Time off

After today, I'm out of the office until Oct. 8. I'll probably check back in every now and then, as this activity can be kind of addicting, but the pace of posting and answering comments will slow down considerably.

I was planning to use next week to get some stuff done around the house, but I think I'll just sleep instead from 7 a.m. (when the youngest gets on the bus) until 3 p.m. (when he gets home).

I need the sleep more than the house needs most of the other stuff.

Li'l Abner had a job as a mattress tester, I think. Where do you sign up?

US Airways leaves another WV airport

According to an article in the Charleston Gazette this week, U.S. Airways is ending service between Yeager Airport and Pittsburgh, just as it did a while back at Tri-State Airport.

The Gazette article quoted Rick Atkinson, director of Yeager Airport, explaining that the Pittsburgh airport doesn't have the connections it once did, so Yeager's customers are using other hubs. Delta service to its Atlanta hub is now the main hub city for flights originating in Charleston, Atkinson said.

Reading this, it becomes apparent why Delta eliminated its service between Tri-State and Atlanta recently. If Delta's Atlanta service is doing so well at Charleston, why maintain a second, lower-volume operation less than an hour away?

Tri-State once considered Yeager as competition, considering how many people in this market went to Yeager for flights. But there was something to consider that many people overlook. Parts of eastern Cabell County -- say, from the Huntington Mall eastward -- are almost as close to Yeager as they are to Tri-State. If you go by Interstate 64, the Milton exit is pretty close to being the halfway point between the two airports.

But Tri-State has carved out its own niche as a place for low-cost carriers. Well, one low-cost carrier, that being Allegiant Air. Allegiant's service to Orlando has done so well here that it is adding service to Fort Lauderdale, too.

Yeager had a low-cost carrier for a while in Independence Air, but that airline went out of business.

In the days when it looked like a new regional airport might be a possibility, there was competition between Yeager and Tri-State, with Yeager coming out ahead.

But now there's no reason to see an us vs. them conflict. Each airport can carve out its own niche and prosper.

Odds and ends, 9/28/07

And you thought it was bad enough watching their defense:

CINCINNATI (AP) — Paul Brown Stadium officials want permission to shoot down pigeons that are pooping on Bengals fans’ heads — and in their food and beer — during games.

Eric Brown, managing director of the stadium, sent a letter asking the city to allow stadium employees to kill the birds with an air-powered pellet rifle.

Brown says no shooting would take place on game days.

Bengals officials say fan noise used to drive pigeons away during games but apparently the birds have adapted. Pigeon poop is becoming a big problem throughout the NFL, but no one has come up with a foolproof solution yet.

Team officials say they’re looking into other ideas to get rid of the birds, including the use of strobe lights, noise makers, fake owls and netting.

###

I'm not an economist, so I have no way of knowing whether this writer for Time magazine knows what he's talking about.

The gist of his piece: China, Japan, the gulf states and others have pegged their currencies to the dollar. Because of imbalance of trade in their favor, they have more dollars than they know what to do with. As the dollar's value falls in relation to other western currencies -- for whatever reason -- these countries may soon be forced to dump their dollars, which could lead to inflation, stock market drops, bank failures and other problems similar to those of the 1970s here in the USA.

It's something for people like us to think about as we judge where to put the vast wealth we have set aside for retirement.

###

All this talk about how the housing market is cooling down:

Shouldn't we have expected it to cool down sometime? For one thing, housing construction can't continue on an upward curve forever. Second, prices for existing houses were increasing faster than people's incomes. Third, sooner or later, people will discover that some older houses can be more attractive than the McMansions that are going up.

Problem, yes. End of the world and totally unexpected? No.

I'm nowhere near the brightest guy in the world (he probably lives in Charleston), but even I can see you can't sustain an upward growth curve indefinitely. So stop acting all surprised when that curve flattens out a little.

But what do I know? I invest my gloom-and-doom thinking into other endeavors.

###

One more thing.

Here are some population numbers for Huntington.

2000: 51,475
1950: 86,353
1920: 50,177
1910: 31,161
1900: 11,923
1890: 10,108
1880: 3,174

So if Huntington's present population is hovering around 50,000, what happens if present trends continue? How far will the population fall before economic and social trends start forcing it back up?

Bush-Clinton fatigue

From an AP story:

WASHINGTON - Forty percent of Americans have never lived when there wasn't a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. Anyone got a problem with that?

With Hillary Rodham Clinton hoping to tack another four or eight "Clinton" years on to the Bush-Clinton-Bush presidential pattern that already has held sway for two decades, talk of Bush-Clinton fatigue is increasingly cropping up in the national political debate.

Do you think? I was tired of it years ago. Specifically 1980, when Bush the First used the phrase "voodoo economics," then embraced same so he could ride Reagan's coattails.

I was tired of the Clintons in 1992.

Bush vs. Clinton is a family of clueless privilege vs. a family of scheming bullies. Although I will say Barbara Bush is my favorite First Lady in my lifetime.

I must be in a rotten mood today.

Problems in eighth grade math

This week the federal government released results of its National Assessment of Education Progress testing for 2007 in reading and math. My eyes were drawn to the math part, because that is where I notice people having a lot of trouble. The USA needs more scientists and engineers, right? Scientists and engineers need to know math, right?

How are West Virginia schools doing?

Of course, the state Department of Education issued a news release saying math scores are increasing. Okay, but let's dig deeper into the numbers.

Four years ago, 38 percent of black children fourth grade in West Virginia scored below "basic" level on NAEP. This past year, in 2007, 69 percent scored below "basic."

How does one group regress so far in four years? Why aren't people looking at these numbers and shouting at them as loudly as they shout about the Jena 6?

This is not just a West Virginia problem. Alabama, Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin had the same or higher percentages of black eighth-graders scoring below basic as West Virginia did.

Now don't you white kids start feeling so superior. Here are some numbers for you.

Average score, 271. Last in the nation.

Percent below basic: 37, worst in the nation.

Percent at or above basic: 63, worst in the nation. (Massachusetts and Texas each came in at 90 percent or higher).

Percent at or above proficient: 19, worst in the nation. (Massachusetts, Texas and New Jersey each came in at 50 percent or higher).

The NAEP 8th-grade test measures, among other things, knowledge of basic algebra and geometry, and it measures reasoning abilities in solving a math word problem.

If the NAEP is the best state-to-state comparison available, then it's time for the West Virginia Department of Education to address the atrocious performance of West Virginia children on this test.

This is not a black problem or a white problem. It's everyone's problem.

Parents will blame schools and schools will blame parents. The nice thing about blame is that absolves the person doing the blaming of any need to take action. Let's drop the blame and get to work getting our middle schoolers up to speed in their math education.

Odds and ends, 9/26/07

The state Higher Education Policy Commission has recommended that the Marshall University Board of Governors give Marshall President Stephen Kopp a 3 percent pay raise. The Board of Governors is not required to follow that recommendation.

