Outgoing

Tom, with all due respect, Wilkes-Barre doesn't have a dilemna...Amerika has a dilemna.

W-B is but a microcosm among hundreds, perhaps thousands of microcosms of Amerika in it's current, deplorable state.

How do we fix a fallen country that has absolutely no respect for anything...authority, a higher power, the sanctity of life, or the now much frowned-upon Ten Commandments?

As for "druggies" relocating here from the nearby Big City, there's an old adage that goes as follows: The brown folks grow it, the black folks sell it and the white folks buy it.

So, until the white folks stop buying en masse, expect a steady stream of societal decay, reverse-gentrification, death, mayhem and more "white flight" from the financially-strapped cities.

And when the last of the folks who actually work and produce and generate taxable incomes finally abandon the urban centers, city after city after city will face the inevitable financial insolvancy that follows untold decades of liberal, well-meaning, but ill-thought out policies.

It's a huge sh*t and pimento sandwich, and we either take another reluctant bite and lower our lifestyles and expectations, or we head for the hills with ammo in tow, herd newts and live off the land.

Anyway, did we attack Syria yet?

Them's all we've begotten.

Later

He huffed...and he puffed...

And he chickened out all over again.

How many a "red line" can one charlatan draw and have eviserated before he comes across as a self-impressed, flailing jackass?

Another red line gone. His one deadline expired. Yet, he is on record as saying that any country that uses chemical weapons needs to be taken to task for having done so. Really? And what would young Barry Do-Wrong do if the Russians fired a chemical-laced shell or two into the Ukraine?

He---the sorry-assed phony---paints himself into corner after corner, and them wimps out and reinvents the corner.

  

Three more years of this jackassery?

Later

On sale now: Magnetic "I support the terrorists" ribbons

These are the sorts of folks the U.S. military is being forward-deployed to assist.

What's that?

Allah Akbar, you say?



Later

Dubya sighting

Now that Dubya is five years removed from the White House, he looks a helluva lot more youthful.

Wait for it. Not once, but twice.

Wait for it...



Later

Syria, here Barry comes!

His "Arab Spring" meddling has brought war and chaos to both Libya and Egypt, and now Barry Oblahblah wants to export further meddling, namely a stepped-up war and further chaos to Syria.

The only problem is, Syria, Iran and Hizzbollah are promising to quickly export said meddling by way of military adventurism to Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and all comers, percieved or otherwise.

And let us not forget that Russia is a staunch ally of Syria, with ground troops, advisors, missile forces and nearby naval units all on a war footing as of today. In addition, Iran has deployed an entire battalion of Revolutionary Guard troops to Syria in expectation of U.S. drone, cruise missile, or air attacks.

Seems like our overmatched president can't resist flirting with the causation of World War III.



What a freaking maroon!

Later

Bullet Hills: Chopping off the tail to kill the head?

Here’s a blog I’m hoping to hear more from.

Sherman Hills Apartments: a criminal element and incompetence

I was up before the crack of dawn, and switched my transistor radio from sports talk to WILK---our local talk radio outlet. And from 6 AM to this very moment, the Sherman Hills shooting has dominated the public discourse.

What people need to understand while advocating for the bulldozing of this complex is that most of the people that reside there are not bad actors. Most of the folks that reside there are there for a variety of reasons, but the great majority of them do not run around shooting at everything that moves.

You can speculate about the choices they’ve made, their lack of chastity, their education level, etc., etc., etc., but the undisputable fact is that some people just flat-out need our assistance. And as I have alluded to many times over on these electronic pages, as a youth, I was once one of those people that needed your assistance.

The truth is, if Sherman Hills is bulldozed, burned and paved over, very few of the bad actors will have been impacted. The questionable friends and acquaintances of ill-repute who visit the tenants may be impacted, but last I checked you can not regulate and legislate and control who a person chooses to hang out with.

Many are calling for a full-frontal assault from the City of Wilkes-Barre, which, as far as I’m concerned, is clearly called for depending on the layers upon layers of legalese and the like. But I think what is called for is for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to be deluged by concerned and outraged residents of Wilkes-Barre.

Because, at this point it’s obvious that while the ownership group of Sherman Hills is willing to accept millions in HUD money, it is not willing to provide for the safety of it’s residents. Instead, it defers to the city whenever the bullets fly, the medic units are tied up and the blood has to be hosed from the tarmac by the fire department.

