Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Horses and Pangolins

In response to last night’s posting on the eating of various animals, I mentioned that I thought the French ate horse meat.  Today I received an email from Janette, a faithful reader in Belgium.  Here’s what she wrote:
     “Yes they do eat horse meat in France and in Belgium as well.  I could buy it at the local supermarket any day of the week.  However, I stick to other dead animals...what does that mean?”

I also mentioned in last night’s posting that while I had no objection to eating various animals, one category people should not eat is endangered species.  Today I read in the Science section of the Times that one of the reasons the pangolin is near extinction is because people in Cambodia and Vietnam are trapping and eating them.  The meat is considered a delicacy.  and goes for $150 a pound.  


The pangolin looks like a scaly anteater.  (Google it for pictures.)  We have over 7 billion people, a few thousand pangolins, and we are about to make them extinct because people want to eat them.  

Monday, March 30, 2015

Bat Soup

in Collapse, Jared Diamond discusses reasons for the extinction of various societies.  The Greenlanders, descendants of Eric the Red, lived next to abundant species of fish, yet the archeological remans show almost a complete absence of fish bones.  The Greenlanders, evidently, had a cultural taboo against eating fish, although their Inuit neighbors used fish as a mainstay of their diet and survived with no problem.

In an essay in the New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert wrote about some of the food taboos of various cultures.  Some may be familiar.  Jews don’t eat pork and shellfish.  They are also forbidden to eat reptiles, amphibians, and most insects, although, evidently, some species of kosher locusts are allowed.

Islam divides food in halal and haram.  Haram includes pork, dog, cat, and monkey.  Hindus don’t eat beef.  The Moru of South Sudan allow only children and old people to eat chicken and eggs.  The Yazidis, who have been in the news lately because of ISIS repression, don’t allow lettuce.  Jains don’t eat onions.

If you think those restrictions are strange, and I do, consider the last time you saw horse meat on any menu, although I understand you can eat horse in France.  When I lived in California, the legislature passed a law making it illegal to eat cat, which, I believe, was directed at a racist idea that Vietnamese were eating cat meat.

It seems to me there are only three reasons to forbid certain kinds of food.  First, I don’t think we should ever eat an endangered species.  Second, I don’t think we should eat any food that is a result of obvious cruelty.  That eliminates veal and most pork.  (Before you eat pork, know how the hogs were raised.)  Also eliminate lobsters that are boiled alive.


Finally, there are occasions when a food causes us health problems.  Try to buy locally grown chickens to avoid salmonella.  Wash your lettuce thoroughly.  And if you live in Guinea, do not eat bat soup.  There’s a good chance you might contact Ebola, which is why bat soup has been banned in that country.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Dandelions

Usually by Easter dandelions are blooming.  This year may be an exception; Easter is early, and we’ve had a very cold March.  

\When the dandelions do bloom in your front yard, here’s a tip.  Allow them to bloom.  Don’t apply herbicides.  Dandelions are pretty, and they are one of the earliest of flowers, which means that any bees active will have flowers to pollinate.

If you are worried about what your neighbors will think, put up a sign that says “Bee lawn.”  

This will bring your four advantages:
•  no herbicides added to the environment.
•  help for honeybees.
•  a savings of time and effort.

•  satisfaction

Saturday, March 28, 2015

"Killing Jesus"

The National Geographic Channel is airing “Killing Jesus” on Sunday, March. 29.  The show is based on Bill O’Reilly’s version, not the Bible.

O’Reilly has written quite a few of these books, among them Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, and Killing Responsible Journalism.


I wondered why the National Geographic Channel would use the O’Reilly version instead of the Bible when I realized that O’Reilly was probably there, right after he covered that Falkland Islands War.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Driver's license/Concealed weapons license

Say you have a Mississippi driver’s license and you drive to Pennsylvania.  A Mahoning Township cop pulls you over for doing 30 in a 25 mile-an-hour zone and asks to see your license.  He’ll give you a speeding ticket, but he won’t arrest you for not having a Pennsylvania driver’s license.  

Now Senator John Cornyn of Texas has introduced a bill to allow people who have a license to carry a concealed weapon in their home state to carry it in any state, even in states with strict laws against concealed carry.

Cornyn has said it’s just like a driver’s license.

Not so much.  To get a driver’s license in Mississippi, you must actually know how to drive.  You have to pass a test.  It has a written part and a driving part, pretty much like Pennsylvania’s.

To get a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Mississippi, you have to fill out a form.  That’s it.

To get one from Florida, according to columnist Gail Collins, you send $112 to the Florida Department of Agriculture.  You don’t have to live in Florida.


The National Rifle Association, of course, backs Cornyn’s bill.  

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Trans-Pacific Partnership

Jim Hightower, former Agricultural Commissioner of Texas and a very liberal guy, publishes a monthly newsletter to which I subscribe entitled “The Hightower Lowdown.”  A few issues ago he railed against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an international 12-nation trade agreement pushed by the Obama administration.  

Hightower’s main objection was that the agreement allowed foreign companies to challenge U.S. laws if those laws restricted trade.  To take an extreme example, let’s say if a foreign corporation that produced cigarettes felt that anti-smoking laws were harming trade, it could sue to have those laws overturned.

Now, get this.  A chapter in the draft of the trade deal dated Jan. 20, 2015, was obtained by Wikileaks.  The cover of the chapter, which details the ability of companies to sue, was not to be declassified until four years after the Trans-Pacific Partnership comes into force.

The Obama administration downplays the possibility of corporate lawsuits.  Elizabeth Warren begs to differ.  On this one, I’m going with Jim Hightower and Elizabeth Warren.  Scrap the Trans-Pacific partnership.


If you want to read the article in today’s Times detailing the potential problems with suits, go to <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/business/trans-pacific-partnership-seen-as-door-for-foreign-suits-against-us.html?src=me&_r=0>.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

GMOs

I don’t think there is anything inherently dangerous in genetically modified foods.  The environmental left can be as irrational on GMOs as climate change deniers are on global warming.

Having said that and shocking all my Green Party friends, I think it is disgusting the way companies like Monsanto are using GMOs.  Monsanto has developed and patented Roundup Ready corn and soybean seeds in order to sell its profitable herbicide, not to prevent famine.

What’s worse, according to an op-ed piece by Mark Bittman in today’s Times, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has declared that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, is a probable carcinogen.  We’ll probably know in ten or fifteen years.

Here is another disgusting development.  Rep. Pompeo (R-Kansas--where else) has introduced a bill to prohibit states from requiring the labeling of GMO foods.  If those products are safe, what is the harm in labeling them?


This is just one more example of Republican hypocrisy.  Republicans are in favor of states’ rights except when they aren’t.  This bill, of course, is strongly supported by Monsanto.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Police and Firefighters

When Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin pushed a bill that would curtail collective bargaining rights for government workers, he excluded police and firefighters.  

In 2012 Michigan’s Gov. Rick Snyder signed a “right to work for less” bill to eliminate the requirement that workers contribute dues to the unions that represent them, whether or not they are members.  Firefighters and police unions were exempt.

Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois is currently proposing $2 billion in cuts to government workers’ pensions–except for police and firefighters.  

The usual reason given is that these people put their lives on the line.  OK, here’s a list of work-related fatalities per 100,000 workers in 2013:

Logging workers, 91.3
Aircraft pilots and flight engineers, 50.6
Refuse and recyclable material collectors, 33.0
Truck transportation, 24.0
Electrical powerline installers and repairers, 33.0
Construction laborers, 17.7
Taxi drivers and chauffeurs, 15.7
Grounds maintenance workers, 12.6
Waste management and remediation, 10.7
Police and sheriff’s patrol officers, 10.6
Athletes, coaches, umpires, and related, 8.9
Firefighters 8.2

Perhaps the exception has more to do with politics?  Perhaps these Republican governors are complete hypocrites?  Perhaps this has everything to do with elections, and nothing to do with principle?  Ya think?


The figures on fatality rates are taken from Noam Scheiber, “New Labor Rules for Public Sector Workers Don’t Apply to All, NYT, 20 March 2015, p. B-1, B2.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Ted Cruz announces

Actually, I don’t give a big rat’s ass about Ted Cruz.  He is a silly little man, although he has made me reconsider my awe of Harvard Law School, which awarded him a law degree.  Maybe he cheated.

Cruz is a lackey of a small sliver of the rich, with the support of duped people on the bottom.  Here’s an interesting factoid.  In 2014 Oxfam went to the World Economic Forum in Davos,Switzerland, with the news that 85 individuals controlled as much wealth as half the worlds’s population combined.

