"Zionists should know that if they do anything evil against Iran, the response of Iran's armed forces will be so firm that it will send them into eternal coma, like Sharon," Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said.

Najjar said the United States and Israel have been trying to frighten Iran, but neither country would dare attack to Iran.

More often than not, military conflicts come about after somebody makes some seriously flawed calculations. Ask Saddam. He'll second that notion.

SNAKE kinda dorked me over today. The last time I saw him he was all proud of himself for his "I believe" graffiti on an inner wall of a structure that was being demolished. I snapped a picture of it, posted it here and it got a mention in The Times Leader a day or so later. That was cool by me. It's not everyday that one of his notorious pranks makes it's way into a local newspaper story. Nifty.

So, earlier today I was paid a visit here at the adobe by none other than SNAKE and a guy named Jon Fox. I recognized his name because he's a reporter for The Times Leader. I was told that he "wanted to meet me." No biggie. I've done this sort of thing many times before. You know, the meet-the-crazy-blogger encounters. Yes, yes, yes. I'm the blooming idiot. I'm the prolific bleedin' wanker.

Much to my surprise, while we were gabbing about all things Wilkes-Barre, our intrepid reporter flipped open his pad and started taking notes. Ah, I got it. This wasn't so much a friendly get-together as it was an impromptu interview. And I had no problem with that. The way I figure it, the negative ninnies have been having their way with the local newspapers for far too long now. Why not have someone who's not lasered in on the negative making those very same pages?

I'm thrilled about what has transpired in this city over the course of the past two years. I'm not afraid to walk our streets. I think Tom Leighton has done all that could be humanly expected of any man since he moved into that fourth-floor office of his. Wilkes-Barre? We've been to the edge of the abyss, took a quick glance down into the burning pits of the Act 47 fires and then turned our backs on all of that and went and elected ourselves a very, very competant leader. And you wanna splash that across the back pages of the local newspaper? By all means, count me in!

I basically told Jon the way it is and the way it's always been since I first took any of my fingers to a computer keyboard. I seek no notoriety, nor any celebrity status heretofore unawarded to anyone so low on the pecking order as a fraidy-cat blogger. I seek no political office. I seek no cushy city job as a result of my tireless efforts to elect Tom Leighton. I seek no awards for outstanding journalism. And I don't want to be named Pennsylvania's Blogger of the Year. All that I ever wanted was to see Wilkes-Barre thrive once again. That's what set me off. That's why I bothered.

Wilkes-Barre Online is very, very limited in it's scope and overall internet appeal. It pretty much covers the goings-on in the vicinity of Wilkes-Barre and not too much else. If Wilkes-Barre City does not concern you, you are going to tune me out right quick, and that's perfectly fine with me.

Wasn't it Tip O'Neill that said all politics is local? My intent was never to change the entire world by way of a single web site. And my hope was never to save the entirety of Amerika from herself all by my lonesome. Thanx to Mr. Tip's head-ups, I thought the fastest route to making an actual difference in any measureable sense would be by blogging on a local scale. If we can hold the local politicos accountable and see to it that only our best and brightest gravitate upwards; I'm thinking that not only will our local communities rebound, so will our country over a long, long stretch of time. Silly, ain't I?

And as far as any compensation for my efforts is concerned, if my chosen hometown thrives like it did when I was a struggling sprat of eight...then my internet publishing days will likely come to a very quick end. I always figured I had two distinct choices while toiling away in a rapidly declining third-class city. I could either run away to one of those semi-gated bucolic communities where the marauding chipmunks frighten the fattened populace. Or I could stay right here at home and see to it that the city I always wanted to live in as a kid made it all the way back from the abyss. There's no way to guage how much of a difference I may have made. All I know is I tried like all hell. And I wish more people had the 'nads to join me somewhere along the way.

I have no frickin' clue what The Times Leader will make of anything I've done, anything I've tried to do, or anything I had to say earlier today. All I know is...I tried. And in lieu of any accolades or keys to the city, that's enough for me. I did try.

But the future of this city is not in my hands.

Pay close attention, kiddies!

Yeah! You're 47 going on 13.--SNAKE to Zorcong.

By the way, Jon Fox seems like a thoroughly likeable young guy.

Just for the record.

This is fun.

Really? Is that frickin' so?

Well then. I've never, ever tried to upload and imbed an audio file before, but just to prove you're the biggest horse's ass that ever learned how to fire-off an e-mail, I've done so today.

I have no fargin' clue as to how long it might take to play, but if the truth is really, really, really what you really, really, really seek--FU>KING WAIT!!!

Itchy & Scratchy? That's about all that Walter has to offer Wilkes-Barre.