If Kopp gets a raise, that would mean the faculty, administrative staff and hourly employees would get one, too, right?

###

If you want to see a map of earthquake epicenters in Ohio and neighoring states, click here.

I remember two earthquakes in my short life. Three actually. There was one in 1975 that woke me on a Sunday morning while I was in college. If I read the map right, the epicenter was in Gallia County, Ohio, and I felt it in Athens County. Or was it 1974, and the epicenter was near Parkersburg?

Then there was one in the late 1970s or early 1980s that I felt while sitting in my chair at work on a Sunday afternoon. It was so light, many people here didn't feel it. But I didn, and for half an hour I was answering phone calls from people wanting to know if we had had an earthquake. I kept telling them I thought so, but I was so busy answering phone calls that I couldn't verify it.

The third was not really an earthquake. I was at my mother's house in Gallia County one weekday morning when I felt the earth shake. But it wasn't an earthquake. Someone working at a barge repair place at Gallipolis was in a gasoline barge and a spark ingited vapors, killing him. I don't remember if anyone else was killed or injured in that accident.

###

I'm starting to regret my promise to not write anything about a certain pop singer. Two or three things this week, and I want to go off the wagon, but I've resisted temptation so far.

###

I'm glad I don't have a job driving this truck:

SOUTHGATE, Ky. (AP) — The southbound lanes of Interstate 471 in northern Kentucky have reopened.

The roadway was closed after a truck carrying rotten sausages, hot dogs, hamburger patties and lunchmeat overturned south of Newport. The contents of the truck spilled, covering the roadway.

###

And one more before the work day ends.

I kind of like the WVU football uniforms. I hope WVU plays Cal in a bowl game so we can keep asking who is playing who. Or maybe one of them can play Toledo.

The traditional uniform with the big block numbers looks so dated now. Those Arena-type shirts are starting to grow on me.

But I'm a guy who would like the Astros to bring back those sunset shirts they wore back in the '80s. Those were cool. Seriously.

I like the Bengals' helmets. I don't know what to think of the Titans' uniforms.

I much prefer the Big Red Machine uniforms to those worn by the Reds now, although this year's are better than the black-heavy ones of recent years.

When they stick with white and gray, the Pittsburgh Pirates have neat uniforms. But those black and gold things from the late 70s ... ugh.

I hate to admit it, but the best home and road uniforms being used today are by the teams I dislike the most: the Yankees, the Steelers, the Cowboys and the Lakers, in that order.

Inchoate thoughts on health insurance

There’s been a lot of talk lately about health care. Most of it is about health insurance, but it’s spun as “health care” because that makes a person more emotionally invested in the argument. (Not debate. Argument. I argue with my daughter a lot. There’s not a lot of debate involved.).

Some thoughts – feel free to correct me where I’m wrong:

There’s a number going around that 45 million people in the US are without health insurance. That’s 15 percent of the population. Assuming some of those voluntarily choose to be without insurance, and some are illegal immigrants who by law shouldn’t be here anyway, that makes the pool of people legally in the United States and wanting insurance but unable to get it as being smaller.

If a person voluntarily goes without insurance and gets hit with an expensive illness, that is my problem . . . how?

If a person enters this country illegally and gets hit with an expensive illness, that is my government’s problem . . . how?

I’m paying for these people already because my employer-provided insurance pays extra to make up for charity care and the fact that Medicare/Medicaid don’t pay as much as my insurance company does, right?

I read people saying the US has a lousy health care system. How so, other than the fact it is mostly privatized?

Does the existing government-run health care system function as efficiently and as effectively as the public school system?

My employer provides my health insurance, but it does not provide my car or my homeowner’s insurance. What if I don’t like the plan my employer offers? Shouldn’t I be able to take the insurance payments my employer makes and select a health policy that fits my needs better? And if I make a mistake, shouldn’t I have to pay for it? That’s what’s happening in the private sector now with pensions and retirement benefits.

On the other hand, how many medical expenses that people incur are from physicians going “ka-ching” when their patients walk through the door? A few unnecessary tests, and a country club membership is paid for.

Somebody in the medical industry is making money, considering how hospitals are always building new wings.

Summary: I wish I could say I know where I stand on all this. I do know I want more choice, and I don’t liked being locked into (a) my employer’s health plan (b) a government health plan or (c) expensive, on-your-own insurance.

As far as I know, none of the politicians talking about health insurance look at it from that point of view.

Odds and ends, 9/24/07

Winds of Change, the newsletter of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, arrived in today's mail. As I thumbed through it quickly before deciding what I wanted to read first, a little box caught my eye.

The topic is mountaintop removal mining. Someone asks how much electricity we get out of one mountain of coal. Mike McKinney a geology professor at the University of Tennessee, is quoted as saying an entire mountain of coal provides enough electricity to power the entire United States for one hour.

Of course, after that hour, both the electricity and the mountain are gone.

Last week I posted a photo of a tree growing in the tracks of a rail bed that has not seen a locomotive in years. The track is in southern West Virginia, and it goes to what I believe is a deep mine that has been closed. But next to the deep mine (or in place of it) is what looks like a large mountaintop removal mine. Naturally, the public road is at the bottom of the mountain and the active mine is at the top. For a long ways along that road, you can look up hollows and see where the top of the mountain is being dumped into valleys.

I took my 13-year-old son up one of those hollows to get a better look. We found ourselves at the foot of one of those valley fills. My son loves mountains and trees. He for sure didn't like what he saw there.

Before I forget, part of that old rail line now services the mountaintop removal site. There's what looks like a coal-loading facility at the end of the maintained part of the track.

###

From a news release issued last week by NASA:


In a new NASA study, researchers using 20 years of data from space-based sensors have confirmed that Antarctic snow is melting farther inland from the coast over time, melting at higher altitudes than ever and increasingly melting on Antarctica's largest ice shelf.

Read the whole thing. This is why I maintain that talking about overall global warming or climate change is not as significant as talking about climate change in specific locations and how that affects the rest of us.

Mail Pouch barns

Here are three of four Mail Pouch barns that I know of in this area. I'll add the fourth when I remember to retrieve the picture:

This first one is on Ohio 93 north of Pedro in Lawrence County.

This next one is on Ohio 7 at the 8-mile marker north of Crown City in Gallia County:

And this one about 3.5 miles north of that one, just below the community of Eureka:

The fourth one is in Mason County, W.Va., along Route 2 a mile or two above the federal facility formerly known as the Gallipolis Locks and Dam. I'll upload it tomorrow, if I remember the picture.

If there are others in this area, please let me know. Meanwhile, I'll try to dig up a little information on how many are out there.

###

What gets me most about this is not the loss of Mail Pouch barns themselves, but the loss of barns overall. I grew up on a farm, and I well remember the fun, the smells and the work involved in barns. One of my regrets as a parent is that my kids are growing up in a house that does not have a barn with it.

