News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Property Tax Referendum Explained — The Republican State Committee has distributed an explanation of the Nov. 7 ballot question on whether school districts may exempt homes from property taxes.
We are republishing it. Hat tip Donna Ellingsen.
|
Hobey Baker, America’s first great hockey player, came from Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
Hobart Armory Hare “Hobey” Baker starred for Princeton from 1910 through 1916 turning down a offer of $20,000 to play for the Montreal Canadians. He enlisted in the Army Air Service in 1917 for World War I and shot down three of the enemy. He was killed in a plane crash in France just a little over a month after the war ended.
F. Scott Fitzgerald admired him and based a character in This Side of Paradise on him.
Hat tip VFW magazine
Garden Fresh Tomato Sauce With Mini Shells — We partook of the wonderful bounty supplied by good neighbor Andrew S a few days ago and made a delicious pasta and sausage sauce which in which we soaked store-brand mini-shells and created an absolutely wondrous repast.
And we are going to tell you how we did it.
We took three pieces of Italian sausage, removed the casing and browned it in olive oil in a pot over medium heat. How much olive oil? We didn’t measure. It just covered the bottom of the pot.
We removed the sausage, and added powder garlic to drippings and oil. How much? Don’t ask. It covered the bottom of the pot.
We put in a diced onion and a large diced garden-fresh bell pepper and let them sauté.
We deglazed with white wine and put in a small can of mushrooms (undrained). We returned the sausage and added seven large delicious garden-fresh tomatoes. The tomatoes were salted and quartered, well eighthed actually. We did not peel or deseed them, nor de we add any extra stock or water.
This was a fun meal.
We brought the sauce to a boil and let it simmer for about an hour and a half, after which we started the shells in a separate pot. While the pasta was boiling we added powdered basil, oregano and fresh parsley to the sauce. Before the shells was completely cooked, we drained them and added them to the sauce.
We let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so, plated and ate.
Yum.
We are sure better cooks could do better but this was easy and fun and totally beat the stuff from the jar.
Fear Letting Fear Strip Freedom
Protesting everything, from the legitimate to the ridiculous, seems to be America’s newest pastime, replete with vitriol from all sides. Yet in a strange way, the Las Vegas massacre may yet unite us. We need to fight those who commit such atrocities. But how?
One way is by not living in fear. By not letting them win. And by not allowing them to change the very essence of who we are, and how we live our lives.
We need to go to — rather than avoid —Las Vegas. We need to walk The Strip, stay at the Mandalay Bay hotel, attend outdoor concerts, and unabashedly embrace other human beings in large crowds. It doesn’t mean we won’t be on edge, and yes, even afraid, but to run from these things is capitulating to the bad guys and succumbing to victimhood.
That’s not who we are.
Whether it’s the 64-year old whack-job from 80 miles away from Las Vegas whose name will not be dignified here, to lone wolf terrorists, to ISIS regulars, we must not give them what they want — we cannot cower.
We need to protest their evil actions, defiantly and unified, while not ceding civil liberties which would further restrict our freedoms. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have discussions — even very passionate arguments — about everything from gun control to mental health to security checks, because they are necessary.
But in the same way that civilized humanity loses if we stop traveling to London, Paris, and Manchester, we cannot become afraid to walk out our doors right here in America. We must never stop living valiantly, and never cease teaching our children that evil will not overcome — if for no other reason than to honor those who perish so tragically at the hands of madmen.
Sure, writing these things is easier said than done. But if we want to live rather than just exist, what choice do we have?
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, this author took significant flak for taking his young daughter on a transatlantic flight the day the airports reopened. “It’s one thing if you want to kill yourself,” some screamed, “but how can you so callously jeopardize your child’s life by flying now?”
My response was simple: I asked if they could:
Fact was, the months after 9/11 were by far the safest time to fly. That doesn’t mean that I, along with every other passenger, wasn’t white-knuckled. It was a scary time, but the answer was to forge ahead.
In response to the attacks, President George W. Bush made the bold proclamation that we should continue flying, traveling, going to ballgames, and living to the fullest extent, lest al-Qaida win the day. It took time, but Americans rallied instead of retreated. We were unified (at least for a while), and we vowed never to let such evildoers take what they desire most — the American soul.
If we are to be true to ourselves, and our children, the answer lies in the words of the legendary John Wayne, “Courage is being scared to death — but saddling up anyway.”
There are many angles to the Las Vegas attack which must be explored. Here are some aspects to consider:
1. Innocent human life is sacred, so it makes no difference how people are ripped from our arms and murdered. Why then are we not employing the full-court press to stop the staggeringly large number of killings savaging our inner cities? In September of this year alone, Chicago saw 57 murdered and another 273 shot and wounded (compared to at least 59 dead and 527 injured in Las Vegas). Neither tragedy trumps the other, but the critical difference is that Chicago, and other cities, experience those numbers every month. And despite what some may believe, it’s not just drug dealers and criminals shooting each other but young children, the elderly, and innocent parents often being gunned down.
It’s finally time to shelve partisanship, leave the derisive labels at home, and create a real-world, concrete plan to deal with the genocide occurring every day on America’s streets.
2. Inner cities aside, we must remember that we are living in the safest time in human history. Yes, the magnitude of individual attacks is growing, as is our ability to see developments unfold 24/7. But it is imperative to remember (and obviously this is not to slight the victims and their families) that the odds of experiencing this type of attack are statistically nonexistent.
