Nobody Bakes A Cake As Tasty

1914 was an important year for beginnings. For the planet at large, the year marked the beginning of World War I, the "Great War" as it was known in those days. This military conflict would last almost five years, eventually see nearly 70 million combatants take part, nearly 9 million of whom would perish, and would see the end of the centuries-old Ottoman Empire that had once nearly conquered the world.

The year also saw the debut film in the career of a 24-year old English actor named Charlie Chaplin who would go on to become the single most famous of the entire silent-film era. The year also saw the Ford Motor Company, founded just a decade earlier, institute a new 8-hour work day for it's employees that would eventually be embraced in most every industry across the country.

On July 11th, a big, boisterous 19-year old pitcher by the name of Babe Ruth picked up the victory in his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox. Later that summer, the SS Ancon cargo ship became the first vessel to pass through the Panama Canal in it's long-delayed and highly-valued inaugural opening. In September, Pope Benedict XV was elected to begin his papacy.

George Reeves, who would go on to entertain millions of Americans in the early years of television as "Superman" was born in 1914. Alec Guinness, who would on the far end of the century and in a galaxy far, far away would become famous as 'Obi-Won Kinobi' in the "Star Wars" films was born. Joe Louis, 'The Brown Bomber' still considered one of the greatest heavyweight boxing champs of all-time, was born. Wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, poet Dylan Thomas, longtime Miss America host Bert Parks, the voice of 'Tony the Tiger' and crooner of the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", Thurl Ravenscroft, and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio all began life in 1914.

In the city of Philadelphia that year there was a more modest beginning, but one that would ultimately grow to it's own popularly dizzy heights as a local and regional legend. It was in that year of 1914 that a baker from Pittsburgh named Philip Bauer and an egg salesman from Boston named Herbert Morris got together on a business venture producing baked cakes. Morris' wife, trying a sample of their creations, said that they were "tasty", and a local legend was born.

The 'Tasty Baking Company' began to produce it's 'Tastykakes'
, selling the original creations for just 10 cents per cake. The cakes were made from "farm fresh eggs, Grade A creamery butter, real milk, cocoa, spices, and natural flavorings from the far ends of the earth." In that first year of business the company reported gross sales of $300,000. Within four years, the company sales figures broke the $1 million mark. Today, the Tasty Baking Company sales have reached over the $280 million mark.

The company began locally in and around Philadelphia and gradually expanded throughout the mid-Atlantic region, and now hopes to go national to continue it's amazing growth story as it approaches it's 100th anniversary in 2014. However, all is not sugar and spice and everything nice these days at Tastykake.

As Tasty grew and expanded both it's line of products and it's service area, it also took on more and more debt in purchasing new facilities and equipment. In the last few years it has fallen upon hard times, as has much of the American economy, and now finds itself about $115 million in debt. Their dire economic situation and the possibility of the company's sale became public recently, causing much consternation in locals, for whom Tastykake has become as iconic to Philadelphia as the Liberty Bell and cheesesteaks.

I can tell you this about Tastykakes first-hand: their products are delicious. The original chocolate cupcakes are some of the best snack cakes on earth. Other signature products such as the chocolate Junior, the butterscotch and jelly Krimpets, the Kandycakes, the fruit pies, and many others match up with any nationally produced baked snack product. For those who have never enjoyed one, these things are damned good. I have my own personal old saying relating to the many foods that I love, where I say that "In my Heaven, they will have_____" (insert favorite food.) Well, in my Heaven, they will have Tastykakes.

When the challenges facing Tastykake became public, a fan group quickly popped up on Facebook calling itself simply "Save Tastykake!" I signed up early on. But I made sure that I made a comment on the page that, while I love Tastykakes, there is only one way that the company should be saved. That way is not to be had in a bailout by an infusion of cash from public coffers.

Tastykake needs to re-evaluate it's future and perhaps the pace of it's growth. It needs to closely evaluate it's product line and expenses. It needs to get it's financial house in as good a functioning order as possible by reducing and reorganizing it's debt, and it needs to listen to and respond to it's core customer base. The company has been accused of reducing the size of cakes while increasing their cost. That charge needs to be addressed directly and honestly.

Tastykakes are delicious snack cakes and pies, and the baked treats and the Tasty Baking Company have become Philadelphia icons. They are well worth saving. I am willing to do my part, but not with Philadelphia or Pennsylvania donating cash to be paid for by the raising of my taxes. For those of us who want to "Save Tastykake!" the best thing that we can do is a simple thing, really. Buy Tastykakes.

Looking Back 25 Years to 'Live Aid'

One of the world's most important rock festivals all came about because a fading Irish rocker was sickened by a television report by the British Broadcasting Corp. on the drought conditions in Ethiopia.

Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats, a band best known for 1979's I Don't Like Mondays, watched the BBC report delivered by reporter Michael Buerk and cameraman Mohamed Amin on Oct. 23 and 24, 1984. Punctuated by frame after frame of dying children and the wails of misery, Buerk called the situation "the biblical famine of the 20th century."

Geldof snapped into action. A month later, the charity single Do They Know It's Christmas was out. And on July 13, 1985, scores of the world's most-popular musicians gathered in London's Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's JFK Stadium for a 16-hour fundraising concert dubbed Live Aid.

Twenty-five years later, here are some of the enduring memories and forgotten moments of that day.

An early start

The concert began at noon London time, or 7 a.m. here on the East Coast. Princess Diana and Prince Charles, accompanied by Geldof, took their seats to a horn fanfare. The first band to play: Status Quo, which started its set with Rockin' All Over the World. Other concerts were held that day around the world, including shows in Australia, Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union.

Were you watching?

Television coverage was a challenge, as was handling the sound mixing for the bands. Feedback was a constant problem. The BBC supplied the feed from Wembley. ABC broadcast only the final three hours of the Philadelphia concert, while MTV provided a simultaneous feed of the U.S. show. While the BBC version was commercial-free, the U.S. broadcasts included ads and interviews. As a result, several performances weren't seen on TV and aren't included on the DVD version.

