Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Today's Survey Question

Who will win the Raven's vs Steelers Game?

Score? 

PRMC

Good evening Joe. :)

I'm not usually a fan of PRMC for obvious reasons you usually cover in your blog, but I did want to let you know something I thought was wonderful they did a few minutes ago.
 
My little boy got seen a few days ago for a really bad ear infection in the ER.  The nurse and doctor that saw him were fantastic with kids and were really great.  What got me though was I just got a call from them wanting to check up on my son and make sure that he was feeling better.  The lady who called was really nice and very professional.  You could tell she was really calling with compassion not just calling to get her list of those that had been seen done.  I have never had this happen from PRMC in all my years of going there let alone for my kids.  I thought it was great they had called.  Hope this is a good sign they are going in a better direction. 

Children Missing In Princess Anne: Water rescue

There's a big water rescue going on in Princess Anne behind Wilson Landing Trailer Park. They have Divers all the way in Salisbury involved and are prepared to call Hebron and Westside. More to come......

UPDATE: We're now told all children are accounted for and the Dive Team will use this as a practice and continue searching.

A Letter To The Editor

DAILY TIMES DOES REMAKE OF LOUISE SMITH

In its article today about Louise Smith and her decision not to seek reelection, this statement appears: “She ran on a platform of lowering crime, encouraging smart growth and preserving neighborhoods.”

Apparently the writer did not bother to check the articles that ran during the 2007 election. Here’s an extract from a letter to the editor that we posted yesterday:

“According to a front page article in the Daily Times (March 9, 2007) shortly after the primary that reduced the field to 6 candidates – “Smith’s mantra is accountability. She said the city needs to be fiscally accountable and better prioritize where it spends its limited funds.” It also reported that “Smith emphasized the importance of working together on issues of affordable housing and parking” and that she was “adamantly against” the multi-million dollar TIF loan by the City to redevelop the Salisbury Mall site.

Her rhetoric made the right-wingers go ga-ga. This appeared on one such blog on the same day as the Daily Times article: “Now I know Louise a little bit because she’s one of my predecessors on the [Wicomico County Republican] Central Committee. Obviously she feels accountability is paramount, and with her background and experience I’ve no doubt she’d be quite an asset to City Council.” Shortly before the general election, Smith changed her position on the TIF deal, telling the Daily Times that she would not vote to stop it.

Boy were we fooled by Smith’s charade as a candidate and what was a brilliant campaign in which she concealed her support from developers and landlords and managed to appear closely aligned with Debbie Campbell and in support of the same positions that she held on many matters. Many voters thought that there was a ticket of sorts with Smith, Cohen and Tim Spies – and some who supported the other two worked and voted for Smith. That won’t happen again this year.”

And then we learned the truth, as discussed in that letter:

“Almost immediately upon taking office we learned the hard way just how badly Louweasel had duped us when she spearheaded the huge property tax and budget increase requested by Tilghman (and the Charter amendment that was necessary to pass those increases) and fell out with both Ms. Campbell and Ms. Cohen to form a clique with Comegys and Shields, commonly called the “3 stooges”, who danced to Barrie’s tune until the 2009 election. Since then she has been at odds with Ireton as well as Campbell and Cohen, and the 3 stooges have been a thorn in their sides.”

Hedgecock: Gettin' Fat, Gamblin', And Cruisin' On Food Stamps

Poor?  Still want to eat out, gamble at the local Indian Casino, or take a Caribbean cruise? Never fear. Just sign up for Food Stamps.

Here's how it works.

Matching hungry Depression-era Americans with farm surpluses motivated the first Federal food stamp program in the 1930s. Today, to remove the stigma of paying at the supermarket with the stamps, some 120 Million Americans get Electronic Benefit Transfer debit cards (EBT) from the renamed Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP).

Applications are pouring in every day as radio and TV ads, paid for with taxpayer funds, inform the world how to get free food.

Since the states administer the program for the Feds, individual states have gotten creative.

California, for example, calls the program CalFresh conjuring images of organic, wholesome, vegan diets for the poor, who no longer have to worry about starving and can concentrate instead on getting "medical" marijuana. California is the green state, you know -- we have even recycled our Governor.

In California, the poor can use the EBT card at the farmers' market, and the flea market, and even dine out. Under a new state law, counties can permit the use of the CalFresh EBT cards at approved restaurants.

The San Diego County program limits the EBT restaurant use to seniors, the disabled, and the homeless. The San Diego list of approved restaurants includes KFC, McDonald's, and other fast food franchises. So, at least in my home town, obesity is not such a problem that it can't be subsidized by the government.

More

Malkin: Blame Righty (A Condensed History)

I agree with President Obama. When it comes to politicizing random violence, he and his supporters have been "far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than" they do. Recognition is the first step toward reconciliation. It's time to recognize the poisonous pervasiveness of the Blame Righty meme.
 
