Category Archives: Uncategorized

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The homicide rate ticks up a bit in Killadelphia

We had previously reported on the slowing down of the homicide rate in the City of Brotherly Love, but things may be going back in the wrong direction again. The Philadelphia Police Department reported 378 homicides as of 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, September 16th, but their next report, for 11:59 PM EDT on Sunday, September 19th, showed 384 people killed.[1]The Police Department’s Current Crime Statistics page states that the homicide “statistics reflect the accurate count during normal business hours, Monday through Friday”, so we … Continue reading That’s six people murdered in three days, and twelve people killed over the past week.

    Man killed and 5 others wounded in Fern Rock drive-by shooting

    The shooting happened near the intersection of Broad Street and West Chew Avenue.

    by Robert Moran, Chris Palmer, and Ellie Rushing | Monday, September 20, 2021 | Updated: 6:43 PM EDT

    A 26-year-old man was killed and five other adults were wounded in a drive-by shooting Monday afternoon in the city’s Fern Rock section, police said.

    The shooting happened just before 2:20 p.m. on the 1300 block of West Chew Avenue near Broad Street.

    Five victims were taken by private vehicle to Einstein Medical Center, police said. The man who was fatally wounded was transported by police to the hospital, which is just a few blocks away. He was pronounced dead at 2:55 p.m.

    The five surviving victims, including a 28-year-old woman, were listed in stable condition. No arrests were immediately reported.

There’s more at the original. The story noted that the six victims were just standing on the street when a silver Chrysler 300 pulled up, and someone in the back seat started shooting; a photo in the Inquirer shows the Philadelphia Police putting down evidence markers, normally where shell casings were found, showing evidence marker 19.

We reported, just two weeks ago, that over the last 1½ months, the murder rate has really dropped. There had been 314 homicides as of July 22nd, the 203rd day of the year. Since that time, 46 days ago, there have been ‘just’ 49 murders, a rate of 1.0652 per day. With 116 days left in 2021, if that rate were maintained, there would be ‘just’ 124 more killings, for a total of 487 for the year, 12 fewer than last year, and 13 fewer than 1990’s all time record of 500. If that number was the final one, it would be 75 fewer homicides than the math had projected just two months ago.

Now, the city has seen 12 homicides in 14 days, ticking the homicide rate up from 1.458 per day to 1.466, and a projected 535 for the year.

The next ‘milestone’ will be 391 homicides, which is the full year’s total for 2007. The city will probably pass that next weekend.
———————-
Update: Tuesday, September 21, 2021 @ 8:30 AM EDT

The Philadelphia Police Department reported 386 homicides as of 11:59 PM EDT yesterday.

References

References
↑1 The Police Department’s Current Crime Statistics page states that the homicide “statistics reflect the accurate count during normal business hours, Monday through Friday”, so we don’t get the totals for Friday, Saturday and Sunday until Monday morning.
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A picture worth a thousand words. Why won't the credentialed media report the whole story?

I normally avoid photos that might be under copyright, but this one tells a tale that ought not to be avoided, and thus falls under ‘fair use’ standards. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

    SEPTA bus riders are frustrated by persistent delays. Officials say a shortage of drivers is to blame.

    The regional transit agency was not able to hire at the rate of attrition and has to play catch up.

    by Thomas Fitzgerald | Saturday, September 18, 2021

    SEPTA has a deficit of 105 bus operators, a lingering effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to delays on many of the agency’s bus routes. Alejandro A Alvarez, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Photographer. Click to enlarge. Photographer

    For weeks, SEPTA’s real-time online bus service status page has been speckled with red triangles warning riders of delays on many routes “due to an operator shortage.”

    The transit agency is down 105 bus operators, officials said. Austerity measures during last year’s coronavirus shutdowns, including a four-month hiring freeze, have hampered SEPTA’s ability to keep up with attrition.

    As a result, thousands of frustrated riders wait longer at bus stops.

    And when operators scheduled for duty call in sick or have family emergencies, regular occurrences in a workforce of more than 2,600 people, managers in SEPTA’s nine bus garages have to scramble.

There’s more at the original, but the telling part of the photo is the sign on the front of the bus: “A mask or face covering is required on SEPTA”. You can click on the photo to enlarge it, and see the bus marquee more easily.

