Lyme Disease Season Starts

House Resolution 757 designated May 2014 as Lyme Disease Awareness Month in Pennsylvania, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)

Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness, carried through the deer tick, that causes a general infection throughout the human body. If left untreated it can have serious consequences including nervous system damage and debilitating arthritis.

In Pennsylvania, the risk for contracting Lyme disease is highest during the months of April through July. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, roughly 4,000 cases have been reported in Pennsylvania annually, with the highest incidence in the southeastern parts of the Commonwealth.

Experts advise avoiding tick-infested habitats, including heavily wooded areas, tall grass and other areas where deer may frequent. If that is not possible, individuals should take precautions and wear protective clothing, including long sleeves and pants; use insect repellents; and check themselves, their children and their pets for ticks following outdoor activities.

While Lyme disease symptoms often manifest in the form of a bulls-eye rash at the site of the tick bite, the rash may not always appear. Other symptoms include fever, malaise, fatigue, headache, muscle aches and joint pain. Most cases of Lyme disease in their preliminary stages are readily treated with antibiotics.

Lyme Disease Season Starts

CorbettCott vs GasCott

Don Adams of the always brilliant Independence Hall Tea Party Association proposed a “GasCott” during a recent appearance on WHPT’s Dom Giordano show.

He’s encouraging Pennsylvanians to fill their tanks in New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware in response to the gas tax hike imposed last November by our Republican-led state government that will give our state the highest gas tax in the nation by 2018.

Don, by the time the full tax takes effect encouragement will not be needed to fill up in other states.

To  make our anger known in the short-term, we propose a CorbettCott. Leave Gov. Tom Corbett’s name unchecked during the May 20 primary election while voting for the down-ticket.  If enough Republicans do this, maybe a cleansing gale could be started to blow away the corrupt (insert an appropriate noun) who run the state party.

CorbettCott Final Insult

CorbettCott, The Final Insult

NBA Hypocrisy Reprised

By Chris Freind

He lunged, grabbed his boss and violently choked him. After being restrained and told to leave, the man returned, attacked his victim yet again by punching him in the face, and threatened to kill him. It was just the latest in a string of serious incidents involving the employee.

How much jail time did this violent offender receive? None.

Incomprehensibly, he wasn’t even fired, and for good reason: He played in that bastion of hypocrisy, the NBA.

Let’s get this straight. Latrell Sprewell, who played for the Golden State Warriors at the time of his assault, received a suspension and fine, with the NBA sending the message that a player physically attacking his coach will merely get slapped on the fingers. Compare that with the punishment handed out to Donald Sterling, the race-mongering owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who gets banned from the NBA for life, fined millions, and may be forced to sell the team — for making incredibly racist comments during a private conversation, which, if Sterling didn’t give his consent to have recorded, may have been illegally obtained.

In handing down Sterling’s harsh sentence, the league has shown its immense hypocrisy, allowing criminal acts, but banning legal — no matter how repugnant — activity. Welcome to Amerika.

The biggest irony is that race relations, not to mention freedom, will take a hit because of the NBA’s actions. Consider:

1. First, let’s state the obvious: In the most elegant parlance, Donald Sterling is a scumbag. He has an unsavory past, possessing what clearly seems to be a discriminatory mindset. As a real estate mogul, he received a record $2.75 million fine for racial discrimination in renting. Sterling could even have faced criminal charges. But harboring racist tendencies, especially in private, isn’t a crime.

2. With such a checkered history, why didn’t the NBA address these issues over the years? It would be one thing if Sterling had been censored repeatedly, and this latest incident was the final straw, but clearly that wasn’t the case. Unfathomably, the NBA claimed it had no real knowledge of Sterling’s past.

3. The spectre of people willfully accepting their privacy rights being violated is terrifying. When commentators and politicians use phrases like, “There is no more privacy,” we might as well hang it up, for if that’s the case, America’s uniqueness is gone. Respect for freedom of speech and privacy rights — even for the most reviled — has set America apart from every other nation in history. If those things dissipate, the world’s last beacon of light will be extinguished. And at that point, we actually become worse than countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia, because we had greatness, but voluntarily gave it away, whereas those places have always been disdainful of individual rights.

4. Or — and this is by far the biggest issue — does an “offending” player or owner, who happens to be a particular ethnicity, get a free pass? If so, the NBA, and those cheering Sterling’s ban, should at least have the guts to state that such a double standard is acceptable.