And the day I took the photos of the two barns in Gallia County, I saw an old barn being demolished. I had no desire to stop and ask those people what in the world they were doing. It was their barn, after all, but I still felt the loss.

###

I just found this list of Mail Pouch barns in various states, but it does not have the two Gallia County barns I have above. The list mentions a barn near those two that was torn down several years ago. I remember that barn, too, but it was gone a while back when I was out on a photo expedition. Or as much of a photo expedition as you can have with a point-and-shoot camera. I was about to buy a good digital camera, then I remembered I told my boys they needed new beds. D'oh. Sometimes I hate being a grownup.

###

Update: Here is the Mail Pouch barn along Route 2 in Mason County:

Cost of college textbooks

Sounds good to me ....

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio college students continue to turn to the Internet to buy used, discounted textbooks, sometimes saving hundreds of dollars they otherwise would have spent on new books — a trend that also reflects the buying habits of students elsewhere in the country.

... About one-third of those who bought purchased books online in 2005, the most recent year in which figures were available, bought the books from their college bookstores and paid bookstore prices. But Web sites such as Amazon.com and Half.com are drawing more students with prices as much as half off of bookstore tags. ...

About a month ago, I walked one of my teens through a college book store. When he saw the price of one textbook, his eyes got really big. He's getting a better education on the true cost of education, especially as he learns more about how much it will really cost him.

It's probably been a while . . .

. . . since there was a train on this track.

But what I wondered was, why hadn't anyone stolen this rail already and sold it for scrap? Or why hadn't Norfolk Southern already taken it up, unless the scrap is not worth the time?

I'm not used to seeing so much unused metal sit around unharvested.

Wood?

When Marshall University President Stephen Kopp announced an unusual plan to build student housing and a rec center on campus, it sounded pretty good. A private company would build them and receive the income. After so many years (I think 30), ownership would revert to Marshall.

That was before I noticed that the buildings going up -- the ones that look like dorms or student apartments -- are made of wood. You normally think of on-campus buildings as being made of steel and concrete for durability. But these are wood frame buildings.

After 30 years of student use, how will these buildings look? Will they have to be replaced?

Or am I totally off base?

Acting our ages

Please bear with me. This is not another gripe about celebrities, although it starts out that way.

I see where Demi Moore resents the fact that she’s having a harder time getting big movie roles as she gets older. It seems no one wants a 44-year-old woman who tries to look 24. So she’s undergoing plastic surgery and taking other steps to keep herself looking young so she will still appeal to people who buy tickets to watch movies. (Her surgery cost several times what my house cost.).

It might work, but Ms. Moore might want to consider this one fact: She really is getting old. It happens to most of us, and it beats the alternative.

If Glenn Close and Gary Sinise have to slum in TV, perhaps it’s time for Ms. Moore to think about it, too. Even I have had to give in to age. I mean, a 52-year-old guy like me would have a hard time going to a college bar and have a Marshall cheerleader or a cheerleader from THE Ohio State University find him attractive. (Okay, so something like that has never happened in my entire life. You get the point.).

Some people have a hard time acknowledging that they are growg old and their bodies change. There's a guy in a bluegrass group who used to wear T-shirts during performances until he realized (or someone told him) that he would look better in a button-up shirt with a collar rather than having a t-shirt draped over his ever-expanding belly.

Perhaps that could be the problem of a certain pop tart whose name I will not mention. She made her career in her younger days with performances that bordered on child porn. She was a sweet-faced little thing singing grownup songs. But as she pushes 30 and her grownup-type personal problems stay in the news, the oversexed child act just doesn’t work.

The Backstreet Boys succumbed to reality when they realized no tweenie girl would find a bunch of 30-year-old guys that appealing.

When the Spice Girls were around, the one who did Baby Spice really bothered me. She dressed as a kindergarten-age girl, but she pouted and gyrated like she wanted . . . you get the idea. “Borderline child porn” always came to mind on the few occasions I saw her perform on TV.

When Jon Benet Ramsey was murdered, one of my then-coworkers said her momma dressed her up as a cheap hooker in order to win pageants. He was right.

So it’s time for Demi Moore to accept that time waits for no one, even Hollywood stars.

If you ever want to see what happens when actresses try to ward off time, go to http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com/. Look at Priscilla Presley and Meg Ryan and others to see how otherwise attractive women ruin their assets in the pursuit of eternal youth.

Cities, counties and states age, too. It's why West Virginia's problems are so much different from Utah's, where people tend to be younger. We're a state that has reached retirement age without enough money in its 401(K) to pay the bills. At least we as a state have accepted that. So we're maxing out our credit cards, hoping the next generation will be able to pay them off. At least we were until Joe Manchin took office as governor. Give the guy credit for wanting to get the state out of debt as quick as he responsibly can. I'm not saying he's perfect, but he's been better at this than some of his predecessors and about anyone else who has served in the Legislature.

So let's rejoice in our age and work within its limitations -- individually and as communities.

A local urban legend

Every city has its own urban legends. There's one about Huntington that I have to ask about, or at least how it could have started.

I keep hearing that former wrestler Sgt. Slaughter (Robert Remus) has or had a daughter who attends/attended Marshall, and he is/was a frequent customer of Home Depot at Merritt Creek Farm.

Is this really true? And if not, how did it get started?

It's like the Point Pleasant mothman was really (name withheld; he would neither confirm nor deny when I asked him a few years ago), a well-known person of that area who decided to have some fun on Lover's Lane, and the legend grew from there.

Manipulating greenhouse gas data visually

In general, I like the Web site of the federal Energy Information Administration, but the EIA in this case uses a chart that I found a little bit misleading. No, a lot misleading.

What's the problem with this chart?

In my college statistics class, the textbook referred to this as a "gee whiz" chart. Look at the legend on the righthand column. It begins at zero and increases at regular increments. Now look at the left side. The legend begins at zero and then skips to 260. The result is a line that increases sharply. Now if the legend on the left started at zero and increased in regular increments without skipping, the line of atmospheric CO2 in the atmosphere would look a lot less dramatic, and you would be less likely to say ... you know.

The CO2 concentrations really increased by about 36 percent, but the way the left axis is manipulated, it looks like they are 3 times higher than what they once were. Visually, it looks like the CO2 concentrations track CO2 emissions, when really they don't track nearly as closely as the line looks.

Again, the EIA site is one of my favorites, but in this case, someone dropped the honesty ball.

Odds and ends, 9/18/07

It looks like something called "tattoo remorse" is causing people to spend $2,200 or more. But there are new tattoo inks coming out that will make removal much easier.

The full story is here on cnn.com. An excerpt:

The American Academy of Dermatology reports tattoo regret is common in the United States. Among a group of 18- to 50-year-olds surveyed in 2004, 24 percent reported having a tattoo and 17 percent of those considered getting their tattoo removed.

As I wrote months ago, I've never been tempted to get a tattoo. For one thing, I have no idea what one would say or be. For another, my body is okay without special adornment.