We have previously reported on mask mandates for certain jobs, including bus drivers, pushing people away from those jobs. People just don’t want to wear a diaper over their faces. But the only reference to that in the Inquirer article was this:

    The transit agency is down 105 bus operators, officials said. Austerity measures during last year’s coronavirus shutdowns, including a four-month hiring free(Nat Lownes, of the Philly Transit Riders Union) said some of his friends who are bus operators tell him they’re worn out with the demands of the job, which include enforcing federal mask regulations and often dealing with irate riders. “It can be brutal,” he said.

The Inquirer article didn’t have a single word about bus drivers themselves not wanting to wear masks, and while some passengers don’t want to wear the silly things for a thirty-minute ride, the drivers are required to have them on for an eight hour, or longer, shift.

This is why I frequently refer to journolists. The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias. There’s really no way that Thomas Fitzgerald, the article author, didn’t know about the frustration of bus drivers and others having to wear face masks for hours on end, and the stories of the patricians going maskless while their ‘servants’ had to wear face diapers aren’t going to encourage people to take jobs requiring the wearing of masks.

An actual journalist would have reported on that, but the editorial position of the Inquirer is to support mask and vaccine mandates, and the credentialed media just don’t like reporting on things with which they disagree.

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The Catholic Church and the Right to Privacy

We have twice reported on Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, who resigned as General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, after a conservative Catholic site used cell phone data to show him using Grindr, a homosexual dating app, and frequenting homosexual bars, and noted the New York Times story “Catholic Officials on Edge After Reports of Priests Using Grindr“. Naturally, the Church can’t say that it’s acceptable for priests to be using homosexual pick up apps, but the Church is very concerned about the privacy rights of priests, at least when it comes to their COVID vaccination status.

The Most Reverend John Stowe, Bishop of Lexington

Which brings me to the Most Reverend John Stowe, O.F.M.Conv., the Bishop of Lexington. We have reported, many times, on the Bishop’s policies, with a rather jaundiced eye.

While I have heard no statements from Bishop Stowe concerning Pillar’s exposure of Msgr Burrill’s activities, it would seem that the Bishop is pretty much unconcerned with the privacy of priests in his diocese.

    Bishop Stowe: Catholics deserve to know if their priest is unvaccinated

    Michael J. O’Loughlin | September 16, 2021

    Bishop John Stowe, O.F.M.Conv., last month asked that diocesan employees working at the Catholic Center in the Diocese of Lexington, Ky., vaccinate themselves against Covid-19, extending a mandate that had already been announced for faculty and staff at Catholic schools. The bishop said the diocese let go of “a handful” of employees who refused. When it came to priests in the diocese, the bishop said he turned to “moral persuasion,” urging them to vaccinate themselves as a way to protect parishioners. That seemed to work. About 92 percent of the diocese’s 50 priests have been vaccinated, a rate that puts them as a group well ahead of the 61 percent of adults in Kentucky who are fully vaccinated.

The math is pretty simple: 92% of 50 priests is 46 priests, meaning four diocesan priests are unvaccinated. The Bishop publicly exposed two of them, Father John Moriarty, the Rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King parish, and Father David Wheeler, a parochial vicar at the Cathedral parish, as not having been vaccinated. The Cathedral parish is where the diocesan Bishop has his seat, so His Excellency the Bishop was unable to persuade two other priests that he sees, almost every day, at his resident parish, to get vaccinated.

The other two unvaccinated priests of his diocese have not been named.

I note that the report states that the Bishop “let go”, a euphemism for fired, “a handful” of employees who refused to be vaccinated, meaning that he took “a handful,” whatever that number happens to be, and threw them into poverty. While The Lord hears the cry of the poor, he might not expect one of his Bishops to add to the number of the poor.

    But for the few priests who chose not to be vaccinated, the bishop believes they owe it to their parishioners to be upfront about their status.

    “When I found out that four of them still were not vaccinated, I said they had to disclose that to their people because people were expecting they would be vaccinated,” Bishop Stowe told America. He said he also told the unvaccinated priests that “they couldn’t go into the homes of the sick or the homebound or be in close proximity” to worshippers.