I sliced and diced what remains of the following report published in today's Times Leader:

Posted on Wed, Jan. 25, 2006 City councilW-B moving to rein in quads The city clerk will research current law about off-road vehicles on city streets. By JON FOX jfox@leader.net WILKES-BARRE – After a weekend run-in with reckless quad riders, Councilman Bill Barrett called for stiffer penalties for residents who drive the vehicles on city streets. “I would like to see four-figure fines and forfeiture of these vehicles,” Barrett said Tuesday during a council double session. Barrett said he encountered a pair of brazen all-terrain vehicle drivers zipping the wrong way down a one-way street near the city’s Parsons section. “To me there’s just no place for them in the city,” he said, complaining that residents often take their off-road vehicles to the pavement when it snows. He asked City Clerk James Ryan to research the current ordinance applying to riders taking quads onto city streets. Councilman Michael McGinley called the off-road vehicles “tremendously dangerous.” Councilwoman Shirley Morio Vitanovec called the quads a big problem in South Wilkes-Barre during the spring and fall. One rider on Horton Street, she said, left her in a cloud of dust and exhaust. When she complained, Vitanovec said “I got a gesture and he told me to do something about it.” City Administrator J.J. Murphy said the city will do everything in its power to enforce a beefed-up ordinance. “If you really give them an incentive not to break the law they may not,” he said. “If they accidentally fall off and break a couple of ribs that could be a good thing,” said Councilman Tony Thomas, adding, however, that some residents used the vehicles to plow driveways and sidewalks. In other business: • Council recognized Police Chief Gerry Dessoye’s Jan. 19 induction into the Pennsylvania Police Hall of Fame.

On it's face, that's all fine & dandy and wonderful sounding. It really is.

But...if we don't catch 'em in the act, we got nothin' on 'em. And based on what I've been treated to on this street, the only way one of our patrol units is going to catch an ATV speeding up this tiny street is if it turns the corner and slams into it. The thing is, the sometimes deafening roar announces their arrival, and within an instant they're gone.

So what am I supposed to do when those annoying ATVs come roaring by again? Call fu>king 911? What good will that do? After I tell the 911 telecommunicator my name, address, height, weight, waist size, social security number and my Mom's maiden name--then they'll get around to dispatching a patrol unit. And if some druggies happen to be shooting at each other up Sherman Hills a ways, that call to 911 will be held for the "next available unit."

Look, I'm really not trying to stomp on city council's gonads (Sorry council babes), but sometimes there is absolutely nothing we can do about the piss-poor behavior of others. I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't make the effort, but no matter how many cops we may hire, sometimes there's just no way to combat poor parenting. If I ran a quad up the street when I was a kid, my Mom would have snapped. And when my step-dad got home from work, my neck might have snapped like a #2 pencil.

These days, if the cops happen to bust a kid for hell-raising with a quad right through the center of the city, chances are the parents of the helmet-less kid will be pissed to the high heavens. You know the deal. My kid is a good kid. He may have been breaking the law, but that shouldn't be held against him because he's a good kid.

Yawn.

Boys will be boys. We all know as much. And every once in a while, Dad needs to beat the boy. It kept me out of reform school, and it worked for me when my boy got to gettin' stupid more often than not.

We can't ban stupidity by decree. And we can't pass ordinances to stamp out poor parenting. I wish we could, but we can't.

Maybe we should do away with calling 911 so that our police officers can respond to our direct calls to headquarters lickity-split. Just like the old days.

I'm just sayin'.

Shoot me.

I caught some of this on the scanner over the past couple of days.

From the Citizens' Voice:

Man arrested for break-ins of vehicles BY ROBERT KALINOWSKI STAFF WRITER 01/25/2006 WILKES-BARRE — A parolee from New York suspected of breaking into more than 30 vehicles in the downtown since Friday was caught in the act Tuesday morning, city police said. Douglas E. Smith was arrested after being spotted breaking into a vehicle behind the Citizens Bank parkade on South Franklin Street. Ironically, the parkade was one of the locations he allegedly targeted during the five-day spree, police said. Police said the vehicle owner saw the break-in in progress around 8:25 a.m., called 911 and began to chase Smith on foot. Cops nabbed Smith a half-hour later behind the Ramada Inn on Public Square — another place where vehicles were burglarized. During questioning, the 35-year-old admitted he was behind the rash of break-ins and thefts. He said he was a heroin addict and scoured the vehicles for money and valuables to support his drug habit, investigators said Tuesday. In most of the 33 reported cases, a vehicle’s window was smashed and loose change was taken. Nothing significant was reported stolen. Sent to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility, Smith was held without bail Tuesday on a parole violation out of New York State, authorities said. Smith was recently released from the Attica Correctional Facility, Attica, N.Y., according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services’ Web site. Sentenced to two-to-six years on a felony grand larceny charge, he was paroled on Jan. 10, the correctional department’s Web site said. He held no known local address, cops said. Smith was also being held Tuesday on a warrant for failure to appear at a Jan. 16 court hearing on theft charges in Luzerne County Court.