One of my older half-brothers had the name of his girlfriend and short-term wife tattooed into his arm. It was still there long after they split, and it was probably an identifying mark when his body needed to be identified after his death.

But that's one ID that I don't need, thank you very much.

If anyone can explain why it's so cool to have a tattoo, I'm willing to listen. But not for long.

###

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Gov. Joe Manchin wants to go retro when it comes to West Virginia’s welcome slogan.

Manchin added his two cents worth to a statewide telephone and online poll that seeks to determine whether the state should adopt a permanent greeting. If that’s what state residents want, the governor said, he favors going back to an old phrase first adopted in 1975: “Wild Wonderful West Virginia.”

There's nothing like joining a winning team, is there?

###

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The science is clear and the time short, but the political will is lacking to confront global warming, the U.N. secretary-general said Tuesday.

Ban Ki-moon said he hoped next Monday’s “climate summit” here will help galvanize leaders to take action “before it is too late.”

Asked at a news conference about President Bush’s planned separate meeting to discuss global-warming measures among a handful of countries later next week, the U.N. chief said Bush assured him it would be coordinated with the established U.N. process of negotiating climate treaty commitments among all nations.

The U.S. administration rejects treaty obligations, such as the Kyoto Protocol, to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Bush favors voluntary reductions instead.

Sometime in the next week, I plan to write something in more detail about climate change, the part that you rarely hear about. I will do my best to not mention Al Gore. The gist of the piece will be that if we are really serious about reducing "greenhouse gases," then we had better be ready for some big changes in our lifestyles. And I'm not talking about taking a canvas bag to Kroger or installing those fluorescent bulbs in your lamps or even riding the bus. It's much deeper than that, and it involves changes very few Americans are willing to make.

Birth dearth, 9/17/07

Here is why migration is so important to West Virginia. These are numbers from the Centers fro Disease Control. The 2006 numbers are preliminary, but they fit in with what has happened in past year. West Virginia has by far the lowest rate of natural replacement, that is, births compared to deaths, among the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

CDC numbers also show that West Virginia had the highest death rate in 2005, with 1,143.7 per 100,000 people. The US death rate was 825.8. It goes to show what happens when you have an older population.

(Okay, some wise guy is going to say the death rate in West Virginia is the same as it is anywhere else -- 1 per person. I beat you to it. Ha ha.).

Change is good ... but sometimes not

This afternoon, I extended my lunch break a little bit by walking around downtown Huntington. My route included the 900 block of 3rd Avenue, across from Pullman Square. I watched an eastbound car parallel park, and I realized that I had become used to two-way traffic on 3rd Avenue downtown.

Back when Pullman Square was in the just-announced-but-not-under-construction stage, a person who frequented a Huntington-based Internet bulletin board (not The Herald-Dispatch’s) continually criticized Pullman Square because two-way traffic on 3rd Avenue would cause people to avoid the area. I’m so glad he was wrong. To my mind, two-way traffic on 3rd Avenue was one of the biggest deterrents to business in that area, not counting the 9-acre parking lot known as Superblock.

Who wanted to cross four or five lanes of high-speed, one-way traffic to get from the Superblock parking lot to downtown? At least now that block of 3rd Avenue is showing signs of life.

I like 3rd Avenue as a two-way street that a middle-aged guy like me can cross.

I freely admit I was not born and raised in Huntington, although my father’s agricultural and mercantile business dealings brought me down here a lot when I was a child. I’m not wedded to the idea of preserving Huntington as it was. Huntington has a lot of historic buildings that should be preserved. I had to stop along 3rd Avenue today to get a closer look at the house next to the church at the corner of 27th Street. That house looks really grand from the outside. I have no idea, of course, what it looks like on the inside. It’s a pity it’s coming down for a parking lot. But ownership is nine-tenths of the law, and apparently no one has stepped forward and offered to relocate the house.

Along with historic buildings, Huntington has a lot of old buildings of no historical significance. “Historical” is a subjective term. I drove around Highlawn this morning and took note of many identical two-story wood-frame houses a few blocks from ACF. In some ways, that neighborhood could be deemed historical by an industrial historian, but few other people would consider it so. If the house next to the church is to be saved, some of these houses where the people who built rail cars and raised families should be considered historical, too, I guess.

Here in Huntington we need to know what historical buildings to preserve and which merely old ones to jettison.

And which streets to change. I’m glad one-way traffic on 3rd Avenue wasn’t preserved, and I wish the house next to the church could be. But it’s not my money and not my decision.

And that's as close to a point as you'll come in this particular collection of musings.

If you're going to steal . . .

According to The Gallipolis (Ohio) Daily Tribune, a young man was indicted in Gallia County this week. He is accused of

receiving stolen property for allegedly receiving, retaining or disposing of $250 in quarters, a jar of pickled eggs, a miscellaneous box of candy bars and a box of cigarette packs belonging to Backroads Bar.

He's only been charged. He hasn't been found guilty or innocent yet. But if you're going to steal, aim high.

By the way, I've never had a pickled egg. Are they worth stealing? What do they taste like? Is their main function to create a thirst for beer?

To see these again...

Cars I want to see and touch and listen to one more time.

Ford Maverick.

Ford Pinto.

1964 Dodge Utiline pickup like my father had.

1980 VW Scirocco, the first car I bought entirely with money I earned.

A 1977 Porsche 924, which cost more than my Scirocco but didn’t handle all that much better.

1955 Chevy… a real one, not a show car. Preferably green.

AMC Pacer

AMC Gremlin

Buick SkyHawk (a twin to the Chevy Monza; I almost bought one back in 1976)

A school bus from the late 1960s or early 1970s, a Superior body like the ones I used to ride…

Any GMC or Ford semi trucks from the mid-to-late 1950s and early 1960s.

And a 1976 Ford Mustang II hatchback, four cylinder, automatic transmission... my first car...

There may be others, but I can’t think of them right now.

Trash

Every month, the city of Huntington discovers more problems with money than it knew it had. And now comes what should be an embarrassment. The city has employees who are paid to collect garbage and trash. They don't work full-time schedules. The equipment they work with is in such bad condition that it's practically unreliable, and now some on the City Council say residents should get refunds of their garbage fee because workers aren't doing their work.

It should be enough to make privatization a priority.

Here is the situation as outlined by Herald-Dispatch reporter Byran Chambers following this past Monday's City Council meeting:

HUNTINGTON -- Huntington City Council members will form a committee to create a plan for cleaning up loose trash in streets and alleys.

The idea for the committee came out of a discussion Monday night about problems that the city faces in picking up garbage. Councilman Jim Ritter, who was ill and did not attend the council meeting, had sponsored a resolution on the agenda requesting that the sanitation department begin picking up uncontained garbage in alleys and streets at least once a month as they are required to do under a city ordinance.

If the work does not begin, the council will take immediate steps to reduce the $15 monthly refuse fee, Ritter's resolution states. ...

