Courthouse blues

I have visited more courthouses this spring and summer than the average career criminal whilst roaming the state to drum up support for a Future Fund for West Virginia (aka a natural resources trust fund). One thing I noticed up north is the way swarms of abstractors and gas company agents are combing through property records looking for suckers to exploit  land owners willing to engage in mutually beneficial natural gas transactions.

The wheels of commerce and all that. But it kind of gave me the creeps. Anyhow, here's a good article from the Daily Mail about the rush on courthouses in Marcellus Shale country.

ON THAT NOTE, Stephen Colbert tweeted this today:

I hope they find water on Mars. That means we'll be able to frack there.

OLYMPIC MOMENT. A hearty Goat Rope congratulations goes out to Kayla Harrison, who became the first American athlete ever to win an Olympic gold medal in judo. The martial art has been an Olympic sport since the 1964 Tokyo games. By way of background, judo grew out of ju jitsu, the samurai's art of weaponless fighting. Judo's founder, Dr. Jigoro Kano, studied various ju jitsu styles, took out the nasty stuff and came up with a sport that was safe to practice while also retaining its effectiveness.

I HAVEN'T READ THIS YET, but you can do it and tell me about it. It's a report from the Congressional Research Service on mountaintop removal mining.

URGENT CANNIBALISTIC SPIDER UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED