St. Patrick's Day 2012: Faces in the Crowd

My favorite: She was with the Corvettes.

A pretty Viking.

Madame Butterfly

Happy clown.

Young Viking

Scotsman and his rose

Another Viking lovely

Not sure what the costume is

Post-apocolypse?

 

War paint

Viking maiden: Charisse the Gorgeous

Kids on the Viking ship

My buddy Jeff Rigdon

A little help from Mom

Little drummer girl

Oops. How'd that get in here?

Boomer!

EASY Maaaaaaama!

Ladies of the South

Hoot, man. Toot, man.

Pearlie Mae Fu and her Star City glasses

Rollergirl Katie Jones: Nice hat, ma'am

The princess

Little kid, big hat

Drum batons

 

Sam Rasoul's little beauty

Highty Tighty Ho-Ho-Ho

Hair today

Bruce and Steph on the judges' stand

Smile!

Go Rams!

Mama cut it

She cut mine, too. Busy lady

Mascotpaloosa!

(Note: To view photos full-sized, click on them once.)

 Roanoke has more good parades than any city I've ever lived in and the St. Patrick's Day Parade (which my granddaughter says is hers because it's her birthday) is the best of them. The parade went on for more than an hour with 250 vehicles and 2,500 people today, as the streets were lined in downtown Roanoke with many, many thousands of people who seemed to have a pretty good time.

You can see the happiness on the faces of both the participants and the spectators here.

Yet Another Republican Moron (a Woman) Makes War on Women

If you're wondering where the end to the madness of legislating the medical side of women's reproductive systems, rest assured we're not there yet.

Debbie Lesko: Majority Whip in Arizona

Consider a newly proposed Arizona law (proposed by a woman, like the one in Virginia: Kathy Byron of Lynchburg) that would allow an employer to interrogate every woman on his payroll who is on birth control pills to determine if those pills are being used to prevent pregnancy. If the employer is one of the nutjobby right-wingers who opposes birth control for everybody, he can fire the woman if she says that's the purpose of the pills.

Here's what it says, according to Jezabell:



"Yesterday, a Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed Republican Debbie Lesko's HB2625 by a vote of 6-2, which would allow an employer to request proof that a woman using insurance to buy birth control was being prescribed the birth control for reasons other than not wanting to get pregnant.

"It's all about freedom, she said, echoing everyone who thinks there's nothing ironic about claiming that a country that's 'free' allows people's bosses to dictate what medical care is available to them through insurance. First Amendment. The Constitution. Rights of religious people to practice the treasured tenets of their faiths, the tenets that dictate that religious people get to tell everyone who is not of faith how they're supposed to live, and the freedom to have that faith enforced by law. Freedom.

"Further, Lesko states, with a straight face, that this bill is necessary because 'we live in America; we don't live in the Soviet Union.'"

Photo(s) of the Day: A Little Maddy Music Maestro!

The gorgeous spring weather is bringing out all the cool stuff, especially as we near the Maddy's Birthday Official World Holiday.

In honor of Maddy Day (OK, my grandgirl was born on St. Paddy's Day and she has always thought the day and the parade were for her; none of us has had the heart to tell her ...), Anne Sampson and Jim "Seamus Winde" Baldwin were on Roanoke City Market today celebrating the heritage many of us share (mine's the McCourrys and Buchanans, complete with kilts).

Anne was stomping and prancing and looking lively and lovely as Jim blew that damn bagpipe, which I understand was used by the ancients to scare hell out of enemies. I can see how and why.

They'll be playing with their group Second Wind tomorrow on the main stage at Campbell and Jefferson during the St. Patrick's Day Parade and tonight they have a gig, as well. Look for them. They're good.

Quote of the Day: Shilling for Oil (Shill, Baby, Shill!)

