Enough already

I just went to cbsnews.com. It had four pictures of Katie Couric.

Four

pictures

of Katie Couric.

So, who's the star of that network again?

Weather 1, TV weather forecasters 0

I gotta stop listening to TV weather forecasters. When I got up this morning, the message was that this would be a miserable day, and tonight will be chilly. So I wore a heavier shirt than normal. I go outside for a walk at noon, and what do I find? Clear skies, sun and warm temperatures.

In winter, I love how they get on the air and say, "We're expecting a heavy frost. Stay off the roads unless it's absolutely necessary or else you'll die in a horrible accident. But watch our film from where we're driving all over the place in that dangerous weather."

I remember sitting in the Boyd County Courthouse many years ago. The man who was judge-executive at the time started talking about a woman who once did the weather news on a local station.

"I lost a lot of hay because of that woman," he said.

We need a new bridge

Crossing the Ohio River from West Virginia into Chesapeake is just too dangerous on the Nick J. Rahall II Bridge, formerly known as the West 17th Street Bridge. If you're coming from Interstate 64, traffic narrows from two lanes to one. Right at the bridge, cars coming up from Washington Avenue are trying to merge into your only lane. Too many times I have seen near-accidents. Too many times I have come close to being in a near-accident myself.

The bridge opened in or around 1967. For some reason, someone thought it was a good idea to connect two four-lane highways with a two-lane bridge. We need a second bridge there.

As it happens, a news article out of Kentucky today says the estimated prices of new Ohio River bridges in the Louisville and Cincinnati areas have shot upwards substantially because of increases in prices for steel and concrete. We're not talking millions anymore. For such large projects, we're talking billions.

A new bridge at Huntington wouldn't cost $1 billion. It would require some new entrance ramps, but it would be worth it. Sooner or later, someone is going to die there. I hope I'm wrong.

While I'm at it, the state of Ohio should do in Rome Township what it's doing in Pomeroy. Up that way, the state is replacing the old Pomeroy-Mason Bridge with a new bridge. When the new bridge is finished, Ohio will turn it over to West Virginia.

If I were Ohio, I might consider building a new bridge near the spot where the Merritts Creek connector ends on the West Virginia side. That would accelerate development of the eastern end of Lawrence County and possibly the southern end of Gallia County. You would need only two lanes to make an impact, probably, although if you're going to build two lanes, you might as well build four.

Cost of having kids

CNNMoney.com has an article with the headline "Ringing up baby: What infants really cost."

I know someone who says she and her husband talked about having a baby, but only when they had enough money to afford one. These are two people who both work at good jobs.

I wish I had told her I knew exactly how much kids cost: Everything you have, ever have had and ever will have, plus 10 percent.

Plame, NIE... I don't care

I'm paid to have opinions, but I refuse to have one on the whole Valerie Plame thing and the NIE thing that came out and . . .

Why? A year from now, none of it will make any difference. I have a limited supply of outrage in my brain. I reserve mine for Fortune 500 companies that pay their executive millions and at the same time deprive widows of the pensions their late husbands earned. I can't stand it when people try to spin me with partisan talking points.

So if you're waiting for me to have an opinion on the day's partisan talking points, I'm sorry to disappoint you.

No I'm not.

Too quiet on the election front

Here in the Huntington area we have two issues on the ballot, and the silence from those putting them on the ballot is surprising.

One is a $95-per-year fee to be assessed on all residences in the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District. The other is a property tax in the city of Huntington to pay for new street paving projects.

Lots of people are complaining about these issues, but no one has come forward in an organized effort to support either. No "Friends of Parks" or "Pave Streets Now" or anything like that. If either effort has support among any group of voters, I have yet to receive one letter. It's almost as if the two governing bodies put the issues on the ballot and cannot or will not do anything to support them.

WISECRACK of the Day:

From a mathematical standpoint, but not a political one, a negative add is still a minus.

Kids' TV better than grown-up stuff

If I were to sit down in front of my TV and look for some entertainment to get me through a few minutes, I'm more likely to check out children's programming than shows aimed at more mature audiences.

