Most fools think they are only ignorant.-- Benjamin Franklin

If you missed the editorial in the Voice today, please check it out now.

I love it. I do. It's so true. When I taught each of my kids to drive, I kept asking them the same question, over and over, to the point of absurdity: "Wanna make everyone crazy? Then never exceed the speed limit." It really does make people crazy in a big hurry and therein lies the answer as to why there are so many motor vehicle accidents the whole year through. Everybody drives like they're trying to get a lap back on the leaders.

It's ironic that an editorial about piss-poor driving habits would appear in the back pages, while Page 3 reported that a very young woman was killed in a car wreck yesterday at the intersection of Courtright & N. Main streets. I listened to this affair on the scanner and I knew that someone was in serious trouble because it took so long to extricate the victim and get them to the waiting helo. The thing that gnawed at me was, how in the muck did we end up with a broadside collision at that interesction? It's fairly easy to follow. Red means stop. Green means go. The roadways are both straight and flat where they intersect. Why did someone have to die yesterday? Because one of those two drivers was driving as if they were down a lap to the race leaders. Plain and simple. No debate necessary.

Everybody needs to slow the hell down already. Forget the kids lives you might save while driving through our neighborhoods. Consider that the life you might save without ever even knowing about it might be your own.

I sat here early this morning with my eyeballs transfixed on the accompanying picture to the crash story. Seemingly staring back at me from that photo were the letters M-A-K-A-R on the back of a turnout jacket. I know that hose dude and I also know he's been dealing with car crashes, among other emergencies, for a very long time. I imagine he's used to this sort of thing by now, but for the life of me, I'll never understand how. I don't know how you get used to trying to save mangled people, when in the back of your mind you know the only reason they're mangled in the first place is because of someone's abject stupidity. It's all such a senseless enterprise. I can't imagine working feverishly to disect a car with someone trapped and seriously injured inside. I can't imagine enduring their cries, or moans while their clock may be quickly winding to a halt. I can't imagine wiping their sweat from their brow, or their blood from their eyes while they wail and welp. I can't imagine finally being able to tend to their wounds and then packing them into a waiting helicopter, knowing full well that I did all that I could to save their life, but it might not be enough. And I can't imagine experiencing all of that only to find out later that despite my best efforts to save that person's life, they eventually expired. I can't imagine ever being able to forget that person's face. I imagine the worst part to bear would be the knowledge that it should have never happened at all.

Please. Slow down kiddies. Chill.

I guess we're supposed to believe that mayor McTom finally realized, all on his own, that the 61 trillion leaves clogging the city needed to be removed. That's what he told the Voice yesterday. He claimed that he made a "similar suggestion" to the DPW guys after Tom Leighton requested that the leaves and yard waste be hauled away after weeks of neglect. Is he trying to make us choke on our tongues? Since when does the control freak issue friendly suggestions to city employees? This guy may be a lame-duck, but he has not lost his knack for sounding silly when he yaps away.

Here's the gig. Leighton is getting bombarded by city residents about the piling leaves and sludge in this city everytime he leaves his house. What's he supposed to do about it, when mayor McTom rules the DPW from his garage office? So, he issues a memo to McTom at 8:30 in the morning and then sends one along to the press at the end of the business day. Mayor McTom says he never got one, or saw one and cries politics again. So, what else is new? I don't believe a single word he spews anymore, but for the sake of argument, let's assume he never did see the memo until the Voice came a calling. I ask you, who's fu*king fault is that other than his? He may be "full-time, all the time," but he's supposed to be running the city, not rearranging the Tonka trucks again.

If he even understood how to prioritize and delegate authority, he wouldn't be the laughingstock of the state. Here's another thought. How could a mayor with a spokesperson, an executive secretary, a deputy administrator and a city administrator not be made aware of the latest memos, e-mails, or what have you, that find their way to his office? How many highly paid executive coffee gophers does it take before some continuity appears in this operation? If he sticks to that bogus story, he might as well claim that he beat the hell out of Lawrence Taylor with one hand tied to his Tonka truck too. Nothing that he says anymore is even close to believeable, so why not mix in some macho bullspit just for the fun of it? I heard that he had his way with Paris Hilton. Twice. On top of a pallet of bio-degradable bags. I'm telling ya'!

An e-mail from the other side of the river:

*******Mark:

I agree totally with your assessment of the Home Rule Nazis. My blood boils every time I read more of their whining drivel. It will no doubt continue as long as the Times Leader is willing to continue beating this dead horse. I don't read their blather any more, I just skip over it. I don't have to read it. I already know what they are going to say and I am tired of being insulted. Here is an excerpt of the e-mail I sent you right before the last election:

I predict the Home Rule will be voted down and so it should be. Then we will have to listen to these media elites like Kevin Lynn and the Times Leader imply how the local coal-cracker bumpkins were too stupid to know what was good for them. (How insulting!). When actually, people in this valley are blessed with an abundance of common sense and will not be fooled by a bunch of arrogant intellectual types.

When I look at the people behind the Home Rule, and I have met several of them personally, what I see is a lot of fluff. These people view themselves as the anointed ones. They have been put here to guide the poor dumb coal crackers out of their miner mentality world with an infallible and all knowing form of government. I trust in the people of this area and I think they are smart enough to see through these arrogant and self-absorbed know-it-alls.