Odd thing, though, that the Bishop would fire let go the “handful” of diocesan employees who declined to be vaccinated, but did not fire let go the four diocesan priests who refused. Could that be because lay employees are far easier to find in this economy, but priests are in short supply? With more parishes, 59, than priests, several priests, including my own parish pastor, who will turn 88 years old in a couple of weeks, have to serve more than one parish.

We have previously noted that Bishop Stowe has been very supportive of homosexual rights and recognition of ‘transgender’ individuals as the sex they claim to be, rather than the sex they are, but I cannot accurately report his position on Pillar’s exposure of the homosexual activity of Msgr Burrill and the privacy rights of Catholic priests when it comes to their vows of celibacy. But we certainly know his views on the privacy rights of both his parish priests and lay employees when it comes to their vaccination status.

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Will Bunch wants to cut out large swaths of America

I remember when columnists had a 750-word limit, but with the coming of the internet, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch, who is so far to the left that he makes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez look, if not sane, at least less wacky, got in 1,345, in which he tells us that he has no flaming idea about his topic. Nevertheless, I’d have expected him to understand something about politics!

A broken America should build a monument to Joe Manchin’s massive ego

The self-centered, greedy West Virginia senator is a poster child for everything wrong with U.S. politics. So what is the Joe Manchin workaround?

by Will Bunch | Columnist | Thursday, September 16, 2021

As the summer of 2021 comes to an ignominious end this week, millions of Americans will remember these blazing hot months as a time of dashed hopes on ending our life-altering pandemic and growing alarm about the floods and fires fueled by climate change. But in Washington, D.C. — the place where solving these problems needs to start in the U.S. — both the hellish season and what it might mean for future generations will be recalled as “Almost Heaven,” the well-equipped houseboat owned by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin where the nation’s leaders spent a moonshine-soaked summer lazily floating past the crises. .  .  .  .

Will Bunch, from his Philadelphia Inquirer author photo.

So, who is Will Bunch? His first-person Inquirer biography states, “I’m the national columnist — with some strong opinions about what’s happening in America around social injustice, income inequality and the government.” I’ll admit it: whenever I see #woke[1]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading phrases like “social justice” and “income inequality”, I know I’m dealing with someone who has no flaming idea about real life. People are different, and different people means different outcomes for people. Sadly, the Inquirer staff are eaten up by wokeness.

Mr Bunch also supports the Palestinians and their terrorist groups, which also tells us a lot.

Mr Bunch’s Twitter header photo shows him walking away from a dilapidated Appalachian (?) home, but it seems that he has little understanding of the people who live in Appalachia.

But with autumn closing in, Washington seems hopelessly adrift on Biden’s ambitious plans for working families and fighting climate change, and any forward progress will likely depend on what comes out of Manchin’s bandaged brain in the coming weeks. In a slew of TV appearances, the West Virginian has made it clear he will use his deciding vote in the 50-50 Senate to shrink Biden’s plan from $350 billion a year to only $100 billion to $150 billion — he’s failed to truly articulate why — and he’s also managed to downsize the ambitions of a do-or-die-for-democracy voting-rights bill, even as he insists (for now) he won’t end the filibuster to pass even that. Whatever happened on that houseboat, the brief chance to end American kleptocracy may be sinking.

Indeed, analyzing Manchin and his motives — both politically and psychologically — has become something of a cottage industry in the nation’s capital. I’ve already written about how Manchin’s pro-billionaire austerity politics are wildly out of step with the real-world needs of voters in poverty-plagued West Virginia, suffering from pothole-laced highways, climate-worsened floods, and opioid abuse. Instead, the senator and former governor sees promoting his personal brand as his path to winning elections and wielding power.

And here we have exactly what I would have expected from a big-city liberal, the self-assured knowledge that he knows what’s best for rural dwellers in a different state.

In the 2020 election, President Trump carried West Virginia, beating Joe Biden 545,382 (68.62%) to 235,984 (29.69%), Mr Trump’s second strongest state, percentagewise. In only one county, Monongalia, did President Trump get less than 50% of the vote, 49.45%, which still beat Mr Biden’s 48.21% there. Mr Trump got over 80% of the vote in nine separate counties.

