Thursday, July 31, 2014

Cell phones and driving

In response to a recent posting on texting while driving, an alert reader from Belgium sent me a link to a video entitled “Eyes on the Road.”  Here’s the link: <https://www.youtube.com/embed/JHixeIr_6BM?rel=0&autoplay=1&iv_load_policy=>.  I’m pretty sure you can open it just by clicking the address.  I think you’ll like it as much as I did.  


And to that same reader in Belgium, I hope you like the larger font.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Yard Sale

On Saturday, Aug. 2, we are holding a massive yard sale at our house at 6495 Pohopoco Drive, Lehighton, located about 4 miles east of the entrance to Beltzville State Park.  Eight families contributed materials, and we have at least a thousand books, a horse-drawn cultivator, a wet suit, jewelry, old tools, dishes, a boogie board, a gas powered grill, rocks and minerals, maps, antiques, ephemera, a heater, and hundreds of items, many of which you will never see at any other yard sale this year.

The problem is that we had planned to set up tomorrow and start the sale at 8 a.m. on Saturday, and showers are predicted for both days.  Our rain date was Sunday, but even more rain is predicted then.  As of now, we plan to go ahead with the sale, but we do have a large number of tarps at the ready.


All the money we raise will go to keeping the Democratic Information Center up and running.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Women's Health

“Advocates Shun ‘Pro-Choice’ to Expand Message” was the headline in an article by Jackie Calmes in today’s Times.  Ms. Calmes explained that “pro-choice” refers to abortion, but that the issues facing women today are much greater.  

Since 2010 Republicans have attempted to defund Planned Parenthood.  They are still talking about repealing the Affordable Care Act, which mandates coverage for contraception, mammograms, and annual gynecological exams without co-payments.  The Act also ended insurance companies’ rating systems that charged women more then men.

Republicans used the cover of “religious freedom” to deny the birth control benefit.  Many Republicans are proposing a “personhood” amendment, that would define life as starting at conception, which would criminalize some fertility treatments.  They would, in effect, insert legislators in the examination room to tell doctors and their patients what procedures are legal or illegal.

Finally, Republicans are blocking a rise in the minimum wage which would benefit millions of women at the lower end of the pay scale.  


It’s a lot more than abortion that is at issue here.  Women’s rights are under attack across the board. 

Monday, July 28, 2014

Texting While Driving

The Center for Rural Pennsylvania recently published a county map listing the number of violations for texting while driving issued per 100,000 licensed drivers.  Five counties had no citations whatsoever—Forest, Clinton, Sullivan, Huntingdon, and Fulton.  Then came Crawford with 1.6 citations per 100,000, followed by Carbon County, with 2.  Potter County was first, with 69.3.  

Why was Carbon so low?  I can think of a number of reasons:

1.  Residents of Carbon are law abiding.  Actually, I don’t buy that one.  Just tonight the Times News reported on a woman in Mahoning Township who attacked her neighbor with a weed whacker.  While that crime may not be typical, Carbon has quite a few people who end up in court for all kinds of offenses.

2.  Carbon residents don’t have cell phones.  Again, I don’t buy that one.  While it’s true that I don’t have a cell phone, everyone else I know does.

3.  Carbon drivers are old and don’t text much.  That one makes some sense.  I don’t know what the median age of the Carbon population is, but there are a heck of a lot of old people in Carbon.  

4.  Carbon County police officers are lax about enforcing the law against texting while driving.  I have no comment on that one.


In any case, I’ll bet we are doing better in weed whacker attacks per 100,000.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Inversions

Now there’s a word I didn’t know until recently.  That’s what it is called when American companies acquire overseas companies and relocate their headquarters to lower their taxes.

President Obama has called upon Congress to act to stop the rush to inversions, and some Republicans in Congress do seem to be concerned.  The less taxes corporations pay, the higher the tax burden on the rest of us.

Of course, if companies think legislation is possible, they may try to make these deals even sooner.  Tax legislation is often made retroactive, but it is doubtful that Republicans will go for any retroactive bill.

Actually, to be honest, it is unlikely that the present Congress will pass any bill, including one to support motherhood and apple pie.


