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The CLOG
And here it is, the felling of that great, phallic, whatever the fuck it was, for your viewing pleasure, courtesy of some guy with a YouTube account.
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And as the cloud of asbestos slowly wafted towards them, the crowd stood their ground and laughed in defiance...
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Not to be that guy or anything, but I pretty much called it: When the chips were down, TWU declined to go on strike and fuck up the city's transportation system during its moment in the sun. According to the union, this happened because Gov. Rendell threatened to yank mass transit funding if either they or SEPTA officials left the negotiating table — an empty threat if ever I heard one. (Seriously, Fast Eddie's gonna punish 1 million some-odd SEPTA commuters because authority and union leaders throw adolescent temper tantrums? Right.) But anyway. Using the gov's alleged "threat" as cover, the union backed off its nihilistic promise to plunge this city into chaos over the weekend. Now, we're told, a deal is imminent.
Good. Now, with the worst presumably behind us, let's take a look at the bigger picture. First of all, I don't really have a problem with SEPTA threatening to strike, in teh abstract anyway. I've spent most of my life in a largely non-union state, Florida, and seen what happens when there's not a strong counterbalance to either governmental or business excess. My objection, rather, was to the nature of the TWU's threat — i.e. give us our way or we'll blow up the city. Sure. SEPTA shouldn't be dragging out negotiations for six months after the last contract expired, but trying to negotiate by taking the city hostage isn't my idea of maturity, or a way to engender my respect. The problem, in this particular instance, was one of tactics.
Does TWU have a case? Probably, at least in some respects. Yeah, rising healthcare costs suck, and no one wants to see their costs rise from 1 percent to 4 percent — when my insurance kicks in (please God, let me make it to Jan. 1) I'll be paying somewhere around 7 percent of my paycheck for me and my fiancee — as SEPTA proposes for its workers. But everyone's costs have gone up, everywhere. The cost of healthcare itself is increasingly astronomically (c'mon, public option), and without asking the union to pay up, those costs get passed along to riders and state taxpayers. But, OK, fine, whatever. Same with wages. Is SEPTA being a bit heavy-handed with a two-year wage freeze? I'll admit to not knowing the severity of the authority's budget woes, but I'd imagine they can bend a bit on that. I really haven't found TWU's argument for more pension money at all convincing.
The eventual agreement will probably fall somewhere in the middle. Seems there won't be an increase in health costs, but I would imagine (or hope) that in return the union will give up its pension pipe dream, and then they'll come to a middle ground on wages (maybe 1 percent a year instead of nothing; but really, the union's demands for 4 percent per year are simply unrealistic, and I reckon they know that).
The bigger issue, for me — and this may make me a bit unpopular in these parts — is the union's ability to muddy the authority's ability to innovate. No layoffs, guaranteed? Great, until there's a crisis that demands them. Guaranteed raises, no matter how well or poorly someone performs? I'm much more inclined to award merit over seniority.
See, to me, unions are supposed to be a counterbalance, not an anchor. SEPTA isn't a multi-billion dollar corporation; it's a state-funded authority, with a responsibility to provide transit at reasonable costs. The union would do well to keep in mind that that is its primary mission — it's not merely a guaranteed jobs program. The union is and should be there to protect its workers from being exploited; I support that. But making unrealistic demands and then threatening to strike on the most important weekend of the year if you don't get your way isn't about protecting workers, it's about manipulating SEPTA officials' to produce maximum returns for its members, even if such returns are ultimately harmful to taxpayers and SEPTA users.
In that sense, I glad their bluff was called. Next time, negotiate like grown-ups.
[...] did more than its fair share of what Tom would surely label as union-bashing, here and here and here. In part because of an excess of spleen but mostly because they relied on traditional journalism to [...]
If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait till its free.
He who laughs last... TWU grew a pair
I think Jeff needs to go back to his bread and butter subjects that worked so well for him in Orlando: gay adoption, crazy right wingers, christian bashing, raising taxes & expanding government as the solution to the world's problems, and "praying away the gay"...c'mon Jeff - write about these things instead of some obscure union dispute at a local transportation authority.
