Quick question (and more of a tweet)

Is this the latest embarrassment to West Virginia to appear in the media lately or have I missed one? Or more?

It's so hard to keep up these days...

Going whack

The 2009 Barbie bill in the WV legislature is looking pretty good right now.

Not to many years go by without a truly bizarre bill getting introduced in the WV legislature. One that immediately comes to mind was a 2009 effort to ban Barbie dolls in the state due to their harmful impact on the body image and self esteem of girls.

Ahh for the good old days...

West Virginia has been getting a lot of media attention (not the good kind) after three Republican legislators proposed taking $10 million from a rare state budget surplus and giving it to Prince Joffrey President Trump to build his wall along the Mexican border.

I mean, gee, that's obviously more important than fixing foster care, patching roads, dealing with our addiction crisis, etc.

(Apparently the gentlemen in question didn't get the memo that most narcotics enter through ports, which I guess that means we should build walls along both coasts, which could really cut into some WVvacations at Myrtle Beach. Better still, we could build a wall around some of the CEOs, billionaires and drug companies that created the crisis to start with. And maybe some of the elected officials who aided and abetted them.)

I don't always agree with conservative commentator Hoppy Kercheval, but he did administer a rather elegant takedown here.

Meanwhile, the latest news reminds me of this song from Anais Mitchell's musical adaptation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. In the play, it's sung by Hades, greedy god of death and the underworld.

Bathrooms again?

Here is reason # 342 that WV should update its state motto from "Mountaineers are always free" to "You can't make this **** up": if and when Gov. Tomblin calls the legislature into special session to deal with flood-related issues, there's a pretty decent chance some Republican legislators will introduce a bathroom bill similar to the one that has brought so many blessings to North Carolina.

In fact, Republican senator  Robert Karnes sent around a form letter with a special session wish list, with flood relief coming in a distant fourth place. As Gazette-Mail reporter Eric Eyre noted,

Karnes’ letter devotes five sentences to the importance of passing school bathroom restrictions — and one sentence about flood response.

Now THAT'S what I call a priority.

I mean, it could work as a jobs bill if we hired a state trooper to stand outside every bathroom and match the sex specified on the birth certificate of those wishing to use the facility against what appears to be down there now, right?

In any case, I loved this editorial on the subject from the Beckley Register-Herald.

The moon is being howled at

WV Delegate Michael Folk got into hot water recently with a tweet calling for the public hanging of Hillary Clinton. It would seem he has some company these days from the Trump camp, although there seems to be some disagreement as to the method of execution.

(Milder voices would be content with prison.)

The most bizarre, not to say bloodthirsty comments so far come from Ben Carson, who links her to Lucifer (by means of Saul Alinsky). From the NY Times coverage:

Digging into her college thesis about Saul Alinksy, the left-wing community organizer and radical, Mr. Carson suggested that Mrs. Clinton admired him. Then he pointed out that Mr. Alinsky had acknowledged Lucifer on the dedication page of one of his books, suggesting that such an association was somehow damning for Mrs. Clinton.

“Are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model someone who acknowledges Lucifer?” Mr. Carson asked. “Think about that.”

....“If she believed that at that time — and now you look at her actions — you look at what she advocates, the killing of babies, the dissolution of the traditional family, all these kinds of things — those are pretty consistent, quite frankly,” Mr. Carson said on CNN.

Demonization on politics is nothing new, but usually it's a metaphor. Holy literalism, Batman!

Annals of Whack, continued

I don't know how I missed this, but apparently back in May Texas congressman Louie Gohmert went on an epic rant against...gay space colonies. Apparently, the issue would be that if the future of the human race depended on a small number of people in a space station and they were like gay or something, we'd all die out. So there.

Here's a quote:

"You’re wanting to save humankind for posterity, basically a modern-day Noah. You have that ability to be a modern-day Noah, you can preserve life. How many same-sex couples would you take from the animal kingdom and from humans to put on the spacecraft to perpetuate humanity and the wildlife kingdom?”

I mean, like think about it, if Noah just put same sex gay animals on the ark, what would we eat at Arby's besides cheese sticks and curly fries?

(I wonder if Gohmert has put two and two together and thought about the other major danger to the space station: transgender space people using inappropriate space bathrooms.)

Another day

On the bright side, a major conservative broadcaster in WV came out in opposition to the bogus "Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

Another voice of reason comes from the Beckley Register Herald, which criticizes legislative interference in the public education system.

Meanwhile, food pantries and charities are bracing themselves for increased demand if SNAP and TANF changes are pushed into law.

Finally, if you want to know just how Whack Whack is in WV these days, check out this video in which a legislator from Fayette County discusses our Muslim president and his use of secret hand signs.

Variations on a theme

West Virginia is starting to get national attention about its legislature. Not in a good way. This item caught my eye today on social media. Maybe the headline had something to do with it:

WEST VIRGINIA REPUBLICANS PUSH FOR A LAW MAKING ANY CRIME COMMITTED FOR JESUS LEGAL

Actually, the real bill isn't quite that bad, but it's plenty bad enough. You can check it out here.

That's yet another reason why I suggest changing the state motto to "You can't make this **** up."

