Machete Center

Yesterday's news was a juxtaposition between Allentown's hopes and it's reality. While Mayor Pawlowski and other dignitaries were attending yet another ceremony at the Arena Hole, the police department was expending numerous rounds to down a machete wielder, only a couple blocks away. Back at the Hole, one dignitary after another saw the arena as a Transformation of Allentown. If Allentown is to transform, it will be through the Reillyville Office Complex. The arena itself, silent and dormant every day, with only 120 nights of use anticipated, will make no change. The adjacent hotel, repeatedly mentioned by The Morning Call, will be another apartment house. Let us hope that the tenants don't have machetes.

The Wailing Wall

Israel had hoped that Jordan would not join the Arab forces against them in 1967. It was not to be; their artillery opened fire on Israel. Israeli paratroopers fought with small arms in the Old City. They were ordered to use no artilley, which could damage Holy Shrines.

Although Israeli Jews and Christians were barred from both the Wall and Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the twenty years of Jordanian rule, Israel immediately opened access to all. Administrative control of the Temple Mount, upon which sits the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, were immediately given to the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic Trust).

The Wailing Wall is the Western Wall of the Mount, which is considered the closest and only remnant of the Second Jewish Temple, and is the holiest site in Judaism. No matter where in the world, all Jews have always prayed facing Jerusalem and the Wall. reprinted from April 2010

Bottom Feeding News

PhotoCredit:WFMZ 69

It turns out that Alfonso Todd's big crime was parking tickets, even though Bill Villa's emails suggested that it was much more. Todd's failure to pay his tickets resulted in his license being suspended. Today he was imposed with a monetary fine, while Villa harassed the Judge that there should have been imprisonment. Addicts of the blogosphere are used to Bernie O'Hare referring to himself as a bottom feeder. Today. that title clearly belongs to WFMZ 69, who covered the hearing, apparently responding to Villa's hateful emails. Rather than taint an earnest candidate of the people like Alfonso Todd, they should have done a story on how they were manipulated by Villa.

Moshe Dayan

Moshe Dayan on born on a kibbutz near the Sea of Galilee in 1915. When he was 14, he joined the outlawed Haganah, an underground defense force to protect Jewish settlements from Arab attacks. Although caught and imprisoned by the British for two years, he would fight for them in Lebanon during WWII, losing his eye. In the 1948 War of Independence, he fought on all the fronts, defending Israel; by 1953 he was Chief of Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces. In 1956 he led the Suez Campaign.

In 1967 he was Defense Minister for the Six Day War. He remained in that position through the War of 1973. Although a genuine hero in every sense of the word, he was held responsible for the initial success of Egyptian forces in the surprise attack on Yom Kippur (1973), and would resign from his position.

Israel is too small of a country, and it's enemies too numerous, for any miscalculations regarding it's security.

reprinted from April 2010

Harassing Alfonso Todd

Feb 19, 2013
James J. Narlesky, Magistrate Judge
District Court # 03-1-04
248 Brodhead Road
Suite 2 Bethlehem, PA 18017 
RE: Docket Number: MJ-03104-TR0000434-2013

Judge Narlesky, Your Honor:

I understand there's a private meeting or a public hearing (your secretary Jenna has pledged to call me back on this) scheduled for this Thursday, Feb 21, 2013 @ 9:00am regarding.... habitual recidivist scofflaw defendant and Allentown City Council candidate Alfonso Todd ...... 

As a "sidebar," Your Honor, I am pleased to have been the civic-minded catalyst for Alfonso Todd finally contacting you and accepting some small measure of accountability for his antisocial behavior through my Lehigh Valley Somebody blog post on Alfonso, LVS Exposé: "We CAN Do Better" than Alfonso Todd on Allentown City Council. 

Your Honor, considering the fact that Mr. Todd has been thumbing his nose at police and the courts..... and finally, Your Honor, that this man has the audacity to insult the citizenry and run for Allentown City Council, I humbly ask that you impose the maximum 6-month jail sentence on Alfonso Todd as you have the full authority to do.

Thank you, Your Honor, for considering being as civic-minded as I am. 

Best Regards,
Bill Villa
610.428.1253

Bill Villa's harassment against Alfonso Todd and others, including myself, continues every day. I've been told that on Villa's blog he now falsely claims that I challenged him to a fistfight. As I said before, I do not challenge anybody to any form of physical altercation, but do challenge the Allentown Police Department to protect me, and others, from these increasingly hostile threats from Mr. Villa. In addition to myself, Villa sent a copy of his email to both Allentown City Council and Mayor Pawlowski.  It's a quandary if one should report on Villa's despicable  behavior. Needless to say, he certainly isn't really civic minded; He is a predator, trying to cause harm to people he barely knows, and have done no harm to him.  He is a distorter, who has sent hundreds of such letters, as shown above, about dozens of people. He is a cyber stalker.  Most people don't even care to read about such things, much less write about them.  I also would prefer not to write about his abhorrent behavior, but he counts on his ability to intimidate his victims into not defending themselves.

The Butchers of Allentown

photograph by Bob Wilt
A&B (Abogast&Bastian), dominated the local meat packing industry for almost 100 years. At it's peak, they employed 700 people and could process 4,000 hogs a day. The huge plant was at the foot of Hamilton Street, at the Lehigh River. All that remains is their free standing office building, which has been incorporated into America on Wheels. Front and Hamilton was Allentown's meatpacking district. Within one block, two national Chicago meatpackers, Swift and Wilson, had distribution centers. Also in the area were several small independents, among them M. Feder and Allentown Meat Packing Company.
reprinted from January 2011