Way 2 claim credit for repeating wut everyone else was saying and everyone else whose been around for more then 10 minutes already knew.
In a picture.
So let me get this straight, Jeffrey, you're anti-union and you don't get why newspapers do these things. Not sure your smug remark does anything to enlighten us. It's okay to ask the question, but why doesn't the City Paper do a piece on Philly.com and is it really the future of the paper? Why is it located at 16th and Market in a brand new office instead of 400 N. Broad Street. Perhaps, like Philly.com, you just want to make the fast, sarcastic quip without bothering to actually do your job as news editor. Bring back Doron Taussig.
Maybe newspapers are dying because people can now get for free, online, what they used to pay for via home delivery of the actual paper? Maybe it's because so many news outlets have thrown out fact based objective journalism and instead are loaded with spin & agendas? Case in point: Alan Grayson calls a female federal employee a whore, Obama praises him later in a speech as an outstanding representative, and most of the media don't give a shit.
Almost there:
That's right, kids. Almost half of Americans now support your right to get high as a motherfuckin' kite, down a bag of Doritos and watch Adult Swim. For comparison, more Americans now favor legalizing the devil's weed than oppose healthcare reform. Just saying. The real story here is the generational divide. If you're under 50, chances are you're pro-pot. If you're over 65, you're not. (The olds also oppose healthcare reform, on account of wanting to keep the gubmint out of their Medicare or whatever, but that's a discussion for another day.) In other words, stoners, be patient.
I only counted 7 cliches in that paragraph. good work.
Such language! There's no need to be profane here Mr. Billman....it's offensive.
[...] Attention potheads :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Philadelphia … [...]
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Nos. 1 and 2? Raleigh-Durham, which has lots of "researchers" and "smart people, and San Francisco, which has the braniacs who follow technology (and perpetually temperate weather). Here in Philly, TDB says: "From education to civic participation to reading habits, Philly, home to the University of Pennsylvania, scored well across the board."
My biggest bitch? I'm new here and all, and don't really know the city that well, but seriously — we lost to Baltimore? Baltimore? You people should be ashamed.
Incidentally, my former hometown of Orlando ranked pretty close to the bottom, which shouldn't surprise anyone who's ever lived there. In fact, the Daily Beast ranking dump on virtually every Florida burg, which gives me a lot of faith in their veracity even though I haven't the time or inclination to do a look-see on their methodology.
Billman when you think of things in terms of per capita, it makes all the difference. C'mon dude...think!
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| Ballantine, Aug. 25 |
In today's Shelf Life lit column, Justin Bauer compares four novelists who grapple with notions of identity — Boualem Sansal, Rawi Hage, Michelle Huneven and Dan Chaon — with varying success.
He particularly dug Chaon's Await Your Reply:
Chaon's characters — three sets of them, in three independent, loosely linked storylines — each willingly shuck off the lives they've been given. They get into their cars and set off to create entirely new selves, in the barrenness of the Michigan backwoods or an abandoned Great Plains motel or trekking through the Canadian tundra.
On one hand, Chaon's bleak, thrilling high-wire stories celebrate the freedom of losing yourself, even as this lack of stability opens up his narrative to weirdness and terror. But in showing the ease with which his characters cast off one identity and assume another, Chaon questions the basic existence of a single identity.
Since today feels like the kind of day we'd like to trade our identity out for someone else's (maybe someone who has Phils playoff tickets?), we're giving away a copy to the first Clog reader who can answer the following trivia question:
At which Midwestern college does Chaon teach?
E-mail me at carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win. (Go Phils!)
CP contributor/friend of the Clog Jesse Delaney writes sharing these two T-shirt designs from excellent T-shirt site Philavania.com:
If I see someone wearing this shirt I might have to beat him down on sight.
Such is my disgust with SEPTA.
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This one, too.