The big winners

Phil Collins made headlines for playing both venues; he flew to Philly on the Concorde after his set finished in London. U2's set had only two songs — Sunday Bloody Sunday and a 14-minute long version of Bad. But fans and critics raved, establishing the band as a must-see live act. British rockers Queen, likewise, energized the Wembley crowd with a medley of hits and used the momentum of Live Aid to mount a comeback tour afterward.

The big losers

Among those who declined to participate were Michael Jackson, Prince and Bruce Springsteen, who later said he "simply did not realize how big the whole thing was going to be." Bob Dylan did himself no favors by complaining on stage in Philadelphia that some of the proceeds should go to American farmers instead. His remark inspired the creation of the annual Farm Aid concerts.

Breakups and reunions

Duran Duran broke up after Live Aid; the band's original lineup wouldn't play again until 2003. The Who returned after "officially" disbanding in 1982. And a much-rumored Beatles reunion (with Julian Lennon subbing for dad John) never took place. Instead, Paul McCartney took the stage alone to sing Let It Be.

Take a bow

Each show ended with sing-a-long versions of the charity singles: Do They Know It's Christmas in London, and We Are the World in Philadelphia. In the aftermath of the concert, Geldof has had to defend himself against allegations that much of the estimated $100 million raised was used to pay for weapons for Africa's civil wars instead of grain. "It's possible that in one of the worst, longest-running conflicts on the continent, some money was mislaid," he told a reporter this year. Still, he continues to insist, without Live Aid, "far more than a million people would have died."

WRITTEN BY: Steve Spears with original article at St. Petersburg Times available by clicking on the title of this posting

Concern Over New Philly Newspaper Owners

At an auction conducted on Wednesday, the struggling and increasingly irrelevant Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News as well as their Internet arm "Philly.com" were all purchased by a group of creditors. The new owners have quickly come under fire from the top politicians at both the Commonwealth and the City levels.

Governor Ed Rendell, the former 2-term Mayor of Philadelphia, voiced his concern that he believed that newspapers should  be owned by people from the area. He further stated "In the end, the newspaper is nothing if not the people who work for it. If you take that away, you take away it's soul."

Mayor Michael Nutter, the current Philly head honcho, called on the new owners to make their decisions on how to proceed with the operation of the papers "based on great journalism" rather than being overly concerned with the financial bottom line.

Both of these comments mask the actual concern of these two leading Democratic Party politicians. Their real primary concern is that with new ownership will come a basic change of direction in the editorial content and presentation of the two papers.

For decades, the Philadelphia Inquirer and even more overtly the Daily News have been outwardly liberal in their political and social commentaries and with the vast majority of their political endorsements. It is this liberal ideology as directed by Rendell and Nutter's Democrats that has demoralized Philly and reduced it to a shell of it's former greatness.

Rather than using their status as the city and region's main newspapers and internet presence to call for reform and change to a system that has resulted in massive numbers of citizens and businesses fleeing the city over the last few decades, the two papers have continually backed the status quo.

The newspaper business has been dying all across America for the past couple of decades. This is partly due to the Internet, partly due to 24-hour news, sports, weather, and entertainment television channels. But there is still a niche that properly run newspapers could fill. Unfortunately most have been taken over, as Philly's papers were, by partisan political shills. As this became more and more obvious, more and more people turned away from regular readership and subscriptions.

The "soul" that Rendell speaks of, those editors, writers, and staffers who put the newspapers out on the streets, and the old ownership that hired them, supported them, and encouraged them to push that liberal agenda and back those Democratic politicians is directly to blame.

Rather than maintaining the former status quo and leaving every worker untouched, and leaving the newspapers to continue their failed direction that has in turn failed the citizens of Philadelphia, the new owners should do exactly the opposite of what Rendell and Nutter are hoping.

If it is determined that Philadelphia needs and has the viability to support two newspapers, which is dubious at best, or if only one should survive, change is absolutely vital. The editorial direction and content of the papers and website in every department needs to reflect a much greater diversity of opinions. Particular attention needs to be paid towards making Philadelphia, other localities, Pennsylvania, and national pols much more accountable.

Ed Rendell and Michael Nutter, as well as a number of individuals who work for both newspapers, and any number of liberal activists all around the Philly region are concerned over the possible direction that the new ownership will take. They should be concerned that their domination of the conversation, one-way in the wrong direction for decades, will cease, and that Philadelphia may indeed see it's newspapers become what they were meant to be all along, a true watchdog.

Pensions Not the Problem

Last night the local Fox News affiliate here in Philadelphia chose to devote a large portion of their 10:00pm news program spotlighting what they call "The Pension Problem" in Philadelphia, New Jersey and other places. In calling pensions the problem, Fox misled the public and missed an opportunity to highlight the truth for tax-payers.

Once again, the local news media, this time Fox in particular, cow-towed to liberal politicians and let them off the hook for a mess that they singularly have created. But not only that, they also portrayed hard-working city and state employees as the problem, seemed to be trying to pit tax-payers against pensioners, and never once keyed on the real problem.

That real problem? Out of control spending on issues, services, and frankly outright budgetary 'pork' over decades and decades as well as regular, intentional under-funding of employee pensions. All of that going on with little to no outcry from media watchdogs.

Fox missed an opportunity when they once again identified the real problems improperly in stating that "Pensions are at the heart of budget troubles in the state of New Jersey and in the city of Philadelphia."

Pensions are not the problem, politicians are the problem. Politicians who spend money that the city's citizens simply do not have and never did have on programs that make them feel and look better.

No, I am not going to take any time whatsoever to point out any particular program or project that I feel falls into this category. I will make one simple statement, however. If any fiscal conservative individual had been put in charge, this would not have happened.

A critic of my position might call that a copout. Frankly it is a simple acknowledgement that there are far too many such spending debacles. Get yourself a copy of the budget and go through it for yourself. Why are we spending any money on some of the programs at all? What made them Philadelphia's tax-payers responsiblity in the first place? There are many such items in every budget.

And further, Fox tried to blame a part of this on the stock market downturn. I have heard the exact same lament from Mayor Michael Nutter and other politicians. The fact is, the stock market should be almost a non-issue. If the city had funded the pensions fully all along, and invested that money safely, and not used it to cover other expenses, there wouldn't be any problem right now, or those would be minimal.

