Southwest Virginia Blogs

An editorial today that the Toronto Star edited and reprinted from the Los Angeles Times had the following question.The question now is how much worse the political culture will become before it can get better?That's a great question, and it...

Today started out as an absolutely glorious morning. It was one of the first mornings where there was a real chill in the air. The photo on the right is looking northward towards Tinker Mountain. Interstate 81 runs around the...

If you've been around here long, you know that I'm a big fan of XM Radio. No longer.

Testing something new here at CC. Here's a short video I took with my camera last year. If this works, I have some ideas for some interesting new features. Tip of the Clintwood Green Wave cap to Brian Patton. UPDATE: Looks like it's working. Nice.

The Gazette reports here that President Bush earlier this week nominated Thomas E. Johnston, age 38, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, to succeed the late Judge Haden on the bench in the Southern District.

The article notes that among those who were said to be candidates for the job were two lawyers within the sphere of my acquaintance, broadly construed, and they are Mark Sadd from Charleston who was at U.Va. (and an editor of the University Journal) in my day and John Shott, a good man from Bluefield.

A Moslem author in Spain has written an instructive book on how to beat your wife without leaving any pesky, questionable marks on her body. I'm glad to say that a Spanish judge has issues with that.

MIT is working on a new laptop computer that will cost. one hundred bucks. It has a gig of flash memory and a hand-crank to make it's own electricity, should it need to do so. No, this doesn't appear to be a spoof.

I love it when kids show ingenuity and it pays off. This kid is selling the pixels on his homepage for a dollar each. He hopes to sell a million of 'em. Good luck, kid.

Wanna buy US Postage Stamps with Muppets on them? They're on the way. I'm a bit of an old fogy on this issue; I think that postage stamps should only feature portraits of important dead people... but what do I know.

The spineless Michigan slug, Michael Moore, is stirring the muck again. The CBC is showing his schlockumentary Bowling for Columbine, and he's protesting. He doesn't want the Canadian network to show the film until they settle with their striking employees. Moore has accused the CBC of "acting like an American Corporation". Good Job, Mike, you steaming pile of fecal matter. For a few minutes there, we'd come close to forgetting how much you hate all things American.

I do make some effort to avoid blogging about Cindy Sheehan, if only because typing her name makes me want to puke... but I thought that this was interesting. Ya know how Cindy loves to talk about what a criminal Dubya is? Well, I guess it takes one to know one. Cindy Sheehan is a criminal herself, having not paid the taxes on her home from '96 to '98. Looks like Cindy's grudges against authority long predate the honest and heroic death of her son. Why doesn't that surprise me?

This is sickening. This news story features a picture, too, so consider yourself warned. Authorities in Colombia have found three human fetuses stored inside religious statues. They were being smuggled into America, and the authorities believe they were going to be used in some sort of satanic ritual. God help us all.

I just love the liberal screed that passes for a local newspaper in this area. The Roanoke Times sinks to new lows daily, so after a while, you actually lose interest... but today's editorial is very literally laughable. That is to say, it made me laugh out loud. Here's the gist: The Roanoke Times believes that if recently indicted House Majority Leader Tom Delay didn't actually break the law, then the law should be changed so that whatever he can be shown to have done becomes a criminal offense. Yep, you read that right. They're so bloodthirsty for Delay, they want the law changed to guaran-damn-tee that he's a criminal:

...if DeLay is not guilty of something, it says more about the state of laws governing political corruption in this nation than DeLay's purity... Among the things DeLay has done that ought to be against the law.....yadda, yadda, yadda

And they want their readers to take them seriously.

We fell asleep to the sound of a rushing river and woke to the majesty of the white Chalk Cliffs. They were shrouded in a sort of “Lord of the Rings” band of fog that the bright morning sun was lasering its way through.

Most of Colorado is country, the way my hometown of Floyd is country, and so when I say we slept at a “Resort,” don’t get the wrong idea. The resort sits at the base of a mountain with nothing else around for miles, and the people who run it are so laid back that no one cared when we popped up our camper in the parking lot next to a picnic table and claimed it to be “home.”

Occasionally, what smelled like burnt rubber wafted its way into our make-shift camp, causing me to wonder what I left “on” in the camper. We first thought it was the mineral springs that bubbled up from the river below our camper, but later figured out it was the new Oriental rug covering the floor space of the camper.

It didn’t take long to discover the other reason for the laid back pace at the Princeton Mountain Hot Springs Resort. Soaking in the two large mineral spring pools is a deeply relaxing cure for whatever ails you. Besides the two pools – one at 99 degrees and the other at 89 – there’s a gas station (for those desperate enough to pay $3.39 a gallon), a lodge, a general store, and a restaurant with a full size stuffed bear and mountain lion, and the head of an elk by the fireplace.

After you go from the warming pool to the lap pool a couple of times, you can climb down into the river and dig your own little pool. There you can feel the hot spring water mix with the frigid temperature of the river, and if you dig your hands into the sand, you’ll see just how scalding hot the springs can get. You can prop yourself up in a Rocky Mountain boulder chair and watch the aspen leaves wave while you’re soaking…or think about the rugged mountain men in days long past who stumbled upon the springs and were able to bathe in the dead of winter.

Later, you might set yourself up in a lounge chair by the pool and write a blog entry while your husband writes a speech for the toast he plans to give at the wedding you’re soon going to in Aspen.

Over at The Body Politic, there's a very interesting post about Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, in the context of Warner's national ambitions: Kaine has been clinging to Warner’s coattails, but I’m interested in how Kaine’s liberal stances will hurt Warner in the future bid for President. Just take a look at a few of Kaine’s [...]

