News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 10-2-15 
Robert Sherwood, the playwright, failed to pass freshman English at Harvard. His professor is probably still blushing. Sherwood, after going out into the real world, won three Pulitzer Prizes for drama in six years.
There have been 24 U.S. school shootings by our count of the list at Wikipedia involving five or more injuries or deaths since Anthony F. Barbaro shot passersby at random from a window at Olean (N.Y.) High School in 1974 killing three and wounding 11.
There had been school massacres before, notably the University of Texas shootings by Charles Whitman in 1966 and the bizarre Bath School disaster in 1927 in which a demonic school official spent months planting bombs in the building to maximize tragedy, but otherwise the violence was targeted and personal.
That, of course, has changed.
Yesterday (Oct. 1), an anti-Christian named Chris Harper-Mercer murdered nine — or 11 depending on the source — students at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., and wounded several others. Before the killing Harper-Mercer asked his victims their religion. Those who said “Christian” he shot in the head. Those who said otherwise he shot in the leg.
So what has caused this change in society? Was it access to guns? Access to guns were arguably easier before 1974 especially for youths. Barbaro was on his school’s rifle team.
So no, it is not access to guns.
What has changed, though, is our culture.
Our respect for life has disappeared.
We tell young men that protecting the innocent is no longer something they should aspire to do.
We have powerful people in government, media and academia shrug their shoulder at revelations of the weak and helpless being harvested for body parts. It’s worse than that actually. The actively defend the organization that does such monstrous things, and insist it be rewarded with public money.
We have state officials protecting mass murder if it is politically fashionable.
It isn’t a coincidence that the school shooting epidemic didn’t start until after our Supreme Court declared abortion to be a “right”.
We start holding once again that the existence of God is an axiom, and that we have individual rights granted by our Creator, and that the rest of us have an obligation to protect the rights of others, especially those that can’t defend themselves, the epidemic will end.
If we continue the path we are now on, things are going to get a lot worse.
By Rich Shuker 
The rate of “success” Harrisburg is having with the budget, coupled with the incompetence of our legislators who work for the taxpayers of Pennsylvania raises the possibility that the pension crisis will never be fixed.
Commenting about the pensions, House Majority Leader David Reed said, “I’m not sure where we go from here,” after a failed veto override attempt!
According to one newspaper article, House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny County believes a piecemeal override of a vetoed bill is unconstitutional.
In that same article we find telling quotes from other officials:
“While the governor is looking at their proposal, they (House leaders) are playing games,” said Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan.
“Accepting the GOP’s latest offer would be a home run for both sides,” said Senate Majority Whip John Gordner, R-Berwick.
Does he mean the political parties or the taxpayers?
In 2006, Auditor General Jack Wagner compiled an in-depth audit on the PSERS and the SERS, He noted that the pension crisis was created by the legislators’ actions in 2001 where they increased the pension benefits of all state workers and teachers. We’re coming up on 15 years since, and although several attempts have been made to patch the problem, the root cause has never been addressed.
Jack Wagner gave recommendations and predicted a fiscal crisis in 2012 or 2013 if corrective measures were not taken. The legislature did not heed his warning and today Pennsylvania finds itself with massive unfunded liabilities.
Since 2001 our legislators have increased the Pennsylvania General Fund by 100% and our School Taxes have gone up 116%. Also, taxpayers have received from Harrisburg several blessings:
We are the 5th most corrupt state;
5th highest state in foreclosures;
1st in gas and corporate taxes;
Thanks to the lack of legislative oversight, the PSERS lost $15.8 billion since 06/2007, and the SERS lost $8.3 billion.
Yes, Harrisburg has become one of the largest casinos in the country, gambling with the taxpayers’ money and obviously losing, because they always need more.
Finally, the taxpayers have two legislators standing up for them. They have proposed bills to fix this financial disaster and stop some of the theft of the taxpayer’s money. Republican John McGinnis who has a Ph.D. in Finance, and Democrat Thomas Caltagirone have proposed three pieces of legislation between them with one being jointly introduced.
On March 26, 2015, Tom Caltagirone introduced HB 845 on a Public Pensions Code of Ethics. Since March, only eight cosponsors have signed onto the legislation. The bill was referred to Committee on State Government. That’s where it sits, thanks to weak leadership.
On July 9, 2015, John McGinnis, and Caltagirone introduced HB 1400 to improve the management standards for SERS and PSERS. The bill has fifteen cosponsors and was referred to Committee on State Government, where it languishes.
On May 17, 2015, John McGinnis Proposed HB 900, Subject: Repayment of Pension Debt; received 21 cosponsors, was referred to Committee on State Government.
So what can a taxpayer, living in the 5th most corrupt state in America, do?
The first step is getting involved, finding the truth and confronting the legislators about the issues that matter to you. The taxpayers are in luck. Representatives Tom Caltagirone and John McGinnis will be presenting to the Lehigh Valley Project 9-12 Tea Party Group 7 p.m., Oct. 2 at the Charles Chrin Community Center in Easton.
Their presentation will be an excellent opportunity to learn about Pennsylvania’s pension issues and what lawmakers must do to fix the problems.
