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Your daily Letter to the Editor — May 6, 2013

Reading the news story “Army says no to more tanks, but Congress insists” April 29 annoyed me more than Dan Casey!

The Army does not need or want any more Abrams tanks, yet Congress, in the midst of sequestration, is requiring that almost half a billion dollars be spent to build a 70-ton paperweight.

These tanks will most likely be put into storage and rust until bid upon by a scrap metals firm.

Meanwhile, services that the public enjoys or needs are eliminated so one party can blame the other, in hope that the public will demand higher taxes so their wanted programs and services will return. Disgusting.

Peter Nylander
ROANOKE

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Note from Dan: I was also annoyed by that story. But I’m curious as to how Mr. Nylander knows he was more annoyed by it than I was.

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If you’d care to read something really bizarre this afternoon, head over to Mark Taylor’s Wild Life blog. Apparently gunner/rocker Ted Nugent will be playing a gig in Roanoke in April, and Mark toys with the notion of inviting Ted to go turkey hunting.

Well, gobble! gobble! The discussion quickly degenerates into a bunch of armchair Rambos fantasizing about hiring Ted Nugent to hunt down me, rather than turkeys. No kidding.

Bubba Greene, who has posted on this blog, is one. BobH is another. Apparently this discussion is “metro” enough for him.

They get deep into this fantasy. They’ve pledged $300 to make it happen. Now that’s some keyboard bravado for you!

Here’s what they fail to grasp: They’re admitting they’d have to hire Nugent to do their bidding. And they’ve turned him into their $300 fantasy-hunt whore.

They seem REAL excited about that, too.

I guess the lesson here is that you should never underestimate the sense of humor of some anonymous gunners . . .

From VCDL.org

The Virginia Citizen’s Defense League, the state’s largest pro-gun organization, has revamped its website. Click on the link to check it out.

Notice what leads it off: a quote from your humble metro columnist, who on Dec. 5 called the organization, “the commonwealth’s dominant gun lobby.”

Thanks, guys! I reckon that this upcoming weekend I’ll be serving up some more stuff for you to talk about!

But can you return the favor? Just change the identifier to “Roanoke Times Metro Columnist Dan Casey, Virginia’s most talented anti-gun columnist.”

(h/t to John Wilburn).

Mptv.org

A camera crew from PBS’ “Nightly Business Report” just left The Roanoke Times after interviewing yours truly about President Obama’s speech here July 13, the out-of-context criticism over his phrase “you didn’t build that,”  and my subsequent column, “Obama saboteurs twisting the truth.”

They said it was for tonight’s show. It airs at midnight on WBRA.

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Here’s a true story about a small gang of angry atheists, their tin funny bones, and their apparent practice of not bothering to think for themselves.

They first surfaced last October, when I wrote a tongue-in-cheek column about the Giles County School Board and its lawyers from the Liberty Counsel. It lampooned the school board and Liberty Counsel for using gangster-like tactics in court to try to keep the Ten Commandments on the wall at Pearisburg High School.

They were trying to force the “John Doe” student plaintiff to reveal his name publicly, which would expose him to intimidation or worse, as a way to “persuade” him to drop his lawsuit against the hanging commandments. (It didn’t work, thank goodness).

On the other side of that issue was the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group of nonbelievers based in Wisconsin. Somebody at the FFRF evidently believed the column poked fun at the FFRF, when it was actually aimed at the other side.

Via an email to a lengthy list of atheist adherents, the FFRF issued a figurative fatwah on your truly. It claimed I was a member of the religious right (now that’s a laugh) and that I had impugned them.

The next thing I knew, I got blitzed with nasty messages and comments on my blog, calling me all kinds of names. Read more »

A few months ago I noted here that I’d won a national award from the Society of Professional Journalists for column writing. The award presentation was Friday night in Washington, D.C., which I didn’t make.The fancy plaque is in the mail.

The organization has a 6-times-a year magazine, Quill. And the current issue is the awards issue. Below is my (half) page, with the other columnist who won an award, too. (Sorry about the colors, which scanned to0 rich).

Look what the judges wrote: “Casey doesn’t much care what others think.” Who’d a thunk?

Elena DeRosa

One reason I like Elena DeRosa is she’s a sharp cookie. Naturally, she viewed today’s column as an opportunity to chime in on her blog, in a post with the title of the headline, above.

In which Elena writes about:

“He comes from Binghamton and works for the Roanoke Times. What does he know?” she writes. “Please do not cancel your show in Roanoke. Some of us transplants need to hear another New York accent and a joke that doesn’t have “Y’all” in it.”

To which I would add: What does she know? She’s a Patti Smith fan who did cartwheel when she found a Roanoke Valley store that sells Breakstone Whipped butter.

I doubt Seinfeld will cancel the show, Elena. He’s already found enough suckers to fill half the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre at the Civic Center — at $72 and $82 a head. Read more »

Yo, everyone!

Sorry for the long absence on the blog today. It was a busy one.

I was the keynote luncheon speaker for the the Roanoke Kiwanis Club (which is one of the largest and most active of 8,000 Kiwanis clubs on planet Earth).

It’s a fantastic organization that performs many valuable service projects in the Roanoke Valley. They filled the ballroom at the old Patrick Henry Hotel for yours truly, which was quite humbling.

Steve McGraw, the clerk of court in Salem, kicked it off by presenting me with a T-shirt from the world-famous Texas Tavern. Then my close friend, Manly Aylor, introduced me and deftly avoided any mention of the numerous skeletons in my closet. Mayor David Bowers, another Kiwanis stalwart who I endorsed in the recent election, sent his regrets that he couldn’t be there.

I talked a little bit about where I get my column ideas (from everywhere, and everyone); then told them the story of “The Day Pat Robertson’s Bodyguard Pulled a Gun on Me” (which I have written about on this blog, and which is one of my favorite adventures in journalism). Read more »

From his Facebook page

Jerry Furhman of Bland County loves to hate the stuff I write, and he loves to write about that hatred on his blog, From on High.

That’s flattering in no small way, because Jerry’s helping spread the word about my humble columns every time he writes about me.  Heck, Jerry’s efforts may actually have played a key role in my being recently named one of America’s top columnists.

So Jerry, if you had anything to do with that, thanks partner!

Anyway, I’m kind of concerned about him these days, for reasons that have nothing to do with the unusual photo on the left.

It appears Jerry’s  been going through an intellectual rough patch of late, which may be a sign of a much longer-term cognitive decline. The evidence: he’s no longer content with forcefully criticizing  arguments he opposes.  Now, he’s devolved into the name-calling of writers with whom he disagrees.

The worst part? His insults aren’t even creative. Instead, they’re banal and lame, and usually bathroom-centered, such as  “. . .sh*t-for-brains Dan Casey. . .

I would email him and ask how low he intends to go with “From On High” but I don’t want to tax his brain with my wit.

He sounds terribly frustrated. Hang in there, Jerry! The good readers of this blog will keep you in our thoughts and prayers.