Results of a 155-mph motorcycle crash. “The rider, who had recently obtained his license, was estimated to be going 155 mph when he hit the car…. The impact flipped the car and threw it 10 feet from the point of impact. The rider and both occupants of the car, all dead, were found in the car.”

Conaway Haskins has this look at how Jerry Kilgore can appeal to swing voters in his race for Governor.

I'm away from a computer, so I haven't had a chance to blog about the new Rasmussen poll which shows the Governor's race tied. Russ Potts registered at 5 percent, which means he is finished as a candidate. So long, Pottsie. I'll have more thoughts later, after I'm able to look at the internals [...]

This summer, I went on a 5000-mile or so ride to Colorado and back, riding with three friends.

We did our best to ride as many passes and canyons as possible, and we definitely had one fantastic ride. I keep meaning to write up a good photo-rich trip report, but there’s just too many other things to do. Anyhow, many of the great roads in Colorado have no shoulder, no guardrail, and 1000′ dropoff. You’re riding along on a narrow two-lane curvy road and there’s nothing between you and eternity except a 3″ wide stripe of white paint. Even if the roads were einbahnstrasse, they’d still be a little nerve-wracking, but with RVs and tractor-trailers coming round those blind turns, sometimes the roads were just a little too much fun.

Whenever we’d stop to enjoy the scenery and let our heart rates get back down around 1 Hz, we’d chat about the consequences of running wide in one of those curves. Of course, the consequence is death, but what about on the way down? People pay good money to experience freefall, and what a shame to have a 1000′ freefall into the Black Canyon or off of Red Mountain Pass and not be able to enjoy it.

Well, one young lady motorcycle rider, by all accounts an excellent rider and a vivacious person, loved by her friends, decided to experience motorcycle freefall from the Pacific Coast Highway north of San Francisco. Out riding alone, when she was evidently supposed to be in class at her community college, she removed her gloves and helmet, left them on a rock, and rode her Aprilia Tuono off the cliff. It was more than a week from the day she went missing to the day they found her.

Truly a sad story, as any apparent suicide is, but I sure hope she managed to enjoy the thrill of that freefall. Here’s a link to the website her friends put together: FindBigRed. Here’s are some news stories about the incident:
Body of missing motorcyclist found
Woman presumed missing had driven motorcycle off cliff
Missing biker drove off cliff by Fort Ross

If you’re already a Firefly fan, or are just about to become one, be sure and check out Mosquito.

This is good news for Jerry Kilgore. According to a press release

•  RICHMOND – Former Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial nominee Jerry Kilgore will accept the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police and two other law enforcement groups in a press conference at 11:15 a.m., Friday, September 30, 2005 at the Bell Tower at the State Capitol.  This is the first time the FOP has endorsed a Republican candidate for Governor since George Allen received it in 1993. In addition, Kilgore will accept the endorsement of the Law Enforcement Alliance for America and the Police Benevolent Association.  Simultaneously, Kilgore will unveil his “Law Enforcement Officers for Kilgore” coalition, which is designed to carry the message of his candidacy to the members of the law enforcement community and their friends and families.

This FOP endorsement plays well here at home. People pay attention to who the police support. Why?

•   The Fraternal Order of Police is the world's largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers, with more than 321,000 members in more than 2,100 lodges. We are the voice of those who dedicate their lives to protecting and serving our communities. We are committed to improving the working conditions of law enforcement officers and the safety of those we serve through education, legislation, information, community involvement, and employee representation. No one knows the dangers and the difficulties faced by today's police officers better than another officer, and no one knows police officers better than the FOP.
  Founded in 1915, we are still "Building on a Proud Tradition." 

Very good news for Kilgore indeed.

It's that time of the week again, time for the Commonwealth Conservative Weekend Caption Contest. I look forward to seeing if we can top last week's caption bash, but that's a lofty goal. Here is this week's picture: Submit your best captions below. Let the mayhem begin!

This is big news, especially since every indication is that Tim Kaine put on the full court press trying to get the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police: Former Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, the Republican candidate for governor, will be endorsed today by the Virginia State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police. ... The 8,500-member [...]

I'd like to wish a happy birthday to my lovely wife. She's the most wonderful woman on earth, and my best friend. I'm lucky to have her by my side. Happy birthday, sweetheart!

Our prayers are with Representative Jo Ann Davis.

When I raised a concern about the Crichton pseudo-docu-novel "State of Fear" last January, many cried "It's only a book. What are so worked up about?" to which I responded something like "Americans don't have the critical thinking skills to separate fiction from fact if it's glitzed up, hyped and between the covers of a book published by a successful novelist, it passes for REALITY and TRUTH. We assume if somebody is famous and talented in one arena, then them must be a reliable authority no matter what their topic." I suggested that the fiction writer-as-scientist made an unreliable authority on global warming. And Now, this:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - His last book, "State of Fear," a novel that casts doubt on scientific theories of global warming, was published more than nine months ago, but the reviews were still pouring in on Wednesday, even as Michael Crichton folded his 6-foot-9-inch frame into a seat to testify before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Appearing before the Senate, even though the reviews have run thus:

"More silly than scary," the flier dropped off by the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

"Notable mainly for its nuttiness," an analysis from the Brookings Institution said.

"Does not reflect scientific fact," the Union of Concerned Scientists said.

And the Climatology Folks had some unfavorable opinions of Crichton's state of confusion as well.

But then, it's the Senate--the governmental counterpart of Reality TV. Let them have men about them who are entertaining. And tall.