And so the rich get richer and the rest of us will pay and pay and pay.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Lentz Trail Canvass

Today Linda and I canvassed a little community called Hacklebarnie and Lentz Trail, which is an extension of Broadway in Jim Thorpe.  We also canvassed Chipmunk Trail, a very nice quiet neighborhood.   This was the toughest “turf” we have worked this summer, with long driveways and little room to park.  We stopped about 2/3rds of the way through for lunch at Gaetano’s Pizza in East Jim Thorpe, which I recommend.

Once again, every person we talked to was polite. Most were Wolf supporters.  

I do want to note that Lentz Trail, which runs past Mauch Chunk Lake, is a difficult road with fast-moving cars.  If I am ever run over canvassing, and you are at my funeral, I don’t want you to say, “He died doing what he loved.”  I don’t like canvassing that much, and I can think of many things I’d rather be doing.


What you should say is, “He died doing what he was driven to do to make Pennsylvania better.”

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Wild Creek Bee Farm

Chris Maxwell, the owner of Wild Creek Bee Farm, spoke to an audience of 30 people at a program at Kibler School this evening.  Mr. Maxwell, who raises queen bees and sells honey and honey-based cosmetics, explained the problems beekeepers are experiencing because of the widespread use of Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” corn and soybean seeds.

Bees need flowers, but wildflowers are less available.  Few farmers in this area grow hay or have meadows full of flowers.  Mr. Maxwell also noted how vulnerable milkweed plants were to herbicides, and he explained how monarch butterflies need milkweed plants to reproduce.

I would guess that most members of the audience were Republicans, but these are Republicans who live in the country.  They knows that butterflies have become scarce, that you can no longer hear whippoorwills in the evening, that bumblebees are starting to outnumber honey bees, that bats have been dying out, that barn swallows no longer swoop down to eat insects scared up by the mower.


They are also very cynical.  They believe that the big chemical companies have bought off our legislators, and small organic farmers are overwhelmed by lobbyists and campaign contributors.  They are correct.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Children at the border, Part 2

The informal rules of blogging say that you should only address one issue per posting, but I’m writing about a single issue, and that is the Central American children coming to the U.S.

First, thank you to the Times News.  It ran a thought-provoking cartoon that showed children crossing the border.  On the southern side was a tattooed gangster; on the American side was an assault rifle wielding American with the label “hate.”  

Secondly,  I got into it with two women at the Turkey Hill in Gilbert, where we buy our New York Times.  They were talking about how illegals were taking our jobs, and I said, “The ones coming across the border now are children.  We can’t just shoot them.”  The one who was buying lottery tickets said, “Whatever happened to ‘charity begins at home?’” I just walked away.


Finally, Gov. Corbett is worried that the kids coming across the border might be bringing diseases.  Sociologists refer to people who are not part of the in-group as “the other,” and one classic manifestation is to accuse them of being “unclean,” full of diseases.  I was thinking about suggesting that the kids should be provided with bells, and as they walked, be required to repeat, “Unclean, unclean.”  Then it occurred to me that the 9/12ers and Gov. Corbett might take that as a serious suggestion.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Walgreen Drugs

Walgreen Company, a company with thousands of drug stores across the U.S., recently merged with Alliance Boots, a European drug store chain.  Walgreen will be moving its corporate headquarters to Switzerland.

The reason companies such as Walgreen are doing this is because they will be paying less taxes.  The American tax rate, including state and local taxes, averages about 39%.  But wait, according to economist Robert Reich, the Government Accountability Office examined corporations headquartered in the U.S. and found they paid an average tax rate of 17% .  There are all those deductions and breaks and tax credits.

Walgreen’s PAC spent $991,030 on federal elections since the 2010 election cycle.  Dr. Reich points out that if Walgreen is now a Swiss corporation, it should not be allowed to spend one penny to influence an American election.  He is absolutely right.


Incidentally, RiteAid is still an American company.

Monday, July 21, 2014

9/12 Project Protest at KidsPeace

Let’s see if I got this right.  Children who have trekked from Central America through Mexico to the American border and are then taken to Salisbury Township by bus are met by protestors chanting “USA” and cheering when passing motorists honk their horns.  

Actually, no bus load of children came to Salisbury Township, but the 9/12 Project, assuming it would, showed up in force, evidently hoping to traumatize the children even more than they already have been.