Further, nothing will change in Philadelphia until the city follows the lead of the citizens of New Jersey and begins to toss the liberal Democrats who have run our town into the ground over decades out onto the streets.

Governor Chris Christie has begun the difficult task of straightening out New Jersey's problems which were created by Democrats and RINO Republicans over decades in our neighbor state. Philadelphia needs exactly the same changes here in order to have any chance at saving itself from ruin.

Pensions are not some burdensome extravagance lavished upon privileged people. Speaking as someone who has been working for two decades with the promise of a city pension at the end of the line, what pensions are instead are a fringe benefit based on a solemn promise.

When I decided to take on the job of a Police Officer and go out onto the streets of Philadelphia day and night to fight crime, that promise of a decent pension at retirement was a huge reason for making that decision. The city gave me it's promise of that pension, and I along with numerous other officers gave them decades of hard work in return.

It's always bemoaned as some obvious fact that police officers "don't get paid enough" for the work that we do. Chasing bad men with guns up dark alleys, searching through dark buildings for wanted criminals, standing in the middle of thousands of vehicles to direct traffic safely are all on the enormous list of dirty, dangerous jobs.

Most of us do this job because we love it, that's true. Many, like me, are part of multiple familial generations of public servants for whom a part of the attraction is that knowledge that we are making a positive difference in our communities.

But we also have traded off that relatively low salary for dangerous, hazardous, and as we have seen highlighted here in Philadelphia over the past few years deadly work in exchange for benefits that are important to us including quality health coverage and secure retirement.

Again, those are things that the city of Philadelphia promised to us when we took this job decades ago. It was a promise the city made to my own father back in 1960 when he began to work for thirty years for this town as a police officer. It is a solemn promise that they owe both realistically and morally.

Now there is a little problem here. The "they" of whom I speak is a city. That means in functional terms it's tax-payers have to share in footing the bill for these services. They also have to share the blame for the problems for continually voting in the same politicians and Party and mentality year after year.

Those fiscal problems can be solved by fully funding all pension obligations, providing basic services, and cutting out the pork entirely. Not a single politician or official working for the city of Philadelphia should have a 'take-home car' for instance. Why should tax-payers be paying for the vehicles themselves as well as costly maintenance, fuel, insurance, and so on? Outrageous on it's face.

If the city of Philadelphia had real fiscal and social conservatives running the show, the budget and services would be slashed and taxes lowered rather than raised. This would make Philly attractive once again for residents and businesses. More businesses here, more jobs. The cycle would reverse.

But no, the liberal socialist mindset is not only alive and well in Philadelphia and most other big cities in America today, it has spread to our national government as well. Tax and spend, spend and tax: the liberal socialist mantra.

No, Fox Philly, pensions are not the problem. The out of control spending of politicians is the problem. And since the vast majority of those politicians and all of the power are liberal Democrats with socialist thought processes, there should be the proper direction for your news features and stories.

When the media begins to challenge the power structure that has been in place in Philadelphia for decades, begins to call a spade a spade in naming specifically the Democratic Party and the liberal spending policies as the true problem, then they might have some integrity and credibility.

Stop pitting citizens against citizens, tax payers against employees, one hard-working Philadelphian against another. Instead, Fox Philly and other media outlets, turn your Constitutionally-mandated and protected power against the powers-that-be who got us into this mess and keep us wallowing in it. That is your job. Go earn your pensions as we earn ours.

City's Main Problem: Liberals

In the Sunday, February 21st, 2010 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer an article was published at the very top of page two titled "City's main problem: poverty" written by Karen Heller. In the article, Heller proceeds to lay every single ill that befalls the city of Philadelphia - and that's plenty of ills - at the very feat of this fearsome monster known as poverty.

Budget of the city shows 62% goes to fighting crime and social needs? Poverty is the culprit. Michelle Obama visits Philly to campaign against obesity because too many parents shove McDonald's down their kids throats? Poverty. Teachers are overworked? Poverty. School violence is tolerated? Poverty. Health rate is poor, kids don't take education seriously? Poverty.

The problem, not with the city but with Heller's article, is that she simply cries "poverty" at every opportunity, making the typical liberal mistake of never seeing the forest for the trees. The problem you see is not some general epidemic of poverty, it is an epidemic of liberalism.

That's right, little kids go without food because of the political philosophy and ideology of liberalism. Little kids get fat in some cases because of the exact same ideology. Kids don't stay in school, don't want to stay in school let alone advance further, because of it. Violence is greatly increased because of it, and health problems are magnified because of it.

But where Heller stops, I am going to plow on. She says that poverty is the problem and then makes only a couple of small general comments as to how to deal with the situation. The answer to her view of poverty as the problem is "the city must reduce the poverty rate in order to succeed."

Fine enough principle on it's own that I won't argue with it. Among the many symptoms of entrenched liberalism is more widespread poverty than need exist. So how to reduce that poverty rate? Her answers are to "attract new residents to revitalize neighborhoods" and "moving families..to self-sufficiency and security." She also states correctly that Philly needs to address it's dismal educational system.

What the obviously liberal herself Heller has basically written is what is known as a 'fluff' piece. It is full of statements and commentary that will have her co-workers at the Philadelphia Inquirer, one of the single most liberal newspapers in a country full of them, patting her on the back. It will have her friends and family saying things like "right on, Kar, you got that right. Good job!" It will make her feel better.

But it will have done nothing at all to address the problem, because the real problem has not even been identified in her piece. The city's main problem: liberals.

For decades now, liberal Democrats have been increasingly in charge of the city of Philadelphia. They have been the decision makers, the unchallenged and all-powerful ideologues whose programs, ideas, and policies have taken the city in the direction that it has gone - straight down.

Here are just a few of the things that Philadelphia does not need to be doing. It does not need to spend a dime on a homeless shelter. It does not need to spend a dime on feeding a hungry person. It does not need to indoctrinate students in the classroom in it's liberal ideology. It does not need to allow students who refuse to behave to continue in school. It does not need to provide free health care to anyone.