Over 1 billion people have enjoyed The Strip in Las Vegas without incident. The next billion will undoubtedly do so as well; the odds for another massacre are virtually nil.
We cannot allow ourselves to become paralyzed by isolated incidents because we mistakenly believe they are commonplace. They are not. Vigilance, not paranoia, is the answer.
3. Gun control will be front and center. This time, though, because an automatic weapon was used, we are in new territory. But cooler heads must prevail, because what won’t be helpful is a “tactical” win by gun control advocates (more gun bans) at the expense of a “strategic” victory, such as discovering why these events are occurring.
Should we look at the laws governing the highly-regulated ownership of automatic weapon, and conversion kits (where regular weapons can be transformed into machine guns)? Absolutely. But while some think such measures will be the panacea, the reality is just the opposite.
4. Instead, we should be looking at consequences of when a society overly coddles people, young and old alike, instilling in them a massive sense of entitlement; an environment in which many believe they are owed things that they most certainly are not.
Combine that with the dangerously naive movement to eliminate risk and sanitize all potential adversities, and the result is generations of people unable to function, let alone cope with life when things go awry.
The vast majority of these people (like the Las Vegas shooter) are “merely” dysfunctional. But for some, any type of rejection leads to violence against anyone and anything, snapping when offended or something doesn’t go their way. Someone doesn’t like them, they get fired, a teacher or boss disciplines them, they chronically lose money at casinos — and then they go on a rampage.
Our most important job is to figure out how to reverse the mindset that going out in a blaze of glory, killing as many as possible, as being the best method for dealing with problems.
If we fail, ISIS will be the least of our problems. That’s the scariest thought of all.
Kurt Holland Seeks 91st District House Seat — We have just been introduced to Kurt Holland who is launching a GOP primary campaign against Dan Moul, who is the incumbent in Pennsylvania House District 91. The district is in Adams County and includes Gettysburg.
Kurt is among those sickened by $85,356 legislative salaries and filthy rich health and pension plans.
He is angry at the special-interest-always-win, working-people-always-lose mentality of the GOP-control General Assembly, and their incestuous relationship with special-interest-always-win Democrats.
For information about Kurt, visit his website here: http://www.kurthollandforstaterep.com/
Zabibah and the King was the best selling novel in Iraq in 2000. It was written by Saddam Hussein. It’s probably not a coincidence that it was the best seller.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allows about 1,000 bald eagles to be killed a year by windfarms. They want to quadruple it.
Not much has changed on the budget since last week. On the plus side, Governor Wolf changed his position on using fund transfers to balance the budget. He went from saying all of the money proposed in the fund transfers (see here) was promised to other projects and there was no way it could be used to balance the budget; his current position is that $500 million is available to use to balance the budget.
On the downside, Republican leadership in both chambers of the General Assembly seem dead-set on making Pennsylvania less competitive by raising taxes on targeted industries. The first target, which now seems to be off the table, was commercial warehousing. According our sources, Rep. Dave Reed (R-Indiana County) was advocated for making lease payments on warehouse space subject to the sales tax. The fact that this tax would have made Pennsylvania non-competitive and put thousands of people out of work seems to have eliminated this proposal from consideration. The latest proposal would be to nearly double the Commonwealth’s hotel tax rate. Again, one of the chief advocates for the higher tax rate is Rep. Dave Reed.
As we have repeatedly noted, a better long-term solution would be to actually cut spending rather robbing from Peter to pay Paul. We’ll let you know about any changes as they develop.
Politicians have long used Orwellian double-speak to hide their true intentions. The latest iteration of this trend in Pennsylvania is the Governor’s, Senate’s and House Democrat’s insistence on including “recurring revenue” in any budget agreement. Recurring revenue sounds much more pleasant than what they’re really talking about: tax increases.
Roughly three months ago Republican leadership in the Senate, ceded their super-majority when fourteen Republicans voted with twelve Democrats to pass a Fiscal Code that balanced the budget on the backs of taxpayers. The Senate’s plan, supported by Governor Wolf, would raise taxes on heating bills, cell phone bills, and online purchases. As our friends at the Commonwealth Foundation noted in a recent blog post, the General Assembly has raised taxes four times in the last eight years. These previous tax hikes haven’t solved Pennsylvania’s financial problems. Instead, it has been like a death from a thousand cuts for taxpayers.
Departing from the usual routine of raising taxes, House Republicans offered alternatives to the status quo. The first plan we told you about would have reduced overhead expenses and saved tax payers $370 million. A second plan, which ultimately passed the House would have used surplus, off-budget funds to fill the gap. Unfortunately, only seven Senators sided with taxpayers and voted in favor of using funds already in state coffers.
The next step in the budget process is House and Senate leadership will establish a conference committee and try to work out their differences. The deals hashed out by conference committees rarely work out in taxpayer’s favor because it is a closed-door process. The public, and most lawmakers, usually do not have time to review the finished product. Remember the 2005 middle-of-the night pay raise? That legislation came out of a conference committee too.
Please, take a few moments and email the General Assembly. Let them know that you will be watching their actions closely and that they need to cut spending and use money already collected by the Treasury in order to balance the budget.
Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.
You are probably aware that Abner Doubleday invented baseball. Did you know, however, that he attended West Point, and as captain of artillery at Fort Sumter fired the first Union shot of the Civil War.
–William Lawrence Sr.
Ever hear of Dr. John S. Pemberton? He invented Coca Cola.
–William Lawrence Sr.
