Grants, Government At It's Worse

In an editorial published yesterday, the Director Of Using Up the $3.4 million HUD grant to study Lehigh Valley praised the endeavor. About the most concrete result she could mention was the recommendation that the Lehigh Valley continue to have cute weekend center square farmer markets during the summer, so that low income have access to vegetables. I have criticized this grant before. I wish she had just wasted the money and said nothing, but she felt compelled to justify this taxpayer abuse. Had she at least recommended that full-time supermarkets be induced to open in our center cities, it would have been very expensive advise, but at least of some community benefit. Next summer, if you visit Easton Center Square, have some yuppie goat cheese at $3.4 million a pound.

 Addendum: Here is one of my previous posts on this grant, I have done several: Envision Lehigh Valley has a difficult job, they must spend $3.4 million* of our tax dollars within 3 years, but they're up to the task. An article in today's Morning Call references their fair housing study. Were certain groups discriminated against in the mortgage market? Considering the historically high percentage of non-performing loans and foreclosures, evidence would suggest that anybody qualified for anything. Were certain groups steered to or from certain neighborhoods? I don't know, but what I do know is that when urban school districts are facing substantial teacher layoffs because of lack of funds, and we are wasting money on surveys and study committees, that is real discrimination.

*The Morning Call article refers to $4.3 million,  but rest assure that those bureaucrats will use our money well,  regardless of the correct amount.

Addendum To Addendum.

I was just reading about ReNew Lehigh Valley and sustainable communities. People who need people are the nicest people in the world! These types of organizations spend $millions of dollars in grants to see what the ten yuppies in the valley want to improve their quality of life. Is it a $million dollar a mile train track to NYC to catch dinner and a show? Is it a valley wide health organization to supplement ObamaCare? Should we buy some more farms to make sure we don't lose any of the 33 million existing acres of farmland in Pennsylvania? Meanwhile, step on no toes. Don't say anything about fracking or burning sewage and trash to make energy. Spend grants on surveys and public input meetings, but don't support efforts for a public referendum. People who need people are the nicest people in the world.

UPDATE: I was misinformed,  my apology, now that these organizations are halfway through a three year, $3.4 million dollar grant to get our input (and their salaries) I must man up and admit that I was wrong,  I should have said People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.

Coptic Orthodox Church Of Alexandria

The Church and Theology School in Alexandria was  established by the Apostle Mark in 60AD.  Most of the early converts were common Egyptians who spoke Coptic.  Although Christians became the majority before the Arab invasion in 636, by the 12th century they were the minority.  The concept of monasteries in Christianity was started by the Coptics in the deserts of Egypt.  Currently, the Coptics are threatened by transitions in Egypt, let us pray for their safety.

photograph of St. Marks Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt.

reprinted from December 2013

The Corruption Of Pennsylvania

As of candidate for the 183rd State House seat, I spoke about the corruption and cronyism entrenched in our state government. A glaring example were two stories in last week's Morning Call. On Thursday, a report detailed the arrest of ten PennDOT officials from the Philadelphia area, who had skimmed $millions from the road budget. PennDOT and its director, Barry Schoch, indicated that the problem seemed to be limited to the one area, never mind it's the biggest area in the state. The Morning Call, never allowing news to get in the way of one of their special reports, the next day did a feature on the great job PennDOT and Schoch were doing. In that article local representative Michael Schlossberg praises the department and its director. Schlossberg, who represents Allentown, has never faced an opponent. His campaigning for the upcoming term consisted of taking donuts to the poll workers on election day. In Lehigh Valley, where six of eleven incumbents were unopposed, the voters have the state government they so richly deserve.

Morning Call Misrepresentation

In it's enthusiasm to promote J.B. Reilly's downtown, the paper referred to the proposed tower as a private project; It also would be perhaps the largest private development project the city has ever seen. They are correct in that the property will be privately owned by Reilly, but when it's being paid for by public tax dollars, it can hardly be called private development. When this stage of Reillytown is complete, nearly $100million of former Pennsylvania tax dollars will be going to his private debt service. In addition to the office tower, the proposal also calls for a parking deck and apartments. Community activist Ce-Ce Gerlach would like to see 10% of the units reserved for the indigenous natives at reduced rates. They will be given their own quarters, but not in the big house.

Big Week For Israel And Jew Hating

Burning an effigy of a Jew, parading with model rockets and displaying coffins with photos of Israelis killed in terror attacks: this is how Hamas celebrated its 27th anniversary in Gaza, inciting hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.

While Hamas and Palestinians celebrated their hatred of Jews in Gaza City, Hamas was taken off the European Union's terror list. Benjamin Netanyahu's response; "In Geneva, they call for the investigation of Israel for war crimes, while in Luxembourg the European court removed Hamas from the list of terrorist organizations...It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil 6 million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing."

Mount Of Temptation

The Palestinian Authority unsuccessfully tried to increase tourism to Jericho this year, no rush, the town might be the oldest inhabited city on earth, 10,000 years. In 1895 the Greek Orthodox Church built the Mount of Temptation Monastery, where the devil tried three times to tempt Jesus during his forty days of prayer and fast. Steeped in both the Old and New Testaments, next to Jerusalem, it is the most excavated city in the Holy Land.

related post on Jericho

reprinted from May 2013

Merry Pawlowski

Last night, as I went to sleep concerned about the impropriety of The Morning Call featuring Pawlowski's picture on the city map, little did I know I would awake to another full page picture of the mayor on the cover of the Entertainment Section. It's time for me to get with the program. I wish you a Happy Pawlowski Day, and next month, when it's beginning to look a lot like Pawlowski, may you have a Merry Pawlowski and Happy Pawlowski Year!

reprinted from November 2008

No Jews Of Libya

Despite having settled there hundreds of years before Christ, there are no Jews in Libya.

I left Libya more than 42 years ago when the mobs were roaming the streets. They were not chanting for democracy or yearning for freedom — they were looking for Jews.

Gina Waldman.

This community, that goes back 2,500 years, has obliterated their oldest minority...They drink anti-semitism with their mother's milk.

Gina Zanzur
After the creation of Israel in 1948, anti-Jewish riots and killings forced 30,000 Jews to flee. After the 1967 Israeli war, the remaining 6,000 were expelled, each allowed one suitcase and $20.
historic photo of the Jewish Quarter in Tripoli

reprinted from October 2011

UPDATE: An envoy from the displaced Libyan Jewish community now living in Italy, was told that there would be no place for Jews in the new Libya.