philly

So I read in the Inky that there's a big tiff over the Boy Scouts here in Philly. Why? They have a rather stupid no gays policy. Not that big of a deal I thought. They're a privately funded bunch of people with an increasingly conservative Christian right following. Let those fuckers send their kids down some horrible path if they choose, right? Well, they're doing it on my dime and that's different. The article didn't seem all that interesting until the fourth graph:

Late last week, Mayor Street called for the local Cradle of Liberty Council to denounce the national policy, pay fair-market-value rent, or vacate the stately building it occupies at 22d and Winter Streets, near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

[P]ay fair-market-value rent! What they hell were they paying? It wasn't until deep in the story when I read:

Philadelphia rents space to more than 75 community organizations with $1 leases, including 14 other youth organizations and several religious groups.

Whaaa? They haven't been paying rent [$1 is not paying rent] at their 22nd & Winter Sts building [do they occupy the entire building?] and they're being a bunch of bigots? That'll get me pissed off. And on top of that, who is their legal counsel and spokesperson? Robert Bork Jr. As in the son of one Robert Bork, the freako [from Pittsburgh, ugh] Supreme Court nominee under Reagan who got shot down so bad his name is a verb. From a quick read of this Mother Jones article, I see that he's very much cut from the same cloth as daddy with his neo-Con leanings.

If you want to be assholes, be assholes. They've been allowed, by law, to be assholes since 2000 and they've been at 22nd & Winter Sts since 1928. With it's 87K members, this is the third largest chapter of the BSA. Why the city government has allowed them to be assholes and not pay rent, I dunno. They should've acted a long time ago. But they didn't. And they are now. It's one thing to provide a service which is open to [and hopefully benefits] all and get some [or in this case fully] subsidized rent. But to openly and seemingly proudly discriminate? Sorry fuckers.

And this could be a time for parents to get more involved with their kids too. Learn about camping out [what shape is poison ivy/oak!]. Learn how to build a fire from scratch, or nearly scratch with some modern tinderbox tools [I've seen those magnesium & flint tools in action]. Learn how to tie some knots [box knots are easy]. Learn how to properly dispose of a tattered American flag [you burn it]. Pull them out of BSA if they can. Not every parent can though.

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