Lately, I've taken to watching "Avatar: The Last Airbender." Before that it was "Jimmy Neutron," "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain." What these four shows have in common is that they are adult entertainment (not porn, but entertainment aimed at adult minds) that is stuck on the kids' channels, but I don't care.

In general, I'll take an animated movie over a live-action one any day. Every so often I will grab something like a "Shrek" DVD and put it in my home computer, plug in the headphones and enjoy the sound editing. When you consider how much computer graphics went into the most recent "Star Wars" movie, that one should qualify as an animated feature, too.

My kids got me to watching Avatar, and they introduced me to a serial shows more heart and intelligence than 90 percent of what's advertised on network prime time TV. I don't even pay attention to nightly network fare anymore except when "American Idol" is on.

So if you want intelligent programming that does not insult your adult mind, check out the kids' networks first. Remember, Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner cartoons were aimed at adults as much at kids. That's why we remember them.

Sports teams I don't like

Part of the fun of watching sports is rooting for your team and rooting against other teams. I used to root for the Reds when they were a major league team. But these are the teams I love to root against, in no particular order:

Pittsburgh Steelers

Dallas Cowboys

New York Yankees

New York Mets

New York Knicks

Los Angeles Lakers

Oakland Raiders

San Francisco Giants

San Francisco 49ers

(I'm beginning to notice some trends here).

Why do I root against these guys? I don't know. When the Reds and the Dodgers were in the same division, I loved to root against L.A. But I can't be as down on them now as I used to be.

On the flip side, one of my nephews has a T-shirt with a football on it and the words, "University of Rio Grande, undefeated since 1876." Now there's a team you can root for.

(In case you hadn't figured it out, URG was founded in 1876, and as far as I know, it's never had a football team).

And you thought airport security was tight...

This from The Columbus Dispatch, via The Associated Press:

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio (AP) — Students in this Columbus suburb will have to produce a student identification card or class schedule to get into Friday night’s football game, part of a new effort to reduce disruptions at the games.
High school officials instituted the policy after students from an another district caused problems at Reynoldsburg’s home opener. One student was arrested after arguing with a police officer.
Students not affiliated with the two competing schools can still attend, provided they are accompanied by a parent.
...The policy mandates that middle and high school students prove that they attend school in the Reynoldsburg or opposing team’s district.
...Aside from a few complaints that the measure punishes behaving students or prevents them from bringing friends to the game, the policy has been well-received, school board President Cheryl Max said.

So nowadays it takes more ID to go to a middle school or high school football game that it does to use a credit card to buy a week's worth of groceries.

Such is life.

Smiling Bob indicted

I can't believe this. I just cannot believe it. I'm shocked.

The company that gives us those repulsive Smiling Bob commercials for "natural male enhancement" has been indicted for consumer fraud. According to the AP, a federal indictment makes the following accusations against Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, which makes Enzyte and other dietary supplements:

— Customers responding to free-trial offers were placed in an automatic shipping program, through which credit cards were billed without authorization. The company at various times offered full refunds, “double your money back,” and “triple your money back” guarantees that were false.

— Complaints were referred to Michael Johnson, director of customer care, who did not exist.

— Advertising for Enzyte, the male-enhancement supplement, says it was developed by two doctors — one at Harvard and one at Stanford — after 13 years of studying human blood flow. Neither doctor existed.

A year or two ago, Consumer Reports bought some Enzyte and found it contained nothing special, if memory serves me well.

So how is Smiling Bob's wife taking this news?

Although I will give Smiling Bob credit for one thing. The jingle that plays on his commercials is much less irritating than the one that plays on Cialis commercials. Not that I like either. And I sure don't like those commercials coming on when I'm watching something with my daughter.

Rural Internet access

I live out in the country, less than 10 miles from downtown Huntington. Cable's not interested in running a line out my way, Verizon doesn't offer DSL where I am and I can't afford HughesNet for satellite Internet service.

So I'm stuck with dialup at home.

I wrote an editorial on the subject the other day, and I received several calls agreeing with my point that high-speed services is almost a basic utility now. If I ever move, two things I will look for are a public sewer system (not a necessity) and high-speed Internet (a true necessity in my line of work and given the kinds of things my kids want to see on the Net).

