For Pennsylvania’s unthinkers who punched button for Tom Wolf last November, be told: Our new governor wants to tax funerals.
That’s right, he wants to expand the sales tax to previously exempt items including caskets, burial vaults, services provided by funeral homes and grave stones.
This would raise the cost of the average funeral, which is $6,500, by $429.
Wasn’t Gov. Corbett’s historic gas tax enough to solve our money problems? It would have been if the goal wasn’t to create a feudal system were we serfs are expected to support lifestyles of wealth and leisure for the lords and ladies in the political class.
Has there been any talk of cutting public spending? LOL.
How about a tax on public pensions? That’s a tax we can support.
Charles Eugster, a British dentist set the world record for the 200m, March 8, at the Silver Grey Sports Club in the U.K. He ran it in 55.48. The record was for his age class obviously. Eugster is 95 years old. May he be an inspiration to all nonagenarians. And octogenarians as well.
Store a couple of ceramic flowerpots in the closet. Two pots nested, turned upside down, and propped above a few candles make an effective space heater.
An amicus brief was filed March 5 by 379 corporations and business groups urging the U.S. Supreme Court to declare “marriage rights” for same sex marriage with regard to Obergefell v. Hodges.
The list includes CBS and Philly’s own Comcast which owns NBC so expect the news you get about the matter to be what you expect.
It includes Goldman Sachs from whence, it seems, more often than not comes our treasury secretaries. And of course it includes all the hip tech companies like Apple and Facebook and Google.
You get the suspicion that this is a done deal and no amount of reason or rationality can change things.
Still, we will try.
Sodomy is bad and society should not give an inkling of approval for it. It should be given the same status as chain smoking cigarettes or eating super-sized meals thrice a day. It should be encouraged as much as sharing a needle in a crack house. People who care about people don’t give license for these things.
The claim that people are born gay is problematic. Just ask a heterosexual male who has been pestered by a gay one. Obviously, recruitment occurs, and obviously choices are made. The claim that one is born in such a way that one can’t resist a sexual relationship with another male is the linchpin of the gay marriage movement. It makes about as much sense as saying a man can’t resist a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl or another man’s wife.
Civil marriage is not about personal fulfillment. The only reason for the state to be involved in the relationship between two people is because third parties might find themselves involuntarily involved. With a man and a women these third parties are called children. It is pointed out that marriages occur now between parties that cannot or do not intend to have children. These are marriages of convenience. They are not good things. They should, in fact, be discouraged. If gay marriage is declared a right, marriages of convenience will become the norm. Why shouldn’t two business partners get married to resolve tax issues? If gay marriage becomes a right, why not incest? The only reason for the institution is “love” and “personal fulfillment” right? A father-son marriage would certainly be a way of beating the inheritance bite. Meanwhile, the moms and dads who are actually working to create the future find the burden just gets a little harder for them.
Fathers are vital to child rearing, maybe even more so than mothers. While, we think you can make, unlike for men, some kind of a case for a marriage between two women, choosing to raise a child without a father is epitome of irresponsibility and should be discouraged.
Ancient wisdom matters. The Bible is not ambiguous regarding homosexuality. It’s a bad thing according to Scripture. History backs this up. Societies where male homosexuality was commonplace — again putting paid the claim that one is always born gay — have not been very pleasant for women. And regarding the purposeful and even pleasure-filled rejection of the Biblical commands, when one discounts the straightforward condemnations of things one doesn’t like, one will find others discounting the things upon one has come to depend. Why should one expect mercy and compassion and tolerance? Because Comcast said so? LOL.
Brian Williams bizarre penchant for making up stories of derring-do, as bad as it is, is not the worst of his journalistic crimes.
Far more damning is the spiking of legitimate news stories that put his political ally, Barack Obama, in an unflattering light.
