Mountain Blog

An Appalachian Oxymoron

posted by Dave Peyton @ 5:59 PM 0 comments

Back from the brink of death

These are pictures of a crape myrtle planted on the property where I have lived for 55 years. It was planted by my mother circa 1950.

But thereby hangs a tale:

She must have planted it in the wrong place. It was under a tree near the house and it didn't thrive for more than 40 years. In fact, when I had some bulldozer work done on my property late one cummer about 10 years ago, it was barely a sprout though the root was four decades old.

I forgot to tell the bulldozer operator to work around the shrub. He bulldozed it.

Oh, well, I thought. I hated to lose something planted by Mama but it was destined to die anyway.

The following spring, about 20 feet away from where it was previously planted, a fragile sprout appeared. I recognized it as the crape myrtle. It was alive - barely.

So I mowed around it and threw some fertilizer on it. Look at it today. It's 10-feet all and in full bloom. Moving it accidentally 20 feet made all the difference.

I wish I could take credit for saving my mother's 55 year old shrub, but I can't.

It's a reminder to me that life is perhaps the most potent force in the universe and the will to live is strong - very strong indeed - among all living things.

Walt Whitman said the smallest sprout shows there is really no death.

And when the sprout becomes a 10-foot tree, it transform his premise into the ultimate reality.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 3:03 PM 0 comments

What Irony !

West Virginia:

Home of Jessica Lynch and Lyndie England.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 12:35 PM 0 comments

Something is happening here...

... but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?

posted by Dave Peyton @ 9:37 AM 0 comments

Passing Gas Is Everyone's Concern

WOWK-TV has a site where it delivers local news. Here's the headline and the first paragraph of one of its stories:

Motorists Concerned About Gas Passes
Posted 9/22/2005 10:24 PM

Hurricane Rita Puts Drivers On Edge

Story by Nicole Ward Email | Bio

With Rita swirling around off the coast of Texas, people are bracing for more flooding, more destruction and higher gas prices.

I think they meant "Gas Prices" but their headliine is a lot funnier.

Update: They fixed it.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 9:20 AM 0 comments

Worth Repeating

I wrote this in June but it's worth repeating because I like to gloat occasionally:

Good things come to those who wait....

... and the wait is about over.

What neo-cons don't understand about the vast majority of moderates and liberals in America is that they really don't care to engage in name-calling, back-biting and the rigors of mindless patriotism. They are interested in results.

Most just hang back and let things happen. And it's happening with the war in Iraq. While this is being written before President Bush's speech tonight, the speech doesn't matter. The majority of Americans are sick unto death of the war and where it has been heading for months.

One way or another, we're going to get out of that hell-hole and soon. The American people have said what they thought the timetable ought to be in Iraq and the day after tomorrow is not soon enough to get out as far as most are concerned.

As more troops come home and tell their stories of chaos and disintegrating moral, the polls are going to be even more anti-Bush and anti-war. We are still a nation of reasonable people and the war in Iraq is as unreasonable as the one in Vietnam.

What an absolute mess. The president has no plan and instead of defetaing terrorism in Iraq, it has become a breeding ground for terrorists. Could it be any worse?

But it will soon be over and our good men and women who have served so faithfully will soon be home because good things come to those who wait.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 10:44 PM 3 comments

What Bill Maher said.....

posted by Dave Peyton @ 2:04 PM 4 comments

My Son's Current Favorite Bumper Sticker

posted by Dave Peyton @ 8:38 PM 0 comments

Pack Up All My Cares and Woes

Here's a little flood history lesson from http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/02/1419233

In the spring of 1927, after weeks of incessant rains, the Mississippi River flooded. Racing south from Cairo, Illinois, the river blew away levee after levee, inundating thousands of farms and hundreds of towns, killing as many as a thousand people and leaving nearly a million homeless. The disaster laid bare the feudal between whites and blacks in the South.

As New York Times columnist David Brooks writes, "Blacks were rounded up into work camps and held by armed guards. They were prevented from leaving as the waters rose. A steamer, the Capitol, played "Bye Bye Blackbird" as it sailed away." The racist violence that followed the floods helped persuade many blacks to move north."

posted by Dave Peyton @ 7:12 PM 0 comments

Here's a Katrina Timeline I Found Most Interesting

http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline

posted by Dave Peyton @ 2:47 PM 4 comments

Mr. Bill's A Prophet. Oh Noooooooooooo!

In early 2004, lovable, crushable clay animated figure Mr. Bill from Saturday Night Live starred in an ad to alert people to the problems with the wetlands in Louisiana. On Good Morning, America today, President Bush said, "I don't think anyone could have anticipated the breach of the levees." He was wrong. Mr. Bill already had.

Here's the transcript of the 2004 ad:

MR. BILL: Gee, kids, I'm not sure we can do our show today because it looks like Hurricane Sluggo is headed right for us here in America's wetlands.

WALTER WILLIAMS, MR. BILL CREATOR: That's right, Mr. Bill. And since New Orleans is below sea level, if a hurricane hit us directly, it could push the water over the levees and fill it to the top.

BILL: Well then we'd better leave.

