Honor Flight June 21 Trip Needs Vets

Honor Flight Philadelphia’s next Tour of Honor of Washington D.C.  is  June 21 departing from St. Kevin’s Church in Springfield, PA.

The organization is seeking World War II veterans to participate. There is no cost to them.

Please call Christine at 215-630-4399 or email info@honorflightphiladelphia.org for information.

Those wishing to be a guardian for the trip should visit HonorflightPhiladelphia.org for an application  Guardians are awarded slots on a first come, first serve basis.

 

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Delco Patriots Hear Chris Stigall

 A crowd of more than 80 braved the ice and a snowbank-filled parking lot, tonight, Feb. 18, to meet candidates Bob Guzzardi and Roger Howard and hear  WPHT radio host Chris Stigall critique our present class of politicians.
Especially the Republican class.

Stigall was the guest of the Delaware County Patriots at the Newtown Square, Pa. Knights of Columbus Hall.

“I struggle to understand what Republican means anymore,” he said. Stigall, who is bald, said if he “had hair he’d pull it out” after hosting two prominent Republicans on his show.

Stigall noted that “big tent” once meant agreement on the major principles while overlooking minor disputes.

“We may not agree on every issue but we agree that the country is in trouble,” he said. “The ‘big tent’ has been highjacked.”

He said some in the party establishment are trying to spin Ronald Reagan as having been a “great compromiser” rather than the great communicator as he was known in his lifetime.

He read a long excerpt from a 1977 speech by Ronald Reagan that could have been made regarding today’s political circumstance. He noted there were no compromises on principles.

Stigall, who was once a congressional assistant to Congressman Sam Graves (R-MO6), whom he still greatly admires, said the general public has a tendency to put politicians on a pedestal, a fault he once considers himself as having.

“This deifying is another something I won’t do anymore,” he said. He said the final cure came after he was invited to a one-on-one dinner by a prominent politician and lectured about “getting his mind right” after he had been criticizing the policies the pol had been backing.

He said he has taken to emphasizing that our political class are merely public servants.

Stigall noted that our Republican-controlled state has been unable to end socialism regarding the sale of liquor, nor do much of anything else regarding the advancement of economic freedom such as ending automatic deduction of union dues from the workers paychecks.

Stigall thanked Guzzardi who is taking on Gov. Tom Corbett in the May 20 Republican primary and, Howard who is running for the 158th District seat being vacated by long-time state Rep. Chris Ross. He said, however, his policy is to not make primary election endorsements.He said, though, he will never support a Democrat and give full support to the Republican winner.Guzzardi, it should be noted, got strong applause when he was introduced by moderator Lisa Esler.

Stigall did say regarding the governor’s race “I want that nut job  (Allyson) Schwartz to get the (Democrat) nomination” as he feels that  would be surest path to a Republican victory.Stigall had an interesting comment regarding ultra-liberal Philadelphia Daily News columnist Will Bunch, who he says has lost his temper in discussions with him to the point where Bunch has called him a racist. Stigall said he read Bunch’s column regarding abolishing the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and the Delaware River Port Authority, which are graft magnets. Stigall welcomed Bunch to the conservative club, at least temporarily.Stigall can be heard from 5:30 to 9 a.m. on WPHT 1210 AM

 

 

Omnibit Trivia 2-18-14

Omnibit Trivia 2-18-14 by William W. Lawrence Sr.

Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature, was once fired by an editor who called him an incompetent writer.

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Shad Season Starts And That Means Good Eating

Shad Season Starts  — Despite the miserable climate change — the Ice Age was climate change after all– in southeastern Pennsylvania, an absolutely wondrous season has started.

It is shad time.

The fish, also known as the river herring as it is part of the herring family, is now being sold at fish mongers and supermarkets throughout the region as their harvest has begun down south.  The spawning starts when the temperature hits 51 degrees F.

Pennsylvania has an historic connection to the fish, which is sometimes credited for saving the American Revolution. It is said that they fed the Continental Army at its most desperate time as the spawning on the Schuylkill in the spring of 1778 occurred just about the time the  army had run out of food at Valley Forge.

The illustration above is Shad Fishing at Gloucester on the Delaware River by the great Thomas Eakins painted in 1881.

Yes, it is delicious. Keep an eye on these pages. Maybe Chef Bill Sr. will explain how to cook it.

 

Shad Season Starts

Venezuela Progressive Tragedy

Today’s (Feb. 17) Philadelphia Inquirer carried on its front page a story about someone making a U.S. skier cry, Jimmy Fallon and John Kerry warning about “climate change.”

Not a peep about the oppression and tragedy going on in Venezuela.

The video below explains what is going on.

Hat tip John Sexton at Breitbart.com

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Presidents Day Omnibit Trivia 2-17-14

Presidents Day Omnibit Trivia 2-17-14 by William W. Lawrence Sr.

The federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February is not officially called Presidents’ Day, but rather Washington’s Birthday.

There was an attempt in 1968 to officially name it Presidents’ Day, which died in committee.

Many states, however, choose to call their own celebration on this day “Presidents’ Day.”

