today’s news and information gleanings from here and there!

Quote for today … “Why do we even have a death penalty? It’s never used!!!” – Extracted from a comment to the LNP – Always Lancaster editorial opining “the violence must be stopped; there are more than 70 comments about this editorial.

• “The National Watch & Clock Museum has hired Kim Jovinelli as curator of collections.“ – Lancaster Online

• Want to know how to stop the violence? Read the facebook comments to the articles at Lancaster Online; the reasons for the spike in violent crimes are loss of God; bad cops; bad politicians; no responsibility in the home; lax justice system; weak judges; no prayer; not enough spy cameras; no death sentence; unarmed citizens; loss of family values; “language barrier, poverty, drug addiction, an unemployable ignorant population”; breakdown of values; etc., etc., etc.

• Then there’s this heartfelt comment following the article about last night’s vigil in downtown Lancaster: “What a heart-warming story. I’m sure that hugging and candles are going to solve the crime problem. Get yourself a F king gun already. Learn how to use it, and use it when confronted with this human garbage.” Comments as this and others are “the new ‘kinder’ facebook comments at that site.”

• And this comment from a You know you’re from Columbia, PA facebook post: “Unfortunately, the situation is not as rosy as all that. The Columbia Police have not submitted police reports to LNP for quite some time now. Columbia is not without crime, but the only way to get a report is to request it from the borough office or from the police dept.“ Columbia news, views & reviews applauds the Columbia Police Department’s improved facebook connectivity with citizens and everyone – a next step is to submit POLICE LOG information to the County’s daily newspaper for publication. The absence of reports from Columbia sends messages.

• We back lousy leaders! Way back when, “(Fulgencio) Batista was very popular with American interests such as United Fruit and PepsiCo to whom he sold Cuba’s agricultural produce at below-market prices, and with organized crime, which built the infamous casinos in Havana.” Even when it became clear that Fidel Castro’s struggle to rid Cuba of the inequities of the county, the US government continued to try to mollify business interests because Castro’s “stated plans to nationalize foreign properties in Cuba” would have major economic impact on the American-owned business interests. “Castro captured the world’s attention more than six decades ago when, as a 32-year-old Marxist, he led the violent overthrow of the Fulgencio Batista government in 1959. The U.S. implemented an economic embargo on Cuba in 1960, and American and Cuban diplomatic relations ended in January 1961.”

“But the seeds of the revolution had already sprouted a stronger, determined movement that would not allow the future of the Cuban nation to remain in the hands of gangsters and corrupt politicians.” – historyofcuba.com

• We tend not to like reformers. … but “donkey shows” and sugar monopolies were OK. This writer noted: “(US) representation in Havana was using its not inconsiderable influence primarily in matters of concern to American business interests.” – Foreign Affairs magazine

• Oil prices down; why not airfares – The Conversation

www.maketheconnection.net: a new Website for Veterans and family members; click on the above graphic.