Are White Men of Any Value in the Workplace?

Here's a fun story over on our sister blog morefront.blogspot.com: Are white men a problem in the workplace? Seems they may be, but we have our defenders, too.

If the Creek Don't Rise ...

View from above the former mobile home park; the river's high^

Water creeps into the parking lot at the former site of the low-water dam on Wiley Drive^

These touristas view the area where the former low water bridge along Wiley Drive has been torn down; this is the area where major blockage occurred during floods^

Flood waters creep toward the Greenway along Wiley Drive^

The multiple inches of rain that have fallen on the Roanoke Valley as the result of the dying breath of Hurricane Ida have tested all of the flood control devices along Wiley Drive and in Smith and River's Edge Parks in South Roanoke.

All that work has apparently helped. I saw very little of the road that had water on it (in the past the water would have gone well into the park's baseball fields, basketball courts and even the skateboard park). The major blockages at the former low water dam near the parking lot on Wiley Drive and the low water bridge, which is gone and will be replaced with a bridge that is much less intrusive, are history.

The lone impediment to a smooth-running river is the second low water bridge on Wiley Drive, which I couldn't get to in order to take photos. My guess it is covered with debris. No money has been allocated to that bridge's removal.

It was an interesting, first-time view of the free-flowing river.

Christian Military Principles, Huh!

My friend Kurt Navratil, who finds some of the damnedest stuff on the Internet, sent me this link about a group that pulled a scholarship from a school because the school system wouldn't allow a prayer at its ceremony.

Seems these old boys with an American Legion post in Indiana had endowed a scholarship at a school where they'd been holding a Veteran's Day ceremony for four decades. They opened the ceremony last year with one of those "in Jesus' name we pray" deals and the school, knowing what was coming from those who don't subscribe to public religion, balked and said "ceremony, yes," but "church, no."

Our heroes told the school they were retracting the scholarship because "we are a Christian-based country and a military based on Christian-based principles." You can have all the fun you want with that one, but I'll dodge it and snicker to myself.

I will, however, say that it is long past the time when we should stop celebrating, honoring, recognizing and encouraging warriors and war with all these ceremonies, "days," and memorials. We need to swap out Veteran's Day for Peacemakers' Day and knock down some of those memorials in order to replace them with pieces of art celebrating peacemakers. Set-aside battlefields need to be converted into useful parks where people can mingle and children can play with each other in harmony. As one old soldier once told me when a Civil War battlefield was threatened by development, "The boys who died there didn't die to create a memorial; they died--we like to think--to preserve a way of life. Using the battlefield is that way of life."

War's easy and takes absolutely no sense and less courage (warriors are almost always assigned). Peace requires thought and guts--especially in this country, where we celebrate war to the extent that the two optional wars we're fighting now have nearly bankrupted us in addition to killing hundreds of thousands of people--most of them innocents. It's simply insane.

(This response from Hank Bostwick: Please know that Mr. Smith's views of the military do not represent those of liberals and progressives in general. Though liberals, like myself, prefer war as a last resort, the effort to liberate the Jews in Germany, our involvement in halting genocide in places across our common planet, and the use of the military to facilitate humanitarian aid often necessitates the use of military force. Mr. Smith has taken one individual's unfortunate and insensitive statement and has made it seem that the U.S. Military is ideologically driven. Of course, we know how silly that is. But as to Greg's use of the term liberal to describe to Mr. Smith, a brief history lesson is in order. Liberals wanted to give more body armor to our soldiers in Iraq. Conservatives didn't. Liberals want to give military families the care they deserve. Right-wing ideologues like Republican Senator Coburn do not. Liberals created the Veterans Administration. Small government conservatives did not. Liberals created the GI Bill. Conservatives tried to stop the measure from passing. Liberals integrated the military before the rest of society caught on that equality is key to a civil society. Conservatives resisted the enlistment of African Americans. So, Greg, please have respect for liberals and do not paint all of us with a broad brush.)

Register Now for the Writers Conference III

The Web site for the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference is up and functional and you can register now. The conference has a ton of talent this year in the teaching spots and the keynote speaker is one of our region's best writers and funniest people, Janis Jaquith (photo at right), whose essays dot National Public Radio.

Janis will be joined by a number of regional luminaries and you can see the entire list with their bios here. The schedule of classes is here. And, most important, the registration form is here.

The conference has been enormously popular in its first two editions and this year we're featuring special teaching sections (four classes in one, three in the other) on social media and translating your manuscript for stage and screen. There will be 24 classes and two roundtable discussions, a wine reception Friday, Jan. 22 and lunch on Saturday (in addition to coffee all day for you addicts) Jan. 23.

All this costs $50. That's FIFTY DOLLARS. You'll get more value than that just from the networking and I'd love to see you there. It's always a grand time. Join us.

Looking at a Very Different Future

James Howard Kunstler, who seems to have an answer to just about every question that is stumping us these days, rolled out his traveling show at Hollins University tonight and wowed a packed house of mostly granola-latte environmentalists.