"Unlike natural gas, which is expensive to ship across oceans, oil is traded on a world market — and the big developments moving prices in that market usually have little to do with events in the United States. Oil prices are up because of rising demand from China and other emerging economies, and more recently because of war scares in the Middle East; these forces easily outweigh any downward pressure on prices from rising U.S. production. And the same thing would happen if Republicans got their way and oil companies were set free to drill freely in the Gulf of Mexico and punch holes in the tundra: the effect on prices at the pump would be negligible"

--Paul Krugman in a NYTimes editorial this morning, debunking Republican claims that we need more drilling for lower gas prices

(Photo: guardian.co.uk)

Pa.'s Ayatolla Corbett Spits in Women's Eyes With Bill

Ayatollah Tom Corbett

If you think that the Republican abuses of women are just a passing fancy or simply existing in paranoid imaginations, you'll need to read this in the Huffington post, wherein Pennsylvania's governor is so thoroughly callous about a pending ultra-sound/anti-abortion bill that he suggests that women just get over it.

Pennsylvania's Republican Governor/Ayatollah Tom Corbett yesterday simply tossed off concerns that the bill goes way too far (much as Virginia's did) and advised women that  "You just have to close your eyes."

Pennsylvania is calling it the "Women's Right to Know Act," but what it is, in fact, is anti-abortion zealots pushing their dogma on people who don't believe as they do and who want to have control of their own bodies.

This act--which is strongly opposed by the medical community and Democrats in state government--requires doctors to perform an ultrasoun, provide documentation, play an image of the fetus' heartbeat, and have the physician describe the heartbeat. She then has to wait 24 hours, take the documentation to the physician performing the abortion and get another lecture from him. None of this is standard--or even advised--medical procedure. It is bullshit abortion politics. 

the bill doesn't specify the kind of ultrasound to be used and the physician must use an "interior" procedure (the kind Virginia dismissed for political reasons--women were furious) for most first-trimester abortions in order to meet the requirements of the law..

This is harassment for political gain and nothing else.  These people don't know when to quit. But that's the way religious zealots are. Ask the Ayatollah.

Quote of the Day: 'Vapid, Wacky ... Dangerous Ideas"

Republicans "hadn’t foreseen that a prolonged exposure to vapid, wacky or outright dangerous ideas would start to repel the swing voters needed by the party in November. The longer this field has talked about birth control, or protected the low tax rates for the rich, the better Democrats have done in the polls."

--NYTimes editorial this morning

A New Tactic for Santorum: Xenophobia

Virginian Santorum in San Juan yesterday.

Reuters News Service is reporting that Republicult presidential candidate Virginia-born Rick Santorum has broken yet another egg of discrimination on the heads of those who are not rich white men. This time, he is going after an entire U.S. protectorate and its Spanish-speaking population, Puerto Rico.

PR has wanted statehood for some time and Santorum insists that in order to achieve that, the island would have to institute English as its official language. He says it's the law. He's full of shit.

Santorum, a lawyer, is quoted on HuffingtonPost as saying, "Like any other state, there has to be compliance with this and any other federal law. And that is that English has to be the principal language. There are other states with more than one language such as Hawaii but to be a state of the United States, English has to be the principal language."

According to Reuters: "The U.S. Constitution does not designate an official language" and there is no extant legal "requirement that a territory adopt English as its primary language in order to become a state."

It seems to me that so many of those insisting that English be the official spoken and written language of the U.S. offer little in the way of competence in either. Santorum, who speaks and writes with a degree of skill, has said little for his competence as a lawyer with this newest initiative.

(Photo: LATimes.)

Photo(s) of the Day: 'Some Days Are Diamonds'

The season's first excursion onto Carvins Cove was just about perfect. No, dammit, I am not pregnant!

My secretive buddy finds a marsh at Carvins Cove.

From left: Melissa Buth, me, Pete Krull, Christina Koomen.

There are days in our lives when we know, as we live them, that will be remembered for a long time and not necessarily because a child was born, a championship won, a marital knot tied, a graduation passed and the like. Sometimes the days are simply so golden in every ordinary respect that they hang like a crystal chandelier for a very long time.

Gene Marrano and moi at the awards breakfast.