Wow, what an uncaring, unfeeling, insensitive, inhuman I must be in order to believe all of those things, right? Wrong, Mr. and Ms. Liberalism. My belief is not that man must stand by and watch the suffering of the inevitable folks who will fall between the cracks of opportunity do to reasons beyond their control, such as a physical or mental handicap or some sudden disaster. My belief is that it is not the city of Philadelphia's responsibility to address those issues.

When given the opportunity, mankind will respond charitably to his fellow man. The story has been told of a locality in Texas back in 1887 where a couple of consecutive seasons of drought had left the farmers in bad shape and facing poverty. The local government put out the call to Washington for some emergency subsidies for the farmers.

The plight of the poor farmers was passed by a misty-eyed congress before being vetoed by President Grover Cleveland (pictured). In one of the single greatest acts by any American President of all-time, Cleveland defended his veto in the exact same manner that must be embraced by Philadelphians today. Let me quote exactly a couple of key paragraphs of his veto speech:

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people."

"The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."

So President Grove Cleveland literally said what the liberal Democrats of Philadelphia and all over the country have no ability to say. He said what every parent learns is one of the single most valuable words that they must early on begin to say to their children. He said the very thing that many of us need to begin to say to ourselves. He simply said "No".

But he didn't just say that "no" to win some political battle, he said that "no" because frankly it was the right thing to say. What was the result of his decision? Dead farmers? Far from it. As he rightly predicted, the call went out around the nation for private donations to help the farmers. This call resulted in the appropriation of ten times the money that had been requested from congress. And not a dime of forced expense on the general American public, not a single tax levied.

Karen Heller is wrong. She has pointed at a symptom rather than the real problem. The problem is not poverty, it is liberalism. Philadelphia needs to have the strength to begin finally to say "no" to the Democratic Party as it is now constituted. It needs to begin to say "no" to the nanny state that has led to our inevitable and continued decline. If we don't have the strength to say "no", if leaders do not emerge who will stand up and then be supported in saying that "no", then Philadelphia will never, ever recover it's former greatness.

So specific answers start with stopping funding social welfare programs cold. If we are to spend any money on a social program, I would make it on an on-going publicity campaign with billboards, TV and radio ads, all positively encouraging people to make good choices in their lives, to stay in school, to turn away from drugs and drink, to go to church, to become or remain sexually responsible, and to keep their families intact.

I would do whatever is necessary to turn our schools around. That would first happen with security. Difficult decisions need to be made to eliminate the unrepentant criminals who commit assaults, robberies, and drug dealing on our school grounds, no matter their age. Expulsion for the absolute worst cases, transfer to disciplinary schools for those who may simply need a period of behavior modification before possibly returning to the general student population.

The second thing that needs to happen is that curriculum needs to be addressed. Philadelphia school children need to be taught the fundamentals of education as the primary goal of our school. Math, science, reading, writing, and wait for it - civics. They need to learn and understand our history as a nation, the good and the bad with an emphasis on the incredible good that America has been and done since it's founding.

Next I would empower teachers to take charge of their classrooms again, having their backs when they need it in controlling the room and maintaining that control. I would also ensure that those teachers are allowed and encouraged to emphasize their role as educators, not social workers and not substitute parents. But at the same time, I would not tolerate the small number of teachers who simply will not or do not enthusiastically do their jobs. Out on their cans, union or no.

Where violence and other crime occurs on the streets, deal with it. Support our law enforcement officers and officials in any way possible. Zero tolerance. Let's face it, some sections of the city are simply out of control, and you cannot begin to rebuild them and, as Heller says "attract new residents" without gaining that control and maintaining it.

Arrest criminals, put them in jail, if they get out, put them back in. If we are unwilling to fight this fight on a daily basis, to win this war over time, and spend what it takes to at least keep up with it year after year, then we will lose. Any alleged 'war on crime' or 'war on drugs' will never end. But we need to fight it every hour of every day. Just as with the teachers, if some cops don't know professional limits and abuse their power, out on their cans. The good ones will be happy to see them go.

Finally, emphasize parental and familial responsibility in public. From the stump speeches of politicians to the teaching in our classrooms to our public service announcements and community outreach, strengthening and maintaining our families and the responsibility level of parents has got to become paramount.

You can never force someone to become a good parent. But you can tap them on the shoulder and let them know that it is just as easy to hand their kid a celery stick as it is a cupcake. It is just as far a walk to the supermarket for some soup, vegetables, fruit as it is to McDonald's for some fries and a Big Mac. Obesity is not the result of poverty, it is in most cases the result of bad decisions.

Those same bad decisions are the reasons for the vast majority of other childhood problems, many of which in a large portion of Philadelphia's communities lies directly at the feet of non-existent or irresponsible fathers. Men need to begin to take their familial responsibilities seriously. Women need to respect themselves more and develop more of a sense of self-worth. Most of this comes from your own strong family situation.

The city needs to find a way to encourage it's residents to return to church, return to the basic values and teachings that God gave all of mankind in the Bible. The long-held liberal notion of a "separation of church and state" is a crock. In fact, America has shown that it has been our embracing of Judeo-Christian values that has separated us from other nations and governments in history. We need to return to that root strength, not run from it, and we need to embrace and advertise that resource, not hold it at arms length.

Liberals will see my ideas resulting in armies of homeless people, drug addicts, and student truants roaming the streets, exploding the crime rates, and only adding to the problems of Philadelphia. They have cried this cry for decades, and their own answers have proven both soft and ineffective, as anyone with a spine could have predicted. It is time we began to walk a hard, straight line here in Philadelphia.

While we slice social programs and increase law and quality of life enforcement measures we need to also decrease the Philadelphia tax burden. We need to drastically overhaul our overall tax policies with the stated goal of making the city of Philadelphia the single most attractive place in the entire nation for a business to locate itself. We then need to aggressively market that new-found status and begin to bring business, and thus jobs, back into Philadelphia.

Lower taxes and increasing the quality of life here in the city. These are the things that will accomplish what Heller calls for. They will never, ever be accomplished by appropriating more money from Philadelphia's already overburdened tax payers, or from the already overburdened Commonwealth, or from the already over-socialized federal government.

These general ideas that I have put forward today go far beyond what the simplistic approach and siren's call made by Heller and the Inquirer. There is zero chance that my ideas would ever be supported by Philadelphia's talking head politicians or it's liberal media, so the only way that such a change would be possible would be for some distinctly charismatic and articulate individual to step forward and lead Philadelphia in this direction.

I guess in short what Philadelphia really needs is an effective alternative to the liberal Democratic Party that has ruled the crumbling roost for this last half century. It needs an effective, strong, threatening, alternative, conservative Republican Party to emerge and become a realistic challenger. That has to start from the grass roots, but it also needs an effective leadership with an uncompromising alternative vision that is a true alternative to the city's main problem: liberals.

Snow All About Perspective

For some people here in the Philadelphia area and across the northeastern United States it's panic time for the third time this winter, the 2nd time in five days. For others it's a time of excitement and anticipation. Fact is that snowfalls, even large ones, in these modern days are really all just about perspective.

Are you one of those people who reflexively have to run out to the grocery store when a large snowfall is predicted? I stopped out at my local Acme supermarket last Friday evening just before the most recent two footer was supposed to hit. I just wanted to have a couple of 'comfort' treats in the house. By the look on the bread shelves you would have thought it was the end of the world.

The crowds bum-rushed the supermarkets and the neighborhood groceries, stripped the shelves bare of all milk, bread, eggs, and cigarettes, and then retreated to the comfort and safety of their homes where they battened down the hatches and prepared to ride out the inevitable burial inside their homes that was being forecast.

Overnight on Friday the snow began to fall, and then all through the morning and early afternoon on Saturday the storm intensified, just as predicted. The weathercasters got this one right on, and by the end we had received more than two feet for the 2nd time this winter.

But a funny thing happened by Sunday morning or afternoon at the latest. People were out already driving in their cars. Most major roads and primary routes were clear. Stores were open and shelves had food on them. The snow fell, it squashed activity for awhile, but the world recovered quickly and the end never came for most.

Meanwhile, back during the hours that the snow was falling during the day, the picture of the world that most got was from inside their homes, and it was a pretty picture indeed. The snow was beautiful as it fell, laid, built-up, and buried. It provided a perfect excuse for couch potato television watching and napping.

The simple fact is that large snowfalls just ain't what they used to be 'back in the day' when such events really did cripple an area. Most municipalities have strong plowing and road treatment equipment, supplies, and planning in place. And have you noticed the vastly increased numbers of smaller vehicles with their own little plows on them in recent years?

The recovery systems of every major and medium-sized municipality and even many rural areas have advanced to the point where almost no one gets snowed into their homes for days without access to basic food stuffs and other vital supplies. People are out digging and plowing, and we get back to business. That's me in the picture accompanying this story, digging out after the first storm this season back in December.

Now Philadelphia is bracing for it's 2nd major winter storm in five days. Beginning overnight tonight and then continuing through tomorrow, this storm is predicted to be less intense than the pair of two-footers that have already hit us this winter. But it will leave between a foot and 18 inches, depending on a number of variables that are still changing.

The area still has large amounts of snow, slush, and ice on the ground from the weekend storm because temperatures just haven't gone up enough to get rid of much. So this storm is going to dump it's load on top of what we already have on the ground and in large piles on the sides of roads and properties. If it dumps a little over 9 inches, as expected, this will officially be the snowiest winter in recording history in this region.

The combination of the exact timing of the storm and the mess still around from the previous one is causing the Philadelphia area to shut down already. The city has already announced that all of it's offices are closed on Wednesday. Schools, courts, museums, the zoo, and many private businesses are also closing. SEPTA and AMTRAK will try to run through the storm, but there will be delays and at least in SEPTA's case, there are likely to be shutdowns.

So for the second time in a period of days it's time to get that milk, break, eggs, and cigarettes order into the house and prepare to hibernate. When we wake up on Wednesday morning and look out the windows it will be yet another winter wonderland. Smile and keep a sunny perspective, it ain't the end of the world. The next day will be Thursday, and everything will open up once again and begin to return to normal. It's all about perspective.

Reflections on the Fourth

Over this past weekend our country celebrated it's 233rd birthday. We the people of the United States of America celebrated in a variety of ways. Many flocked to the beaches along our coastlines. Even more celebrated with family or community barbecue cookouts during the day, followed by fireworks displays at night. Our family was no different.

No matter how we celebrated the day, the vast majority of Americans did indeed celebrate in some way. The reasons that we celebrated were many. Some would say that for many, like Christmas, the true meaning of Independence Day has become lost on most people. I don't believe that is so.

As most Americans know and celebrate, Independence Day (or the 'Fourth of July') celebrates that date that the young American colonies declared their independence from the British crown back in 1776. Thus the massive display of the American flag, and of people incorporating the American colors of red, white, and blue into their wardrobes this weekend.

John Adams himself declared: "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."

He was off by two days in that letter, written to his wife on July 3rd, 1776, the reason being that Congress debated and revised the original Declaration of Independence after approving it a day earlier. The final version famously lists the July 4th ratification date. The actual signing of the Declaration, famously highlighted by John Hancock's gorgeous signature, happened on August 2nd, 1776.

Amazingly, both Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two of America's most celebrated Founding Fathers, two of the first men to lead our nation as President, and two signers of the Declaration, both died on the 4th of July, 1826 within hours of one another on the fiftieth anniversary of that great event. Five years later, President James Monroe also died on July 4th, though he was not a signer of the Declaration.

In 1777, Philadelphia celebrated the first anniversary in ways that a modern American would be familiar with, including an official dinner for the Continental Congress, toasts, speeches, prayers, music, parades, troop reviews, and fireworks. Ships on the Delaware River were decked with red, white, and blue bunting to mark the occasion.

In 1781, Massachusetts became the first state to adopt July 4th as a state holiday. In 1785, Bristol, Rhode Island, held the first-ever parade in honor of the date, and has held one continuously on that date ever since. In 1791, the first recorded use of the term 'Independence Day' happened. In 1870, Congress made the date an unpaid holiday for federal employees, then changed that to a paid holiday in 1938. Many American businesses have followed suit.