I’m with the Pope on this one.  This is a humanitarian crisis.  These are kids.  What should we do?  Shoot them when they try to cross into the U.S.?  Surely the 9/12 group has some humanitarians who could take one or two of these kids and give them a home until their immigration hearing.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

"Pro-life" in Jim Thorpe

My canvass list said the husband of the house was Democratic; the wife was Republican.  Just my luck, the woman answered the door.  I introduced myself and started my pitch.  She stopped me with “I always vote Republican because I’m pro-life.  And I don’t vote for women because they almost always support abortion.”

I said, “Well, would you give this flyer to your husband?  She said, “No, I’ll throw it away.  Besides, he always votes the way I tell him.”

Then she said, “And I don’t like same-sex marriage either.  I don’t understand why they are allowed to marry when a majority opposes it.”  I proceeded to give her a mini-lecture on the need to preserve minority rights from majority tyranny and even brought James Madison into the conversation. I don’t think she bought it.

One of the canvassing rules is don’t argue.  Another is don’t take too much time at one house.  As I turned to leave, she said, “That woman who ran for President wasn’t too bad.”

I said, “Do you mean Hillary?”

She said, “Yes, at least she was a citizen.”


I could just scream.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Santorum advises the Republican Party

Rick Santorum says the Republican Party needs to appeal to middle class Americans.  He says this in a book he wrote entitled “Blue Collar Conservatives.”  The book, evidently, is his first step in a campaign for the presidency in 2016.

“When you make things and have a manufacturing economy, you have the opportunity to distribute wealth more equitably,” Santorum said in an interview quoted in the Allentown Morning Call.

It’s not bad analysis, but it won’t help the Republican Party.  The party is divided into two main wings—establishment and Tea Party.  The establishment Republicans are the big business types, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Wal-Mart heirs, the banks, and the Chamber of Commerce.  That wing is looking out for the already rich.  That wing doesn’t give a damn about the peons on the bottom.

The second wing is the Tea Party wing, a fanatical group of gun-toting, anti-labor, anti-immigrant, anti-Affordable Care Act, and anti-government-in-general reactionaries led by people like Sara Palin and Fox News.  That wing also doesn’t give a damn about the rest of us.


Bottom line:  the Republicans will lose big in 2016.  As for Santorum, please just go away.  You’ve had way more than your allotted 15 minutes of fame, and now you are just annoying.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Buffer Zone

You know how the Supreme Court ruled that a buffer zone around abortion clinics was a violation of free speech.  I just found out that the buffer zone forbidding protesters at the Supreme Court is far larger than the 35 foot zone around clinics.  


So much for free speech.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Christie in Iowa

Gov. Christie is in Iowa, testing the waters.  Later this month he will journey to New Hampshire.  His presidential hopes are based on polls in New Jersey, where he still has more approval than disapproval, and the idea that the average Republican voters are more moderate than Tea Party wingnuts.

Here’s what I learned about Republican primaries.   When Reagan first ran for governor of California, his opponent in the primary was the moderate Republican mayor of San Francisco, George Christopher.  Democrats were delighted when Reagan won the primary, figuring he would be easy to beat in November.  We all know, of course, that Reagan went on to win the Governor’s race and ultimately the Presidency.


What I’m saying is, as bad as Christie is, he is not Ted Cruz, not Rubio, not Scott Walker, or that weird governor of Kansas whose name I’ve blocked.  Go Christie.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Do you still like Obama?

As I was entering the Kresgeville Post Office today, a woman coming out stopped in the doorway and asked me that question.  I assume she saw the Obama bumper sticker on the tailgate of my truck.  She didn’t sound nasty, just curious and somewhat unbelieving.  I told her, “More than ever.” 

She then asked why?  I told her that millions of Americans were now getting health care who hadn’t received it before.  I said Obama had not stumbled into war in the Middle East, and I was sure that if Bush or McCain had been president, we would have.  As for the immigration crisis, I said that I didn’t think we should shoot children crossing the border.


She looked horrified at that and said, “Oh no, I’m a Christian.”  We left it there.  I said, “Nice talking to you,” and went in to mail my package.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Benghazi, Boston, and Houston

Republicans keep harping on Benghazi, where four people were killed.  In the Boston Massacre of 1770 British troops fired on civilians and killed five adults.