This is the part Mr Bunch just doesn’t get: Senator Manchin, the only statewide elected Democrat in office, is doing what his constituents in the Mountain State want him to do. He is acting like the moderate Democrat he campaigned as being.

Mr Bunch has a long section, which I have not quoted, in which he tells us what a self-centered, greedy political hack Mr Manchin is, before telling us what he thinks is needed.

After 2022, the only way for the United States to get where it wants to go is not through Joe Manchin and his tired political hackery, but around him. West Virginia may be a very Trumped-up place right now, but voters here in Pennsylvania, as well as Ohio, Wisconsin, and other key states, will get a shot next fall to build a Senate majority that is actually controlled by Democrats and not the Chamber of Commerce. Metaphorically speaking, we need an infrastructure bill with a 10-lane superhighway of American progress, that bypasses West Virginia altogether.

It doesn’t seem to occur to Mr Bunch that perhaps, just perhaps, not all Americans agree with him as to where the United States “wants to go”. You’d think that he ought to have a clue, given that, while Mr Biden carried Pennsylvania by 81,660 votes, it was because he carried Philadelphia by 471,050; President Trump carried the rest of the Commonwealth by 390,445 votes. Perhaps, just perhaps, with 378 homicides in just 259 days of the year, for an average of 1.46 per day, on track for 532 for the year, Philly isn’t exactly the model of modern life that the rest of the country would see as great.

Ahhh, but, then again, perhaps he does realize that, given that he wants to “(bypass) West Virginia altogether.” He’d probably throw Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky in that same category as well.

References

References
↑1 From Wikipedia:

Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from the African-American Vernacular English expression “stay woke“, whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues.
By the late 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term broadly associated with left-wing politics and cultural issues (with the terms woke culture and woke politics also being used). It has been the subject of memes and ironic usage. Its widespread use since 2014 is a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I shall confess to sometimes “ironic usage” of the term. To put it bluntly, I think that the ‘woke’ are just boneheadedly stupid.
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Gee, she’s dumb!

At 11:30 AM EDT on Thursday, September 16, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris Emhoff tweeted, “Our Administration will always fight to defend the right of women to make decisions about their own bodies. It is non-negotiable.” The image of the tweet to the right is a screen capture, in case the dummy deletes it; the link to the tweet is embedded above.

Of course, as we noted about Governor Andy Beshear’s tweet, Mrs Emhoff’s tweet was quite possibly written by one of her minions. I’d like to think that the first person in line to the presidency isn’t dumb enough to have tweeted that while the President is trying to impose COVID-19 vaccine mandates on everybody, but, at least thus far, there isn’t a lot of evidence to support that hope.

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Faked concern from Andy Beshear

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) has been very, very, very concerned over the health of Kentuckians, and, of course, distraught that the voters of the Commonwealth elected a General Assembly which promised to, and did, rein in his oh-so-nobly intended executive actions.

So, when the Governor tweeted,[1]The image to the right is a screenshot of the tweet, which you can enlarge by clicking on it. The hyperlink to the original is embedded in the word “tweeted”. “Listen, even if you disagree with me – even if you’ve stood outside my house or this Capitol and yelled about me – I care about you. I care about you and your families and I want you to be safe. These vaccines are safe. Please, go out and get yours,” everybody just knew that it was a deeply heartfelt and personal message, right?

Except, of course, if you had actually paid attention to our Governor’s tweets. The image to the left is from the Governor’s Twitter masthead, and notice: it states that, “Tweets from Andy are signed ^AB.”

The Governor’s oh-so-caring tweet was not signed ^AB, which means that it was written by one of his minions, not the Governor. https://www.thepiratescove.us/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_yahoo.gif

Of course, we all knew that politicians’ Twitter accounts are frequently handled by their subordinates, but when I see something like, “even if you’ve stood outside my house or this Capitol and yelled about me,” I know that it is meant to be personalized, and to fool those who aren’t really paying attention.

Protesters hanged Governor Andy Beshear in effigy, May 24, 2020.