It’s great for leaders and the media to publicly chastise Sterling — as they should — stating that bigotry and ignorance won’t be tolerated. But how many of these folks are consistent? How many cut off all ties to Jesse Jackson when he disparaged Jews by calling them “Hymies” and referring to New York City as “Hymietown,” or the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the president’s pastor, after his virulent racist and anti-American outbursts? Not many. Both still operate free of protest and condemnation.

Incredibly, one “sports expert” told CBS that even though the “N” word is often used during NBA games (virtually always by black players) the league shouldn’t try to stop such language or levy penalties. “The ‘N’ word is always going to have a negative image associated with it, but it doesn’t compare to the racist remarks by Sterling,” stated Ronald Oswalt, CEO of Sports Marketing Experts, which operates one of the nation’s largest NBA blogs. “Being around NBA players, the ‘N’ word is just second nature and habit for some of them.“

What they’re actually saying is that certain language (the N-word) should be tolerated for a particular group of people.

Sorry. Wrong, wrong, wrong. That apologist mentality is just warped. Sure, there are varying degrees of racism, but ultimately, racism is racism. You can’t excuse and justify it in some cases, but not others. Doing so will never move society ahead. Never.

The quickest way to widen the gulf between races is for leaders on both sides to espouse blatant hypocrisy, picking and choosing which racist comments — and by whom they are said — to criticize. In the same way the “average” American increasingly believes politicians favor the well-connected, resulting in an all-time high mistrust of government, selectively meting out condemnation for racial incidents only builds a powder keg of resentment. People may not agree with how something is done, but if they feel it is done equally and without favoritism, they can live with it. That’s the whole point of the Equal Protection Clause — the law is applied equally. When that concept falters, so do people’s inclination to work together.

5. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is attempting to gain the support of three-quarters of NBA owners to force Sterling to sell the Clippers. Two points:

If the NBA has any guts, every owner voting against Sterling should personally put up a share of the team’s $575 million value, and, upon buying it, donate all the proceeds to nonprofit organizations fighting racism (in all its forms) and advocating fairness in housing, and establish scholarship funds for minority children. Following that, they should sell the team to the highest bidder, with the proceeds again going to charity. Of course, they won’t do that.

» Assuming the NBA gets the votes, and that Sterling fights the decision in court, the NBA will almost certainly settle, for good reason. Sterling’s lawyers will, during the discovery phase of the case, uncover many skeletons in the closets of hypocritical owners. They should be mindful of the proverb, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

This issue is infinitely bigger than Donald Sterling and the NBA. It is about how we view each other as Americans, and more important, as people. It is about how we tackle difficult issues, and how solutions can only be realized if all are treated equally, with special privilege for none. It’s time, once and for all, to stop seeing things in black and white, and start living in a colorblind society, since we are all members of the only “race” that matters — the human race.

 

NBA Hypocrisy Reprised

Guzzardi Announcing Write-in Campaign

Guzzardi Announcing Write-in CampaignGuzzardi Announcing Write-in Campaign

Bob Guzzardi will be appearing on The Robert Mangino Show on KDKA in Pittsburgh, 8 tonight,  May 2, where he is expected to announce a write-in campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

The state Supreme Court, yesterday, overturned a Commonwealth Court decision and threw Guzzardi off the ballot on a rather bizarre technicality.

Many counties are distributing absentee ballots with Guzzardi’s name due as the delay in the Supreme Court’s decision forced them to go to press.

Votes for Guzzardi on those ballots will be counted as write-in votes.

The show’s call-in number is 866-391-1020. It can be listed to live at this link.

Guzzardi Announcing Write-in Campaign

CBS Paycheck Protection Report

CBS Paycheck Protection Report

One of the CBS affiliates in the state did an excellent job reporting on the “paycheck protection” issue. If this was the norm in old media, old media would not be in the trouble it is.

 

 

 

IHTP PAC Picks Connolly

IHTP PAC Picks Connolly

Calling him Reaganesque and citing his acumen as a successful businessman, the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC announced, April 30, that its Board of Delegates has voted unanimously to endorse Matt Connolly for US Congress in the Pennsylvania 17th Congressional District Republican Primary race.

“The Independence Hall Tea Party, with thousands of adherents in the Keystone state, is supporting Matt Connolly because he is a committed conservative and successful entrepreneur who will work tirelessly to achieve American Energy Independence,” said PAC President Don Adams.

