Al Walentis

When it comes to logging marijuana busts, all sales are retail

2010-03-12T12:19:20Z

Undercover agents popped a Reading man at a Cumru Township self-storage facility after he signed for a shipment of 300 pounds of pot, delivered by rig.

Narcs pegged the value of the weed at $1.3 million.

That works out to roughly $270 per ounce, which sounds about right if the pot is sold ounce by ounce to 4,800 individual buyers.

Of course, if it's wholesaled at $2,000 per pound, the value works out to only $600,000, which doesn't give the narcs that seem tingly feeling when that number gets printed in headlines.

Now that they've bagged the bud, let's hope it does not go to waste.

Why not donate it as medicine to a marijuana clinic to provide pain relief for the sick?

After all, the game commission donates poached deer meat to food kitchens. And deer meat isn't worth $4,300 a pound, even if it is sold by the ounce.

Tim Holden won't vote for health care; primary foe will hammer him for it

2010-03-12T12:07:58Z

The teabaggers came marching on Tim Holden's office protesting that "We can't afford government-run health care" and "Socialized health care will be a money pit," and the congressman couldn't bear to correct the misconceptions lies.

Instead, he played the abortion card and preyed on fears that the AARP-supported package of cuts in projected spending would gut Medicare.

"I will not vote for the Senate bill," Holden said. "It makes significant cuts to Medicare and Medicaid ... and the restrictions on (federal funding for) abortion are not as strong."

Holden's primary challenger plans to rip him for it, right through the May primary.

Harrisburg attorney Sheila Dow Ford called health care reform "the most critical issue of our time" and blasted Holden for not supporting the current reform proposal before Congress. She also railed against his "no" vote on a plan to help families restructure their mortgages as irresponsible.

"He showed willful ignorance about the plight of his constituents," Dow Ford said.

"Willful ignorance" says it about right.

The seduction of Barack Obama

2010-03-12T11:45:43Z

Newsweek's Julia Baird describes the first close encounter between Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren, the "evil, power-hungry, ignorant lady" who now heads the Congressional Oversight Committee:

When Elizabeth Warren first met Barack Obama, a strange kind of seduction took place. The encounter occurred at a fundraiser, hosted by a fellow Harvard professor who was supporting his former student, Obama, in his campaign to become a U.S. senator. Warren walked into the house and peered down a long corridor. Obama was standing in a glass-enclosed room with the afternoon sun glowing from behind, silhouetting him: "He was backlit!" As she walked down toward him he turned, stuck out his hand, and said, "Predatory lending! We have to do something about predatory lending!" He raved on as she stood and stared at him, dumbstruck. When he paused, she smiled and said, "You had me at predatory lending."

Job outlook in Berks County sucky, unless you want a career picking mushrooms

2010-03-11T11:58:02Z

From today's yarn about the Senate extending unemployment benefits and how job prospects looks in Berks.

"Midlevel managers and the professional people -- they are ecstatic for it," said Chris Garner, owner and president of Berks & Beyond Employment Services Inc., Wyomissing. "They are the job sector with the most difficult time finding employment."

Garner has seen a spike in orders for workers in entry-level manufacturing, packing and warehousing jobs.

Midlevel managers might still be struggling, but there is also demand for highly skilled professionals such as accountants, said Debbie Ramsey, a staffing specialist/recruiter at Gage Personnel Services, West Reading....

Other employers are not as optimistic, said Edward J. McCann Jr., chief operating officer of Berks County Workforce Investment Board.

"I hope I am dead wrong and the people I talk to are dead wrong, but I don't talk to anybody who sees the prospect of a lot of hiring at least by the fourth quarter of this year," he said. "Almost everybody I talk to figures we'll end the year with the same 9 or 10 percent unemployment."

I'm starting to like Dennis Kucinich's idea more and more....lower the retirement age, temporarily, to 60, so boomers on the cusp can clear out and open up a million jobs to unemployed younger workers. (We can deal with the impact on the Social Security trust fund in 2040.)

Otherwise, the buzz phrase isn't "Would you like fries with that burger?" It's "Would you like working on the line where they turn beef carcasses into hamburger?"

How not to design a fund-raising poster

2010-03-11T11:35:45Z

It's a benefit for some hoser in Saskachewan. The benefit is a motivational speaker, a firefighter who was trapped in the World Trade Center on 9/11 but escaped.

Not only is the text superimposed over an image of the Twin Towers burning, but the event is a pig roast.

