Musings of a Twisted Mind|Here you will find thoughts on current events, sports, politics, court system, theology, and other things.

I didn’t think it was possible for it to snow this much in western Pennsylvania. We have at least 30 inches on the ground since Friday night and it just keeps on coming. And the Seminary has been closed all week.

And tonight the area is under a blizzard warning.

And the road crews have been positively pathetic and have been all winter. And last winter. I don’t know what happened to them but they have been far below standard. When they actually do clean the roads and its only been a small storm, the road are slush. It used to be that the roads would be cleared. Apparently there’s some reason that they choose to let people risk their lives.

And now that we’ve had a major storm, the road crews are no where to be seen.

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This is just amazing. I never would have imagined Massachusetts electing a Republican to replace Ted Kennedy. This should show the Democrats just how unpopular this health bill is with people. The only thing it does is give money to the insurance companies since it will force people to pay for it.

In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to win the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy for nearly half a century, leaving President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in doubt and marring the end of his first year in office.

Addressing an exuberant victory celebration Tuesday night, Brown declared he was “ready to go to Washington without delay” as the crowd chanted, “Seat him now.” Democrats indicated they would, deflating a budding controversy over whether they would try to block Brown long enough to complete congressional passage of the health care plan he has promised to oppose.

“The people of Massachusetts have spoken. We welcome Scott Brown to the Senate and will move to seat him as soon as the proper paperwork has been received,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said he would notify the Senate on Wednesday that Brown had been elected.

I wonder how long the proper paperwork will take.

There will be no tax after all. An agreement between Non-Profits and the city averts it. The University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and unexpectedly, Hallmark have agreed to increase their voluntary payments to the city.

For some reason it doesn’t seem very voluntary to me.

No word on if Pittsburgh Theological Seminary or the other not mentioned schools have avoided having to pay. With PTS only have about 300 students they certainly couldn’t afford much compared to the other schools.

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The protesting continues in Iran. I bet the officials never dreamed they would last this long when they gave the election to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

These protests are formed during the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri who at one point was the second in charge in Iran until he criticized Khomeini for the mass killings of political prisoners in Iran. That got him removed two months before Khomeini died.

Hossein Bastani, an Iranian political analyst, said the protests had moved beyond anger over the election and were now aimed directly at Khamenei. “Khamenei’s comments about Montazeri met with a very negative reflection in Iranian opposition websites and media,” he said. “Today we had a very great demonstration in Qom, a small provincial city and the ideological centre of the Islamic regime,” he added

“I don’t think there were demonstrations there of that size even during the revolution. The slogans people were chanting were indirectly against the Islamic regime and similar to what was chanted before the revolution against the Shah.”

I received an email from the President of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary today informing the Seminary community about the current attempt by the mayor to blackmail the schools into paying the city $5 million dollars plus trying to get them to help them get $10 million more. With the ultimatum to promise $5 million or else within three days, all ten schools told the Mayor to take a hike.

Pittsburgh
Seminary Community,

In the spirit of keeping the campus community fully informed on the tuition tax issue, I write to provide you with some facts related to recent
public comments on the topic.

Yesterday Mayor Ravenstahl threatened to go forward with his unprecedented plan to tax our students if area universities do not
agree—within three days–to his demand for an annual payment of $5 million. Of course, a tax on the universities of this sort is just another form
of tax on our students.  Pittsburgh area university presidents believe that both kinds of taxes are illegal.  They are certainly both bad for Pittsburgh Seminary and for Pittsburgh.

The number of $5 million is not related to anything having to do with Pittsburgh universities.  Like the proposed 1% tax on our students, it is not related to any city services provided to us or to our students.  Instead, it is an amount needed to help with an underfunded pension plan.

In his statements to the media, the mayor described the $5 million as a “compromise” amount, saying that Pittsburgh nonprofits had earlier agreed to commit $6 million to the city each year.  No such agreement ever existed. Temporary, large-scale assistance to the city by the nonprofit sector was undertaken through the establishment of a Public Service Fund in 2005. Section 3 of the agreement that established the Fund is very clear about the limited time frame of the 2005-2007 commitment made by the nonprofit sector.  It states, “The contributions to the fund are not
precedential and do not indicate any intention on the part of the contributors to provide support for the city after the term of this agreement. The City shall not use the fact that the contributing charitable organizations have voluntarily determined to support the City in its time of financial crisis as evidence that contributing charitable organizations can or should support the city under other circumstances or as a basis to argue for taxation of or to assess contributing organizations during or after the term of this Agreement.”

Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education (PCHE) has recently had numerous productive discussions with members of City Council regarding this issue. Several Council members see merit in developing a collaborative group to address the city’s financial problems, involving representatives from the government, nonprofit and corporate sectors.  But Mayor Ravenstahl has been unwilling to engage in dialogue seeking alternative solutions to taxing students or universities. Therefore, the PCHE institutions have unanimously rejected his ultimatum.

Please be assured that Pittsburgh Seminary, along with our fellow PCHE institutions, will remain strong advocates for Pittsburgh, and will continue in our role as key drivers of the re-emerging vitality of this great city.  And we will be vigorous in protecting our students.  Thank you for the important role you play and the many contributions you make to our Seminary and the city that has been our home for 215 years.

Please note also below a link to a video for YouTube put together by students at Chatham
University. You will find it interesting.

http://animoto.com/play/90mBzeRetGiDSjW9O00TUQ

Thanks for your encouragement and support.

William J. Carl III

President

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This is appalling.

Anyone can look through my blog and see that I oppose ordination of practicing gays in the church because they are unrepentant in their sin and thus unqualified for ministry. Just as those that engage in premarital sex and try to defend it also are unqualified for ministry. Or any other sin that they are unrepentant of and defend their actions.

And I’m not trying to make ministers above the rest of humanity. They are all sinners. BUT, accept that you sin and try to refrain from it. You might not succeed but at least recognize it, confess it and try to be better. Don’t try to change what the texts say to make yourself feel better.

But to make it a capital crime? That is insane. There is no justification for turning it into a capital crime. I know someone can come up with a proverb or Leviticus verse that commands it, but John 8 shows what we’re supposed to do with such capital crime verses. Forgive them and tell them to sin no more. And all know that “to sin no more” is not really possible.

Insane.

It means the company doesn’t care about their service or making sure its number one. Instead, they want to trick people into signing up for the service and then holding them to it as their service heads south.

That’s why Verizon has doubled their fees. They don’t want to lose customers because their service isn’t that good.

I’m a former owner of a Verizon Cellular phone and would never go with them again. Prepaid is the way to go.

So education is going to be discouraged the same way that cigarettes and alcohol is by passing a tuition tax. Its nice that people actually trying to improve themselves are going to be discouraged. Why would we want people to make more then minimum wage, right? Apparently a high school diploma is enough in today’s Pittsburgh economy.

On top of that these nonprofits are filling up to much space in Pittsburgh. How dare they buy up properties and then have them not be taxed because they are nonprofits. How dare they give people jobs to pay the outrageous $52 right to work in the city tax.

We here in Beaver County would like to point out to the nonprofits and schools in Pittsburgh of the vast amounts of land that sits undeveloped within Beaver COunty along the new interstate 376 corridor. There would no $52 a year robbing of your employees wallets. (It will be closer to $20 wink wink) And no mayor trying to get into your bank accounts either to find his $15 million.

And if my school was to move it would cut my commute in half. Win win for all.

Come on there’s history for it. Geneva moved from Ohio to Beaver Falls.

I wonder how much longer Michael Jackson’s death is going to dominate CNN. I’d really like to get back to seeing news on Iran which I think is far more newsworthy.

The report said the investigation into the death of Agha-Soltan is continuing, “but according to the evidence so far, it could be said that she was killed by mistake. The marksmen had mistaken her for the sister of one of the Monafeghin who had been executed in the Province of Mazandaran some time ago.”

You know I’m trying to figure out this justification for shooting Neda. They thought she was the SISTER of a terrorist… So now one is guilty for what their SISTER does? WHat kind of logic is that?