When I lived in public housing on the public dole, not a single shot ever rang out. And if my mom had to face what the current residents of Sherman Hills have to face, she would have had a nervous breakdown and keeled over dead. She felt defenseless in a physical sense, with no man-of-the-house on scene. She was always afraid as it was with the racial tensions as they were. She was forever worried that the enormous chips on my widening shoulders would one day get me into big trouble. And she absolutely hated feeling so vulnerable all of the time, being that our meager “income” could not deliver us from even the slightest of economic setbacks.

The most pronounced difference between then and now being that none of us ever had to duck errant gunshots.

I am fully aware that a public assistance existence is much, much more lucrative than it was when it was our unwanted existence. But to evict hundreds upon hundreds of people, mostly poor women and children, is to punish the people who are already under siege.

The management and ownership needs to be held accountable, not the folks who for the most part are simply trying to keep their heads down in anticipation of the next eruption of gunfire.

Them’s all I got.

Later

Video doggie-do

Once again, LaLa, the less-than-amazing, vertically-challenged Ewok/Hamster mix...



Later

Bullet Hills

So I was sitting here playing Civilizations IV yesterday afternoon (being thoroughly annoyed by the drum-beating Aztecs) when a scream shot out of the police scanner at 1:45 PM…”Sherman Hills…shots fired.”

And what quickly followed was as upsetting as it was disturbing…


“Officers need assistance!”

“Put an X on it…child shot!”

“I got a gunman running around loose!”

“I need that medic unit yesterday!”

“Two children shot!”

“Tell those medics to get their ass up here now!”


And from the responding medics, “a baby shot in the neck, victims three and five,” and “5-year-old shot in the face…exit wound under left ear…in and out of consciousness.”

Sorry, but it’s time we curb the entitlements, take the savings and build more prisons. If endless gunplay really floats your listing boat, you need to rot in a cage.

Because of my specialty--wood-destroying insects--I spend an ungodly amount of time working in public housing projects as well as privately owned subsidized housing developments. Name a town and a project and I’ve spent days there. And in some cases weeks.

The reason for this is that these projects are slab-on-grade, meaning these structures have no basements. Basically, they poor a slab and then erect multi-storied structures on top of it. And when the inevitable stress fractures appear across the slab, termites move right in.

If you spend a goodly amount of time toiling away in these communities as I have, over time, you pretty much see everything. It runs the gamut, and a lot of it is downright bad, even deplorable. Plus, in my case, I actually resided in a public housing townhouse for 6 or so years.

Now, I’m not stupid. When I’m working in these sorts of environments, I am well aware of my surroundings at all times. It’s less of a head-down rush to completion and more of a scan-the-scene sort of approach. And depending upon which locale I am scheduled to work it, I arm myself accordingly.

On some occasions, I am given a master key so as to inspect apartment after apartment, something that gives me some degree of pause with so many handguns lying around in plain sight in your typical subsidized housing setting.

With all of that typed, there are relatively safe locales, while there are those places where you should probably be ready to take cover in an instant. No, I should say, a place where you might need to hit the deck. One. One single place. And that place is none other than Sherman Hills.

All of which takes me back to the management 101 days, where it was written on ancient stone tablets that the atmosphere and the condition of an operation is a direct reflection of the attitude and the approach of the management and ownership of said operation.

We have this one housing project gone Dodge City in this county. We have this one locale where gunplay is the norm. There’s but one place that appears to be spiraling out of control.

So, this leads us to conclude that the management and ownership of this project gone shooting gallery is incompetent, uncaring or both.

And while I’m no city solicitor, nor did I ever play one on television, it’s time that the legal hammer comes down and comes down hard.

Thirty-four years ago, while spending a relatively quiet year in apartment #813 with my wife and my baby, I dubbed that complex “Pregnant Hills,” which aptly described the demography at the time.

These days, it’s become Bullet Hills.

Later

Sarin? Why now?

Apparently, a certain charlatan here at home will not be happy until the entire Middle East is in the hands of the Jihadists.

Why the Sarin gas attack?

It was a reaction to the first insertion of U.S.-trained "rebels" into Syria.



Prepare for a broader conflict.

Later

Bastardy

All too often, drivers turn onto our street and make like Mongoose and Snake at a drag lodge. And, here and there, I’ve beckoned them to lay off the accelerator, earning myself quite a few stiffened middle fingers in the briefest of exchanges.

Immediately following any of those fly-bys, an angered driver could have done an about-face looking to settle scores with me. That’d be perfectly fine with me on most days, save for the disturbing fact that wholesale bastardy in this country has made knee-jerk ultra violence---gunplay---a way of conflict resolution for far, far too many of our younger males.

Or, as we had it in Plymouth of late, assault and battery and manslaughter by way of a bumper.

The plain fact is, women can not handle young boys. Never could, never will. So when Johnny went beyond the accepted protocols during a spirited game of dodge ball, dad swiftly kicked his ass after promising the school principal it would never happen again.

Dad always handled the discipline because, as we all know, moms were prone to screaming and freaking and crying and slapping like a girlie…none of which ever impressed any boy worth his weight in mischievousness.

These days, men won’t marry so as to not have their lives ruined by the courts that always err on the feminist side. Our culture has taught young girls that it’s perfectly acceptable to be used like rubber fu>k dolls at age thirteen, which results in children raising children on the public dole.

Throw in lesbian couples raising boys as well as the school’s relentless pursuit of turning rambunctious little boys into well-behaved little girls, and we can see how rampant bastardy in it’s many forms leads to oft-deadly consequences for boys as well as those who dare to annoy them.

Confused? No? And neither are our children borne of bastardy.

And the result?

People acting badly, no matter where you go or what you portend to do. You see it every single day. In traffic, in line, in the big box store, on the streets, on the sidewalks and what have you and whatnot.

And no matter how badly people act out, if you’d rather not cause your own funeral to come about in a flash, you dare not, you cannot call anyone out on their obvious bad behavior.

Whether they act like a tramp, a vagabond, an idiot, a bully, a foul-mouthed blowhard or like Richard Petty, you ought not judge them and you ought not register a verbal complaint.

So mind your tongue and try to ignore all of that societal decay brought on by ill-advised social engineering.

Now go and enjoy your day.

Later

It can't happen here. Or can it?

Sue Henry gets the credit for the link...

Which Pennsylvania Cities Could Be The Next Detroit

Interesting numbers.

Later

Shhh! Libyan missiles to Syrian rebels

Looks like Barry Oblahblah has the Syrian version of the Iran/Contra affair--an impeachable offense--about to go all viral on his pencil-neck ass.

Uh, for the immediate future, stick to rail or Greyhound. It's just not a good time to take to the skies.



Later

Immigrant Song (pre-Oblahblah)

And no teleprompter, kiddies.



Later

Expedite!

From the Times Leader…

Mayor Tom Leighton announced at a press conference Thursday the city’s plans to set tough standards for rental property owners and renters eyed as the cause of a rise in violent crime. In the works is a “one-strike” policy related to gun and drug charges for landlords and tenants that will result in a six-month shutdown of an apartment or entire building. City council must approve the ordinance at two readings before it can be
enacted.

End Times Leader excerpt.

Despite the online criticism of this news, Pennsylvania has on it’s books a piece of legislation known as the Expedited Eviction of Drug Trafficking Act. Under this law, when a property is eligible for prosecution under the Expedited Eviction of Drug Traffickers law based on illegal drug activity occurring at the premise, the City and DA of Pittsburgh notify the landlord that they have 10 days to initiate eviction proceedings under that law.

The point being, our mayor and council are not peeing into any headwinds with this one-strike idea.
Much like other states, Pennsylvania has strict eviction laws. Failure to pay rent, excessive disorderly conduct, willful destruction or damage to property, habitual lateness in paying rent, violation of rules and regulations outlined in a lease or document, and the tenant's conviction for a drug offense are all legal reasons why a landlord can evict a resident. In fact, some states are quick to evict.

In some cities, tenants residing in subsidized housing are subject to an expedited eviction if they are found to be in possession of a firearm. And this has been upheld in the courts, with the rationale being that subsidized housing is a privilege, not a right.

It is common today for residential leases to contain language providing, “if resident, resident’s family, employees, agents, guests, or invitees engage in, permit or facilitate any drug-related criminal activity on or about the premises or within the apartment community, resident will be deemed to have substantially and materially breached its lease and such breach being grounds to terminate resident’s occupancy of the premises.”

Here’s an excerpt from the PA law…

The Act provides three eviction remedies to landlords -- complete eviction, partial eviction and conditional eviction. G.S. §42-63 provides that a Court may order the complete eviction of the tenant and "all other residents of the tenant's individual unit" named in the landlord's suit for eviction, provided the landlord can prove any of the following:

1. Criminal activity has occurred in the tenant's unit;

2. The tenant's unit has been used to promote criminal activity in any manner;

3. The tenant or any guest or household member of the tenant has engaged in criminal activity anywhere on the property where the tenant's unit is located;

4. The tenant has invited any person previously evicted and barred from the premises to return or re-enter any portion of the property where the tenant's unit is located; or

5. The tenant has failed to immediately notify law enforcement officials or the landlord upon learning that a person who was previously evicted and barred from the premises has returned or re-entered the tenant's unit or any portion of the property where the tenant's unit is located.

