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“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.” We need our elected representatives to work closer to their homes and constituents

“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session,” is a quote attributed to both Mark Twain and Gideon Tucker, but it seems that the editors of The Philadelphia Inquirer don’t believe it, to judge by the OpEd space they gave to this gem:

Pa. House Dems are not voting for months due to a leaky roof. That’s unacceptable.

Our elected officials can’t let obstacles — including leaky roofs — stop them from doing the people’s work. While the Capitol is under renovation, there are many places where they could meet instead.

by Matthew J. Brouillette, For The Inquirer | Tuesday, December 19, 2023 | 6:00 AM EST Continue reading →

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Our oh-so-noble left simply cannot comprehend what’s happening in the Levant The Palestinians have a culture with values and motives that are simply outside of the ability of the 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' supporting left to comprehend.

The reports concerning the condition of the Israeli hostages taken on October 7th come from Jewish doctors, so naturally, the Usual Suspects and other pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas people — “people” being a term I am using loosely here — won’t believe them and will dismiss them.

Doctor who treated freed Hamas hostages describes physical, sexual and psychological abuse

By Leslie Stahl and David Morgan | Third Sunday of Advent, December 17, 2023 | 9:30 AM EST

Dr Itai Pessach. Photo via CBS News.

About 100 Israeli hostages, kidnapped during the deadly Hamas raid on Israel, have been released after more than 50 days in captivity. Dr. Itai Pessach (director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital at Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv), whose team interviewed and examined many of them, told “CBS News Sunday Morning” the freed hostages were brought to the medical center whether they wanted to come or not.“We thought they would need a buffer from that time in captivity, underground, in the dark, with very little food, with a lot of psychological stress,” he said. “We have to remember that these people have not been around since October 7.” Continue reading →

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Philadelphia: nickel-and-diming people

After fifteen years in the Keystone State, my wife and I retired back to our home in Kentucky. Pennsylvania has an individual income tax rate of 3.07%, which is a fairly low rate among those states which have income taxes. Kentucky had an individual income tax rate of 5.0%, but this has been lowered to 4.5% for tax year 2023, and again to 4.0% for 2024.

But, unlike Pennsylvania, the Bluegrass State doesn’t try to nickel-and-dime people to death for every little thing. And thus we come to this, in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A paper bag fee, new protections for building workers, and a send-off for Council President Darrell L. Clarke | Council roundup

The final meeting of Council’s four-year term included a flurry of legislation and speeches praising outgoing Council President Darrell L. Clarke.

by Sean Collins Walsh | Thursday, December 14, 2023 | 3:42 PM EST

Philadelphia City Council on Thursday approved a new 15-cent fee for consumers who need paper bags at retail stores.

Continue reading →

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The Inky tries another tactic to defend Liz Magill

This website has repeatedly noted the efforts of The Philadelphia Inquirer to paint over the abysmal failures of Presidents Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and especially Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania in their utterly and completely boneheaded testimony before a House Education Subcommittee. Well, another day, and another tactic, somewhat along the lines of a defense attorney with an obviously guilty client throwing all kinds of [insert slang term for feces here] against the wall, hoping to see something stick. Continue reading →

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The Inky’s Editorial Board have weighed in: they think that genocide of the Jews is a subject for debate

This website has expended considerable bandwidth documenting the anti-Semitism on college campuses, the University of Pennsylvania in particular, and we have noted that, following the firing resignation of Penn’s President, Liz Magill, over her idiotic testimony in Congress, The Philadelphia Inquirer has been engaged in a half-hidden support of Dr Magill’s “context dependent” testimony, calling it a defense of free speech.

The newspaper’s Editorial Board had not opined on the subject until Thursday morning, but, as I had guessed, they came out along the same lines:

Despite Magill’s departure, Penn must stay the course on free speech issues | Editorial

It is essential that the university does not allow the recent chaotic series of events to further compromise its commitment to open expression and academic inquiry.

Continue reading →

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I’ll wait for more evidence before I believe this story.

Both Riley Gaines Barker and Collin Rugg posted a story which just plain sounds fishy to me. From Mr Rugg:

REPORT: A male volleyball player apparently snuck his way into a full women’s athletic scholarship to the University of Washington after concealing his biological gender since 12

Tate Drageset has verbally committed to play on Washington’s women’s volleyball team

One problem: Drageset is a male.

Drageset is the first known biological male to receive a full athletic scholarship for a women’s sport.

According to a report by Reduxx, Drageset’s transgender identity was hidden from the public, parents and even coaches for years.

One source says suspicions were raised when Drageset was 12 and playing against 14 year old females.

Drageset’s mom Stacey appears to be a far-leftist who was convinced her son was transgender since he was a toddler and published a children’s book on gender identity.

Mrs Barker’s story is shorter, but tells us the same thing. Here was their source: Continue reading →

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Israel and the Second Amendment

Armed Israeli police, Via Dolorosa, near the fourth Station of the Cross, November 13, 2022. Photo by D R Pico, may be freely used with proper attribution.

Before the October 7th attacks, Israel had nothing like our Second Amendment. Though not a European nation, Israelis have a very much liberal European attitude toward liberty and social controls, and that includes European attitudes on gun control. The Times of Israel noted:

Gun control in Israel is relatively strict, and firearm licenses are generally only granted to those who can show a need for extra security in their line of work or daily life. Meaning, one of the key criteria for a private citizen to receive permission to own a gun is where they live.

We think of Israel as being a heavily armed nation, replete with images of soldiers carrying automatic weapons, and the near-universal military draft for men and women alike, but that’s not the case. Even in the kibbutz near the border with Gaza, most weapons were kept not in private residences, but central armories, and, hit with a surprise attack, few residents had time to arm themselves, and they were met with torture, rape, and murder. The Times of Israel, just three days after the attack, still put a loosening of gun control laws as a “right-wing” issue: Continue reading →

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The media don’t like that deep pockets donors won’t tolerate anti-Semitism! Colleges really hate the fact that they are not somehow "above" the real world, but a part of it

If the questions had been whether calling for the genocide of blacks or the killing of homosexuals, there is no way on earth that university Presidents Liz Magill of Penn, Sally Kornbluth of MIT, or Claudine Gay of Harvard would ever have said that such decisions on violations of rules or codes of conduct would ever depend on the “context” of such speech. Nor would Will Bunch of The Philadelphia Inquirer, be telling us that Dr Magill’s “ouster” at the University of Pennsylvania is an attack on free speech, but a horrible racist who just had to go. And while the newspaper’s Editorial Board have not weighed in on the subject, the selection of articles and OpEd columns in the Inky is certainly on the side of allowing open debate on a question once thought completely settled. Continue reading →

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In the end, there will be no peace without victory

Sgt Benjamin Netanyahu

So, who should determine Gaza’s future: a doddering old man who, despite being of military age while the United States was fighting in Vietnam, never wore his country’s uniform, or a combat veteran of several actions against the Arabs, serving in the Sayeret Matkal, one of Israel’s top special forces units? Who better knows Israel’s Arab enemies, a man who knows only what he’s been told by a legion of Ivy League graduates, or one who has fought them, face-to-face, and has had to deal with the Arabs for all of his adult life? From The Wall Street Journal:

In Dueling Remarks, Biden and Netanyahu Spar Over Gaza’s Future

Israel’s prime minister says he won’t allow the Palestinian Authority to take over Gaza

By David S. Cloud, Carrie Keller-Lynn, Summer Said, and Andrew Restuccia | Updated, Tuesday, December 12, 2023 | 4:09 PM EST

President Biden and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clashed Tuesday over who should govern Gaza after the war, in a remarkable public display of differences emerging between the two leaders over the conflict.

Speaking during a fundraiser in Washington, Biden made his toughest remarks since the war began about Netanyahu’s government. He suggested that its hard-line stance has prevented Netanyahu from accepting the Biden administration’s postwar plan to have the Palestinian Authority take over Gaza, and that it would also obstruct progress toward political, economic and security arrangements that could spawn a separate Palestinian state—an outcome the U.S. president sees as a long-term solution to the conflict.

If you do not subscribe to the Journal, you can read the article here. Continue reading →