Anyone who reads this blog regularly has stumbled, from time to time, into a BillyByte. Alabama transplant Billy Givens, a one-man wrecking crew, has murdered many a comment thread with his off topic tirades.In a recent post about Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, Billy huffed and puffed with five lengthy comments on topics extending from State Theatre Executive Director Shelley Brown to the evils of casino gambling. But it doesn't stop there. He also sends emails, sometimes five a day, with copies to nearly one hundred people.
I deleted a few of his comments yesterday and sent him a snotty email. This morning, Billy fired back in an epistle entitled, "Bernie O'Hare, Please Stay Off Your Bicycle, Even If Your Ass Is As Wide As You Are Tall." Then he unloaded on me and, for no particular reason, Easton's college hill elite.
I know you're running away from me, but you're not going to be able to hide forever.Like Joe Lewis, Billy is a brown bomber, but those aren't punches he's slinging.
Up here in Easton's silk-stocking neighborhood of College Hill, where I live with my blue-blooded, Brahmin neighbors like Phil Mitman, Danny Cohen, and Sandy Woodring, they have their noses stuck so far up the ass of Lafayette College that if it made an abrupt left or right turn without signaling it would break their noses.
I'm from Alabama, the home of fomer heavyweight boxing champion of the world, who used to say of his opponents in the ring: "You can get on your bicycle and run, but you can't hide."
16 comments:
The only issue that former Easton Mayor and College Hill neighbor Tom Goldsmith ever agreed on was his testimony to Northampton County Council to the effect that the county's two largest institutions, Lafayette College and the county itself had virtually destroyed the tax base of the county's seat, the City of Easton.
I would add another: the city's large, institutionalized religions, such as the Allentown Roman Catholic Diocese's St. Bernard's Parish in Easton's predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhood of Dutchtown-Gallows Hill - a subject that you well know I have written volumes: in e-mails; newsletters, many hand-scribed and hand-delivered in Downtown Easton; www.billybytes.com website articles; and now http://www.billybytes.com/blog/ postings.
The diocese sold its convent on S. 6th St. to the county, which demolished it for the new, architecturally intrusive, and unnecessary, Domestic Relations Building. This building also required the destruction of Spruce Way Park, occupying the block between S. 6th and Union streets, a charming pocket park dedicated to the neighborhood by the City of Easton and St. Bernard Parish in 1982 when Phil Mitman was the city's mayor the first go round.
The diocese also leased the parish church's parking lot at the intersection of S. 5th, Lehigh St., and Rosewood Court to the county for parking, with the result that the lot is no longer available for such religious services as christenings, weddings, and funerals.
You, and Bill White, also know that I have tried to get my message out in places like Centre Square through the amplifying end of a bullhorn - the first rented from Rob Leiser, who gave it to me after I'd finished weaaring it out, and the second, the one I use now and that so infuriates Bill White, by my loving wife (who's stood by me for more than 30 years now after three others decided they couldn't live with me) and our two loving daughters, Sarah and Fiona Parker-Givens. (Rob Leiser owns Leiser's Rentals in Forks Township. On the one still-standing wall of the outbuilding under demolition near Sullivan Trail, He draped a U.S.S.R. flag and in large, black letters, painted the authority-challenging cry, "Down with Tyrants," the red and yellow hammer and sickle and the black defiant letters a startling and stark display against the freshly white-washed wall. The Forks Township supervisors, who denied Rob's requests to expand his small business, removed the flag and the offending words. Fortunately for prosperity, this dramatic show of defiance has been preserved on the www.billybytes.com website.)
Of course, Goldsmith was a hypocrite. He aold the art deco City Hall Building at 650 Ferry St. to the county, which tore it down to make room for its juvenile prison as an accessory to the prison for adults.
By way of conclusion, I say relocate the residents of Delaware Terrace to the hundred-plus houses on College Hill owned by Lafayette College and use the $20 million HOPE VI grant for demolishing Delaware Terrace for something else; e.g., reducing taxes.
The Lafayette students and professors occupying those hundred-plus houses would have to be relocated, of course.
But there's plenty of room to accommodate them with dormitories and classrooms on the 300 acres the college owns in Forks Township.
Forks Township with its larger tax base can better afford the loss of the tax-exempt college's none-payment of taxes than can the City of Easton.
Bernie, I am relieved that you deleted Mr. Givens racial filled bigotry regarding asian women from your blog. Mr. Givens should apologize to the Asian community! There is no room in our society for racial prejudice in our society and community. I was appalled to see that comment in your blog! And Mr. Givens is running for political office?
Billy's remark was insensitive. But if I talk about it, I'll be giving it an emphasis I was hoping to avoid.
Anon 11:23,
I appreciate your moral outrage. I've known Billy for many years. He's no bigot. Quite the opposite, when you get down to it. He made a stupid and insensitive remark. When you write as much as Billy, it's bound to happen.
I did deal with it "head on," as you say. First, I deleted the post to minimize any harm. Second, I contacted Billy and let him know his remarks were insensitive.
I date a woman who happens to be Asian. Billy's pointed reference to her ethnicity or racial background would offend her. I don't refer to Billy's wife as his white wife. He should not refer to the lady I date as my Asian girlfriend. But my friend was unaware of Billy's comment until you pointed it out yourself. I had to explain, and I believe she was a little hurt. That's why I would have preferred to have dealt with it the way I did.
Bernie,
I have forwarded to you and other subscribers two e-mails from Diane Berlin, an executive board member of Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.
The earlier e-mail is definitely OT and really going to get the bowels of your overly "PC" commenters in an uproar: It describes how Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is threatening, at least by implication, that the state legislature can, if it chooses, pre-empt Philadelphia's local ordinances as regards the two gambling casinos proposed for that city.
"Pre-emption" is the same doctrine that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the A.C.L.U. lawyers as they try to overturn the illegal immigrant-related ordinances adopted by the Hazelton, Pennsylvania, governing body.
As regards the later e-mail, it is in error when it says that the changes to Pennsylvania's 1873 Constitution have been "minor" since 1901.
In fact, 1901 is when PA's legislature adopted the notorious "Ripper Act" that forced Philadelphians to build and fiance the City Hall Building that the statue of William Penn still bestrides and that removed the mayor of Pittsburg, replacing him with a "recorder" willing to bow to the demands of the corrupt political bosses in Harrisburg.
The citizens of both cities suffered under this state-imposed dictatorship until 1903, when the Act was repealed, but replaced, regrettably, with the city-classification system that still survives to this day, wreaking havoc with the ability of local governments to decide their destinies.
I have written volumes on the Ripper Act and the city-classification system, as well as on the subject of the Jefferson Reform Initative needed to overhaul the Constitution of 1873.
Hey, lets face it, Billy horns in on your blog because everybody reads it. People tried reading his, but the poundings of a man with the intellectual capacity of a babboon on a keyboard are too frenetic and incoherent to comprehend. Can't you bloggers just jam him somehow?
I can jam him, at least from this blog. But I don't want to do that.
Bernie,
I think you may have deleted my comments re Warren County's Pollution Control Financing Authority (PCFA), a subject on which is have written extensively.
I am interested because at least some of the members of the Perrucci (former Warren County Democratic Party Committee Chairman), Florio (former New Jersey Governor and Pinelands Commission Chairman), Steinhardt, and Fader law firm are also principals of or are also involved in the Sands BethWorks LLP casino-centric development in Bethlehem.
This firm is also involved in the Ingersoll-Rand redevelopment effort in Phillipsburg and Lopatcong Township, of which Doug Steinhardt is the mayor.
Bernie,
Here are some more poundings from the baboon: I've been trying to have you paged this a.m. but so far with no success.
I've also been trying to reach John Morganelli. As you know, John has had no critic more severe than I, especially on the casino gambling issue, and even on the illegal immigration issue, though less so.
But after seeing nothing on WFMZ-69 TV, and certainly not on PBS Station WLVT-39, and the headlines of today's The Morning Call and The Express-Times re the illegal immigration trial in Hazeltown, I fully support the positions of the Mayor of that small municipality and the position of Morganelli on the issue of enformcing this country's immigration laws.
Hazelton's mayor and Morganelli are forced to act for the simple reason that the Bush administration and too many Democrats like Ted Kennedy of Mass. refuse to enformce immigration laws and ICE rules and regulations.
Now before you and your commenters attack me as an anti-Hispanic rascist, let me remind you all that as an an applicant for one of the two Northampton County Council vacancies created when John Stoffa foolishly appointed Mary Ensslin and Mike Corriere to his administration, I, along with candidate Douglas Dodge, yielded my candidacy to Hispanic candidate Tim Cuevas, and to Black candidate Bruce Gilbert.
I also supported the election of two Hispanic candidates vying for seats on the Bethlehem Area School District board - over the election of a candidate who had lost his seat on the board in the previous general election.
Don't tell me the news in the "Lehigh Valley" isn't managed: The headlines in today's editions of both The Morning Call and The Express-Times are shamelessly biased against the Mayor of Hazelton, Pennsylvania.
The current Iraqi War began with its predecessor, occasioned by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the violation of that nation's sovereignty.
Yet the younger Bush and Congress refuse to enforce our immigration laws, a willful dereliction of duty that in my lexicon amounts to treason and subjects the President to impeachment.
Bernie,
I have another kudo for John Morganelli - and for Northampton County District Justice (now judge)Mike Koury - for not pursuing the prosecution of Susie Ravitz and Bernie Berg (and maybe one more citizen-patriot whose name I don't at the moment recall)for their protest against the Iraqi War at the Palmer Township post office on tax day, April 15.
Had I been available that day, I probably would have been there and arrested with them.
Again, I commend the actions of Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli and District Judge Mike Koury in the matter of the Palmer Township post office protest - as contrasted with the conduct of DA Morganilli's colleague Lehigh County Jim Martin in the case of the so-called "Dent 9," a label that recalls to my mind the "Chicago 7" of Abbie Hoffman, the late Bucks County resident and Delaware River pump foe from the Bill Kuntzler-Vietnam War era.
Abbie was the only one of the seven to remain active in public issues while his six former activists like Jerry Rubin went to Wall Street to make their personal fortunes with Michael Milken and Ivan Borsky through the floating of junk bonds like the risky derivatives known as swaptions that Northampton County, Bethlehem, and Easton have turned to out of desperation in the refinancing-refunding of their crushing deficent spending and debt.
P.S.
Add to the list of Milken and Boesky the names of the "Keating Five," including Arizona Senator John McCain, and Neil Bush, George W.'s brother, and both sons with Jeb Bush of father George Herbert Walker Bush of those involved in the Keating Savings and Loans scandals of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
How is what Billy does any different than you going on the Mcall communtuy Forums and posting coments and a link to your blog site?
LST, I've visited the MCall community forum, a truly scary place. When the paper has published stories or editorials about subjects that I've also covered, I have sometimes posted links to my own thoughts on the subject. That's why it was created. I've participated, and so have you with relevant comments and links. At least I thought they were. Billy wanders off topic and detracts from meaningful discussion.
"Billy wanders off topic and detracts from meaningful discussion."
In other news, scientists today discovered that water remains wet....
If Billy Givens ran for mayor, he'd want to use light rail so he could have a whistlestop campaign on the CrazyTrain Express.
If I were from Alabama, I wouldn't be telling people.
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