WILLIAMS: Well it's too late to evacuate since all the roads are jammed and under water.

BILL: Then where can we go that's safe?

WILLIAMS: Here this should work.

BILL: Gee, I hope it doesn't get much higher.

WILLIAMS: Well, Red, the alligator, doesn't seem too worried.

BILL: Yes, that's because he can swim. You know I don't do that too well.

WILLIAMS: Well in that case, Red says he'll have one of his buddies come and give you a lift.

BILL: That's OK. Maybe you could mind the water wings or something. Oh, get me out of here! No, wait, no, no, ohhh!

WILLIAMS: Let's act now before it's too late.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 9:02 AM 1 comments

Sometimes You Wanna Beat Your Head Against A Wall

Medical malpractice suits are evil. Right? That's what certain doctors and puffed-up bigwigs in West Virginia told us when they extracted medical malpractice legislation from lawmakers a coupleof years ago, warning us that medical suits would cause us to lose all our doctors and drain the state of its ability to treata people for medical conditions.

Now comes a story in The Herald-Dispath about a guy in Ohio who gave a million dollars to Marshall. He's a teacher. Where did he get that money?

That was nearly impossible on a teacher's salary. But after Dardinger's first wife lost her battle with cancer, he ended up as the recipient of a significant jury award and realized he could keep his commitment.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 8:42 AM 0 comments

More Fun Than You Can Have and Remain Vertical

See this for this:

DeLay to evacuees: 'Is this kind of fun?'

RAW STORY

A report on the Houston Chronicle blog by Chronicle reporter Purva Patel reveals that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay asked Hurricane Katrina evacuees if their current situation was "kind of fun," RAW STORY has found. Excerpts follow.

#

While on the tour with top administration officials from Washington, including U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, DeLay stopped to chat with three young boys resting on cots.

The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"

Advertisement

They nodded yes, but looked perplexed.

...

"You are becoming famous all over this country and even the world," he said, adding that he's often approached by lawmakers commending Houston's response to the disaster.

#

posted by Dave Peyton @ 10:09 PM 1 comments

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Big stories the mainstream news media ignored, blacked out, or underreported over the past year, according to Project Censored, a media watchdog group based at California's Sonoma State University:

Every year project researchers scour the media looking for news that never really made the news, publishing the results in a book, this year titled Censored 2006. Of course, as Project Censored staffers painstakingly explain every year, their "censored" stories aren't literally censored, per se. Most can be found on the Internet, if you know where to look. And some have even received some ink in the mainstream press. "Censorship," explains project director Peter Phillips, "is any interference with the free flow of information in society." The stories highlighted by Project Censored simply haven't received the kind of attention they warrant, and therefore haven't made it into the greater public consciousness.

Number 10 on the list:

10. Mountaintop removal threatens ecosystem and economy

On Aug. 15 environmental activists created a human blockade by locking themselves to drilling equipment, obstructing the National Coal Corp.'s access to a strip mine in the Appalachian mountains 40 miles north of Knoxville. It was just the latest in a protracted campaign that environmentalists say has national implications but that's been ignored by the media outside the immediate area.

Under contention is a technique wherein entire mountaintops are removed using explosives to access the coal underneath – a practice that is nothing short of devastating for the local ecosystem, but which could become much more widespread.

As it stands, 93 new coal plants are in the works nationwide, according to Project Censored's findings. "Areas incredibly rich in biodiversity are being turned into the biological equivalent of parking lots," wrote John Conner of the Katúah branch of Earth First! – which has been throwing all its energies into direct action campaigns to block the project – in Censored 2006. "It is the final solution for 200-million-year-old mountains."

Source: "See You in the Mountains: Katúah Earth First! Confronts Mountaintop Removal," John Conner, Earth First!, November-December, 2004.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 9:59 PM 0 comments

Looking for the silver lining (sort of)

This from a letter to the editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Not a single Arabian horse has been reported killed by Katrina, so maybe FEMA director Michael Brown's work experience came in handy after all.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 8:08 PM 1 comments

...and the devil didn't make me do this

1 IF I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 12:43 PM 0 comments

Mennonites Rock

If anyone is still looking for a reputable private agency that does good work, may I recommend Mennonite Disaster Services at http://www.mds.mennonite.net/.

I watched the Mennonites do their volunteer jobs at Buffalo Creek and elsewhere in southern West Virginia during floods and disasters and while they aren't highly visible, the quietly go about helping rebuild and restore hope. Folowing the biblical admonition, they who who their neighbors are.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 11:38 AM 0 comments

Huntington's take on the crisis

I love the Huntingtonnews.net bulletin board.

It shows what relatively anonymous people in Huntington think about life.

The Gulf Coast disaster is much discussed on the bulletin board.

A woman who goes by the name of Huldah (Hebrew for "weasel") says there's a strong possibility that the chaos in New Orleans was orchestrated by Democrats who did it to embarrass the Republican administration.

And when a discussion arose about the possibility of bringing evacuees to Huntington, some other nameless, faceless person called Spiderman said "Huntington has enough homeless people already." His belief was corroborated by at least one other nameless, faceless person.

