Paula Russell speaks at CHUMC

I hope this will be the closest I ever come to professional thievery. Paula Russell from Aaron McNeil House was discovered victimizing the organization she was hired to lead. In the initial report she was charged with stealing only from AMH.

The former executive director of the Aaron McNeil House in Hopkinsville is charged with using funds from the non-profit agency to pay more than $23,000 worth of bills.

Then the next day more details were released saying that Paula Russell has done this before.

It happened 8-years ago and law enforcement and court officials say she was going by the name Paula Nightingale. Russell, or Nightingale, pled guilty in December 2003 to three counts of false bookkeeping and one count of felony theft after being indicted on more than 47 various charges. She was ordered to pay nearly 84-thousand dollar in restitution directly to Pasminco Incorporated.

Christian Heights also had our interactions with Ms. Russell/Nightingale when we collected 1100 units of food for Aaron McNeil’s food pantry. On the day when Ms. Russell visited us to receive the donation. She gave the congregation a backhanded compliment saying that she felt welcomed into the church even though CHUMC is 100% white and she is black. It was rude and unnecessary for her to mention it. Her comments reveal what is first on her mind. Are you black or white? Are you the “oppressed” or the oppressor?

Put this in the Dog-Bites-Man category of desperate news reporting. WKDZ is reporting that a 2.4 magnitude earthquake occurred near Paducah on March 24th. The earthquake was felt by no one and no damage was caused by this non-quake earthquake. Somebody tell me where is the story on this?

39 quakes

During the last week there were 38 earthquakes in this region surrounding the Madrid fault that no one cared about. Where is the love for them if that one in Paducah was so important?

The Reason for the Season

My Pastor at Christian Heights, Rev. Marion, preached against the commercialization of Christmas. During the first part of her sermon, Rev. Marion argues against the ‘Creeping X-mas’. The fact that Christmas decorations are put out earlier and earlier every year. I do mean ‘X-mas’ deliberately. That is Christmas without Christ. The X-mas decorations you see in department stores across the country are populated with Santas, elves, candy canes, and reindeer. If there are manger figures displayed at all The Infant is outnumbered ten to one. I’m afraid that even with reinforcements from Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, and the shepherds Christmas couldn’t win a pitched battle against X-mas on the store shelf. Putting out cheaply made Santa figurines in September is a safe bet because Santa doesn’t stand for anything worth fighting for. If freedom… If God… If an idea is worth fighting for then someone will be offended by it.

Later Rev. Marion argues that Creeping X-mas is evidence that people are crying out for God. People are lonely and often the act of collecting more stuff is the method of running away from it. This isn’t true for corporations though. The purpose of a corporation is to make money and even better if they make a lot of money. Very rarely do the business decisions in a corporation ever have a moral dimension. Why does business run seven days a week now but didn’t years ago? Why do you think more retail businesses are staying open on Thanksgiving? The decision makers at Sears are obviously chasing the almighty dollar as fast as they can go.

Reconquer America

Creeping X-mas… because the culture war doesn’t stop ever.

Give it away for free!

My car came pre-installed with an XM satellite radio. Every few months I get new offers/pleas to re-activate my radio. Sirius-XM offers two weeks free. They also offer 5 months of service for $20. $20 is a great deal for someone who will use the service a lot more than I do. Beyond just my disinterest in subscribing, I wonder if Sirius-XM will still be operating in the long-term.

Offering a free trial is a good way to gain more business but I think Sirius-XM has made this offer so often that it doesn’t gain them anything. I listened to XM last year when they gave it away during the Christmas season.  I enjoyed it while the free trial was there but I still didn’t care to subscribe. During the third quarter of this year the service added 334,000 subscribers. Though these subscribers likely aren’t worth much since they probably came in via deeply discounted offers like the one I have.

I don’t know if satellite radio is going to work in the long-term but it is silly to give away free service so often.