This January that number went down to 80.

Steve Fraser recently published a book about the disparity in wealth entitled The Age of Acquiescence:  The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power.  Fraser notes that in the first Gilded Age, between the end of the Civil War and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, millions of Americans were organizing and protesting against the extremes of wealth and poverty.

Now, not so much.  What happened to the strikes?  The Progressives?  The anger?  Fraser’s conclusion is that we don’t see any alternatives to the present disparity in wealth.  We can’t imagine another system. 

In a review of Fraser’s book (which I have not read), Naomi Klein takes him to task for not discussing movements that are protesting the new “Gilded Age.”  The reason Fraser might not discuss those movements is because they are powerless and ineffective. 


For example, Ted Cruz ought to be an object of ridicule.  Instead he is cheered at the “Christian” University where he made his announcement by thousands of brainwashed college students.  And he was elected to the U.S. Senate by the voters of Texas.  

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Bobwhites and whippoorwills

I can’t imitate many birds, but I can do a very good call of the bobwhite and the whippoorwill.  Unfortunately, if I do one for you, you won’t be able to check my accuracy against the actual birds--at least in our area. 

When I was a kid, every evening at dusk I could hear the call of whippoorwills.  It has literally been decades since I heard one.  The whippoorwill is not yet listed as an endangered species, but local populations have disappeared.  It is a ground nester, and as such is often a target for feral cats and coyotes.  

As for bobwhites, which were also common when I was a kid, researchers for the Pennsylvania Game Commission now believe there are no wild populations left in the state.  According to the latest issue of the Game News, a recent survey conducted in conjunction with Penn State researchers was unable to find any bobwhites in the state.  The Game Commission will try to reintroduce the species.


In the meantime, Republicans in Congress continue their attempts to gut environmental laws, fragment habitat with fracking pads and pipelines, and push for more fossil fuels.  

Friday, March 20, 2015

Modern Family

When asked about their favorite TV shows, both Obama and Romney mentioned “Modern Family.”  It’s my favorite as well.

I really don’t watch much TV.  I’ve never seen an episode of “Downton Abbey,” “Breaking Bad,” “Mad Men,” “Game of Thrones,” “Empire,” “Scandal,” or “Parks and Rec.”  I read about a show being cancelled after six of seven years, and I’ve never seen one episode.  I can’t stand MSNBC,.  I don’t even know anyone who watches Fox.  Network news doesn’t compare to the New York Times.  I will admit to watching Jon Stewart about once every two weeks, and I do occasionally watch an episode of the “Big Bang Theory.”


So why do I like “Modern Family”?  While I recognize that almost no real families in America have the kind of money the people on the show have, I like that it is a family.  The gay couple is married with an adopted Vietnamese child, and the relationships are as complicated as those of any family.  Plus Gloria is hot.  Plus it’s really funny.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Gov. Wolf and the death penalty

Last night I wrote about Jeb Bush’s selective religious beliefs.  As a Catholic he’s ok on the death penalty, not so much on abortion.

Tonight I want to castigate Gov. Wolf for his imposition of a moratorium on Pennsylvania’s death penalty.  It was unnecessary and politically stupid.  

Not that I am a big supporter of executing criminals, although I have no objection if guys like Eric Frein are gassed, or hung, or injected, or whatever we are doing these days.  What I don’t like is that the death penalty is arbitrary, sometimes executes innocent people, and fails to deter.

In any case, Pennsylvania now has something like 180 people on death row.  I can’t even remember the last time one was executed.  Wolf, by imposing a moratorium, was solving a non-problem, enraging the pro-death penalty crowd, and handing Republican legislators a stick with which to beat him.


This is a problem with electing a guy who is “non-political.”  Being a governor is “political,” and I’d like one who knows how to play the game.  Let’s hope Gov. Wolf learns how to play.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Jeb Bush's selective religiosity

It is always risky business when an atheist comments on other people’s religions, but I always thought that Catholics weren’t allowed to pick and choose among the tenets of their faith.  

The Times today had an article about the importance of Jeb Bush’s Catholicism in his daily life.  It even had a picture of him praying before a cabinet meeting when he was governor of Florida.  

His faith was so important that he tried to force a hospital to keep comatose Terri Schiavo on life support.  He also tried to appoint a guardian for the fetus of a developmentally disabled rape victim and to prevent a 13-year-old girl from having an abortion.