For the past two years, Democratic officials, liberal activists and journalists have jumped to libelous conclusions about individual shooting sprees committed by mentally unstable loners with incoherent delusions all over the ideological map. The White House now pledges to swear off "pointing fingers or assigning blame." Alas, the Obama administration's political and media foot soldiers have proved themselves incapable of such restraint.
 
In April 2009, a disgruntled, unemployed loser shot and killed three Pittsburgh police officers in a horrifying bloodbath. The gunman, Richard Poplawski, was a dropout from the Marines who threw a food tray at a drill sergeant and had beaten his girlfriend. Was this deranged shooter who pulled the trigger to blame? Nope. Despite evidence that Poplawski's homicidal, racist tendencies manifested themselves years before Obama took office, lefty publications asserted that the real culprit of the spree was the "heated, apocalyptic rhetoric of the anti-Obama forces" (according to mainstream liberal Atlantic Monthly pundit Andrew Sullivan), along with Fox News and Glenn Beck (according to mainstream liberal journalist Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly online).

That same month, a sick, evil man named Jiverly Voong ambushed an immigration center in Binghamton, N.Y. Recently fired from his job, Voong murdered 13 people, critically wounded four others and then committed suicide. The instant psychologists of the left knew nothing about the disgruntled man of Vietnamese descent and undetermined political affiliation. But within hours of the shooting, liberal mega-website Huffington Post commenters had overwhelmingly convicted GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, the National Rifle Association, Fox News, Lou Dobbs and yours truly. Liberal radio host Alan Colmes pointed his finger at the "huge anti-immigrant backlash in this country" -- never mind that tens of millions of legal immigrants and naturalized citizens have coped with hardship, overcome racism and embraced assimilation without going bloody bonkers.

In June 2009, a depraved, elderly anti-Semite named James von Brunn gunned down a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in D.C. Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent and lefty Center for American Progress think-tank fellow Matthew Yglesias immediately invoked the Obama administration's report on right-wing extremism, leading to a wider chorus of condemnations against the tea party, talk radio and the entire GOP. The truth? Von Brunn was an unstable, equal-opportunity hater and 9/11 Truther conspiracy loon who bashed Jews and Christians, George W. Bush and Fox News, and had also threatened the conservative Weekly Standard magazine.

Read more here

GOP Gears Up Again To Cut Off NPR Federal Funding

For years, Republicans have wanted to cut off federal funding for National Public Radio. They tried and failed in the 1990s, but now, with a new GOP majority in the House, they're ready to try again. It's still a long shot, but they have a fighting chance. There are two reasons House Republicans are more optimistic than before: concern over federal spending and the lingering fallout from NPR's decision to fire commentator Juan Williams.

"We're running annual deficits of over a trillion dollars," says Rep. Doug Lamborn, the Colorado Republican who has written a new bill to defund NPR. "With 500 cable TV channels, Internet on people's cell phones, satellite radio, we have so many sources of media that we don't need a government-subsidized source of media."

Lamborn introduced an NPR-defunding bill last year but couldn't get much support. That changed in October when NPR fired Williams for confessing that he sometimes gets nervous when people in Muslim garb board airplanes. "Before the Juan Williams issue came up, it really wasn't on a lot of people's radar screens," says Lamborn. "People said, 'Oh, you can't go against Big Bird.' "

The "Big Bird" argument -- that defunding public broadcasting would kill beloved programming like "Sesame Street" -- is the oldest plea in the book for defenders of government-funded media. But Lamborn's narrowly focused bill is aimed specifically at NPR, and not at all of public broadcasting.

Still, cutting off federal money just to NPR is a complicated task. There isn't any congressional appropriation that says "Funds for NPR." Instead, federal money goes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which received $420 million from the government in 2010. About $90 million of that went to public radio. The corporation gave part of that $90 million to NPR, and part of it to local public radio stations, which turned around and used the money to buy NPR programming. NPR has also gotten money from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Departments of Education and Commerce.

Read more at the Washington Examiner

Gingrich To House Republicans: Learn From My Mistakes

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) told House Republicans Friday there are many lessons to be learned from the showdown he had with then-President Clinton in 1995.

Addressing the new House GOP majority behind closed doors at their annual retreat, Gingrich said focusing on a political message is vital, sources said.

Florida freshman Rep. Allen West (R) said Gingrich, a potential presidential contender in 2012, advised the lawmakers to get ahead of the hot-button issues.

West said Gingrich told them, “Messaging, being able to be proactive, not reactive and having a long-term vision and a long-term strategy which help you to build the enabling goals and objectives to get there.”

A source in the room said Gingrich cited the 1995 budget confrontation with Clinton over a balanced budget.

