Economic Prosperity, The Easy Way

Some time ago, folks hereabouts were ecstatic when it was learned that I-73 would come through Martinsville and Henry County. We're saved! Through the miracles of modern transportation technology happy times would soon be here again.

But, did anyone ever look at the route the proposed I-73 was to take on it's journey from central Michigan to Charleston, SC? I doubt it. A simple mapquest query shows a perfectly acceptable route, on existing interstate highway, without a 75 mile detour north to Roanoke before turning south along the existing US 220 corridor into North Carolina. If one were to travel the new I-73 from Lansing Michigan to Charleston South Carolina he would add at least 3 hours to the trip as opposed to taking Mapquest's advice and following existing Interstate level highways.

Folks here in Henry County are still pushing for this white elephant, claiming great benefits to be had from having an Interstate highway pass through. To them I say, just go to Earl, Oklahoma and tell me how an interstate magically translates into prosperity. For that matter, let's ask Jerry. Did Interstate 77 remove enough traffic from US 52 to make tourism, the latest "holy Grail" of prosperity, a virtual impossibility in Bland?

I bring all this up to lead into this...

A bill aimed at creating the New College Institute will be presented this morning to members of the Health and Education Committee, according to State Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Ridgeway.

Reynolds said the presentation of Senate Bill 40 to the 14 committee members is slated to begin at 8 a.m. in Senate Room B.

SB 40 proposes establishing a new college in "the areas of Martinsville and Henry County" that is charged with expanding educational opportunities in the region by providing access to degree-granting programs, according to the bill.

Proposed programs include undergraduate, graduate and professional programs through partnerships with private and public institutions of higher education, public schools and the public and private sectors.

The new college also would seek "to diversify the region's economy by engaging the resources of other institutions of higher education, public and private bodies and organizations of the state and region and providing a site for the development of technology and trained workforce necessary for new economic enterprises to flourish," according to the bill.

I do agree, an institute for higher learning located here in Martinsville or Henry County would be a good thing. But please don't try to sell it as a vehicle for providing economic prosperity. Could it happen that way? Sure. Will it happen that way? Not without other planning and work that some here do not seem willing to commit to. Most of our local leaders are still looking for that "magical way" to prosperity.

The Terror Of Teaching

Today's Roanoke Times features commentary from Bernice L. Hausman, an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech. It seems Ms. Hausman lives in fear of some of her students. But please don't take that as a criticism of the Blacksburg student body. Apparently she attracted "disturbed" students in Chicago as well.

Once, while I was an instructor at the University of Chicago, a distraught student came to see me late in the afternoon. He was a student from my previous quarter's humanities class; he had written a series of papers that had led to his final grade of C. He came to ask me, at the end of my office hours, to change his grade; as it was winter, it was getting dark. I declined, after showing him why the grade was warranted. He didn't give up.

He stayed in my office, trying to get me to read more of his work. I realized at a certain point that he wasn't going to leave willingly, that he sat between me and the door, that he was increasingly insistent, and that I didn't know what to do.

Fortunately, and completely unexpectedly, another student happened by and popped her head in my office to say hello. Her presence broke the spell, and I was able to usher out my troubled student. I was more than relieved. I now see that as a recent Ph.D., and as a woman, I was uncertain of my own authority in relation to this smart but disturbed male student.

Since then, I have learned to act more decisively so that situations do not get out of hand. In the back of my mind, however, I retain that initial fear in my meeting with the student in Chicago, when I didn't know what to do, felt helpless in my own office, and realized my own vulnerability in isolated encounters with disturbed students.

It seems Professor Hausman believes that somehow magically an act of the Virginia General Assembly will prevent her "disturbed" students from coming onto campus armed.

In the real world, inhabited by those of us less morally and intellectually superior than she, it could be expected that the exact opposite would occur. The few students with a concealed carry permit would obviously obey the new statute.

But those are not the students she is living in fear of. She is living in fear of a student suddenly going berserk and wreaking mayhem upon the Blacksburg campus. This "disturbed" student would somehow decide that, in spite of the numerous laws currently in effect against violence upon his (or her, we mustn't stereotype the mentally deranged) fellow students and faculty, this one additional statute is all it takes to hasten his return to normalcy.

Professor Hausman comes to this same conclusion herself, but then tosses it aside;

Most students, of course, are reasonable, even when they feel that they have received a lower grade than they deserve.

The issue of guns on campus is not about what most students would do, even if it would be impossible to guarantee that the few dangerous ones would be prohibited from possessing a gun.

Excuse me Ms. Hausman, it is and will always be "impossible to guarantee that the few dangerous ones would be prohibited from possessing a gun", not "if".

Ms. Hausman includes two anecdotes about campus shootings to advance her argument. Both occurred in spite of laws current at the time prohibiting weapons (and murder) on campus. She herself acknowleges this fact as well;

The graduate student at Iowa who killed four others before committing suicide was upset, apparently, because he had been passed over for a significant dissertation award. There's almost no way to protect ourselves from individuals who go over that edge of civility, who decide that revenge and self-annihilation are reasonable responses to the vagaries of life experience.

Surely after the Iowa killings and those in Montreal in December 1989, when a reclusive young man killed 14 female students at the Ecole Polytechnique while stating that he hated feminists, most of us are aware that universities are places distraught individuals can take out their frustrations by murdering others.

My! I had no idea that along with tenure comes such a dangerous workplace. Yet, she persists in her naive belief that one more law, just one more regulation will be the magic potion that keeps her safe.

I Didn't Like Then, And I Like It Even Less Now

Just a thought...

For most of my life, while Democrats were in power in Congress they routinely took money in the form of taxes from folks like me, who were unlikely to vote for them, in order to buy votes from those who could be persuaded to vote for them.

Now, It seems, my Republican party is bent on taking the money generated in tax revenue by people like me, who would ordinarily tend to vote for them, in order to attempt to buy votes from those who will never vote for them.

Somebody please explain how this can ever be a winning strategy?

Tagged...

NOTE:While this was written last evening, due to an Adelphia glitch, I didn't get a chance to post until now.

Like J.R. I sat down this evening, poured myself as short glass, and settled in to read my daily dose of ODBA and other news/rumor sources. I now find myself tagged with the awesome responsibility of responding to J.R.'s challenge. The SOTU address has just begun, I have finished the list below, and I will now take my time writing the introduction to this piece.

I like the concept of this 'tagging" stuff. Personally, I have spent most of my time lately on efforts to get my plant up and running. I am appreciative of the opportunity to toss those worries aside and spend a few moments thinking only for myself. Thanks J.R. for giving me the excuse.

While writing the answers to this "informal poll" I realized just how little we ODBA members may truly know about our fellows. For that reason alone, what many may consider a 'trivial pusuit" such as this, I contend this has the potential to show our friends and readers just a little more of ourselves.

Now, on to the questions;

Four Jobs I've Had;
1)Swimming Pool Contractor, Bradenton, FL.
2)Field engineer, Eaton-Kenway, Salt Lake City, UT. Manufacturer of automated material handling systems.
3)Head of Engineering, Trey K Mining Electric, Kimper, KY. Manufacturer of power centers, belt starters, and other electrical mining equipment
4)My current job. Electrical/Controls Engineer for a small manufacturer in Stuart, VA.

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over (in no particular order);
1)Quigley Down Under. (Man, I want that rifle...)
2)The Bridge on The River Kwai. (Be happy in your work...)
3)Cool Hand Luke. (What we have heah, is a failaya to communicate...Get your mind right, Luke...)
4)Red Dawn. (Wolverines!!!...)

Four places I've lived;
1)Born in Ogden, UT. (Dad was in the Air Force, based at Hill AFB. I would have preferred Virginia, but I was not consulted.)
2)Raised in Bassett, VA. Home of big headboards.
3)Bradenton, FL. My second ex-wife and I called the southern Gulf Coast home for some time.
4)Hurley, VA. On the edge of the "Billion Dollar Coalfield" of Southern WV and Eastern KY. Most recently in the news due to the "Big Coon Dog" scandal.

Four TV shows I love. (Again, no particular order);
1)CSI. The Las Vegas one. Don't really like the others.
2)The Andy Griffith Show. Especially the episode about the pickles.
3)Any Bob Newhart Show. (Confession, I've always thought Suzanne Pleshette is a "hottie")
4)Fox News with Brit Hume.

Four places I've vacationed;
1)Daytona, FL.
2)Park City, UT.
3)Cancun, MX.
4)Monterey, CA

Four of my favorite dishes, (this time, in order. And there is reason behind the blogname. I do cook, and do it very well. A bachelor, I graduated long ago from Stouffer's and Denny's. Requests for recipes gladly accepted;
1)My Chili
2)My Wild Turkey Casserole
3)My Ultimate Macaroni and Cheese
4)My Parmesan Chicken Strips

Four sites I visit daily. (Again, no Particular order);
1)As many ODBA sites as possible, but never missing Kilo, Jerry, Chad, Hans, and J.R. & Squeaky.
2)Wall Street Journal, Best of the Web Today. (James Taranto is "Da Man"...)
3)PLCS.net A PLC related forum.
4)Townhall.com (especially, Mike Adams , Burt Prelutsky, and Anne Coulter.)

Four places I would rather be right now. Now this one is tough.;
1)On a tree stand, looking to shoot Bambi's big brother. (Or his mother, antlers aren't edible.)
2)In a field, behind a good German Shorthair, waiting for the flush.
3)speaking of a flush, at a poker table with good friends.
4)At Daytona, in the garage area of the Hendrick teams, ready to apply my electrical knowledge to a successful 2006 season.

Four bloggers I am tagging;
1)Hans (Even at his age, I doubt he would have a problem with the first segment)
2)Jerry (The sage of Bland)
3)That Cathouse Chic (ODBA's better half?)
4)Brian (The young barrister from Clintwood.)

What Hath Ol' Russ Wrought?

From the Washington Times:
Liberal activists promote a ruckus to silence Bush

"Make noise, not war.
Liberal activists -- among them graying leftovers from the Vietnam-era antiwar movement -- plan to gather near the Capitol tonight, banging pots and pans to drown out President Bush's State of the Union address. "

Kilo Highlights A SWVA Treasure

Almost every Virginian has surely heard of the Barter Theatre in Abingdon.


Kilo shares some details on the history of Ned Beatty's favorite local theatre.

Keep the image on the right in mind, it just may turn up in a future Virginia Landmark Contest.

Virginia Landmark Contest...Late

This week we will travel outside my SWVA...

I'm sorry, but I know nothing of the history of this interesting building. If you look closely at the full size image you will know almost as much as I do. It is now a barber shop. But do you know where it is?

I assume it was originally a retail establishment, with possibly the owner's residence located upstairs. The image I have in mind is of Dobie Gillis' parent's grocery store, but that may date me somewhat. Actually, I have no idea of the type of business it was.

Any local resident who can fill me in on the details of this place, please do so.

Hint #1;
The town in which this building is located is on US460, somewhere between Farmville and Fort Pickett.

UPDATE: Once again, the namesake of former Governor Dalton has correctly identified the Landmark. The A.B. Nicholas building is now home to First Impressions Barber Shop in Crewe.

As Promised, Thoughts On GA Session

As I previously mentioned, I've kept somewhat up to date by Waldo's RSS feed from the General Assembly.

There are some bright spots in the current agenda, and some real stinkers as well.

One bright spot is a Constitutional amendment to remove from the General Assembly the power to define "Public Use" as it pertains to eminent domain. This would be the power that Senator Reynolds either denies he and his body of legislators wields, or the power Senator Reynolds is ignorant of holding.

A corresponding stinker is that Senator Reynolds' own committee of Priveledges and Elections has held it over until the current stink over Kelo v. City of New London dies down next year.

To counterbalance that stinker is Kenneth Stolle's bill that would quite possibly accomplish the same end but being merely legislation, as opposed to an amendment, it could easily and stealthily be overturned at a later date. Also, Terry Suit has this, which would fall into roughly the same category.

Much has been written about the more prominent amendment banning gay marriages. I could spend considerable time on this one, and will in a subsequent article, but suffice it say for now that I have some (minor) problems with the way this amendment is currently written. I cannot support it as it now stands. This does not mean that I wish to extend full marital status to a gay couple. But I also do not wish to exclude from that couple proper legal remedies such as wills and contracts. I will expand on this subject for your reading (dis) pleasure soon.

I May Be Busy But....

I thrive on stress, Jerry....

New post coming up...

I'm Not The Only One Who's Been Gone...

Rick's Back.

Looking at my front page, I see it's been a whole work week since I announced my return. And no post 'till now. I just may have been a day or two premature.

I have been catching up on all the happenings around Virginia while I was somewhat preoccupied. I especially appreciate Waldo's RSS feed on the GA and his reporting from Richmond.

For the past several years I was living in Buchanan County (Coon dog Central) and my local cable provider was based in Kentucky. I got to see Johnny Wood's fishing forecast (SWVA readers will know) each morning, and very little else from Virginia. Ask me about recent Kentucky politics or southern West Virginia Judicial elections and I can answer with authority. But, while living in "Radio Free Hurley", I was unable to listen to a Virginia radio station on a daily basis for many years.

