Still crazy after all these years

                                                                "Jesus was not white" While I do not think that the KKK is humorous in any way, a recent interview of a Pa. Klan leader was funny because the guy was so -- I cannot find another word for political correctness -- stupid.  This interview done by liberal radio host Alan Colmes was downright hilarious. Colmes interviewed the "Grand Dragon" of the "East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire," a group that is "affiliated" with the KKK.  What started this line of questioning was that William Walters said that his group was "Christian." What had precipitated the interview was the fact that Walters was removed from his Neighborhood Crime Watch because of his affiliation with the Klan.  Walters said the he was a "conservative Republican" and had been Grand Dragon for six years. "We do believe in law and order, and we are not a hate group," Walters t

                                                                                                Message: Stay out of Iraq! After becoming president in 1961, John F. Kennedy was faced with a problem that was left by the previous president. The CIA and the military had devised a plan to eliminate Fidel Castro from power in Cuba, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a reputable career as a general in World War II, declined to take part in it.  Unfortunately, Kennedy, who believed that eliminating Castro was a good idea, listened to the military leaders  and the CIA    who said that it was figuratively a "slam dunk." Once these expatriates reached shore, the Cuban people would rise up with them and overthrow Castro, they told the young president. This led to a debacle known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. While that was a horrible experience on every level, it taught JFK a lesson that would help him in his greatest foreign policy victory a short time later in the

Dear Pope Francis, Many Catholics are grateful that you have turned the attention of the church to the New Testament and the words of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many of your leaders in the United States wanted to focus on the negative, not the positive, in Jesus' words. My favorite passage in the New Testament is the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew, Chapter 5. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven … "  Your focus on the poor and the meek who "shall inherit the earth" has disconcerted the leaders of the church here in America. They really do not enjoy listening to these verses. They enjoy being antagonists who are not inclusive. The sermon on the mount can, interestingly enough, be found on the web page of the U.S. Conference of Bishops. However, if this was an old bible, the readers would have to eliminate the dust from those pages. They do not like this, and they virulently dislike your emphasis on Jesus as the leader of

  Will this change the dynamic with Paterno fans? A number of outlets are reporting that the report commissioned by Attorney General Kathleen Kane about the Jerry Sandusky case found no evidence that Gov. Tom Corbett, as attorney general, abused the legal process. That is good news for Corbett's campaign, but he has other problems.  First, Kane made a mistake with how she devised the report. She alleged in her campaign for attorney general in 2012 that Corbett did not assign investigators to the Sandusky case until his 2010 election as governor was assured. That was a political decision by Corbett, not a legal one. He did not abuse the legal process in doing so according to this report.  However, the report allegedly questions the pace of the process, which is a political, not a legal, argument. According to a Phila. Inquirer blog, the report is that Corbett did nothing for political gain, but "it raises questions about the pace of the case." http://mobile

                                                                 ... first in a series Intro: When I tell my students that I started college in the 1960s, they will ask some interesting questions like this: "Were you at Woodstock?" I laugh and tell them that my summers were spent working in the open hearth furnaces and in the furnaces at the wheel plant at Bethlehem Steel in Johnstown or anywhere else I could make a few bucks.  At the time of Woodstock in August, 1969, I was also coaching the Lilly Raiders football team, which went undefeated for the third consecutive season in 1969.  Woodstock was hardly on my calendar that month. All that I know about it was what I read about in articles or books.  However, I thought that maybe I should try to recollect my experience in the Sixties. Here is the first installment. Number 1 I came of age in the Sixties, but that encompassed the period from my eighth grade at St. Brigid's School in Lilly to my years at Penn

Are those small schools like Robert Morris and the college of Charleston about to lose their "Div. I" status? In truth, yes and yes. In reality, no and yes. The situation is complicated. Here is what is transpiring right now.  Colleges and universities across the country are doing something that is incomprehensible to athletes and coaches: cutting college athletic budgets. This includes eliminating sports.  What others are doing is something that is anathema to athletics: They are putting education first. Sports are decidedly extra-curricular, and while they bring in revenue, they also create intolerable situations.  Some smaller schools are cutting sports programs. For instance, in Pennsylvania, Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh announced late last year that it was cutting seven sports, and in 2010, their cross-city rival Duquesne cut four. RMU had 23 sports and an enrollment of 4,468 according to a very good story in the Post-Gazette on June 1. (URL below)

Well, the first poll of the Pa. governor's race is out, and the news from Rasmussen is not good for incumbent Tom Corbett. Pennsylvania always re-elects its governors <http://www.theus50.com/pennsylvania/governors.php>. However, Corbett, the incumbent Republican, trails Wolf by twenty points, 51-31, with Wolf winning every conceivable demographic group.  Here is the PoliticsPA story about the poll: <http://www.politicspa.com/pa-gov-rasmussen-poll-wolf-51-corbett-31/58432/>. Suffice it to say that it is Wolf's race to lose, but many things will happen between now and November. First, as much as they detest Corbett, many republicans will decide to go with him because they despise the democrats. Second, Corbett may be given a free prize if the investigation into his actions that either did or did not slow or prevent the Jerry Sandusky Penn State child-abuse investigation are released by Attorney General Kathleen Kane prior to the election.  This could