Several council members said they were confused by Ritter's resolution, because reducing the fee would not allow the city to purchase new garbage trucks or keep the sanitation and trash divisions at their current staffing levels.

But Mayor David Felinton acknowledged that changes are needed to address the problem. When the ordinance requiring that sanitation workers pick up loose trash once a month was adopted in 1995, the department had 70 sanitation employees. The city now only has half that amount, Felinton said.

"Loose garbage is not being picked up on a monthly basis," he said. "We have to be reactive rather than proactive."

Felinton suggested that the city work with Richard Cobb, a community volunteer who has organized a citywide litter cleanup program.

(Time out: In other words, the city does not have the resources to perform this basic function that it levies a tax to perform. People pay $15 a month, but that's not enough. So let's rely on volunteers to do the city's job. How long will it take to burn people out?)

Councilman Garry Black inquired whether the city should revisit contract provisions that allow sanitation employees to work five hours a day, but get paid for eight. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 598, which represents sanitation workers, has a four-year contract with the city that expires in June 2008.

"I'm not suggesting this incentive be completely done away with," Black said. "Our sanitation workers work hard and do a great job. But maybe this incentive is greater than it should be."

Felinton said the incentive is a common practice for cities across the country. The idea behind it is that if sanitation workers were forced to work a full eight-hour shift, the same amount of work would be accomplished, he said. Providing incentives creates efficiency, he said.

"Besides, this is one of the worst jobs anyone can have," Felinton said. "Retention isn't the best and eliminating this incentive wouldn't make it any better."

A meeting date for the newly formed rubbish committee, which will consist of council members, citizens and union representatives, has not been set.

It's time to face facts. For $15 a month, the city cannot perform its trash collection duties. For about $18 a month, people in rural Cabell County have their household trash hauled off efficiently.

Privatize sanitation services. Now.

But let's deal with some political realities here. Felinton will run for a third term next year. To get to the general election, he has to get through the primary. If he has more than two or three challengers in the primary, he needs a relatively small number of votes to win. That means he needs the votes of city workers and their families to get through the primary. Eliminating jobs in the Sanitation Department is not the way to get those votes.

Some people on the council are aligned with Felinton so tightly that they will follow him no matter where he goes.

Will political considerations to get in the way of wise and efficient government?

Unless someone comes up with an amazingly innovative idea soon, the only answer is to privatize sanitation services.

Odds and ends, 9/13/07

Why don't we get more of these stories out of West Virginia?

LIMA, Ohio (AP) -- Inmates at the Allen County Jail are scrubbing floors and showers after complaining about sanitary conditions at the facility.

Sheriff Dan Beck says he eliminated phone and television privileges for two days in two cell blocks and made inmates start cleaning. Some of the inmates had signed a petition complaining of leaky roofs and toilets, poor air quality and mold in the jail.

The petition claimed the conditions could lead to health problems.

Beck says the only leak occurred in a different area of the jail after a rainstorm and was being fixed. He says from now on inmates will be required to clean the housing blocks, which hold misdemeanor offenders.

###

I really like the lead on this AP story.

By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER
Associated Press Writer

MOUNT HOPE, W.Va. (AP) — In the 4 1/2 years since Jack Whittaker won a record $314.9 million Powerball jackpot, he has lost more than he ever intended to gamble.

The jackpot that was the stuff of dreams turned into a nightmare: His wife left him and his drug-addicted granddaughter — his protege and heir — died. He endured constant requests for money.

Almost five years later, Whittaker is left with things money can’t cure: His daughter’s cancer, a long list of indiscretions documented in newspapers and court records, and an inability to trust others.

“I don’t have any friends,” he said in lengthy interview with The Associated Press. “Every friend that I’ve had, practically, has wanted to borrow money or something and of course, once they borrow money from you, you can’t be friends anymore.”

Whittaker was a self-made millionaire long before he became a lottery winner, having built a pipeline business worth $17 million. Then he hit the Powerball in December 2002. It was then the largest-single jackpot ever.

Sometimes what look like blessings are really curses, and vice versa. I've had what I thought were some bad turns of luck or fortune, but a few years later I saw how they worked out better than what I had hoped for originally.

I think it was a preacher I once heard -- or maybe it came out of my own head; it was so long ago, I don't remember -- said you have to know the difference between an open door and a trap door.

Whittaker isn't the first lottery winner from these parts to find that sudden wealth can be destructive. He's just the most extreme case.

Remember that line from the movie "Jurassic Park," where Ian Malcolm is talking to John Hammond about the enormous danger in the genetic power he has uncovered?

"...you wield it like a kid that's found his dad's gun."

Let me say that I come by my middle class money troubles honestly. I worked hard for every money problem I have. I had some help, but in the end my troubles are my own, and I have to figure out how to solve them. I'm just glad I'm not bearing the cross that Whittaker does.

###

Something's been bothering me these past few days.

Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper is planning a series of public meetings to get public input on whether someone -- the state or whoever -- should shut down video lottery parlors in his county. Now that voters have approved full-scale casino gambling at Crosslanes, Carper wants all gambling done there. That would eliminate the plague of video poker parlors in his county, he says.

Part of me cheers Carper, considering I know of few people who say they like having so many video lottery places. But part of me -- the cynical part -- wonders if he's trying to help out his friends at the dog track at the expense of people who own video lottery licenses.

As I understand it, the video lottery licenses run through 2011, so it may be a bit early to build up an organized resistance.

The thing that really bugs me about this, however, is what happens if we outlaw video poker -- again. Doesn't revenue from video poker pay for PROMISE scholarships? Isn't some of it used to pay down workers' comp liabilities? And doesn't some go to pay off the bonds that were used to build Pullman Square, Appalachian Power Park and other public works?

If we get rid of video lottery, even if it's just in Kanawha County, what happens to that money? Are Kanawha County kids shut out of PROMISE scholarships? Who repays the bonds on Appalachian Power Park?

If nothing else, Carper has given us four years to decide the answers to these questions. I won't pass judgment on what I assume his motives are, but the questions are the right ones. This state has become too addicted to gambling. The good people of Kanawha County are about to become even more dependent than the rest of us. If people don't want video lottery parlors in their neighborhoods, are they willing to pay the price of going cold turkey from their state's gambling addiction?

We have four years to find out.

Odds and ends, 9/11/07

Today is Sept. 11, and sometimes I think of the "truthers" and how they want us to believe that the World Trade Center was brought down in a controlled demolition, the Pentagon was hit by a missile and United Flight 93 was brought down by a missile fired from a US military airline.

I don't care if that great intellect Rosie O'Donnell is one of those people. What kind of a world do they think they live in if they suspect the US government and the US armed forces would organize and carry out such a scheme against its own people?

###

I read this in this morning's paper. You have to admire some people's chutzpah.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge has delayed the October execution of a death row inmate who joined a lawsuit challenging lethal injection as unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

Judge Gregory Frost of U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, ordered the Oct. 18 execution of Romell Broom halted while the lawsuit proceeds.

Broom, who raped and stabbed to death a 14-year-old girl, is one of 15 Ohio inmates claiming the procedure may cause prisoners to suffer during an execution. ...

Broom, 51, abducted Tryna Middleton in Cleveland at knifepoint on Sept. 21, 1984, while the girl was walking with friends. He then raped her and stabbed her seven times, according to the attorney general’s office. ...

In general, I am against the death penalty. Too many practical problems. I hate to see one innocent person put to death. But if this guy is truly guilty, to claim the state should minimize his suffering ... what can a reasonable person say?

Tryna Middleton would be 36 or 37 years old today, probably with a family.

When I read the story, part of me thought the state of Ohio should dip a shovel handle in a vial of AIDS virus and nutrients and ... but the civilized part took over. Until I know for sure he has true remorse and is trying to atone for what he has done (how that would be, I don't know), I have no sympathy for Broom.

###

I see Saturn has a new entry-level car called the Astra, which replaces the Ion. General Motors probably should have found another name, because "Astra" is almost jinxed. Back in the late 1970s, Pontiac sold a twin to the infamous Chevy Vega. It was called the Astre. A friend had one. It was basic transportation, nothing more. I may be wrong, but I think the 1976 model used the same trouble-prone engine used in the Vega, but the '77 model used a different one.

I saw only a few Astres on the road, including the one owned by one of my high school buddies. As far as I know, what's left of it is sitting behind a barn in a grassy field in Gallia County, Ohio, rusting away.

###

The AP filed this short article this afternoon:

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — Buying The Herald-Dispatch daily newspaper is going to be a financial burden, Champion Industries Inc. said in a report filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Financing the $77 million purchase with debt will subject the company to numerous financial restrictions, Champion said in the filing. Champion did not elaborate and a spokesman did not immediately return a call Tuesday.

But the filing makes it clear that buying The Herald-Dispatch represents a giant financial step for Champion. The purchase price is more than $10 million higher than Champion’s total assets as of July 31. Champion earned $5.47 million on revenue of $145.1 million in fiscal 2006.

Champion agreed to buy the newspaper from Fairmont, N.Y.-based Gatehouse Media in a deal revealed in late June. It expected to close the sale by mid-September. ...

The rest is the usual background on Champion.

I saw this and went to the SEC filing. This is what the company said in the document filed today with the SEC:

On June 28, 2007, the Company signed a definitive asset purchase agreement (the Purchase Agreement) to acquire the Herald-Dispatch daily newspaper published in Huntington West Virginia, from GateHouse Media, Inc. (Gatehouse) for a purchase price of $77 million subject to adjustment as set forth in the purchase agreement. The parties to the agreement are Champion and a wholly owned subsidiary as a purchaser and Gatehouse Media, Inc., Gatehouse Media West Virginia Holdings, Inc., and Gatehouse Media Illinois Holdings, Inc. as sellers. The transaction is expected to close during the Company's fourth quarter, is subject to customary closing conditions and is subject to a breakup fee of 10% of the purchase price. Champion intends to finance the acquisition with debt. The Company is anticipated to incur substantial indebtedness to finance this transaction and as such would be subject to numerous restrictive financial covenants.

I didn't see the phrase "financial burden" anywhere in what the company released. "Substantial indebtedness," yes, but not "financial burden." Newspaper profits as a percentage of sales are still pretty good compared to some other industries (despite what you hear about the imminent death of newspapers). Once the sale closes, we might get some more information about exactly how much of a "financial burden" The Herald-Dispatch will be to Champion.

Does anyone believe this is gonna happen?

An e-mail from a global warming group alerted me to this news story:

SYDNEY, Australia, September 8, 2007 (ENS) - Asia-Pacific leaders agreed on Saturday to adopt a "long-term aspirational goal" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region in support of the United Nations' global efforts, announced Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Under the Sydney Declaration on Climate Change, Energy Security and Clean Development, the goals are to reduce energy intensity by at least 25 percent by 2030 from the 2005 level, and to increase forest cover in the region by at least 20 million hectares of all types of forests by 2020.

The non-binding numerical targets indicate that APEC leaders wish to throw their political muscle behind an international push to avert the worst consequences of a warming planet.
This is the first year that leaders from the 21 APEC member economies have included climate change discussions in their annual summit.

The leaders of the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters - U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao - said Thursday that they support international cooperation to deal with global warming.

"We talked about climate change and our desire to work together on climate change," Bush said at a news conference after their meeting.

Hu said, "We believe that the issue of climate change bears on the welfare of the whole humanity and sustainable development of the whole world. And this issue should be appropriately tackled through stronger international cooperation."

Given the amount of logging going on in the rain forests between Australia and China, and given the number of coal-fired power plants and automobiles that are to be put in use in China between now and 2030, and given the ever-increasing power needs in the USA, does anyone think these pronouncements are worth a hill of beans?

Not me.

Odds and ends, 9/10/07

An acquaintance submits a guest column in which he refers to himself as an old geezer. Hmm, I thought. How does a person geeze? Have I ever geezed? Is it something I should do in private or in public?

So I looked up "geezer" in my desktop dictionary. It said "geezer" comes from " guiser," which is a synonym for "mummer." Other than people who march in Philadelphia parades, what's a "mummer"? My dictionary has two definitions. One is a person who wears a mask or disguise for fun, or who travels about at Christmastime dressed in a costume. The second is "an actor."

I'll let my acquaintance tell me exactly how it is he geezes.

Yeah, it's Monday. I should be editing guest columns and letters to the editor, but I needed a 10-minute diversion, plus something for this blog.

###

For people who enjoy learning about Ohio River bridges -- there has to be someone out there like me in this regard -- an engineering company called HNTB has published a short article on how the bridge it designed at Blennerhassett Island will have a different design to minimize stresses on the bridge arch in the event of a cable failure.

Yeah, it's Monday. I should be editing guest columns and letters to the editor, but I needed a 10-minute diversion, plus something for this blog.

###

Taylor County, W.Va., wants to get rid of these newfangled electronic voting machines and go back to paper ballots. Meanwhile, in Ohio, officials in Cuyahoga County want that state to push back the presidential primary from March to May out of concerns over the reliability of touch-screen voting machines.

Pardon me if my memory is faulty, but didn't states go with these touch-screen machines because people in Florida couldn't figure out how to use the same punch-card ballot that folks in other states use, and the people who count the votes argued over the different varieties of chads? Isn't this something the feds mandated?

Gives a whole new meaning to "I'm from Washington; I'm here to help you," don't it?

On the other hand, when they used paper ballots in Kanawha County last month . . . well, who knows how many ballots weren't counted or were counted twice?