Now that I have returned to the morning side of the Blue Ridge, on my way in to work each morning I have the choice of either Morning Edition on WVTF or 101.1 FM from Burlington, NC which has the Wall Street Journal Today on air from 5:00 to 6:00. Well, there is also 96.3, Rock of Virginia with John Boy and Billy, but that doesn't really count as news, does it? Certainly not Virginia news, anyway.

As a conservative, Morning Edition has my attention for about 5 minutes at a time, then I switch to the Carolina station. I tend to alternate between the two all the way to Patrick Springs and my daily breakfast treat.

The point I am painstakingly (painfully ?) getting to is how much I have come to rely on Waldo's efforts during the past month that I have been so "out of the loop".

Thanks to Waldo I will have some opinions, to be posted tomorrow, about some of the legislation currently being considered, debated, and passed in the GA.

I'm Back...

After a gruelling past 2 weeks testing, rewriting, re-testing, and debugging, I am finally at the point where my program needs only minor "tweeking".

I am tired. But it's that good tired you get along with the satisfaction of seeing a project run as it was concieved.

You can once again look forward to more or less daily stuff from here.

Landmark Contest

This week our travels take us into one of Virginia's National Forests. Here, in the middle of nowhere we find a monument of some sort. Who and/or what is being memorialized where?

UPDATE:
Ok, time I guess for a couple of hints.

• Located in Jefferson National Forest.
• Event memorialized occured in 1971.

UPDATE II:
The winner...John Dalton. Yes, someone with the name of Virginia's third Republican Governor correctly identified the Audie Murphy memorial on Brush Mountain, about 15 miles from Blacksburg. The monument memorializes the most decorated soldier in American history, who died in a plane crash on this mountain in 1971.

Once Upon A Time In A Call Center

Jerry has this on Rick Boucher's fascination with Call Centers. He writes what I would have if I was not so pressed for free time right now, and if I had his talent for writing.

Once upon a time I was a network admin for a call center. It paid well and I found the work interesting, but it was basically a "no heavy lifting required" sweat shop for most of the ladies who worked there. Sure, a few of us employees were fairly well paid, but for most it was a major step down in pay from the sewing rooms they had recently vacated.

I Just Recieved An Interesting E-Mail

From Robert W. Haley comes an e-mail regarding my post on 1-9-06.

He references my letter to the Editor which appeared in the Thursday, January 5th edition of the Roanoke Times.

Mr. Haley asks me to update this previous post, because as he puts it... Well, let me just post his entire correspondence;

As a semiregular reader of your blog, I knew you would want to correct this….
You Posted:
Monday, January 09, 2006
So Far It Has...

Scroll down to "Clinton's spying passed unnoted". Far be it from the denizens of Campbell Ave. to waste ink. To do otherwise would be to actually inform their readers.

posted by I'm Not Emeril at 10:16 PM

Referencing your letter:

In his Dec. 24 letter to the editor, "Clinton would have gained a media pass," Richard C. Long states his desire for President Clinton to still be in office so that "he could have authorized the same surveillance safeguards against the terrorists as Bush has done, and you would have never heard a peep out of the media."

I'm sorry to have to deliver this news to Long, but Clinton did authorize the same type of surveillance against Aldrich Ames, as did Jimmy Carter against Truong Dinh Hung.

In both situations, the right of the president, acting upon the directive of the attorney general, was upheld in court.

Unfortunately, if this letter sees publication, this will most likely be the sole expenditure of ink by The Roanoke Times regarding these and other precedents.

Alton Foley
Collinsville

But see:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060117/ap_on_go_pr_wh/gore_domestic_spying

Seems you and the White House play fast and loose with the facts…..

But at the time of the Ames search in 1993 and when Gorelick testified a year later, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act required warrants for electronic surveillance for intelligence purposes, but did not cover physical searches. The law was changed to cover physical searches in 1995 under legislation that Clinton supported and signed.

Oops…..

http://www.qando.net/

I'm sorry Mr. Haley, but it seems you are the one playing "fast and loose". You obviously read the letter. In it I challenged the Roanoke Times to come clean with at least as much information as that provided by you from Yahoo news. I challenged no one else. To date they have yet to do so. Your link to Yahoo News is completely irrelevant to the post in question.

But, since you brought it up, let's look at that information you accepted from Yahoo and attempted to put up as your e-mail "straw man".

Go here to read the full Executive Order from May 23, 1979, issued and signed by one James Earl Carter. (That would be Billy's brother, and like Yasser Arafat, a Nobel Peace Prize winner.) In it he reserves unto the executive branch the right to conduct electronic surveillance without a court order. As you know, Executive Orders outlive their creators. This order was not rescinded by subsequent office holders, and consequently still applies today.