Gingrich did not express regret for his dealings with Clinton, which resulted in the shutdown of the federal government. He did acknowledge, however, that Democrats won the message war and Republicans took much of the blame for the impasse.

Still, Gingrich, a former history professor, emphasized the environment for the 2011 House majority has significant differences from the GOP majority he led in 1995.

West said, “A lot of people want to say that this is much like 1994 but they didn’t have the economic crisis, they didn’t have a country that was engaged in multiple combat theatres of operation so there are some differences.”

There's more here

Holder Promises To Protect Minority Areas From Environmental Hazards

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder pledged Friday to work to protect low-income minority communities from environmental hazards.

Low-income communities have for decades borne the brunt of the country’s environmental problems. Studies show that toxic waste sites are almost always built near poor communities that often don’t have the resources to protect themselves.

In remarks commemorating Martin Luther King Day, Holder, the country’s first black attorney general, said the Justice Department will work aggressively to enforce environmental laws to protect vulnerable communities.

“This is unacceptable and it is unconscionable,” Holder said. “But through the aggressive enforcement of federal environmental laws in every community, I believe we can — and I know we must — change the status quo.”

Holder called environmental justice an important civil rights issue. “By examining environmental requirements in conjunction with our civil rights laws, I am confident that we can do a better job of assuring fairness and advancing justice,” he said.

More here

Slew Of Death Wishes Tweeted Against Sarah Palin

The Jan. 8 attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and the subsequent media focus on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's (R) opposition to Giffords's reelection in 2010 sparked a slew of death wishes against the prominent Republican on the social networking site Twitter.

Approximately 50 anti-Palin tweets were compiled in a YouTube video published Jan. 10. Most were made on Jan. 8, the day of the shooting.

The compilation leads off with one user asking on Jan. 9, “When will the crosshairs fall over a Palin? Don’t any liberals own guns and forget to take their meds? C’mon already.” The “crosshairs” was a  reference to Palin’s electoral map that featured crosshair bullseyes over districts the former governor thought conservatives could win.

Another user wrote on Jan. 8,  “I hope Sarah Palin dies an ugly death and takes her moronic hate with her.”

More

Two Liberal Journalists

Two liberal journalists:
One with honor, one without. 
William Raspberry wrote a column in 1993 blasting Rush Limbaugh as a bigot. Eleven days later, he wrote a second  column retracting the first. “Rush, I’m sorry”, he began. To his great credit, he confessed that his earlier piece had been written in ignorance. “My opinions about [Limbaugh] had come largely from other people, mostly friends [in liberal-dominated newsrooms] who think Rush is a four-letter word. They are certain he is a bigot. Is he?” To find out, Raspberry did what responsible journalists are supposed to do — base opinions when possible on first-hand observation, rather than potentially-biased hearsay. After listening to several hours of Limbaugh’s radio show, Raspberry concluded that he is no more a bigot or hatemonger than Art Buchwald.

Paul Krugman is no William Raspberry, as evidenced by his scurrilous reaction to the Arizona massacre and his relentless, often unfounded, attacks on leading conservatives. Like other progressives who subscribe the win-at-all-costs tactics of Saul Alinsky, Krugman knows that people such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are not racists, bigots or purveyors of hate. Yet, he writes just the opposite. Why would a supposedly  respectable journalist do such a dishonorable thing? Unable to sell their dream of a socialist utopia to a nation made great by free-enterprise capitalism, Krugman and his fellow Alinskyites have made an art form of attempting to frighten listeners and viewers away from talk radio and Fox News by falsely portraying conservatives like Limbaugh and Beck as morally-bereft hatemongers whose programs should be shunned by decent people.  
 ......

Krugman’s Toxic Rhetoric
January 10th, 2011 by W.W. | Iowa City
HOW did a deadly shooting spree by a disturbed young man with the typically inscrutable politics of political killers turn into a crazy referendum on the state of American political discourse?
Mere minutes after the identity of the alleged Tucson gunman hit the wires, partisans began a reprehensible scramble to out Jared Loughner as ideological kin to their political opponents. Actually, well before that time, some left-leaning opinionators began suggesting that Sarah Palin's now-infamous crosshairs map probably had something to do with the shootings. At the very least, intemperately fiery right-wing rhetoric probably had something to do with creating a cultural "climate" unusually encouraging to would-be assassins. Before anybody really knew anything, some people seemed to have become convinced that if not for the heavy weather of partisan antagonism summoned by intemperate tea-party types, Gabrielle Giffords would not have got a bullet through the brain.

In a blog item on Saturday, before any significant details about Mr Loughner's motivations had come to light, Paul Krugman wrote:
You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.