That doesn't mean I'll move to the city. I'm a country boy, and it would take a lot for a city to grab me, but I do want high-speed Net when I move again.

Metal thefts

Remember the good old days of about nine months ago when low-lifes stole copper wiring from construction sites or the copper plumbing from your home when you were away for a few days? Now they go lower. Over the weekend, someone stole a bronze front door from a mausoleum in a Huntington cemetery and 13 bronze window bar gaurds. Total value: $20,000.

Some scrap metal dealer has to be in on this. What dealer wouldn't think twice about a couple of good boys arriving with a big bronze door and a dozen bronze bars in their pickup? Not something you would see every day, right?

What's next? Digging up graves in search of copper caskets that can be salvaged? What will lowlifes do next to feed whatever habits they have?

Seasons

The rule of thumb that autumn begins on Sept. 20 or 21 is just that: something easy to remember but not necessarily accurate.

The same goes with the old idea that on the first day of fall, day and night are the same length. Not necessarily so.

The U.S. Naval Observatory offers a great Web site to learn about the motion of the sun and the moon across the sky. Here is a quote from its page on the change of seasons:

“Day and night are not exactly of equal length at the time of the March and September equinoxes. The dates on which day and night are each 12 hours occur a few days before and after the equinoxes. The specific dates of this occurrence are different for different latitudes.

“… At higher latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the date of equal day and night occurs before the March equinox. Daytime continues to be longer than nighttime until after the September equinox.”

The equinox occurred at 12:03 a.m. today, making this the first day of autumn. The first day of fall is either Sept. 22 or Sept. 23 through the year 2020.

The closest we come to 12 hours between sunrise and sunset is Sept. 26, if I read the table for Huntington correctly.

Oh how I envy kids today

When I was growing up -- trying to, actually -- what I would have given to have a computer and Internet access. Or a digital camera. Where I lived, a pair of real binoculars was a treat. One-speed bikes were the norm, and three-speeds were a luxury.

Now I see kids all over the place text messaging, riding ATVs and dirt bikes and living like kings compared to what we had in the 1960s.

But not many kids today have barns. I loved barns then and I love them now. They're disappearing, don't you know.

Looking back, the barn probably did me more good than a laptop and a cell phone would have.

And my kids have no idea what a bookmobile is. Several kids where I lived looked forward to the bookmobile visiting our town each week in summer, and coming to the school each week during the school year. Bookmobiles were good, too. With only two channels coming in on our TV, books from the library got us through the summer and weekends.

Maybe I don't envy today's kids. They're plugged in far more than I was, but in many ways they're poorer.

Shrimp in Morgantown

This one came from the AP last month. Biologists have found a species of freshwater shrimp in the Monongahela River, indicating the river's water quality is good. The grass shrimp had never been seen in the Mon before.

The shrimp were found in the Pennsylvania part of the river. They've not been spotted in Morgantown yet.

So far, no one has raised an alarm about grass shrimp being an invasive species that could cause trouble for native wildlife.

We have lots of those in this area. I try to contain the multiflora rose on my little acre, as there is no way I can eliminate it. A few weeks ago, I was driving along the Guyandotte River in Logan County and I saw a large area smothered in kudzu.

The woods in front of my house have some nonnative tree species, too.

Along the Ohio River, some nonnative plants with purple flowers -- I cannot remember the name of the plant, although I could probably find it on the Net pretty quickly if I tried -- are taking over some sections of riverbank. And zebra mussels are out there, too. A couple of years ago, their numbers were declining after ducks decided to start eating them.

The biggest wildlife problem I have is with the number of deer, but I've griped about that before. And I will again.

Another chance for a Mason County factory

By the end of this month, a factory near the town of New Haven in Mason County, W.Va., could be back in production soon. Felman Production of Ukraine has purchased the former Highlander Alloys plant for about $20 million in January and plans to ship product by the ened of this month. The plant makes ferralloys for the steelmaking industry.

Gov. Joe Manchin said last week that the company plans to employ 220 people by the end of next year.

According to the AP, the plant is only 54 years old, but to these eyes it looks older. Keeping it afloat has taken a lot of effort by a lot of people over a lot of years. The most recent setback was a fire about a year ago that damaged the plant's electric arc furnaces.