###

One last thing. I'm not a Britney Spears fan. I used to like making fun of her. She's a new generation's Vanna White. And I didn't see her widely panned performance on TV last night. I don't want to make fun of her anymore. For a long time, I've just plain felt sorry for her. It's like her childhood was taken away in the quest for fame and fortune, and she never learned how to make decisions or act like regular people. Her learning curve is out there in public.

So I'll lay off. For a while.

Going to college

Many private high schools in West Virginia have a pretty good college-going rate among their students. But, for the graduating class of 2006, name the three public high schools that had more than 80 percent of their graduates enrolled in higher education that fall. You can name three of the four, because one barely missed the cutoff.

Then name the four public high schools that had college-going rates of less than 30 percent. This does not count that small school that had only two people graduating.

Then ask yourself what the four schools with the lowest rate in higher education had in common geographically.

Answers:

Top rates
Fairmont Senior, Marion County, 87.3 percent.
Williamstown, Wood County, 80.6 percent.
George Washington, Kanawha County, 80.3 percent.
Bridgeport, Harrison County, 79.7 pecent.

Lowest rates
Montcalm, Mercer County, 27.3 percent.
Iaeger, McDowell County, 27.2 percent.
Meadow Bridge, Fayette County, 26.8 percent.
Liberty, Raleigh County, 22.1 percent.

These numbers were supplied by the Higher Education Policy Commission. The HEPC does not track how many graduates went into vocational or apprenticeship programs, and it does not count how many went straight to the military. When you combine the low college-going rate with the dropout statistics, you can see that we have a problem in West Virginia getting our ninth-graders focused on the future.

Oh, the overall college-going rate in the state for the Class of 2006 was 58.3 percent. It probably will be a while before we have stats on the Class of 2007.

Odds and ends, 8/9/07

Every once in a while I check the online journalism jobs listings to see what's going on in the business. I see there's a growing international news organization looking for English speakers to work in its office in to work in its Washington, D.C., office.

Let's see. A change in ownership of The Herald-Dispatch is imminent. If the new owners don't like me, or if I simply cannot get along with them, it may pay to be ready to move.

But al-Jazeera? No thanks.

###

I came home today with a CD of Johnny Cash songs. A teenager of my acquaintance looked at it and said Cash wasn't a country singer. This particular teen identifies country music with Garth Brooks and Shania Twain.

*Sigh* Kids today truly need an education in the classics.

Geraldo Rivera

This is how The Boston Globe quoted Geraldo Rivera in a recent article:

“Michelle Malkin is the most vile, hateful commentator I’ve ever met in my life,” he says. “She actually believes that neighbors should start snitching out neighbors, and we should be deporting people."

"It’s good she’s in D.C. and I’m in New York,” Rivera sneers. “I’d spit on her if I saw her.”

A. The guy has a lot of class, doesn't he?

B. Before Geraldo spits, he had better look around to see if a Klansman is about to break his nose with a bottle from Al Capone's vault.

C. Both Rivera and Malkin work for Fox News in one capacity or another. If I said that about a coworker . . .

D. The guy has a lot of class, doesn't he?

E. Why is he still on TV? Who at Fox News thought he had any credibility? Who watches this guy? Didn't he wear out his welcome something like 20 years ago? How does his presence make money for anyone?

F. The guy has a lot of class, doesn't he?

Odds and ends, 9/7/07

In case anyone asks, I'm not going to the game tomorrow. I'm not watching it on television. I'm spending the day doing something constructive with my kids. Do with the game what you want. I'll check the score later.

###

And I've skipped the presidential debates this year, too.

Why? Because they have precious little value other than entertainment.

What have been the highlights of the debates so far, dating back to 1960?

Richard Nixon's five o'clock shadow. (1960)

Gerald Ford saying Poland was not under Communist domination (1976).

"I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy." Or something like that. (1988)

Al Gore's sighs as George W Bush tried to make his points. (2000)

In other words, more entertainment than enlightenment. Seeing candidates zing their opponents. Getting to see which TV newsreader gets to sit in the moderator's chair.

Am I alone in ignoring the debates? Probably not. If 4 million people watched, that means 296 million didn't. If 40 million watched, then 260 million didn't.

###

An anonymous reader and responder to a post yesterday asked about in-state enrollment at Marshall and WVU. Perhaps this answers that question:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p07RDoHnr9XmjBRRDo7nDHA

(For some reason, I can't upload a spreadsheet today).

If the link doesn't work, here is the info in a nutshell:

Last fall, 5,718 students who graduated from WV high schools enrolled at a public 4-year college or university in West Virginia. Of those, 2,163, or 37.8 percent, enrolled at WVU and 1,063, or 18.6 percent enrolled at Marshall.

Of the total full-time students at public 4-year colleges and universities in WV:

Total: 64,943. WVU: 27,115. MU: 13,810.
In-state students: WVU 15,224 (56% of total). MU 11,165 (81% of total).

###

One more thing. This month marks the 50th anniversary of a car that marked a point in my teen years of peer pressure and conformity.

When I was a freshman or sophomore in high school, all the guys were getting windbreaker jackets with car logos on them. Some guys had Chevy emblems or Ford emblems on their jackets. I remember the phys ed teacher had a jacket with a VW logo.

But I had gotten my windbreaker just before the fad hit. I was logoless. So I hit upon an idea. I asked my mother if there were any way I could cut letters out of a material for her to put on my jacket. On her next trip to the dime store (remember those?), she bought some white material that she could iron onto my jacket. So I cut out the letters and she ironed them on. The next day, I was the only guy in school with "EDSEL" in big letters on his windbreaker jacket.

Today, I told the copyeditor who puts the editorial page together that Monday's page will have a George Will column about the Edsel across the top. She didn't know what an Edsel was. So I asked some other twentysomethings in the room, and most of them didn't know, either.

I'm getting old.

WVU 5, Marshall 1

Brian E. Noland, chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, stopped by The Herald-Dispatch the other day to talk with a few of us about what's going on in higher education in West Virginia. He threw out a lot of information, but I've been thinking about one set of numbers he gave us.

I had seen something about this before, but I can't find it. I'll have to make a phone call sometime to check on this information. Assuming he's right, it's something the Huntington community should think about.

Noland said 70 percent of students who receive PROMISE scholarships attend WVU and 14 percent attend Marshall. Think about that. The "best and brightest" who stay in the state to go to school, and by a 5-to-1 ratio, they choose WVU.

I've written an editorial for Saturday about the big game on the Marshall campus that day. The main point I was trying to make was that most people in West Virginia identify with WVU, not Marshall. The game gives Marshall the chance to make up some room. But let's face it. As much as Marshall talks about how it strives to be equal with WVU, how many people outside Cabell and Wayne counties consider Marshall their university of choice? How many kids east of Charleston or north of Parkersburg even consider Marshall?

As we can tell by that 5-to-1 ratio, not that many.

Former Marshall President Dan Angel always talked about "national prominence" for Marshall. First, Marshall officials need to work on state prominence.