My own family had a very nice Independence Day weekend. We began our celebrations with my oldest daughter, Christine, and grandkids Elysia and Reznor staying at our home on both Friday and Saturday nights. On Saturday, I spent the day in our pool with my granddaughter, then fired up the grill for a cookout as younger daughter Kelly and her boyfriend Jay joined the festivities. At night we lit sparklers in our backyard, and got to enjoy a tremendous neighborhood fireworks display put on by one of our neighbors. I even got to enjoy the New York and Philly fireworks displays on television.

On Sunday, my wife Debbie and I packed up Chrissy, Elysia and Rez, and headed over to Williamstown, New Jersey for a cookout and pool party with some of Deb's family in honor of her father's 84th birthday. While there we had the great fortune to watch as the Phillies defeated the Mets to sweep a holiday weekend series, setting up the finale of our own celebration. Deb and I will be heading down to Citizens Bank Park tonight to watch the Phils take on the Cincinnati Reds.

Our family celebrates Independence Day the way that the vast majority of normal Americans do: family gatherings, cookouts, swimming, baseball, fireworks and all with the flag proudly displayed and the red, white, and blue clothing worn. On this date in particular, we all pause to reflect on the braveness of our forefathers, the greatness of our nation, and the unity of purpose with which we must all move forward together to keep our country free. May God continue to bless the United States of America.

Too Big For His Britches

When I was a kid our older relatives used to have a saying for when someone got too full of themselves, or got too arrogant, or when someone was constantly pushing the limits too far. They would say that this person was 'too big for his britches', an analogy relating to someone who got so big they were about to burst out of their pants. This would often be followed by an admonition that the person was going to 'get what they had coming to them' one of these days when the 'chickens come home to roost'. Well, the far-too-big-for-his-britches Vince Fumo finally welcomed home the chickens yesterday. After decades of shady backroom politics, the former State Senator and political giant was found guilty yesterday on 137 counts including fraud, obstruction of justice, tax offenses, and conspiracy. When the time comes for sentencing, prosecutors will be seeking to send the now 65-year old Fumo away to prison for more than a decade, meaning that the once mighty kingpin could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Just a day earlier, with the jury holding its deliberations, his typically slimy but skilled defense lawyers attempted one final bit of legal tap-dancing in an effort to free their client. They tried to have a juror thrown off the case and possibly a mistrial declared that would at least temporarily free their client. The reasoning? One of the jurors potentially posted on Facebook that there would be a "big announcement on Monday" in regards to the case. Oh no, the entirety of a lengthy criminal court case with numerous witnesses and mountains of evidence tossed out because one juror made an innocuous comment on a social networking website! The horror of this violation of prudential conduct! Why perhaps because of this simple remark which revealed nothing more than the possible day on which some unknown announcement might be made that possibly involves some event in the juror's life which may or may not involve the trial the justice system should come grinding to a halt? The court should not only halt the deliberations, remove the juror, ignore the evidence, and free the defendant, but perhaps even publicly disgrace the juror, and maybe even fine them or toss them behind bars for contempt? Yet another ridiculous move by the defense team in an effort to toss some 11th-hour Hail Mary in a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable. And boy was this verdict ever inevitable. When interviewed afterwards the comments from the jurors signified that they tried to find a way to acquit Fumo, but that "The evidence was so clear", and that like many disgraced politicians before him that "greed" was his motivation. To list the length and breadth and depth of Vince Fumo's political power and influence would take a full-length book, which someone will inevitably one day write. Suffice it to say, however, that this power did not come from honest political work over the decades. It came from the accumulation of power that itself came from the sale of his office and from political patronage. Vince Fumo is the poster boy for everything that is wrong with Philadelphia politics. The only thing that the vast majority of politicians in the city care about is retaining their power at the cost of service to their constituents and what began as conscience in their dealings. Philadelphia's one-party system invites corruption as politicians feel they must be registered and run as a Democrat or have little to no chance of election. This then causes them to become dependent on the Democratic election machine and money in order to retain their elected positions. This dependency comes at the cost of thier voting for liberal causes that perpetuate the tax-and-spend policies that have driven residents and businesses from the city by the hundreds of thousands over the past few decades. The power that Fumo wielded was from or near the very top of the political power pyramid of this Democratic Party domination process. The FBI may have been concerned with illegalities, misappropriations of funds, and abuse of office, but there is a bigger fish to fry here. The City of Philadelphia is in desperate need of a true conservative political power presence, and I believe that many of Philly's people and pols actually share those tendencies at heart. With a competitive political system that forced elected officials to truly be accountable to the people, the city would be far better off than it is currently under the system which holds it hostage to the Democratic Party alone. It will take a group of political, social, community, and business people to have courage and to organize and drive this effort, but it is an effort that must be made if Philadelphia is to reverse course and again become a world-class city. Fumo is certainly not the only politician at the state or local levels using his power and influence in these ways, and perhaps there are more who are under investigation right now without even knowing it. Shaking ourselves free of political corruption, greed, and scandal is a good beginning. Vince Fumo got too big for his britches a long, long time ago. With the chickens now home to roost, he will finally get what he has coming to him. Hopefully it doesn't result simply in someone else stepping in to fill a power vacuum, but instead marks the beginning of major changes in Philadelphia politics which are necessary and long overdue.