The plant sits in a corridor that has two coal-fired power plants, a hydroelectric power plant and the aluminum-making complex near Ravenswood, W.Va. If AEP builds one or two new power plants in that area in the next few years, the corridor could provide a lot of good-paying blue-collar jobs.

Sorry for the delay

I've had some problems accessing the blog these past few days. But everything appears to be back up. Sorry about that.

Our odd geography

Has anyone else noticed that here in Huntington, West Virginia, that southern Ohio is north of us, eastern Kentucky is west of us and most of West Virginia is east of us?

I've wondered sometimes why Fort Gay does not bill itself as being as far west as West Virginia gets.

On the Ohio River, towboat pilots use "north" and "south" as synonyms for going upriver and going downriver. To go upriver is to head north. But between Huntington and Ironton, the Ohio flows south to north, so someone going south is really heading north.

Kind of like a road sign I once saw in Athens, Ohio, marking the directions of two U.S. routes. They were mounted on the same sign, and I have a black-and-white photo in my home archives. Anyway, the photo of the sign showed something like this:

<-- EAST 50 WEST -->
<-- WEST 33 EAST -->

It's only the first week, people

Sportswriters drive me crazy sometimes. The most recent example is how so many writers have all but handed the Baltimore Ravens the Super Bowl trophy after their shutout of the Tampa Bay Buccanneers this past Sunday.

I didn't watch any of the game. I have better things to do with my life than spend six hours in front of a TV on a nice Sunday afternoon watching a football game. I do enjoy watching the talking heads talk about everything that happened as if it were the most important thing in the world. Well, I can enjoy that for about five minutes.

What I cannot stand are sports talk shows that consist of know-it-alls shouting at one another. ESPN has built an entire network around this format.

There is no great, perceptive point to this. I just had to vent.

More on more nicotine

This is from usatoday.com. The writer is Michael A. Farriss is the senior vice president of communications and government affairs for Philip Morris USA. Farriss is disputing results of a Massachusetts study showing most cigarette brands have a higher nicotine content than a few years ago.

"We do not believe that the MDPH's conclusions about the trends in nicotine yields for Marlboro are supported by the 1997 through 2005 data. Even so, there are some fundamental conclusions that Philip Morris USA and the MDPH seem to share: Cigarette smoking is addictive, cigarette smoking causes disease and death, and comprehensive federal Food and Drug Administration regulation of the tobacco industry would be good public health policy."

So the next time you see an ad for cigarettes, or the next time a smoker tries to justify how his grandfather smoked three packs a day and lived to be 112, pull out this quote.

To see the full piece, go here:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2006/09/opposing_view_n.html#more

Sorry, but I'm having trouble linking. Just say the computer has person trouble today.

Rockefeller says deposing Saddam a mistake

The following paragraphs are from CBS News. I offer no comment. I'll let the senator speak for himself:

-----
But after 2 1/2 years of reviewing pre-war intelligence behind closed doors, the lead Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), who voted for the Iraq War, says the Bush administration pulled the wool over everyone's eyes.

"The absolute cynical manipulation, deliberately cynical manipulation, to shape American public opinion and 69 percent of the people, at that time, it worked, they said 'we want to go to war,'" Rockefeller told CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. "Including me. The difference is after I began to learn about some of that intelligence I went down to the Senate floor and I said 'my vote was wrong.'"

Rockefeller went a step further. He says the world would be better off today if the United States had never invaded Iraq — even if it means Saddam Hussein would still be running Iraq.

He said he sees that as a better scenario, and a safer scenario, "because it is called the 'war on terror.'"

Does Rockefeller stands by his view, even if it means that Saddam Hussein could still be in power if the United States didn't invade?

"Yes. [Saddam] wasn't going to attack us. He would've been isolated there," Rockefeller said. "He would have been in control of that country but we wouldn't have depleted our resources preventing us from prosecuting a war on terror which is what this is all about."