I need to see the long-term trends of how many PROMISE recipients choose Marshall, WVU and other state schools. I'll try to get that data, and I'll post it when I do. Feel free, as usual, to share any thoughts on this.

Odds and ends, 9/6/07

Oprah may be going all out for Obama. Rats. Now I'll have to take the Fred 08 and the Dennis Kucinich bumper stickers off my SUV.

The sad thing is, some people will probably follow her lead. I couldn't care less who Oprah endorses and works for except that there are people who do.

I like what one of my co-workers said about Oprah today. She gives advice on marriage and child-rearing, but she has never married and she is childless. But people listen to her anyway.

Tell me, P.T. How many suckers are born every minute here in 2007?

Aside: I told my coworker that the only people who know how to raise children are those who have never had any. I'll admit I'm flying blind much of the time dealing with a 15-year-old daughter, a 13-year-old son and a 7-year-old son who is his dad made over. I had all the answers before my daughter was born. I miss my arrogance.

###

At least this guy doesn't do business in West Virginia as far as I know. It comes from a news release put out by the American Tort Reform Association:

The ad, appearing on some taxi cabs in and around Palm Beach, Florida, McKinney reported, are those of personal injury lawyer Craig Goldenfarb, whose Web site, among other things, informs visitors:

'If you or a loved one believes a life may have been saved if a public facility . . . would have had an AED [defibrillator], please contact the . . . Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb, P.A. to discuss the merits of your possible case.'

“Of course, Mr. Goldenfarb’s Web site offers no information about the personal choices that can lead to heart attacks, such as eating or drinking or smoking too much and not getting enough exercise,” McKinney pointed out. “Apparently, he’d rather we blame someone else, and that mindset helps make Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties the collective judicial hellhole they are,” he added, noting that ATRA’s Judicial Hellholes® 2006 report cited South Florida among the “nation’s worst, most unfair jurisdictions in which to be sued.”

###

I have no problem with being asked to show my ID when I cash a check or use my credit card. Sometimes I thank the teller or the clerk who asks, especially if they're apologetic about it. I would rather they ensure that I am who I am rather than cash one of my checks without asking for ID.

That leads into this news item from Georgia today:

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that Georgia’s voter identification law does not impose a significant burden on the right to vote, meaning the law will be enforced.

David Brackett, a lawyer opposing the voter ID law, said on Thursday they were disappointed with the judge’s decision and were considering whether to appeal.

“We think that it will result in a lot of Georgians not being able to vote in person the way that they would prefer to vote,” Brackett said.

There should be ways of obtaining a legal photo ID without having to get a driver's license. My eighth-grade son is taking a class trip to New York next spring, and all the kids who are going are required to have a state-issued photo ID.

If I had more energy, I would look more deeply into why some people think a photo ID is an unreasonable burden.

I just wish the poll workers at my voting place asked to see my ID when I went in to vote. But they don't.

Bye-bye, "Open for Business"

"Open for Business" could be on its way out.

This is from a story that moved on the AP wire a little while ago:

Gov. Joe Manchin’s office announced Wednesday that an online and telephone poll is being conducted to allow West Virginia residents to come up with a new phrase for the 107 welcome signs posted on roads leading into the state.

Manchin said it’s time for the people of West Virginia to choose a permanent welcome slogan, one they’d want all the world to see.

The governor has been criticized over the “Open for Business” slogan since he first proposed putting it on the road signs during his 2006 state of the state address. Members of the Republican Party said the slogan was cheesy and a West Virginia University student collected about 15,000 signatures in an online petition last year aimed at changing it.

At the time, administration officials said the signs would remain up for the time being but that the phrase could easily be replaced later.

The poll, which lasts through Sept. 19, asks people to vote on whether they want a permanent slogan on the signs. If so, they’ll be asked what they think the new slogan should be, using up to 20 letters.

If the majority wants a permanent slogan, the governor’s office will conduct a second poll on the top suggestions.

The poll is available at three Web sites: www.wvgov.org, www.wv.gov or www.wvtourism.com.People without Internet access can call 1-866-SLOGAN-4.

Manchin plans to ask lawmakers to make the poll results official during next year’s regular legislative session, spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said. The estimated cost of changing the signs is about $50,000.

Here I thought West Virginia already had a slogan: Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.

Manchin told the HD editorial board that "Open for Business" refers to state government's new willingness to make things easier for businesses willing to set up shop in the state. Manchin said he wanted to cut the red tape and make things easier. Trouble is, if you have to explain a slogan, it's time for a new slogan.

I'm old enough to remember when the 6th Street Bridge had a pink signs with mountains, welcoming people to the "Switzerland of America."

Bring back "Wild, Wonderful West Virginia."

Odds and ends, 9/5/07

(Langauge alert in this first item).

Jerry Lewis is drawing criticism for an offhand comment he made during this year's Labor Day telethon. He as joking with someone in the audience and referred to him as an "illiterate faxxx - NO!" He caught himself, but the word had come out and the damage was done. (The video is easy to find if you want to see and here it for yourself).

I'm not going to defend Lewis here, and I'm not going to criticize him. All I will say is that I feel for anyone who makes a mistake like that on live TV or radio. There is no DEL key the way there is on a keyboard. Plus it goes on YouTube almost immediately to live in infamy forever.

I do wonder if Lewis was repeating something he often said in jest in private to this particular person, and it caught up to him.

Anyway, that's why I tend to be wary of going on the air live. Plus the fact -- as I have said before -- I have the perfect face and voice for print.

###

There was a collision this morning on the Tolsia Highway between an SUV and a coal truck. Remember when this type of accident was much more common? The downturn is either because there are fewer coal trucks on the road or people are driving more sensibly around them. I am not in position right now to pass judgment on either possibility.

###

We gripe a lot about schools in West Virginia, but it could be worse. In fact, it is worse in Washington, D.C. This is the opening paragraph of a recent New York Times editorial on the Washington, D.C., public school system:

Mayor Adrian Fenty of Washington embraced a Herculean challenge when he convinced lawmakers to give him direct control of the city’s corrupt and dysfunctional school system. The mayor and his new schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee, are working hard to reassure nervous parents and to get the schools up and running for the new year. But remaking the schools will inevitably mean dismantling a central bureaucracy that has shown a disturbing talent for subverting reform while failing the city and its children in every conceivable way.

Let's segue to this: It's long past time to get rid of the District of Columbia. Let it be absorbed by Maryland. If I remember my history correctly, both Maryland and Virginia surrendered land to form the District, with Virginia taking its part back. Let Maryland have the nation's capital. Congress sure can't run it. (That should tell us something about giving Congress more national control of local affairs, shouldn't it? Those guys might do okay from a distance, but don't let them get too close.).

Now, if Maryland doesn't want the District, we'll have to drop back seven (or eight or nine or however many it is) and punt.

This scientific study will amaze you

It's summed up well by the headline at cnn.com: Men want hot women, study confirms.