The leader of Group B heard about the planned road, talked to his aides, assembled his group and handed out their talking points.  These included (a) people could get injured building the road because of all the blasting and heavy equipment, (b) accidents will happen on the road and people will die or be seriously injuried, (c) building the road will destroy natural habitat for animals and (d) dust and noise will accompany the construction.

At the rally Group A people held signs and chanted "We need jobs", "Help the Ill and Injured" and "Pro Business Pro Road."  Group B had signs too and chanted "Road Building Kills", "Don't Let Our Children Die - Stop the Road" and "Save the Environment - No Road."

Two visitors on a nearby hill were watching all this.  "Can they afford to build the road?"  "No." "Is there a need for the road?"  "Not really.  The traffic would be minimal."  "Why are they doing this?" "It's what political parties do."

How could health care reform become such a train wreck?  When I saw Speaker Pelosi calling incremental change something about an "insy weensy spider" I saw part of the answer.  Then she said the existing bill was really bipartisan even if no Republicans voted for it because it had "Republican elements" either in it or omitted from it.  Now that is pure spin.  I have come to the conclusion that Congress is a large part of the problem.  We desperately need leadership not showmanship. 

Here in West Virginia there is an ad to "reform PEIA" sponsored by teachers and unions.  At the end it says something like "an worst of all employees being hired now have no health care benefits at retirement."  I find that offensive.  My employer is not providing me with health care when I retire and I bet that is true of most of the folks out there.   

Easy remedy for this.  Put video cameras on the fans (no invasion of privacy there - the TV cameras are always scanning and showing the crowd) and then announce that anyone caught on tape throwing something from the stands will be (a) expelled if they are a student and (b) arrested if they are not.  Morgantown city council may need to pass an ordinance to get (b) in place.

Too harsh?  I don't think so.

P.S.  The University may want to do the same thing at football games.  We gave up season tickets years ago because it was just too depressing to sit around WVU "fans" who are basically obnoxious drunks.

There are three examples of architectural types where that much space and height is definitely not needed in order to perform the function of the building.  They are:  banks, churches and capitol buildings.  Banks are generally huge, imposing buildings meant to inspire confidence.  In reality, the machinery needed to run a bank could fit in a much smaller edifice.  The same is true for vaulted churches and domed capitols.

I guess this is the same reason that some people live in houses with more rooms than they need.  I guess in some areas we want to imply importance in areas where we have doubts.

Now if you do this for forty years that is eighty months of avoidance.  THINK ABOUT IT.  YOU WILL HAVE AVOIDED THE DENTIST FOR SIX AND SIX TENTHS YEARS.  Brilliant.

1.  The Fox Sports mechanical (?), armor clad (?) robot (?) warrior (?) which does Karate moves and jumping exercises during channel breaks.  Not sure what that has to do with football and boy it is getting irritating.

2.  Loud commercials.  I read where Congress is passing a bill to regulate that. Figures.  Still no law concerning keeping passengers trapped on sitting airplanes for hours but Congress wants to lower the volume on commercials.

3.  Local news teasers acting like some big weather disaster is coming.

4.  People who sincerely believe that if they have never heard of something then it can't possibly be true.  Also known as being in denial that you are basically uninformed because you are too lazy to read papers or listen to the news.

5.  Politicians who preface their answers by saying "look."

2.  Bill Stewart.

3.  The health care reform bill may have flaws but at least the issue is being addressed.

4.  America has soldiers willing to go into harm's way even though the nation has doubts about the mission.

5.  The swine flu epidemic seems to be much less severe than predicted.

6.  The WVU basketball team is great.

7.  Although America has a bad economy, it is still better than 99% of the other nations in the world.

8.  Murders, accidents and crime still make the news.  If we ever reach the point where such things are too commonplace to grab headlines, we are in real trouble.