Bouncing Hedgehog

Posts Tagged ‘West Virginia’

I recently received my yearly “give us money” missive from our local fire department. Nothing too unusual there. I am sure that most Americans get similar letters too. This year though, there is an added twist. This year it’s not the usual “we need your help” type letter – it’s a “give us money or else” demand.

“Or else what?” I hear you ask. Well may you ask. My local fire department has now adopted the practice (totally illegal in many states but not West Virginia apparently – of billing anyone who uses their services who hasn’t coughed up the “voluntary” donation.

What a fine shining example of capitalism. Making money out of other people’s misery. And don’t think for one second that if you have insurance and the fire department bills you that they will cover the cost – insurance companies are fighting that one and refusing to pay up. So… if you haven’t met their demands donated to them but you do have insurance it’s probably cheaper to let your house burn.

And what happens if your neighbor calls them out because your house is on fire? Who gets the bill then? Inquiring minds (well.. mine anyway) want to know.

It’s time this iniquitous practice was stamped out nationwide.

Those of you who know me will know that I am a movie fan. I picked up a dvd a while back – The Tripper -  and finally got around to watching it. I liked the movie. It was a fun little comic horror effort that appealed to my somewhat warped sense of humor.  The movie had quite a strong political theme in some ways and definitely had a bone to pick with some of the “sacred cows” of American history. But what really got my attention though were the credits believe it or not. Usually the credits roll to music but not this time. They rolled to a speech. And it floored me. I am not used to American politicians telling it like it is rather than what they want you to think it is. It took a while to find the speech. It was given by Robert F. Kennedy Jr and although I had to find a transcript to see the complete speech (it was longer than the credits rolled for) it was well worth the effort. It deserves to be read, understood and listened to by all.

The speech…

I have been an environmental advocate for twenty years, and I’ve been disciplined during that period about being nonpartisan in my approach to this issue. The worst thing that can happen to the environment is if it becomes the province of a single political party. Most of the environmental leaders in our country agree with me. Five years ago, if you asked the leaders of the major environmental groups in America, What’s the gravest threat to the global environment?, they would have given you a range of answers: overpopulation, habitat destruction, global warming. Today, they will all tell you one thing: it’s George W. Bush. This is the worst environmental president that we have ever had. You simply cannot speak honestly about the environment in any context today without speaking critically about this president. If you go to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s web site you will see over 400 major environmental rollbacks that have been promoted by this administration over the last three and half years. It is a concerted, deliberate attempt to eviscerate thirty years of environmental law. It is a stealth attack, one that’s been hidden from the public. Read the rest of this entry »

Like many people back in December we got hit by a snowstorm which (at least in Clendenin, West Virginia) practically sent us back to the stone age. Just before midnight on Friday December 18 the cable went out. No biggie – the TV schedule sucked anyway. Within the hour the power and the phone followed suit. And that’s where the real fun began.

Fortunately for us we have a log fire and a reasonable supply of logs which meant that we weren’t totally without heat. It wasn’t great – we could get the den up to about 62F – but it was certainly better than the rest of the house which very quickly dropped to 40F. We always have food and water on hand for emergencies and thanks to a camping gas stove we could at least cook after a fashion.

We also have a small radio (also for emergencies) and so we tuned in to try and find out what was happening. There’s half a dozen local stations so we didn’t think that would be too hard. Boy, were we ever wrong. What we needed to know were details of the power outages (and what steps were being taken to repair the downed lines) and whether our area had even been reported as out and of course what Verizon were up to as regards downed phone lines. With the phone out we couldn’t report the power out. Cellphone coverage where we live (a whole 25 miles from the state capital) is non-existent. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: What does a 13 year old girl from Tennessee say after sex?
A: Git offa me, daddy, you’re crushing my cigarettes!

Q: How do you circumcise a hillbilly?
A: Kick his sister in the chin.

Q. What’s the definition of a hillbilly virgin?
A. A 12 year old girl who can run faster than her father and brothers.

Q: What’s the difference between a hillbilly wedding and a hillbilly funeral?
A: There’s one less drunk at the funeral.

Q: How do you get a hillbilly out of a bathtub?
A: Throw in a bar of soap.

Q: How do you tell the bride at a hillbilly wedding?
A: She’s wearing the cleanest shirt.

Q: How do you get a hillbilly out of the tub?
A: Throw in a bar of soap.

Q: What has 99 legs & 49 teeth?
A: The front row at a Willie Nelson concert.

Q. How can we tell that the toothbrush was invented in West Virginia?
A. Had it been invented elsewhere, it would have been called a “teethbrush.”

Q: What’s the difference between trash and white trash?
A: Absolutely nothing. They both drive around in dump trucks, smell like shit, and get more and more rotten each day.

A small history lesson in Fascism for all my readers today!

Back in 1919 in Italy the fascist paramilitary group the Blackshirts came into being and were not disbanded until the end of World War II. The Blackshirts were organized by Benito Mussolini as the military tool of his political movement. Their “methods” became harsher as Mussolini’s power grew and violence and intimidation against his opponents became commonplace.

The concept behind the Blackshirts was copied by others who shared Mussolini’s ideas and brand of fascism. Sir Oswald Mosley in the United Kingdom had his group of Blackshirts too. In the United States they became the Silver Shirts, in Mexico the Golden Shirts, in Brazil Green Shirts and blue became very popular in the Irish Free state, Canada and Spain. Read the rest of this entry »

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned the absurdity of the cops in West Virginia announcing in the media that they were going to be doing drunk driver stops in a certain area at a certain time. Very specific stuff really and you’d have to be pissed as a rat to forget and drive through that area. This announcement was made both in the papers and on the TV.

Well… here we go again.

I was in Clendenin today and as I was entering a tobacco store two cops were leaving. Not too much out of the ordinary there except that… Read the rest of this entry »

Further to my earlier post about gas prices and how a wonderfully accurate survey said that pump prices were expected to peak this summer at $2.55 I think it was.

$2.55? I wish!

Now of course I am sure there’s absolutely no price fixing whatsoever going on in my area, but it really does seem odd to me that every single gas station (many different vendors) in my area have got gas at $2.75 today. So I guess the survey wasn’t worth the paper it was written on as summer is barely here and our prices are already 20 cents higher than the expected peak. Read the rest of this entry »

Running 12 different web sites is a full time occupation and business for me. And like any business it needs to be run efficiently. The trouble is that I can’t get hi-speed Internet in any usable form where I am and I’m only 25 miles from the state capital of WV. My only alternative to dial-up is satellite and that’s no good to me because I need the upload speed (which totally sucks on satellite) not the slightly faster download speed it offers.

“Well, why did you move somewhere where dial-up is your only option?” I hear somebody ask. The answer to which is “I didn’t,” at least so I thought at the time. Before moving to my current location I checked Verizon’s web site to make sure and sure enough it said DSL was available. I even phoned them to make sure. “Yes,” I was told, “DSL is available from that phone number.” Read the rest of this entry »

I was interested to see an article today with the headline “Low pump prices lure Americans back to the road.” Really? Low pump prices? Where?

According to this survey (conducted by AAA) the average pump price in the US was $2.39 per gallon at the time of writing. Although with peak summer demand approaching – not to mention the spurious tax imposed by government at this time – they expect pump prices to peak at $2.50 per gallon. Read the rest of this entry »

I was somewhat bemused to see that Del. Barbara hatfield (D) of WV’s state legislature has proposed the following bill (WV HB 2061):

That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §61-8-24, to read as follows:

ARTICLE 8. CRIMES AGAINST CHASTITY, MORALITY AND DECENCY. Read the rest of this entry »