I don't know him personally. I've never met or spoken with Patrick Rodgers of Philadelphia, but he is my new hero. Online reports tell the story of Patrick's battle against his mortgage company, Wells Fargo. The bank demanded Mr. Rodgers purchase a homeowner's insurance policy with a replacement value of $1 million dollars on a home for which he paid $180,000. The resulting disagreement led Wells Fargo to issue "forced placement" insurance, adding about $500 per month to his mortgage payment. When Rodgers' letters to the bank were ignored, he sued under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and won a default judgment against Wells Fargo for $1,000. The bank didn't pay, so Rodgers went to the Philadelphia sheriff's office for collection. Foreclosure proceedings are currently scheduled to conclude with a sheriff's sale of all contents of the Wells Fargo branch on N. Delaware Avenue on March 4th. Turnabout is indeed fair play. … [Read more...]
Gutter politics
I'm socially a little more liberal and fiscally rather conservative, which means I prefer to vote for candidates as opposed to blindly following a party affiliation. Since I don't live in the particular district in question, I've remained blissfully ignorant of this story...until now. I don't know any of the people involved. I didn't vote for Congressman Austin Scott or his opponent. So why do I even care? Because gutter politics threatens to drive qualified candidates away from seeking public office. For the record, Republican Scott defeated Democrat Jim Marshall last November in a race for a district that contains Macon. This despicable tactic of intimidation and character assassination has to stop. And to which tactics do I refer? Scott and his wife were granted a divorce in 2001. Their young son was caught in the middle of a custody fight. It is not unusual for people experiencing the trauma of separation and the dissolution of their marriage make accusations that aren't completely true and say things they don't really mean. Three years ago, a judge sealed the court records of their divorce. "Democrat activist" Amy Morton filed a lawsuit to have Scott's divorce records unsealed so she could dig for dirt on him to use in the campaign to get Marshall reelected. Now an elected Congressman, Scott and his ex-wife agreed to drop their opposition to the lawsuit and let Morton satisfy her prurient interests. The muckrakers have been busy digging through the records, but so far all they've managed to find are unsubstantiated claims that Scott … [Read more...]
Executive pay
The Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting that current Governor Nathan Deal has increased the payroll in his office by thirty percent over the benchmark set by the previous administration of Sonny Perdue. The additional salary expense is attributed to ten more employees working for the new governor. With our economy struggling and already a bloated government budget running a deficit, the last thing we need are more government workers. The size of government should be reduced, not expanded. Curiously, the AJC article lists the governor of Georgia's salary. Nathan Deal earns $139,339 per year to run the entire state. Why the added emphasis? The Savannah Morning News website SavannahNow.com has reported that interim city manager Rochelle Small-Toney is making a whopping $190, 575 to manage a city a fraction the size of metropolitan Atlanta. How and why does the interim city manager of Georgia's 4th largest city make over $50,000 a year more than the governor? Why are we paying anybody in government this kind of money when states are going bankrupt? … [Read more...]
Internet Anonymity
The Internet is a wonderful resource. It offers a worldwide database of instantaneous information, available at the click of a mouse. Of course, there are drawbacks to using the Internet as a primary source of information. Anyone can post virtually anything they wish with impunity. As hard as some people work to research a subject and publish useful and pertinent information into this ethereal database of knowledge, it can be deliberately polluted by false information by a few insidious individuals acting with malicious intent. For example, my writing as the Atlanta Creationism Examiner has inspired comments by brave readers who call themselves names like "Pastafarian" and "Blackout". Using the cloak of an alias, these self-professed intellectuals regularly call me a liar or idiot for daring to write material expressing an opinion critical of evolution have no effect on my self-esteem. Their remarks might be intended to hurt my feelings, but I've become immune because I've learned to ignore them. Their mode of critical analysis seems a bit cowardly, but so what? The comments appear to reflect more on the source than their subject. The best way to deal with a childish insult is to simply ignore it. I've stopped responding to the large majority of the comments from people who routinely insult me, unless someone says something clever.... I've learned to stop simply reading after the first insult and skip ahead. Why waste my time and energy? I have books to write. Any human being on the planet may pose as a reliable source of information (or, as it … [Read more...]
Journalism malpractice
The New York Times once ruled the world as the premier source of news and information. Publisher Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger, Jr. continues to drive the formerly great paper into the ground. A caricature of what his father built, the Grey Lady is now a sad joke. Most recently a "news analysis" article credited comedian Jon Stewart with passage of the 9/11 responders bill to overturn Republican filibusters that represented "“an outrageous abdication of our responsibility to those who were most heroic on 9/11.” Did the Democrat party actually write the article published under the names of Bill Carter and Brian Stelter? It could not have been more slanted toward their point of view if Nancy Pelosi had penned it herself! Senator Tom Coburn (a Republican) did delay this legislation (already a decade after the incident) a few days more....in order to eliminate billions of dollars in federal pork. In case the New York Times reporters are oblivious to this information, the U.S. government is currently drowning in debt. We cannot afford to squander the inheritance of our children any longer. Taking care of those who served nobly on September 11th is certainly the right thing to do. Eliminating billions of dollars in payments to attorneys by capping legal fees associated with those payments is prudent, responsible and it was also the right thing to do. Senator Tom Coburn is a hero for standing up for the American taxpayers in face of harsh (and misguided) public criticism like that coming from the New York Times. Our federal government must stop spending tax … [Read more...]