These people are totally predictable. From now on every time there is a problem in the county (which is inevitable) the nazis will be saying we get what we deserve and if only we had voted for home rule blah, blah, blah, ..........

I wish these Nazis would stay home and enjoy their tea and crumpets.

GET OVER IT ALREADY!

West Side Dude*******

Dude, the referendum question recieved so much of a daily push from The Times Leader and WILK, it is completely laughable that any Chad 101 graduate would be claiming that the question was voted down due to some lack of advertising on Page 77 of the classified section in any newspaper. And then, to have him insulting anyone that he sees fit, comes very close to the level of punches needing to be thrown.

The Home Rule Nazis pulled the stakes out of their hearts and are now going "Full Metal Chad" on us in the courts, but their exploits are still newsworthy and will continue to be reported. But, much to their credit, even the Times Leader and the talk jocks at WILK said it was time to move on and go forward after the election. The only people that can't seem to get with the democracy experiment are the people that portray themselves as the defenders of the democracy experiment.

And you are 100% correct, sir. The very first time that Todd or Skrep throw away a pencil only half used, the Nazis will be screaming from the rooftops with the very long and polished version of what they really mean: "You stupid, ugly, ignorant voters. Next time, do as you are told." And that will only serve to anger me further. Both Goodwin and Race are munching away on that very last nerve that remains at the bottom of my right testicle.

The Islamo-ghouls in Iraq seem to be enjoying themselves while firing RPGs at practically everything of ours that moves, which has resulted in causing the great majority of our KIAs. Well, loonies, the recenty created Stryker armored personnel carriers and the Stryker Division is ready to roll from Kuwait into Iraq. These troops are specialists in close-in, urban warfare and the vehicles were designed for speed, manueverability and maximum firepower.

Stryker armored cars headed for Iraq have had "slat armor" added to detonate RPGs before they can reach the vehicles armor and penetrate it. The slat armor is basically a wire cage around the side of the vehicle. Variations on this have been used since the RPG first entered service four decades ago. Even chain link fencing have been used, and that worked as well.

Reap the whirlwind Islamo-ghouls.

This is fairly dis-jointed, but fun nonetheless. Click on a product link from the column on the left and read some hilarious reviews of bad candies.

Well, kick my ass, why dontcha? Ouch! I don't see any point in my even attempting this one. How about you?

God almighty! Let's hope that Tom Leighton doesn't recieve too many resumes similar to this one. Then again, when I think about the current condition of the city and what the nincompoops in charge of it have done with it, this dude doesn't sound so bad afterall.

I have it on very good authority that mayor McVLP used this as a training video for the members of his anti-management team. After having seen it, I find this claim to be completely believeable. Fear the Kittens

I came across some necessary reading today kiddies. It's getting to the point where the Dan Rathers of the world barely even matter anymore. The National Democrats (closet commies) are working to stifle talk radio and if even mildly successful, they will turn their attention to curtailing the internet soon afterwards. Actually, the United Nations (frustrated commies) is already making noise about taking control and monitoring the internet. They don't seem to appreciate the free flow of ideas that these two mediums offer in droves. Read on.

From what I'm hearing, Tripod is finally getting it's act back together. They upgraded their servers once before and everything went weird for about a week that time also. While I knew that many of you could not access the latest posts, I just kept firing away, figuring you could all play catch up when Tripod got past it's gizmo farts. If you encounter anymore glitches, lemme know and I'll bang away on their tech support geeks.

Check this e-mail I received last night:

*******three years Fantastic

one man said " no more"
he took a stand
said what he had to say for all to read
was willing to look deep
and see something worth saving
at the bottom of the abyss

he wrote.....
many read...

one voice became many

you made a difference, you showed your children to stand up for what's right.
one man,.. one key board.....
one more chance for the city

THANK YOU*******

Dude! While I appreciate the accolades, I really think some of you's give me too much credit. All I ever did was to get some more people paying closer attention and demanding better. They did the rest of the leg work on their own. Plus, there were quite a few keyboards involved here. The keyboards of city employees, city residents and city businessmen. I think what I provided was a place where we could put the disparate and unorganized voices together into one forum and allow everyone to see that their frustration was felt by many, many others. In my opinion, we done real good.

And I never saw myself as having any knack, any special talents, or anything approaching bravery. All I knew was, Wilkes-Barre was falling fast and the way I saw it, somebody had to be noticing other than me. So, I started a stupid website and started asking a whole bunch of questions. In took a while, but there were many others out there willing to provide us with or help us to find those answers. It's arguable how much of an impact this site had, but for me, the journey was a blast and I met many great people that I would have never otherwise met.

I think the biggest misconception I had three years ago was that all of the good people had already fled the city and that the remaining folks didn't give a hoot about the rapidly declining situation in this city. What Wilkes-Barre Online eventually taught me was that there are scores of good people that still reside in this city. And next year we're going to be very, very active while proving to our neighbors that Wilkes-Barre is well on it's way to a robust recovery. No matter how we managed to get to this point, the simultaneous ending of the nonstop tumult and the beginning of progress, teamwork and volunteerism has this internet madman thrilled to be able to say that he had any hand in Wilkes-Barre's rebirth.

One more chance for the city?

I do hear that.

And we had better get it right.

Nite