And then there’s the Houston massacre, in which last week a gunman killed six people, including four children and two adults.  This is such a routine event that it was published in the July 10 issue of the New York Times on page A15.  It was a small article.  No biggie.  Just another mass shooting in America.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Children at the border

On May 13, 1939, a boatload of 938 passengers, mostly German Jews, including many children, sailed from the Third Reich for Cuba.  Cuba did not admit them, so they sailed back toward Germany.  They were close enough to see the lights of Miami, and cables were sent to President Roosevelt asking for admittance to the U.S.  The refugees were denied entrance.  Luckily most were not returned to Germany.  Great Britain took in 288, the Netherlands took 181, Belgium took in 214, and France took 224.  The U.S. admitted zero.

Once again we have children at our border.  Republicans are calling for increased border security.  President Obama has also called for increased border security.  

Last week the New York Times had a front page article detailing how children as young as seven were being tortured and killed in Central America.  

I’m curious about this call for border security.  What are we planning to do with these children?  Shoot them when they try to cross the border?  Do Americans understand how desperate a parent in Guatemala  must be to allow a child to make the journey across Mexico to the American border?  


Are the right-to-life people helping these kids?  I read that people in McAllen, Texas, have stepped forward to try to help, but that isn’t enough.  Surely we can save children.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Note to Doyle Heffley

Today's Times News published an article entitled "Opera house, neighbors make peace over noise."  The article went on to explain how the management of the Opera House in Jim Thorpe and some nearby neighbors who were concerned about the noise levels had come to an understanding.

Earlier in the week, Representative Heffley had actually proposed introducing legislation to exempt historic districts from the regulations of the Liquor Control Board.  This is exactly not the way to handle a local problem--introduce legislation that applies statewide to handle a problem that is local to Jim Thorpe.

I congratulate the citizens of Jim Thorpe and the people who run the Opera House for coming to an understanding.  And my note to Rep. Heffley is that we already have too many state laws and regulations.  Local problems should be worked out at the local level.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Penn Forest Supervisors



According to an article in the July 9Times News, a citizen of Penn Forest Township complained that two supervisors, Scott Lignore and Warren Reiner, who were involved in an altercation with township employee Cindy Henning later voted to fire Henning.  The article quoted the citizen, Mr. William Miller, as asking, “How could that vote be legal?”

I don’t live in Penn Forest Township, but I’m really curious.  Was Mr. Miller correct?  Were two supervisors involved in a legal dispute with a township employee allowed to vote to dismiss that very employee?  That has to be illegal, doesn’t it?

I do know this.  It’s wrong.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Turtle on the road


Every so often something will happen that will break through my cynicism and give me hope.  

Today on the way to Lehighton near the Army Corp headquarters on Pohopoco Drive, I spotted a box turtle crossing the road in the opposite lane.  I pulled over and waved my hand to an on-coming car to slow it down.  The driver centered his car to straddle the turtle, leaving it unharmed.  I then hurried back to take the turtle off the road. 

In the meantime another pickup pulled over next to the turtle and yelled to me, “Are you going to get that?”  I said I was, and he said he had seen the turtle and turned around to move it out of the road.  He said something about my doing my good deed for the day, and I gave him a thumbs up.

I noticed he had his son with him in the passenger seat.  I thought later, that man is teaching his child well.  I feel good about the whole episode.  I’m sure the turtle does too.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Rats


Monday’s Morning Call published an article about residents of Upper Macungie who were concerned about rats in an overgrown swale.  I thought that was strange, since you seldom see rats in open fields, no matter how tall the grass.  

When I continued reading, I learned that the rats were attracted by garbage that people were illegally dumping in the area.

Last Friday when my friends Rene and Lia returned from a hike to the Wild Creek Falls, they brought back with them an abandoned styrofoam cooler they had filled with trash.  The Falls, which was in the possession of the Christman Family before Beltzville State Park was formed, is a marvelous area of rocks, rapids, hemlocks, and still deep pools.
And trash.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Name change for Sajeonogi


When my friend Rene Calvo set up my blog, I knew nothing about blogging.  What I wanted was a forum.  I had been teaching since 1966;  for over 40 years I had a built-in audience.  The students had to listen, since what I said might be on the test.  When Corbett cutbacks ended my part-time job at East Stroudsburg University, I lacked an audience.  I felt bereft.