Hands That Shed Innocent Blood

For the past couple of weeks this 'Sunday Sermon' series (each entry can be read by clicking on the label at the bottom of this post) has been focusing on Proverbs 6:16-19 which covers the six things that the Lord hates, and a 7th which is an abomination. The 3rd item in this list would be "hands that shed innocent blood" which is sadly ironic considering Friday night's murder of Philadelphia police officer John Pawlowski. Whether or not John's killer will end up spending an eternity in hell, whether anyone who takes an innocent human life will suffer that fate, is not for us to say or know. But one thing that Proverbs makes undeniably clear is that this murder of innocents is particularly detestable to God Himself. On Friday night, John Pawlowski was an innocent man. Perhaps more than that, he was working actively to try and help keep peace and order in his community. He was a police officer in an increasingly violent major American city that is itself ironically nicknamed 'The City of Brotherly Love'. It is a moniker that is no longer appropriate. John and his partner exited their police vehicle after being flagged down to handle a disturbance on the highway. While handling this dispute, one of the individuals involved reached into his own pocket and shot right through his jacket, killing John Pawlowski there and then. Innocent blood once again shed in one of the acts that God hates. Each year, hundreds and hundreds of Philadelphians are murdered in cold blood by their fellow citizens. Webster defines 'murder' as "unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought." Sometimes as a legal definition it has been divided into 'degrees' of murder based on the intent of the killer as well as other accompanying actions. But it is not only murder which sheds innocent blood. The taking of another life is, as a legal matter, usually acceptable to the larger society when that action comes in self-defense or in a justifiable military or police action. A police officer who kills someone that is trying to kill that officer or someone else is justified. A member of the military fighting in a war in defense of the overall freedom and liberty of others is justified. A regular citizen taking the life of someone who is actively attempting to take the life of that person is justified. There are times in each of those actions when the taking of life is not justified. Any time that any of those actions is taken and innocent blood is shed, this God hates. A military or police action that results in the death of someone truly innocent, what is sometimes referred to as 'collateral damage', is no different to God just because the intent of the actor did not involve killing those innocents. That isn't to say that the person acting in what most would deem to be a just manner, and who in doing so takes the life of an innocent by mistake or happenstance, will answer to God for that life in eternity. But it is nonetheless something that God hates, and it is something that we should always take the time to evaluate within our own conscience. There is no one on earth more innocent than a tiny child, one that has had no opportunity to commit evil. Yet the fact is that over 11 million Americans have had their innocent blood shed in the womb just since the turn of the century in the act of abortion. Hundreds of millions of Americans have been murdered in the womb since the SCOTUS decision of Roe vs. Wade legalized this type of killing. God does not distinguish using human terms such as 'legal' or 'moral', He is concerned with 'innocence', and there is no one more innocent than a baby in the womb. To take such a life, one that has done nothing wrong, one that is rarely threatening the life of the mother, may indeed be the most selfish and immoral act someone can take. It most certainly is the shedding of innocent blood, no matter how we might try to justify it in our own minds and to our own conscience. Catholic and most Christian morality speaks to the taking of innocent blood in the topics of murder, abortion, euthanasia, and suicide as always wrong. Certainly God sees all of these situations as resulting in the shedding of innocent blood, which He hates. Be it that of an innocent police officer just doing his job of protecting and serving others, or an innocent baby in the womb, God hates the shedding of innocent blood as much as He hates anything. NOTE: This series from Proverbs will continue with the 4th item as next week's entry in the 'Sunday Sermon' series.

85 Shots and 'One Less Nigga With a Gun'

A year ago at this time, in July 2007, Steven 'Butter' Miller (left) was shot at 85 times by Philadelphia police officers. I have sources that say it was actually 81 times. In any event, about two dozen of those shots found their mark, and Miller was dead. In it's July 24th-31st, 2008 issues the extremely liberal 'Citypaper' here in Philadelphia, one of those free tabloid style publications distributed throughout the downtown area by placement in stores, business lobbies, and curbside boxes, published a cover story titled '85 Shots' about the incident. As could be expected if you understand the source, the Citypaper writers, Doron Taussig and Tom Nammako, told the story in a way that was, in both tone and tenor, completely sympathetic with the alleged victim and extremely critical of the Philadelphia police officers involved in the shooting, as well as their hierarchy in its response. That's a shame, because the real problem right here in Philadelphia and in many big American cities today is not unwarranted shootings by rogue groups of police officers. Actually, one of the biggest problems facing American big cities today is men just like Steven Miller. Fact is that Miller exited his house that night as a stark-raving mad lunatic waving a gun around in the air, alternately pointing it at officers as well as towards neighbors homes as he waved it. The officers gave him plenty of warnings to drop the weapon, perhaps even more than they actually needed to give. At a certain point, one officer felt that the circumstances had gotten too dangerous and felt that he needed to discharge his weapon in order to save his own life, the life of a fellow officer, or that of a community member. It was a hot summer night in South Philly, so it was dark, and when this officers' shots rang out other officers who had also responded did not know from where these shots were coming. They fired at the man who they saw waving around the gun, Miller, just as they were trained, and they took him down. One of Miller's best friends, Daniel Williams, was quoted as saying "...they probably look at it like, that's one less nigga with a gun." Your words, Mr. Williams, but the idea behind them is not so far off from the truth. What this city needs, in fact, is thousands of fewer young men waving around guns, and every one that is stopped from doing so is one less that will harm the rest of us. The article goes on to actually print the names of seven officers involved that night before discussing how neighbors see these officers now and say, in the words of one Tyree Bullock: "Here go this motherf*cker". How about the mother-bleepers living around you every day, Mr. Bullock? The ones doing the shooting, drug-dealing, pimping, impregnating, and glamorizing it all in their booming and blaring rap music? The article also goes on to talk about another of the people in Miller's life, one Anthony Lawrence, who relates that in the past twenty years he has personally seen 34 deaths in his neighborhood, implying those were violent deaths. I have lived 46 years and was born and raised in South Philly, and I don't think that I have known more than a couple people, if that many, who have been killed by violence. Why have you seen so many, Mr. Lawrence? Why so many, Citypaper? Rogue cops shoot them all down? Not hardly. The fact of the matter is that most of them were killed by men just like Steven Miller. But before he met his demise, he helped perpetuate even more of the problems in the urban world. He had fathered seven children, none of whom he financially supported, by three different women, none of whom he had ever married. He had been arrested at least once in his life, for drugs of course, and had also been shot once on a playground basketball court. He had wasted away his twenties in a life of drugs and violence and 'laying back'. Oh, and in trying to become a rap star, of course, all the while perpetuating the exact lifestyle of huge numbers of young men in his demographic community across the nation. Irresponsibility, criminality, violence, addiction, all frequently glorified by the rap community in one of the most heinous examples of all-time of a community announcing and advertising for its own demise. Miller's rap group was named DLK (Down Low Killaz). Nice. And typical. The article states that Miller was 'suited up' (carrying a gun) on the day that he died because he 'had gotten on bad terms with a dangerous young bull', meaning that some young thug was looking to gun down Miller for some reason. The only 'bull' that matters in this story is perpetuated by this article, that somehow men like Steven Miller deserve our sympathies. The folks who really deserve our sympathy are the seven whose lives he created, but who didn't elicit enough love and respect from him that he would go out and get a real job or two to support. What makes men like Miller and many others in his violent neighborhood around Tasker & Taney Streets decide to turn to drugs and violence, both in the reality of their lifestyle and the glamorization of that same culture, rather than turning it around, staying in school, taking responsibility, and bettering their community. What makes one man from South Philly into a Steven Miller and another man from West Philly into a Will Smith? The answer quite simply is personal choices. Steven Miller chose illegitimate fatherhood. Steven Miller chose to get involved with drugs and violence. Steven Miller chose to walk out of a house waving a gun at neighbors and police officers. Steven Miller left those officers with no choice but to fire 85 shots, however many it took, and leave the city with 'one less nigga with a gun.' His choice, and it is people like the authors of this Citypaper article and the editors who chose to run the story with the slant that they did, who make further choices that keep all of us less safe each and every day in the city of Philadelphia.

