9-7-2004

"County. Try Hanover Township."

I thank you for the gift, but I can't take it to the debate with me.--John Kerry told a cheering crowd as he held up a semiautomatic shotgun he was presented with during a Labor Day stop in Racine, West Virginia.

First off, what do those yucksters in West Virginia ingest through a whittled out corn cob, anyway? A presidential hopeful comes to town and you give him a friggin' shotgun? You sure gotta pretty mouf? Squeal piggy!!! Couldn't they just offer him Opal's services in the tour bus for a half hour? Yikes!

Secondly, Kerry's insipid attempt at humor was extremely lowbrow, and I think it underscores how he really feels. Very much like the unkempt lunatics that performed 'The Dance of the Semi-Pregnant Chads' stark naked in New York last week.

Thirdly, after Kerry and his Dem cohorts whipped their easily swayed and naive supporters into a barely controlled "I hate Bush" fury (He betrayed this country! He played on our fears!.) for the better part of a year, (Lie after lie after lie..) cracking reckless jokes at campaign events about shooting Bush is apprehensible, if not downright irresponsible. All it would take is for one total loser to read between the missing winks, and a hail of bullets could come raining down on some secret service types. And from what we were able to gather from the streets of New York last week, there is no shortage of deranged losers hating Bush with all of their might (?) right now.

Is Jody Foster a registered Democrat?

What is this bullspit...

...the Dems keep repeating about health care being a universal right?

Health care should not be for just the elected, the wealthy, or the connected. Health care should be a universal right for all Americans.--John Kerry at a rally in Cleveland yesterday

The elected, the wealthy, or the connected? Wait! Wait! The aloof patrician goober forgot about me. Where do I fit in? How the hell did I get health care insurance? Was I just lucky? One of Clinton's illustrious "winners of life's lottery?" Hell! I've been really lucky. I've had access to health care ever since I entered the work force. And that was back when I needed to shave only on every third day.

I don't know how many times I've heard Kevin Lynn of WILK fame repeat that we're the only industrialized country that doesn't provide universal health care. And? What should we do, go down the same unsound socialist paths that his heroes in an economically dying Europe did? Guess what' Kev? I don't give a f**k what they do in trisexual Sweden, goofy Denmark or freakin' France for that matter. Most of Europe teeters on the edge of being an economic basket case, and all that it takes to kill off most of Europe is a decent heat wave, for freaks sake. Those folks can't even afford a stupid $59 Goldstar air conditioner, or the electricity to power it. We should follow their lead? You can count me out, comrade.

Sorry folks, but just about anyone can get themselves some sort of health care plan if they really try. Try? (spoken with a trembling voice). Try? There's the part that puts a lot of folks off. Effort? Initiative? Screw that, sh*t! Just keep bitchin' about it long and hard and scratching off those instant lottery tickets. The Dems will trade yet another expensive new entitlement for the votes of the parasitic. Sooner or later.

And the Republicans will be powerless to stop them. What's the latest? They starve you. They starve your grandmama. They "cut" your kiddie's education funds. And now they seek to deny you your "universal right" to health care.

If only they could take shotguns to the debates. Heyna?

Okay. I asked for some...

...feedback after a "professional businessman" claimed in the lightly-regarded SAYSO column that this site "does nothing except bad mouth our town and city." So here's some:

Markus___consider the source. Someone has been inhaling too much home heating fuel and it aint you. Keep on keepin on.

Uh-huh.

You are a Great American Mark, like Sean Hannity would say.  I just wanted to thank you for all the great work you have done on your website.  Thank you and God Bless you and your family.

Don't mess with Bush!

Moi? A Great American? Geez 'o' whiz. Hows about, a pretty good one? Thanx, though. Back at ya.

Mark,

You have pissed me off more than once and I will even admit to posting aonymously on the blog. But you have never bashed this city that I can remember. And the people you bash are usually deserving. You do mix it up well. Dont stop.

You posted anonymously? I'm shocked.

ON LINE DUDE,

You never let the NIMRODS scare you before. I found it funny that someone would use sayso to attack you when you make it a regular point to belittle the sayso callers. Also you were proud that you blocked Griffiths petitions so what was the NIMRODS point anyway?

I think the first e-mail nailed it: Consider the source.

I even received an email in response to one I sent to a local celebrity. See if you can figure out from who?

Subject: Re: Say So Superstar

Markie,

So we now share the "Sayso" claim to fame! We are big time. Any press is good press (according to Richard Nixon, I am told). Thank you so much for the frequent mentions XXXX gets on your site. You are doing a great job entertaining us!

XXXX

Now my e-mail. Cut me some slack. I was doin' some serious beer-swillin' when I penned this.

XXXXXX Que,

    Please thank the powers that be at 'ILK for the generous donation. Our 15th annual Thompson Street block party was a resounding success thanks in great part to the organizations that donated so much to what is quicking becoming a tradition of sorts in Wilkes-Barre.

You know I listen to your show every single day through my now severely tattered Radio Shack headphones, but thanks to spinning hammer drills, 3/4 horsepower pumps and industrial-type vacuums-I rarely manage to give you a buzz. Sorry, babs. But be assured, I still luv ya more than Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!

Maybe I should quit my job, grow some serious hemp, go on welfare, read all sorts of anti-American gibberish on the internet and then call you every morning. I could identify myself as "Kurt from Wilkes-Barre." You know the routine by now. I'll hyperventilate and spew something akin to the evil military-industrial complex ordered that evil George Bush to eat my children, or something thereabouts. Critical thinking at it's leftist best.

