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Post of the Day — May 11, 2013

Note from Dan: Lots of RWers here have thoughtlessly and disgustedly exulted over the deaths of four Americans last year at our consulate in Benghazi while elevating some minor missteps in a difficult-to-control operation to the status of a super scandal that’s sure to a) bring down President Obama and/or b) eviscerate the 2016 presidential ambitions of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Last night the regular Warren took a look at the claims this is worst “scandal” in American history and in the comment below he debunked them thoroughly.

“If the Obama administration sculpted the information released to the public for political ends, as it may well have done, it was doing something quite routinely done in electoral maneuvering. The desired result may have been to simply avoid handing their opponents something to demagogue, but now that’s happening anyway. The election results and the GOTP’s subsequent lack of traction on more substantive issues has made their shrillness on the matter much worse, because the GOTP has little else to offer their disappointed base right now besides feeding its hysteria. Read more »

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The Post of the Day — April 30, 2013

Note from Dan: Raymond Flory is leaving town, to relocate far from Roanoke, right around the same time that Al Bedrosian makes another run at public office, this time for the Hollins seat for Roanoke County supervisor. Below is Flory’s parting shot at the semi-perennial candidate, which came in as a comment posted Monday.

“It warms my heart to see that after so many years of wandering blindly in the wilderness, that a great arbiter of culture and morality “Brother Al” Bedrosian is back in the spotlight to grace us lost sheep with his profound guidance.

It might predate Mr. Casey’s arrival in Roanoke, but around the turn of the century Mr. Bedrosian was in the news for whacking a toddler that was misbehaving. Notwithstanding the fact that the incident did not take place in WalMart where this is common, it was newsworthy because the child was not his. Not recognizing that Mr. Bedrosian is one of those rare people who never has to say “I don’t know”, the parent took exception to this.

A few years later Mr. Bedrosian wrote an editorial in the Roanoke Times where he stated that since the culture of the United States is rooted in Christianity, the United States should be a Christian theocracy where being an infidel would be a crime. Read more »

Grafic by Dan

Post of the Day — April 23, 2013

Note from Dan: The regular “Chuck” and I have sparred repeatedly but we have no differences over anything he writes below. It’s fair and well-reasoned — congrats, Chuck! Like him, I’ve been hit by a vehicle (that’s happened four times at least) and carted away by ambulance; but I’ve been far luckier. Three times I escaped without injury beyond road rash; once I had a concussion and a broken nose.

I’ve been reading these blogs for some time now and find several things about this issue interesting. From many of the comments it seems that many of you think cyclists have no business on the greenway. From past blogs it is also apparent that many of you think cyclists have no business on the highway either. For some of you it seems that the cyclist should be considered at fault no matter what since they really shouldn’t be “there” in the first place, regardless of where “there” is.

It is also interesting that many of that same group that thinks it is the “fast cyclist’s” fault when they crash into a slow moving unaware pedestrian, lay fault in exactly the opposite manner when vehicles are involved. When the topic of interstate crashes come up, many are quick to blame the slow moving cars that won’t get out of the way. An interesting dichotomy.

I also find it interesting that some are ready to put any cyclist who hits someone in jail. As a cyclist who has been hit by a motorist, I know first hand the sense of anger that follows. However, at some point you have to let rational thought and justice take over and stop basing everything on raw emotion. Read more »

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Posts of the Day — April 23, 2013

Note from Dan: We have a bunch of new voices on the blog today, and welcome to all. It’s a testament to the passion many feel about our awesome (and expanding) greenway system here in the Roanoke Valley. Some posters want cyclists banned from the greenway or parts of it. Here’s a smattering of those sentiments from this morning’s column thread. Also, stay tuned for a guest post Wednesday morning, by cyclist Chris Berry, who runs down a semi tongue-in-cheek rules for using the greenway — from a bicyclist’s perspective.

BUD:
The Greenway isn’t wide enough to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians at “high usage” times. Cyclists want to ride at speeds of 15- 20 mph. It’s not practical to think people walking dogs, people walking kids, families out for a walk  . . . that all can coexist on a strip of asphalt. Biking is a hazard to the walkers and riders and as a result should be kept to the roads.

DAVE:
The cyclists are the ones causing the problem. If you only have time to yell “on your left” then you are going too fast and should significantly slow down before going around them. How can the cyclists expect someone out on a leisurely stroll, or the elderly or kids, to be able to get over to safety in time? Other communities/cities have banned bicycles from portions of their greenways. Bicycles (other than for little kids) probably should be done from in Roanoke from Carillion to Black Dog Salvage. The terminology of the cyclists shows that they have a dangerous mindset with respect to the greenways. They speak of “passing” and “on your left.” It’s a greenway, not a speedway. Read more »

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The Post of the Day — April 17, 2013

Note from Dan: The following is by regular poster J.M. White. It was written on this thread as a response to another poster who complained about RWers derisively calling President Obama a liberal messiah.