Commencement of an action in the Court of Common Pleas differs greatly than typical procedures at the local Magistrate District Court level. For instance, at the county level, the matter is commenced by filing a verified, fact-specific Complaint with the Prothonotary in accordance with the local Rules of Court, as opposed to a form-driven Landlord & Tenant Complaint. In most instances, the Sheriff makes service of the Complaint personally on the Defendant, who then has twenty (20) days within which to file a response. beginning stages of drafting the Complaint, to commencement of the action, and through to its completion.

End excerpt.

Look, in an urban setting, we’ve all got to follow the rules if we expect a fair measure of peace and tranquility. And we all know that one property gone public nuisance can negatively affect the quality of life on an entire street, or in a neighborhood. In addition, we all have that one rental property nearby that attracts loser after loser after loser, meaning the property owner doesn’t the vet prospective tenants very well, if at all.

I don’t care what the ACLU has to say. And I don’t care about the useless speculation coming from the mayor’s most ardent of critics.

People have rights, they say? Yeah, well so do we all. We all have the right to live our lives in a drug-free neighborhood and without bullets being haphazardly and carelessly sprayed in every direction.

With property ownership comes responsibility. And it’s high time that the absentee landlords step up and conduct their affairs in a responsible manner.

Mayor Leighton, the proportion of tenants to home owners in this city demands that you see this thing through. Take those chronic offenders, pack them up and expedite them all back to Camden. And tell them to take their f’ing slumlords with them.

Sez me, Markie in Parsons.

Later

I am not a terrorist

Consider this an admission of sorts.

Next month, that calendar thingie demands that I admit to being 55-years-old. With that said, know that my daily routine is not much different than that of the 13-year-old Markie. I can still run faster than most of you, I can kick harder than most of you, and I can punch a helluva lot harder than most of you on even your best of days. And being juvenile to a fault, all of that fills me with misgiven pride.

During the restaurant years, I was tackled, tripped, punched, kicked, slashed, stabbed, hit with clubs of all sorts of lengths and weights, and even damn near put out of commission by a wooden crutch gone full-blown projectile. Still, I delivered much, much, much worse than any of the incoming fire. And I wear those scars like a badge of honor.

Some might say that I am an assh*le too inclined to making all violent and the like. And to those sorts of folks, I offer no defense. I am what they twisted and bent me into being. It is what it...wasn't supposed to be. Whatever. Either sue me or take the first punch.

With all of that useless swill having been typed, none other than the almighty Fedrule Govmint itself has determined that I am not a terrorist.

So, now that I've been vetted by Big, Big, Bigger & Still Bigger Brother, do you feel safer?

Later

Stuff

The new view.

I've really had it up to here with talk radio jocks and prospective candidates posing as activists going on and on and on about how one police chief and one elected official have more or less stood idly by while the destruction of our neighborhoods has been underway in Wilkes-Barre.

If a building is up to code, there is no law preventing absentee landlords from renting to absentee parents. If a particular street, section or neighborhood is peaceful and quiet, a Section 8 property or two will put the kibosh to all of that tranquility. There is no law against big city folk bringing their big city nonsense to Small City, U.S.A. There is no law specifying that we remain the lilly white city we all remember. And there is no law against public assistance being a way of life.

Too many of us are idled...unemployed. Too many of us are just drinking or snorting or shooting up until the next electronic cash transfer. Too many of us collect unemployment benefits for months and months and months on end. Basically, too many of us either never understood the benefits of a strong work ethic, or too many have forgotten while playing beer pong on the public dole.

So, replace that politician. And then sh*tcan that police chief you loathe so much. And when their much-heralded replacements take over, they'll quickly realize that you can't put lipstick on a populace that has gone above and beyond being f''ugly.

Face it, if peace and tranquility is what you want, you'll need to erect a special forces-styled forward fire base in the hills of Oregon. Consider it "white flight" on PEDs.

Don't forget the solar-powered radio.

On a whole other note. NO!...I do not know what happened to Gort!

Seriously, I have not a single clue. And the speculation is useless. I left him two messages, both of which he did not respond to. And over the many years, never did he not respond to my infrequent calls. 

I'm told he is a personal friend of Edward Snowden, so it's possible that he has taken an interest in Vodka of late.