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Ehrm, re: the SEPTA one, no. It does not make my blood boil. SEPTA is an average-run public transit system. No more, no less. The routes I utilize most regularly (BSL, The EL, trolleys, and the 23, 54, 5, 15, 48, 32, 27 and C buses) are rarely late (except the C. Groan.), and the fares are about average for a city of this size. With the exception of SEPTA still taking tokens and dragging their feet (kunckles?) to install MetroCard machines, and perhaps the ongoing struggle to find a balance in demand from consumers and influence from their operator union, and maybe their transfer system, for a city of 5+ million people, SEPTA seems to be doing a comparable, if not better, job than other transit authorities of the same size. Oh, you want an example? Atlanta's BART system SUUUUUUCKS. Yes, SEPTA is not Boston or DC's metro system, but it'll do just fine. p.s. I think the design is nice.
If you think SEPTA sucks, you should se other cities, especially Washington DC.
the DC metro is great if you live inside the beltway. If your outside the beltway, do not stay past 7:00pm or you will have no way home.
The shirt (and SEPTA) are pathetic. SEPTA imagines that running hybrid diesel buses makes it "green." Hogwash. Real electric trolleys can be run with 100% renewable electricity -- cities like Calgary have done this. But SEPTA refuses to run electrics on trolley lines 23, 29 and 79. This stinks. Question for SEPTA: If hybrid diesel buses are so green, then why is there a three inch wide exhaust stack on the roof?
Design is okay. I'd like to see http://twitter.com/mustloveSEPTA on a T-shirt (designed by Phillyist's _missbee).
Zoltan hits the nail right on the head. But it's Vancouver, not Calgary that has the large trackless trolley system in Canada, using a hydro-electric generating system to power it. Seattle and San Francisco also have large trackless trolley fleets, powered by a hydro-electric source.
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This week, CP got a call from a Northern Liberties resident with an unusual story. He, and about 50 other NoLibs residents, had attended a police town hall meeting on September 8. On his way out, he happened to pick up some literature that had been placed on a table by the door â in particular, three pamphlets entitled, "The Truth about Marijuana," "The Truth About Pain Killers," and "The Truth About Drugs."
The pamphlets, he says, seemed ordinary enough at first. It wasn't until he reached the end that he noticed the following tidbit:
"The first step is to understand why a person becomes trapped by drugs. In May 1969, when the international drug crisis was reaching its peak, author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard wrote: 'When a person is depressed or in pain and where he finds no physical relief from treatment, he will eventually discover for himself that drugs remove his symptoms. . ."
And this:
And for the person with a drug problem, there are also real solutions to addiction. Narconon, a drug rehabilitation program that utilizes the methods of L. Ron Hubbard, has a sucess rate of more than 75% . . .
The pamphlet, produced by a group called the Foundation for Drug-Free World (based in L.A.), it seems, was a piece of Scientologist literature.
Narconon, the group mentioned â and which has a name strikingly similar to Nar-anon, the mainstream Narcotics Anonymous organization â is, in fact, a Scientology-based drug rehab program that has caused plenty of controversey over the years.
So how did this pamphlet wind up at a police-sponsored meeting?
To find out, I called the 26th District Police headquarters and got Crime Prevention Officer Megan Fabrizio, who had attended the meeting and had herself helped arrange the materials on the table.
Officer Fabrizio said she didn't know what I was talking about, but offered to dig up the box into which they had dumped everything on the table after the meeting.
To her surprise, she found the Scientology pamphlets buried in the pile.
"I don't where they came from," said Fabrizio. "They're not mine. This is something I've never ever seen."
Anybody, Officer Fabrizio pointed out, could have left them on that table.
And so the pamphlets' origin remains a mystery.
It's always So-o-o-o much esier to criticize than to (a) clean up one's life, or (b) do something constructive for your neighborhood. Done something unselfish for your community lately? So when I see anyone crapping up the Internet complaining about ANYONE's anti-drug work, I know that I'm hearing the sputterings of (a) druggies and (b) lazies. Oops, sorry. Those sets are 99% overlapping.