This struck me as irresponsibly premature, and one might have thought that, given a little more time and information, Mr Krugman would change his tune, or at least turn down the volume. Nope. In today's column on America's alleged "climate of hate", Mr Krugman reports that he's been "expecting something like this atrocity to happen" since 2008, conjures in his fevered imagination a "rising tide of violence", and spots his hated political foes behind it all:
[I]t’s the saturation of our political discourse—and especially our airwaves—with eliminationist rhetoric that lies behind the rising tide of violence.

Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right.

What's more, unless the ranting right reins in the kind of talk that leaves Mr Krugman "with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach", "Saturday’s atrocity will be just the beginning." Welcome to crazytown, my friends, where it does not seem crazy to disgorge toxic, entirely evidence-free rhetoric about the mortal threat of toxic rhetoric. Does the man honestly think he's helping?

HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

Hobbies

Everyone has had a hobby sometime in his/her life. From the time we are small children throughout our lives we tend to gravitate toward accumulating something of a similar nature. By doing so, we have become a hobbyist. I guess I was born with it because my mother used to tell me that she could set me down on the living room floor with a two-quart pot full of clothes pins when I was only two. I would then separate them by style making two neat piles of each. The two styles were the kind with the spring and the kind without. From there, I don’t remember much before St. Francis. The nuns corresponded with the missionaries in Africa, and they would auction off the stamps on the letters. I thought they were very exotic, being from so far away. That began when I was ten. The following year I joined the Boy Scouts and quickly earned my coin collecting merit badge. Coin collecting became a life-long passion, and I had good advice from the older collectors in the community. Two things that always stuck with me were: 1. Always buy the guide book before you buy the collectible, and 2. Remember, you are buying the coin – not the holder. Learn to grade coins on your own. Never believe what someone else thinks. Grading coins is purely subjective, and your opinion might be different from that of the person selling the coin.
           
Always collect something because you like it. Any monetary return derived later is a plus. I always had simple rules that I followed faithfully. The first rule was to ask myself two questions. The first question was, “Do I have it?” and the second was, “ Have I ever seen it before?” If I answered “no” to these two questions, I bought it. I might find one cheaper or in better condition later, but acquiring the first one was the most important thing. The second rule was that I always pulled the price tag from the item as soon as I got it home, and I immediately forgot what I paid for it. It didn’t matter because I never intended to sell it. Acquiring the collectible was the preeminent thought in my mind.
           
I had every baseball card from my youth and kept them in pristine condition through the years. I had to learn what one year was from another because we didn’t think about that when I was young. Last year’s cards were, well, last year’s cards. I frequently bought other boys’ old cards for a small amount because they might contain a player that had retired and was not in the current issue. My cards eventually went to a dealer in Philadelphia that had been after me for years to sell them to him. I had finished the sets, and they were just sitting there. Once a collector finishes a collection, the hunt is over, and so is the joy of finding that next item.
           
I have always separated collectors into three categories. The first is the Pure Collector. He collects for the pure joy of collecting. The second is the Closet Collector. He collects, but doesn’t want anyone to know he collects. This may be due to his fears of someone robbing him. The third collector is what I call the Profile Collector. He is quick to point out the value of everything he has. Value to him is more important than rarity, and that is sad. Anyone can spend great amounts of money to impress somebody else, but that defeats the purpose of collecting. Collecting should be something at which you spend more time than money. I used to tell the younger collectors that the difference between us was that my strategy was to “seek and find”, whereas theirs was to just show up and spend.
           
 Having a hobby can provide many hours of enjoyment even when you are not acquiring anything new to your collections. My father was a passionate advocate of the game of golf. He always wanted me to take up the game. He appreciated my collecting, but he never fully understood it. I tried to explain to him that if you compared the two hobbies, his skills would erode with age, and he would never be as good as he once was. In collecting, your collections only get better with age. Collecting doesn’t need the constant practice and attention some other hobbies demand. And my hobby now is the history of Salisbury, and I love it.

Is Anyone Minding The Store At The Federal Reserve?

Lowering Of The United States Flag And Maryland State Flag To Half Staff

 Marine Lance Cpl. Maung P. Htaik

            This is to advise you that Governor Martin O’Malley has ordered the United States Flag and Maryland State Flag flown at half staff on Tuesday, January 18, 2011, from sunrise to sunset.   This is in memory of Marine Lance Cpl. Maung P. Htaik of Hagerstown, Maryland, who died January 1, 2011 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. 

-                  The Maryland State Flag is currently at half staff and will remain so until the interment of Baltimore City Police Officer William Torbit, Jr. on Wednesday,
            January 19, 2011. 

-                  The United States Flag is currently at half staff until sunset tonight per President Obama’s proclamation regarding the victims of the tragedy in Arizona.  Therefore, the United States Flag will go back to full staff today at sunset.

-                  The United States Flag should be lowered to half staff on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 from sunrise to sunset for Marine Lance Cpl. Maung P. Htaik. 

Golf Ball Hitting Steel At 150mph