Around the time Rene set up the blog, the term “sajeonogi” was being bandied about.  A Korean boxer of dubious ability nonetheless won his matches by sheer determination.  According to various accounts, the Korean word sajeonogi was applied to the boxer.  It meant “knocked down four times, rising up five.” 

I did not know Korean, but this appealed to me.  It didn’t matter what the right wing or the racists or the bad guys did, our side would rise up, again and again.

The problem was that few readers knew what sajeonogi meant, couldn’t pronounce it, thought it was weird.  Two weeks ago Linda’s sister pointed out that I had thousands of former students and other acquaintances who knew my name.  She told me I’d get more readers if I simply called the blog “Dr. Roy Christman’s blog.”

When Rene was here over the Fourth, we discussed this, and tonight he changed the name.  He will soon change the large font,and he would like to use a picture of me rather than the goat, but “Sajeonogi” is now “Dr. Roy Christman’s blog.”  Simple, to the point, easy to remember.

I do like the goat.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Lehighton canvass


Today Linda and I canvassed the area of Lehighton between 3rd and 6th between Coal and Ochre.  We took a lunch break at Diggity Dog on 1st Street and finished our turf about 1:30.  In all that time, and we had over 50 doors, we ran into only one really nasty person.  It was a woman who was the only Democrat in the household.

Linda asked her, “Are you really planning to vote for Corbett?”  She replied emphatically, “I’ll never vote for another Democrat,” and slammed the door.

In years of canvassing, here’s one lesson I’ve learned.  The only voters who have slammed a door in my face have been Republicans.  I have no idea what made that woman so angry, but she needs a hug.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Murrieta, California


Three busloads of immigrant women and children were met in Murrieta, California, with a large demonstration of people carrying American flags and signs that said “go home” and “Bus them to the White House.”

Demonstrators said they were concerned about disease.

The women and children, who were scheduled to be processed at a Border Patrol facility, were taken to another facility for their own protection.

So much for “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Happy Independence Day!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Section hikers


When Rene called us and said he was hiking down here from NewYork, my first question was, “What happened to your car?”  He assured me that his car was fine, but that he and his friend Lia were determined to walk from his home in New York to the Little Gap area on the Appalachian Trail.  People who hike from Georgia to Maine in one summer are called Through hikers; people who do it a piece at a time are called Section hikers.

This morning I picked them up where the trail crosses Blue Mountain Road.  It took them eleven days to get here, but they saw bears, eagles, deer, and beavers, and they ate blueberries, various edible weeds, and wintergreen, met all kinds of interesting hikers, and had a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Tomorrow they are going back to New York, but on a bus.  After hearing about their experiences and adventures, you may be wondering if I am tempted to get out there and hike. 

No.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Emerald ash borer


It was only discovered in 2002 in Windsor, Ontario, but it has now spread across an area from Iowa and Missouri to New York and Massachusetts.  Scientists estimate that the insect will kill up to 99% of American ash trees.  Since 43 native insect species rely on ash trees for food or breeding, this will also affect birds.  And the gaps in the canopy will allow invasive honeysuckle bushes to grow, creating a thicket of shrubs that will crowd out other plant species.

In The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert discusses how we are spreading invasive species like the emerald ash borer and the wooly adelgid, which kills eastern hemlocks.  We will still have an ecosystem, of course, but it won’t be the one we know, and we will lose many native species in the process.  

If you would like to see a picture of the emerald ash borer and what it does to trees, go to <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/science/earth/ash-forests-after-emerald-ash-borers-destroy-them.html?_r=0>.  And if you see one, crush it.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Supreme Court rules 5-4 that corporations can carry weapons


OK, that’s dumb, but it is not more stupid than ruling that corporations have religious rights or the right to donate to campaigns like individuals.  Corporations are creatures of government.  To rule that they have free speech rights or religious freedom rights is bizarre.  Can 2nd Amendment rights be far behind?

This Court is the worst Court since the one that ruled on “Dred Scott v. Sandford.”  I can’t think of a time when five old men did so much damage to the American constitutional system.