More Orwellian language

The latest Front Porch podcast is about the misnamed Religious Freedom Restoration Act, now under consideration in the WV legislature. I thought this was going to be a good one, but it has been severely cut, with some of the best parts taken out. Editors...

What could go wrong?

Things are crazy the last week of the WV legislature in a good year, which this isn't. That means things are even crazier. I don't know where things stand now, but earlier today there was discussion about a bill that would not only allow indoor smoking at state casinos but also allow fireworks sales at the same places. A friend of mine came up with the above meme, which asks a great question: what could possibly go wrong?

Stop the presses--I agree with Wal-Mart!

There is still a good bit of foaming and howling going on at the WV legislature. As I mentioned yesterday, one example of such is a bill that would make it illegal for cities and counties to pass anti-discrimination ordinances for things like sexual orientation.

It makes me wonder what's next: maybe require people suspected of homosexuality to wear pink triangles?

This legislation is similar to a bill passed in Arkansas which even Wal-Mart found to be over the top. Here's what the retail giant had to say about why this is a bad idea:

Every day, in our stores, we see firsthand the benefits diversity and inclusion have on our associates, customers and communities we serve. It all starts with the core basic belief of respect for the individual. And that means understanding and respecting differences and being inclusive of all people...We feel this legislation is counter to this core basic belief and sends the wrong message about Arkansas.

 Let the record show that I'm with them for once.

What about the Twinkie?

I ran into a friend of mine today at the state asylum  legislature and we were commenting on the rather extreme level of Whack these days.

It kind of reminds me of the Twinkie discussion in the first Ghostbusters movie that went something like this:

Well, let's say this Twinkie represents the normal amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. Based on this morning's sample, it would be a Twinkie... thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds.

Substitute West Virginia for New York and Whack for psychokinetic energy and it would work pretty well.

Here's the latest example: one bill now advancing through the House, HB2881, misnamed the WV Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act, would basically make it illegal for cities and counties to pass anti-discrimination ordinances on the basis of sexual orientation.

The Twinkie just keeps getting bigger.

Foam and howl, guys.

Annals of Whack, continued

In happier days, Whackadoodleism was a fringe movement in WV politics. Now it's kind of in the saddle. The best example of legislative Whack I can think of, although the competition is fierce, is a bill that would make it a criminal felony to implement the Affordable Care Act.

As a compliment to this effort, I suggest bill supporters gather in a circle at night to foam at the mouth and howl at the moon.

As I've said here many times before, it's high time to change the state motto to "You can't make this **** up."

Reasons why

On more than one occasion, I have expressed my desire to update the WV state motto from "Mountaineers are always free" to something that fits better these days.

I like the old one, but it seemed to apply more back in the days when WV broke with the slave owning aristocrats of Virginia to join the Union or when union miners and other workers fought hard against the abuses of corporations.

West Virginians seem to be a lot more servile, docile and domesticated these days.

As I've mentioned before, my choice for a new motto is "You can't make this **** up."

Here are a few reasons why: water, women, and workers. Oh yeah, and whack

It's not just WV

Some readers of this blog may recall the campaign to which I am now dedicated, to wit, to change the state motto of WV from "Mountaineers are always free" to "You can't make this **** up."

By a strange coincidence, two friends from different states have sent me bizarre stories from their own states that suggest WV isn't the only one where the rules of Whack apply.

Here's one from Rhode Island (which, incidentally, isn't an island) and one from Maryland (which bears little obvious resemblance to the Blessed Virgin for which it is named.

Here's the take home lesson I got: Whack has no borders.

Annals of Whack

Here's a look at five of the most bizarre conspiracy theories floating around out there. My personal favorite is the one where the Obama administration is stockpiling 30,000 guillotines. Holy Madame Defarge, Batman! I'm a little disappointed that an evil alien/Obama cabal didn't make the list.

ON A MORE RATIONAL NOTE, one place in India has hired human "monkey mimics" to control the behavior of pesky primates. It occurs to me that at some point, monkeys might be hired to control the behavior of pesky humans...

IT'S WORKING, CONTINUED. Here's a look at how the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, is working in places where it is allowed to.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Which craziness is crazier?

Paul Krugman raised an interesting question in his column today, wherein he compared right wing craziness over the Affordable Care Act with right wing craziness over climate change, any talk of which is apparently "Marxist" according to some folks. The question, which he didn't ask in so many words, was which craziness is crazier.

Based on my WV perspective, I think the two kids of craziness are rather distinct. Health care reform craziness approaches full blown clinical paranoia, as in weird beliefs about death panels, microchips and a takeover of the US system by the World Health Organization. Climate craziness, at least at the highest levels, seems to have a bit more method to the madness: it's about the money.

Actually addressing climate change might cost some corporations a bit in the short run while saving all kinds of grief in the long run. Or, more likely, in the not so long run. The sad thing is, the longer climate change craziness delays meaningful action, the harder it will be to figure out a way to actually help miners and places like WV without cooking our future.

MORE ON THAT here.

NOTE: I'm traveling this week so posts may be irregular. Not that they aren't anyway.

