Build It And They Will Come

If there's one thing I enjoy in life its being able to reflect on my past experience in business and use that experience for the good of the community.

I share that because many years ago I decided I wanted to open up a new version of Billiard Rooms, (Pool Hall) in modern communities. The main problem I faced was the public.

If you pick the right location and you build it right, it can work. Location is the key in the case of a Skate Park. A young man at last night's public hearing stated that we can all come together and find a location we can all agree upon.

So let's think about that for a minute. Things have progressed in the right direction, so far. In my honest opinion, this Skate Park needs to be in a location away from residential. I'm thinking more like Winter Place Park.

OK, I know, it's not in the City. Well, perhaps the City doesn't have the RIGHT location. Matt Maciarello stated last night that the Park needs to be designed for the future as the sport is constantly growing, he's right.

Winter Place Park may not be a skate board ride from home but if you put it on the East side of Salisbury, those who live on the West side will have a problem getting there too. So place it in an area in which parents can bring their kids to enjoy.

John Robinson's proposal is a nice gesture but it will not work. The City/County must own the property. Folks, we're this close to settling a deal. However, a property must be chosen and agreed upon. The Council likes the idea, now you have to come up with a location to make it work.

Clearly the last two choices are not suitable. Through comments I'd like to see you use this Post constructively and tell us what location you think would work best. I couldn't build a Billiard Room in a residential community. THINK, what property does the City own that could work.

Keep in mind that the County isn't ponying up ANY money for this concept. However, the County does have land. They are using the excuse that they are afraid of liability and that's a load of crap. The liability on Skate Parks is minimal, seriously. Is someone going to get hurt, absolutely, that's a given. With the proper restrictions and releases they enjoy at their own risk.

I look forward to seeing your comments. Again, let's make this positive.

Feelings

Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived:
Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others including Love.
One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink so
all repaired their boats and left.
Love was the only one who stayed -- Love wanted to persevere until the last possible moment.
When the island was almost sinking, Love decided to ask for help.
Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat.
Love said,"Richness, can you take me with you?" Richness answered, "No,
I can't. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place
here for you."
Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful
vessel, "Vanity, please help me!".
"I can't help you Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat," Vanity answered.
Sadness was close by so Love asked for help, "Sadness, let me go with
you."
"Oh...Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!"
Happiness passed by Love too, but she was so happy that she did not even
hear when Love called her!
Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come Love, I will take you." It was an elder.
Love felt so blessed and overjoyed that he even forgot to ask the elder her name.
When they arrived at dry land, the elder went her own way. Love realized
how much he owed the elder and asked Knowledge (another elder):
"Who helped me?"
"It was Time," Knowledge answered.
"Time?" asked Love. "But why did Time help me?"
Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, "Because only Time is
capable of understanding how great Love is."

Obama Up Over Romney By Seven As Negative Ads Take A Toll

President Barack Obama is up seven points over Mitt Romney among registered voters -- 52 percent to 45 percent -- in a just released CNN/ORC International poll.

The margin echoes those of other polls released in recent days, and suggests that the barrage of tough advertisement against the presumptive Republican nominee has taken a toll. As CNN notes:

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Sen. Brown Slams Costly Push To Register Welfare Recipients As Politically Motivated

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown slammed his own state for spending $275,000 on what he described as a politically motivated push to send voter registration letters to people on welfare.

According to MyFoxBoston.com, the state is spending the money to send the letters to nearly 500,000 people on welfare, in response to a suit claiming the law requires welfare recipients be offered the chance to register when they sign up.

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Obama’s Economy Hits The Dinner Table

President Obama is busy attempting to make this election about small things and ridiculous distractions, but no matter what, Americans cannot escape the harsh realities of the Obama economy. Even a trip to the grocery store has become more difficult for struggling families.

To help illustrate this, consider Julia, the fictional character created by the Obama campaign.

Let’s say Julia goes shopping. She buys the groceries she purchases regularly—produce middle-class Americans might obtain on any given trip to the store. White bread, ground beef, red apples, beans, flour, turkey, and so on.

