Allegedly illegal ‘robocalls’ were the subject of the election-fraud trial of former Gov. Bob Ehrlich’s 2012 campaign operative Julius Henson, who claimed the calls constituted a right to “free speech.”

But if they can telephone us,
why can’t we return the favor?

WHY DON’T POLITICAL MESSAGES
QUALIFY FOR ‘DO NOT CALL LIST’?
 
By David Maril
 
Better gear up for the annoying robocalls from political hacks and the “get-out-to-vote for me” pleas from the candidates running for governor. The Maryland primaries are June 24th and the general election will be held Nov. 4th.

Heading into the primaries, the Democrats, the dominant party in Maryland, are holding center stage.

We have Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, trying to distance himself from the Obama healthcare registration debacle after originally claiming bragging rights for launching the program in the state, and leading the way.

State Attorney General Doug Gansler is in frantic pursuit, hoping to rebound from sloppy missteps early in the campaign. Maryland House Del. Heather Mizeur, coming in from the far left, rounds out the field.

The Republicans, led by Harford County Executive David R. Craig and Charles County businessman Charles Lollar, are running on a farfetched plan, with few details, of eliminating the state income tax over several years.

Expect the phones, for those who still have landline telephones, to start ringing off the hook any day now, just when you are sitting down to dinner or beginning to watch your favorite TV program.

I have always wondered how many voters make up their mind while listening to a recorded message from one of the candidates or a campaign worker.

Just as deadly are the campaign lackeys gushing away on the phone about how their man, or woman, will correct every problem in the state while making us all happy and prosperous.

Who needs this pestering? Why aren’t these nuisance interruptions into your home included on the Do Not Call List?

Wouldn’t it be nice payback to turn the tables on all the contending candidates, with recorded telephone messages of our own, asking for their support?

Read more »

DELAWARE DAD’S DEMISE AT 80
PROMPTS HUMOROUS OBITUARY
IN BEACH AREA NEWS OUTLET

Walter George Bruhl Jr. is a dead person;
bereft of life, has gone to meet his maker

ASHES TO BE KEPT IN ‘GRECIAN’ URN
TILL FAMILY TIRES OF ITS PRESENCE;
MEMORIAL LUNCH SATURDAY 1 P.M.
 
Reprinted from Cape Gazette Newspaper
 
Walter George Bruhl Jr. of Newark [Del.] and Dewey Beach is a dead person; he is no more; he is bereft of life; he is deceased; he has rung down the curtain and gone to join the choir invisible; he has expired and gone to meet his maker.

He drifted off this mortal coil Sunday, March 9, 2014, in Punta Gorda, Fla. His spirit was released from his worn-out shell of a body and is now exploring the universe.

He was surrounded by his loving wife of 57 years, Helene Sellers Bruhl, who will now be able to purchase the mink coat which he had always refused her because he believed only minks should wear mink. He is also survived by his son Walter III and wife Melissa; daughters Carly and Paige, and son Martin and wife Debra; son Sam and daughter Kalla. Walt loved and enjoyed his grandkids.

Walt was preceded in death by his tonsils and adenoids in 1935; a spinal disc in 1974; a large piece of his thyroid gland in 1988; and his prostate on March 27, 2000.

He was born in Philadelphia, Pa., April 20,1933 at 10:38 p.m., and weighed in at a healthy seven pounds, four ounces, and was 22 inches long, to Blanche Buckman Bruhl and Walter George Bruhl.

He drifted through the Philadelphia Public School System from 1937 through 1951, graduating, to his mother’s great relief, from John Bartram High School in June 1951.

Walter was a Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War, having served from October 1951 to September 1954, with overseas duty in Japan from June 1953 till August 1954. He attained the rank of sergeant. He chose this path because of Hollywood propaganda, to which he succumbed as a child during World War II, and his cousin Ella, who joined the corps in 1943.

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Viewers are no longer in control of their TV screens.

Why are we not paid rent for the space
they use on our TV sets for their logos?
 
By David Maril

 
On the original “Outer Limits” science fiction TV show, the program opened with an ominous voice warning that you were no longer in control of your television set.
 
 
“We will control the horizontal,” the “Control Voice” explained in a very disturbing tone as horizontal and vertical lines appeared on the black and white TV screen.

“We will control the vertical….

“We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity,” the voice added in menacing fashion as the image grew small and then expanded as if under a microscope.

At the end of the often tense and mysterious 60-minute drama, we were told we were being given back control of our TV screens as we left “The Outer Limits.”

Read more »

 
NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday March 14

[Scroll down for full week’s compendia]
 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
 
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond.   Your weekday morning look  (with links)  at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Friday:

Maryland Del. Michael Smigiel is frisked by Wicomico County Cpl. Hal Phillips after being stopped for openly carrying a rifle on a public street to dramatize need for new gun laws.

Upper Shore Republican Del. Michael D. Smigiel was filmed debating the right to openly carry long guns in Maryland with a Wicomico County police officer and Sheriff Michael A. Lewis.

Common Cause Maryland questioned the ethics of Smigiel’s use of two on-duty law enforcement officers to make the video, saying, “It seems like this might be crossing a line.”

Read More at: 
Maryland Daily Record

•  LEGISLATION TO LEGALIZE POT IN MARYLAND FAILS

Neither the House nor Senate committee considering proposed bills to legalize the recreational use of marijuana has enough votes to get them to the floor for a vote.

Read More at:  WBAL-TV (Channel 11)

•  ‘BIKE BELTWAY’ SCHEDULES TOWSON OPENING

The designated bicycle lanes along 4.2 miles of roads around downtown Towson are scheduled to be completed by June.

Read More at:  Baltimore Sun

•  VOLTAGE NIGHTCLUB LOSES LIQUOR LICENSE

After 16 months in operation at the O’Donnell Street travel plaza, Baltimore’s biggest nightclub got its liquor license revoked Thursday.

Read More at:  WBFF Fox45-TV

•  BWI WORKERS PROTEST IN ANNAPOLIS

Read more »

 
NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday March 7

[Scroll down for full week’s compendia]
 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
 
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond.   Your weekday morning look  (with links)  at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Friday:

The U.S. Postal Service’s Star-Spangled Banner ‘forever’ stamp was unveiled Thursday by the Smithsonian Institution at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

The stamp was dedicated Thursday at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., as the Smithsonian Institution began a year-long celebration of the 200th anniversary of the flag and song that became the national anthem.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, where in September 2014 Francis Scott Key penned the lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as he watched the flag while being held captive on an invading ship in the Inner Harbor.

The Smithsonian has housed the flag, which it recently restored, since the early 1900s. Key’s lyrics, set to the music of a popular drinking song of the time, became the national anthem in 1931.

On Flag Day, June 14th, the museum is planning a simultaneous singing of the anthem nationwide and will also display Key’s original manuscript with the flag for the first time, borrowing the handwritten text from the Maryland Historical Society.

Read More at:  WBFF Fox45-TV

•  BWI FIRES BLACK, HIRES HISPANIC FIRE CHIEF

The action comes on the heels of the hiring of an all-white class of firefighter recruits last month and is being questioned by the NAACP and the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters.

Read More at:  Baltimore Sun

•  DEMOCRATS COME TO CUMMINGS’ DEFENSE AFTER HOUSE HEARING

The Maryland congressman was unceremoniously silenced and his microphone cut off by Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who adjourned the hearing contrary to Cummings’ objections.

The committee is looking into whether the Internal Revenue Service has targeted conservative groups. The key witness’s refusal to answer questions by taking the Fifth Amendment caused Issa to adjourn the hearing.

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