Southwest Virginia Blogs

No. That title is not a bad joke, but might be a bit of an overstatement.

Rev. Falwell did, however, tell Forbes that:

[H]e disagrees with Webb on social issues, but gives the politician a personal ranking of “A-.”

Webb is the second ideological foe Falwell has warmed up to this year.

Rev. Falwell also went on to say that he “was sure [Jim Webb] is a fine man.”

This is good news for Webb. Folks continue to jump off Allen’s sinking ship. Who can blame them?

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors.
-- Jim Morrison

Well, that new bed lasted maybe 24 hours before we went out and found stuffing in their mouths.  I have since moved it into the house as they don't seem to appreciate the value of a dollar.

I guess I am not cut out to be a photo journalist though it would be a cool title.  My mom and dad had major excitement this morning when a tree fell in the backyard onto the power lines blowing a transformer....It was a hellacious sight when I drove over today to check things out and visit mom but do you think I had my camera?  It truly could make the local newspaper.  Highway closed off below them, power crews in big trucks, huge hole in the yard, trees destroyed, lines everywhere....but no....no pictures.

It is rainy, yucky and Toonces is getting home really, really late tonight after driving his dad to visit his brother...(Fill's brother, T is an only child).......so where are my cats?  Upstairs on the furniture, just where I like 'em!  ----------Toonces will whine and pick at hair for a week.

For some reason at least once a week I go off and leave the lid up on the washing machine.  Later I discover my clothes unfinished and the tub full just waiting for me to close the stupid lid.  It happens more and more.  I hope my brain is okay. 

The other day Colleen did a post on weird things you do.   I love to break out in song and dance.  Really loud.  I have set routines.  I do not listen to country music....(I like the old outlaw stuff not the over produced, middle of the road, blah stuff out today)....anyway, in the grocery store I hear that crazy song that goes something like "Honkey Tonk and Donkey Donk."  I have no idea what that means or if those are the right words, but it is stuck in my head.  My words to the song are "Tuppy TUPS and Yuppy YUPS...." and I have a hip shake that goes with it....it is my song for the Thugs every morning, and almost every time I walk out of the house with them.   Apparently I need to change things up because Toonces can predict what is coming up by what I am humming or singing....odd.

And speaking of country music....that I don't listen to....I have gotten sucked in like it's a tar baby to that new Rascal Flatts song What hurts the most...  Oh I just love that song.  I love trying to hit the notes.  I love singing it really loud in the gym walking uphill on the treadmill with my iPod...well until Toonces quietens me down.  (Other people might not like my voice)  Who wouldn't like my voice?

And speaking of Colleen from Floyd again.  (I know 2 now).  I meant to tell her something.  A while back I was on the couch reading one of her engaging posts.  I made some noise and Toonces did the "what is it now" thing.  I said, "Why can't I live in Floyd?  Floyd has so many cool things going on.  Colleen is ALWAYS up to something interesting.  Why can't I live in a place like Floyd?"  It was after a post on Colleen getting acupuncture.  I keep talking about it and finally Martin said "Honey, it wouldn't be the same cool vibe for you....it wouldn't matter if you were in Floyd or here."  "What the crap is that supposed to mean?!" I asked.  "You are not Colleen" he said. "First of all you would end up getting poisoned somehow by the acupuncture needles.  Then at the nice informal poetry reading each week you'd find someone you didn't like....then you would end up in a fight...."   Fine, you'd think just one time in his life he could humor me.

Let me see....hmmm....oh, my hair is driving me insane. 

I think that's everything.  Completely caught up.

Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend!  and Be Safe!

Oh and my new old dresser....

Virginia Tech students were told to put their hands up as they exited Squires Student Center Aug. 21 in the midst of a manhunt for a suspected murderer.

Wiles argues that the events of Aug. 21 reinforce his views that he should be able to carry his weapon on Virginia Tech's campus. Students, staff and professors at Tech are not allowed to carry guns on campus, even if they are licensed to do so by the state. And the Virginia House of Delegates defeated a measure earlier this year that would prohibit universities from banning weapons on campus. When that happened, we had another commentator (a Tech professor) write about how he felt about students who pack heat on campus.

One of the things I found most interesting about Wiles' op-ed was that he quoted a professor who said she would have felt safer if he would have had his gun on him last Monday. I'm curious whether that professor still holds that opinion or if she only said it in the moment. The comment got me wondering about how people generally feel about being in places where people can carry guns.

At the risk of being accused of being a member of the liberal media, I'll put it out there that I don't particularly feel safe knowing that people can carry guns around me -- even if those people have licenses to do so.

Turns out, I'm in the majority. With a quick Google search, I was able to find this 2001 article by professors at the Harvard School of Public Health. The conclusion of the study is summed up here: "Americans feel less safe rather than more safe as more people in their community begin to carry guns. By margins of at least nine to one, Americans do not believe that 'regular' citizens should be allowed to bring their guns into restaurants, college campuses, sports stadiums, bars, hospitals, or government buildings."

Perhaps it is fitting that I spend my retirement years working, part-time, for the little weekly newspaper where my career in journalism started as a part time, after school, reporter 43 years ago.

As I sit on my mountaintop writing this, I realize that I am less than 50 miles, as the crow flies, from my first full time newspaper job as a reporter for The Roanoke Times. that gig lasted four years before I headed West for 11 years and then back East to Washington in 1981.

In Roanoke, I thought I would work for newspapers for the rest of my life. It was all I ever really wanted to do. And, even in retirement, I'm still toiling away, writing for a newspaper, even though I also own the Internet's oldest political news web site and various other enterprises that are part of the so-called "new media."

And for many who considered a newspaper job the center of their universe, the dream is over.

Writes Denis Grollmus in Cleveland Scene:

On an August day, Dave Wilson was standing in his kitchen, preparing himself for the end, when his wife nodded to his Knight Ridder coffee mug. "You don't want to drink from that," she said.

I sure as hell don't, Wilson thought.

He'd given 18 years to that damn company, a decade of which he'd spent as a reporter and editor for the Akron Beacon Journal. He snatched up the mug and headed to a co-worker's house, where Beacon employees were mourning the end of an era. Knight Ridder, once one of America's largest newspaper chains, with papers from Philadelphia to San Jose, was officially dead.

"Anyone got a golf club?" Wilson asked when he arrived. Someone slipped him a monster-sized driver. He placed the mug on a tee, then hammered it into a cloud of ceramic shards. "It was like saying adios to that whole scenario," he says.

Once upon a time that stupid little cup had meant something special -- something that fought to better people's lives, earned Pulitzers for doing so, and allowed Wilson to be a proud provider. Now, on this crappy August day, it stood for something ugly -- something full of defeat, anxiety, and loss.

Denise's sad tale tells the whole sordid story of the demise not only of the mighty Akron Beacon-Journal but also of the Knight-Ridder newspaper empire. It is a scene sadly repeated in newsrooms around the country and newspaper fall victim to the "bottom line is everything" mentality.

I still have a Roanoke Times & World News coffee cup somewhere in my collection. It comes from a time when a family owned the paper instead of a profit-centric newspaper chain. I was also fortunate enough to work 11 years for The Alton Telegraph when brave family owners put news ahead of the bottom line. I also have coffee cups from The Associated Press when it was a better news service and United Press International long before it became a victim of cost-cutting and agenda-driven owners.

Unlike Dave Wilson, I won't send those cups into oblivion with a golf club. Each stands for a pleasant memory from a time when being a reporter meant being part of something special. I'm glad I was no longer part of any of my former employers when they forgot what it meant to be journalists.

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