“Most of my personal research into the matter reveals that the messiah meme originated when his own cheerleaders in ’08 called him “the one.” Of course, this was meant in reference to the real possibility of him breaking through the “good ol’ white boy” barrier to the presidency and not in any religious vein.

Naturally, the fundies got up in arms about it (as they do every new presidency) in their ever-persistent desire to bring about the Apocalypse. Seriously, when has some group not considered a new POTUS the Antichrist? They did it with Reagan. They did it with both Bushes. They did it with Clinton. They don’t want a Republican or a Democrat and they really don’t care about affiliation at all. They just want Jesus to come back; they don’t care how it’s catalyzed. Read more »

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The Post of the Day

Note from Dan: The little nugget below came on this thread, in response to an unwarranted broadside against the Environmental Protection Agency by Suzie. She blasted the EPA for bad science about cyclamates and MSG (things they had nothing to do with) and for needlessly raising fear about acid rain (ask anglers about that one). J.M. White answered with the response below.

“From 1868 to 1969, the Cuyahoga River caught fire no less than 13 times. That’s a river… catching on fire. I would call that a need for environmental regulation pre-1970.

An environmentalist acquaintance of mine has a bet that has been standing for 30 years – he has a one-quart mason jar of “water” taken from the Cuyahoga shortly after the 1969 fire. The bet is $10,000 to the person who drinks it.

Of course, there’s a catch; you have to sign a liability waiver. Oh, and the contents of the jar, aside from being the most foul-looking liquid I’ve ever seen stored in any container ever (and I’ve worked in a sewage treatment facility), will very likely kill you horribly, excruciatingly and probably slowly.

He usually pulls it out when some big-mouthed idiot starts sounding off about how environmentalism is all a big scam. It’s amazing how quickly the mouths close again. It’s probably the most clever “put up or shut up” challenge I’ve ever seen.”

Shot by Dan

Note from Dan: Recall back in the 80s, when states began to undo the 18-year-old drinking age?  College students, especially, simply cannot be trusted with the country’s future, the argument holds. Even though it’s their future. (If a kid goes immediately from high school into a full-time job changing tires at a repair shop where RWer talk radio plays all day every day, we may be able to cut an exception pr two). Those of you who don’t believe any such moves are in the offing would be well-reminded that you didn’t believe states would begin enacting faux poll taxes and other barriers to discourage voting among minorities and others likely to vote for Democratic candidates. Here’s the post, from regular Pistol Pete, on the Wednesday OPEN thread.

“College students (many of which are brainwashed by liberal profs) that can’t tell you how many senators we have or recognize a picture of Joe Biden are the ones who elected Obama in 2008 and in 2012.

Today’s LIBERAL Arts degree at a four year college definitely has an appropriate name.

Would you guys on the Left want someone voting . . . who only voted against Obama because they thought he was from Kenya? Or would you rather have someone who was competent in understanding our government casting a vote?

Some of you didn’t watch the video before you commented . . .”

Grafic by Dan

Note from Dan: The regular “Still Learning” posted this about the New River Valley Commerce Park on Tuesday’s column thread.

“The Commerce Park was a project promoted by the NRV, mainly Pulaski County, and it was a boondoggle from the start.

The land did not have direct interstate access or adequate utilities, nor was it located with an adequate educated and available labor market. No “mega site” user as was targeted by the government developers of this park would have ever considered it for these reasons.

But under the misguided feel good excuse of “regional cooperation at any cost” this newspaper touted it as a project that local governments could not afford to pass up and editorialized ad nauseum about its future benefits for both the Roanoke and New River Valleys. Bev Fitzpatrick relentlessly lobbied Roanoke City Council into this deal, and then shamed Roanoke County into following suit while Salem saw the obvious and declined to invest in the project. Read more »

Grafic by Dan

Note from Dan: This from “Mark” came in last night on this thread from January. Apparently he’s a Walmart worker who is disenchanted about all of his colleagues who are on the dole.

“Walmart hires employees at sub-par wages and uses the government to subsidize what they don’t pay their employees.

Roughly 80% of Walmart employees are on some type of government assistance.

I work for Walmart, and most of our 270 employees are on food stamps, WIC, and live in Section 8 housing.

So to the people who believe that Walmart employees are compensated fairly for their skills:

ENJOY PAYING FOR THEIR WELFARE!”

By Dan

Note from Dan: I’ve ridden my bike on the Roanoke River greenway many times; I always call out “on the left” when passing pedestrians — and occasionally I find some walking three and four abreast in a manner that blocks whole path. But until today, it never occurred to me that those walkers might be deliberately blocking cyclists. And then I read this portion of a post from regular BobH on a thread from Wednesday.

“I participated in the CROP walk last October, some of which was on the greenway. I have never seen anything as rude as most of the bicyclists were. Most never said a word when they went zipping past and treated us like we were an annoyance to their turf. They did not believe in sharing anything, especially not the greenway.

But we got the last laugh. We strarted walking 5 abreast making the bicyclists go around us off the pavement. They had some choice words for that too, none of which were “sport” or “sir” and none of which will pass even the low standards of this BLOG.”