Nothing against the reporter or his efforts, but wasn't this story totally predictable? 30 cars get broken into in our downtown and it wasn't some local boy doing the deed. Go frickin' figure.

Is there some way to put our finger on why the worst that society has to offer keeps showing up in Wilkes-Barre? I've heard plenty of theories being bandied about, but this disturbing trend has everyone pretty much stupified. Why is that? Why is Wilkes-Barre an idiot magnet? Is it really the proliferation of social services and freebies that draws them here? Or is there something else going on that we're not aware of?

Then again, maybe this isn't unique to Wilkes-Barre. This city is the largest city in the county, and being the county's seat, it also plays host the very best that the freebie industry has to offer. Maybe the same bullspit happens in Goshen, New York, or Tom's River, New Jersey. I dunno. The problem being, no one else seems to know either. Is it something we're doing wrong? Or is it just the way things are in a country where victimhood and the entitlement mentality have been promoted for decades by one of our two political parties? Is this the best we can look forward to? Soup kitchen by day and smashing car windows by night? What the frig!

I just got home from Oh Yes. Wifey wanted groceries, so groceries it was. In there we had two Mexican kids piling candy and munchies on the counter, while their fu>k-you-gringo of a Mom watched in delight with her Access Card in hand. And this isn't a racist blowin' a gasket here. You know that look you get from some members of the minority/victimhood fraternity that tells you in no uncertain terms to funk off and die only because your skin is permanently pale. You know full-well what I'm talkin' about. Black teens give you that death-stare all the time.

Lemme get this straight. You want the munchies, you want the candy, and you want to be able to spend my overtime earnings--but I should be treated to your dirty looks? I should have to endure the biggest cold shoulder ever delivered since the major colleges taught all of the young girls to bagel-bump? And this comes from someone who would probably faint dead-away if an I-9 form was waved in front of her face? You gotta be fu>kin' kidding me.

Yet, these are the very same "voters" our major political parties are pandering to for votes? Does that compute? If we all were to quit our jobs and go on the take, what then? Are we gonna balance the federal, state and local budgets when the last of the wage earners finally go the way of the dinosaurs? It seems to me that some of our politicians had better get up off of their bubble-brained girlfriends and start taking care of business. Whatever.

Needless to say, I'm a bit ticked-off with the obvious attitude that very many of the slackers seem to so effortlessly exude on purpose. When I was a kid, food stamps were my personal kryptonite. These days, folks wear those green Ks on their lapels as if they were a badge of honor, they openly mock us and they dare us to try to do anything about it. The fact is, the folks that actually produce income are taken for granted by our self-serving politicians. And the slackers know the ill-begotten game through-and-through.

Unless there's some sort of mind-boggling course correction made sometime soon, the USS Amerika is gonna steam on into the Bermuda Triangle never to be heard from again. It's gotta be country first and party second. It's gotta be 'the good of the people' over what's in the well-entrenched incumbent's best interests come election time. It has to change. It just has to.

I found this quote in The Times Leader story W-B merchant says area targeted.

“They say they have a downtown plan, but that plan isn’t written down. It changes from day to day,” Miscavage said. “I don’t believe there’s a downtown plan because I’ve been here for 30 years. I just wish they would stop badmouthing the area.”

“They say they have a downtown plan, but that plan isn’t written down. It changes from day to day."

Actually, the results of the plan are popping up all over the place. But...the plan is not written down. (?) Forget the ink, pay attention to the brick-and-mortar.

“I don’t believe there’s a downtown plan because I’ve been here for 30 years.

30 years. Okay. So he's watched the downtown's slow and painful to watch descent into retail hell, but now he's upset while the long sought-after economic development is finally well underway. It must be me.

I just wish they would stop badmouthing the area.”

Again, it must be me.

No big thang. The guy has money invested in our downtown, so he should be allowed to express his opinion. It's just that I have no idea where he's comin' from. It must be me.

And I'm mental.

Thank goodness (not God) that Sue Henry finally relented...she finally came to her senses and allowed the illustrious and infamous "Kurt from Scranton" to re-enter my life. 'Twas unreal. Sh*t, man. I haven't laughed that hard since I split my little brother's forehead wide open with a can of Right Guard.

Lemme see here, what'd he have to say? Oh, the folks that call WILK are all "right-wing nut cases." The "Mafia controls the Catholic Church." Get this one, talk about your typically clueless Commie Youth on drugs: The members of our outstanding, second-to-none military forces are "misguided, brainwashed, low-income" folk. He may have been banned from the airwaves for a spell, but he still hasn't lost the edge. What edge, none of us are quite sure about, but what the heck. Without those Greens...sorry, without laughter the world would be a completely dreadful place.

Sue's response right after hitting the kill button???

"That was enough pent-up lunacy for three minutes."

Thanx, Sue.

That was awesome.

I gotta go.

CYA