None of Our Business

A leading business website, Inc.com, billed as 'The Daily Resource for Entrepreneurs', has released its annual list of 'The Best Cities for Doing Business'. Where do you think that Philadelphia ranked on their list of 393 metropolitan areas? A top-ten city by population, you would think that Philly would probably be there somewhere among the leaders, right? Well, before we get too excited, let's examine some of the criteria that the e-zine factors in order to formulate the rankings. What 'Inc.com' does as an overall approach is that they analyze job-growth data as supplied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the previous calendar year on 393 metropolitan statistical areas across the country. The list just released was specifically derived from analysis of three-month rolling averages of the BLS state and area unadjusted employment data from January 1995 to September 2006, and uses four measures of growth to rank all areas for which data was available for the past ten years. These four measures are: recent growth trend, analyzing this and last year; midterm growth, averaging 2001-06 rates; long-term trend, analyzing 1995-2006 data; and current year growth. This data includes non-farm employment, manufacturing, financial services, business and professional services, educational and health services, information, retail and wholesale trade, transportation and utilities, leisure and hospitality, and government. While any time you attempt to put together a ranking across a broad spectrum of categories you are going to get subjectivity in the analysis of those categories, the fact is that this is not a study and listing that is done haphazardly and frivolously. It is a serious look at relevant statistics in order to determine areas that are growing, and that ultimate also exposes areas that are stagnating. On the surface, Philly would seem to have much going for it, and it does. We have major employers headquartered here, places like Comcast. We have an excellent mass-transit system including Septa, Amtrak, and Patco. We have first-class entertainment facilities such as the Avenue of the Arts, varied quality sports facilities like The Linc and Citizens Bank Park and the Palestra, a world-class Art Museum, a top-notch zoo, etc. Easy transportation access through I-95 by land, the Delaware River by sea, and Philadelphia International Airport by air among others. And we have people, lots of people, and a variety of them by racial, ethnic, religious, cultural, sexual and any other orientation that you can describe. There is much to like about the Philadelphia area, politics aside, and you do have to set aside politics. which has been a mess for a long time here in Philly. There is much to like about Philly, tax-status aside, and you do have to set aside our taxation system. Here in Philly, our tax policies are typically liberal for a large city, and liberal Democratic Party taxation means that we tax unfairly, more than other cities, and on things that other cities do not. In recent decades, our tax policies have led to the loss of 250,000 jobs and the loss of a half-million residents. Other cities are growing, but Philly is in decline, and we continue to lose jobs and residents every single year. 'Philadelphia Forward', an organization put together in an attempt to reform Philly's tax policies, reports that "the typical city residents tax burden is 50% higher than the tax burden for a suburban resident at a similar income level." In other words, living here in the city kills your take-home pay, and it does the same to business profits. Most cities do not tax your wages, but we do, and we do it at a rate of 3.98%, the highest in the nation. Philly taxes business at the highest rate of all major American cities, and its real estate tax assessment system can be described as unfair and antiquated at best. In short, we have all the pretty things and look nice on the outside, but we are decaying on the inside. When most people look to move their families into an area, or evaluate where their families will continue to live as they grow, and when business looks to move into or remain in an area long term, they look closely not only at the surface features, but also look under the hood. When you look under the hood at the engine that drives Philadelphia, you find an entrenched liberal Democratic government that taxes and spends more than almost any other entity in the United States. No wonder then when I scan down the list of metro areas in the Inc.com rankings looking for Philadelphia and cannot find us among the top ten, where our population ranking sits. Nope, not even in the top twenty, or the top one hundred. Wow, scanning down, scanning down. Ah, found us. There we are, ranked out of 393 metro areas at number......351! Ouch. Well, at least its better than last year when we were ranked at number 392. Yikes! The bottom line is that there is really no reason to live inside the City of Philadelphia unless you have to, which is one major reason that the city clings to its antiquated policy of forcing city employees to live inside the city limits. If Philly updated its policy and allowed city employees to live wherever in the region they wanted, I can guarantee you that it would lose thousands of more residents in the ensuing half-decade. The bottom line that is revealed by the Inc.com ranking and the Philadelphia Forward assessments is that Philadelphia is a big city in big trouble, and showing no signs of changing its ways. We will continue to look pretty on the outside, but only because our politicians will continue to tax heavily to maintain that pretty look. Meanwhile, Philadelphia will continue to die slowly on the inside, further deteriorating that tax base of businesses and residents, and thus raising the tax burden continually on those who choose to. or are forced to, stay behind. Business will continue to mostly flee the city, as chemical giant Rohm & Haas is about to do. What can change this status? I have been saying it for a long time. Philadelphia needs a real, viable, political alternative. A healthy Republican Party that espouses lower taxes, less spending, a more business-friendly environment, and more conservative solutions to social problems such as crime and education. Unfortunately, that shows no signs of happening anytime soon, or even within the rest of my lifetime. As always, the title of this entry is a link to more information, in this case to the article and rankings in question.