You sure got me by the ball bearings.

And lastly, to the persistent detractor of mine, I offer this: One hour of glory beats an eternity of anonymity.

Now go back to your usual haunts, the reader's comments cesspools at both the TL and CV.

 Buh-bye

Are you ready...

One month to go.

Eli goin' all Timberlake on us.



Later

Detroit, here we come!

If you crunch enough numbers not supplied by the politically overzealous, you will undoubtedly realize that the United States is fast approaching a dangerous threshold, a calamitous tipping point if you will.



With the accelerating rise in the welfare ranks, disability claims, public sector pensions debt and the criminally prone…nearly half of the populace has no real skin in the economic game.


So when a Mitt Romney comes along promising that job creation will be his overriding priority if and when he is allowed to move into the White House, half of Amerika reflexively yawns.


Put simply, you cannot compete against the growing catalog of Govmint-provided freebies. There it is. Nearly half of the populace wants to eat, drink, collect tattoos and piercings, text, sext, thrash about naked, retire ridiculously early and be semi-illiterate on my dime.


I realize typing as much is not politically correct which will result in many hoping that some clandestine Govmint agency orders me captured and fed to poor people in Stoneageistan, but I truly do not care.


In a demographic sense, they constantly tell me that what we need is more forced diversity. Meanwhile, the unwritten political correctness statutes as they apply to diversity mandate that people of all shapes, shades and stripes think the exact same things.


And these rules of engagement come from the intellectually vapid folks not curious enough to meet or experience the lives and environments of those they prejudge and prejudge every harshly.


Ever met a militia member from Montana? Nope, don’t need to. Bitter, clinging gun nut gone racist.


Ever rode along with the police to see those “mean streets” with your own four eyeballs? Nah, not necessary. They profile and they are prone to outbursts of brutality.


Ever donned a uniform and been paid to dodge high-velocity rounds and large exploding projectiles? No, but I know better than our most senior military commanders.


Ever seen what the local coal plant means to the folks in Red Neck Creek, West Appalachia? No, and I don’t want nor need to. They are destroying Ice Station Zebra.


The great majority of the folks at the top of the media food chain avoid expressing opinions that differ from those that they run, party and cavort with. And they will not challenge the inane proclamations and banal absurdities conjured up by the folks at the top of the political food chain for fear of being banished, the media equivalent of being deported to Red Neck Creek.


Controversy?

Uh, better not. Go with the politically correct flow.


Herein lies the reason that the web garners so much traffic, while the print media continues to be reduced to peddling grocery coupons and the television industry has become the home of the slothful, drunken illiterate: The web offers a diverse Sargasso Sea of opinionating and the like. The web is the very last refuge for those who challenge, think and can still read the language. The web is what the other press venues once were.


Getting back to my original point, something approaching half of the country could really give a flying funk about wealth creation, job creation, personal responsibility, personal savings or enjoying the fruits of their own bounty.


They want the freebies they want, they want dummies like me to work and pay for it all, and they now have a Fedrule Govmint that is ready and willing to provide what they want.


The Chinese are also willing to provide what they want. And while I pay for it in the interim, the children and the grandchildren of the growing legions of freebie takers will pay for it later on.


We’re fast approaching apogee, and the rapid decline is waiting just ahead. The takers win out over the givers in the short term, but the country goes financial tits-up in the long term.

Detroit, here we come!


Later

Not RiverFest

Flat River, Durham County...

A kayak is snapped in half, trapping a paddler in the cockpit against a strainer.

Watch this and point out a few obvious mistakes.


There's something to be said for open-cockpit boats.

Later

Ray Bradbury, meet Survivor

This adventure intrigues the hell out of me.

But, there‘s no need for me until they discover life---termites--on Mars.

Mars One

The Mars One Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that will establish a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023.
A reliable surface habitat will be set up before the first crew lands; more settlers and cargo will follow every two years.
Our plan is realistic because the technology needed already exists and can be purchased from the private space industry.
The first footprint on Mars will fascinate and inspire generations; it is this public interest that will help finance this human mission to Mars. Join our global effort by sharing our vision with your friends, supporting us and perhaps becoming a Mars astronaut yourself.


Departs Earth: September 2022.

Arrival on Mars: April 2023.

One catch, though.

It’s a one-way ticket. A one-way trip. There’s no coming back.

Oh, and it’s going to be the end-all reality TV show.

Later

Gone in 59 seconds

Courtesy of Duane Morris...



Nite, nite