Category Archives: Doing the Right Thing

Raising awareness vs doing something

How about all these people trying to “raise awareness” actually DO something instead of “advocating” for someone else to do something?   Does anyone really think that there are more than 50 people in the USA who are not “aware” and need to have their “awareness raised”?  Stop “advocating” and do something positive yourself.  Go build a house for people with Habit for Humanity.  Go get a job and work and then donate the proceeds to the people who need it.  Go plant a garden (Mike Bloomberg says it is easy) and donate the food you grow to people who need it.  Go buy a gun and protect people. Go help clean up stores and property damaged by riots.  Go back to school, get an MD and help people in need with their medical needs.  Get a JD and represent these people in court.  Go to the police academy and become an officer so you can do it right. Get an accounting degree, engineering or something like that and use it to help. People need to get off their behinds and out from behind the keyboard, off instagram, Facebook, twitter etc, and actually do something instead of sitting around demanding someone else do something. 

Stop accepting that more horrendous incidents like “George Floyd” will happen, get out from behind the keyboard and do something. Stop senseless death like that by taking action, accepting the challenge and fixing things instead of expecting “someone else” to do so.

Bucknell professor wishes death on rush limbaugh

A letter to Bucknell President Bravman:

Dear President Bravman,
I am completely disgusted to read that “A professor at Bucknell University tweeted out last week that he wished death on Rush Limbaugh,”(https://www.thecollegefix.com/professor-wishes-death-on-rush-limbaugh-attacks-republicans-on-social-media/ ) particularly after insinuating that a US House of Representatives member should be hanged last year.  
First as an alumni, seeing Bucknell’s name in the context of Michael Drexler wishing death on someone in a news article that is circulated worldwide is deeply disturbing.  Does anyone, let alone a professional, want to have their alma mater brought up in such a manner?  Does Bucknell have plans to prevent such events in the future?  Do professors have any standards that they must follow, like morality clauses in professional athlete contracts, so as to avoid painting the University in a bad light?  When you see patterns of public behavior of a person wishing death on people, there should be a concern on how it reflects upon the institution and professors should, frankly, have better judgement than to do so without the need of contract terms.
A second concern is, of course, about current students and faculty at Bucknell.  If someone is publicly wishing death to at least several people, I would be concerned about their stability as it relates to on-campus violence against people with whom Drexler disagrees whether they are students, faculty, administrators, or even alumni.  What is Bucknell doing in order to promote a safe campus environment that is open to viewpoints, particularly those that are anti-fascist, anti-communist, anti-socialist,  – in short anti-authoritarian – and pro-liberty?  I am concerned that someone wishing death on people and publicly calling Professor Riley (no relation) a “white supremacist skinhead” (from the article) might be temperamentally unfit to be educating students safely.  
I have to say that during my four years at Bucknell, not only did none of my professors ever wish death upon anyone or call students or other professors names, neither did the swim coaches, administrators, staff or anyone else with whom I interacted. The head swim coach (Dick Russell)  insisted that when we went to swim meets,  both home and away, we “look neat and clean” (nice shirt, (often) ties, no scruffiness) because we were “representing Bucknell”.  Professors today should have as much sense as he did.  Which leads to my next question.

How lax are the current hiring standards that Bucknell is hiring and promoting to tenured professor people who are immature and immorally evil that they would wish death on someone in a public forum where they are associated with Bucknell?  Does Bucknell do anything to promote tolerance among faculty members and promote mental health of faculty members who are advocating violence among sitting members of Congress, calling other faculty members vile names and wishing death on public figures?
Seeing some of the anti-free speech protests on campus recently makes me concerned about the direction the University has taken, but I do commend the school for standing up for free speech such as allowing Heather Mac Donald to speak last year.
A University should be about civil discourse, not vile names, threats and the like whether or not you disagree with someone or not.
Thanks,

Clinton campaign “TO PRODUCE AN UNAWARE AND COMPLIANT CITIZENRY”

“And as I’ve mentioned, we’ve all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly.” – sent to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta by former Clinton administration official Bill Ivey on March 13, 2016.

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/3599

Charles Barkley: ‘Unintelligent’ black people are ‘brainwashed’ to hold back successful black men

“For some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you’re not a thug or an idiot, you’re not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don’t break the law, you’re not a good black person. There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don’t have success. It’s best to knock a successful black person down because they’re intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school and they’re successful … It’s just typical B.S. that goes on when you’re black, man.”

Charles Barkley said in an interview on CBS Philadelphia 94 WIP’s “Afternoons with Anthony Gargano and Rob Ellis.”

Caldwell Idaho Police don’t like being videotaped harass cyclists

Caldwell Idaho Police don’t like being videotaped and then state “You don’t have any legal rights now because right now you just broke the law,” the officer replies. The department is now investigating.

This recording is a little over two minutes, the full 20 minute recording has not been released in order to prevent the police from falsifying their reports around the video.

Philadelphia PYT displays Eagles running back LeSean McCoy’s ’20cent tip’ online. Violates Visa merchant terms?

A copy of a receipt signed by Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy with only a 20 cent tip went up on eBay Saturday morning. The bidding started at, you guessed it, 20 cents.

The real question here is, what kind of establishment decides they don’t like you, your attitude or your tip, they’ll out you online? Why would anyone patronize an establishment that does not respect the privacy and rights of their customers? Displaying your customers bill and credit card receipt online is despicable.

The real question here is an issue of the contracts between Visa/Mastercard/American Express and the establishment that is requiring you to hand over your credit card information?

Visa’s contract with the merchant seems to requiree that the receipt be deposited [1, page 12]

For example the Visa guidelines state:

Create two transaction receipts, one for the deposit and one for the balance . Write, print out, or stamp “Deposit” or “Balance,” as appropriate, on the receipt .

 

  • Keep all material containing account numbers—whether on paper or electronically—in a secure area accessible to only selected personnel . Merchants with paper receipts should be extremely careful during the storage or transfer of this sensitive information . Merchants should at all times:
    • –  Promptly provide the drafts to their acquirer .
    • –  Destroy all copies of the drafts that are not delivered to the acquirer .  [p 14]

 

It would appear that YPT Philadelphia is violating the terms of the Visa agreement.  Mastercard and American Express have similar terms.

 

Divorce is expensive. I used to joke they were going to call it ‘all the money’, but they changed it to ‘alimony’. It’s ripping your heart out through your wallet. – Robin Williams

“Divorce is expensive,” Robin Williams recently said. “I used to joke they were going to call it ‘all the money’, but they changed it to ‘alimony’. It’s ripping your heart out through your wallet.”

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistle blowers like me… Snowden

“In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistle blowers like me…We are stateless, imprisoned, and powerless…No, the Obama administration is afraid of you…an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised – and it should be.”  ~ Edward Snowden