Today was one of those for me.

It began at the Claude Moore Center at 7:30 where, as part of the Cool Cities Coalitions' annual awards breakfast, I presented my friend and colleague Gene Marrano with an environmental award, which he richly deserved.

At the breakfast, I heard another dear friend, Melissa Buth, talk about the environment in terms even a far right-wing, anti-environmentalist, anti-science whack-job could understand. What she said was scary as hell, but there was no doubt in its truth and in my admiration for Melissa.

Next, lunch at The Quarter in downtown Roanoke (where gator is now on the menu) with Melissa, her husband Pete (one of my very best friends) and Christina, whom most of you know. Great conversation from some very, very bright people. I felt blessed to be in their company.

My view at Carvins Cove.

Finally, on a day we normally only imagine this time of year (82 degrees, clear sky, light breeze), my pal Rhonda and I dragged out kayaks out of storage and stole two and a half hours of prime time at Carvins Cove in a moment that could only be termed "spiritual."

"Some days are diamonds, some days are stones," sayeth the poet. This one was a diamond (and I still have dinner ahead. Mmmmmm.)

Women Delegates' Bills About Men's Health 'Mocking' (Yep!)

This has nothing to do with this story, but ... it's cute.

Virginia Sen. Janet Howell's bill that would have required men to have a rectal exam before qualifying for an erectile dysfunction prescription has set off a spate of copycat bills in state legislatures across the nation. Her bill, like the others, was a way of pointing out just how discriminatory--and wrong--the bills regulating women's health have been. Now, we finally have a major anti-abortion group--the National Research Council--admitting these bills aren't about women's health; they are about abortion.

Here are some of the bills that have been introduced (none of which has a chance to pass in male-dominated legislatures):

• Ohio Democratic Delegate Nina Turner's bill would require psychological counseling for men who want their little blue pills. (Ohio has a Republican bill that bans abortions if a heartbeat is detected in the fetus.
• Another Ohio republican bill would ban physicians' assistants from inserting IUDs, thus hindering birth control (and the Republicans say it is "ridiculous" to say they want to ban birth control).
• In Oklahoma, Senator Constance Johnson (a Democrat, of course) has proposed a bill that would declare "spilled semen" (that would be jack-off juice) to be a crime against unborn "children" (as if a child can be "unborn"; it's a fetus boys and girls).
• Representative Kelly Cassidy (Dem.) of Illinois has introduced an amendment to the state's mandatory ultrasound bill requiring men to watch a video about Viagra's side effects before they get to to take it.
• Wilmington, Del., City Councilwoman Loretta Walsh has written a resolution that declares "each 'egg person' and each 'sperm person' ... equal in the eyes of the government."

The Family Research Council's Jeanne Monohan says of the bills, "It sounds like they're mocking pro-life bills [Note: they are]. I will say, having met quite a few women who profoundly regret their abortions, this is not a laughing matter." Finally, an admission from a recognized anti-woman's health group that the bills regulating women's health are about abortion.

 All of this information is available in a longer story here.

(Graphic: funnyordie.com)

Piling on Rush Limbaugh; Advertising Losses Mount

Oh, my Lord. More bad news for Rush Limbaugh. The boy's going down.

Here's the link from Think Progress, which has been on top of the story hard.

Homophobe, Ex-TV Star Cameron Kirk to Speak at First Baptist in Roanoke

Cameron Kirk as TV star: Gays 'Unnatural'

One of the largest churches in the region--First Baptist Church in Roanoke--is not only bringing in an outspoken homophobe, Kirk Cameron, to speak to its members, but it is charging $22.50-$35 a seat to hear him talk about "love." Most recently, his message has been that gay people are not like the rest of us.

Here's the church's announcement about the D-list celebrity.

Meanwhile, here is moviemaker and sitcom star ("Growing Pains," which I managed to miss) Cameron telling TV host Piers Morgan that homosexuality is "unnatural" and "ultimately destructive." It is, he says, "detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization."