-----

To see the full story, go to
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/09/eveningnews/main1990644.shtml?CMP=ILC-SearchStories

Brangelina not marrying yet

From The Associated Press: Brad Pitt says he won't be marrying Angelina Jolie until the restrictions on who can marry whom are dropped. The 42-year-old actor reveals his plans for marriage in Esquire magazine's October issue.

Thanks for sharing your opinion, Brad. You've really given me something to think about.

Now, what about Paris Hilton's supposed DUI arrest? Or Britney Spears' baby registry?

Is it any wonder I was president (I think; I never really checked it out) of the Ohio University Apathy Club?

Internet sexual predators not in prison

Remember a few weeks ago when many people in the community were outraged that former Cabell County school Superintendent Dick Jefferson received home confinement rather than prison time for using the Internet to arrange a meeting with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl?

As it turns out, if Jefferson had been put in prison, he would have been the only person in a West Virginia prison for using the Internet for finding underage girls to have sex with.

A story in today’s The Herald-Dispatch by reporter Curtis Johnson says no one -- not one person -- is serving prison time within its custody for violating the state’s 2004 Computer Crime and Abuse Act.

Quoting from Curtis’ story:

“That law was passed with the idea of empowering the state's criminal justice system with the backing it needed to go after Internet predators, who often find their way into chat rooms where they sexually solicit children. ...

“The reasons vary as to why more predators are not serving prison sentences in West Virginia.

“The West Virginia State Police, Huntington Police and Cabell County Sheriff's Department are among the law enforcement agencies blaming a lack of manpower.

“But when one police department in northern West Virginia took that initiative and allocated the needed resources, its cases resulted in one man getting 60 days in jail and another receiving home confinement.”

Another reason given is the lack of technology and training to do this type of sting.

So after all the debate and everyone agreeing we need tougher penalties to deter this sort of crime, no one has gone to prison.

Random thoughts on a Friday afternoon

Just a few thoughts as I scramble to get Sunday’s and Monday’s editorial pages done:

-----
Has all the talk about ethanol and coal-based fuels diminished since gasoline prices went down about 50 cents a gallon in two months?

-----
My alma mater -- Ohio University -- got a favorable mention in a Washington Post column about an article in Washington Monthly magazine.
First, let me say I scan the U.S. News and World Report ratings of colleges and then I chuck it into the trash. Most college ratings are nothing more than how exclusive a school is. It doesn’t tell me anything about how good a job that school does teaching its students.
So that’s why I was interested to learn Washington Monthly compiles its own list using vastly different criteria. In fact, Washington Monthly compiles more than one list. I need to get a copy of the magazine, but here is how the Post describes it.
There’s a category called “social mobility in the national universities.” The idea is to see how well colleges graduate their low-income students. The magazine invented an index that judges how good a college’s graduation rate for these students are compared to what would be expected The top-ranked schools on this index were South Carolina State University, the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, Pennsylvania State University, Ohio University and Widener University in Pennsylvania.
That’s what colleges in Appalachia are supposed to do, right? Recruit low-income students and work with them so they can earn degrees?

-----
It’s only four days since Labor Day, and I’m tired of election ads already.

-----
I don’t like looking at chess books anymore since everyone changed over from descriptive notation to algebraic. I grew up on descriptive, and I can follow 1 P-K4 P-QB4; 2 N-KB3 P-Q3 a whole lot easier than 1 e4 c5; 2 Nf3 d6.

Tattoos

I do not have a tattoo. I don't want a tattoo other than the press-on kind that comes off in a couple of days. My wife says I can get a tattoo, but she gets the house and kids. (She says that about a lot of things, come to think of it).

I just don't like tattoos. I have never understood why people want permanent body art.

Anyway, this is from a daily notice that circulates to all employees here at The Herald-Dispatch:

A 2003 Harris Poll found that 16% of Americans have at least one tattoo. Among adults age 25-29, the number is even higher, 36%. Tattoo inks often contain lead, antimony, chromium, nickel, arsenic, beryllium, cobalt, or selenium. All of these elements can be hazardous to human health. People probably need to ask more health questions before the tattoo artist starts.

So tell me, all you readers who have or don't have tattoos, are they worth it? Are you glad you have them, or do you regret them?

I need to know.

Entertainment?