While he failed in all of those attempts, he was much more successful in applying the death penalty.  While he was governor, 21 prisoners were executed in Florida, more than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.  


The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty, but maybe executions are more popular with the voters.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

55th reunion

My 55th high school reunion will be in September.  (That’s Palmerton High, Class of ’60.)  I’m on the Reunion Committee.  We are sending out the info letter later this week.  We are asking our classmates whether they would like to hold a reunion every three years instead of every five.

The reason?  Some of us think that if we wait five years, quite a few of us will be dead in the interim.


It’s the kind of thing you don’t think about at the graduation ceremony.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Pennsylvania School Funding

Our state is pathetic.  According to Arne Duncan, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, Pennsylvania schools have the largest spending gap between rich and poor districts OF ANY STATE.  That’s right.  We rank at the bottom, below Mississippi and Arkansas, with the largest gap between rich and poor districts.  

This is because of our reliance on property tax for funding schools.  Rich districts, like Parkland, with high property values,have a lower property tax rate, but the money rolls in.  Poor districts like Panther Valley, with low property values, can’t raise much money even with high property tax rates.

Republicans in Pennsylvania, in charge of both houses of the state legislature with a Republican governor, did nothing in the last two years.


Governor Wolf is proposing major changes in the way schools are funded, but the Republican legislature, led by people like Rep. Heffley, seem to be opposed to any meaningful reforms.  In the meantime, our economy stagnates in large part because our workforce is not educated.  What a legislature.  What a group of losers.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Today Linda and I marched in the Jim Thorpe St. Patrick’s Day Parade as part of the Carbon County Labor Chapter contingent.  The Patchtown Players, a group who dresses up in period miner costumes, including one guy with a miner’s lantern with actual flame, were just ahead of us.

We had two chants:  “Union Man, Union Man.  We must have full dinner can!” and “AFL-CIO, Call a strike, out she go!”  

It was great fun, although Upper Broadway was unbelievably cold.  About 2/3rds of the way through the parade, people brought out shots of Irish whiskey for the marchers.  You would not believe how good that was when you have no feeling in your fingers or toes.


I don’t know who those people were, but may the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back, and may it not be as cold as it was walking down Upper Broadway.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

"I'm not a scientist"

Columnist Gail Collins brought up an interesting phenomenon today.  All of these Republicans--Gov. Scott of Florida, Jeb Bush of Florida, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, etc. ,etc.--who say they really can’t comment on global warming because ”I’m not a scientist” seem perfectly willing to comment on tax policy.  

If they are willing to comment on tax policy, shouldn’t they be accountants?

I’d even go further than Gail Collins.  If they are going to comment on abortion, shouldn’t they be women?  If they are willing to comment on unions, shouldn’t they be wage earners? 


What a bunch of nincompoops.

Friday, March 13, 2015

PennEast replies to critics

Today the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission published PennEast’s responses to testimony and criticism of the route of the proposed PennEast pipeline.  The replies are fifty-six pages long.  


To save you the trouble of reading all of the PennEast material, I will summarize in two words what the Company said to its critics:  F_ _ _  You!

Thursday, March 12, 2015

NSA and Wikipedia

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had “googled” the author of Guantanamo Diary to find out if he were still in prison.  (He is.)

I suggested that searching for his name probably put me on a watch list at NSA.  

On March 10 the New York Times printed an op-ed contribution by the founder of Wikipedia and the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation.  They noted that one of the targets of NSA revealed by Edward Snowden was Wikipedia users.  So I really am on a list somewhere.

Wikipedia has filed a lawsuit with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union asking the courts to end NSA’s surveillance of Internet traffic.  


Without privacy there is no freedom of expression.  How did this nation go so far off the track?

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

I agree with Jim Zbick

Over the last five years I must have posted at least five blogs excoriating Jim Zbick, an editorial writer for the Times News.  Now I find we agree on an issue.  Zbick recently wrote an editorial critical of Gov. Wolf’s proposal to impose a sales tax on newspapers.  Here’s a copy of the letter I sent to the Times News earlier this evening:

Dear Editor,

Any comprehensive tax legislation will have provisions that are opposed by various affected groups, but Governor Wolf’s proposed overhaul has one provision that is actually bad for democracy and its need for an informed citizenry.  Gov. Wolf wants to apply a sales tax to newspapers.

