Tuesday, March 24, 2015

More errors in Ms. Menge's 'newspaper' and she misquotes the Bible! (and misquotes John Szerdi too)

Yesterday pointed out that Ms. Menge made significant errors in her 'transcription' of John Szerdi's "Full Text of Speech by Outgoing Commissioner John Szerdi". These appeared on page 7 of her ALWAYS FREE self-described community newspaper, Vol. 1, Issue 10 on March 20th.

The most egregious error occurred when she not only misquoted John Szerdi, she also misquoted the Book of Proverbs. Not exactly the type of error you would expect from someone who wants to open a charter school teaching the ancient classics.

Before I get to that error there are others; here are a few:

Ms. Menge published this:
For, we have a great need for financial and environmental sustainability in the city. 
Mr. Szerdi actually said:
For, we have a great need for financial and environmental stability in our city. 
 Ms. Menge published this:
     I'm a founding member of the cottages of Lake Worth, which is to promote one of the city's most valuable and charming resources we have. This in itself will continue to fill the city with more residents to patronize our businesses and create jobs.
Mr. Szerdi actually said:
     I'm a founding member of the cottages [sic, should be "Cottages"] of Lake Worth, which is to promote one of the city's most valuable and charming resources we have. This in itself will continue to refill the city with more residents to patronize our businesses and create jobs.
The difference between the words "fill" and "refill" may seem trivial but it's not at all. Mr. Szerdi is clearly referencing the many people who've abandoned the City of Lake Worth, due to the Great Recession for example, and the many properties that have subsequently fallen into disrepair. Many of these properties (including cottages), when renovated by new homeowners, will once again add to our city's charm and character.

And now to the most grievous error of them all, the misquotes by Ms. Menge of the Book of Proverbs and the Proverbs quote used by John Szerdi:

Ms. Menge published this:
     In closing, please indulge my reference to Proverbs 29:8. "People who make fun of wisdom cause trouble in the city. But wise people calm anger down."
Mr. Szerdi actually said:
     In closing, please indulge my reference to Proverbs 29:8. "People who make fun of wisdom cause trouble in a city, but wise people calm anger down."
Proverbs 29:8 was not referring to any one city in particular as Ms. Menge's misquote would lead someone to believe, certainly not the City of Lake Worth which was incorporated a few years after the Book of Proverbs was composed. In the video below, at the 8:52 mark, you can listen to John Szerdi's quote from the Book of Proverbs yourself.
Here is the correct version of Proverbs 29:8 that John Szerdi accurately quoted:
Instead of Ms. Menge publishing the entire text of John Szerdi's speech she could have just published a link to my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxv_Vt6fjnE

She's seen my video. How do I know that? Ms. Menge used a screen image from my video that was published on the front page of her newspaper:
This image was published on the front page of Ms. Menge's newspaper, above-the-fold.
This image is from my video that day on March 16th. It's from this spot in the City Commission chambers that I take video of the city commission meetings. Note where the image was cropped compared to the first image above.