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What is a wife to do when her husband occasionally drinks, asks her to wear short skirts, or "forces" her to eat pork?

For one Muslim wife in New York, the answer was: try to kill him - allegedly. The Associated Press has the story:

Rabia Sarwar, 37, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and was freed on $25,000 bail. She told police in a written statement that she was emotionally abused by her husband, Seikh Naseem.

"He made me do so many things that are against Islam," she wrote in a statement to police.

"I did all that just to make him happy but inside me there was a war," she continued.

Naseem suffered cuts to his neck, cheek and hand early Wednesday before fighting Sarwar off and dialing 911 from his Staten Island home, authorities said.

This is yet one of millions of examples of how the conflict among tribes (religion is one among many kinds of tribes) results in human misery.

Thoughts?

Who cares?

Sure, Micheal Jackson, at one time, was a great musician. Who can forget the Jackson Five? Or 'Ben,' or 'Never Can Say Goodbye,' or 'Thriller'?

But let's be honest folks. That amazing pop star? He turned into a bizarre creature, not just in middle age, but well before that.

Long before Michael Jackson went on trial on charges of weirdness with young children, he was already really weird. He was an attractive guy who turned himself into a walking advertisement for the dangers of cosmetic surgery.

Nose jobs. Chin implants. Skin bleaching. Whatever. Addiction to painkillers. Impregnating his cosmetic surgeon's assistant -- how has never been quite answered.

A great talent turned himself into a freak of the tabloids, the courtrooms and the public consciousness. It was very sad to see him go down, but we've all seen the trajectory for years.

Remember Elvis. Let's learn this lesson again.

Michael, R.I.P.

Golly, I had forgotten all about Laura Ingraham, the radio host unceremoniously dumped by WFIR-AM back on March 13. That was two whole weeks ago, or 672 lifespans of a Mayfly -- or something like that.

Laura's a useless hack and her show's a godawful bore (IMHO) and I assume that's why the only news talk station in all of Roanoke gave her the hook and replaced her with the useful Clark Howard. She wasn't making them any money, duh.

Bear2mail (read anything you want into that handle), begs to disagree:

You're an absolute idiot!! WFIR will lose valuable listeners without great programming like Laura Ingraham. You'll be tossed aside with the likes of Air (not so fast) America and NPR. I wouldn't advertise with such a short and I mean short sighted station. Actually it's just a matter of time before we say good riddens to WFIR... Haa -By the way Laura Ingraham I know Don (who??) Casey I don't. Some boring idiot I'm sure.

'Riddens' ... right. That's the proof Bear2mail is a genuine Ingraham fan. Or maybe it's even Laura herself.

The original post is here.

The trees outside Virginia Height Baptist Church got an unfortunate trim over the weekend.

What the heck happened to the beautiful blossoming Bradford pear trees outside Virginia Heights Baptist Church over the weekend? I'm not the only one who wants to know. It looks like Paul Bunyan took a giant buzz saw to the pretty little church plaza on Grandin Road at Memorial Avenue, next to the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op.

Blossoming Bradfords are beautiful but the wood in the trees is absolute junk. A little bit of rain and wind and their branches will split and fall faster than the Hokies did against Baylor on Saturday.

That's one of the reasons why the city chopped down the Bradfords in Grandin Village and replaced them with sturdier European hornbeams and Natchez crepe myrtles when it widened the sidewalks and narrowed the roadway back in 2004.

Update: Tuesday afternoon, Harris sent me an email but had no comment.

Yeah, I know. I'm not a sports fan.

But I'm a Maryland Terrapins fan.

I was at the Terps-Cal football game last fall with a motley crew of former college bad boys who've gone respectable: Skidar the economist; Bongin' Bob the producer; Tony the tiger, a reporter feared all over Florida, and his beautiful columnist wife; Kurt the Pa. professor; Godfather Don and Scott, who Skidar calls "the big Jew" because he's like 6' 8" or something.

The Terps were vast underdogs. But even early in the game it was obvious that the Terps were going to win big. And it wasn't the action on the field that told me that.

