Who Should We Back In The Middle East?

Now ISIS incurs the wrath of Hamas: Islamic State ransacks Syria's Yarmouk refugee camp and massacres residents - prompting vow of revenge from Palestinian fighters

After Iraqi forces take Tikrit, a wave of looting and lynchings

A Saudi-led coalition targeting Shiite rebels in Yemen has asked Pakistan to contribute soldiers

Kenya launched airstrikes against Islamic militants in Somalia following an extremist attack on a Kenyan college that killed 148 people

Saudis welcome Iran deal as path toward freeing Middle East of WMD

Netanyahu blasts Obama's Iran nuclear deal

CBS reports, "BEIRUT -- Shelling and sporadic clashes struck a Palestinian refugee camp under attack by Islamic extremists in the Syrian capital Monday... Syrian government's air force has dropped several barrel bombs on the camp since Sunday."

Iranian soldiers fighting in Tikrit?


Holy Hell, It's A Free-For-All Over There !How about this, we stay out of it till the dust settles. It's impossible to tell the good guys from the bad. With all this Arab on Arab violence I find it impossible any of them to be able unite themselves long enough to become a serious threat to The United States.

Irregardless of the partisan voices in Washington only one thing has become clear. No one knows what the hell is going on. We arm the good guys one day. The next they aren't the good guys or they vamoose like a bunch of cowards leaving the weapons we supplied behind.

Partisan hacks want to lay this at the U. S. President's feet. Yeah sure like he's able somehow to resolve disputes between these crazy ass religious tribal wars that have been going on for centuries.

I'll repeat what I said before in the most simplistic way I know how. Political borders were carved out by Western European ideologies. This isn't the way things work over there. It doesn't matter where one lives in the Middle East. What entirely 100% matters is what religious tribe one belongs to. No one's going to change that no matter how hard anyone tries to make them into a united government similar to ours.

Which is why we need to keep religion as far a possible out own political system as far as we can so we don't become screwed up like them to avoid similar divisions within. I truly believe our founding fathers were well aware of this fact. As for many of our current crop of political leaders, I'm certain they are incapable of understanding such a precept as those who founded this nation. They understood the need for religion, but also understood the separation between it and what the consequences would be if it were not.

HUH?

What is it I'm not getting?

Every religion is against killing.

Yet everyone of them does it?

We Might Poison Ourselves One Way Or Another

California, farmers rely on oil wastewater to weather the drought
By Zoë Schlanger: Newsweek

"Once a year, the Cawelo Water District is required to send data about the salt and boron content to the Central Valley Water Board, according to Clay Rodgers, the board’s assistant executive officer. But the district isn’t obligated to test for other components, like heavy metals, arsenic, radioactive materials and chemicals that might be used in the drilling process."

My Comments About The Article AboveAs if genetically modified food weren't of concern enough now we have to worry about this. Be it far that I'm an expert but it seems to me this a very bad idea. Here we are talking about building oil & gas lines all over the country. Yet no one seems to even discuss the need to build water pipelines for a far more desperate reason.. WATER. Hell, even the Romans figured out they had a need to build aqueducts.

Have we become so greedy for oil and gas nothing else matters?

Have we become so intellectually challenged that we can't grasp the concept we need water a lot more then oil & gas to sustain ourselves?

I fear the answer may be yes to both !

Homeless People Read Mean Tweets

What the homeless want you to know


Both videos are part of the 'Raising The Roof' campaign in Canada. "Since 1997, Raising the Roof has allocated close to $4 million dollars to more than 145 partner agencies across Canada working to reduce homelessness at the community level." The campaign has posted dozens of more videos in which homeless people are given a voice and a chance to answer the accusations made against them

'GoldCinemaAlbania' posted the following video. They gave a NYC homeless man pizza to see what he would do.



Here in The United States 'Volunteers Of America' works directly with the homeless. So too does 'Habitat For Humanity' and 'The U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs'. These are just three organizations among dozens of others providing means for people to help the homeless if inclined to do so.

