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William Fleming High School Principal Susan Willis / By Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Last night the Roanoke City School Board voted 5-2 to fire William Fleming High School principal Susan Willis.

That action came in the wake of a test-rigging scandal at the high school, and a grievance hearing in which two of the three judges decided she was implicated in that scandal.

Willis' handpicked judge sided with her and Willis' argument that an unfriendly school administration had framed her.

One thing that was clear from the meeting Tuesday night: each of the seven school board members believe Willis needs to go. The lone, and minor, disagreement was about how that should happen.

How do we know that, with the school board not talking?

The two members who voted AGAINST firing her butt had earlier voted in favor of a resolution that would have allowed her to resign and given her a deadline for it. But that died on a 3-4 vote.

Willis responded by threatening to file a lawsuit against the board and releasing only the portion of the grievance panel's conclusions -- the part submitted by the judge she had placed on that panel.

What do YOU think, folks?

Tea Party protesters in Washington, D.C. earlier this summer / Wikimedia Commons

Roughly 10 of "thousands" of Tea Party protesters who showed up at the Capitol building on Thursday were arrested by police after they invaded Congressional office building and attempted to protest pending health-care reform legislation inside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Henrico, cheered them on and told the crowd that not one Republican would vote for the bill.

As for the arrests, Talking Points Memo has the details:

. . . Protesters in the crowd watching the arrests were furious. They shouted "Let them go!" and one man yelled at the police that "Martin Luther King" was being dishonored and shouted "Letter from Birmingham Jail!"

One woman told officers they were "shameful." Others called the arrested protesters "political prisoners."

"This is America, this is not the Soviet Union," one woman said.

. . . Several people said the group had been arrested for praying. Others said the group was arrested for ripping up pages from the nearly 2,000-page health care bill.

State Sen. Kenneth Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax

First, State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli accused me of "Catholic baiting."

Then, during a recent debate in Richmond, the GOP's candidate for attorney general accused his Democratic opponent, Del. Steve Shannon, of "race baiting."

Now, the baiting stuff is heating up in a rather entertaining way! The most recent evident of that is this morning's post by Hank Bostwick on Star City Harbinger.

Next, Cuccinelli may be accusing Bostwick of sodomy baiting, or something similar. Or maybe The Cooch will sue SCH for libel for calling him a "cunning linguist." That sounds darn close "sodomite." From SCH:

Cuccinelli, like Van Jones or David Duke, is free to have any radical opinions he wants. This is America–the cradle of it, actually. I mean, we’re about to have a governor who ‘once’ had rather narrow views on the equality of women, to put it mildly. People can tolerate a lot.

But to advocate for a view of the law which allows for the criminality of consensual sexual conduct among adults loosely defined as a ‘homosexual act’ is fundamentally unjust (presumably a ‘homosexual act’ could mean any act by one who is homosexual).

I'll be out of the office most of today but back late in the afternoon. So if your comments don't show up within a reasonable time of your posting them, worry not! I'll get to approving them this afternoon.

Keep them coming!

Also, the server here that manages our blogs has been really slow the last couple of days, and that is continuing today. The experts are working on the problem - but you may experience some hitches, as I've had.

John M., aka VVarlock

Meet John M., aka VVarlock, the avowed atheist and frequent poster to this blog. On Tuesday night, he posted the 5,000th "approved" post here. That means approved by me - I approve almost anything.

He's one of a fun community of outspoken folks who say what they think on this site. Those would include (but are not nearly limited to) Sandi Saunders, Jason, Bob H, John, Other John, Tony, Kristen, gdad, T Witten, Michael A. Howdyshell, Brendan, Valerie, Another Chris, Roanoker, Will, Buster, Uptheriver, Art Hill, terps suck (who recently has been posting as merely terps), JC, Eric Earnhart, Atticus Finch, Patrick Henry, VT Hokie, Lou Ann. There are many, many others who I don't have time to name.

Most of you I've never met, but I feel like I'm getting to know, at least in some way. Thank you all for expressing your thoughts and keeping this tiny corner of the vast Web lively. (Even when you express  thoughts that I'm crazy, stupid, evil or any combination of those.)

A little bit about John M: He is 37, graduated college in 1995, lives in Missouri and is married with two children. His career is in law enforcement and yes, he is an outspoken atheist. He is not a warlock, but he is an apostate Christian and a skeptic, especially when it comes to anything supernatural.

