The (Epi) pen is mightier than...

You've heard about the controversy and public outrage. We go there on this week's Front Porch. At no extra cost is a discussion of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. It's all here.

A little more good news

Times being what they are in WV (and on Goat Rope Farm), I'll gladly take any good news I can get these days. The latest came in the form of this article by Lori Kersey of the Gazette-Mail, in which both candidates for the governorship of WV have pledged not to mess with the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.

Current Governor Earl Ray Tomblin made the decision to expand Medicaid back in 2013. Now, in any given year, over 200,000 West Virginians have coverage under it and on any given day around 178,000 are covered.

This has been the biggest advance for social justice on my watch. I'm glad to hear the latest, but I think those of us who care about this should be ready to keep on fighting to preserve these gains if the need arises, especially given WV's budget woes.

Elegy or requiem?

An unexpected big hit in the book world has been J.R. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, which is both a personal memoir and an attempt at diagnosing Appalachian ills. I think it succeeds very well in the former but not so much in the latter. The book was the subject of the latest Front Porch program/podcast. You can listen here. It's also on the menu in the latest Inside Appalachia.

Finally, thanks for the condolences from may people on the passing of Arpad the Magnificent. There's a big hole on the farm where a big white dog isn't.