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First lemonade stands, now car washing
Laws and regulations control fund raising via  lemonade stands. And now government  goes  after fund raising via car washing.
No more car wash fund raising says Capitola, CA mayor.
Capitola, CA Â Mayor Stephanie Harlan wants to alert anyone planning a car wash fundraiser to find an alternative.
“The soapy water goes right down the street,” Haran said at a Thursday night budget study session.
The City Council heard about a new position, environmental projects manager, whose job  will be to improve water quality in the city. So soapy water suds from  fund raising via car washing is the latest target of  local government.
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Firenze Sage: Â Another harmless tradition falls victim to Gaia.Â
Niemoller: First they came for…
MARTIN NIEMÖLLER: “FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE SOCIALISTS…”
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Martin Niemöller, a prominent Protestant pastor who opposed the Nazi regime. He spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. Germany, 1937.
— Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.
The quotation stems from Niemöller’s lectures during the early postwar period. Different versions of the quotation exist. These can be attributed to the fact that Niemöller spoke extemporaneously and in a number of settings. Much controversy surrounds the content of the poem as it has been printed in varying forms, referring to diverse groups such as Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Trade Unionists, or Communists depending upon the version. Nonetheless his point was that Germans–in particular, he believed, the leaders of the Protestant churches–had been complicit through their silence in the Nazi imprisonment, persecution, and murder of millions of people.
Only in 1963, in a West German television interview, did Niemöller acknowledge and make a statement of regret about his own antisemitism (see Gerlach, 2000, p. 47). Nonetheless, Martin Niemöller was one of the earliest Germans to talk publicly about broader complicity in the Holocaust and guilt for what had happened to the Jews. In his book Über die deutsche Schuld, Not und Hoffnung (published in English as Of Guilt and Hope)–which appeared in January 1946–Niemöller wrote: “Thus, whenever I chance to meet a Jew known to me before, then, as a Christian, I cannot but tell him: ‘Dear Friend, I stand in front of you, but we can not get together, for there is guilt between us. I have sinned and my people has sinned against thy people and against thyself.'”
Firenze Sage: Another hidden tax [ObamaCare]
 Another hidden ObamaCare tax
 The poor consumer almost choked on the  breakfast croissant  he purchased at the Oakland Airport.Â
The reason for his consternation: a 2 percent hidden  tax he did not expect. Â
It said, “EmpBen_Srchg†and it came to 12 cents, or about 2 percent of his bill.
“I interpret this to be employee benefit surcharge, so I asked Oakland Airport.”
“The Port of Oakland agreed to permit its concessionaires to add a surcharge of up to two percent on guest checks to cover the cost of providing medical benefits to its employees,†Joanne Holloway, an airport spokeswoman, explained. “The businesses are required to post notification of this charge on its menu boards and on the guest receipt.â€
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Firenze Sage:  Dear Mr Obama,  here’s another one  you missed.  [Obama-Care tax]
Obama’s Hidden Taxes       A Hidden Tax in Obama-Care
Firenze Sage: Workers’ paradise [China’s dead pigs]
The heady optimism of four years ago has now given way to more sober views, thanks to the accretion of facts. Facts like 16,000 dead pigs floating down Shanghai’s Whampoa river in March. Or the worst air pollution on record in Beijing in January, with levels of tiny particulate matter reaching levels 25 times higher than the standard in the U. S. Or 80% of the East China Sea lost to fishing because of the pollution, according to Elizabeth Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations. Or 1.2 million premature deaths due to air pollution, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study.
Another nugget: “A recent social media campaign led by locals and international activists shed light on the growing phenomena of ‘cancer villages’—areas where water pollution is so bad that it has led to a sharp rise in diseases like stomach cancer,†wrote Thomas Thompson last month in Foreign Affairs. “The China Geological Survey now estimates that 90% of China’s cities depend on polluted groundwater supplies. Water that has been purified at treatment plants is often recontaminated en route to homes.â€
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Firenze Sage: Â The worker’s paradise. Â Â Four More Years by Firenze Sage
Firenze Sage: Human wind farm [Barbara Boxer]
Firenze Sage: Fire the IRS liars [Lois Lerner et al]
Firenze Sage: not far fetched [hiding from drones]
Firenze Sage: Disgrace [no help from 911]
An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts.
Oregon Public Radio reports that an unidentified woman called 911 during a weekend in August 2012 while Michael Bellah was breaking into her place. Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday.
“Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,†the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away? Do you know if he’s intoxicated or anything?† More information
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Firenze Sage:  Will the citizenry sit still yet again or will they finally toss out the louts who cannot get priorities straight.  jaj48@aol.com  Four More Years
Firenze Sage: Asp to Boston saga [MI5, job offer Adebolajo]
MI5 asked Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebolajo if he wanted to work for them about six months before the killing, a childhood friend has said.
Abu Nusaybah told BBC Newsnight his friend – one of two men arrested after Drummer Lee Rigby’s murder in south-east London on Wednesday – had rejected the approach from the security service.
The BBC could not obtain any confirmation from Whitehall sources. Â More information
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Firenze Sage: Â Well so much for British efficiency but then remember Philby. Â jaj48@aol.com