New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman has revealed that Williams twice in 2013 refused to air major stories about significant occurrences that made Obama look bad. One concerned a Justice Department memo justifying drone strikes against American citizens. The other was about how the Obama Administration had known since 2010 that ObamaCare would cost millions those insurance policies that Obama promised repeatedly that they could keep.
Obviously, these stories were reported elsewhere but not by the then most watched newsman in America.
The only reason Democrats win elections is because information is kept from the voters.
We are not sure if the looming SEPTA ad features this photo of Adolph Hitler with Haj Amin al-Husseini or another.
U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg has ruled that SEPTA must accept advertising featuring a photo of Adolph Hitler with friend and ally Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, with the tagline “Jew Hatred: It’s in the Quran.”
SEPTA had rejected the ad on the grounds it violated “minimal civility standards”. SEPTA says it is considering an appeal.
The ads are produced by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a New Hampshire-based group that opposes U.S. aid to Islamic countries and has filed similar lawsuits in New York and other cities.
Judge Goldberg noted that SEPTA has run viewpoint ads on public issues including animal cruelty, birth control, religion and fracking.
Look for it on a trolley or bus or El train near you.
Yesterday (March 11) morning I had a handful of protestors at my Senate district office in York criticizing me over the principled stances that I have been taking in Harrisburg on your behalf, including my efforts to enact Paycheck Protection legislation to prevent taxpayers from paying to collect political money for government unions.
During the demonstration, York County’s Democratic Party Chairman Bob Kefeaver made the claim to me that unions cannot use their member dues for political purposes under current law.
To hear his exact words, click here and you will be taken to York Daily Record reporter Ed Mahon’s website where you can listen for yourself (it is the second video down).
Chairman Kefauver either knows that his comment is untrue or is completely naive as to how dues money is used.
Union dues that have been deducted from teacher paychecks that are sent to the PSEA (Pennsylvania State Education Association) are repeatedly used for political activities – even drawing national attention to this issue by Yahoo News.
The Yahoo News article notes that Mary Trometter, an assistant professor of culinary arts at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board alleging the state’s largest teachers’ union violated a law that says union funds cannot be used to support political candidates.
The PSEA sent a personalized letter to her husband asking him to “join Mary” in voting for Tom Wolf, even though she did not support Tom Wolf and never specified who she was voting for to her union.
In addition, the PSEA acknowledged that similar letters were sent to other PSEA members’ spouses.
Also noted in the Yahoo News article, the November edition of the PSEA magazine featured numerous pro-Wolf ads, potentially violating the Public Employees Relations Act.
And this is just one incident – under the recent Citizens United Supreme Court decision, the dues portion of member dues is eligible for use in SuperPACs.
It is time to correct the lie that union dues are not used for political purposes and put an end to using taxpayer resources to collect money used for political purposes.
In addition, Mr. Kefauver wanted to challenge me over the minimum wage issue and the fact that some people are just unemployable because they cannot pass a drug test and they do not show up for work.
I asked Mr. Kefauver, “How many people do you employ?”
“I don’t employ anybody,” Mr. Kefauver replied.
As an employer, I live with these issues every day.
I have a tough time listening to criticism from someone who does not have first hand experience with it.
That being said, I am not going to let a handful of union protestors intimidate me into backing off of fighting for you and I have every intention of seeing Paycheck Protection make it across the finish line.
Party Boss Gets Schooled In York County
Ed note: I misread Sen. Wagner’s column. The headline has been corrected and my comment below edited.
You don’t need to work in a high-powered law firm to live in Pittsburgh.
A survey by HSH.com, a mortgage research site, indicates that Pittsburgh has the most affordable housing with regard to major metropolitan areas.
HSH.com says that one can buy a home in the Iron City with an income of $31,716 placing it ahead of such garden spots as Cleveland ($32,010), St. Louis, (33,323), Cincinnati ($33,485) and Detroit ($35,521).
Worst on the list is San Francisco where one needs to make $142,448 to buy a house, followed by San Diego at $95,433. You need gold to live in the Golden State. At least if you want to do it legally.