He does not specify compared to what. Not sure if he's talking about general assembly members in Virginia, whom I would certainly would classify as "ultimately destructive," or the Republican majority in Congress whose hatred of everybody who isn't an old, rich white male is well documented. They'd certainly be "ultimately destructive." Rush Limbaugh? "Unnatural" and "ultimately destructive," certainly. Members of various churches' hierarchy who molest children would be both, I'd think. Oh, there are so many.

What we really need at this point is one more person preaching one more message of hate in a mega-church auditorium filled with people just dying to point a finger and say, "It's your fault that I'm so unhappy." The ironic title of Cameron's message: "Love Worth Fighting For."

From Out of the Woodwork Crawls Another GOP Nutjob

Rep. Walter Jones (see the intelligence in that face?).

No mater where I go, embarrassment awaits. I was born in North Carolina and live in Virginia and ... well, oh the suffering I've endured from lame-brain politicians like Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C.

Jones, one of the Republicans of marginal ability to think beyond third grade, has just introduced a bill in the House threatening President Obama with Impeachment for what he might do. Sounds like the Bush Doctrine on steroids. (Here's the link if you don't believe me and, frankly, I wouldn't believe me, either. This is just too bizarre.)

Obama might be thinking about possible--maybe--roughing up Syria a smidge without saying "Mother, May I" to Congress, an overstuffed, self-important, corrupt Banana Republic branch of government which has rendered itself completely and without question impotent and redundant. He wants to work with NATO and this little man from the Tar Heel State (how do I endure it?) wants to hang him for trying something that might work.

Virginia's been embarrassing enough of late, but now this. I'm tired.

Quote of the Day: Gov. McDonnell and the Big Whine

McDonnell and a Republican General Assembly Buddy.

"The Republican social wish-list implemented in Virginia is consistent with the visage of McDonnell that briefly imperiled his candidacy in 2009: The ideologue whose law-school thesis at Pat Robertson U. groused about 'cohabitators, homosexuals (and) fornicators.'

"Luckily for McDonnell, voters were distracted from his generally unrepentant views by an under-performing economy and an underwhelming opponent. That perhaps instilled in McDonnell a sense that his script was, indeed, the public's."

--Jeff Schapiro in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch, talking about Virginia's governor's complaints about how the General Assembly was covered by the news media.

Photo of the Day: Here It Comes!

Elmwood Park in downtown Roanoke has the first blush of spring in its tulip trees.

Lunchtime on Roanoke City Market today afforded the above view (and the one at the right if you got close enough or had a camera with a macro lens).

Two weeks ago, my grandgirl and I were sledding on the hill beside Memorial Bridge. Wednesday, my buddy Rhonda and I plan to break out our kayaks and hit the water at Carvins Cove. Strange winter (and it still is, if you'll look at the calendar).

Star City Rollergirls Open Roller Derby Season

Jammers for both teams (Roanoke right) hustle around the track.

Legware is important (especially when torn).

More legware. Nice.

Roanoke player does double duty with national anthem.

Matches are played with seven officials. Pro football has five.

Here's the action at its best.

Linking for defense.

More than 200 fans line the end zone and around the rink.

Roanoke jammer scores.

Circular action at the Star City Skate Center.

Went to my first roller derby tonight, Roanoke's Star City Rollergirls vs. Charlottesville's Derby Dames at the Star City Skate Center on Hershberger Road and it was a hoot. Got a bunch of photos, but I have no idea who's who because the program has only their stage names. "We don't want anybody stalking us," one of the Roanoke skaters said.

The Roller Girls have home games scheduled April 15, May 20, July 9, August 12 and Setp. 16. Games begin at 5 p.m. and cost $6 in advance and $8 at the door. The team's website is www.starcityrollergirls.com.

Limbaugh Limbo: Big Companies Reevaluating Talk Radio

Below is part of an industry memo published today by radioinfo.com in a story where it found that big companies are considering bailing on talk radio--not just Limblab, but all of it.