Kunstler (who calls himself an "actualist") is an urbanist, thinker and writer whose books (like The Geography of Nowhere, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency and others) have developed a loyal following among people as diverse as architects, engineers, road-builders, developers and environmentalists, spoke for more than two hours in plain English, laying out a list of what felt like insoluble problems even as he proposed solutions.

Here's some of what he said, in no particular order and some of it, frankly, for effect:

• The United States is "comprehensively broke at all levels." Ideas of a new economy, based on new ideals won't work "because the money is not there. It's gone." The "middle class will disappear" shortly and people will not be happy about it.
• "We are not going to save 'happy motoring'" because "we have been using far more oil than we are finding since the 1980s." To maintain our current levels of use "we'd have to find a Saudia Arabia a year and we're not going to do that."
• Mexico, our No. 3 oil supplier, is running out quickly. "Oil is done" as a base for our transportation and, frankly, our culture.
• Suburbs represent "the greatest mis-allocation of resources in he history of the world." During "the last 20 years, suburban sprawl was the economy. We're done with tract houses, roads--building and repairing them--sprawl, homebuilders, Realtors, Wall Street mortgage traders. They're waiting for the bottom to be hit in real estate so they can start again. It won't and they won't. We're going to have to make other arrangements for everyday life in America."
• "Forget cars."
• "Here's a prediction: In five years there will be no airlines."
• "We're going to have to re-localize and downscale. We're moving away from 'solutions' to 'intelligent responses.'"
• "Agriculture will change to something local, smaller. We're going to have to reorganize the way we do commerce. Wal-Mart will fail and stores like Wal-Mart--the boxes--will fail. Our whole network will have to be rebuilt."
• "Schools are too centralized and will fail." He sees a system of homeschools becoming a system of neighborhood schools, which will supplant the central school concept."
• "Globalism has had its brief period." It, too, will die soon.
• "We will learn to inhabit the terrain differently in villages, towns, cities that have a relationship with rural areas."
• "I fear we're putting in too much energy to sustain the unsustainable."
• "Rebuilding the railroad system is vital. It is a fact we're not even talking about right now, but it can be done and should be done. We need a project we can do right now and this is it. It needs to start right away."
• "When you have enough places that aren't worth caring about, you wind up with a country that's not worth defending." (This quote was originally incorrect, saying "a country worth caring about.")
  

Kunstler's wit and gift of the precise one-liner kept the crowd on the edge of its collective seat throughout the long presentation and questions flew at him after he'd finished his initial presentation.

Kunstler gave a view of America that may once have been as the scenario for its best shot at a future: small towns, local products made by local craftspeople, a system of commerce that has little use for money traders. It is an idyllic view and one that may work only because we are forced by our own excess into doing it--sort of a post-apocalyptic scenario--sans a major war.

This one could have easily slipped into a depressing evening, but Kunstler--for all his gloomy predictions--is upbeat and surprisingly hopeful that we can remake ourselves, even as we show absolutely no sign of doing that. Still, it's a nice mental exercise.

The Best Political Blog in Roanoke?

Are you looking for the best political blog in the Roanoke region? You'll find information about it here and it's written by the guy at the right.

Need Some Free (Prime) Office Space--Free?

(UPDATE: This property is no longer available for free. Sorry.)

My friend Debbie Sinex, who owns the building at 2nd Street and Kirk Ave. in downtown Roanoke (it used to be the Angler Cafe) is offering the space for free to the right person or business. It has been occupied for about six months by what Debbie calls "an artist" (that would be River Laker, the Carless Brit), but his lease is up in November.

Debbie says, "If I do the rent-free thing again (they just have to keep up the space and pay their utilities), I would like someone in there who would be open more hours and give the place a bit more life. And of course, it would need to be some business or pursuit that we would want to support, We’re not looking for a storefront church. I would continue to look for a paying tenant, but do offer some lease time if needed.”

Debbie’s available at dsinex@comcast.net or just give me a call or send an e-mail and I'll get in touch with Deb. She listed the space on Craig's List here. She lives in Atlanta and has an apartment upstairs in the building that she uses on occasion.

New Blog Policy: Identify Yourself

Because there have been a number of people who have anonymously made some pretty serious accusations about individuals and institutions in the "Comment" portion of this blog, I have instituted a new policy:

If your comment needs attribution and doesn't have it, I'm taking it down. What needs attribution? Comments that attack people or institutions with or without the credibility of factual background. Casual comments that don't impugn personal integrity or improperly attack people or institutions don't require full ID. I ask that you who disagree with me--and I welcome disagreement and argument--have the courage of your conviction and tell me and anybody else reading this who you are. Cowards are not welcome here.

On the Election, I Was Wrong To Even Hope

Anybody who was looking could see the changing tide, but the magnitude of the Democrats' defeat today in Virginia was stunning, personified by the loss of Shannon Valentine's House of Delegates seat in Lynchburg. Valentine was truly one of the brightest and shiniest of the new stars in that body (one I projected as a governor) and she went down to a non-descript, marginally-accomplished right-winger. Ditto Jody Wagner, a sharp, intensely qualified professional. The ballot was dotted with solid, smart, qualified people who were beaten with 60 or 70 percent of the vote against them. Their ideas rejected soundly.

