Category: default || By jt3y

What the hell is wrong with people?

A worker at the Subway on Jacktown Hill was assaulted by some clueless idiot who threw pepper juice or some sort of hot sauce in his face through the take-out window.

My old colleague and cow-orker at the Tribune-Review, Jen Reeger, had the story.

It happened last Friday night, and apparently the horse's ass was copying something he'd seen on YouTube. Some jerk in South Greensburg did the same thing at a Burger King, while the Taco Bell at Norwin Hills shopping center was also hit, Jen wrote in a follow-up story.

She quotes a Seton Hill University therapist, Rebecca Harvey, as saying that it's a "bullying" activity (no kidding) and the product of an "increasingly aggressive and violent" culture.

. . .

It's always tempting to "blame pop culture" for incidents like this, but yeah, TV and radio have certainly been on a steady race to the bottom for at least 20 years, fueled by FCC deregulation that refuses to police content ... unless we see a glimpse of Janet Jackson's nipple or hear the F-word:

• Want to show someone getting the crap kicked out of them on a reality show? There's no prohibition against violence on TV.
  
  
• Want to show two people screaming at each other on "Wife Swap" or "The Apprentice"? The network's standards and practices team and lawyers won't even blink.
  
  
• Want to show nudity during a Shakespeare dramatization on PBS? Expect a quarter-million dollar fine from the FCC.

This is also the product of a pop culture that increasingly mocks the weak and not the powerful. Opie & Anthony, Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and a bunch of other popular entertainers and commentators pick mainly on groups of people who are unpopular (gays or the overweight) or can't fight back (the poor and retarded).

It encourages people who think they have power (like young so-called tough guys in pickup trucks) to beat up on people who don't (like kids the same age who have to work at a fast-food restaurant). Sorry, but this gets up my nose.

. . .

OK, off the soap-box. In the Jacktown Hill incident, township police are looking for a white male in his teens with short brown hair. He's got a late-model, red Dodge Dakota extended cab pickup; it's got a tinted bug shield on the front hood, tinted window shades, Lund hood scoops, brush-bars, fog lights, and a black tonneau cover.

Someone in the Norwin or White Oak area has to know who this turkey is. Drop a dime to the North Huntingdon police at (724) 863-8800 before he or his mouth-breathing friends actually hurt someone.

. . .

In Other Business: Also in North Huntingdon, the Starbucks and Walgreens planned for the site of Chesterfield's Restaurant (the former Ben Gross Supper Club) is on hold temporarily, according to Patti Dobranski in the Trib. The planning commission is asking for changes to be made to the entrances and exits, and also wants the facade to be re-designed.

Meanwhile, another former colleague, Norm Vargo, reports that the township's First Ward Commissioner George Fohner faces a hearing in Westmoreland County Court on Sept. 21 on charges he stole his opponent's campaign sign. Former commissioner Dave Herold defeated Fohner in the May Democratic primary, but Fohner won the Republican nomination with write-in votes.

Fohner is the former fire chief at Strawpump; he's charged with theft by unlawful taking, which is a third-degree misdemeanor. That seems like a bit much, since the sign was valued at only $14, but the law is the law. Details in the Post-Gazette.

. . .

Around Town: Deputy City Fire Chief Tom Balin is retiring after 36 years with the department. Eric Slagle has a nice profile in the Post-Gazette.

Balin is bullish on the city's future: "Everything feels as though it's becoming rejuvenated,'' he said. I like to hear that kind of optimism, and I support it, but I think people who live up along Evans Avenue, for instance, may need some more convincing. Those empty buildings with the windows smashed out don't look very rejuvenated to me.

Also by Slagle and in the P-G: A preview of International Village, which opens at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

. . .

To Do This Weekend: St. Martin De Porres Parish, Market Street, Downtown, holds its church festival tonight, tomorrow and Sunday on the grounds of St. Peter Church. Call (412) 672-9763 ... Want to see the Mon-Yough area from a plane? Wings For Children holds "Fly Around Town For Pennies a Pound" tomorrow and Sunday from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Flights depart Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin; passengers donate 20 cents per pound of their weight for the aerial tour. Proceeds benefit free transportation for sick children who need medical care. Call (412) 469-9930.