So I was checking out MSNBC.com a few minutes ago, trolling for ideas, when I noticed they had a couple of stories about Katie Couric's debut on the CBS Evening News last night.

The story wasn't filed under "Business" or "U.S. News." It was filed under "Entertainment."

So now we see that a news network uses its Web site to let the world know that it considers itself as entertainment.

I've always thought a lot of network TV news types saw themselves as entertainers as opposed to street-level reporters like the rest of us. This only confirms it.

Vacation vs. paper clips

I've gotta stop watching weekend TV news shows. It's bad for my temperament.

Two things from this morning's TODAY show on NBC got me wondering. These two segments aired about half an hour apart. No one made any attempt to connect them, to the best of my recollection. If I'm wrong about any of this, please correct me.

First segment: Americans are working harder and putting in longer hours. In some industries, people are giving up four vacation days a year to keep up with the work load.

Second segment: Office workers take office supplies home. Paper clips, scissors and paper tend to disappear during back-to-school season. About 34 percent of managers say they have fired someone for stealing supplies.

But in the first segment, no one ever said they had fired a manager for working people so hard they had to give up four paid vacation days.

Employers work people so hard -- or put them in so much fear for their jobs -- that people are afraid to take vacation time. In return, workers don't feel bad about pilfering a few dollars' worth of office supplies.

Am I the only one who thinks there might be a connection?

I'm obese?

Take a look at the guy on the right. He has a few extra pounds compared to his 20s and 30s. But he can still look down and see his feet.

Going by a simple body fat index calculation, he's obese.

Maybe "fat" and "overweight" are too judgmental. Or maybe they're not scientific-sounding enough.

But a national study of obesity state-by-state appears to use numbers that indicate I am obese.

Forgive me if I ignore that study.

Manufacturing jobs in Cabell County

For those who wonder about Cabell County's shrinking manufacturing base…

According to numbers from the West Virginia Bureau of Employment Programs, Cabell County had more manufacturing jobs than any other West Virginia county last year. The top five counties in manufacturing employent, with the number of manufacturing jobs in those counties, were Cabell, 5,071; Kanawha, 4,663; Wood, 4.403; Hancock, 4,298; and Hardy, 3,584. Those five counties had just short of one-third of all manufacturing jobs in the state.

However, manufacturing jobs in Kanawha and Wood counties paid more on average than those in Cabell County.

High school football players, Part 2

Remember the two high school football players from Kenton, Ohio, who don't have to report to a juvenile detention center until after football season ends? They're playing, it seems. According to the Columbus Dispatch, both played last week's game, although one had to leave the game early because he has an 8 p.m. curfew.

I can't find anything on the Internet about whether either will play tonight in a road game.

Recap: The two players pleaded guilty to being part of a prank that seriously injured two other teenagers. A group of boys took a decoy deer and set it in a country road. A teen driver swerved to avoid the deer, severely injuring himself and his passenger. The two football players were among the group that set up the prank. They pleaded guilty, and a visiting judge sentenced them to 60 days in a juvenile detention center. He said they would wait until after the season to serve their sentences. The nationwide reaction to the sentence was one of amazement and disgust.

The Kenton Board of Education voted to allow the two boys to play football despite their court proceedings. According to the Kenton Times, the district's bylaws governing conduct of students in extracurricular activities. That means the school district's bylaws have no provisions for taking action against students for an activity which did not take place on school grounds or during a school-sanctioned event.

The board should have suspended the boys from the team and let them serve their sentences. But what do I know about life in a football crazy town?

Pumping up the nicotine

We'll have an editorial on the topic over the holiday weekend, but I wanted to throw this item out for discussion.

It seems cigarette makers have been increasing the nicotine content of cigarettes, making it easier to hook people and harder for them to break the addiction.

For a link to the report, go here: http://www.mass.gov/dph/ and then click on the links related to nicotine.

A lot of smokers are still in denial about the health effects of their habit. I'm waiting for them to respond to this.

A plug for "Neighborhood Issues"

For those who read this blog but don't read C. Richard Cobb's "Neighborhood Issues," I would advise a check of that blog.

That's all I'll say. Richard's blog speaks for itself, and it addresses some topics that don't make it onto this one.