CROSS A UNION

Monday, January 7th, 2013 | Uncategorized

Get your church torched:

It was probably back in 1997, though some think it might have been even earlier, when the Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting concluded that it had outgrown its space and that it was high time to erect a new building. But because it is not the Quaker way to rush into things, the group spent a few more years reflecting on whether it should buy land on Mermaid Lane for the new meetinghouse.

As agonizing as the process was, the result is a trim little design, faced in traditional Wissahickon schist, that will visibly reflect the ideals Quakers hold dear, from respect for the environment to plain old good neighborliness. And yet, in one crucial way, the $5.8 million project now under construction is also a frank acknowledgment of real-world conditions: To afford Philadelphia’s first new Quaker meetinghouse in 80 years, the Chestnut Hill Friends felt their only option was to employ a nonunion contractor.

And now they are paying the price.

Four days before Christmas, the Friends’ world was rocked by the sort of violence they have devoted their lives to stamping out.

Vandals with an acetylene torch crept onto the project’s muddy construction site in the middle of the night. Working out of view in the meetinghouse’s freshly cemented basement, they sliced off dozens of bolts securing the bare steel columns and set fire to the building crane, causing $500,000 in damage.

Police detectives deemed the attack arson because of a series of confrontational visits from union officials days before the incident. They say the torch could only have been operated by a trained professional, and believe it was almost certainly the work of disgruntled union members. The city has assigned extra investigators to the case and is working with federal forensic experts to track down the vandals, said Michael Resnick, the city’s public safety commissioner.

23 Comments to CROSS A UNION

Jim the Puritan
January 7, 2013

The Obama Justice Department needs to investigate this!

(For the church’s blatant violation of worker rights.)

jamesk
January 7, 2013

As Ye Sow…

J. Stuart Little
January 7, 2013

Sounds like a hate crime to me.

Strange, but non of the people I saw in Philly at Christmas time even mentioned it. Of course they also deny the New Black Panthers exist.

Obama should demand the outlaw of unions as he intends to propose with guns. How ’bout it mr happy voice?

Bill2
January 7, 2013

Why do I doubt unionized police will find no evidence of a crime committed by union tradesmen?

Tregonsee
January 8, 2013

One of my grandfathers was a steel union organizer in the 1920s throug the 1950s. He fought Communists in the union, and Nazis as part of the War Labor Board. He had two impressive scars. One was from German shrapnel in WW I, and the other from some Weirton Steel goons in 1935. He would be horrified at what Big Labor has become.

Allen Lewis
January 8, 2013

Big Labor is gonna become what Obama means by a “well regulated militia!”

It would suit his world view.

Katherine
January 8, 2013

Apparently unions are exempt from charges of extortion under the Hobbs Act. Numerous efforts have been made in the past twenty-five years to correct this, but so far union lobbies have prevented it. This means union members can be prosecuted for crimes they commit, like this sabotage and arson, but the union itself is untouchable.

Rod
January 8, 2013

Well they have to take their frustration at the failure of card-check out somewhere!

Therese Z
January 8, 2013

Wissahickon schist. Wissahickon schist. Wissahickon schist.

Sounds like one of those “boola hickey” cheers from the 1920′s, with a megaphone. Should be said faster and faster and faster.

Katherine
January 8, 2013

:-) Therese. Try saying the “vishnu schist” found in the Grand Canyon, fast.

SouthCoast
January 8, 2013

“Vishnu schist” be Hindu. I prefer “Shale We Gathered at the River.”

Therese Z
January 8, 2013

Vishnu schist or vishnu schnot my baby.

Allen Lewis
January 8, 2013

I see this comment thread is drifting into irrelevancy along with the rest of the country.

Katherine
January 8, 2013

:-) Yes, but this sort of thing is why I love MCJ threads. Schist’s so much fun!

FW Ken
January 8, 2013

At least Bill Tighe isn’t speaking medieval French, Katherine.

Christopher Hathaway
January 8, 2013

The only way to stay sane these days is not to take the madness too seriously. It’s like quicksand; it takes you down the more you struggle.

“My advice is to start drinking heavily”

xavier
January 8, 2013

Hi all:
Wow just wow. The unions are acting like a medieval guild and presume that work is owed them.

Guess what guys, you need to persuade the customers and torching construction sites isn’t the way to do it.

xavier

Katherine
January 9, 2013

Right, Xavier, and the difference between these union thugs and the local Cosa Nostra is minimal.

Christopher Johnson
January 9, 2013

Vishnu schist or vishnu schnot my baby.

That’s pretty close to the MCJ comment of the year, T.

I think I may have laughed really hard three or four times in my life. One of the times I did was a very early MST3K take on a short film about some winter athletic competition somewhere.

As the film showed people skiing, the announcer said something to the effect of, “Yes, it’s actually pronounced shee-ing.”

Whereupon Joel replied, “You’re full of skit.” I was on the floor.

Jacob Morgan
January 9, 2013

Burn down a black church in the ’60′s south as racist violence and the FBI hunts the villains until the day they die. Burn down a church as union violence, and nothing to see here. Arson is arson. Why is it that the application of the law is now dependent on a) if the victim is on the politically correct victim list and b) where the assailant’s motives fall in the politically correct spectrum. This is not the rule of law, it is the police acting on the whims of our self-appointed philosopher kings.

Whitestone
January 9, 2013

Lawless unconstitutional Obama has given carte blanche to unions, communists, Islamists and black muslim supremacists – all thugs. His sympathies for dictators, potentates and all manner of totalitarianism is obvious.

His and his fellow ideologues calling the Tea Party terrorists is beyond rational belief.

Obama’s psychological profile (by professionals) is narcissist, subtype, dictator. He will not go quietly into the sunset at the end of this term. He will trash something or create a permanent poobah title for himself.

Here’s a chilling video that clarifies things somewhat (stick it out to the suprise ending): https://www.youtube.com/embed/rrjU-HBkmLE?feature=player_detailpage

gppp
January 9, 2013

Maybe if Obama goes totally degenerate and pardons Wesley Cook, a.k.a. Mumia Abu Jamal, we’ll see a union (the Philly Police union) go totally bat crap. Any other union thuggery would be just a walk in the park.

Peyton
January 10, 2013

Schist happens?

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