Speaking Of Mean Tweets..
Although this post was about homelessness it follows my thoughts regarding bullying in social media on the internet as a whole. When people leave mean stuff directed at others I wish for them to give pause and ask themselves... What kind of person treats others the way themselves would not want to be treated and if so what kind of person does that make them?

They need to understand the day will come they too, having their own foibles, can be exploited and have those used against them?

If anyone still lacks empathy or understanding of my words, there's very little I could say to convince someone otherwise.


Anyone Can End Up Homeless!

"There but for the grace of God, go I"

Truth Surge Performs "Pareidolia"

Wikipedia-- "Pareidolia (/pærɨˈdoʊliə/ parr-i-DOH-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds."


Truth Surge says,. "If you dig this, consider throwing me a bone at: patreon.com/truthsurge"

If your wondering, this little ditty comes from the game "Call Of Duty: Black Ops".

In the video game 'Pareidolia' was sung by Elena Siegman and written by Kevin Sherwood.

Delaware Canal Costing Taxpayers Too Much

Lord knows I love taking the bike out and riding this canal as much as anybody, but enough is enough!

The Express-Times is reporting, "A $225,000 grant announced Wednesday will study the best course of long term maintenance for the waterway and the financial sustainability of the maintenance of the canal."

The state (us taxpayers) already spent $49 million to repair the damage done to what has become a drainage ditch between 2004 and 2011.




Even after all that money was spent according to the park manager's report issued on February 6, 2015 various parts of the towpath are still closed for repairs. "The remaining four towpath obstructions from Morrisville south to Bristol are in varying stages." The report goes on to say in 2015 "DCNR secured $12 million through the Department of General Services to address infrastructure needs along the Canal, specifically bridges and culverts." It seems to me this study should have been done long before we (taxpayers) spent over $60 million trying to patch this thing up time after time.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the hours we spent biking this canal with the grandkids. However with all so many other pressing needs Pennsylvania faces this has become a 'white elephant'.

I don't need another quarter million dollar study to tell me what should be obvious. Every time we attempt to allow water into this canal it eventually ends up damaged. There's a simple solution. Block off and divert any possibility of water getting into this thing. Anyone who has hiked or rode the towpath at Heritage Park in Reading found the same delight of doing so even though that canal bed is kept drained and dry.

So how about this. We fixed this thing one last time and prevent any water from ever getting into this thing again. Storm or no storm. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Instead of spending another quarter million dollar$ for this study apply that money to the repairs.

Then again, like everything else government does, there are those certain someones making out like bandits who want nothing more then to maintain that status quo. Logic and common sense be damned.

Allentown Parking Fees to Double?

Allentown Proposes Doubling Center City Meter Fees
And all parking meters would have to be fed until 10 p.m. six nights a week.
Randy Kraft , WFMZ

My Comments About The Article AboveI fail to see how this will encourage anyone to abandon the malls' free parking to come downtown to eat or shop.(1) There are those who will argue the mall doesn't offer free parking since it's built into their stores prices. Well unless you can find something your looking for cheaper then they it's a moot point.

(2) If I want to make a quick stop and pick up a $20 item why should I pay 10% of it's cost just to park?

(3) What are the chances of getting a parking ticket in a store's lot outside of the city?

(4) If the city were truly sincere about turning over the spaces it would be no problem at all to limit parking times (w/o meters) varying those limits depending certain key locations.
Let's face reality. This is about making money for the city.. period. It's not about customer convenience nor turning over parking spaces. Stores and homeowners are already paying taxes to maintain these streets. Anything above that is frosting on the cake for city coffers. What cities fail to take into account is how visitors feel about making the trip downtown which can turn out to be neither convenient nor less expensive. It's a simple matter of supply and demand and how we intend to market ourselves..

How About This Instead?
Let's get back to the old way of doing business.. park and shop.

