Shoutout to a friend

I just finished reading an entertaining book by a friend of mine, Julian Martin. Julian, a native West Virginian unto the generations, has had an interesting life. He served in the Air Force, studied engineering at WVU, and was WV's first Peace Corps volunteer who wound up teaching for two years in Nigeria.

On returning, he taught for several years at Duvall High School in Lincoln County and has taken his lumps, sometimes literally, for social justice.

The book in question is Imagonna: Peace Corps Memories. More from Amazon here.

Imagonna, by the way, is a hillbilly term Julian's African students didn't understand. It means "I am going to..."

BAD IDEA. Here's why Senator Manchin should reconsider his health care reform delay idea.

FROM THE SAME FOLKS, food stamp or SNAP cuts scheduled for Nov. 1 will affect 48 million Americans and 350,000 West Virginians.

CHICKEN LITTLES are called out here by Krugman.

WEIRD CRITTERS TO LOOK AT here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

What melancholy Danes?

It looks like Shakespeare's Hamlet may be an exception. According to a recent study, Denmark was rated the happiest country in the world. According to this Alternet article,

The six factors for a happy nation split evenly between concerns on a government- and on a human-scale. The happiest countries have in common a large GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy at birth and a lack of corruption in leadership. But also essential were three things over which individual citizens have a bit more control over: A sense of social support, freedom to make life choices and a culture of generosity.

The article didn't say as much, but I wonder whether a shortage of Whackadoodles might also contribute to national felicity.

MR. MOJO NOT RISIN'. West Virginia's junior senator has good days and bad days. Lately, it's more of the latter.

MORE REASONS WHY WE NEED A FUTURE FUND here.

DOG BREEDS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF discussed here.

SOS!  Speaking of canines, the Spousal Unit has been perusing dog rescue sites again. Help!

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Shorter than a blog post, longer than a haiku

Here's yet another reason why West Virginia needs to create a Future Fund from severance taxes on natural resources.

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN on poverty.

URGENT GOBLIN SHARK UPDATE here. You've got to check out how this dude eats.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Full point

In another lifetime, I used to referee karate tournaments. That was before I became convinced that karate should never have been turned into a sport and way before my trip to the Holy Land, aka Okinawa.

When I did ref though, I tried to be fair and watch as closely as possible regardless of what I thought of a competitor, his/her teacher or style and call em like I saw em.

In that spirit, I hereby call "Ippon!" (that's full point in Japanese) for Ohio Governor John Kasich, who pushed through, perhaps a bit roughly, Medicaid expansion for his state despite his firm Republican credentials.

And, once again, shame and nothing but shame on the rulers of the states that refuse this basic act of humanity. As Krugman argued today, the arguments against Medicaid expansion are just plain lousy.

Different worlds

Every day I am more grateful to live in a state in which the leaders have a degree of humanity. West Virginia is one of those states that chose to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. This is something for which Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin deserves a great deal of credit, even though he hasn't seemed anxious to claim any of it.

Two items made me think of this again. This New York Times article shows how the focus of attacking the ACA is moving to the states, where the forces of evil are trying to block Medicaid expansion, a measure that would save lives, ease stresses on working families and create jobs. This article from Politico shows that two states with different policies may share a border but be in different worlds.