HUNEYCUTT SAID SHE COULD NOT COMMENT ON WHY POLLARD WAS PLACED ON LEAVE OR WHEN HE MIGHT RETURN TO WORK. SHE SAYS IN THE MEANTIME, OFFICIALS ARE WORKING TO FIND SOMEONE TO FILL HIS POSITION.

Roger Kerns was eventually picked as the new Transportation Director. Mr. Kerns redrew the bus routes for the entire county during the two month summer break. It is little wonder that the necessary paperwork was not delivered to the schools on time.

SEVERAL STUDENTS WERE NOT PICKED UP AT ALL YESTERDAY (TUESDAY), WHILE OTHERS DIDN’T ARRIVE AT SCHOOL UNTIL AROUND 11 O’CLOCK AND THEN STUDENTS AT CHRISTIAN COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL WEREN’T ALLOWED TO LEAVE UNTIL AROUND 5 O’CLOCK.

THE ISSUES STEM FROM A CHANGE IN BUS DRIVERS, BUS ROUTES AND NOT HAVING PROPER PAPERWORK AT THE SCHOOLS.

WATER WAS PROVIDED TO STUDENTS ON BUSES, A PRECAUTION LINK SAYS WAS TAKEN DUE TO THE EXCESSIVE HEAT, BUT ONE STUDENT WAS TAKEN BY HER PARENTS TO THE HOSPITAL AND WAS TREATED FOR DEHYDRATION.

End the Moratorium Now! America has all of the oil we need if we remove the regulations that prevent us from drilling.

Few things are as devastating to a family as losing a job. Without income, almost everything they need for both short-term survival and long-term stability is at risk: Food, medicines, clothes, shelter, heat, water, transportation, education … everything.

Since 1935, the Unemployment Insurance program has sustained our families when loss of employment threw them into disarray through no fault of their own.

If some states are still paying out benefits at 99 weeks then this stops being temporary. Extended periods of unemployment make government benefits more appealing. Eventually, idleness and government subsidy become a way of life. Motivation and work ethic are destroyed because the productive workers see their neighbors receiving benefits that they do not.

Entitlement. In a word, we have too many idle nitwits believing they are owed something because they belong to a protected class of voters.

April commented earlier on the blog

You say limited and I say where do we draw the line? I am sure people years ago panicked over the thought of a public school system. Or Public roads, fire departments, police departments etc. I am sure they panicked the same way they are now over the health care situation. Now though, we wouldn’t know what to do without those institutions. Why will a Public option health care be so much different?

OK, April, how much debt is too much? The Democrats have spent us into a hole from which it will be very difficult to pull ourselves out of. If our nation is to survive, we  must immediately put governments at all levels on a crash diet. Some people like Governor Chris Christie get it (No fat jokes! Christie is the real deal.).

IF THE DISTRICT HAD USED A TRADITIONAL BOND PROGRAM TO FINANCE THE NEW SCHOOL, THE FINAL BILL WOULD HAVE BEEN ROUGHLY 41-MILLION DOLLARS, BUT WITH THE 14-MILLION DOLLARS SAVED FROM NOT PAYING INTEREST AND THE 7-MILLION DOLLARS EARNED IN INTEREST FROM THE ESCROW FUND, THE NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL WILL BE BUILT AT A COST OF 20-MILLION DOLLARS TO THE TAXPAYERS OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY.

The money being spent here doesn’t magically appear because somebody chased down a leprechaun and stole his pot of gold. The money is generated via three methods all of which are very bad for us. The first is through selling U.S. Treasuries that earn interest to the investor. We already have a crushing level of debt; we can’t afford to borrow another penny period! The second is through the printing of paper currency. The unregulated printing of paper demeans the value of all dollars in circulation. The third and final method is through direct taxation. Which will be the number one topic on April 15th.

WKDZ normally provides excellent news coverage but this story is really no better than if the station had reported unicorns flying through the streets of Hopkinsville. The concept of an interest-free loan does not stand up to any kind of smell test at all. To borrow money is never free unless someone else agrees to eat the cost of not charging interest.