As it happens, Julia has a receipt from just before Obama took office for the same items. Same groceries, pre-Obama. What does she find? She’s now paying higher prices. There’s been a nearly 15 percent increase since Mr. Obama took office.

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Report Finds Widespread Fraud In Taxpayer ID Program

A recently released report shows widespread tax fraud in connection with the federal government’s Individual Taxpayer Identification Number program.

The U.S. Treasury inspector general report accuses the IRS of discouraging employees from reviewing applications for the ID numbers, which are generally from non-resident workers.

The inspector general specifically said there were 154 mailing addresses that were used 1,000 or more times on applications, including 15,795 numbers assigned to a Phoenix address.

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‘Chicken Offsets’: Conservative Lawyer Creates Website Parodying Liberal Responses to Chick-fil-A

Are you sick of hearing liberals complain pointlessly about the inherent “sin” of eating at Chick-fil-A? So is Ted Frank, a lawyer who represents consumers in class action lawsuits and has a relatively conservative set of legal credentials, has set up a website called “Chicken Offsets,” a play on Al Gore’s concept of “Carbon Offsets.” On the site, Frank offers an odd deal for supporters of gay rights who also are getting withdrawal from the absence of waffle fries and spicy chicken sandwiches:

Hi! I’m Ted Frank and I love the chicken sandwiches at Chick-fil-A. But I also like my gay-married friends and don’t like the guilt of indirectly supporting Chick-fil-A’s stance on gay rights. And I know there are lots of other people in the same boat. So I’ve started ChickenOffset.com. Every time you buy a chicken-sandwich meal at Chick-fil-A, you can buy an “offset” here. You can print out the receipt and demonstrate to your friends that the money you gave for LGBT youth more than compensates for the profits you put in Chick-fil-A’s coffers. $1 gets you 1 chicken-meal offset; $6 for ten offsets. We promise to send at least 90% of the proceeds (and will almost certainly send more than that) after our minimal expenses to It Gets Better and theWilliams Institute.

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Jewish and Christian Pro-Israel Groups Slam Democratic Party for Inviting Jimmy Carter to Speak at DNC Convention…During Prime Time

Within hours of Tuesday’s announcement that former President Jimmy Carter is going to address the Democratic National Convention, Jewish groups have begun lining up to protest the Democratic Party’s move. Though the speech will be pumped into the Charlotte venue via video, supporters of Israel are aghast the former president who has spent his years out of office promoting an anti-Israel agenda is being granted a prime time slot.

While President Obama has been trying to present himself as a champion of Israel in the hopes of maintaining the Jewish majority which supported him in 2008, Carter’s inclusion conveys a starkly different message. In 2006, Carter authored the book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid which made great strides in legitimizing the “apartheid” canard against Israel, even though most visitors to Israel immediately recognize the falsehood in comparing the Jewish state – which takes security precautions to protect itself from hostile neighbors – to South Africa.

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Gun Sales Up In Va. After Buying Limit Repealed

Gun sales are up in Virginia following the repeal of the state's long-standing one-handgun-a-month law.

Firearm transactions rose by 17 percent in July compared to June, according to the Virginia Firearms Transaction Center said. The limit was lifted July 1.

Firearm transactions in July totaled about 29,000, up 29 percent from 22,547y transactions recorded in July 2011.

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Economy

Remember These?

Fed Agency Leases Luxury SUV That Violates Obama’s Fuel Efficiency Standards to Transport Obama Appointee Three Blocks

An Obama appointee leased a luxury sport utility vehicle for his agency at taxpayers’ expense that violated the administration’s own fuel efficiency standards and was used primarily to transport him three blocks to and from the office each day, a recent investigation found.

Richard Lidinsky, chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, received rides in the 2011 Chevy Tahoe to and from the office and Union Station, usually chauffeured by FMC staff whose job description did not include driving, according to a report by FMC Inspector General Adam R. Trzeckiak.

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Del. Pediatrician Accused Of Endangering Children

GEORGETOWN, Del. (AP) - A Georgetown pediatrician and his wife have been charged with recklessly endangering their two daughters, including the use of a form of discipline that police say the man called "waterboarding."