His hobbies include reading sci-fi, fantasy, horror and non-fiction religion and religious commentary and science; SCUBA; motorcycling; and studying early American history and religion and mythology. He and his wife are raising two daughters "to be skeptical, logical and critical but not trying to influence them unduly to our atheism."

Thanks again for posting frequently, folks -- and keep those comments coming. Tell your family, friends and Web pals to come here, too. The more the merrier!

Note: I would love to introduce some of you "regulars" to the rest of the gang, and make this something of a weekly feature. That, of course, is up to you. If you send me mugs and basic details of who you are, age, occupation, family status and hobbies and such, I'll do it.

I'll abide by your wishes as to name, etc. I am certain there are many on this site who don't want to 'blow their covers,' at least entirely.

I'll be out on assignment today and likely won't get to your comment until late in the afternoon. But keep them coming!

--dan

la2day.com

Over in Virginia's capital city (that would be Richmond), the whole town's got its knickers in a knot over what to name the new AA baseball farm team.

Six finalists, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

• The Richmond Flatheads.
• The Richmond Rhinos.
• The Richmond Rockhoppers.
• The Richmond Flying Squirrels.
• The Richmond Hambones.
• The Richmond Hush Puppies.

Uh, Rhinos? Flying Squirrels? Flatheads? (that's a catfish). Do we detect a theme here? Have we developed no animal sensitivity whatsoever?

The hardliners (which is all of them) at Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will be shooting themselves in the head.

HAMBONES? WTF? Those are from DEAD animals. PETA, have mercy.

And Hush Puppies? I dunno. But the Richmond French Fries has a nice ring. Or maybe Fried Okra.

As a pal from Richmond put it just a few minutes ago on the phone: "With names like that, it's no wonder the Atlanta Braves pulled [their AAA team] outta here."

I kind of like the Richmond Wilders myself, after that city's most prominent, and weird, politician.

Or maybe the Rebels, a historical reference to the capital of the confederacy.

My friend likes the Virginians.

What do you think, folks? Let's help out our name-challenged brethren from the commonwealth's capital.

Post your suggestions as comments. Or go to the T-D and put your 2 cents in. You might win a prize.

Photo by ERIC BRADY - The Roanoke Times

There are some sales jobs you shouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

Like selling crab bait in Arizona.

Or sunglasses in London.

Or whiskey in Mecca.

That's why we should all feel a little sympathy, or perhaps awe, for Sponsor Hounds, the Roanoke event and advertising company that has accepted the monumental challenge of selling the naming rights to the Roanoke Civic Center.

Don't hold your breath. That's going to be no easy task.

Let's face it: Our coliseum/concert hall/exhibition complex is a monstrosity. It's easily the ugliest public arena in the East and maybe the whole nation.

Read the rest of the column here.

Here's a previous post on this subject.

Got an idea for a sponsor for the Civic Center (or some other ugly edifice)? Post it as a comment, below.

Kyle Frazier moved to Roanoke in early July.

He's a financial services rep in the local office of a nationally known company.

You could say that Frazier, 24, is exactly the kind of "young professional" this city has anguished so much about attracting to Roanoke and keeping here.

But a recent anonymous letter he received was anything but welcoming.

It was snobby and pretentious. It even invited Frazier to move -- out of South Roanoke, anyway.

His offense?

Grilling on the covered front porch of the house where he rents an apartment. It's in the 2300 block of Jefferson Street a few blocks south of Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

Read the rest of the column here.

React in a comment below!

Shotgun with owner & bird in Franklin County 2006

Scott Wellman of Christiansburg (that's him to the left, w/turkey) is the winner of our 'Gun lovers and their guns' photo contest.

Congratulations, Scott, a copy of 'American Rifle: A Biography' is on its way to you.

Scott, who says he has no problem with his name being published here, was one of four gun owners who entered the contest, not counting Roanoke journalist, blogger and jokester Dan Smith, who entered a picture of himself with a dayglo green squirt gun he uses on his cats.

With his entry, Scott wrote:

"Picking just one gun is kind of hard.  I have the concealed handguns, hunting handguns, hunting shotguns and rifles.  I attached a copy of one of my favorite pictures with my favorite shotgun.  The shotgun is a Stoeger 2000, semi-automatic in 12 gauge.  The shotgun and I shot this spring gobbler in 2006 in Franklin County."

Thanks to the other folks who entered. Better luck next time!