The meaning behind it? On May 20, 2020, a rally in the state capital, Frankfort, included the hanging of the Governor in effigy. The Governor was hardly so charitable at the time:

    Beshear on effigy: ‘I will not be afraid. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down’

    Sarah Ladd | Louisville Courier Journal | May 26, 2020 | 5:37 PM EDT | Updated: May 27, 2020 | 11:23 AM EDT

    A defiant Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday called the group of people that hanged him in effigy outside the Kentucky Capitol on Sunday a “mob” that carried out “a celebration of assassination on our Capitol grounds.”

    “I will not be afraid. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down,” Beshear said of the group who also brought a demand for his resignation to his doorstep.

    The demonstration followed a Second Amendment rally on Sunday that drew more than 100 people to Frankfort.

    Republican and Democrat leaders alike were quick to condemn the effigy, which bore a sign that said “sic semper tyrannis,” which means “thus always to tyrants” and is believed to have been shouted by John Wilkes Booth following his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Further down:

    Chanting “on the other side of the glass from where I raise my kids” was “an action intended to use fear to get their way,” Beshear said.

    And he called out politicians who at a May 2 rally encouraged people to remove masks, saying they were partly responsible for heated tensions. “You cannot fan the flames and then condemn the fire,” he said.

    “Standing in front of a radical militia group, these elected officials claimed that people including me aren’t Christian, and even told them that people wanted babies to be murdered,” Beshear said. “What do you think was gonna happen after throwing out those type of claims to this group? Shouldn’t they have known what was going to happen?”

Of course, Governor Beshear does want babies to be murdered, having tried to loosen restrictions on abortion clinics and deciding, in his ’emergency’ decrees of March, 2020, that abortion clinics were ‘essential businesses’ which could remain open, but that churches had to be closed. Remember: the Governor sent the Kentucky State Police to record license plate and vehicle identification numbers of cars in church parking lots on Easter Sunday!

Hanging, or burning, in effigy of political figures has a long history: George W Bush, Barack Obama, and even George Washington, have been hanged in effigy as parts of political protests. That Mr Beshear got his panties in a wad over it does not bother me in the slightest; it actually amuses me.

So no, I don’t believe that the Governor’s (purported) tweet of yesterday afternoon expressed a serious concern on his part.

Fortunately, while it took far, far, far too long, the General Assembly did rein in the Governor’s ’emergency’ authority, frustrating the actions he’d like to take. That is a very good thing.

References

References
↑1 The image to the right is a screenshot of the tweet, which you can enlarge by clicking on it. The hyperlink to the original is embedded in the word “tweeted”.
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A bad move by Bishop John Stowe

Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) visits dying gangster Whitey Brennan (Mark Margolis) in “Dedication.”

At the end of episode 15, Dedication, in the first season of Blue Bloods, Police Commissioner Frank Reagan visits Whitey Brennan, an Irish mobster whose son tried to assassinate the Commissioner. The elder Mr Brennan is in a nursing home, essentially waiting for death. Mr Reagan asks Mr Brennan if there’s anything he’d like to confess at the end, at which point the dying mobster laughs at him. The Commissioner then tells him, ‘Not to me,’ then opens the room door to admit a priest, so that Mr Brennan has an opportunity to make his last Confession. That’s a very powerful scene, at least for Catholics, but, with Bishop John Stowe’s new order, oops! so sorry, if you live in one of the widely spaced parishes in eastern Kentucky and your parish priest isn’t vaccinated, he can’t come to you to hear your last Confession.

It isn’t often that the Diocese of Lexington is mentioned by the Catholic News Agency, this being a very Protestant area, but it happened Tuesday morning:

    Unvaccinated clergy in Lexington, Kentucky barred from ministering to the sick and homebound elderly

    By Shannon Mullen, Joe Bukuras | Tuesday, September 14, 2021 |8:10 AM EDT

    The Most Reverend John Stowe, Bishop of Lexington

    Priests of the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 may not minister to the sick, elderly, and homebound, Bishop John Stowe has directed.

    The policy was announced during a Saturday vigil Mass Sept. 11 that Bishop Stowe celebrated at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington.

    At the end of the liturgy, Deacon Tim Weinmann read a statement from the cathedral’s rector, Father John Moriarty, that both Fr. Moriarty and Father David Wheeler, the parochial vicar, have not been vaccinated.

    “The bishop has asked that Fr. David and I, Fr. John – I’m speaking for Fr. John – make an announcement that we are not vaccinated, so people can decide if they wanted to attend Mass where they were celebrating,” the deacon read, according to a video of the Mass posted by the Cathedral of Christ the King.

    “And if also the priests – and this has been done throughout the diocese – those priests that are not vaccinated are to follow the COVID protocol in the liturgy, and they are not allowed to visit the sick or elderly that are homebound,” the announcement continued. “Fr. John and Fr. David, again, have not been vaccinated.” Bishop Stowe stood beside Deacon Weinmann while the announcement was read but did not comment afterward.

You can see the announcement at the end of this video of the Mass, beginning at the 1:07:10 mark.

We have previously reported on the Bishop’s mandate that all employees at the Catholic Center must be vaccinated as a condition of employment, which has to mean that any who refuse will be fired. We have previously noted Bishop Stowe’s support for homosexuals, and that the diocese hosts St Paul’s Catholic Church, which is very openly “LGBTQ+” accepting, only a couple of miles from the cathedral parish, Cathedral of Christ the King, where the Bishop resides and has his seat. Bishop Stowe is fully aware of St Paul’s ‘mission.’ One wonders if our Bishop is more concerned with COVID-19 than he is the spiritual health of his parishioners.

Then again, I have often wondered if Bishop Stowe is more of a Democrat than he is a Catholic, the way Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and so many of our (purportedly) Catholic politicians are. Our Bishop is very much a supporter of liberal, Democratic political policies, and has been far more vocal about such than he has when it comes to abortion. While he noted, in yet another OpEd, that neither major party supports all of Catholic social teaching, he gave very short attention to Joe Biden’s support for abortion, two whole sentences, with neither mentioning that Me Biden also wants to have the taxpayers, which would include Catholics, pay for abortions, he devoted several long paragraphs condemning conservative policies on welfare and illegal immigration. The Bishop called President Trump “so much anti-life,” something that, sadly, our local parish priest reiterated in his homily. As noted above, he supports the diocese’s homosexual activist parish, and he has broken with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Equality Act. The USCCB opposes the legislation due to the fact that it does not contain sufficient protection for matters of religion and conscience, and might require Catholic diocese and other organizations to hire or retain open homosexuals or transsexuals living in a state of open scandal.

I have heard His Excellency the Bishop at Mass, twice, in our very small parish, and I can tell you that he is an excellent preacher who really tries to connect with his parishioners. If you are capable of being inspired by a priest’s homily, Bishop Stowe will inspire you. I have no reason at all to doubt his faith.

But, sadly enough, I do see reason to doubt whether his Catholic faith is stronger than his Democratic allegiance. He basically gave Catholic parishioners a choice of opting out of Mass if either Fr. John Moriarty or Fr. David Wheeler is the celebrant . . . and those are the only two priests other than the Bishop noted in the Cathedral staff directory. I guess that the Bishop will, personally, visit all of the shut-ins in his parish.

Of course, the Cathedral parish is a large one, with three priests, but, the diocese being a very much Protestant one, we have, overall, small parishes covering large geographic areas. My own pastor, who is in his eighties, has to cover two parishes, and it isn’t physically easy on him. I’m certain that he is vaccinated, since he adds, every Sunday, a plea for everyone to get vaccinated. Still, if two priests, in the Cathedral parish, with the Bishop hanging over their heads every day, have chosen not to get vaccinated, the obvious question is: how many other priests, in smaller, rural parishes scattered throughout eastern Kentucky, have also chosen against vaccination? The Bishop has just said that such priests cannot visit the sick and the homebound, which, in effect, denies the sacraments to some ill or elderly parishioners who might want and need them.

I understand the Bishop’s concerns about the virus, and, like him, I believe that everybody should get vaccinated, though I oppose vaccine mandates. But the Bishop’s latest actions hurt his parishioners.

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Philadelphia public schools: will this school year be like last school year?

Governor Tom Wolf’s (D-PA) authoritarian dictates during 2020 pushed the Republicans who control the state legislature to set up two constitutional amendments to rein in a tin-pot dictator, something that certainly sounds familiar to Kentuckians! Well, though those constitutional amendments passed, Governor Wolf found a loophole, getting the state’s Secretary of Health to issue a mask mandate for public schools, but now Mr Wolf is angry because some districts are interpreting ‘exemption’ requirements very loosely. We have previously noted that some districts had chosen not to require masks, and some of the Karens were suing the school district, though they didn’t have the courage to identify themselves.

In the City of Brotherly Love, the public schools have a vaccine mandate, sort of:

    20,000 Philly schools employees must get vaccinated by Sept. 30. Here’s what happens if they don’t.

    If they choose to not get vaccinated, district workers will have to be COVID-19 tested twice a week, and they lose access to a bank of 10 “quarantine leave days.”

    by Kristen A. Graham | Monday, September 13, 2021

    The Philadelphia School District’s 20,000 employees must be vaccinated for COVID-19 by Sept. 30, but they won’t lose their jobs if they opt not to get the shot.

    If they choose to not get vaccinated, teachers, administrators, and support staff — as well as contractors — will have to be COVID-19 tested twice a week, and they lose access to a bank of 10 “quarantine leave days” that allow them to be absent from work with pay if they’re sick with the coronavirus or must isolate because of exposure.

    All employees, regardless of vaccination status, are already tested weekly.

    “The testing provider will return to schools for a second time each week to test partially vaccinated or unvaccinated staff,” Larisa Shambaugh, the district’s chief talent officer, said in an email to staff. “If these employees do not test two times a week, they will be subject to discipline.”

We can see what they are doing here.

COVID testing is unpleasant. A nurse sticks a long stick mounted swab up your nose to try to get material from your sinuses. The Centers for Disease Control said, on August 26, 2021:

    Vaccines are playing a crucial role in limiting spread of the virus and minimizing severe disease. Although vaccines are highly effective, they are not perfect, and there will be vaccine breakthrough infections. Millions of Americans are vaccinated, and that number is growing. This means that even though the risk of breakthrough infections is low, there will be thousands of fully vaccinated people who become infected and able to infect others, especially with the surging spread of the Delta variant.

Since the fully vaccinated can, and do, spread the virus, there’s no logic in letting the fully vaccinated escape testing, if the goal is to prevent the spread of the virus, so the Philadelphia public schools were mandating continued testing of the vaccinated as well as the unvaccinated. But, if the vaccinated are subjected to the same testing regime as the unvaccinated, then there’s no particular incentive to those who are vaccine hesitant to take the jab. Thus, the school system had to make it worse, by mandating testing twice a week rather than once.

Further down in the Inquirer:

    Most district unions have endorsed the mandate, including the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which represents 13,000 educators, paraprofessionals, and school nurses. . . . .

    PFT has, in fact, called on the district to require COVID-19 testing for all students. Children are now only tested if they display symptoms during the school day, or if they participate in contact sports or extracurricular activities like band or choir.

If the goal is to prevent the spread of the virus, why not test the students? It’s simple: unless a student’s parents have agreed, in writing, for their child to be tested, something which will be the case for those who sign permission slips for their kids to “participate in contact sports or extracurricular activities like band or choir,” testing students would be considered a physical assault.

If you’ve ever had a COVID test, you know what I mean: while it does not actually harm the subject, it’s a hugely uncomfortable experience that could be used to question prisoners at Guantanamo. If I had a kid in the public schools, and the school system forcibly tested him, I would soon be several million dollars wealthier.

    But Unite Here Local 634, the union that represents food service workers and some school climate staff, is not pleased by the vaccination mandate, said Nicole Hunt, president.

    “I don’t think it’s appropriate,” Hunt said. “For the School District to mandate the vaccine, people will just leave. This is the most vacancies I’ve ever seen.”

The union noted that there were 195 vacant positions in its unionized jobs, and the Inquirer noted that the school district was already short on crossing guards and school bus drivers, something we have already noted.

The Philadelphia School District stated that there were 202,944 students enrolled in the 2020-2021 academic year; the numbers hadn’t been updated for this fall at the time of this writing, and was, in fact, last updated on February 19, 2021, when the schools were almost all ‘virtual.’

Interestingly, though the 2020 census put the city’s non-Hispanic white population at 34.3%, the school district says that only 14% of the student body population are non-Hispanic white. Non-Hispanic blacks make up 38.3% of the city’s population, but 52% of the student body. The other student body percentages are fairly close to their percentage of the population, which tell us one thing: white Philadelphians don’t trust the city’s public schools and are sending their kids to private or parochial schools. We have already noted that the city zip code areas with the highest black percentage of the population have the lowest vaccination rates, meaning that it is probable that a higher percentage of the student body are unvaccinated than normal. Of course, since none of the vaccines have been approved for use in children under 12, the vaccinated percentage of the student body in kindergarten through the fifth grade must be virtually zero.

But those kids can’t be tested unless their parents approve, and even with approval, who wants to be the nurse forcing a swab up into the sinuses of a struggling second grader?

And now there’s this:

    2 weeks into the school year, COVID-19 has closed the first Philly public school

    Learning will continue during the Emlen Elementary building closure; teachers will be instructing students remotely.

    by Kristen A. Graham | Tuesday, September 14, 2021

    Two weeks into the new term, COVID-19 has temporarily closed the first Philadelphia School District building.

    Emlen Elementary, in East Mount Airy, will be shut for in-person learning until Sept. 24, officials announced in a letter sent to families. The K-5 school enrolls about 300 students, all of whom are too young to be vaccinated.

    “Due to multiple positive cases of COVID-19 in our school, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) has determined that our school building will temporarily close from 9-13-21 to 9-23-21 to help stem the spread of the virus,” principal Tammy Thomas wrote in a letter to Emlen families sent Monday. “Students and staff may not return to our school building during this time.”

    Learning will continue during the building closure; teachers will be instructing students remotely, as they did for most students for the entirety of the 2020-21 school year.

    Students who did not share a classroom with an employee or student who tested positive for COVID-19 do not need to quarantine, the letter said.

Now that’s interesting: does this mean that the school district is sharing the identities of those who have tested positive, or simply specifying classrooms?

    Schools officials are following Philadelphia Department of Public Health guidelines to make decisions about when to quarantine students, entire classes, or schools.

    Three or more cases in one classroom requires the class to quarantine; three or more classes across a grade requires a grade to quarantine; six or more cases across grades within a school within 14 days triggers temporary building closure.

    COVID-19 cases among school-aged children are rising sharply.

There’s more at the original, but I can’t be the only person who thinks it probable that we’re going to have another year in public education like the last school year.

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Pennsylvania Attorney General cuts Philly DA out of the loop

Pennsylvania state Attorney General announced that his office has charged over five dozen bad guys with carrying guns and selling drugs in West Philadelphia.

    Philly Police and state prosecutors made 65 arrests for guns and drugs in West Philly

    Those arrested face charges ranging from conspiracy to illegal gun possession and drug violations, Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office said Monday.

    By Chris Palmer | Monday, September 13, 2021

    Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday that his office has charged 65 people over the last six months with carrying guns and selling drugs in West Philadelphia as part of a new initiative with city police.

    At a news conference in the neighborhood, Shapiro cast the effort as an example of how law enforcement agencies can work together to address the city’s violence crisis. Philadelphia is on pace to record more homicides in 2021 than in any other year in its history; 372 people have already been slain this year, by far the highest year-to-date total in decades.

    “This is an important part of making a difference,” said Shapiro, flanked by residents and officials including Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw and State Sen. Anthony Williams. “Talking, finger-pointing — that ain’t enough, and that’s not going to get the job done.”

    The news conference was spare on details about those arrested. Shapiro did not name any defendants or specify what charges any were facing.

There’s more at the original, in which Mr Shapiro credited cooperation and communication between the state Attorney General’s office and the Philadelphia Police Department. What the article doesn’t say is that, by having the state prosecute what would normally be a city case, Philadelphia’s odious District Attorney Larry Krasner has been cut out of the loop, so hopefully we won’t see slap-on-the-wrist plea deals or cases dropped by George Soros’ stooge.

Danielle Outlaw, Mayor Jim Kenney’s puppet Police Commissioner was there, so Mr Kenney was involved. How much Mr Krasner was kept in the dark, we don’t yet know. He could have been fully informed, but told by the Attorney General to sit down and be quiet.