“The PAC is backing Matt Connolly over his two Republican primary rivals because we think he is a viable candidate with a credible shot at defeating Congressman Matt Cartwright in the general election.

Since its founding in 2010, the PAC is 8 for 10 in contested PA primary battles.

“Matt Connolly is confident, articulate, and knowledgeable on a broad range of important issues confronting the district and the nation.

“As a businessman, Matt Connolly understands how important the private sector is to the overall health of our nation’s economy and how over-regulation is destroying the American entrepreneurial spirit.

“Matt Connolly’s support of American Energy Independence is critical to the well-being of our nation,” said Mr. Adams. “And as a winning professional race car driver in the Sports Car Division of NASCAR, Matt knows how important affordable energy is to our national transportation needs.

“Achieving Energy Independence is a core objective of the Independence Hall Tea Party. On July 4th, 2011, we held an Energy Independence Day event on Independence Mall. Over 2,000 folks attended the festivities.

“Congressman Matt Cartwright, on the other hand, has voted consistently to prohibit domestic energy production. He is one of the many reasons that the dream of Energy Independence is not being realized.

“In 2013, incumbent Cartwright voted against Energy Independence numerous times, including votes against the Keystone Pipeline Bill (H.R.3) and the Offshore Energy and Jobs Act (H.R.2231).

“Making matters much worse, in the past year and a half, Congressman Cartwright has cast over 40 votes in favor of ObamaCare while voting for taxpayer funded abortion (H.R. 7) as recently as January 2014.

“Mr. Connolly is Pro-life and committed to the repeal of ObamaCare.

“Congressman Cartwright tied Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz for the lowest score on the Independence Hall Tea Party’s 2014 Tri-State Congressional Tax Day Scorecard. Both received a dismal rating of 5%. We are confident a Congressman Connolly would receive a 95% rating.

“We note, as well, that Matt Connolly has received the support of Scranton Tea Party Founder, Laureen Cummings, who also serves as his Northeast Campaign Coordinator. Ms. Cummings was the 2012 Republican nominee for Congress in the 17h District,” said Mr. Adams.

IHTP PAC Picks Connolly

IHTP PAC Picks Connolly

Guzzardi Decision Revealed Fear

Guzzardi Decision Revealed FearGuzzardi Decision Revealed Fear

Yesterday’s (May 1)  Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision throwing retiree Bob Guzzardi off the GOP gubernatorial primary ballot was 5-2 with Max Baer and Debra McCloskey Todd dissenting.

The ruling overturned an April 15 decision by Commonwealth Court Judge  Mary Hannah Leavitt,

The Supreme Court’s rationale was that Guzzardi  did not timely file a Statement of Financial Interests with the State Ethics Commission.

It was the type of petty reasoning that ended for most of us with grade-school playground games, and indicated that Guzzardi’s no-money campaign — he was purposely refusing all donations — actually might have beat the incumbent Tom Corbett.

Guzzardi had initially filed the statement with the Department of State.

Judge Leavitt had  noted that the procedure changed this year;  the directions for submission were confusing; and Guzzardi’s campaign was given incorrect information by “a Department of State employee with apparent authority” that he only needed to file with that department rather than submit a separate filing to the Ethics Commission.

She  noted the Department of State issued a receipt to Guzzardi that it shouldn’t have as he was filing with them the original rather than the required copy.

She noted that Guzzardi promptly corrected the omission upon learning of the problem.

The Supreme Court, solidly in the pocket of the state’s power brokers, found none of these things mattered. It was better that thousands of Pennsylvanians be disenfranchised over a laughable technicality than the status quo of the money flow be threatened.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, a house organ of the establishment, reported Guzzardi as raising less than $5,000. Great journalism. The phrasing should be that he spent less than $5,000. The campaign was entirely self-funded. As noted, he was not raising money. He was refusing donations.

Corbett’s faction spent close to six figures in their fight to keep Guzzardi off the ballot.

The two weeks the Court took in making the decision forced many counties to issue absentee ballots including Guzzardi’s name. Votes cast for Guzzardi on those ballots will be counted as write-in votes for him.

For those wishing to write in Bob’s name  use Robert Guzzardi.

You know a lot of Republicans are going to pointedly not hit Corbett’s button at the polls and Pennsylvanians are sure learning how to use that write-in option. It would be cosmic humor of the highest magnitude if Guzzardi ends up beating him.

