Do you remember when Harrisburg was a wasteland?

  This image shows Market St at Second St in 1982. When I moved to this hole in 1982, that area had the pawn shop, an adult theater, (anyone remember the Senate?) and when you turned right onto Strawberry Alley, there was a little strip joint tucked away. Steven Reed was elected in 1981 after George Gekas did nothing to make the city better and try to make this city move away from the bad image that it had for too long. City Island used to have a great concert stage and had national acts each summer in the early 1980's. However, you had to rouse the gays having sex in the bushes to get them on their way, although they may have enjoyed the Judas Priest show in '82. Sadly, the concerts went away as did the haven for gay sex and in the center of an island of weeds and trees, a baseball park appeared and flourished with some great teams early on. The Island became a family friendly environment. Say what you will about Steve Reed, but the man had a vision for Harrisburg and what it could be.


Next slide please.........

Here we are in 2007! Look at that build up! The sticky, smelly adult theater is gone, the titty bar is gone and we have this gigantic hotel centerpiece in their place. We have blocks upon blocks of great bars and restaurants that would bring throngs of people into Harrisburg on the weekends and offer great food destinations throughout the week. And this became a clean city. And a real city. I was able to come in as Strawberry Square was being opened and expanding. I laughed at the plans I was shown to make Center City a clean and safe place to  shop and eat. There was a real Mayor in charge and was growing the region and being a visible figurehead in day to day stuff. Anytime that there was a shooting....Reed was there talking to the local news to reassure that he was in charge and working to solve the crime. If there was a fire at 3 AM, Reed was there to talk to media and calm the folks affected to reassure them. In 2009, voter apathy and false promises would see Steven Reed removed from office and replaced with a poser that will surely return this city to filth and crime. Now we have shootings on a steady basis and daylight muggings and robberies by restless teens and this person that they call Mayor is nowhere to be seen. She just hires her cronies and people that she gets to be her spokesperson walk out after a short time in position because they can't work with a moron. This city is going to Hell and fast, I was here the first time it was a hole and I'm afraid I'll see it again.

If you weren't here before 1982, sit back and watch as we go back in time instead of forward.

How I stopped shipping traffic

    It was early Summer and I think it was 1988 or 1989. I was putting a new roof on The Hampton Inn on the North end of Virginia Beach, a very nice place but roofers stayed at a dump in the city. We couldn't be trusted to not tear the place up and wreck the hotel bar. Little tourist kids might see how we were acting or a female family member may follow someone to their room for a good time. Someone's husband or father would show up and then there would be the fight that some little tourist kid might see. But I digress. The day we got there and were getting set up, we took a walk around the roof to see what we had to work with. One section overlooked the pool and the gang of us hung over the edge and watched a dude get an underwater present from his wife/girlfriend or whatever. She came up for air and saw us and started gagging......good thing the little tourist kids weren't around. Several days went by and we had a lot of the big work done and we were in the back section that overlooks the beach. We worked from dawn to dark. I got to watch some Navy Seal training maneuvers one night...it was a fun jobsite. 

     But you are here to hear the story of how I single handedly shut down the shipping lanes on the Eastern Seaboard for a night. I was the detail guy. While we were on the back section of the roof, we were told to not move the tripod. When we needed to lay that area, a couple of guys would hold it up and we worked around them and they held it in position. But hey, I had to re-flash the drain and seal it to the rubber we just put down. This tripod was in my way and I could not work around it, so I picked it up and laid it in the corner. I did my exceptional drain work and my area needed to dry and set up. And this tripod had very pointy prongs on the legs and I needed to make cushions so it wouldn't puncture the rubber. I figured there would be no harm in that thing being in the corner overnight.

     We got up the next day, rolled to Waffle House for breakfast (we weren't in a big hurry that day) and headed back to the hotel. We also were not allowed to use the indoor access to the roof because of whatever, so I banged a ladder and was the first guy up. And there they were. Two guys dressed in black suits and looking like they were going to arrest someone. They were allowed to use the indoor roof access, and the badges may have had something to do with that. Man in Black #1 says to me, "Who removed the sensor in the back?" Sensor?! I didn't see a sensor. I told him that it was I that moved the tripod over the drain so I could work. Man in Black #2 says, "Do you have any idea what that is?" I replied that I thought it was a rain gauge and since the weather was looking good, it was fine laying in the corner. MiB #1 is shocked. SHOCKED that was unaware of what it really was. MiB #2 then asks if I really had no idea of what I moved and I didn't know any clearer English to explain that I was dead serious.

     Then they escorted me to the back roof section and explained to me that several buildings along the shore have these sensors so they can reflect radar to help guide ships as they move along the coast. As I looked out at the horizon, there they were. At least 10 ships just sitting in a line. I helped put the tripod back into its' EXACT location and explained again that I had no idea that was what I moved. MiB #1 pulls out a radio and lets someone else know that the situation was under control and restored to normal. I got a very stern warning to never touch that device or any like it without contacting authorities. One  by one, you could see ships starting starting to move on the horizon. It's amazing how much technology has advanced over the years. We laughed and shook hands and they went away and I finished my drain and we all went to the bar.

     They never asked for my ID or my name, thankfully. At that time, the anti government movement was starting to grow and I had done some things that put me on a watch list. A few years later, it got bigger and I was in a warehouse in a residential Harrisburg neighborhood engraving serial numbers into antique Russian assault rifles. Some high profile mailing or such had my name linked to them and I was reaffirmed on this watch list. This was all prior to 9/11/2001. Today, if this was all added up, I would be sitting in a prison and labeled as a terrorist.

DEAD PEASANT INSURANCE - You won't believe this!

Your boss wants you DEAD.








It seems that major corporations in America have been secretly buying life insurance policies on their employees, especially the low-level ones. You die, they win, even after you leave the company. In a lot of circumstances, the families don't get anything. The company tries its hardest to keep the policy a secret. If I bought a life insurance policy on my neighbor, I would have a vested interest in his death. How is this any different?

You don't believe me? Check this out.......


Among the corporations that have bought such insurance (Corporate-owned life insurance (COLI), nicknamed "janitors' " or "dead peasants' " insurance, are AT&T, Dow Chemical, Nestle USA, Procter & Gamble, Walt Disney and Wal-Mart. Corporations gain not merely from the tax-free life insurance benefits they receive when current or former employees die but also can borrow money against these policies. Many companies even deducted the interest on these loans from their taxes.

In 1996 Congress moved to limit such deductions, and the IRS has sued some 80 corporations, including Winn-Dixie and American Electric Power, to collect back taxes on such loans. Still, companies benefit. They are not taxed on gains within a life insurance policy; in effect, these policies amount to tax-free investments for businesses.

Critics have compared these life insurance policies to those purchased by some American slaveholders on the lives of their slaves, who also were unaware of such policies held by their owners. Finally, someone is going to do something about this practice which at the very least is immoral and should be illegal.

Congress recently tried to crack down on the practice, to the howls of the insurance industry -- which earlier this year managed to derail reforms. The companies say profits from the policies can help offset the increased cost of employee benefits and enhance the businesses bottom lines.

In a nation where millions of full-time workers have no health insurance, maybe if we prevent companies from betting on the death of their employees, they’ll invest in the health of their employees.