The Sabaean Mandeans of Iraq

I'm glad that the plight of Christians in Iraq is starting to attract main stream media attention, but there is another persecuted group you may not hear about. The Mandeans predate Christianity, do not believe in Christ, and are believed to have been followers of John the Baptist. Accepting no converts, their numbers have always been small. Apparently, they migrated to the swamps south of current Baghdad after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Their writings are in Aramaic, the language of the Bible in the time of Jesus. Their rules and ethics are similar to Jewish tradition. Baptism is their central ritual; they call the water Jordan.

reprinted from December of 2010

Allentown Johnny Leonard

Born Johnny Lakatosh in 1902, Allentown Johnny Leonard fought between 1920 and 1928. Allentown became part of his fight name, to identify him from another Leonard of that period. Although the tough featherweight never got a title shot, he fought and beat some of the best, including the future champions. Fifteen of his fights occurred in Allentown, one at the Lyric Theater, now known as Symphony Hall. Many of his other Allentown fights probably took place at Mealey Auditorium, which was located in the vicinity of 4th and Hamilton. Allentown Johnny's record was 32/27/11.

Commissioners Poison The Water

The Lehigh County Commissioners have tried to chop the Lehigh County Authority at the knees, by not extending its charter the full term required to lease the Allentown water system. That bid currently requires a 50 year proposal, while the LCA's charter will expire in 36 years. Although residents of Allentown and Lehigh County would best be served by an Allentown Water Authority, issuing its own revenue anticipation bonds, that alternative was never on the table. The Commissioner vote strengthens the hands of the private company bidders, which will offer residents no local accountability. The LCA would become a middleman, between an Aqua America type company and the residents of Lehigh County. In reality, the longevity of LCA, at 36 years, is more assured by public charter than any private company, susceptible to business failures throughout its national network.

A Message From Dennis L. Pearson

Behold the siege ramps have reached the City of Allentown, calamity is assured if its leadership only has eyes for the short-range self-serving solutions. I don't see much of a depth chart in this years primary... But maybe I would be surprized. I am a life-time resident of Allentown and Lehigh County whom is very familiar with the problems that confront Allentown, Lehigh County and their origins ... But my name will not appear on the spring ballot ... The fact is, although I am a life-time resident and a knowledgeable one at that , sometimes to use parady a Gailiean is a stranger in his own community. As I inferred in an earlier post, my mission is to do good ... But obviously some have blurred vision and seek to deter me from my mission, not wanting me to be visible. Indeed some want me to give them my ideas but in the same breath they don't want me. It is great to see that there are so many challengers for the Allentown City Council... It is not so great that the election season 2013 may be over with in spring...And it would be not so great if the current field consists of ambitious people who don't have a complete view of the issues and problems that confront Allentown.                                                                                                                     Dennis L. Pearson   March 13, 2013

A Monopoly of Policy

Yesterday, petitions from both Democrats and Republicans were due at the voter registration office. Although Allentown is the third largest city in Pennsylvania, and the sole recipient of the largeness called NIZ, only one party is represented at the polls; There are no Republican candidates, either for mayor or city council. It's still possible for an independent to run; The last time that happen was in 2005, with Yours Truly, who now struggles for Allentown with a keyboard and this blog. Regardless of your view of Allentown's policies, nobody can deny that being a one party town is detrimental to good government. Currently, even the fourth estate has been silent for years. With the newspaper property included in the arbitrary NIZ zone, the machine seems to have covered it's bases. Although I and this blog have been called naysayer, presenting an alternative point of view seems more important now than ever.

Dressing Advertisements as News

This weekend The Morning Call had a special four part feature called OUTLOOK/2013. Sorry, that I can't be more specific if it was Saturday or Sunday; It was a Sunday feature delivered in Saturday's paper, you know the one, it said to put the clocks back for Daylight Savings. The articles were written by the news staff, and looked like news, but there were no downsides presented, not even the usual token ones. The back of each of the four sections had advertisements by the businesses written about within. The first section let us know that the valley business was growing. That section had a large ad by the Jaindl Companies, which assures us that in addition to turkey production, they do Responsible Developing. The second section gets more specific about Ocean Spray and Nestle Waters, but not specific enough to mention that Ocean Spray discharge is so acidic that they had to build their own pre-treatment plant, and that they failed even New Jersey's low EPA standards. Needless to say, in the article about Nestle, not a word about sucking the Little Lehigh Creek dry, to put that fluoridated Allentown water into plastic bottles, with pictures of mountain springs, to be distributed all over the country. Section three concentrates on the Arena and NIZ in center city Allentown. "Hundreds of people walking to work, not just from our apartments, but from other people's. We're going to have that again." said J. B. Reilly, City Center President. The final section contained essays by our esteemed leaders; Elected, appointed and anointed.

The Landed Gentry

One of the popular misconceptions in our granola society is that our open space is threatened. Consequently, in addition to welfare and corporate welfare, we now have landed gentry welfare. We purchase land, at almost market value, and even allow the owner to keep it. Although there is a deed restriction prohibiting development, who can guarantee it will be enforced in future generations? In every case I'm personally familiar with, the owner never had any intention of development; In one instance, the owners were compensated over $1million.

In some cases the owners are working farmers, in many, just gentlemen farmers with country homes. An article in Sunday's Morning Call laments the reduction in the farmland preservation funds. Nothing in the land preservation compensation really guarantees continued farming, that would be somewhere between indentured servitude and slavery. In 2006, Pennsylvania spent $102 million in Growing Greener handouts. Although the program has been cut back in recent years, there is a long list of applicants hoping to get some of this handout. The granola eaters should drive across Pennsylvania. There is a lot of open space even in this heavily populated state, over 8 million farm acres. While we close mental hospitals and sell nursing homes, we pay yuppies playing weekend farmer, development rights on land they never intended on subdividing anyway.

reprinted from August 9, 2010

UPDATE: My associate, Bernie O'Hare, recently had a post touting the success of the Northampton County program, in purchasing practically everybody's development rights who wanted to get in with this politically correct scam. When the state government is cutting back on education dollars, when teachers are being laid off, this is an absurd misappropriation of taxpayer money.