Annals of paranoia

Here's the latest from the realm of Whack. A conservative website has found further proof that President Barack Obama is a communist. So that explains why the stock market is doing so well...

The evidence proof? The writer opines that Obama's daughter Sasha's real name is Natasha, which is obviously Russian. I guess the fact that Sasha was born 10 years after the collapse of communism in the former USSR only proves how devious these guys are. Besides, we all know that anyone named Natasha has to be a pinko.

But I'll do him one better. Sasha was actually the nickname of V. I. Lenin's brother Alexander, who was executed by the czarist government for his revolutionary activities in 1887. Some people believe the failure of Sasha's anarchist friends to unsettle the government ultimately inspired him to create the Bolshevik party.

Hmmmm....I guess now we need to decode Malia.

"Feathered primates"

Image by way of wikipedia.

Years of living on the farm where wild and semi-domesticated birds abound--and being married to a birder--have caused me to realize that the term "bird brain" isn't very apt when intended as a put-down. Quite a few of them seem pretty sharp to me and some exhibit emotions and parental behavior that reminds me of mammals.

Crows seem to be particularly intelligent. There are some extended families in our holler and they seem not only to stay busy but to have a good time as well. For some reason, they remind me of a merry band of pirates, minus the ocean and ships and all.

Recent research has shown that crows are even smarter than previously believed. In fact, their use of tools, memory and complicated social behavior has led some biologists to refer to them as "feathered primates."

I'm not sure whether crows would be flattered or insulted by that.

FROM THE WORLD OF WHACK, here are some recent right wing rants. The pope in particular seems to set them off these days.

JUST SAY NO.  The first part of this statehouse Gazette column by Phil Kabler mentions WV's current flirtation with private for-profit  prisons. El Cabrero devoutly hopes this union won't be consummated.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Ashamed before the blade of grass

The theme at Goat Rope these days continues to be the life and thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson, with a focus at the moment on his famous essay Self Reliance, which is a call for and declaration of spiritual independence.

There is a pretty good bit of irony in today's selection, which involves quoting from a bit of his essay that opposes quoting other people. I beg to disagree with Waldo here. I love finding examples of people who say things better than I ever could. It happens all the time. But the paragraph also contains some good insights into the difficulty we have of living in the present.This is another example of how Emerson's ideas both reflected his interest in Buddhist thought and anticipated elements of it as yet unknown in America. And you can quote me on that.

Here's goes:

Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.

A GOOD IDEA. Here's economist Dean Baker with a column on how the US could improve its employment picture with a more extensive use of work sharing, which involves reducing hours rather than cutting jobs and letting affected workers draw partial benefits for the lost wages. El Cabrero and friends have tried to push this idea in WV. It actually made it through one legislative committee this session despite the irrational hostility of the state Chamber of Commerce for a business friendly measure and an equally bizarre attempt at sabotage at the state workforce agency.

ONE MORE LINK JUST FOR FUN. Here's a look at some of the whackiest things televangelist Pat Robertson has said. I'll bet it was hard to whittle it down to 10.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

In the spirit of fair play

I've spent a good bit of time here taking swipes at right wing Whackadoodleism. In an effort to transcend the bitter polarization of our time, the spirit of fair play prompts me to state for the record that Whackadoodleism is not the monopoly of any political tendency (although these days it seems to tilt more in one direction).

Here's one example of Whackadoodlery on the left that is pertinent to the sporadic series of posts here about human evolution and social life. The great biologist E. O. Wilson is widely admired today for his scientific work on topics ranging from ants to ecology to biophilia as well as his advocacy for dealing with climate change.

It wasn't always that way. In the mid 1970s, Wilson wrote a book titled Sociobiology: the New Synthesis which discussed genetically inherited behavior patterns of various animals. None of that was particularly controversial for people who were paying attention. But Wilson had the temerity to extend his analysis to humans and to suggest that we had some evolutionary baggage of our own.

Left wing ideologues somehow took this to mean that Wilson was suggesting that war, racism, imperialism, etc. were biologically inevitable. (He wasn't, by the way.) At a meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, activists chanted "Racist Wilson you can't hide, we charge you with genocide" and poured ice water on his head as he prepared to give a speech.

(Genocide for writing a book? Really? And Sociobiology didn't discuss the issues of race.)

He gave the speech anyway.

For the record, I'm not endorsing all of his ideas on human evolution and our genetic legacy. Wilson himself has long accepted as valid some critiques of that formulation. But it there is a growing sense in the biological and social sciences that we are animals after all. Biology isn't destiny, but it is...well, biology.

(Plus, living around roosters has taught me a lot about human males.)

That doesn't spell the end of efforts to work for greater social justice, but it might be time to retire a cherished radical myth that human nature is a blank slate or some kind of silly putty that can be moulded into any shape we want.

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Labor Day has come and gone, but labor woes are still with us.

WHAT HE SAID. This op-ed by a friend of mine suggests ways West Virginia can strengthen its unemployment insurance program.

THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS. Here is a review of several recent books on the politically pivotal decade of the 1970s.

LOOSE WITH THE TRUTH. Here's another look at misinformation on health care reform. We're probably going to see a lot more of that.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED