Morgan Griffith's Committee Assignments

From US Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA-9), editorial comment below:

"

The 119^th Congress shapes up to be a busy Congress, particularly for me.

The increase in activity is both because of the bold initiatives Republicans hope to pass and additional committee assignments that I have been given.

In the last term, I was selected for the first time to serve on the House Committee on Administration.

The Committee has jurisdiction over most of the activities occurring at the U.S. Capitol. The U.S. Capitol complex is larger than the Capitol itself.

It includes the Library of Congress, the U.S. Botanical Gardens and the world-famous Smithsonian Institute Museums. Jurisdiction naturally includes oversight of the Capitol Police and committee budgets.

What many people do not know is that the Committee has jurisdiction over federal election administration.

While an important committee, House Administration does not take up as much of my time as the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

As you know, I have served on Energy and Commerce since first being elected. The Committee holds scores of hearings related to important issues, such as the country’s health care system, domestic energy production and broadband.

Further, the Committee holds discussions and briefings that require my attendance.

Chairman Guthrie asked me to take on the responsibility of chairing the committee’s Environment Subcommittee.

The Subcommittee will be focused on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), government regulations and overreach, and the country’s environmental policies.

Additionally, in early January, Speaker Johnson appointed me to serve on the House Committee on Rules.

The Rules Committee exercises great influence over the legislative process in Congress. Members of the panel contribute to the advancement of legislation, control the length of debate on a measure, and may even alter the content of legislation.

Excluding circumstances where there is a suspension of the rules, every bill usually goes through the Rules Committee before a floor vote is taken by the entire House.

Given there are 435 lawmakers in the House, many in the chamber historically offered numerous amendments to a single piece of legislation. Accordingly, this practice consumed large amounts of time and prolonged debate on legislation.

The Rules Committee is supposed to streamline the legislative process to avoid unnecessary delays. The Committee is empowered to place limitations on the number of amendments and establishes the amount of time of debate for each bill.

I hope to work to assure the Committee does not eliminate debate on important issues.

Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who chairs the Rules Committee, will be serving her first term as Chairwoman of the Committee.

Following my appointment to the Committee, Chairwoman Foxx selected me to serve as Vice Chairman of the Committee!

As Majority Leader in Virginia’s House of Delegates, I was a staunch advocate for making sure the rules of the chamber reflected the principles of Jefferson’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice and Procedure.

This appointment to the Committee will give me an opportunity to move the House towards a process that is both efficient and fair.

I have already seen important bills come before the Committee.

Given the trust placed in me by Speaker Johnson and others for these committee assignments, I will dedicate a great deal of my energy and time to these bodies.

But that does not mean I will not take time to listen to your concerns.

Folks from Virginia’s Ninth District are some of those who will come to DC and meet with my DC office.

Generally, I try to make myself available to meet with folks when the schedule permits. To do so, I often must step off the dais and briefly leave a committee hearing to see a constituent in the hallway.

This practice will obviously continue, and unfortunately be more commonplace, during the 119^th Congress.

The Rules Committee meets in the U.S. Capitol, while Energy and Commerce meets in the Rayburn House Office Building, and House Administration meets in the Longworth House Office Building.

Accordingly, when coming to my office, you may have to be escorted to one of these three locations. Regrettably, the three locations are not easy to get to from each other, so it may take a few minutes.

Nonetheless, I will continue to listen to you and advocate for you in Washington, whether that involves me seeing you in the district, or in the hallways of Congress.

If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office.  You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at morgangriffith.house.gov. Also on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives.

"

Editorial comment: He will need a lot of guidance from his constituents. If you go to Washington, dress well. (Yes, people survive in suits and dresses for the amount of time you'll have to spend in the congressional complex.) Whether you meet in an office, meet with a travelling office worker, leave a phone message, send an e-mail, or mail a postcard, be polite. However disappointing the second Trump administration may be, however squishy Congressman Griffith may have a record of being on ecology and conservation issues, he has stood firm on other issues and deserves respect. If we don't like what our member of Congress is doing, we go home and elect a different one.

Book Review: Marooned with My Celebrity Boss

Title: Marooned with My Celebrity Boss

Author: J.P. Sterling

Date: 2023

Quote: "I stole from the rich and gave to the poorest of the poor--me."

This one is even sillier than the usual romantic comedy. It was, Sterling tells us, written with some help from a six-year-old, so it has a Disney-movie atmosphere. The poor thief steals the pirates' treasure map, the movie star quarrels with her family and runs away, they sail off on her boat and wash up on a diamond-shaped island that fits the treasure map perfectly, but the treasure they find in the chest is a badly rhymed message telling them they're soulmates. Then the pirates catch them, but the thief turns out to be the son of...oh, read the book already. They'll marry as financial equals and live happily ever after. 

I laughed while reading this ridiculous romance. You might, too. It's wholesome and sweet, with more adventures than sweet talk, more sweet talk than kissing, and no rude words--which seems odd for pirates, but you might find yourself laughing too much to care. 

Petfinder Post

It's raining, which may interfere with the Petfinder photo contest, but let's try. For our first new contest of 2025 I received the following prompt:

So, some old dogs. And cats. 

I'm told that some people like only dogs, or only cats, and don't want to see pictures of the other species. I don't understand this. I can understand not being able to afford a dog, or care for one. I can understand needing a guide dog or a guard dog, and not wanting to complicate that relationship;by adding a cat. I can't understand not appreciating the appeal of animals you, personally, can't keep as pets. Like, what about songbirds? What about elephants?

The meme featured a dog, so today dogs go first. And Petfinder insists that you must see this puppy, before it'll even go to the pages for older dogs. They have a point. This is a new puppy in a new (to Petfinder anyway) organization. Someone is sure to adopt him.

0. Jacob from Kingsport  

His web page: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/jacob-74842306/tn/kingsport/united-states-animal-rescue-tn1062/

He was supposed to have been the sort of designer mutt called a Golden Doodle, but his hair's neither golden nor poodle-curly. Puppies get sent to shelters for less. There seem to be a lot of onions on this screen porch tonight. Jacob is described as having just about all the virtues a dog can have, though he's still a baby and will need to be taught to enjoy having a lovely crate all to himself, walk on a leash, not try to eat shoes, etc. 

He has a brother, if any local lurkers think they can cope with two dogs, or would like to keep one dog for themselves and let one go to a good friend. John is a smaller puppy with bigger white patches. If I could afford them I think I'd see whether they'd accept Shaker and Onn as alternate names. How can animals learn their names when they're given the same names as humans?

Now, the contest...

Zipcode 10101: Tova from NYC

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/tova-74061573/ny/new-york/aspca-ny29/

...says she is indeed a Good Thing, though shy until she gets to know people. For a Chihuahua she's apparently fairly calm, if left in peace and quiet. Just a bit dozy. Small dogs can live fifteen or even twenty years, like cats, so be prepared.

Zipcode 20202: Penny, aka Little Bit, from DC 

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/penny-little-bit-69241178/dc/washington/k-9-lifesavers-dc19/

Penny has some problems. She's not for just any family. Her sight and hearing are going, so she may be scared of new places. She might even panic-bite. They want her to stay in the DC area where a familiar trainer can help her make the transition to a new home, so you need to plan on regular visits. Somebody out there thinks it's worth the trouble to make her old, cataract-dimmed eyes light up. She always was adorable, and doesn't she know it. Penny needs a very quiet, tidy, stable home.

Zipcode 30303: Bubba from Decatur 

His web page: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/bubba-73655122/ga/decatur/paws-atlanta-ga914/

Isn't he a perfect redneck-chic dog? Something's peculiar about Bubba, though. Large dogs are supposed to live five to ten years. Bubba is believed to be twelve and a half years old already. They say he's healthy, quiet, patient with smaller dogs, loyal, and a good listener.

And now the cats.

Zipcode 10101: Luna Fish from Manhattan 

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/luna-fish-74005990/ny/new-york/animal-care-centers-of-nyc-manhattan-ny12/

Despite her cute, kittenish look this Torbie is believed to be eleven years old. She is described as quiet and easy to take care of, likely to be found keeping her human's bed warm. Her name, at least on Petfinder, is Luna FISH because they have another Luna.

Zipcode 20202: Jodi from Bowie 

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/jodi-73424437/md/bowie/bowie-citizens-for-local-animal-welfare-inc-md549/

...says she's a bargain. Looks like a Maine Coon cat, and that distinctive pale tortoiseshell coat as well, and the "adoption fee" is only $130. Well, the shelter didn't have to run up a big vet's bill for this one. She came from a loving home with a human who regretted giving her up. Check out the story on the web page; you might want to exchange contact information with her human. She's described as a quiet, gentle sweetheart who has always been the only animal in the house (so far as the humans knew) and would like to be that again. 

Zipcode 30303: Nebula (and Louis) from Cumming 

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/nebula-74648348/ga/cumming/furkids-animal-rescue-and-shelters-ga170/

That tabby face, or a Tuxie face--which deserved to win this contest? It turns out not to matter at all since the tabby and Tuxie have to be adopted together. Their human died from cancer. They still have each other. She's spayed, he's neutered, they've been well cared for. Is your home up to their standard? Hello, have you lived with someone who had late-stage cancer? They've forgiven a lot.

Book Review: Molly's Fate

Title: Molly's Fate 

Author: Sevannah Storm

Date: 2020

Publisher: Sevannah Storm

Quote: "We will make it if you land without crashing--"

Whereupon Molly promptly crashes the damaged spaceship on a planet whose humanoid inhabitants honor women in many ways, but require them to be married because for some unexplained reason the species produces too many males. (They have a warrior culture; the surplus males kill each other off.) Molly's and her buddy Amy's fate, and that of another group of female astronauts who arrive later, is to have to choose handsome and well trained husbands. But can Molly love her alien mate?

Of course she can. This is not really science fiction. It's a space opera in the romantic comedy genre. Molly will learn to love her alien mate through a slow-burn sequence with lots of kissing and caressing and liberal mention of body parts, with explicit baby-making at the end. Those who like that sort of story will undoubtedly like Molly's Fate though I accept no blame for what the mention of body parts is likely to attract to your computer. Storm has a following and has written lots of other spicy romances.

Bad Poetry: Crows and Crones

At Dverse, Kim M. Russell invited everyone to try writing poems that used at least one of the sets of four words found on a chart used for vision tests in the UK. I could have let that go, but then I noticed that most of the sets had enough assonance to sound interesting--not exactly rhyme, but the chiming sounds some people prefer. I had to play.

Agricultural societies tend to detest crows because they eat seeds and crops. The West Nile Virus, however, raised sympathy for surviving crows. They dislike humans generally, even if they bond with a few individual humans, and have a very poor record as pets. They can become friendly to an individual without becoming pets; there are individuals the local crows like and individuals they dislike, always, so far as is known, for good reasons. As birds go, crows are clever. They can be fun for their human friends to observe. They really do tell "news" and "secrets" that are interesting, from their point of view.

Ravens, which look like crows only much bigger, and can be dangerous, can also be even more fun to observe if you become their friends. Ravens have been observed in the high Blue Ridge Mountains; in the past they were even occasionally found in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, but in my lifetime they've not been seen at elevations as low as my town's. (Like all wildlife, their numbers have decreased as human population increased.) A visual illusion makes things seen from one of the windows at my house look closer or larger than they really are; even my mother, usually reliable about these things, honestly believed the black birds walking around the spring branch looked so big they had to be ravens, but no, they were crows. Ravens probably never did live in Baltimore, except when Edgar Allan Poe imagined a pet raven tormenting the human it had adopted by squawking "Nevermore!" Ravens fascinate people who live where they do. An English-speaking raven is a character in Priscilla Ann Bird's new e-book, where the central characters are the nicest kind of sasquatch, the kind who can make intelligent conversation with humans if the humans don't panic. 

Both crows and ravens occasionally offer things that might be food to other animals. If this behavior is rewarded, it will persist. The ravens who brought bread to the prophet Elijah in the Bible may have had supernatural guidance to provide things a man could live on for several days. People who have observed this behavior in ordinary situations think the birds use their human (and other animal) friends as tasters. If we eat something and live, they'll eat it themselves and find out how easy it is for them to digest. Sometimes, too, they know they can eat something if only a bigger, stronger lifeform will tear open the packaging--skin, or cardboard and foil. And a crow or raven could be trained to steal food from the garden of a person it didn't particularly like and deliver the food to a friend, though more likely as an occasional prank than as a primary food source for anybody.

So I was thinking about crows and crones, P. Bird's raven character and my feeling of good will toward crows, and a lot of quatrains popped up on the computer screen.