The theme: "No!"

It is the word for the Republican Party and the word Virginians felt they needed to shout at this juncture. No new ideas! No limits on pollution! No regulations on misbehaving businesses! No taxes! No state programs (unless them benefit me and only me)! No laws limiting personal bazookas in bars and schools! No laws restricting where cigarettes are smoked!

It's the rule of the day and the law of this part of our land now. We have elected a governor who will return us to the principals of Jim Gilmore with a little religious intensity thrown in for good measure (Women, to the kitchen!).

Looks like a dark cloud to me. I'm afraid I overestimated our people. I was wrong and, I suspect, we got what we deserve.

Sharyn McCrumb Headlines Next Workshop

Sharyn McCrumb with co-author Adam Edwards of Faster Pastor^

OK, lovely writing people, we're getting to the real nuts and bolts of this writing lesson now. Sharyn McCrumb is teaching the next class at Center in the Square in the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge's monthly Writers Workshop Series Nov. 17, 7-8:30 p.m.. This one's serious because Sharyn's behind the podium and it'll cost you 15 bucks unless you're a member of the Arts Council (which you can join for $30 a year, one of the best deals around).

Sharyn, our resident hotshot national novelist, whose books start out in hardback with runs of about 80,000 and who's been on The NYTimes best selling list, will talk about the process of co-authoring a novel. She'll appear with Adam Edwards, her co-author on Fastor Pastor (Ingalls Publishing Group), which will appear in March. Sharon's lectures are always riveting, especially when she talks about Appalachia and process. This one's process and you'll love it.

To register, e-mail Rhonda Hale at rhale@theartscouncil.org or call her at 540-224-1205. the Web site is www.theartscouncil.org.

Stop and Enjoy the Ginkgo

Century Plaza is on the cusp of its annual glory of Ginkgo yellow^

Every late fall, Century Plaza in downtown Roanoke--just across from Historic Fire Station No. 1--becomes a golden glow for a few glorious afternoons. It is sitting on the cusp of that transformation today (the photo is from yesterday) and my guess is that by Friday, it will be in full hue.

This is one of the loveliest sites in a region known for its beauty. When the Ginkgo leaves fall and create that wonderful yellow carpet, reflecting light upward, it is worth the trip downtown.

The Ginkgo is a relic that predates the Jurassic Period (200 million years ago) by more than 50 million years. Dinosaurs probably ate its leaves and spread its seeds--one theory for the decline of most of its original large number of species. Two remain. Buddhist monks in China are credited with saving the remaining trees and ultimately they were shipped to the rest of the world. The Buddhists recognized a number of positive properties of the tree, primarily its medical qualities, still in use today.

Beyond that, though, it is simply a beauty. Treat yourself in the next few days.

A Halloween Costume for the Vol Faithful (NOT!)

My son and I went down to Knoxville yesterday for the Tennessee-South Carolina football game and in the midst of that bone-cold, rainy night, we saw the best Halloween costume of the season.

The guy pictured here is disguised as Terrance "Mt." Cody, the 354-pound defensive tackle who last week (when 'Bama was ranked No. 1 in the nation), blocked two Vol field goals to preserve a 12-10 victory. (View my Oct. 26 blog entry to see how much this guy looks like Cody.) That win was controversial because clearly Mt. Cody committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the game's last play that would have given UT another chance at that same blocked field goal from 15 yards closer. He threw off his helmet as the play was still in progress. The rule book says a game can't end on a defensive penalty, even if no time is left on the clock. The officials didn't call it and have been accused of protecting 'Bama by a league dying to have two teams finish unbeaten with the prospect of getting both into the lucrative BCS field.

This guy, whose name I didn't get, and his girlfriend (the referee wearing blinders) was a huge hit among those thousands on the way to the game, wearing his Alabama jersey with Cody's number and name on the back and even his long dreadlocks (Cody is African-American, this guy white). I don't know how this played out during the game, though. I personally would have tired of looking at it pretty quickly, especially after my Vols hit the field in those lovely black and orange Halloween Special uniforms and proceeded to crush the Gamecocks.

Carilion: And The Times Beat (Down) Goes On

The Roanoke Times' absolute obsession with hammering Carilion Clinic, regardless of what Carilion does, reached Biblical proportions with this morning. This edition of the paper's lead story--by reporter Laurence Hammack--tells us about efforts to help poor people in terms that make the organization look far worse than Scrooge.

Carilion, says the story, has reduced efforts to collect bad debt against the poor by 76 percent and increased the money it spent on those same people to $51 million during the past fiscal year. The first person quoted in the story was not a Carilion spokesman or executive or patient, but one David Beidler of the Legal Aid Society who responded with a snarky, "Maybe their sense of charity has expanded broadly enough to include not seeking judgments against people who clearly cannot afford to pay them." There is no immediate counter to that charge.