Your opinion columnist Jim Zbick rightly pointed out that such a tax violates the First Amendment’s freedom of the press clause.  The well-known phrase “the power to tax is the power to destroy” certainly applies to newspapers. 

The money that a newspaper tax would raise does not outweigh the harm it would do to print media.  Newspapers are already struggling as people pretend to get their news on phones.  

Let your representatives know that a sales tax should not apply to print journalism.


Hey, when the man is right, I have to recognize that.  On this issue he is correct.  Way to go, Jim.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Lower Towamensing Opposes PennEast Pipeline

At their regular monthly meeting this evening the Lower Towamensing Township Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution opposing the PennEast fracking gas pipeline.  The Supervisors objected to lowered property values, the use of eminent domain powers by a private company, and possible harm to both wetlands and waterways in the Township.

Kidder, Towamensing, and Mahoning Townships and the Carbon County Commissioners previously passed resolutions asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure that possible harm to County residents and to the County’s environment be eliminated, lessened, or mitigated.


The audience, of which I was a member, applauded the Lower Towamensing Supervisors for their vote.  It is refreshing to see elected officials who are not intimidated or bought off by multi-million dollar energy companies.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Feeling old

When I turned 60, I remember telling my father, “Now I really feel old.”  He looked at me and said, “How do you think I feel with a 60-year-old son?”


Today Rachael turned 47.  Wow.  A 47-year-old daughter!  Happy Birthday Rachael.  

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Join the parade

I mean that literally.  I’m the Secretary of the Carbon County Labor Chapter, AFL-CIO, and I’m recruiting people to march with us in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Jim Thorpe on Sunday, March 15.  You don’t have to be a union member, just a supporter.  And you don’t have to be Irish, because on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish.

The route is about two miles long, all down hill.  The problem is to find parking; the lot by the railroad station fills up fast.  You can also park by the Jim Thorpe High School and get shuttled over by bus.  Buses from the Courthouse will run you up to the staging area, which is at the upper end of Broadway.  

Our marchers will wear green T-shirts (we have large, extra-large, and XXX large, which you can wear over a coat or sweater.)  The T-shirts say “Proud to be Irish, Proud to be Union.”  After the march you can keep the T-shirt as a souvenir.  

Let me know if you’d like to march.  610-377-0235.


By the way, a number of spectators also serve shot glasses of whiskey to the marchers.  That may be another incentive.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Daylight Savings Time

First of all, studies have shown it doesn’t save energy.  Secondly, it means country kids will again be boarding the bus in the dark.

I don’t like it, and I don’t like missing an hour of sleep.  If we are going to have it to lengthen long summer evenings, why start it in March?  Why not in mid-May.


I’m going to bed.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Petitions

Today Linda and I turned in our nominating petitions for Bob Crampsie, who is running for Controller of Carbon County, and for Emmett McCall, who is running for the Recorder of Deeds position.  To get on the primary ballot for county-wide offices in Carbon, you need the signatures of 100 county voters registered in in your party.

This was an especially bad year to gather signatures.  Three different meetings where we had planned to sign people up were cancelled because of the weather.  The roads were often icy, and parking in town was difficult.  When you do find someone home, you have to sit and talk, and that takes time.

We also knew from past experience that you need a voter list when you gather the signatures, since people will say they belong to the right party when they don’t, either because they don’t want to hurt your feelings, or because they truly don’t remember.  

Another problem is that the petitions themselves are poorly designed.  For example, you write the street address and the municipality in which you live.  My street address is Pohopoco.  My post office is Lehighton, but my municipality is Towamensing Township.  


Candidates usually try to send out a small army of signature gatherers to guarantee they reach the threshold with names to spare.  Mr. Crampsie and Mr. McCall are old hands at this; their names will be on the ballot in May.  

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Muslim holidays

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced yesterday that New York City schools would recognize two Muslim holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.  The second of those is also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, commemorating the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son to God.

(As an aside, I am of the opinion that Abraham, or Ibrahim as Muslims know him, was one sick puppy if he was willing to kill his own son because his god ordered him to.  Give me a break.)

Now Asian groups would like the Lunar New Year recognized, and some Indian-American groups want a holiday for the Hindu celebration of Diwali. 