If face can have too big a nose

then of such faces crows have one.

A life of scavenging's the cause.

It fluffs and shakes its feathers even.

Perhaps in ancient times there were

connections between crows and crones.

The crabbed ladies called to "Our

dear crow allies," late in summer.

To each black crow some crone gave name

and learned the name the crow would use

to call her. By such modest means

bonds between crows and crones arose.

While raiding fields a crow could hear

and fly back, swiftly as crows can,

ere children were sent to remove

the crows, who flew home swift and sure.

By sight no crone could know her crow

but each could croon a little verse

by which their bonds birds, man could see;

hearing, their friendship would renew.

Our New Age types might want to assume

that all was joy and beauty once

before fence, factory, plane, car, van

disturbed the equation and its sum

but I had rather keep aware

of birdlice, black mold in the caves,

the rotting fish tossed on the sea,

the sourness curdling in the cream.

If hungry, crones might eat their crows.

If angry, crows might peck crones' eyes.

Crow cult and culture cringed away

before the teaching of the Cross.

Yet still crones may greet corvids with

Hey, pretty bird, I remember you

and from time out of mind the thought

always returns, and may be true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU0Hasj1fpk for Buffy Sainte-Marie's song, misquoted above, whose tune does not fit these lines

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Crow/photo-gallery with links to facts about crows

Book Quotes That Make Reviewers Think

Some book reviewers are actually doing the Long & Short Reviews blog challenge for this week, so I'll take a whack at it too. This will be a short post because the subject material is chewy.

"Aim at Happiness...it will elude you. But aim at Heaven and you will get it and Happiness thrown in."

--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

"Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?"

--Thornton Wilder, Our Town (yes, it's a play, but I suspect more people read it in their American Literature textbooks than see it acted on a stage)

"When did atheists become so evangelical?"

--Laura Ingraham, Of Thee I Zing 

Web Log for 1.26-28.25

Microsoft may be harassing youall in the same way it's started doing me, with demands that I "finish setting up a Microsoft account" by, among other things, feeding the Internet more information evildoers can use to harm me. Don't even start on the "but maybe they won't, or maybe you can fend them off" line of whine. The Internet should not be allowed to have information like home addresses, far less any "biometric data." On the Internet, your writing style should be the only way people can tell whether or not you're a dog. I'm not willing to participate in the destruction of what's made the Internet worth having; I'd rather participate in the collapse of the whole Internet craze and the return of entry-level jobs. So, will I be able to work with Linux, or will I blink out of cyberspace? Remains to be seen...

Silver came home, but then she left again. I'm still concerned that she may have been petnapped. Meanwhile, I had expected the twins Drudge and Dilbert to be adopted first, but when the time came, Drudge's independent personality worked against him. Dilbert and Diego have moved out. Drudge is still here. He seems less independent, and much more "talkative," without his brothers. He's not very social or, so far as I've seen, very intelligent, but he's a nice, gentle, not clingy but pettable, cat with a soft fluffy coat. Purrs when petted. He's no substitute for Silver. 

Art

Architecture, glasswork, needlework, and stonework in old English churches:

https://themarmeladegypsy.blogspot.com/2025/01/this-england-road-trip-church-in-burford.html

Education 

Harvard has lost all credibility by admittedly discriminating against introverts. Other universities are admittedly discriminating against Asian-American girls:

https://pjmedia.com/scott-pinsker/2025/01/26/the-most-discriminated-ethnic-group-in-america-is-n4936376#

Not because Asian girls aren't a familiar sight on those campuses. They are. The problem facing Asian girls today is that, if academic achievement alone were the basis for admissions, all the big-name universities would be overrun with Asian girls. Boys, even Asian boys, would feel discriminated against when the reality would be that they're outclassed. Girls would have to date less educated boys from town. So...read the article. If people like you do something well, under today's Race Bigotry 4.0, you have to do it much better than the rest of the world do it to be allowed to do it at all. 

Without discrimination--even segregation--boys will win nearly all the trophies in athletic competitions. Yes. And without discrimination--even segregation--girls will win nearly all the academic awards, and a majority of those girls will be introverts. And a disproportionate number of them, if not a majority, will be Asian, and if anyone bothers to break down the demographic studies by specific ethnicity they'll find other disproportions. Who'd have thought? People who not only grew up in, but had ancestors in, English-speaking countries tend to do better at English-speaking schools than people whose ancestors spoke other languages. Though people of Jewish and/or German descent show a higher incidence of special talent for math than other Europeans do. 

There's a silver lining, though. When quotas are obvious as the first-year class enter a school, the demographic token types tend to drop out anyway. When I was at Berea, the school had four or five times as many overachievers to choose from as the campus  had room for; many well qualified people, of all ethnic types, weren't chosen. Entering classes represented specific counties in specific States with a preset percentage of Black, White, and Asian students. And yes, the Asian students were without exception super achievers, probably because they had to have SAT scores a few hundred points ahead of everyone else to be considered. And plenty of White and Asian students dropped out because the academic work was meant to challenge the superachievers, or because the emotional climate on campus was unpleasant, but the disappearance of Black students from the freshman class was conspicuous. Asian girls may be unfairly denied places at the big-name universities, but the Asian girls who are admitted are still more likely than other demographic types to graduate. And be hired. And succeed.

What happens to the boys who are admitted with lower scores and poorer preparation so that the entering class looks demographically balanced? Nobody's told them that they were admitted as tokens. In fact the teachers are likely to tell them, emphatically, that they won't be allowed to stay on campus as tokens. They have to do the work. And if they had another five or ten years of life experience, or if our high schools prepared students for the possibility of going to university and having to study to prepare for lectures that begin where the books leave off, I'd guess that most of the Black boys who left Berea in such an embittered condition would have been able to do the work; they were intelligent. As things are, they're served worse than the Asian girls who didn't get into the big-name school, who can go to some public or church school and be superstars. 

It feels nice and p.c. to say that demographic factors should make a difference in who gets into a big-name school, but it's not. The fair way is either to admit every student who is literate enough to fill out admission forms and sign cheques, as public universities do, or to admit the ones with the top test scores and hope the teachers can keep up with them, or--in the case of church-sponsored schools--to enforce the oldest, strictest version of the church schools on campus residence (e.g. not all Seventh-Day Adventists are vegetarians, but SDA campuses used to be meat-free) and let the students select themselves for willingness to follow the rules. 

Will that make everybody happy? Of course not. People will still feel that someone or other didn't liiiike them because they're Black, or Jewish or Asian or Polish, or they come from the place where person had a bad experience twenty years ago, or the shape of their chins reminded somebody of the mostly forgotten day-care center where their diapers weren't changed promptly. People will still fail to get what they want. People will still feel dissatisfied when they do get what they want. To think that two and two are four, and neither five nor three, the heart of man has long been sore,  and long 'tis like to be. But hey, a Black dude was smart enough to write The Quest for Cosmic Justice. Young people will think of something.

Politics 

How much should our government downsize?

(Discovered at MOTUS. Lens traces it to Scott Hughes on Instagram)

Pop Culture 

Earlier in the week someone said he'd never seen or heard the President laugh. I don't know whether he laughs loudly like his last opponent, or chortles quietly, but it's hard to have this facial expression without at least chuckling:

(Discovered in a Google Images search during their first administration. Google has no explanation for the acronym in the photo itself, but traces the photo to NPR.) 

Book Review: Rangikura

Title: Rangikura

Author: Tayi Tibble

Date: 2021

Publisher: Knopf

ISBN: 978-0-593-53463-2

Quote: "she realised that life / was not going to be fair / but it could be /ferocious."

This is a short book of short essays and free verse about being young and mostly Maori in New Zealand. With lines that are sometimes rude, often funny, and sometimes sad, Tayi Tibble captures moments of growing up in a suburb, being teased and fighting back, loving too much, trying to stay connected to living people and feel connected to her ancestors. 

What some readers will enjoy and others will find unreadable is the way Tibble mixes cyberspeak, Maori, and Black American slang into a whole new form of English. New Zealanders seem to be interested in using Maori words, especially for indigenous food and wildlife, of which several are mentioned in this book. Other readers might actually prefer to read this book online rather than in print.

Tibble is young, and offers no special or new insights, but her word pictures are funny and sad and, yes, ferocious, condemning and celebrating, sweet and sour, and they show a poet's ear. If you finish this book you'll probably want to read the other ones she will undoubtedly write. (This was her second book and by now she's written a third one.)