IAFF Flirts with a Racist An earlier post covered Tea-Bagger Ted Cruz’s recent appearance before IAFF leaders in Washington, DC, and resulted in the following reader comment: “Little hard on the Hispanic guy there Eric…..hasn’t the left worn out the “tea baggers” moniker……how about something new?” New? The “Tea Party” appropriates, as well they may, […]

Big Week for the Jesse Helms Fan Club Fresh on the heels of appearing at the International Association of Fire Fighter’s Legislative Conference, Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced his campaign for the presidency among a group of college students required to attend the event. I wonder if “knee-grows” were allowed? Maybe in the very back […]

STS-107 On February 1, 2003, space shuttle Columbia experienced a loss-of-control and catastrophic break-up at about 180,000 feet altitude during re-entry at hyper-sonic speeds. All crew members were killed as the orbiter rapidly depressurized. Years after the original investigation, a followup study closely examined crew survivability. The NASA  study touches on every aspect of safety from […]

In search of a warm weather escape with camping, I wondered across a posting for kayaking in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. Camping and kayaking turned out to be the least of it. I flew from Dulles International Airport, leaving on a snowy day, through Mexico City, arriving at Lap Paz on an Embraer 190.  Baja […]

Laundry Time I headed out from my apartment on California Street in Washington, D.C., a little while ago on the way to an appointment. As I approached Connecticut Avenue on this chilly March morning I spied Jack Lew, Treasury Secretary of the United States, with a member of his security detail in tow, walking south […]

2015 is the 70th anniversary of the liberation by allied troops of Nazi extermination camps at Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz and other locations. Many of the architects and perpetrators of the mass killing were eventually rounded up and imprisoned for trial and punishment. In 1946, American psychiatrist Leon Goldensohn (G) interviewed dozens of these prisoners at […]

Pass the A1 Sauce The 2015 International Association of Fire Fighter’s (IAFF) Legislative conference is this week when our union’s affiliate leaders come to Washington to lobby congress on key issues and to listen to selected politicians pontificate. How the pontificaters are chosen is always a subject of discussion. Are they selected to inspire or […]

Four Reasons Why the Ethics Policy is a Disaster In virtually all organizations it is the elected leadership who set the overall tone. And, so it is at the International Association of Fire Fighters but the results are devastating. The new ethics policy has more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese and is nothing […]

It’s So Harold Schaitberger We now know that Our Dear Leader’s plan to hide his conflicts of interest is to: a) exempt himself by creating his own personal definition for them and to, b) make them confidential while threatening to have the IAFF board come after anyone who dares to discuss them openly. So much […]

ODL in Wunderland Many will know that IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger, Our Dear Leader, a.k.a. ODL, engaged in a conflict of interest surrounding his cozy real estate deals with Jim Franzoni of S.F.& C. Insurance, who heads up the Nationwide and Liberty Mutual dealings with the IAFF. The accepted definition of conflict of interest […]