The kooky $cientologists throwing around the KKK baloney because that's all they CAN do. "Always attack, never defend" said L Ron Hubbard. He also said "I'd like to start a religion, that's where the money is". You hit the nail on the head AnonymousOwns. SHAME on $cientology for always preying upon the vulnerable. And cheers to France for prosecuting them for the fraudsters and criminals they are.
Why is it bad that a cult is spreading anti drug ideas? Look at the marijuana pamphlet, clearly states in it that marijuana is more harmful than booze. Better have Alconon too. It says that cannabis has 50+ chemicals to damage you whereas alcohol only has one ethanol. Kids are in treatment for marijuana because these children had to decide between doing some jail time or go get treatment. What would you choose? It gives the DEA and officials something lie about and create some drug epidemic in our children.
Scientologists and their many organizations have been trying to present themselves as community service-oriented in order to spread their teachings. We may reflect back on the trouble they caused during the rescue efforts after 9/11, or remember the complaints about how they drained resources after Hurricane Katrina. They use organizations such as Narconon, World Literacy Crusade, Criminon, Scientology Volunteer Ministers, and many others to gain a foothold in the community. The collection of documentation on www.xenu.net is eye-opening.
Scientologists have a history of doing things like this without asking. As Tom Cruise said in that clip, "Why ask permission? We are the authorities!" These brochures are 90% government info which is readily available, and 10% advertisement for the dangerous Narconon drug treatment program. Yes, it is a dangerous program, and a scam besides. They charge thousands of dollars, deny any link to Scientology, and utilize an unscientific, potentially hazardous mix of toxic vitamin dosage and over long sauna sessions. http://narconon-exposed.org has all the information people should see before sending their loved one to a Narconon facility. One might also search ripoffreport.com for Narconon tales of fraudulent claims and refusal to refund people's money.
Why does an alleged "church" need countless front groups that hide their true affiliation? Why do COS marketers inform prospective members that Scientology is compatible with Christianity, when you learn, after paying $400,000.00, that Jesus is a hologram projected by Xenu, the galactic overlord. Why do so many people in this world feel compelled to lie and cheat to make money, rather than producing something that will help people?
Actually, rather than go through the beaucoup stuff at xenu.net, check out the incredible reporting that the St. Petersburg Times actually got to publish earlier this year , having watched for 30 years as the CoS take over a huge swath of central Florida. They finally got a bunch of former bigwigs in the Church to talk, and suddenly a lot more victims would go on the record.....
Thanks for reporting on this, Isaiah. The most important thing that can be done to battle this sort of scam-cult is to expose them and what they're doing. I've linked to this story from my blog, Good Reason News.
I wonder if the information in the pamphlets was accurate and if it was presented in a way that might have discouraged use of the drugs.
This is a PR program that the Church has running to get the truth about different drugs out to kids so they never get hooked. Its actually a very good PSA campaign. IT has nothing to do with Narconon except that it does refer people there to get help. Narconon gets people off drugs and does drug lectures, this is an informational program. Don't waste you're time protesting the booklets, that won't get you far.
After reading this story the question that arises in my mind is what is so terrible about any effort by any group to disseminate literature advising against the use of harmful and illegal drugs. It would seem such an effort should be applauded not twisted into some kind of weird conspiricy theory. Common sense would dictate that one question the motives on anyone who would rail against such an obvious social betterment effort. The power of any message is based on the truth of the communication, and truth does not depend on the messenger, but rather on the message being an accurate statement that can be easily observed by the recipient as being factual and correct. Yes those Scientolgosits really have some nerve producing pamphlets advising folks that drugs destroy lives so it is better to abstain. And to think that their Volunteer Ministers would voluteer their own time to selflessly aid victims after such disasters as 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, can you imagine anyone being so brazen as to actually help do something to help restore order after a disaster even if that something is as minor as passing out bottled water to thirsty victims? All I know is when your thirsty and desperate even those small gestures mean a lot. The easist thing in the world to do is criticise others, how about rolling up your sleeves and lending a hand rather than sit around complaining about those that do.