As we read on, however, we find only Carilion PR man Eric Earnhart quoted in its behalf, and then only by e-mail. Earnhart's explanation includes some pretty sound reasoning, if I read it correctly: poor people are asked to fill out paperwork that will qualify them for charity care and if they don't, they are treated as if they have enough money to take care of the bill. Since Carilion is not in the business of clairvoyance, that does not seem unreasonable to me.

A good friend of mine, in fact, has been sued by Carilion. This friend, whose writing career has hit a large speedbump would be classified as poor by just about anybody. He didn't fill out the paperwork for free care, though, and was sued when he couldn't pay. He took responsibility for that. "It wasn't their fault that I didn't comply," he said.

Late in the story, there is an explanation that Carilion's $51 million in charity care expenditure compares to $7.9 million locally at Lewis-Gale Medical Center--part of HCA, which is a huge national organization. Nothing else is mentioned about the comparison.

The paper boils down the reason for Carilion's policy change thusly: it's afraid of bad press.

The story catalogs The Times' own incessant harranging of Carilion, often over niggling matters, and even throws in that god-awful non-event that Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal engaged in a year ago. As the story winds down, a woman who specializes in helping patients with medical bills, Pat Palmer of Salem (who is brought in out of nowhere), is quoted as explaining the whole thing succinctly: "They have just been bombarded with bad press for a while and that's one way for them to try to ease it up." I gather from that, Ms. Palmer is an expert not only on medical bills, but also on the impact of press coverage. The story does not say where she earned that credential.
None of this could possibly have anything to do with Carilion doing something because it's the right thing to do, though, right? Naaaaah. Not that.

'Something Amazing Is Happening' in Salem

Seems there’s a buzz that’s increasing in intensity today over in Salem because some voters are smelling an upset. Carter Turner, who is challenging long-time incumbent Morgan Griffith for his seat in the General Assembly has apparently struck a nerve among voters and they're starting to support him with their words and their dollars.

This came around noon from one of my buds: "Something really amazing is happening at the Turner for Delegate campaign! The money has been pouring in over the last 72 hours. Seriously, people really think he can win. [Turner was] just able to double [his] TV and radio [time] between now and election day. He'll be on Ch. 10, Ch. 7, Comcast, WFIR, Q99 and a few other radio stations. Anything [that can be done] to encourage people to get out and vote would be wonderful. Working on this momentum ... closing the gap ...”

If you want to take part in this surge, go here. You can give money and support at Carter Turner's Web site.

DRI President Confident in Face of Construction

Roanoke's new Market Square Parking Garage will be finished soon, just in time for construction to start elsewhere^

Got a chance to chat a bit this a.m. with the new president/CEO of Downtown Roanoke Inc., who's stepping into a real challenge with City Market effectively scheduled for massive construction over the next three years.

Sean Luther, a 27-year-old who looks younger, says the construction will be a challenge "but that's pretty much why I was hired. It's something we've been dealing with in Pittsburgh for several months and I'm in the process of developing a plan."

My guess is that he'll come up with something, but will it be something that will work in Roanoke--which distinctly is not Pittsburgh, a city with a considerably larger downtown area. The development in Roanoke, which will encompass both sides of Campbell Ave. at once and will have several satellite projects (including the one based at the Patrick Henry Hotel, where Sean and I met this morning), is occupying a relatively large percentage of the geographic area of the center of the city. It will also involve the rehabilitation of two of its most significant points of interest: Center in the Square and City Market Building.

There has been a great deal of talk about displacing the farmers on the market and the vendors in the Market Building. As significant as that disrpution is, it could be even more severe for the businesses in stand-alone locations: the restaurants, boutiques, offices and the like whose daily routines will be severely disrupted with everything from noise and dust to vanishing parking spaces in a place that is often a parking challenge.

Ed Walker's Patrick Henry Hotel project, which will result in about 100 new rental units ranging in price from $500-$1,000, should be up and running in about a year and a half--half the estimated time required to repair the two main buildings. What will that do to the leasing potential for the apartments?

Laura Bradford, who owns Claire V and just started work to open a boutique portion of her shop in the former Good Things on the Market candy shop, expressed a good bit of fear about what she's facing, being right in the path of the construction. "I didn't really know about it until I saw the article in the paper this morning," she says. "It's really scary. We're putting a lot of money into this place."

Told that there was an assurance no new major construction would start until after the Christmas season, she said, "At least there's that."

Luther seemed confident, though. We'll see how it shakes out.

Ed Walker To Rehab Patrick Henry Hotel

The 1925-era Patrick Henry Hotel in Roanoke^

Developer Ed Walker has purchased the Patrick Henry Hotel in downtown Roanoke and plans to spend $14 million in renovations, creating apartments, office space and a restaurant in the 1925-era building. He'll be using the same construction team he has employed for three other major Roanoke projects, but has yet to select an architect. For full details, go here.