This is one of the problems of being an atheist in America, besides being forbidden to run for public office in Pennsylvania.  You don’t get any holidays.  We ought to at least have a holiday on Feb. 12.  That’s Darwin’s birthday.  

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Guantanamo Diary

Mohamedou Ould Slahi was born in Mauritania in 1970.  He won a scholarship to attend a college in Germany and worked there as an engineer.  In 2000 he returned to Mauritania, and in 2001 the U.S. government asked authorities in Mauritania to arrest him.  He was then taken to a prison in Jordan, than to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, and then Guantanamo in 2005.

In 2010 a federal judge ordered his immediate release.  Our government appealed, and Mr. Slahi is still in prison, although he is no longer being tortured.  He was never tried, never even charged with a crime.

In 2005 he began to keep a diary.  It was published in January, and it details some of the torture Mr. Slahi endured.  The diary is heavily redacted; for example, the names of the torturers, whom we pay for with our tax dollars, are blacked out.  At one point seven pages are completely obliterated.

Take a look at page 234.  He asks some guards why they don’t refuse to carry out illegal orders.  The answers are pathetic.  They were worried about their work assignments and their careers.

I have a number of reactions to the book.  I am ashamed that my fellow citizens could torture prisoners for years, and that their actions were approved at the highest levels of government.  Secondly, I am proud to be a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is working tirelessly to see that detainees are given better treatment.


Finally, I googled Mr. Slahi’s name to see if he was still in Guantanamo.  He is, and it occurred to me that the N.S.A. probably put me on some kind of list for that action.  That is the America we live in today.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Kochia rules

Kochia is an invasive weed thriving in western Kansas.  A professor at Kansas State has discovered that kochia has developed a resistance to the herbicide Roundup.  

While Monsanto scientists are developing genetically modified seeds that won’t be harmed by Roundup, this lowly weed is developing its own resistance to Roundup without any outside help.

There is a lesson here, but neither Monsanto nor midwest growers will learn it.


(This information came from “Weeds’ Glyphosate Resistance Stems From Increase in Gene Copies,” Lancaster Farming, Feb. 28, 2015, p. A26.  Amazingly enough, if you google kochia, you can find sources for ordering seeds.  How stupid can we get?)

Monday, March 2, 2015

Gov. Wolf's tax proposals

Things are not bad enough.  In his first term as Governor of California, Jerry Brown had an expression “Let the crisis heat up.”  When the government is in true crisis, an opportunity may arise for real reform.

Let’s look at the current state of affairs in Pennsylvania.  (I’ll try to be brief.)
The property tax, used to fund schools, means that poor districts like Panther Valley will have a problem paying for their schools no matter how high they raise property tax, while rich districts, like Parkland, spend huge amounts per pupil with fairly low tax rates.

The income tax in Pennsylvania is flat, which means that no matter how rich you are, you pay the same percentage as a Wal-Mart worker.

The sales tax is regressive.  Although it seems to be a flat tax, it actually takes a greater percentage of money from lower income taxpayers than from wealthy taxpayers.

So what is Wolf’s solution?  He wants to raise the sales tax (regressive), increase the income tax (a flat tax), and decrease property tax, a worthy goal that fails to prevent educational inequalities.

What we need is complete reform.  And we won’t get it.  The Pennsylvania legislature is filled with goofballs, the Pennsylvania Constitution is a straightjacket, we do not have the initiative process available to us, and the average Pennsylvania voter is dumb as a box of hair.  


Maybe if the crisis heated up, maybe if the state actually went bankrupt, maybe if the poor school districts had riots in the streets, our tax system would be reformed.  But don’t bet on it.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Wedding announcement

When you are in your twenties, you get invited to lots of weddings.  Your friends from high school and college are getting hitched.  I was an usher or participant in at least four weddings in my twenties, in addition to two of my own.

By the time you reach your seventies, you go to funerals.  I attended two funerals in Palmerton last Monday and Tuesday.  It gets depressing.  

That is why I am so pleased to announce the nuptials of two of my dear friends Janette and Anne later this month in Brussels, Belgium.  I’ve known these two delightful people since the late 80s, when we lived in Danville, California.  


While I won’t be able to fly to Belgium for the wedding, I will be there in spirit.  Congratulations, best wishes, and hugs to Janette and Anne.  And, if I might add, it’s about time.