Thanks to a conspiracy of generous cloud cover and persistently wet soil, this June will end up being the coolest in 12 years.
The official Philadelphia temperature for the month will come in right around 71 degrees, and while that’s less than 1.5 degrees below normal, that’s a lot chillier than some recent Junes, especially last year’s.
The relative coolness has a lot to do with the frequent cloud cover, which has obscured the sun, and the rains, which have dampened the ground and blunted the sun’s energy, says Todd Miner, a meteorologist at Pennsylvania State University.
Rainfall for the month has been about 150 percent of normal, however the most-prominent June feature has been the lack of extreme heat.
As a matter of fact, my pool WAS an ice sheet last night.
Behind us is the Arctic Ocean at Oliktok Point, Alaska… i’m with a gaggle of co-workers.
The air temp was 45 degrees and water was a balmy 32. It was my third or fourth jump in.. we had six newbies.
“I think prayer is talking to God, so when I pray, I try to talk to him,” said Stoltzfoos, the pastor of Freedom Valley Worship Center in Straban Township, Adams County.
However, that principle clashed recently with a new policy of Pennsylvania’s Speaker of the House, Keith McCall, D-Carbon County.
Stoltzfoos had been invited by state Rep. Will Tallman, R-Reading Township, Adams County, to open Tuesday’s session of the House with a prayer as guest chaplain.
The pastor declined the invitation after someone on McCall’s staff told him he could not use Jesus’ name in the prayer.
“First of all, I don’t see how Jesus is denominational. The whole Christian world is called after him,” Stoltzfoos said. “I just feel like, if you want me to pray, then I have to pray to the one thing I know. I only know one God personally. I only serve one God. How do I do something that dishonors him?”
The policy — not yet three months old — requires guest chaplains to first submit their prayers in writing and then, if deemed necessary, agree to change their words to meet “nondenominational” guidelines established by McCall’s [D-PolitcalCorrectness] staff.
It is not an attempt to silence religious leaders, McCall [D-1stAmendmentHuh?] spokesman Bob Caton said, but rather an effort to prevent taxpayers from having to foot the bill of a lawsuit if someone objects to a prayer’s contents and chooses to sue the state.
A building full of lawyers and they’re afraid they’ll be sued?
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Plantiff (Frank Ricci) in the Ricci case. In essence they have upheld this firefighters complaint of REVERSE DISCRIMINATION in the promotional process!!! This is a GIGANTIC, stunning victory for hard working firefighters all across America. This opinion reaffirms that skin color shouldn’t be a factor in the promotional process when there is an otherwise level playing field.
This kind of discrimination has plagued fire and police departments for years and was a factor in a Battalion Chief case in Philly a decade ago. In nearly the same scenario the Battalion Chief’s promotional exam was held up nearly eight years due to unfounded allegations of cheating by white firefighters. For eight years no Chiefs were promoted destroying the careers of quite a few.
This is also a stunning rebuke and further evidence of Sonia Sotomayor’s lack of qualification for a seat on the High Court. In essence the majority of sitting Justices have turned back a decision she upheld. What is even more disturbing is the fact that that FOUR Justices- Ginsberg, Souter, Stevens and Breyer found merit in reverse discrimination! This is a very dangerous situation when four supposedly neutral judges consistently make their rulings based on ideology not the law. It is also a rebuke of the International Association of Firefighters who support Sonia Sotomayor against the interest of all it’s members.
How in God’s green Earth can you say that given a fair test, equal access to study material, an open competitive exam and on and on, that there is discrimination involved because some people didn’t study as hard as others? There is ZERO evidence of discrimination involved. Yet there is TONS of evidence that the plaintiff put in a superhuman effort to get promoted. What did Sonia Sotomayor see other than her hatred of white men that allowed her to make the ruling she did? Her neutrality and ability to deliver fair and impartial justice is now seriously in question.
I work with some very sharp people. I also work with some stone dopes. They come in all colors and ethnicity’s. It’s funny, the rank and file know who is worthy of promotion. When the promotional lists come out everyone knows automatically who is deserving of promotion and who the frauds are black, white or otherwise. The fire ground is the great equalizer. Either you lead from the front or you chase kinks. The men know.
My one fear now is that Personnel departments in cities across our land will make the tests so Mickey Mouse simple that everyone gets high scores and then they will use some other grading scheme (like “Random” numbers) or (”Composite scores”) whatever they are, to manipulate the lists to get who they want. These social engineers aren’t finished. They will be back. For now all we can do is savor the victory!
Congratulations to the soon to be new Lieutenants of New Haven. Stay safe and God bless!
We’ve been clearing trees on our property the past few years. A lot more sunlight is getting through — I’m not sure that is a good thing — and on the stumps we are raising a nice crop of fungus.
We don’t always stay home. Occasionally we drive around in Coal Country. Here’s a bit of what we saw this week.
Molino
Mahanoy City
Tamaqua.
Here in the glorious commonwealth the beauty is everywhere, all you have to do is look.
Today I had the opportunity to celebrate the opening of a renovated home dedicated to homeless veterans in Philadelphia. These individuals now have a place where they can get the help and guidance they need to put their lives back together.
Alex, I see the end results of the Philadelphia School District’s efforts every day when I have to review the ambulance charts from our Philly division EMTs and paramedics. Sentence structure is non-existent. Verbs are improperly conjugated. Medical terms are mangled – I’d rather read “bruised eye” than “ecchymotic orbit and maxilla” if they can’t spell it! As I tell my bosses in our NY HQ: this is why God invented Jim Beam and Old Grand Dad!
The Philly School District exists, IMN-SHO, to feed its children, warehouse them until they’re of legal age, then cut them loose and hope.
Reform will only occur when we hold the management accountable and that’ll only occur when we go to choice or for-profit systems.
The popular product pusher Billy Mays has died.
His wife found Mays — best known as the pitchman for OxiClean and star of many other TV infomercials — unconscious in their Florida home, TMZ reports.
A study to be released Monday says more than half of the working-age adults in Philadelphia lack the basic reading and arithmetic skills needed to do the majority of jobs in the city.
The study by labor economist Paul Harrington for the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board says the average Philadelphia score for reading ability is 260 out of 500. But most jobs in the city, such as health care technicians, secretaries, and security guards, require workers with higher scores, ranging from 277 to 336, he said.
“If you have low literacy, you have a labor market that doesn’t welcome you,” Harrington said.
In math, nearly two-thirds of Philadelphia’s working-age adults are at or below basic levels, the study says.
Harrington calls Philadelphia “a city of extremes,” with jobs ranging from very high to very low literacy. The result, he said, is extremes in incomes, with those with low literacy living in poverty.
I cant imagine why people in the city find themselves in this predicament.
