Zygi Has a Fit

Free rent and a $675,000 payment from the taxpayers is not good enough for poor little rich man Zygi Wilf. From the St.Paul Pioneer Press:

The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission unanimously passed a proposal today to offer the Minnesota Vikings cost reductions if the team agrees to a two-year lease extension through the 2013 season.

The commission would not collect rent from the Vikings and would give back $675,000 if the team agrees not to sell the team without the commission's consent or move the team outside of Minnesota.

Vikings owners Zygi Wilf and Mark Wilf had sent a scathing letter Wednesday to Paul Thatcher, chairman of the finance committee of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, a day after Thatcher's committee approved a resolution threatening to penalize the team if it doesn't agree to extend its lease at the Metrodome. If the Vikings decline the new lease, they would pay $4 million annually in rent under the proposal.

The letter delivered to Thatcher says the Vikings are "shocked, exasperated and extremely disappointed" by the proposal. The Vikings said they were unaware of the proposal before it was advanced by Thatcher.

"Your actions yesterday leave us confused and questioning the future of this franchise," the Wilfs wrote. "As a result, we have instructed our management team to suspend any further engagement with the MSFC unless and until the Commission gets serious about resolving the near-term revenue issues and acting like a partner with us to retain this valued franchise in Minnesota for the next generation of fans. The time for more political games on this issue has expired."

Publicly financing stadiums is corporate welfare of the worst kind. To use the logic of the defenders of stadium proposals, the taxpayers should ante up and construct the facilities for every single factory and commercial property in the state. That argument is simply ludicrous.

Sports stadiums used to be built, owned and operated by the sports teams. There is absolutely NO reason they still can’t be.

Public financing of sports stadiums is an example of “if everyone is doing it, I have to also”.

All public financing of stadiums does is to subsidize the wealthy owners and their not quite as wealthy players at the expense of the common taxpayer.

It allows Zygi Wilf to have his personal jet fly down to Mississippi to pick up Brett Favre to sign his multimillion dollar contract to throw a ball around.

Meanwhile the common taxpayer is trying to figure out how to afford to gas and maintain their 8 year old car to get to work.

If you want to encourage business and jobs, the fairest and most effective way is to reduce taxes across the board.

Subsidies, TIF districts and the like allow the government and politicians to decide the winners and losers.

Of course that is exactly why politicians and wealthy business love subsides, they grease each others palm using the taxpayers money.

Rest assured, our great leaders in both parties will find a way to transfer money from you and me to Zygi and Brett.

High School Confidential

More nonsense in the never ending saga of government schools imposing censorship and zero tolerance. From WRBC TV:

Some Chattooga (GA) High School students paid $50 in advance for their 2009 yearbook, but when they picked it up last week, four pages were cut out, literally.


The 2009 yearbook was delivered to students, two months late with pages 11-14 clipped out. The books arrived at Chattooga High in early September, but are just now going out to those students who had purchased them last year. On page 10, you see part of a girl's head, next to an unrelated page 15. What happened to the pages in between?

The yearbook was dedicated to former Chattooga teacher Dr. Alan Perry, who supervised the yearbook for the past 27 years. After he retired in May, a new principal and yearbook advisor didn't like what they saw: photos of shirtless boys playing basketball. So before distributing to students, they began the two-month process of cutting pages 11-14 out of every yearbook.

Dr. Perry, who was able to obtain an original, uncut version of the yearbook, posted the pages on his Facebook site. He said, "I'm very disappointed with the decision to mutilate a wonderful yearbook--a decision that was completely unnecessary. There was absolutely nothing inappropriate about the pages that were cut from the book; I am offended by the lack of regard shown for the students pictured on those pages, the students who worked on the yearbook staff last year, and most of all, the students who purchased the yearbook."

Arrested for Pamphleteering / Filming on Federal Property

Federal security officials arrest two men for the crime of passing out literature and filming on federal (public) property. Once again proving that the Constitution no longer matters in this country.

From Garry Reed of the Libertarian News Examiner:

Police arrested a freelance videographer and confiscated the memory card from his camera while he was recording FIJA activist Julian Heicklen Monday.

The videographer, who goes by the name of "bile," was standing on public property at the time.

Heicklen, for the fourth Monday (jury selection day) in a row, was passing out the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) pamphlets, “A Primer for Prospective Jurors” at the federal courthouse in New York City.

After police briefly spoke to Heicklen and left, bile approached him and conducted a short interview.

As he explained on the Free Talk Live radio call-in show that evening, bile had heard about Julian's previous activism and arrests and decided to support him by acting as a witness.

The police, with additional officers, returned and asked Heicklen to leave. He declined, so they announced he was under arrest. As Heicklen always does, he dropped to the ground and went limp and silent.

It was then that Police confronted bile with his digital camcorder. When bile informed them that, "I was working for Free Talk Live," they said he was under arrest for breaking a federal statute that regulates what people on federal property may photograph.

Bile was told he was guilty of photographing "without permission."

Rest of Story here.

Climate McCarthyism: Global Warming Church

John Stossel discusses the McCarthyite tactics used in the Global Warming.. oops sorry, now called Climate Change, debate.

Sneaky Taxes - Pay the State Morning and Night

John Stossel discusses all the sneaky taxes imposed by governments, taxes that are hidden from the average person's view.

You're Watching How He Votes

Here is an ad Campaign for Liberty is running in Nebraska urging Senator Ben Nelson's constituents to tell him to oppose the bill to completely take over our health care.