Advertisers are becoming queasy about outrageous figures like the man who so enraged women over the past week. Here's part of that memo:

"They’ve specifically asked that you schedule their commercials in dayparts or programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity). Those are defined as environments likely to stir negative sentiment from a very small percentage of the listening public."

The Limbaugh-maggot's mouth could well be the destruction of his industry, one brought about by a Reagan-appointed three-judge panel that killed the Fairness Doctrine more than 20 years ago. A return to sanity (as opposed to Hannity) is not guaranteed, but it would certainly have a better chance.

(Photo: popartmachine.com)

Here's the HuffingtonPost story on the companies looking at their talk radio ads.

Photo of the Day: I'll Take My Rebate in Mulch

Your favorite editor spent the morning unloading a pickup and a half load of mulch from the Roanoke City trash station. T'he mulch is free and I look at as a tax rebate, since this much retails for about $150 to $200, depending on where you buy it.

You'll need to have a tarp or some other cover for it or they won't load you up. If you want less than what you see here, you're probably out of luck. The Cat driver knows one level: full. You will also note that this is not commercial mulch, so it's not perfect. It has lumps and a variety of woods mixed. If you need something with low acid or high acid, don't use this because you'll have no way of knowing what's in it. I love it, though, for general use.

Anyhow, Maddie's Pampa got all this unloaded and the truck cleaned out and is now in the process of planting wisteria and raspberries (to go with my blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, plums and figs ... Mmmmmmm) and trying to find weeping willow and mimosa trees. Anybody got any ideas?

In Roanoke, the People Speak, but Is Anybody Listening?

Roanoke City Market Building.

I got this e-mail from Spectrum Design's John Garland this morning:

A news article today "reported on ideas submitted to EnvisionRoanoke.com.  The most popular ideas included:

• “Pedestrian only plaza in downtown Roanoke.”  We designed a pedestrian only plaza for Downtown Roanoke Incorporated in front of Center in the Square that got no traction with our City Council.
• “Rooftop dining over the Roanoke City Market Building.”  We proposed that to the city when we were first hired to perform a conditions study for the City Market Building that was promptly discounted, and we again proposed this as an idea when we interviewed for the Market Building renovation project, which we lost to the D.C. firm.
• “Closing Market Street to vehicles in favor of foot traffic.” Again we recommended this on different occasions.We recommended the rooftop dining at the Market Building and also when we were developing plans for Center in the Square.

"I guess really good ideas take time to incubate?"

This continues to emphasize just how wrong the city was when it selected an out-of-town (out-of-state) firm to renovate one of the city's icon structures, the City Market Building, which looks like a warehouse these days. The people are speaking (again). I hope somebody's listening.

Quote of the Day: Republican Radicals Lock It Down

From an editorial in the NYTimes this morning, outlining the House Budget Committee's new initiative of backing out of a budget deal and crashing several vital social programs (in effect lying to the American people:

"Members of the Republican Study Committee, the most right-wing members of the House, want to bring the 2013 level down to $931 billion, an unimaginable 11 percent cut in a single year. House officials say Mr. Ryan’s committee is unlikely to cut that much but could bring 2013 spending down to $1.028 trillion.

"That $19 billion cut, on top of the ones already agreed to, could have terrible consequences. Assuming it was applied evenly to all non-defense programs, it would mean that 50,000 children would lose access to Head Start; 20,000 families would lose child-care slots; and 10,500 teachers and their aides would lose their jobs." 

Note: Two members of the Republican Study Committee, the group that has radicalized the House to the point of complete ineffectiveness, are Robert Hurt (Virginia 5th District, and the empty suit who beat Tom Perriello) and Bob Goodlatte (Virginia 6th), whose extreme brand of conservatism has always been there, but has rarely seen the glare of national publicity that, say Eric Cantor of Richmond gets. You'll notice that Morgan Griffith (Virginia 9th) is not on the committee. My guess is he'd give his firstborn male child to be a member. This is how far to the right our representation has drifted in this region: all of our representatives agree with this crap.