I'm pumped about this because I used to eat at the old Four Parrots restaurant about twice a week and our best annual company dinners at the Blue Ridge Business Journal were in the marvelous lobby of the old building. We had a jazz trio and more food than a small country consumes in a week at these things, feeling like big shots and thoroughly enjoying the elegant life.

Ed is simply a miracle in responsible development and we're damn lucky as a community to have him and his family caring about us and our infrastructure.

Kunstler To Speak at Hollins Nov. 11

My friend Kurt Navratil, who is smart, educated, sophisticated and urbane (and a Wake Forest basketball fan), says James Howard Kunstler is "one of my heroes.” That’s enough of an endorsement for me to suggest we all meet Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. at Niederer Auditorium (Wetherill Visual Arts Center) on the campus of Hollins University to hear him speak. It’s free.

Kunstler is an urban planning expert, social critic and writer, whose book The Geography of Nowhere is something of a Bible for urban planners. He says Geography emerged "Because I believe a lot of people share my feelings about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work."

He followed that significant work with Home From Nowhere, continuing the discussion of remedies and more recently wrote The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition and finally The Long Emergencyabout the pending oil crisis, climate change and "converging catastrophes of the 21st Century."

For more information call 540-362-6359.

Old White Men and the Rules of the Game

Hatless Cody leaves field following block (AP Photo)>

I don't generally care to comment on college football officiating because, first, it's futile; second, it sounds like sour grapes; and third, it just deepens my frustration with it. But Saturday, when Tennessee came back against top-ranked Alabama--a team prohibitively favored to win--and finished within a blocked field on he last play of the game of winning, I couldn't shut up.

The Southeastern Conference, where these teams play, has had a season of bad calls on important plays in crucial national games. Each time, the higher-ranked team was the beneficiary either of a call not made or one made dramatically incorrectly. This is important to know because the conference is generally considered the country's strongest and having undefeated or nearly-undefeated teams at the top is important to that image.

Last week, an officiating crew was suspended until mid-November because of a bad call. Calls have helped Florida (No. 1 in the BCS ratings), Alabama (No. 1, in the AP Poll) and LSU (No. 4)--the league's highest rated teams--win close games. Yesterday, Florida used a bad call (one that was clearly bad, but not changed upon review) to beat Mississippi State. Arkansas was victimized late against Florida. Georgia was beaten by LSU a couple of weeks ago when it scored late, was called for a foul for excessive celebration--which all agree wasn't there--and the penalty led to LSU's winning points.

Alabama legitimately blocked the Tennessee field goal on what turned out to be the game's last play Saturday. That's not the problem. The lineman who blocked the kick--a 352-pound kid called "Mount" Cody--was so excited with the block (his second of the quarter) that he ran off the field before the play was over, stripping his helmet and throwing it in the process. That's a violation of the sportsmanship standard and should have resulted in a personal foul penalty. There was simply no question that was the case, but it wasn't called. (In defense of the officials, I don't think I would have called it in Tuscaloosa, either, but that's another seminar.)

The rule, like the excessive celebration rule, is stupid and racist. It was implemented by white officials some years ago when Black kids began celebrating in ways those officials thought unacceptable. It was a cultural expression by the players, one the old white men didn't understand and couldn't accept. I despise the rule mostly, though, because it strips the game of joy. These old men are asking 18-year-old kids to restrain their celebrations at the biggest moment of their young lives and if they don't, they get a severe penalty that all-too-often costs their teams dearly.

All that said, if the rule is being enforced, it should have been enforced against Cody and Tennessee should have kicked again from much closer to the goal line. Maybe Cody would have blocked it again--and given the recent history, the potential was good--but that's not the refs' call. Consistency may be the hobgoblin of the unimaginative mind, but in officiating, it is necessary and desirable.

So today, the Southeastern Conference doesn't come out with a statement of its officials' mistake; it issues a sanction against the Tennessee coach for bringing the incident to its attention. These white guys are unreal--or, as an old girlfriend once said, "White men are from outerspace. Swear to God! It's the only explanation."

Firehouse No. 3 this morning^

Firehouse No. 3 in 1909 (note the small tree at the left, which is a big tree today)^

Interactive Design Group, a small Web design firm in Roanoke, plans to open in its new quarters, the re-designed Firehouse No. 3 on Sixth Street Thursday. The firehouse, one of the prettiest in Roanoke, surrounded by old, colorful trees, dates to 1909 and was actually the second Fire Station No. 3. This one has that look of an old blacksmith shop where the village smithy would be standing under the oak, banging out a horse shoe.

Interactive Design Group (not to be confused with Blacksburg's Interactive Design & Development) was the primary contractor in designing an interactive Web site for Arlington National Cemetary. The 2005 project was announced as being worth between $10 million and $15 million at the time and, according to a Roanoke Times story, "involves moving hundreds of thousands of paper records into a modern database; documenting every plot, headstone, building, pipe and streetlight; building a system to allow easier scheduling of resources; and linking it all to outside databases such as those of the Social Security and Veterans administrations."

The grand opening is Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. at Interactive Design Group.

The NRA Intelligently Gets to the Heart of the Matter

This is the ad New Yorkers just love^

The National Rifle Association is an organization that has been beneath contempt for a couple of generations, but I swear it has finally hit on something that would work for our country. The television ad it is running for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell (who's such an empty suit that I have to look up his name every time I mention him) would be wonderful in our nation's arsenal--if the courts would allow.

My suggestion is to play it for terrorists until they break down and spill their guts to interrogators. 'Course, this could be all over the Geneva Conventions--my guess is it would--but, hey, it's worth a try. Don't try and the terrorists win.

This screamer of an ad is perfect for McDonnell, a guy who makes George Bush look substantial. ... Uh ... Maybe not substantial, but certainly more ... something. The ad essentially assumes (probably with a certain amount of credibility) that American citizens are basically cowards, terrified of everything that moves, and that we in Virginia need Bob McDonnell and a very large gun to protect us.

The ad talks about a "they" who want to take our guns away without ever telling us who "they" might be. Couldn't be McDonnell's opponent, who has a too-high-for-me NRA rating (an A, I think).

In another NRA pro-McDonnell ad, it seems the threat to take your guns is New York Italians and Jews (Mayor Bloomberg) whom the ad says McDonnell ran off when New Yorkers came down here "threatening our Second Ammendment rights." That was the time Bloomberg asked Virginia to quit illegally selling guns to New York criminals, who used them to kill Bloomberg's people. He wasn't asking that Virginia shut down gun sales. He asked that it enforce its laws against illegal sales. McDonnell, the state's attorney general and the guy responsible for that enforcement, told him to jump in the lake. Nobody cares about dead New Yorker Jews and Italians. Just don't take our guns. We may want to form a militia.

There has been a great deal of dishonesty in this election, probably not record levels, but certainly a lot. It is refreshing to see the NRA take the direct approach laying bare its monumental fear of dang near everything that can be shot, its xenophobia, its hatred and dismissal of Jews and Italians and its firm belief that in Virginia it is in the majority with those feelings.

Don't you just love the way the NRA makes us all look so educated, wise and cosmopolitan?

A Roundhouse Swing at Morgan Griffith in Debate

Carter Turner: The gloves came off last night>

Apparently, Carter Turner took off the gloves in his second debate last night with 8th District Del. Morgan Griffith at Back Creek Fire & Rescue, Griffith's home field. Carter had mentioned earlier in the day that he was tired of playing Mr. Nice Guy while Griffith got a free ride back to the Virginia General Assembly and that he had every intention of being assertive in this second—and probably last—debate with the incumbent. I was not able to attend, though I really wanted to, because I’m fighting bronchitis.

Griffith has never really been challenged by a Democrat, though he has had opponents. His fuzzy record, which is highlighted by backroom deals and power plays, is difficult to pinpoint because his influence is rarely on public display. He avoids more votes than he makes, often seeing to it that key legislation doesn’t make it out of committee.

One who was in attendence last night wrote me, "Carter absolutely threw Griffith back on his heels such that he never recovered. Carter took Griffith head on and used the facts and research related to the cigarette tax to illustrate the differences in their approach to things. Morgan's face was beat red—and I seriously thought he would blow his top.

"I had the video rolling for some of it ... but there was no news media to cover it. It killed me! Carter's closing remarks were in regards to his ’Not For Sale’ slogan—and he simply illustrated that he ’couldn't possibly know if the $57,000 [Griffith] had received from the tobacco industry influenced his opposition to such a tax,’ saying that it's up to the voters to determine.

"However, he wanted the voters to know that he/Carter is not accepting contributions from large corporations—in order to be sure his decisions and better judgment are not somehow compromised in the process. Morgan spent the entire night defending, explaining, and back peddling.”

One of the primary points Carter made during the evening is how Griffith's rigid and doctrinaire approach to taxes--no increases, ever, period--is counterproductive when things like the 30 cents tax on cigarettes is considered. Cigarettes cost the state and businesses within the state millions of dollars a year in health care and insurance costs and lost days at work.

Cigarettes are a leading cause of lung and heart disease, which kills 400,000 Americans every year. Griffith said an increase would cost jobs and would hurt the poor and that simply isn't true; never has been. The money saved by people quitting or not starting because of the cost is spent on other things. Griffith posing as a champion of the poor is beyond laughable.

Regardless of how this plays out, it is marvelous to hear that somebody finally lit into Griffith about his abysmal record—what there is of it for public consumption. He needs to face this kind of argument every time he ventures out of his office. An examined politician is a responsive politician. Carter says he will propose yet another debate since this one was head-to-head with the Lieutenant Governor debate, but my guess is that Griffith has had enough debating a candidate who plays rough.

Greenway Connector at Carilion Proceeding Nicely

Looking west from pedestrian bridge at Carilion^

View toward parking garage from Carilion pedestrian bridge^

View from road back toward Carilion pedestrian bridge^

Even as city workers rip out the low water bridge a mile to the west, breaking the continuity of the Roanoke greenway, crews are finishing the important link in front of Carilion Clinic. These photos are from this morning.

