castle Doctrine

As expected, Gov. Ed Rendell today vetoed HB 1926 , a bill which would have greatly expanded the grounds on which one could used deadly force to defend oneself. The bill would have ended significant requirements to retreat from a potential assailant before employing protective force and would  have expanded the “Castle Doctrine”  to matters outside the home and workplace.

The Castle Doctrine, as specifically described in HB 1926, is a “Common Law doctrine of ancient origins which declares that a home is a person’s castle.”

The bill passed the State House 61-35 and the State Senate 45-4 which are easily enough to overturn a veto. The legislative session, however, has ended for the year and so the bill will have to be introduced in the next one. Incoming Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to be willing to sign such a bill.

Rendell also vetoed HB 1231, which
would define cancer as an occupational disease for firefighters making
it easier for them to get workers’ compensation. He also vetoed a bill that would have restricted public access to autopsy reports.

 

FIOS Porn, Thanks Verizon

FIOS Porn, Thanks Verizon — A few months ago we switched from Comcast to Verizon FIOS and finally got around to playing with the “video-on-demand” feature. There are categories for sports and health free movies and network TV shows, and an interesting one that says “adult” that, judging by the titles, consists of some of the raunchiest pornography available.

It appears one can make the feature disappear using parental controls but it is on by default.

There is no mention of the service in Verizon’s advertising.

The cost per movie is $12.95 so one suspects a nice profit is being made.

Maybe Verizon is just taking its cue from Mitt Romney and Marriott.

 

FIOS Porn, Thanks Verizon

FIOS Porn, Thanks Verizon

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Rendell Signs Gen Theft Bill

Gov. Ed Rendell, yesterday, as expected, signed the Gen Theft pension bill which bails out the state’s public pension system at a cost to the average household in Pennsylvania estimated by Commonwealth Foundation to eventually be  $1,360 per year .

Of course the pension plans bailed out by HB 2497 include the very sweet one received by our legislators .

The bailout was one of 22 last-minute bills signed into law by Rendell yesterday.

Rendell also signed HB 1639 , a significant  overhaul of the state’s child custody system and which makes gender-neutrality a requirement in contempt issues for willful violations of custody orders by either parent. Divorced fathers have testified that they have been unable to get action against their former wives for such violations.

Rendell did not, however,  act on HB 1231, which would define cancer as an occupational disease for firefighters making it easier for them to get workers’ compensation. He has until tomorrow to do so.

Nor has he acted on HB 1926 aka the Castle Doctrine which would end the requirement to retreat from a potential assailant before employing protective force. Rendell has until Monday to sign HB 1926. Don’t hold your breath on that one.