Setting Our Union on an Ethical Course Perhaps we are catching a lucky break as the IAFF Convention begins in slightly more than two months. Once upon a time the delegates of the IAFF Convention charted the future of the IAFF by passing meaningful resolutions directing the officers and board to act on our behalf […]

Mixing Business With Pleasure? Mr. James Franzoni, a principal at SF&C Insurance Associates, Inc., purchased a house at 5021 Brooks Road in Woolford, MD, in June of 2001. Less than three years later, in January 2004, the property appears to have been transferred to a limited liability corporation, Windmill Place LLC for a price of […]

US Conservatives and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un Agree US Conservatives find themselves perfectly aligned with the world’s most repressive communist dictator  in finding President Obama to be a complete scoundrel. North Korea referred to Obama as a “powerful pimp” during his visit to Asia. Here in America Kim Jong-un will find many friends among conservatives […]

Last Friday 16 Nepalese Sherpas were killed in an avalanche on the “shores” of Mt. Everest, a stormy sea known for its exacting toll of victims. Sherpas are a cultural group native to Nepal;  the word also connotes specialists in mountain climbing.  In a team of Sherpas the person in charge is referred to as […]

Make Way for the Elephant Robert Emmett, Irish patriot, was hanged, drawn and quartered in Dublin, Ireland, convicted of leading a failed rebellion for Irish freedom in 1803. He was 25 years old. Emmett was a protestant from a wealthy family, hardly the type to commit “high treason.” But he identified strongly with Catholics in […]

Deadly Respiratory Virus Now in Asia Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS) has now spread to both Malaysia and the Philippines according to news sources. MERS kills about 50% of those infected through acute pneumonia and renal failure. The World Health Organization has said that “MERS is a threat to the entire world” and the Centers […]

Going for the Uber Experience Some readers will know that I have previously reflected on the always bizarre and often cruel manner displayed by many United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) staff towards visitors. Examples include forcing fifth graders to needlessly stand outside in a howling wind and frigid weather to barking insults(calling them cry […]

Preacher, Fox News Talking Head and putative presidential candidate Mike Huckabee took aim at government employees the other day at a New Hampshire political event. He attacked TSA employees for following screening protocols likening airport security to life in North Korea, according to the Daily Mail. For Huckabee, keeping the flying public safe is tantamount […]

Your Table is Ready, Sir I recently wrote how the IAFF under Harold Schaitberger’s leadership has been diminished yet again, this time by placing firefighter safety related advertising in our publications. John Teefy replied with a robust and lengthy defense of how whoring out safety advocacy is actually a good (and noble) thing. Teefy makes […]