The link has been a sore point for bikers and hikers for a couple of years and now will make the five-mile run from Wasena Park to the city's water treatment a one-piece stretch without the dangerous traffic hazard in front of Carilion.

It is a nice engineering feat, routing the greenway under the pedestrian bridge along a narrow right of way beside the Roanoke River. And, frankly, it's quite attractive. Still, we won't be able to ride the finished five miles (10 mile round trip) until after the low water bridge is replaced, probably March, the city says.

Money Talk for Writers at Tuesday's Workshop

CPA Joe Schaben>

All right, writers, it's time to take your medicine. The fifth installment of the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge's Writers Workshops features a CPA talking about money most of you don't have. But you will. Some day.

Joe Schaben, a partner in Boitnott & Schaben CPAs in Daleville, will offer a lot of money management advice, if not a lot of money, Tuesday 7-8 p.m. at the Arts Council offices on the second floor of Center in the Square.

Joe will talk about tax and money management responsibilities ("How much of that freelance check do I owe Uncle Sam?) and will answer questions like these:

• How much freelance income can I earn from a single source before having listing it?
• Am I responsible for self-employment taxes?
• If I buy my own health insurance policy, is it deductible?
• What travel expense and mileage reimbursements is a freelancer entitled to?
• Do I need to pay business license taxes?
• Is it OK if I don't make estimated tax payments?
• What items that I use are tax exempt?

There are quite a few more and my guess is that you have a few questions of your own, which you can ask Joe in person. The session is free.

Next month we get back to the business of writing with the only Roanoke Valley appearance this year--other than last January's Roanoke Regional Writers Conference--of novelist Sharyn McCrumb. More on that later.

No More Macaca Moments

I gather from a press release by Roanoke College abut a Lt. Governor debate next Monday that our political peeps are on guard against future Macaca moments. Since George Allen went down to defeat in a Senate Race against Jim Web a couple of years, partly because of his "macaca moment," which is being taught in college political science courses these days, politicians have been unusually wary of pocket cameras, phone cameras and all sorts of recording devices.

Roanoke College's press release warned members of the press that "The only filming of the debate will be done by WSLS cameras. No recording devices, including video cameras, are allowed in the room in which the debate will be conducted. Still photography will not be allowed in the debate room by anyone other than the VBA, WSLS, Associated Press and Roanoke College." That's a lot of control and we're only talking about lieutenant governor candidates.

Roanoke Eliminates Loose-Leaf Pickup

Roanoke has announced it’s no longer picking up loose leaves this year, which, by my estimate, puts us yet another step closer to mulching them ourselves and putting them where they belong: in the garden.

I have both a mulching mower and a wonderful leaf vacuum that grinds up the leaves and makes instant mulch of them. They’ve helped me turn the back yard into a verdant forest floor. By mulching, there’s the added benefit of keeping all those plastic bags out of the landfill. They keep the leaves from biodegrading, leaving them as a semi-permanent lump in the landfill. According to a city press release:

Residents should put their bagged leaves out on the same days as their paper recycling is normally picked up. Regular plastic lawn bags are acceptable for bagging leaves, but citizens are encouraged use 30-gallon paper bags as an environmentally friendly alternative. Both types of bags are available at local hardware stores and home centers.

Households may put up to 25 plastic bags at the curb each of the three scheduled collection weeks, or an unlimited number of paper bags. There will be no bagged leaf collection in the alleys. It is a violation of City law to rake loose leaves into the city's right-of-way.

A Young Veteran for the Journal

My good friend Annie Johnson, who worked for us at the Blue Ridge Business Journal while she was still a student at Randolph Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg a few years ago, is the new reporter for the Journal, which is undergoing almost complete reorganization.

Annie brings a good bit of street cred to the Journal. She has been with Congressional Quarterly for more than a year, having left a job as a reporter at The Roanoke Times for the D.C. gig. Even as a student, Annie brought incredible energy and creativity to her work with us at the Journal. She became one of our most reliable reporters before she was old enough to buy liquor.

She moves into a publication that has suffered massive losses of advertising in the last year and whose editorial signature vanished.

She will be a worthy opponent.

Mill Mounain Theatre Sets Children's Play

Mill Mountain Theatre Conservatory will perform “Annie Jr.,” the all-youth production based on the Broadway musical, Dec. 10-20 at Mill Mountain Theatre’s Trinkle Stage.

It will be the first production at MMT since it closed last winter. The theater is not expected to re-open permanently before 2012.

Based on the popular comic strip, “Annie Jr.” tells of a spunky Depression-era orphan determined to find her parents, who abandoned her years ago on the doorstep of a New York City Orphanage run by the cruel Miss Hannigan.

“Annie, Jr.” is a production of the Conservatory and designed to be an educational experience for all the children involved.

The cast of 20 plus actors are local and regional school-aged children ranging from 6-18 years old. Ginger Poole, Mill Mountain Theatre’s Educational Director, will direct. Susan Braden is musical director.