Mr. Shuker is a financial consultant who became politically active in response to protecting his clients’ financial well-being from legislation that threatens their security.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 9-30-15
New Orleans, La. is named after the Roman emperor Aurelian. Sort of.
Once upon a time the news media would make it a point to cover the boring but complex stories that impacted the lives of their readers with the rule being the bigger the impact, the bigger the play and they would make it a point of pride to make the complexity understandable to anyone with a sixth-grade education
Yesterday, Sept. 29, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) vetoed a stopgap budget presented by the Republican-controlled legislature.
This means school districts and social services are not going to get the state subsidies upon which they have come to depend. This is going to impact many of their readers a lot.
The Delaware County Daily Times put the story on page 10 and The Philadelphia Inquirer ran it on page 4 of the B section.
The reason for Wolf’s veto was that the stopgap budget would not give him the massive tax increases he is demanding along with the massive of transfer of wealth from Republican-voting parts of the state to Democrat-voting ones.
The governor’s irresponsibility and unwillingness to compromise is scandalous.
The legislature passed a standard budget on June 30 which was 3.6 percent higher than the previous year and increased education spending by $100 million.
If those who work in the establishment media would stop picking sides and cover all equally and honestly, we would not end up with the Wolf’s and Kathleen Kane’s — neither of whom got serious critical scrutiny because they ran as Democrats — in positions of authority.
By Sen Scott Wagner
Today (Sept. 29) has been a wild day so far in Harrisburg and it is only 2:30 p.m.
The Harrisburg version of the political thriller “House of Cards” is plowing ahead at full steam.
At 11 a.m., Auditor General Eugene DePasquale had a press conference highlighting all of the school districts in Pennsylvania that are on the verge of running out of money.
What the Auditor General did not mention is that Pennsylvania taxpayers are continuing to pay taxes and that money is still flowing into Harrisburg.
My thanks go out to the Auditor General for pointing out that school districts are running low on funds – but he stopped short of telling everyone that the flow of money has stopped because of Governor Wolf and his refusal to pass a balanced budget.
Below is an article from PennLive detailing what happened at the Auditor General’s press conference.
Around noon Governor Wolf issued a press release stating that he vetoed the Republican emergency funding package .
Folks – you can’t make this stuff up.
The Senate is in session and shortly thereafter Senate Republicans will go to caucus – today’s caucus will be interesting.
Stay tuned.
Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 9-29-15
A mile, for a very long time, was equal to 1000 double steps of a Roman legionary. Then Good Queen Bess came along and added enough distance to make it equal to eight furlongs.
Leo Knepper of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania has informed us that the restore the American Dream Rally scheduled for Oct. 2 in at the California University Convocation Center in Washington County, Pa., has been postponed.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 9-28-15
Have you ever heard of Jigaro Kano? He was a little Japanese fellow who did not like being pushed around by big bullies. Them might have kicked sand in his face. Stuff like that. So, in the 1880s, he invented judo.
Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said that when he and a million other guys first heard her sing “God Bless America” on the radio, they all pretended to have dust in their eyes as they wiped away a tear or two.
Here are the facts… The link at the bottom will take you to a video showing the very first public singing of “GOD BLESS AMERICA”. But before you watch it, you should also know the story behind the first public showing of the song.
The time was 1940. (Ed Note: Wikipedia has its first public singing occurring in 1938 on Kate Smith’s radio show.) America was still in a terrible economic depression. Hitler was taking over Europe and Americans were afraid we’d have to go to war. It was a time of hardship and worry for most Americans.
This was the era just before TV, when radio shows were HUGE, and American families sat around their radios in the evenings, listening to their favorite entertainers, and no entertainer of that era was bigger than Kate Smith.
Kate was also large; plus size, as we now say, and the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”. Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age of TV, but with her voice coming over the radio, she was the biggest star of her time.
Kate was also patriotic. It hurt her to see Americans so depressed and afraid of what the next day would bring . She had hope for America , and faith in her fellow Americans. She wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American song-writer, Irving Berlin (who also wrote “White Christmas”) and asked him to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their country. When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the song for her.
He went to his files and found a song that he had written, but never published, 22 years before – way back in 1917. He gave it to her and she worked on it with her studio orchestra. She and Irving Berlin were not sure how the song would be received by the public, but both agreed they would not take any profits from God Bless America . Any profits would go to the Boy Scouts of America. Over the years, the Boy Scouts have received millions of dollars in royalties from this song.
This video starts out with Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience. She introduces the new song for the very first time, and starts singing. After the first couple verses, with her voice in the background still singing, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, “You’re In The Army Now.” At the 4:20 mark of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper; it’s Ronald Reagan.
To this day, God Bless America stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in our country. Back in 1940, when Kate Smith went looking for a song to raise the spirits of her fellow Americans, I doubt whether she realized just how successful the results would be for her fellow Americans during those years of hardship and worry….. and for many generations of Americans to follow.
Now that you know the story of the song, I hope you’ll enjoy it and treasure it even more.
Many people don’t know there’s a lead in to the song since it usually starts with “God Bless America …..” So here’s the entire song as originally sung….. ENJOY!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=TnQDW-NMaRs%3Frel%3D0
Hat tip Bob Small