The reason I felt compelled to send you a trendy electronic pulse at this time is this suddenly oft-repeated nonsense borne on the pages of the intellectually vapid Times Leader SAYSO mental midget magnet. The charges are as follows: XXXX (that's you) is merely the warm up act for Rush Limbaugh. I find it simultaneously amusing and somewhat disheartening that the "enlightened" folks in the "know" who jump when The New York Times, The LA TImes, ABC, CBS, NBC, or CNN says jump continue to make the mistake of accusing those of us too stupid to see the illuminating hammer & sickle through the fog of thinking we think what we do because of Rush's show.

To underestimate one's enemy is to invite a rather quick and resounding defeat. Recently, both callers, and hosts on WILK have quickly dismissed any spirited support of Dubya as being from those "knuckle-draggers," or those "droolers" who pray at Rush's electronic altar. What this suggests is that the left-leaners, the "all-knowing" folks consider themselves to be vastly intellectually superior to those "God awful!" ignorant folks. The evil Republicans. Those completely unwashed, huddled masses at the local trailer park dancing half-naked under their proudly displayed confederate flags and bragging about their monsterous collection of empty Jack Daniels bottles.

Well, I've got some breaking news for them and their borderline rabid MoveOn.org ilk. Their obvious detestation of any consenting opinions during this electon run-up is not proof that they are either correct in their opinions, or correct to hold the opposite camp in intellectual purgatory.

If hating Rush Limbaugh is one day accepted as proof of one's intellectual superiority, then I say we need to elect one Kevin Lynn as our next commander in chief. If spewing needless venom over and over and over again somehow passes as political wherewithal, then "Duke from Dallas" should be headed to D.C. come January. If repeating the latest, most bombastic internet conspiracy theory to death somehow passes as a political platform, then "Kurt from Scranton" should be knee deep in willing interns right quick. And then there's XXX. And the rest of those evil Republicans too completely stupid to think for themselves. Rushbo tells them what to think. Seanbo tells them what Rush forgot to tell them to think. And Bush tells them who to starve, or who to kill for oil. And if you believe that, which so many of you obviously do, you have my deepest sympathies, because while you readily accuse others of being mindless puppets, your well-worn strings are seriously fraying.

Someone much, much more learned than this beer-swilling rock 'n' roller once said: "Civility is the lubricant of society."

And no matter who thinks what about our current convoluted political battles, a return to even a modicum of civility would do this country a whole lotta good right now as we face one of the greatest external threats to our always taken for granted freedoms.

My point?

Republicans are people too.

                                                Luv ya XXXXX.

Markie, in the former wastelands known as Wilkes-Barre

As any nimrod should be able to determine from this exchange, some of us wear our SAYSO attacks like a badge of honor. Why? Because if we're annoying the nimrod hordes living and breeding amongst us-we must be doing something right. Heyna, or no?

Let's cover this...

...Sturdevant Street fire from the other night.

First off, this is not meant as a criticism of our fire department rank-and-file, their union reps, or our elected officials. As many of you know, I listen to my scanners from the moment I get out of bed until I head back to said bed at the end of each and every day. I have listened in while many structure fires were being fought and I also attended quite a few.

I followed that fire from 1 AM when it was toned, 'til 3:15 AM when it was 10-24ed. The original word from 911 was "Flames are showing. Possibly have an entrapment on the second floor." Right away, I'm thinking: "Yikes!" Now I knew Engine 3 and Medic 3 would be on scene real quick, but after that, all bets were off with two engines being recently put out of service and the rest of the apparatus playing musical chairs to some degree. Within eight minutes, the very first responders were on scene and had requested a second alarm. At that moment, Engine 9 rolled from North Station and arrived at the fire ground exactly nine minutes later. Sorry kiddies, but when we're talking fully involved structures and burned children-that's just too slow of a response.

Without an engine staged at HQ and without an engine staged at the now defunct NE station, we're spread a bit far and wide when a calamity actually presents itself.

Another problem. At 1:12 Medic 3 reported: "We've got this kid loaded up. We're gonna head to the LZ." Two minutes prior, Medc 3 had alerted 911 to alert a Life Flight helo, 911 responded that they'd need an engine to set-up the Life Flight LZ, and F-6 told 911: "County. Try Hanover Township." We've had structure fires much bigger than a single family dwelling before, but we never needed an outside department to man our LZ with their engine. Not that I've heard, anyway. But it gets worse.

At 1:25 AM, 911 alerted F-6 that "You have a 3 minute ETA from Hanover Engine 5 to the LZ." So, we were looking at 18 minutes just to man an LZ with an engine. And this is with a burned kid hanging in the balance. Again, correct me if I'm way off base, but this was another first for this Scanner Land junkie.

1:28 AM: "Command to County. Put in a full third alarm."

Yet, at 1:20 AM, the call went out to put the reserve engine in service with off-duty fire fighters yet to report. And then later, the second reserve engine was requested. That's another first for me. The second reserve engine??? I could go on. Despite being a slacker in college and such, I take superb notes on the fly.

The fire fighters handled this situation with their usual professionalism and I expected nothing less, but it's obvious to me that the deployment of our apparatus is not what we need it to be, which is a direct result of putting two engines out of service indefinately. And I think this situation needs to be rectified before...before we suffer a tragedy that could have and should have been averted.

Everybody wants those engines back in service. The fire fighters. The union guys. The politicos. And the residents. Especially the Nord End residents that have recently lost much more than just their local fire engine.

But still the question begs. If everyone involved wants those engines back in service, why aren't they?

I'm still awaiting that seemingly elusive answer.

Later