Admittedly, these two folks are in a minority on the board. But the minority have rights, too.

Later in the day, Huldah raised this possibility:

I'm still curious about the breech of the levies.
The timing of the breech and what (if any) actions were taken by the local government. What an opportunity to "cover up" corruption.
If the breech of the levy were to benefit anyone, who would be most likely to benefit?

posted by Dave Peyton @ 9:26 AM 5 comments

Not How It Should Be but How It Is

I get up early and sit on the side of the bed, waiting for the back pain to strike me. For the past three days, it hasn't. That's good, because prior to that, the muscle spasms made me an invalid until three pain pills dulled them enough so I could stand up straight.

My dogs - Stella and Barkley - want out. I can't let them both out at the same time. If I do, they disappear and don't come home till after dark. Bad dogs! Bad dogs!

Barkley goes out first while Stella whines. Barkley does what he has to do and comes inside where he huddles unde the dining room table to escape the flies.

Yes, my dog Barkley is afraid of flies. What can I say? To make matters worse, we have an outbreak of the insects right now. Barkley lives in terror.

I make coffee for my wife and me as the cats - Tiger and Toes - pace and meow. They expect a bit of tuna every morning and if it isn't delivered, they pout the remainder of the day.

Toes, the fat cat, eats all of hers. Tiger doesn't. Toes eats too fast and does a little recreational vomiting on the living room carpet. I clean it up. Then I look out the window and notice the birds are frantic. They are out of food. I hastily fill the feeder then cram a new suet cake in in the suet feeder.

Next comes food for Bernard the Beta, the new member of the family. He is excited as I shake a few flakes of food in his watery little world. The food god has once again saved him from starvation by dropping manna from the sky.

I have put it off for as long as I can. I turn the TV to CNN, grab a cup of coffee for my wife and me and sit in my recliner while Barkley joins me and slinks behind the chair where he feels safe from the flies.

What's that noise? It's Stella scratching at the back door. She wants inside. I get up to let her in and Barkley follows men snapping at a couple of flies as we make our way to the back door.

Back in the recliner, I watch in horror and sadness at what's happening on the Gulf Coast. I cheer for Gen. Russ Honore and sadly shake my head at some of the idiocy I see and hear. I know I shouldn't be watching this, but it's the NASCAR syndrome. It's why people watch car races, I suppose. To see disasters.

It's the way my days have gone in the last week - taking care of business and watching the disaster and the worse disaster of the aftermath.

Today, I changed my habits a bit. I spent some time browsing the Internet searching for the best buys on emergency supplies, things that will keep me and my family safe for a couple of weeks if and when tragedy strikes and the government fails me as it most certainly will.

Provide for the common defense? Promote the general welfare? Pure unadulterated fantasy.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 6:50 PM 0 comments

Benefit Concert in Huntington

JOIN THE FLOOD WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOR A HURRICANE KATRINA BENEFIT IN HUNTINGTON

The 1937 Flood will be kicking off a benefit concert this
Wednesday night at Pullman Square to aid the victims of Hurricane
Katrina.

The concert -- which also will feature dixieland by the Backyard
Dixie Jazz Stompers, oldtime string band music by Big Rock and
the Candyass Mountain Boys and much more -- starts at 7 p.m. in
the square at 9th Street and 3rd Avenue. Admission is free.

Officials of the Red Cross will be on hand to take donations and
to tell you how else you can help this important relief effort.
Watch for more information as we get closer to the night – for
now, please mark the date and time on your calendar – Wednesday,
Sept. 7, 7 p.m., Pullman Square!

posted by Dave Peyton @ 7:28 PM 0 comments

A general question

Following what you have seen in New Orleans, are you more or less sure that our government can handle a weapons-of-mass-destruction attack on an American city?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 12:02 PM 4 comments

A General Request

Someone who reads this may, by chance, be contacted in the next few days by a polling agency seeking information about what the general public thinks of the job President Bush is doing.

If, as I suspect, his rating fell below 30 percent, there's a chance he might consider resignation. Due to the person who would succeed him in office, I plead with those who might be called to lie. Tell 'em you think Bush is doing a hell of a job. Tell the truth and we might be stuck with President Dick Cheney.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 10:44 AM 1 comments

"Put the goddam weapons down"

"This isn't Iraq"

Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, commander, Joint Task Force Katrina, aka "The Ragin Cajun"

Hats off to the general!!

posted by Dave Peyton @ 11:05 AM 1 comments

moveon.don

On his blog, Don Surber says:

It is a tragedy. Send your money if you want. Donate blood if you want. But get on with your life.

Let's not, Don.

This is the greatest natural tragedy to ever strike the United States. The Gulf Coast tragedy has become a part of our lives, just as 9/11 has become a part of our lives. I've read your blog and notice you have never dropped that event from your memory.

We can't ignore it. It has already become part of our heritage and how we handle it and, more importantly, react to it, will determine the future of this country just as our reaction to 9/11 has charted a course.

I will get on with my life, but I'll be dragging this event behind me all the way to my grave. If that's wrong, so be it.

posted by Dave Peyton @ 5:19 PM 2 comments