Yahoo is correct in stating that in 1993 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act required a court order for most intelligence gathering activity. But a thorough reading of the Act in question discloses the fact that FISA does indeed include some exceptions, allowing surveillance without a court order in some limited cases. But even those slight limitations had previously been superceeded by Executive Order 12319.

Yahoo is also correct in stating that the law was ammended in 1995 to include physical searches.

What Yahoo did not tell you is that in 1995, (the year that FISA was ammended to exclude physical searches), William Jefferson Blythe Clinton issued Executive Order 12949. This executive Order includes physical searches in the type of intelligence gathering that may be executed without a court order. Quite a coincedence, wouldn't you say?

What the legilature granted, Executive Orders taketh away. (Or would that be the other way 'round?)

Sorry, I see no "oops" here.

The only question I have left is, why the link to QandO? I can find no reference to you by name there. Are you one of the authors of Qand O?
UPDATE:
Apparently Mr. Haley also forgot about Echelon..

Virginia Blog Carnival

This week hosted by Virginia Centrist. Gather up your favorite post of the week and submit. While I haven't had time this week to write anything worthy, that shouldn't stop you other Virginia bloggers from providing a contribution.

UPDATE:
Included in this week's Carnival is a seven month old bigoted rant from a blogger who hasn't posted since May, 2005. Because of that inclusion, and the fact that I graciously bowed out this week because of a lack of a timely and worthy post, I have removed all links to this week's Carnival.

Be sure to check out next week's issue, hosted by haduken.com.

Virginia Landmark Contest

In the spirit of Chad's Weekly Caption Contest (BTW, where is it this week, Chad?), let's take a weekly journey through The Old Dominion.

This week's photo (click on photo to enlarge) should be a familiar landmark to Virginians who live south and west of Richmond.

Comments are open, the first correct answer earns 100 points, which combined with $3.95 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

UPDATE:
Congratulations to Kilo, for giving the correct location, and Al, for adding the name. 50 points to each of you. And 100 points to Chad for depriving Will Vehrs of an excuse for another non-productive a Friday afternoon...

UPDATE II:
It's just been pointed out to me that I neglected to name the location in the photo. Travelers along I77 or US52 just south of Wytheville may have noticed the rock tower on the banks of the New River. Located near the site of Jackson's Ferry, Thomas Jackson built and maintained his shot tower for the production of ammunition. Conveniently located near the Austinville lead mines and the afore mentioned ferry, Mr. Jackson continued in business here until his death in 1824. Production continued sporadically up until the Civil War.

Next week, I'll have to dig deeper and come up with one not quite so easily discerned.

Paragraph Of The Week

OpinionJournal - Wonder Land:

"The left-wing opposition groups are reported to be frustrated that their standard-bearers are 'letting Alito off the hook.' What hook? Neither Sam Alito nor John Roberts remotely represents Ted Kennedy's famous 'Robert Bork's America' speech. Reasonable people can disagree on the views of these conservative jurists, but first we need reasonable people."

Virginia Adds Another...

Hmp*.
Welcome Matt...No pun intended. (Well, truthfully, the pun was at least subconsiously intended.) Good blog, check it out.
We need all the young guns we can get. Us old guys get tired too easily.

*Heh was taken...

ht/Chad

So Far It Has...

Scroll down to "Clinton's spying passed unnoted". Far be it from the denizens of Campbell Ave. to waste ink. To do otherwise would be to actually inform their readers.

With Apologies To Theodor (“Ted”) Seuss Geisel

I have not been hiding under a rock
I have not suffered from writer's block

I have not run away from home
I have not left you all alone

I have not given up my blog
I have not been sitting on a log

I have not given up reading yours
from which wisdom sometimes pours

I have not been merely resting
My software has been needing testing

When the stuff I write crashes
Real machinery sometimes bashes

When writing this stuff I must be alert
To insure that if it crashes no one is hurt

Bugs are more than simply unsavoury
sometimes they can cause real injury

Testing has revealed some nasty bugs
And some holes that needed plugs

I love my job, I love my work
My duties I refuse to shirk

I spend my days fixing fixes
I spend my nights searching appendixes

Soon I will have this thing running smoothly
And it will not be done amateurishly

Groan, the rhymes are getting very weak
So now an exit I will seek

When at last success I am toasting
Once again, you'll see me posting