Why not offer a program to store, hotel and restaurant owners allowing them to issue tokens? They could be used either for current parking on the decks or in the future for meters when customers return downtown on their next visit. This would encourage the desired deck use since visitors would be able to use the tokens right away.

Offering a swath of parking with time limits (meter free) would still allow the city to ticket anyone exceeding those limits while at the same time meeting the goal of turning over spaces. In addition this would result in the savings of not having to buy/rent or maintaining parking devices. Any revenue loses (resulting from the removal of meters) could be readily made up by charging those businesses who choose not to participate in the token program based on their business volume.

Either we can continue to follow the same old ways discouraging visitors or find a better way. One thing is for sure. Unless the city has something to offer that can't be found anywhere else people aren't going to spend one nickel more then they have to for parking.

One thing better then a 'smart meter' is to have no meter at all!


UPDATED
(04/16/2015)
Well now it's official. Allentown city council approved the measure. Starting Saturday, April 25, 2015 parking rates will double going to $2 in center city. The hours will also be extended till 10:00 PM instead of the former 6:00PM.

Neil deGrasse Tyson On UFO's

If I had a nickel for every time I said the same thing I'd be a rich man.

I always had a fascination with this subject. I've watched and read countless articles on UFO's. For me it always comes down to the same issues Neil raised. One would think with all the countless reports over centuries we'd have at least one scrap of hard evidence. A chunk of metal. A piece of cloth or flesh. Yet nada, not a single ounce of physical material. All we are left with is speculation and theories.

* As Neil said forget about human testimony. Lots of people claimed to have worked inside the government. Yet they couldn't sneak out one strand of hair, toe nail or a loose bolt from some alien craft?

* Forget about hypnosis as proof either. Hypnosis is only capable of revealing deep down what somebody truly believes to be true This doesn't make them a liar necessarily. Rather their mind is fully embedded in whatever they claimed to have experienced as being true It is even possible for unscrupulous s hypnotic practitioners to plant such seeds deep down into someone's mind. Anyone who ever attended a entertainment hypnotist's performance should have no doubt just how much a person's subconscious can made to believe all kinds of things through the power of suggestion.

* Forget the photos and videos. They are 100% useless. Digital technology allows us to manipulate frame by frame and pixel by pixel any image we wish to create.

Before the advent of this technology film makers for years could manipulate these as well through the use of double or over exposure. Every case that I know of where these were examined using today's technology these have been uncovered as photography tricks or flawed in some way.



* Then there are those conspiracy oriented individuals thinking governments are doing UFO cover-ups. Well I'm here to tell ya none of them are very good at it. A few years back 'Deep Throat' leaked information on the 'Watergate' break in at the Democrat's headquarters which further led to uncovering the Nixon tapes. More recently Julian Assange posted 10,000's of documents on his Wikileaks website. Don't forget about Ed Snowden's current handiwork blabbing to the entire world what the NSA is up to. As far as I'm concerned governments are about the worse at keeping secrets as anyone. All the leaks came from top level most trusted officials. Why then wouldn't one of the hundreds of players participating in such programs not be able to keep their yaps shut either?

Do I Believe UFO's & ET's Exist?
Even if I saw one, probably not. Not without some hard physical souvenir to take home from one of them. I once was fooled by the Goodyear blimp's advertising lights on it's underside for a few minutes after I first spotted it at night. If my mind was tricked for a few minutes by this well known common object imagine coming across something I never saw before.

In a prior post entitled Where's The Space Aliens? I made a short video asking what if we're the first beings. Despite the billions of years and stars just perhaps we are the first and only so-called intelligent species thus far.

Anyone of reasonable mind would agree with what Neil said. I take it Neil is neither a believer nor skeptic on this matter. Until someone can provide hard physical evidence which can be examined under a microscope nothing anyone says can be taken as fact. I sure would like to believe they are out there, but all my wishing and wanting it to be so doesn't make it so.

This is similar along my lines of reasoning concerning religion and all the devastation wrought by misguided beliefs. But that's a whole other can of worms best left for another day.