 

 

 

Giving Vapors

By The Editors of National Review

The FDA is proposing broad new regulations on the sale of so-called electronic cigarettes, which are devices that provide their users with a jolt of nicotine in the form of vapor. The sole sensible regulation contemplated by the FDA — forbidding sales to minors — is itself superfluous, such sales already being forbidden in every state.

Every state but Oregon, that is. In a strange little twist, the FDA’s proposed regulation may end up enabling the very business it is intended to restrict: Oregon does not specifically prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors (which is probably a legislative oversight) but rather has categorically prohibited the sale of such products until such a time as the FDA should issue regulations.

E-cigarettes are the new Public Enemy No. 1 for anti-tobacco and anti-smoking activists, even though they contain no tobacco and produce no smoke. States and localities have been aggressive about policing the sale and use of them (some, such as New York City, rather too aggressive), but the nation’s self-appointed health police will be satisfied with nothing less than national action against the menace of silly-looking nicotine vaporizers. The health effects of vaporizers relative to cigarettes are the subject of some debate; some doctors suggest them to patients who wish to quit smoking. But the proposed FDA rules go well beyond health and safety concerns. They would prohibit, among other things, the sale of flavored nicotine vaporizing fluids, on the theory that bubblegum-flavored nicotine vapor will act as a gateway drug and our kindergartens soon will be full of toddlers puffing away on Cohibas during recess. This is an example of the FDA’s being confused about its mission, which is to ensure the safety of products that are sold to the public, not to decide which products the public should prefer. Smoking is unhealthy, but it is not the role of the FDA to substitute its own judgment, or the judgment of anti-smoking activists, for private judgment. Likewise, proposed regulations that would ban the offer of free product samples to adults, censor advertisements, and restrict the channels of retail sales are not intended to make the product safer but to discourage its use.

Other proposed FDA regulations, such as requiring manufacturers to register with the federal government and to comply with an onerous federal product-review process, will be quietly welcomed by the larger firms in the industry, because they will help to clear the field of competition from smaller firms that cannot afford the high costs of compliance.

Regulation is generally handled more sensibly at the state and local level, but we federalists and localists must appreciate that some of our states and cities are run by fanatics. On Tuesday of next week, new rules in New York City will ban the use of e-cigarettes wherever smoking is banned — which is effectively every public space in the city short of street corners — even though the traditional health rationale for smoking restrictions does not apply in the case of vaporizers. New York in May will raise the age of majority to 21 as far as tobacco and nicotine products are concerned. The city’s nannies are blissfully immune to the irony that e-cigarettes gained popularity in part as a response to restrictions on traditional tobacco products, including their banishment from bars and restaurants.

The FDA is also proposing regulations on cigars, which the Western world has managed to consume without the oversight of Washington since at least the 15th century.

Nearly three-fourths of the population of this country not only does without smoking but has never smoked, according to the American Lung Association. The campaign of public education about the health effects of smoking has been won and then some. But the nation’s nannies must have a vice to decry, and e-cigarettes give them the vapors.

 

BillLawrenceOnline.com Giving Vapors

 

 

Visit BillLawrence Dittos for Giving Vapors

Supremes Kill Guzzardi Campaign

Supremes Kill Guzzardi CampaignSupremes Kill Guzzardi Campaign

 

The insurgent primary challenged that terrified Pennsylvania’s feckless incumbent governor is over.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has thrown Bob Guzzardi off the ballot for May 20, Guzzardi just announced .

The Pennsylvania Republican leadership challenged the 68-year-old retired businessman’s petitions scant minutes before the deadline forcing the self-funded campaign to hire a lawyer to show that those who signed had been eligible to do so and to defend a bizarre claim that the phrase “semi-retired businessman and lawyer” as his job description was somehow fraudulent as he was no longer practicing law.

Oh, and that he violated a technicality as to which paper-please bureaucracy he was supposed to file his stuff.

His lawyer, Gretchen Sterns, did a fantastic job at the hearing before Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt who found rather conclusively in Guzzardi’s favor on April 15.

But apparently the fix was in. An appeal was filed and the decision desired by the party powers came though.

Expect a Democrat to be in the Governor’s Mansion next January. Power-hungry fools whose arrogant stupidity leads to shooting fleas with cannons deserve to lose.

What did they have to fear from a retiree who was pointedly refusing campaign donations?

By the way, did you see where the same bunch is trying to take out man-of-the-people Republican State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe?