Morning Call columnist Paul Carpenter may be "loath to look at, or even think about, blogs," but I love them. Here's a brief tour de blog.Michael Molovinsky is getting quite a bit of feedback concerning his recent "Allentown Speak Out" Forum, in which LANTA's attempt to expand into beautiful Bicentennial Park was discussed. MM must have been pretty damn successful because the Villas are jealously impersonating him at the Topix Forum.
Allentown City Councilman Michael Donovan, who was there, has decided he can't agree to a sale of Bicentennial Park just yet. He thinks other options should be exhausted and more public participation should be sought. Donovan makes his points well, as evidenced by the slams he is taking from the Villas in the commentary to his post.
Over at Queen City Daily, Blogger Jarrett Renshaw suggests that financially distressed Allentown may want to sell this ball park so it can meet operating expenses. Kinda' makes you wonder what they'll be unloading next year. Pawlowski is obviously pitching screwballs.
Speaking of financially distressed Allentown, Pam Varkony describes King Edwin's 63,492-member "Blue Ribbon Budget Committee" as a big fat bullshit burger. She's a little more genteel about it, calling it a "smokescreen." Believe me, it's a big, fat, sloppy, greasy bullshit burger.
J. Black, just released after being waterboarded at the hoosegaw for a few days, is getting just a little fed up that black dudes are always identified as the Big, Bad Wolf in every false report that comes from a white woman. Well J, who the hell are they supposed to name, me? The cops would just laugh.
Joe Hilliard is blowin' oil because centrist Charlie Dent voted with the Democrats to support a hate-crime bill. He'll probably try to have Dent impeached or something, proving yet again just how out-of-touch the far right is from mainstream thinking.
Allentown is Nice continues to prove that Allentonians have special needs. I don't know where to begin with that dude.
Bill White, who actually used to write about local politics, apologizes for being on a "good news kick." It's probably just an allergic reaction to Ron Angle. Get ready for 1,500 American Idol and Movie Quote posts.
In the world of sports, Joe Owens offers possible replacements for Harry Kalas, but modestly excludes himself. IronPigPen continues his thorough coverage of the 'Pigs.
32 comments:
bernie, michael donovan being against the sale at this time, is good, but not good enough. a five to 2 vote selling off the park will not help future little leaguers. i asked our councilmen if they would agree to sponsor a resolution prohibiting the sale for at least six months, giving the public time for input, and they agreed to do so. too often our council does due diligence after the fact. a ball field and lanta have coexisted on that location since 1939, six months more shouldn't matter. david howells spent his adult life involved with another ball park, mountainville memorial, i believe he could be prevailed upon to save the park. first the resolution to slow the train, then let them vote against baseball if they want, but not without public knowledge.
This was funny as hell. If someone started a newspaper where each of you got a page, I'd end my subscription to the Call and switch teams. Bill White writes about kennels too, by the way, not just movie quotes.
Bill White can write about whatever he wants. Probably more people are interested in American Idol and Movie Quotes than local politics.
They probably get bored when he writes that Pawlowski is really, really, really doing a fine job even though he is operating on a completely bogus budget.
Could happen to anyone.
I'll let this piece speak for itself. It's on Bill Villa and it starts on paragraph 4. It was written by Aurélie Thiele, PhD, Lehigh University ... Re: Bill Villa
Ms. Thiele is proof that "you can fool some of the people all the time."
Bernie,
Thanks for telling us about these blogs.
Bernie -
Since you brought up Charlie Dent and a "hate crimes" bill, I'll comment about it. Although I'm generally a supporter of Charlie Dent and I don't know the specifics of the bill being voted on, I don't support "hate crimes" bills in general.
I don't understand how the murder, rape, mugging, etc. of one person should be treated any different than the murder, rape, mugging, etc. of another. ALL people should have the same protection under the law.
I generally think that "hate crimes" laws are more about pandering to minority groups than anything else. Also, and I might be wrong about this, I seldom see "hate crime laws" applied against minority defendents when the victim is white.
If someone commits a crime against a member of my family (we're white), I want the perpetrator to get as much time as someone who commits a crime against my neighbor's family (who is a minority). That's what America should be.
I'm far from a member of the far right, but I guess I'm out-of-touch as well.
Bernie,
is Ms. Thiele not real? a Villa?
It could happen to you. You could be targeted bc you are white. In other words, you can be a victim of hate, too. Racism and bias goes both ways. So I think it's good legislation. It's not designed to give minorities better treatment than you. It's designed to keep us all on an equal footing.
You're not out-of-touch. I was just looking for an excuse to give Joe Hilliard a poke. He'll poke me back.
BO,
Thanks for the shout out! But don't forget about the e-newsletter that actually got me started in the blog game, Alfonso Todd's Lehigh Valley Flavor, www.lehighvalleyflavor.piczo.com
It's been a year and he's STILL going strong and getting better and better with each issue.
Peace and 1,
- J. BLACK
www.5minutes2shine.blogspot.com
Marge has removed the last six buses, as well as the left field foul pole, from Bicentennial Park.
Bernie -
OK, if we're all on equal footing, shouldn't the penalty for the actual infraction (i.e. murder, rape, mugging, etc) be sufficient? If not, then update the penalties for those crimes.
The hate crimes laws seem to be trying to regulate thought, and maybe that's part of the problem that I have with the issue. Aside from the potential for abuse and unequal application, I think trying to regulate thought is a slippery slope to start going down.
You and I might find the thoughts of many (of groups as diverse as the Klan and the Black Panthers) offensive, but they have a right to their wrong-headed thinking.
If a non-racist commits a crime (murder, rape, mugging, etc), the penalty should be as stiff as if it was committed by a racist.
Atown-Liker,
Although I haven't commented on your blogs in some time; I still enjoy them. I love the fact that you smushed ring bologna into the little angel's, bubbles', hair. I was drinking some soda at the time I was reading it. The soda came out of nose at that point.
Please keep up the posts. I thoroughly enjoy them at your blogs.
By the way, don't throw Da' Playa the ball. I like hearing him complain.
Peace, ~~Alex
P.S. - does my beard look like my profile picture, the late Patriach Paul Cardinal Meouchi?
hate crimes legislation goes, not to thought, but intent of a crime. we already weigh intent when considering a crime: premeditation, malice, etc. if somebody conducts a crime out of hate, there is a specific intent. all the legislation does is clarify that this intent (hate) is now a consideration in the prosecution of a crime.
It isn't the thought that is persecuted; it is the action based on intent.
If we were to toss out the intent of crimes, we might as well just make all homocides uniform.
So how is the legal system able to consider the intent of homicides not considered "hate crimes" without any additional legislation, but when it comes to those considered "hate crimes" we need a new law?
I think your comment proves the argument that such legislation is inherently biased.
No. Not at all. First degree homicide require proof of a specific intent to kill. A jury must ask itself what the defendant weas thinking. Third degree murder is in the absence of this specific intent.
Hate crime is similar to murder one in that a specific intent must be demonstrated.
"is Ms. Thiele not real? a Villa?"It's a post in which she tells us how tough it is to be rich. "It takes some thick skin to live in this area when you make a decent living for yourself."It's also hard to be a LV intellectual. "I'm not going to pretend life is fun in the Valley for people who happen to take pride in being intellectuals." ... "if people at the top of the power scale care so much about looking good and people at the bottom are so bitter, maybe I'd be better off elsewhere, because here I'm well aware that I'm on my own. That's life."
She's going to write a novel about the LV. Maybe it will be in Russian.
Maybe she's Marge.
Re: Hate Crimes
If it is a separate "crime", then it would appear that we are back to criminalizing thought. Again, a slippery slope.
Regarding Doctor Thiele's blog - I'm going to ignore the part about the Villa's, I figure others will address that issue.
Focusing on a different part of the post, I have never read anything from a more self-important person in my life. Her superior intellect and integrity put us country hicks to shame. Thank God we have the beacon of light that is Doctor Thiele to lead us out of the darkness and into the light of a better existence.
I can only hope she follows through on her thought about moving away. I would be happy to drive the moving van.
The Banker
I think Aurélie Thiele has pulled her delightfully snotty blog piece on her intellectual superiority. I can get the blog entry from the link here, but you can't access it from her own blog's archives or main page. Perhaps she realized the folly of her ways.
But the Banker has much better words to describe Ms. Thiele's writing. Good lord, it must be hard to be Aurélie Thiele - surrounded by idiots in her own bubble of intellectual wonderfulness.
What kills me the most, though, is her decidely un-intellectual approach towards evaluating blogs. Why bother fact checking when a BLOG says something is true? Anyone who spent any time reading the blog in question would quickly realize that things are not really as they appear. It's just hilarious that she's telling everyone how smart she is, when she really just got snowed by the worst blogger in town. Oh well, that's what happens when you major in Russian and spend too much money on freakin' t-shirts. ;)
Is there any shame at being poor or at the bottom of a power scale? Sometimes the ones at the bottom are more content. Yet sometimes they are bitter towards people that think they are better than themselves because they have $$$ or a superior education. At the end of the day, we are all human beings.
Plus, I have never heard an intellectual call themselves intellectual.
Generally speaking about knowledge, it seems that the more I learn, the more I learn that there is still a lot that I need to learn. (And from the look at that last sentence, I need to learn better English. Run-ons stink!)
Peace, ~~Alex
Monkey Mamma,
I don't think she removed the post. After all, she has " too much integrity for the Lehigh Valley." I can still find it under the Business category, of all things.
The good doctor has also linked to the Villas. It's right up there with all the other intelligentsia.
Hilarious.
Did I mention she has a PhD from MIT? She did.
None of this is as significant as the fact that TOMORROW the recipe for the Hess's strawberry pie is being revealed by the Call, the same one you found on the Internet in five minutes. I'm taking the day off.
Has anyone asked Doctor Thiele what she thinks of Hess's Strawberry Pie? I am sure she'd be happy to tell us what we ought to think about it - after all, she is a Ph.D from MIT.
The Banker
The people with intellectual superiority leave the Lehigh Valley. You can see them every Thanksgiving and Christmas filling the restaurants and clubs to the max as they reunite with friends and family. THe dolts are left here to run the government, business and newspapers, as is evidenced both the stories on these blogs that talk about what's really going on, and the comments on blogs. Thiele should get over herself. She's stuck here just like the rest of us.
I'm on pins and needles, waiting for tomorrow's paper.
Aurélie Thiele's writings, and Valley natives' responses to them, bring to mind Paul Simon's "My Little Town":
In my little town
I grew up believing
God keeps His eye on us all
And He used to lean upon me
As I pledged allegiance to the wall
Lord I recall
My little town
Coming home after school
Flying my bike past the gates
Of the factories
My mom doing the laundry
Hanging our shirts
In the dirty breeze
And after it rains
There's a rainbow
And all of the colors are black
It's not that the colors aren't there
It's just imagination they lack
Everything's the same
Back in my little town
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town
In my little town
I never meant nothin'
I was just my fathers son
Saving my money
Dreaming of glory
Twitching like a finger
On the trigger of a gun
Leaving nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town
Repeat and fade:
Nothing but the dead and dying
Back in my little town
BO,
I read Ms. T's blog and I could actually relate, somewhat. When I first moved here from Miami, I have to honestly say, I felt the same way. I think "outsiders" look at the Lehigh Valley as a country town and the residents as country bumpkins. But once you get involved with the community, people will find that you all are in many ways "superior" to us metropolitan dwellers. I have personally found that you are all "real", in the since of being genuine and caring people who use common sense and know the meaning of survival and being a true family. These are priceless traits that can't ever be bought in upscale locales...
- Alfonso Todd
www.lehighvalleyflavor.piczo.com
Dennis, I don't know if you're a LV native or not. I am, and am proud to say that.
Doctor Thiele's post was so obnoxious, so over-the-top self-righteous, that the simple fact is she embodies all that LV natives dislike about some of the people that have moved here. For her to say over and over again how superior she is beyond ridiculous.
Is everyone like that? Thankfully no. But she is, she is taking the flack for it, and she deserves every bit of it.
Monkey Momma said it best - "...surrounded by idiots in her own bubble of intellectual
wonderfulness." What a terrible life she must have here....
She can take that sentiment back to Cambridge. And my offer stands - I'll drive the truck. I'm sure I'd have to, no doubt driving a truck is a skill not possessed by the intelligentsia. It's beneath them.
The Banker
Banker, I'm going to be discussing Dr. Thiele's self-important blog tomorrow.
Since this post ended with the focus on Dr. Thiele, which warranted its own subsequent post, I doubt if anyone will revisit this post, but if they should.....
I subscribe to both "liberal" and "conservative" magazines so my thinking doesn't get inbred. I personally do not fit neatly into either label, as it depends on the issues being discussed. Anyway, browsing through the latest "The Nation" (liberal) and there was an article arguing AGAINST the "hate crimes" bill for many of the same reasons some posters, including Bernie ("...out of touch the far right is...") criticized as being conservative.
I found this refreshing. I have always believed "hate crime" legislation (which adds a federal crime layer, thus not double jeopardy) offensive to both the first amendment, and cheapening of the value of the victims who were not in a specially designated PC category.
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