Job Opening

Wanted:  A Democratic candidate to run in the 122nd Pennsylvania House District.  

Qualifications:  Applicant should be intelligent, an environmentalist, pro-labor, supportive of small business, respectful of the rights of women, a backer of public education, and a supporter of gay rights.  Applicant should recognize that selling the Wine and Spirits stores will lead to alcoholism and teen drinking.  Applicant should know that being a state legislator means more than photo ops.

Applicant should be willing to raise funds, walk door to door to meet voters, and work 14-hour days.

Applicant must have lived in Carbon County before November 2013.  Applicant may be an Independent, Libertarian, Green, or Republican, but must be willing to re-register as a Democrat before January 1, 2014. 

Benefits:  If applicant wins the November election, the citizens of Carbon County will gain a legislator who represents people other than the one percent, who supports adequate funding for education, transportation, and health care, and who puts the interests of the people of Carbon County above an out-of-touch governor.

Undetectable Firearms Act

I’ve written about the federal law that bans undetectable firearms, scheduled to expire this month.  The House did pass an extension of the law, but two chicken-shit items are worth noting. 

First, the extension passed by voice vote.  Members of Congress are so afraid of gun wackos that they did not want to go on record as opposing plastic weaponry.  Secondly, they did not include 3-D printed guns.  I have no idea how that works, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tested one of those 3-D guns and found it could fire metal .380-caliber bullets.

Why do the 2nd Amendment fanatics always forget the phrase “well-regulated”?

Nelson Mandela

At one time in my life I was an expert on obscure African liberation movements.  I knew about Frelimo and Swapo and the ANC.  I attended meetings in Berkeley in support of revolutionary organizations.  I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on the efforts by the United Nations to hasten the decolonization of Angola and Mozambique and South West Africa.     I predicted that Portuguese colonies would gain independence when the Portuguese dictator Salazar died, which is exactly what happened.  

I also knew that South Africa was on its way to a race war that would result in thousands, if not millions, of casualties.  After all, this was a country which Gandhi had his first failure.  This was a country that was trying to herd blacks into “homelands” within its borders.  Its apartheid policies made Mississippi look liberal.  It had the closest thing to Fascism since Hitler.  But I was wrong; the race war never arrived.  

The reason I was wrong was because of one man--Nelson Mandela.  I know South Africa still has immense problems--housing segregation, corruption, crime, income inequality--but it is still the most prosperous African country, its government is reasonably democratic, and its people are united.  Nelson Mandela was truly amazing, and the world is so much better for what he accomplished.

Happy Holidays, Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin has written a new book entitled Glad Tidings and Great Joy, decrying the “War on Christmas.”  She says that people are afraid to say Merry Christmas, and that we have secularized the holiday with way too much commercialism.  

The book is available in hard cover for $13.95.  Profits do not go to charity.

Tired of Republicans

I really am.  

•  they do everything to discourage people from signing up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, then complain it doesn’t work.
•  they cut food stamps for the poorest Americans and then blame them for not working harder.
•  they hold hearings in the House Judiciary Committee about impeaching the President .
•  they criticize the attempts to diffuse the Iranian nuclear program, but offer no alternative except war.
• they complain about the Democrats voting to govern by majority rule in the Senate, after they held up votes for years on the President’s nominees.
• they are doing their best to rig elections by voter suppression and gerrymandering.

I could go on, but it is late and I’m going to bed.  I really think that a major party in a major democracy has been hijacked by unpatriotic fanatics.  Whether we can survive this onslaught of stupidity and silliness is open to question.  I hope so, but I am beginning to have doubts.

If, by a remote chance, you are a Republican reading this, my question is, why are you still a Republican?  If it is so distasteful for you to switch your registration to Democrat, become an independent or a Libertarian or a Green.  Do you really want to be in a party that thinks climate change is a hoax, that thinks gay marriage is a sin, that is willing to deny food to children, and that believes our system of health care than denies coverage to millions is just fine?  It’s time to reregister.  I am quite serious.

Zero Tolerance Revisited

I hope you will be impressed.  Last night I wrote about the absolute stupidity of “zero tolerance” policies.  Today a New York Times front page headline read:  “Seeing the Toll, Schools Revise Zero Tolerance.”

The article discusses changes in school policy in such places as L.A., Baltimore, Chicago, and Denver.  Instead of kicking kids out of school and putting them into the streets, schools are now using counseling and special help.  Incidentally, 70% of the kids getting kicked out are black or Hispanic.

Which brings us to my attempt to provide a small portion of the bail requirement for the 18-year-old now in county jail for taking an air rifle to the Jim Thorpe High School last week for the purpose of impressing a girl.  Bail has been set at $100,000.   I thought it would be fairly simple--find out the name of the parents, make my offer, and congratulate myself for being a bleeding-heart liberal do-gooder.

Didn’t happen.  I called the County District Attorney’s office, who said Magistrate Lewis was handling the case.  I called that office, and was told yes, the student was in jail, did not have an attorney, and they couldn’t tell me anything about the case because of privacy requirements.  They referred me to the Jim Thorpe Police Department.  The officer was polite and apologized for being short with me, but said he could not legally give me information.  He referred me to the Jim Thorpe School District.  That got me to Superintendent Conway, who was most helpful.  

Ms. Conway told me that the student did not have parents in Carbon County but was under the care of a social service agency known as Child First.  I called my friend Kara for help, and she suggested I try Carbon County Juvenile Probation.  The director explained that since the student was 18, it was not a juvenile case, but did give me the number of Child First.  The woman there told me this was a referral from Philadelphia.  She called the Philly agency, and they gave her permission to call me back to let me know the student did have a case worker and would receive legal help.  The hearing will be later this month, and presumably the attorney will ask for a reduction in bail.  

Since I’ve gone this far, I will try to attend the hearing if it is open to the public.  Since I am neither attorney or relative, I don’t know if that will be possible.  In the meantime, an 18-year-old high school student who made a really dumb decision will remain in jail.

Deer Season

Our regular Monday garbage pickup is postponed until Tuesday, Dec. 3.  This is because Dec. 2 is the first day of deer season, and all the Township employees are out hunting deer. 

I am fully behind this.  Both Linda and I have run into deer on the highway, and they do major damage to our truck patch.  Since wolves and mountain lions have been exterminated in Pennsylvania, deer have no natural predators. They are not Bambi.  They are rats with hooves.  Go hunters.