State police say 58-year-old Melvin Morse and his 40-year-old wife, Pauline Morse, were arrested Tuesday.


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Radical Muslim Cleric & Former U.S. Resident Preaches About ‘Thirst for the Blood of the Jews’ & Claims Israeli ‘Gang’ ‘Sodomized’ Egyptian Boys

Radical messages coming from figures in the Middle East are nothing new. But two recent sermons from Egyptian cleric Dr. Sallah Sultan (also spelled Salah Sultan), founder of the Ohio-based American Center for Islamic Research, are worth noting.

The messages, which, according to MEMRI, appeared on Al-Aqsa TV on July 27 and August 3, seemed to offer support to people around the world who “thirst for the blood of the Jews.”

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Iran Threatens U.S. Over Syrian Abductions By Rebels

Should any of the Iranians taken hostage by rebels in Syria be harmed, America should expect Iran’s intelligence agents to respond in kind, the Islamic regime has warned.

Forty-eight Iranians were seized Saturday in Damascus by rebels seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. Iran claims they are pilgrims, but Abdel Nasser Shemir, a rebel commander, in an interview with the news organization Al Arabiya, charged they were members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards whose confiscated documents proved as much.

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A Big Victory For The People Of Michigan

The state Supreme Court ruled at the end of last week that Michigan's Public Act 4 – also known as the Financial Managers law – will be put on the ballot for repeal this November. That law gives Republican Governor Rick Snyder unprecedented powers to take over cities he deems are in financial crisis, appoint a crony to fire all local elected officials, and then get to work breaking union contracts, slashing public spending, and selling off parts of the commons to corporate interests. Already, several cities including Flint are under the control of so-called financial managers. The effort to repeal the law hit a snag earlier this year, when the state canvassing board, on which lobbyists supporting the law sat, rejected the ballot petition over font size. The state Supreme Court has now reversed that decision, and the people of Michigan will finally have their chance to bring democracy back to the Wolverine State. Stay tuned.

Pelosi 'Swears' Spirit of Susan B. Anthony Spoke to Her in White House

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) told a recent gathering of the Women’s Political Committee that the spirits of suffragists Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul spoke to her at the White House.

Pelosi said she heard them say: “At last we have a seat at the table”.

A video recently posted on Youtube shows Pelosi speaking in May describing her first meeting with President Bush in the White House after becoming part of the Democratic House leadership.

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Draw Bridge Now Working

Private Prisons Are A Bad Deal For Taxpayers

Pay no attention to the profit-seekers; private prisons are a bad deal for taxpayers. Recently, private prison corporations like the Corrections Corporation of America have been urging states to sell them their prisons under the promise that the private sector can administer them better and cheaper. But looking at a recent study out of Arizona, these prison corporations aren't living up to their promise. According to the Tucson Citizen, private prison contracts are actually costing taxpayers $3.5 million more per year than if the state just ran their own prisons. But beyond being a bad deal economically, private for-profit prisons are bad for our freedom. By injecting the profit-motive into incarceration, then there's incentives to lock more and more Americans up. Which is why for-profit prisons use groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council – or ALEC – to lobby for stricter drug and immigration laws to throw more people in prisons, and thus collect bigger profits. This is one of many dangerous side effects to unfettered corporate capitalism.

Google Search Gets Personal Pulling Information From Your Gmail Into Results

On Wednesday, Google announced its Internet search engine would draw information from its users’ Gmail accounts on its main results page for those who opt into its pilot program.

The feature announced Wednesday marks Google’s latest attempt to deliver data that people are seeking more quickly as it tries to maintain the dominance of its lucrative Internet search engine.

Google Inc. is initially testing the feature with 1 million Gmail users who must sign up to participate. Gmail’s more than 425 million users already can search within their e-mail accounts to find something they need, such as an order from Amazon.com or an airline reservation. Now, Gmail users who join the trial will be shown a list of relevant e-mails on Google’s main search results page if the correspondence contains a word entered in a search request.

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