It was the students from Cal in the stands. They were lame as could be. Read more »

The meeting drew nearly 200 people to Glenvar Middle School, just a stone's throw from the asphalt plant site.

This was the scene at Glenvar Middle School Thursday night, where residents of the Glenvar area of Roanoke County gathered to learn what they could do to fight a proposed asphalt plant in their neighborhood.

There were many reasoned arguments at the meeting, and a few emotions, and there was lots of discussion. Most of that centered on residents' concern that heavy industry (that's what an asphalt plant is) is inappropriate for a neighborhood with more than 500 homes, three schools and a church day care nearby. The plant would also be about a third of a mile upwind from one of the largest (if not the largest) assisted-living centers in the Roanoke Valley, Richfield Retirement Community.

The land is currently zoned for light industry, and Adams Construction Co., which wants to build the asphalt plant, has asked Roanoke County to change the designation to heavy industry. The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on the issue April 28. Right now no land in Roanoke County north of West Main Street is for heavy industry.

The undisputed star of the meeting was a slideshow/video produced by Nicki Wilson, 10, a 5th-grader at Glenvar Elementary. I'm hoping to get a copy of that soon so we can present it on Roanoke.com.

Nicki Wilson

The residents have formed an organization to fight the rezoning called Citizens for Positve Growth. You can look at their Web site here.

You can view Nicki's remarkable slideshow/video here.

I'll be touching more on this issue in my column Sunday in The Roanoke Times.

Dopes with markers #1

This is but one of many, many acts of vandalism that have been perpetrated on the rock wall beneath the star.

Alas, here is another one. From the date, we can surmise that #2 appeared Tuesday, March 17. To Julia, Chad, Lori, Andrea, Joey, Josh and Cliff: St. Patrick was not smiling on you that day.

Dopes with markers #2

Michael Clark, recreation superintendent for Roanoke Parks & Recreation, says it's a battle the city is constantly fighting. But there's really not much anybody can do.

"The best way to combat graffiti is to get it off as soon as you see it," he says. The theory is, the vandals will soon realize it's a losing battle to make the effort.

Dopes with markers #3

Dear Taylor Shaine, and Britty Cale, or Cole, or whatever: We're glad you got to see the great view from the top of Mill Mountain. But we Mill Mountain regulars are displeased at the view you left for us in #3.

Dopes with markers #4

As you can see from #4, locals are not the source of all of the problem. Tarah White from Flushing, Mich., you should feel ashamed. If Flushing, Mich., pop. 8,100, had any landmarks, we good Roanokers would refrain.

Dopes with markers #5

Eric + Barbara: I hope do indeed love each other forever. But expressing it in public, as you did in #5 is inappropriate -- as are a few other ways.

One of these days, we can hope, the Mill Mountain Star Cam will be a little bit snazzier, technology-wise. Perhaps the good folks in Parks & Recreation will be able to program it to spot defacers, and hook it up to a big fat siren that will assault the ears of anybody who starts scrawling on a rock.

Fortunately, I didn't find any explicit obscenities among the graffiti at the star Wednesday. But then there was this, which you can see in #6:

Dopes with markers #6

The word expresses precisely what I think of those folks who use their pens on the wall at the star.

What do you think?

You don't have to drive past many highway paving projects to know that steaming asphalt stinks. It stings the nose, irritates the lungs and just plain smells bad.

So perhaps you can understand why hundreds of Glenvar residents are worried a 300-tons-per-hour asphalt plant in their neighborhood will foul the air they and their children breathe. (For more, read my column today in The Roanoke Times.)

My column Thursday about the phoniness of "smokers' rights" generated a blizzard of emails and phone calls. Many agreed with me that smokers have no "right" to pollute nonsmokers' air in a restaurant. A few disagreed strongly -- one emailer called me an "outlandish self-serving pompous" smoking fascist.

Thank you for the responses. Feedback is always appreciated -- especially well-reasoned and strongly worded stuff.

One of the issues the column touched on was "business rights." The underlying theory is that government should not interfere in what happens in a private business.

Do people REALLY believe that?

Read more »