My Hometahn, 'n'at.

I was born in Pittsburgh and lived there several years before moving to my family's home state of West Virginia. There's nothing like the 'Burgh. One of my favorite sites is "Overheard in Pittsburgh," where people report some of the funny comments they've overheard in and around the Three Rivers.

For example - Overheard in an overcrowded Emergency Room, Presbyterian Hospital, Oakland:

A Patient has just listed his problems for a Doctor, including having a pacemaker, one kidney, and a lung infection:

Doctor: Why do you have the pacemaker?
Patient: Crack.
[…]
Doctor: When was the last time you did crack?
Patient:Today.
Doctor: [clear his throat] Do you smoke?
Patient: No, smoking is bad for you.

overheardinpittsburgh.com

Tort Reform

Would you like to have some fun? Visit the W.Va. Secretary of State's website and check out the reports of campaign contributions. It will be an enlightening experience. For example, you'll find just which judicial and legislative candidates were bought and paid for by trial lawyers, a/k/a personal injury lawyers. Those are the guys who file lots of lawsuits. Every once in a while, their claims are legitimate. More often than not, they're what is commonly termed "frivolous."

I bring this up because I recently browsed the Journal of the Missouri Bar, Vol. 62, No. 6, which contains a summary of Missouri's 2005 tort reform legislation, Section 508.010, et seq. RSMo 2006.

One of the revisions that jumps out is the limitation on punitive damages to the lesser of $500,000 or five times the amount of actual damages.

When will West Virginia's Legislature tackle serious legal reform? Judging by the thousands of campaign dollars given by plaintiffs' attorneys, mostly to Democrat legislators, I'm not holding my breath. Continuing to have laws, legislators and judges biased so strongly in favor of personal injury lawyers and against businesses only will keep the Mountain State near the bottom of the economic heap. Legal fairness would benefit not only "big business," but every West Virginian - especially those who ever hope to find employment and a prosperous future for themselves and their families.

My bad!

Good to hear Rich Rodriguez is staying at WVU:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez turned down Alabama on Friday, telling his players that he'll be back for his sixth season with the Mountaineers.

A loud applause could be heard from inside the Milan Puskar Center at Mountaineer Field after Rodriguez told his team he would be staying at his alma mater. ... West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong worked on a proposal to keep Rodriguez at the school, but details were not immediately released. "It's a very good contract," said Stephen P. Goodwin, chairman of the WVU Board of Governors. "It's fair to the university. We're all tickled to death."

Goodwin said West Virginia wasn't trying to compete with Alabama's offer.

"We tried to make Rich the best offer WVU could make to keep him continuing on as a football coach. We didn't get into a bidding match. We couldn't have won that war," Goodwin said.

Too bad it means WVU has to pay him more, though. He had a contract already.

(In any event, what a surprise that CBS had it wrong! Oh my gosh! It's almost like the George W. Bush National Guard story, where they relied on forged documents and couldn't admit their error.)

WVU football and character

CBS News reports that Rich Rodriguez has accepted the Alabama coaching job.

West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez has accepted an offer to become the new coach at Alabama, according to various reports.

However, 12 hours after those reports surfaced there has been no confirmation. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that negotiations had hit a snag. More likely, Rodriguez is telling the Mountaineers of his departure on Friday morning. ...

http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/9858807

That's a shame, if true. Is it possible that you cannot support your family on $1 million+ per year, and so need $2 million, notwithstanding your contractual obligations? I don't know about the rest of you, but I believe anyone with a lick of sense can take $1 million, let alone $1 million per year, and make it last a lifetime. It's all a matter of priorities, I suppose.

Why WV is Last

My posts reveal my conservative viewpoint, but when I read a "spot-on" analysis from someone whose position seems to be more liberal, I'll still give credit where credit is due.

Check out this article by "Bingmanch," The top 6 reasons why West Virginia is pitifully last in just about everything.
http://wvpoliticalsweatbox.blogspot.com/2006/01/top-6-reasons-why-west-virginia-is.html

It's Super Six Time!

The West Virginia high school football championship games, known as the "Super Six," bring a great deal of excitement to the Wheeling area. They also create financial revenues for area restaurants, hotels and other businesses. The organizers should be proud of the goodwill they've created, as well. As reported in the Dec. 1, 2006, Wheeling Intelligencer:

.... It’s something that started right here in Wheeling, with local Super Six
Committee Member Howard Corcoran saying his group does little outside of
Mumley’s vision.‘‘The kids, the kids, the kids,’’ Corcoran said, quoting (Sam) Mumley. ‘‘Take care of the kids for they are the foundation of our future.’’

Most recently born out of that was Wheeling’s promise of $11,000 in scholarships,
including $1,000 for each participating schools’ general scholarship fund. They
also promised five individual $1,000 academic achievement scholarships, which
made January’s vote of a seventh consecutive winning bid a virtual no-brainer.

Even those from around the state are taking notice. Earlier, former Magnolia football coach Dave Cisar, who is an honorary referee for tonight’s Class AA game, remembered very little about the last season Charleston played host to W.Va.’s football championships (1993). He said they bussed down, played the game, got a t-shirt, and bussed home.

That’s similar to the memory Marcinko had.‘‘You people have made this an event,’’ Marcinko said. ‘‘You have raised the bar. If Wheeling ever gives this up or if someone else ever goes after this, they’ve got their work cut out. Wheeling deserves a salute.’’

http://www.news-register.net/sports/articles.asp?articleID=13423

I hope the Super Six series stays in Wheeling for many years to come. The oft-ignored Northern Panhandle - Wheeling in particular - has demonstrated itself far superior to other areas of the state when it comes to organizing a top-notch sporting event. Congratulations to the organizers and good luck to the local teams!

Crime Pays

The Charleston Daily Mail on Nov. 27, 2006, reported that five former public employees who were convicted of felonies - crimes committed in the course of their taxpayer-funded employment - are demanding that their pension benefits not be terminated.

I need to do a little research, but does it strike anyone else that West Virginia has more public employees, per capita, than any other state? I could be wrong about that statistic but I'm not wrong in saying that government employees who betray the public trust by stealing or committing sexual assault on the job shouldn't be permitted to benefit from their crimes.

I'd love to see the state Legislature completely overhaul the public employment system, so that bad apples like these may be thrown out quickly. As it is, with innumerable grievances and appeals available to them (all at taxpayer expense), bad public employees can keep their jobs - and their pensions - almost forever. Thank goodness the Consolidated Public Retirement Board is trying to cut off these five. I hope the Kanawha County Circuit Court judge rules in favor of the beleaguered taxpayers in this case.

Weblogs Worth a Visit

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/

http://www.getelephantwars.com/republicangazette.html

What's Wrong With This Picture? (Or, Fiddling While Rome Burns)

A plant to convert coal to liquid fuel is to be built near Wellsville, Ohio, according to recent news reports. (The story may be found here: http://www.salemnews.net/news/articles.asp?articleID=3498). Officials expect the new plant will employ 200 permanent workers. In addition, "the four-year construction process will see a minimum of 1,500 construction workers on the site at one time, and possibly as many as 2,500," according to the Salem News article cited above.

Meanwhile, West Virginia's newly-elected Democrat legislators are wasting no time trying to bring more gambling to the Mountain State. Not a plant, not a manufacturing facility of any type, not any sort of business that actually produces something of value, but casinos. Table gaming, woo hoo!! Blackjack 'n'at!!

Won't that be great? West Virginians can take their unemployment checks and buy big stacks of poker chips with them.

The Big Game

Oh yeah, there's something going on in Columbus tomorrow between OSU and Michigan, but I just wanted to offer congratulations to the WVU Mountaineers for their victory over Pitt last night. If there were any justice in the world, Steve Slaton and Pat White would share the Heisman this year! Let's go, Mountaineers!

Guns 'n' Poseurs

The Second Amendment was our founding fathers’ way to ensure that we had the means to defend our hard-won freedom against any tyrant that might come along to take it away from us. The possession of firearms is a Constitutional right, co-equal with free speech, freedom of religion, the right to a jury trial, equal protection under the law and all the others set forth in the U.S. Constitution and its amendments. Don’t tell a few of the students at West Liberty State College, though. You might offend them.

It seems a group at the college for many years has held a gun raffle as a fundraiser. This being West Virginia, chock full of hunters and sportsmen, no one gave such a promotion a second thought. But in October 2006 came along the president of the Student Government Association. He was outraged that anyone would contemplate selling the chance to win an eeeevilll hunting rifle or shotgun. Outraged, I tell you!

In an effort to smooth things over (although Mr. Student Prez seemed to be the only one actually complaining), the group changed the prizes from guns to gift certificates at Cabela’s outdoor store, but that wasn’t good enough. According to the WLSC student newspaper The Trumpet (Nov. 7, 2006), Mr. Prez announced that his fraternity was going to respond with a raffle of its own, and the prizes would be a gift basket full of “adult films,” cigarettes and beer.

