Monday, January 9, 2012
Coyote sighting
I understand that a coyote was seen on Mt. Lebanon Blvd. yesterday morning. Any reader spot it? Since the only coyote that I have seen was Wile E., I decided to read about coyotes in PA. Yep, they're here. Lucky us, they are bigger than western coyotes. From what I understand, our coyotes are coyote-wolf hybrids. The good news is they like to eat deer. The bad news is they like to eat cats, dogs, and have known to attack people. So now what? Do we let them thin the deer herds naturally, or do we start thinking about coyote hunts?
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31 comments:
It's a full moon tonight. Listen for them howling.
I heard their favorite meal is mail carriers with MTL magazines. Something about the cake flavored ink!
This is priceless!!!! Thanks for the laugh!!!
Elaine
'A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.' - Edward Roscoe Murrow
The same guy, who grew up in a Quaker family in which smoking was prohibited, also said:
"I doubt I could spend a half hour without a cigarette with any comfort or ease."
It's a sign!
Elaine
Always a good time to sing a simple song and guess who the characters are.
"Pigs, Sheep And Wolves" by Paul Simon
Big and fat
Pig's supposed to look like that
Barnyard thug
Sleep on straw and calls it a rug
Yeah that's a rug, ok
He's walking down the street
And nobody's going to argue with him
He's a half-a-ton of pig meat
Up in the hills above the farm
Lives a pack of wolves
Never did no harm
Sleep all day
Hunt till four
Maybe catch a couple of rodents
You know carnivore
Sheep in the meadow
Nibbling on some clover
One of the sheep wanders over
Sits by a rock
Separated from the flock
He's just sitting by a rock
Where'd he go?
I don't know
Well he was here a minute ago
I don't know
Sheep's dead
Got a gash as big as a wolf's head
Oh God
Big and fat
Pig's supposed to look like that
Wallowing in lanolin
He's rubbing it into his pigskin
Police going crazy
Let's get him
Let's get that wolf
Let's get him
Let's get that wolf
Let's get him
Let's kill him, Let's get him
Let's kill him
Court-appointed lawyer wasn't very bright
Or maybe he was bright
Maybe he just had a late night
Yeah it was just a late night
And he files some feeble appeal
And the governor says forget it
It's a done deal
Election, I don't care, election
Let's give that wolf a lethal injection
Let's get him, yeah get him
Let's kill him, Let's get him
Let's kill him, Let's get him,kill him
Let's get him and kill him
Whew, slow
Here comes the media
Setting up their camera
Asking everyone's opinion
About pigs, sheep and wolves
Big and fat
Pig's supposed to laugh like that
This is hilarious
What a great time
I'm the pig who committed
The perfect crime
All around the world
France, Scandinavia
There's candle light vigils
Protesting this behavior
It's animal behavior
Animal behavior
It's Pig, sheep and wolves
Pig, sheep and wolves
Pig, sheep and wolves
It's animal behavior
Pig, sheep and wolves
Anon 7:22:
So, help us out here....
Pig - Posti?, Wolf - Cannon? Sheep - Taxpayers?
Yes? No? What?
I have my cast of characters, its up to you to select yours.
"We are kind, courteous, and respectful to one another" was the sensible motto of Foster Elementary a number of years ago.
Perhaps your anonymous commenters calling people who disagree with you "pigs" could learn a thing or two from first graders and the great Barbara Float.
Did somebody seriously call Ms. Posti a pig? This site has hit a new low. Perhaps an apology is in order.
Face it, folks. The election is over and you lost--and not by just a little. By almost 700 votes. Mr. Cannon could have increased his vote total by 16% and still he would have lost.
After the primary election someone wrote on one of the blogs that, "The people have spoken." since Mr. Cannon came in first in the Republican primary. Well, now the people really have spoken. Mr. Cannon was 2000 (!) votes out of first place. People here want the new school. That should be obvious to all except those wearing blinders.
Consider the possibility that the majority is correct and you're wrong.
Anon 1:05:
Just curious, what in your mind would have the first graders at Foster and Barbara Float thought about the malicious and libelous pre-election e-mail authored under a fictitious name and widely distributed by the PTA leadership?
Have you spoken out against the PTA's behavior or do you have different standards for the inner circle? Why not be fair and sign your name as well?
-Charlotte Stephenson
Ms. Stephenson, any libelous and malicious language is counter-productive. I'd think most would agree that the best approach to attacks is not to stoop to the level of those making the attacks--or in the case of calling people pigs, getting down even deeper in the mud. (NOTE: I'm not accusing you of doing this.)
I have no dog in this fight as I'm not a current resident of Mt. Lebanon (and frankly have no interest in moving back), nor do I have any idea who the inner circle is and don't know anything about the email you reference apart from reading the references to it on this blog. Therefore, I have no real reason to comment on specifics. My commentary was strictly on the tone of the anonymous dialogue.
And like others who have remained acceptably anonymous in commenting on this blog, I chose to remain anonymous for my own reasons.
Once again, people prove that they cannot read nor are they able to comprehend simple english!
Please, please tell me where anyone, anyone called Ms. Posti a pig?
Anon 10:22 asked: "help us out here"...
Pig - Posti? Wolf - Cannon? Sheep - Taxpayers?
But that isn't calling anyone a pig, wolf or sheep!
SO 2:12, Barbara seems we're wearing our disagreeable coat today... perhaps!
Clearly, Paul Simon would have been more successful had he gone to Foster School.
Elaine
I'm quite capable of reading between the lines based on the overall tone of the blog and cast of anonymous commenters. The intent of the song lyrics and following comments were quite clear. Playing coy doesn't excuse crude behavior.
Mr./Ms. Anonymous 3:11 (and possibly 2:12 or 1:05?):
It’s too bad that others do not have standards like yours when it comes to malicious or libelous language and that you missed the pre-election frenzy to widely distribute such trash.
Since you are unaware of the pre-election dirty politics, what you do not know is that those pre-election activities born of a selfish need for power at any cost to others have placed in jeopardy the efforts of many hard working and well-intentioned resident volunteers and possibly an employer and employees. Add to that the personal damage to the targets of the malicious attacks, in my opinion this engagement in some Orwellian Animal Farm-like analysis pales in comparison.
I can only hope that justice will prevail in the end as investigations are concluded so those who appear to have abused their positions will be removed from public service never to rear their ugly heads again.
Stay tuned…
-Charlotte Stephenson
Perhaps Anon 1:05 was absent the day they discussed literary allusion in school or pahaps dropped out after attending Foster.
From About.com
"Definition: An allusion is a reference, within a literary work, to another work of fiction, a film, a piece of art, or even a real event. An allusion serves as a kind of shorthand, drawing on this outside work to provide greater context or meaning to the situation being written about. While allusions can be an economical way of communicating with the reader, they risk alienating readers who do not recognize these references.
So Anon 1:05 arrives here to lebocitizens alienated not because they are right, but rather because they missed the allusion.
Have no idea about specifics such as the email Charlotte refers too and so in their ignorance chooses to characterize the commenters here as uncouth or uncivil.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
Anon 1:05 just so you don't run off and "read between the lines" again, understand... I wasn't calling you... a pot!
It was a literary allusion!!!
I'm very familiar with literary allusions. Taken in a vacuum, perhaps the lyrics could be seen as such. When read in the context of the entire body of work of this blog (and the rabid distaste displayed towards Ms. Posti), it's really quite hard to see it as a simple allusion. We didn't REALLY call her a pig...wink wink...
And with that, I shall depart from here. No sense in chatting with folks who are always right.
This is insane. We have a school board that is raping the community. Bill Matthews said some pretty serious stuff last night. And the person who could "read between the lines" is more upset with lyrics from a song that were written by someone who probably never even heard of Mt. Lebanon, let alone Josephine Posti, than how our community is being treated. We have a poll where there are only eight people who think the SB is going by the book. One more vote, and we have a school board. I have a very long list of names that should receive an apology before Josephine Posti gets one. And I don't even have a clue who is the pig, the sheep or the wolves!!!!
Elaine
I thought the reference was to the school district as it gobbles up all the available cash in the community, leaving nothing but scraps for the municipality and recreation.
Guess I'm not as myopic as "read between the lines!"
Does Ms. Stephenson realize that PA PTA cleared PTA of any wrongdoing in regards to the election? Maybe the PTA isn't as evil as she believes it is.
Anon 7:17 PM would you mind telling me more about that? Did you get a letter from PA PTA?
Elaine
I’d like to address the anonymous commenter who claimed the following:
Consider the possibility that the majority is correct and you're wrong.
I’m not sure that the high-school project’s supporters represent a majority, but I hope that somebody is indeed keeping score of who turned out to be right and wrong. Because, according to my score-sheet, the project’s supporters aren’t doing so well.
They were wrong about what the project was going to deliver, wrong about how much it was going to cost, wrong about whether their design was affordable, and wrong about there being no good, lower-cost alternative.
Yes, I hope somebody is keeping score, because a lot of these same community leaders are now making claims about other things. And, sooner or later, we’d better learn not to trust them so much.
Please note the following data, gleaned from the Allegheny County Board of Elections, for Mt. Lebanon's participation in the 2011 General Election:
Population of Mt. Lebanon: 33,176
Number of registered voters: 25,687
Number of votes cast in 2011 General Election: 9,394
Percentage of registered votes casting votes: 36.57%
Percentage of registered votes not voting: 63.43%
Number of possible School Board votes: 46,970 (each voter could cast five votes)
Number of votes actually cast for School Board Candidates: 34,827
Anyone who maintains that the results of the 2011 General Election in Mt. Lebanon show that the majority of municipal residents support the Board is wrong, for the simple reason that the winning candidates, in total I might add, did not receive votes from more than 50% of the municipality's registered voters. Mr. Cannon and the write-ins together received 19.8% of the total number of votes cast for school board candidates, which means that the Demopublican candidates received 80.2% of the total number of votes cast. Since not everyone cast five votes the distribution is unknown, but one can deduce from the data that, being generous, if 80.2% of the 36.57% of registered votes support the current Board, they represent only 29.3% of the total number of registered voters in Mt. Lebanon, or 7,533 out of 25,687 people! And contrary to what you may read or hear elsewhere, a voter only represents himself or herself - not his or her neighbor.
Very, very, very well said Tom!
There is an old proverb...
Fool me once...
shame on you!
Fool me twice...
Shame on me!
Seems the high school proponents have had their once, twice, thrice... so now its shame on us!!!
Correction: Percentage of registered voters not voting: 63.43%
7:17 - I can't let this go - you know as well as I do that no such decision has been made. It's time to stop this and get the PTA house in order for those of us who really want to do positive things and bring credibility back to our organization. Let those members who acted poorly and damaged our reputation move on so the rest of us can do positive things in the PTA.
Signed,
A disgusted PTA member
Anon 2:12--I wasn't going to respond but thought it prudent to point out the folly of your statements. You, Anonymous, and people like you are the problem in this community (and if you're going to make such grandiose statements, at least have the integrity to sign your name).
You wrote "Face it, folks. The election is over and you lost--and not by just a little. By almost 700 votes. Mr. Cannon could have increased his vote total by 16% and still he would have lost."
I beg to differ, Anonymous. The community lost. And they will continue to lose so long as a tiny vocal minority here is allowed to drive the bus.
You are correct in that we did not win the election. But I suppose a lot depends on the definition of victory. Our campaign handed the residents a victory because it exposed the corruption that runs rampant in our tiny effete little hamlet. The SB was in such a tizzy that they collectively stepped over the line and exposed themselves for who, or what, they really are. We were castigated by the Democrats (which was really a waste of energy considering it was a local race), ignored by the inept local Republican committee leadership, luaghed at BEFORE the primary by the county R committee, watched as alleged "Republicans" openly campaigned for Democrats, saw the local PTA run rampant with smarmy and poorly researched negative literature and watched in disbelief as sitting school board members participated in both the behind-the-scenes chicanery and openly committed possible legal violations. Yes, Anonymous, what a "win" for the commmunity.
People can keep sticking their heads in the sand and pretending that somehow Lebo is different than say, Chicago or Caracas. But the bottom line is, the small bunch of autocrats who desperately cling to their little sliver of local authority did everything they could to keep it. So yes, in that sense, they "won" and we "lost". Think about that sweet taste of victory when the SB comes back to the community in a year to explain the cost overruns or they demand you file a right-to-know request to get your child's grades released. The SB is out of control and people like you allowed it to happen, Anonymous. Thanks.
And before someone uses the same tired line "if you don't like it, then move", let me nip it in the bud: No. YOU move. I don't live here so I can be intimidated or pushed out. If you don't like people trying to do the right thing, helping their neighbors, attempting to promote a positive culture and strive to make the community affordable, YOU leave. We don't need you here. You move out. You go somewhere else and take your unaffordable, unrealistic and unnecessary projects with you. Take your culture of corruption and sneaky, back-door approach and personal attacks with you. Go find a place where the thought process is totally homogenous and dissent doesn't exist. That'll work out well. I'm fine where I am and I intend to kick things up a notch to turn our community back around to where it should be.
I tend to believe our community has a majority of good, decent, honest people who want to do the right thing but are discouraged by the bullies in our town. Well, to the good people I say, let the bullies have their moment in the sun. It will come to an end eventually, just like it always does for people like that. And when it does, we can start rebuilding. Until then, don't give up. The pendelum will swing back to the right side...And those of you who take shots at me under Anonymous--I would be happy to meet with you personally and discuss any and all issues for which you feel passionate. Please let me know. My contact info is online.
James Cannon, it wasn't the PTA, it was your sister.
Anonymous 10:26
Wasn't it both Josephine Posti and the PTA working together? A copy of the "Bill Zellers" e-mail came to me from Karen Morris, Hoover PTA Pres. I won't be paying dues next year if Morris is still there. Our PTA can do better that that.
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