Checkpoint Cheesesteak? But, doesn’t the State Department know that we’re “el Sexto Barrio”???

In a queer bit of totalitarianism, a Cuban sex educator has been barred from travelling outside a 25 mile perimeter of New York City.  Scholar, writer, educator, and gay rights activist, Mariela Castro will not be able to visit Philly to accept an award at Equality Forum.  Isn’t it nice that America believes in freedom!  And comforting that it also believes in curtailing the activities of crazy communists who are a threat just off our shores!   Yes, the current Cuban regime is no saint and arbitrarily arrests and imprisons people, but that’s what dictatorships do and something the US would NEVER do!  We do not detain or imprison foreign nationals unless they are fairly tried and convicted of a crime…right?

“Passenger tries to pay cab fare with marijuana”

I can’t believe this guy got arrested…It’s clearly a misunderstanding as he made a good faith effort to pay his taxi fare.  But, even in the greenest city in America, the merchant did not recognize bartering.  Yes, barter has made a comeback as a recognized and sustainable form of commerce.  This passenger is clearly on the cutting edge, and his means of barter is not even considered an illegal substance by most Americans!  I think the mayor’s office of sustainability should issue an apology to this citizen who is clearly trying to be an integral part of the city’s green economy.  Even his eyes are green!

Hey, man, I thought this was a Freedom taxi…

Anthony Byrne’s Street of Hard Knox

That miserable blighter Anthony Byrne is in the news yet again.  He’s the publisher of the well-established “Irish Edition,” so that likely gives him strong local connections.  Though if he is connected, his political donations are well hidden.  The house he owns has been an eyesore for years.  But it’s really city hall that’s the ultimate bad guy here, because there is no enforcement of laws reining in slumlords and tax deadbeats.

The recently published book, “Irish Philadelphia,” (which has a foreward written by the (dis) Honorable Seamus McCaffery) has an entry waxing eloquent about Mr. Byrne.  If only our judiciary were so accommodating to neighbors whose lives are adversely affected by scofflaws  like Tony Byrne.

“D.A. told of allegations about St. Joe’s Prep teacher in 1970s”

You wonder just how many of these poor guys are still out there?  Men that were molested by creepy priests years ago.  This pervy cleric  may have spent his whole career engaging in sexual misconduct, but, oops!  you waited too long to rat him out.  Now he gets to live with his brethren in a “monitored” community in his sunset years. 

I know it was a different time when nobody would believe men of god did such things.  The allegations have just come out now in the enlightened 21st century, but it seems a shame we can’t apply modern day justice to these nefarious acts.

Fundraiser for cop that punched woman

Is it possible that there are people in this city who think it’s a BAD idea for large men to sucker punch smaller women?  Even if the puncher is a uniformed public servant and the victim is an annoying drunk?   Well, if you’re one of those hard-core Philadelphians who think it’s normal for the police to be wailing on the citizenry then you should exercise your right to PARTY!  The FOP is offering beer, food, music and mixed drinks in support of the beefy officer who simply defended himself from an out-of-control skinny lady.  I wonder if there’ll be any games…?  Anyway,  it’s just nice to know that there’s ONE place left on the East Coast where gals are taught their place.  Thank goodness it’s always 1957 in Philadelphia!

 

“Philly cops seize illegal ATVs, dirt bikes”

Nobody would ever accuse our boys in blue of being Meek, but what are they going to do with all those motorized vehicles…?

How to Destroy a Philadelphia Neighborhood: Robert’s (Coyle) Rules of Disorder!

Actually, it doesn’t seem all that difficult…  There are absentee landlords all over the tri-state area who specialize in blight in our city.  The pathetic thing is we do almost nothing about it.  Though, hopefully that’s changing with “Blight Court.”

Robert Coyle is such an egregious example of a slumlord that you couldn’t make him up.  One of his attorneys describes him as a “lunch pail, blue collar kind of guy,” which implies he’s not all that smart or savvy.  And if that’s true, how does he go from bus driver to highly leveraged real estate mogul in just a few years?  Any connections aren’t obvious and he doesn’t appear to be much of a political contributor, though he (and his son) have given to John Perzel (another upstanding citizen).

Maybe John can tell us how Polonia, a bank, ostensibly, based in Huntingdon Valley (with several branches near Pt Richmond), ended up having a 49% stake in this mess.  Does Mr. Perzel’s  connection to the bank’s president have anything to do with this?  Call me a conspiracy theorist, but do we really believe this scofflaw had no friends in local government?  Dat ain’t how Philly works…

 

[Full disclosure:  we thought Slumopoly was an original...oh, well]

Tom Corbett: Governor of Ped-sylvania?!?

There seems to be an awful lot of online chatter implying that the governor dragged out the Sandusky/PSU investigation for political reasons.

Maybe to spare his campaign contributors? Allegedly, past and present board members of the Second Mile charity are responsible for over half a million bucks in campaign contributions to Corbett’s 2010 election bid.  And Tom approved a state grant of $3 million to Second Mile just last summer (it was initiated under Rendell) in spite of the investigation.  Why such a big chunk of change to a tainted children’s charity while you’re slashing education funds for kids statewide?

And there are rumors swirling on the internet about a sex/pedophile ring that was coordinated out of the York County courthouse.  Allegedly, there are players involved who had close ties to Tom Corbett and the intimations are that Tom made no attempt to investigate any sex scandal or corruption in York, despite lots of credible information.  This included a cyber porn complaint from the chief of detectives herself…but no traction.

But, well, you know, Tom’s a Catholic man so illicit sexual activity that may involve pedophilia maybe doesn’t seem all that unusual.  What’s to investigate?  Yet, the New York Times ran a glowing article implying Tom was much more of a  crusader (and online conservative sentiment concurs) who was “shocked” by the inaction of Penn State administrators.  Can you say perhaps, disingenuous…?

Then there was that other institutional  child molestation case at the Milton Hershey school that seemed to quietly fade from the radar screen, though the sitting governor (a school trustee and fellow Catholic) would have known about it.  The  school simply, and quietly, settled the cases.

But the craziest, and perhaps creepiest,  incident potentially connected to all this is the disappearance of Ray Gricar, the Centre County DA, who some believe was pursuing the Sandusky matter, but met a bad end because of it.  Sure, that seems in the realm of conspiracy theorizing, but people almost never just disappear without a trace…well, unless they’ve been dissolved in acid or sent to a landfill or something.

Their rationalizations are Greek to me! Not exactly the PLATONIC IDEAL of public service…