It’s unfortunate that this young man may not have learned anything useful during his many years at WLSC (maybe he skipped political science class the day they discussed the Bill of Rights), least of all that porn and cigarettes are not the moral equivalent of a deer rifle. I only can imagine how it would grieve the brave and brilliant men who drafted the U.S. Constitution to see how today’s citizens who enjoy all of its legal protections are so eager to make a mockery of it.

Healthcare Woes

The Associated Press recently ran a story - picked up by a local Northern Panhandle newspaper today - about how hospitals are trying to reduce the length of time patients spend in emergency room waiting rooms. It described how a woman named Beatrice Vance died of a heart attack in a Chicago-area hospital's ER waiting room after going over two hours without being examined by a physician. The story also described how patients commonly have to wait for several hours for non-emergency procedures and for routine examinations for which they supposedly had appointments.

Apparently, the majority of voters in Western Pennsylvania's Fourth Congressional District think that's not such a bad thing. They voted out Rep. Melissa Hart and replaced her with Jason Altmire, one of the worker bees on Hillary Clinton's ill-conceived health care task force. You remember HillaryCare, the government-run health care system that would have brought criminal charges against patients for going outside their arbitrarily prescribed regions for treatment, and against doctors for daring to provide healthcare beyond that decreed by a faraway bureaucrat.

Clearly, affordable health care is to be desired for all Americans, but do we really want our emergency room waiting areas to look like the Social Security office, another paragon of efficiency? Do we want to entrust our lives and those of our children to a bored government worker in another state? How well has the government, federal or state, ever run anything?

Take a number, and try not to die.

Inaugural blog post and election musings

I decided on election night, Nov. 7, 2006, to create a blog for occasional commentary on issues pertinent to my region, state and country – or whatever else comes to mind.

The election of 2006 will have profound and, dare I say, devastating effects on our nation’s efforts to fight terror. Some of us were concerned when terror groups started endorsing Democrats, but we’ll see whether that translates into a less secure homeland. I believe a Democrat majority in Congress also will be detrimental to the U.S. economy. All you middle-class workers can kiss your paychecks goodbye, as the Democrats work feverishly to reverse the tax relief measures enacted in the previous five years. But the voters have chosen, and we’ll all pay the piper.

As for West Virginia, good luck with your new Legislature. Good luck, Gov. Mojo, trying to bring new employers into this state, considering you and your Democrat Legislature lack the will to embark on a legitimate restructuring of the state’s ridiculous anti-business tax system. Patchwork is nice in quilts, but not for tax reform.

Replacing Ohio County’s Republican Delegates with two union officials has to be one of the most disappointing voting results of the day. It’s amazing that unions still are so politically influential in this state, considering the industries that created union jobs are on their deathbed. It also is curious that the typical “union guy” still votes Democrat, after the big load of nothing that party has done for anyone who works for a living. Does anyone remember when Weirton Steel employed over 13,000? Now, the state is full of unemployed union members. By the way, has anyone ever seen a union official waiting in line at the unemployment office? I didn’t think so.

I watched Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV arriving at a union-sponsored pro-Democrat rally in Weirton in 2004. He pulled up in a fully loaded Japanese-made SUV. I asked a union worker what he thought of that. He looked at me like I had three heads. I explained that his American union brothers didn’t make the vehicle, that the billionaire Rockefeller (friend of the working man) had put his money into the hands of Japanese workers instead. The steelworker’s response? “Uh, well, Japanese workers have to feed their families, too.” Yep, while you and yours go hungry, I guess. Here’s your sign, as Bill Engvall might say.

By the way, I saw Rockefeller again in October 2006 in Buckhannon. Still enjoying that luxury import SUV, I noticed.

Then there’s Rep. Alan B. Mollohan. For reasons unknown, the majority of voters in the first district are more that happy to hand over to him the money from their own pockets so that he can hand it over to his friends – who, in turn, thank Mr. Mollohan for his generosity by giving him a little bit back. All the while, the voters stand there with their empty pockets turned inside out, convinced Mollohan really cares about them. Sure, it really, really makes sense that a “public servant” should become a multimillionaire almost overnight.

Let’s not forget Big Daddy. Hallelujah, Big Daddy! No disrespect meant for a senior citizen (although I’m not sure how much respect is due a Klansman in the first place), but Sen. Robert C. Byrd has for the past several years lacked the requisite mental acuteness for the job. Why did this 90-year-old man run for another six-year term? He must have heard a rumor that somewhere in West Virginia existed a building, bridge, road or outhouse that didn’t yet bear his name. Keep working on that, Sen. Byrd. And we’ll keep enjoying our last-place status among the 50 states.