So let me get this straight; pamphlets are found on a table, so you are all freaking out? If you had found pornography or drug paraphernalia, I could see some upset, but from this? It doesn't sound like anyone did anything bad to anyone; just paranoid people over-reacting. Infiltrated.....what are they, a secret government agency? There may be a mole.....check everyone for a wire!.....lol As it happens, I have participated in one of these "front groups" and it appeared to me a lot of good was being done. People who judge things on the opinions of others really don't have much confidence, do they.....they cannot make up their own minds, just listen to the bad mouthing of others.....it is quite sad, in my mind!
Funny! I see those pamphlets all around our community and only you guys bitch about them. F-o-l-l-o-w the m-o-n-e-y! What do you bet the guys who STARTED this complaint are afraid those pamphlets will cut into their customer base!
A citizen or two apparently attended a police town hall meeting and left some literature behind and you complain that the meeting was "infiltrated?" Let me guess, the reason you are upset is because you believe in freedom of speech, right? To make the hypocrisy worse, you seem to be complaining that the citizens didn't identify themselves and ask permission, but I recognize at least two of the people commenting above as part of the rabble known as Anonymous. And you are complaining about people not introducing themselves? Go back to the basement, your mommy has lunch ready.
Why is this news? It's widely understood that Scientology is an activist organization that targets addiction. This is America, right? Why shouldn't they be allowed to distribute their propaganda?
I think the problem here is they did not ask for permission. They just threw their stuff in without asking, because they have a superiority complex. My experience with Scientology makes me believe they don't think they are accountable to anyone outside of themselves.
It's hysterical seeing all the scientologists coming out to try and twist things so they end up looking good. Too bad for them everybody can read the truth on the internet.
Yes Joan, people certainly can learn the truth on the internet: www.scientology.org . People can also learn the truth about drugs in the booklets that started this rant, or at www.drugfreeworld.org/#/home . Your problem? To quote the eloquent John Rambo: You can't handle the truth! Have a nice day.
Hey Peter J., while a fine specimen of a man, John Rambo never said that. I did it.
Sorry Colonel. I stand corrected. I'm always happy to admit a mistake.
I've talked to some of the people who have been through the Narconon program and it seemed to help them quite a bit - to where they were able to become functioning members of society without the need for chemical crutches. You who say it's nothing but a scam: what do you propose - everybody go get stoned? That's *sure* to solve some of the world's problems!
I propose getting help from an organization that isn't a front group for a cult whose ultimate aim is recruitment. I propose getting help from an organization with a much higher success rate, and isn't abusive. I propose staying as far away from anything remotely related to this nefarious cult.
Nefarious? Why does someone trying to educate others on the perils of drug addiction "nefarious?" The naysayers of good drug education are all members of Anonymius, an internet hate group. Opposed to anyone helping someone else, they spread lies and rumor. Did anyone read the brochures? Were they filled with religious dogma of any kind? Of course not. I have seen these and they are quite informative and educational. the Anonymous nuts who crawl around need to get with the times: The KKK is the place for bigots and nay-sayers. Join the right crowd. Nefarious? Please.
Narconon instruction books are the same as books you could be sold at a Church of Scientology almost word for word. They just add some pictures and make it more generic. Shame on Scientologists for taking advantage of desperate people to recruit new members into their cult.
The Truth about Drugs booklets talk about drugs and the dangers of drug abuse. you are saying this is part of Scientology doctrine? If it is, I say hurray! Someone needs to teach people about the dangers of drug abuse, maybe DJ AM and others could have benefitted. Join the KKK Anonymous. That is where you belong.
This just in: Gallop poll finds Scientology most disliked "religion" in America. I guess no one is falling for your front groups Scientology. Need help with addiction? Go to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. Their only goal is to help people recover, not indoctrinate them into a duplicitous, greedy cult. Have a nice day :)
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