Mill Mountain Theatre Conservatory is the organization’s educational division. The Theatre’s education programs continue to thrive, offering year-round classes in theatre, dance, technical theatre and musical theatre to ages kindergarten through adult.

The Board of Directors of the Theatre organization is in the process of reinventing its business model and will unveil plans to the public soon.

For more information and curtain times call or e-mail Ginger Poole, 540-342-5749, gpoole@millmountain.org.

More BS from the USPS

My buddy Kurt sent me a note this a.m. about a new U.S. Postal Service directive telling us we have to present any package of more than 13 ounces, containing only stamps (no metering) to a live postal clerk, rather than putting it into a mail bin. Seems terrorists are winning again.

That's another layer of inconvenience on top of the USPS' almost laughable lack of staffing at its counters. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into the post office needing something as simple as a single stamp (the machines are gone) and seeing a line of 12 people waiting for the single clerk to get to them. The clerk leisurely goes about his business, as if he has but one customer to deal with. The standard is for the customer to look in the door, get an exasperated expression and leave.

I don't know what the solution to the massive inefficiency is, but one more requirement of my time isn't in the equation I'd select. As customers, we're already doing the half the job the USPS used to do and our rates continue to climb. The little episode last week of charging more than $3 for a tenth of an ounce package difference infuriated me (see previous post). There is little recourse, however, other than to ask the people who run the post office to get their collective heads out of their collective butts and work FOR us, not against us.

Men vs. Women: Defining Tastes

Abbie Cornish is Fanny Browne, a woman's woman in 'Bright Star"^

I'm gonna get some crap about being a sexist for this, but here goes:

There are some movies that define the genders. "Bright Star," the story of John Keats and Fannie Brawne's infatuation, is just about as good an example as I can find. Women hope the movie will never end. Men become certain it won't.

This is one of those "romantic poet gonna die from consumption" movies where we're given all this dreamy romance--the rationale for which is barely explained--for two hours and the wasted-away hero coughs up blood and croaks. Keats is hardly an admirable figure, a man kept by his friend whose belief is that Keats' poetic talent needs to be developed by lying on the floor "musing." Ben Whishaw's Keats is appropriately scrawny and delicate. Not my kind of hero.

His great love--with whom he shares about six kisses--is a tough, opinionated seamstress who drools on him when she's not fawning over him or breaking down completely because he hasn't written her a letter. When Fanny Brawne learns of Keats' death, she, of course crumbles like old bread, but this scene is actually touching in its power (as delivered by Abbie Cornish). Didn't save the movie for me, though, except that I saw the end coming and started breathing again.

Difficult as it might be, guys, take your honey to see this one. We almost never get more than a point for any consideration (including a new Mercedes), but this one'll ring up a good five for you.

Elections and Postal Rates

Is Gwen Mason going to be toasted?^

I ran into a colleague at the Post Office a little while ago and got into a revealing chat about the upcoming elections. My colleague, who has worked as a manager on Democrats' campaigns in the past (and has one race this cycle) predicts an overwhelming Republican victory at the upper end of the state ticket and in just about every race in this region.

Any exceptions? I asked. Maybe one or two, he said, but nothing noteworthy. Complete sweep of the top three state offices and even Gwen Mason, the Roanoke City Councilwoman of whom much is expected, will lose by a substantial margin, my colleague predicts. He says Mason's district was gerrymandered a few elections back in a way that won't do her any good at all and with a distinctly conservative turnback in Virginia since Obama's election, she's toast. "Besides," he said, "who in Roanoke County would vote for a Roanoke City Council member?" Probably nobody, I thought.

Carter Turner's run at Morgan Griffith in Salem never had much of a chance, my colleague says, and the lack of a truly aggressive campaign seals the fate. I have had quite a bit of hope for this one because Carter's a breath of intellectual fresh air, but guys like him--people who deserve to be in positions of influence--rarely get there because the electorate's ... well ... the electorate. How else to explain George Bush and Morgan Griffith?

(By the way, my favorite candidate of them all is Carole Pratt down in the New River Valley. Carole's a dandy: a smart, good woman who belongs in the General Assembly. Vote for her if you're in her district. Oh, hell, vote twice for her.)

And while we have your attention, let's dish a bit about postal rates. I've become a bit of a seller on e-Bay (a very little bit of a seller) and I'm looking at prices to mail small parcels with increasingly widened and disbelieving eyes. Last week I sold a shirt, charged $3.99 to mail it (thinking that'd be plenty) and found out it cost $5.75 (the shirt sold for $9.99). I took a shirt almost exactly like it in a very similar envelope to mail today and it rung up at $8.40 for the same category of mail.

The clerk said the package came at 1 pound, .1 ounce and it bumped up to the next level of cost. I asked him for the package and some scissors and tape. I snipped off part of the end of the package and resealed it, bringing the price down to $4.95. That's nearly $3.50 for a tenth of a freakin' ounce on a package that's grossly overpriced even at $4.95. No wonder you can't really sell used stuff on e-Bay any more. On this item, shipping was half what I got for the shirt (a vintage Pendleton, by the way).