The advertoisement included a photo credit to The New York Times.

Greatest magic secrets revealed. Click here.

TV station orders broadcaster babe to purge racy Tweets

2010-03-10T15:04:39Z

Chloe Everton goes on the TV for Sky Sports News, but she's been entertaining her followers in more creative ways.

Chloe has mastered the deft art of composing sports-based double-entendres, adhering to a strict 140-character for posting on Twitter.

Some samples:

Commenting on a recent Premier League match, she wrote: ‘(Rory) Delap is using a towel to mop up some of the wet ready for those long thrusting balls into the box.’

Another said: ‘Golf today. Played with three boys. I came first, must have been down to good length.’

One posted earlier this year stated: ‘The sign on the ticket machine I am at says: “slot out of action”. I know the feeling.’

Unfortunately, her bosses failed to grasp the humor in the risqué Tweets. Something about how the station wouldn't be taken seriously anymore. Poor Chloe had to clean out and clean up her Twitter account.

Sad, so sad.

Tricky wineries lure vegans into consuming disgusting animal products

2010-03-10T13:27:28Z

Committed vegans may be gagging upon reading Steven Kolpan's piece in Salon that exposes the filthy animal pollutants that corrupt the precious gape from the vine as it ferments into fine wine:

The fact is that while an increasing number of wines are technically vegan, a substantial number of wines still use animal-based products in the "fining" process: clarifying the wine by removing proteins, yeasts and solid materials that would otherwise make the wine cloudy and visually unappealing, or would even create off-flavors or aromas. Fining agents act as magnets for unwanted materials, and carry the glop to the bottom of the barrel or tank. Then the wine is "racked" -- poured off into another holding container, where the wine is separated from the solids. Racking is just like decanting, except on a humongous scale.

Fining agents typically used in wineries include egg whites, egg proteins, or casein (milk proteins). So far, this is good news for lacto-ovo vegetarians, but not for strict vegans. However, common fining agents also include gelatin (produced from animal bones), isinglass (made from fish bladders), and chitin (lobster and crab shells). And, while it's illegal in both France and the United States, some wine producers will even use bull's blood to fine their wines.

Bull's blood. Rut-row.

Have you had a tickle fight today?

2010-03-10T12:13:08Z

Glenn Beck interviews Eric Massa, and boy does it go wrong.

Here the recently resigned congressmen explains how engaging in tickle fights with male staffers is prim and proper:

"Now they're saying I groped a male staffer," he volunteered. "Yeah, I did. Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn't breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birthday."

Beck looked aghast. "Was your wife at that one?" the Fox News Channel host asked.

"No, this was in a townhouse; we all lived together, all the bachelors and me," Massa explained. "My chief of staff had a conniption and said, 'You can't live there, that's not congressional.' "

Beck tried to move the conversation in a different direction, but his guest resisted. "Let me show you something," Massa proposed, proffering a book with photos of bawdy Navy rituals from the days when he was a sailor.

"You're going to show me tickle fights?" Beck inquired.

"I'm going to show you a lot more than tickle fights," Massa promised. Beck put on his reading glasses, then judged that the images should not be shown on television. "It looks like an orgy in 'Caligula,' " Massa asserted.

Tom Caltagirone gets another free ride in 2010 election

2010-03-10T11:47:01Z

Yep, the golden boy has no challengers, neither in the primary nor the general. Again. You can access a complete list of all candidates, statewide, here.

If Monk's Cafe Sour Flemish Red Ale is outlawed only outlaws will drink Monk's Cafe Sour Flemish Red Ale

2010-03-10T00:03:31Z

The PLCB gets real anal:

More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at an undisclosed location.

The alleged offense: Although the bar owners had bought the beer legally from licensed Pennsylvania distributors and had paid all the necessary taxes, the police claimed that nobody had registered the precise names of the beers with the state Liquor Control Board - a process that requires the brewers or their importers to pay a $75 registration fee for each product they want to sell in Pennsylvania.....

For instance, the cops grabbed Monk's Cafe Sour Flemish Red Ale.

The beer has been sold throughout the state at dozens of restaurants and distributors for the last seven years. The brand appears on the state's online list as "Monk's Café Ale." It's on tap seven days a week at the Center City bar after which it was named: Monk's Cafe, at 16th and Spruce streets.

But that wasn't enough to keep the State Police from confiscating 20 bottles and three kegs of the supposedly illegal ale at three bars run by Maida and Hartranft.