Maybe I Was Wrong About St. Joe’s

Maybe the ire of the parishioners of Saint Joseph should be directed at the Philadelphia Archdiocese regarding the closing of their school.

The Delaware County Daily Times’ Gil Spencer has a column today in which members of the parish indicate the pastor to be a real piece of work.

Check the comments after the column.

4 Staffers Leave Sestak

Important cogs of Congressman Joe Sestak’s (D-7) Senate campaign have come off the wheel according to Pa2010.com.

Sestak is challenging incumbent and former Republican Arlen Specter in the May 18 Primary Election.

Political Director Rich Culbert and press operative Garry Ritterstein left soon after the  Democratic State Committee, Feb. 7, endorsed  Specter over Admiral Joe.

Others who left  were Jason Henry, who was effectively the campaign’s political
director for western Pennsylvania who took his leave in mid-January and Andrew Blum of volunteer operations who left in late January.

Parochial School Parents’ Ire Aimed At Wrong Target

The parishioners of Saint Joseph Church in Collingdale, Pa. are outraged over plans by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to close the venerable parochial school on Woodlawn Avenue. The protesters include the police chief and a retired district justice.

The anger is misdirected. Do they really think the Archdiocese wants to close the school? If the money isn’t coming in from tuition or other sources how do they expect the school to stay open. Do they expect the teachers to work for nothing?

Anger is warranted, however, and there is a villain but it’s not on North 17th Street downtown but 60 miles to west and it sits in the State Capitol.

If less money was wasted on our public schools — hey people of Collingdale how do you like that Southeast Delco School District? — people would have more money to spend on the schools the prefer.

The money can be found in different ways. The boldest and probably best would be for the state to collect the taxes now going to the public schools and give it back to the parents so they can send their children to the schools they think best fit their needs.

Or one can consider a less drastic plan to give school boards the power they had before the 1970s to fire striking teachers which would prevent the hostage-holding that gives the educational union members 4 percent or so annual raises regardless of what the rest of the economy is doing. Combine that with eliminating prevailing wage laws and other gouging by the politically connected classes and an noticeable increase in disposable income will occur.

The ones who should be getting an earful from the people of Collingdale are its servants in Harrisburg namely State Rep. Nick Miccarelli (R-162) whose office is 605 E. Chester Pike, Ridley Park, Pa. and who can be reached at 610-534-1002; and Senator Anthony H.Williams (D-8) who has an office at 419 Church Lane in Yeadon and can be reached at 610-284-7335.
 

Wally Nunn For Governor

Former Delaware County Council Chairman Wally Nunn had this column in yesterday’s (Feb. 11) Philadelphia Inquirer in which he points out that “downsizing” is a word you never hear in Harrisburg and our elected officials ought to start using it.

 
He notes that of the of  the 5.6 million people working in Pennsylvania, 753,000 are government workers and that while more than 10 percent of the private workforce has found itself unemployed with the Obama recession virtually none of the government workers have.

Nunn notes that the state employs the equivalent of 160,000 full-time employees making more than $8 billion a year in salaries, and that there are 195,000 employed in teaching elementary and secondary school, making more than $10 billion. 

This is all sans benefits and pensions, of course.

Wally Nunn for governor.

 

Meanwhile, over in New Jersey, it looks like Gov. Chris Christie gets it.

Wally Nunn For Governor

Wally Nunn For Governor

Philly Was Colder Than Average On Blizzard Days

The global warming cult won’t give up. It’s as though they are being led by Wile E. Coyote.


The claim now is that the heavy snow of the last three month is because warmer air holds more moisture.

According to the National Weather Service the normal average temperature for Dec. 19 is 36F. On the actual day of the snowstorm the average was 27F.

For Feb. 6, normal average is 33F. On the day of the storm it was 23F.

For Feb. 10, normal average is 33F. On the day of the storm it was 31F.

I’m sure the cultists will have an explanation as to why this would show global warming as well — just as they would if we had gone for a winter without much snow.

Never forget that it was not Henny Penny that was eaten by Foxy Loxy but the ones that had followed her.

Record Setting Winter 2010

The 15.8 inches of snow dumped, Feb. 9-10, on Delaware County — as measured at the Philadelphia International Airport much of which is in Tinicum — has made the seaRecord Setting Winter 2010son of 2009-2010 the snowiest on record with a total accumulation of 72. 1 inches according to weather authorities. This breaks the previous record set in 1995-96 in which 65.5 inches fell.

The Feb. 6 snowfall was 28.5 inches of snow as measured at National Park, N.J., which is across the Delaware River from the airport
The Dec. 19-20 snowfall was 23.2 inches  as measured at Philly International.
And there were smaller snowfalls in between.
Record Setting Winter 2010

The Second February Blizzard Of 2010

Andrew Schavello — I hope I got the spelling right, Andrew — is probably the most popular guy right now on Windsor Circle. Andrew is trying to keep ahead of accumulation as the snow continues to pile on his street in Springfield, Pa. He was the one who cleared the common driveway.


To each his own, I say.

Boeing Guards Guns Stolen

Pinkerton Government Services, which is responsible for providing security at the Boeing helicopter plant in Ridley Township, Pa., reported to township police yesterday that someone stole their guns.

Missing are six .40 caliber semiautomatic handguns and eight .38-caliber revolvers. They had been in a storage locker.
The plant manufactures the CH-47 Chinook and most of the V-22 Osprey.

Ho Ho, Hey Hey Do Away With The TSA

Daniel Rubin in the Feb. 8 edition of the  Philadelphia Inquirer exposed another egregious example of a prominent federal agency’s  absence  of common decency and sense.


This involved a businesswoman who wound up facing felony charges after a dispute stemming from her objections as to how screeners for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) handled her underwear during a private baggage screening at Philadelphia International Airport. She was acquitted of all charges.

Last month, Rubin wrote about how a TSA screener brought a 22-year-old female college student to tears after he had joked he had found a container of white powder in her luggage.

And this is on top of incidents such as the one where Newark Airport was thrown into massive turmoil after a TSA guard left his post allowing a student to sneak into a passengers’ only area to give his girlfriend a goodbye smooch or the one where a noted war correspondent was handcuffed by TSA officers after he refused to divulge his income.

The TSA is the federalization of baggage screeners that occurred after 9/11. It was not wanted by the Bush Administration nor recommended by security experts but was insisted upon by leading Democrats solely, some thought,  to increase the federal workforce which is one of that party’s important constituencies.

Bush had to concede to the demand or the Democrats who controlled the Senate at the time would not have allowed other more critical security measures to be addressed.

It is time to return responsibility for baggage screening back to the airlines who want neither their planes to be blown up nor customers abused.

Snarlin’ Arlen Gets Party Endorsement

Arlen Specter is the party-endorsed candidate in the May 18 primary election for U.S. senator.  The Democratic State Committee gave the Republican turncoat its official blessing after a meeting yesterday in Lancaster, picking him over true-blue, ultra-liberal Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Pa7).