Prince William's Great Grandmother

Long before Prince William walked down the aisle yesterday in Westminister Abbey, his great grandmother, Princess Alice (Princess Andrew of Greece), walked there during the wedding of her son Phillip, to Princess Elizabeth. Princess(Alice) Andrew, later at the Coronation of Elizabeth, wore the habit of a nun. An extraordinary woman, she had founded a nurses order composed of nuns in Greece. She modeled the order after one started by her aunt and mentor in Russia, whom she had visited many years earlier. Born Princess Alice of Battenberg, she married Prince Andrew of Greece in 1903, assuming her new title.
During the Second World War, she hid a Jewish widow and her children in Athens, saving their lives. In accordance to her wish, she is buried in Jerusalem, next to her cherished aunt Duchess Fyodorovna, in the Russian Orthodox Church of Maria Magdalene.

The $25,000 House

A local blogger recently did a series of posts on the improving rental market in the Valley, and what the cities should do to prosper most from the trend. He combined a number of utopian concepts, which seem somewhat incompatible in the real world of eastern Pennsylvania. He wants affordable housing and upperly mobile housing, if not side by side, close by. The starry eyed call this mixed income neighborhoods. I think what they fail to understand is that this is Allentown, not Manhattan. We are a horizontal community, not constricted in area. Although he cites rising rents, he doesn't understand the specifics. Rents are rising in the suburbs, away from the mixed income neighborhood. Higher rents in center city are only the formula for higher vacancy and turnover rates, part of the learning curve for newer landlords. The tale of the tape is the real estate listings, and more indicative, the deed transfers. In Allentown there are currently 62 houses for sale under $50,000. This past fall and winter, the deed transfers have been dominated by dozens of homes, purchased for rental, by investors for $25,000. This low cost of entry has saturated the rental market with $700 a month homes. The house pictured above is near 12th and Linden Streets, and can be purchased for $16,000.

UPDATE: There has been a juxtaposition of failed real estate strategies which created our current situation. The city orange tagged many apartment buildings in the last couple of years. Government policy wanted to make everyone and their pet a homeowner, putting hundreds of marginally financed people in houses. The crash has now reverted them back to tenants, but angry, resentful tenants. Overall, as William Bendex would say at the end of the Life of Riley, "What a revolting development this turned out to be." A fellow blogger cut and pasted several articles on our wonderful new rental environment. I thought I'd give an actual report from the front lines. If you want optimism or false solutions, go to his blog or City Hall.

Allentown Moves Visitor Center

Allentown has moved it's Visitor Center from Hamilton Street to the America on Wheels Museum on Front Street; Hope that doesn't confuse too many visitors! According to The Morning Call, the center helped about twenty visitors a day at the old location. Assuming that Lee Butz will not be stopping in eighteen times a day anymore, they should now receive about two people a day, both asking for directions to Bethlehem.

The Consigliere

Blogger, and former attorney Bernie O'Hare has long had influence with Northampton political kingpins Ron Angle and John Stoffa. That influence, until recently, had been limited to a stream of good press on his blog and perhaps some ghost writing. The Gracedale episode seems to have elevated Bernie from press agent to legal advisor. His joint lawsuit with an elected official against the petition was quite unusual. Stoffa's comments that O'Hare saved the County money seem to compound the blurriness; The Morning Call has done a story on that topic. The second flank of the attack against Gracedale, centered on Stoffa's claim that a ballot question not only challenged the Home Rule Charter, but the actual Constitution of the United States. Once again we learned that O'Hare studied the Charter, and reprimanded The Morning Call for not accurately reporting Stoffa's somberness during the press conference. Could O'Hare now also be a stage director, in addition to writer and legal advisor? Could we have an Orson Welles in our midst? Citizen O'Hare.

Joseph's Tomb

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He had said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place." (Exo 13:19)

For a thousand years, Jews had prayed at and cared for the Tomb of the Patriarch Joseph. The Samaritans had worshipped at the Tomb for 1,700 years.