Of course, his real birthday is Feb. 22.

Unless, you consider that the calendar which was in effect in the British Empire at the time of the his birth in 1731 was the Julian which would make in Feb. 11.

Britain switched to the Georgian Calendar in 1752 hence his birthday is considered to be Feb. 22.

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Presidents Day Omnibit Trivia 2-17-14
 

 

 

Candy Crush Saga Swipe Saga

For those who have gotten hooked on the Candy Crush Saga game on Facebook, here something to ruin your day. The below letter to King.com, the maker of CCS, was released earlier this month by Albert Ransom, the president and founder of Runsome Apps Inc., which made the CandySwipe game released in 2010

Dear King,

Congratulations! You win! I created my game CandySwipe in memory of my late mother who passed away at an early age of 62 of leukemia. I released CandySwipe in 2010 five months after she passed and I made it because she always liked these sorts of games. In fact, if you beat the full version of the android game, you will still get the message saying “…the game was made in memory of my mother, Layla…” I created this game for warmhearted people like her and to help support my family, wife and two boys 10 and 4. Two years after I released CandySwipe, you released Candy Crush Saga on mobile; the app icon, candy pieces, and even the rewarding, “Sweet!” are nearly identical.

Candy Crush Saga Swipe Saga

So much so, that I have hundreds of instances of actual confusion
from users who think CandySwipe is Candy Crush Saga, or that CandySwipe is a Candy Crush Saga knockoff. So when you attempted to register your trademark in 2012, I opposed it for “likelihood of confusion” (which is within my legal right) given I filed for my registered trademark back in 2010 (two years before Candy Crush Saga existed). Now, after quietly battling this trademark opposition for a year, I have learned that you now want to cancel my CandySwipe trademark so that I don’t have the right to use my own game’s name. You are able to do this because only within the last month you purchased the rights to a game named Candy Crusher (which is nothing like CandySwipe or even Candy Crush Saga).
Good for you, you win. I hope you’re happy taking the food out of my
family’s mouth when CandySwipe clearly existed well before Candy Crush
Saga.

I have spent over three years working on this game as an independent app developer. I learned how to code on my own after my mother passed and CandySwipe was my first and most successful game; it’s my livelihood, and you are now attempting to take that away from me. You have taken away the possibility of CandySwipe blossoming into what it has the potential of becoming. I have been quiet, not to exploit the situation, hoping that both sides could agree on a peaceful resolution. However, your move to buy a trademark for the sole purpose of getting away with infringing on the CandySwipe trademark and goodwill just sickens me.

This also contradicts your recent quote by Riccardo in “An open letter on intellectual property” posted on your website which states, “We believe in a thriving game development community, and believe that good game developers – both small and large – have every right to protect the hard work they do and the games they create.”

I myself was only trying to protect my hard work.

I wanted to take this moment to write you this letter so that you know who I am. Because I now know exactly what you are. Congratulations on your success!

Sincerely,
Albert Ransom
President (Founder), Runsome Apps Inc.

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Defending Freedom Means Proclaiming Truth

By Father Frank Pavone

It’s an election year, and it’s time to open our mouths, in the Church, about politics, candidates, and the right to life.

Our fight for our unborn brothers and sisters is a fight for freedom and against tyranny; for people and against oppressive governments. Our Founding Fathers fought this fight, and so must we, with the same readiness for self-sacrifice.

This is true for every American. How much more true is it for us as the Church, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Gospel is a Gospel of freedom. “I have come to proclaim liberty to the captives…to let the oppressed go free,” Jesus said in defining his mission.

Carrying out this mission requires the freedom to speak the truth as we understand it. Not only was this fundamental right explicitly acknowledged by our Founding Fathers and placed at the top of the Bill of Rights, but it has been affirmed time and time again by the Supreme Court, not only to point out the existence of such freedom, but also its characteristics.

In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (376 U.S. 254, 270 (1964)), the Court asserted that the protection of citizens to advocate for particular issues reflects our “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open”

In 2010, the Supreme Court also affirmed the following:

“Speech is an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people. The right of citizens to inquire, to hear, to speak, and to use information to reach consensus is a precondition to enlightened self-government and a necessary means to protect it. The First Amendment ‘has its fullest and most urgent application to speech uttered during a campaign for political office.’”

“[I]t is inherent in the nature of the political process that voters must be free to obtain information from diverse sources in order to determine how to cast their votes.” (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010)).

The corresponding freedom of the Church to speak and teach the truth — a freedom also contained in the Founders’ recognition of freedom of religion — is something explicitly insisted upon in the Church’s own documents. This freedom is, in fact, an essential aspect of the Great Commission left by Jesus Christ: “Preach the Gospel to every creature.” “Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you.” Because the Gospel covers every aspect of life and human activity, the Church must also be free to comment on political matters. In this regard we see the following strong statement from the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes):

“At all times and in all places, the Church should have the true freedom to teach the faith, to proclaim its teaching about society, to carry out its task among men without hindrance, and to pass moral judgment even in matters relating to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it.”

Rev. Pavone is national director of Priests for Life

 

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