On October 7, 2000, Ehud Barak ordered Israeli Border Police to withdraw from guarding the Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus (Shechem). Within hours it was destroyed. Since then there has been a pattern of the IDF escorting religious Jews to clean up the destruction, and then more desecration after they leave.

The bones of Joseph which the Children of Israel brought up from Egypt were buried in Shechem in the portion of the field that had been purchased by Jacob. (Joshua 24:32)

UPDATE: Early Sunday morning, as 15 ultra-orthodox Jews left the Tomb after Passover prayers, a Palestinian policeman opened fire on their 3 vehicles. Several men were wounded, and the 25 year old nephew of an Israeli Government Minister was killed.

UPDATE:In retaliation for the murder of a Jewish worshiper and the wounding of 5 others, last night at Joseph's Tomb, by official Palestinian Authority "policeman", dozens of Palestinians are rioting and burning down Joseph's Tomb in the middle of PA occupied Shechem/Nablus. (Israeli Radio, Channel B)
YNET interviewed one of the worshipers:
One of the Breslovers who was in the second car in the convoy and was lightly wounded told Ynet: "We arrived at the tomb like on many occasions in the past. Near the tomb we saw a spikes chain. One of the guys jumped out of the car and moved it aside.
"At this point a uniformed Palestinian police officer with a Kalashnikov in a jeep woke his colleagues up and they started firing into the air…I was in the front seat. We started driving fast in the direction of the tomb; we got out of the vehicles and kissed the tomb.
"When we got back to the vehicles the police shot at the vehicles, they were screaming 'Allahu Akbar'. ["Allah, The god of Islam, is great" -- the Islamic battle cry traditionally screamed before massacring infidels] It was crazy, they were shooting to kill. I screamed at the driver to drive out of there quickly. When we got to Har Bracha we attended to the wounded." (Ynet)
Haaretz was quick to write:
"The main problem is that they [the Israelis] entered the city without coordination," said Jibril al-Bakri, the Palestinian governor of Nablus.
I thought the main problem was the PA police yelling "Allahu Akbar" and then opening fire at unarmed Jewish worshipers.
Silly me. Jameel, Israeli Blogger,  The Big  Peace
Palestinians are once again burning Joseph's Tomb

Zimmerman Speaks Out

In retrospect and not as a rationalization, during that meeting my attention was more focused on the prospect of furloughing 249 teachers than what I thought to be "routine" personnel issues.It was the administration's fault this was not addressed. I trusted them and they simply violated that trust.They can apologize all they want but it does not change the fact they still achieved their purpose, sneaking their appointment into the position.
There are certain issues that I feel, if not addressed, will make the whole attempt at a redesign of the curriculum an exercise in futility.They need to be identified and discussed in the open to adequately resolve them. I will commit to that and will use this blog as a sounding board if OK,d by MM.As a point of information, I understand the Safety Task Force will now be a closed meeting with a select group of people. Apparently the last meeting was cancelled due to the overt vociferousness of a concerned parent. That person, I was told, was my wife. I fully support her efforts to discern the truth about the violence occurring in WAHS. To me a change in the structure of this meeting appears to be a direct violation of the sunshine law.
The administrators in charge of student services, from the top down, either have to get honest with the people of Allentown and learn to deal with them or find other positions.I will refer this to the solicitor for the school district and if not satisfied, the Secretary of Education and or the State Attorney General.
Sincerely,
David Fehr Zimmerman
Board Member ASD
At Mr. Zimmerman's convenience, this blog will glad to host his views on issues which may impede the success of any curriculum redesign.
UPDATE: I have closed comments here, please place comments at School District Front Burner

Gethsemane 1934

Maria Magdalene (Mary Magdalene) is the Russian Orthodox Church located on the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem, Israel.
The church is dedicated to Miryam of Migdal, a follower of Jesus. Maria Magdalene was the first to see Christ after he was resurrected, and was a crucial and important disciple of Jesus, and seemingly his primary female associate, along with Mary of Bethany, whom some believe to have been the same woman.
The church was built in 1886 by Tzar Alexander III as a commemoration for his mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, in the traditional tented roof Russian style, including seven onion shaped golden domes. Photograph dates from 1934