Mary Martin for Delegate, Independent, Virginia House 14th District [Update]

From Patricia Evans, edited for format by Priscilla King. (Update: the blog archives are part of family history, but the links below have been resold to different people. I'm not sure why an Indonesian site would want to own "VirginiaTeaParty" for a web address...apparently one does.)

"

Mary S. Martin will announce her candidacy for Delegate 14th District.         

 

I want to give people a choice between candidates that believe higher taxes are the answer to every problem. Higher taxes only contribute to the problems.

The largest tax increase in the history of Virginia was passed this year and there is not one thing in there to benefit Southside Virginia.

I believe the protection of Virginians' property rights are one of the most important functions of an elected representative.

I believe we must improve our children's educations and this starts with supporting Virginia teachers. This past session bills were passed that were not beneficial to our teachers.

I believe we must change laws passed that benefit utility companies that have a monopoly in our area. This must be addressed to protect the consumers. Washington and the EPA are having an enormous effect on the cost of electricity. We cannot expect any relief from that direction, therefore, we must address what we can at a State level.

I believe we must enforce conflict of interest rules in the General Assembly. If a representative owns hundreds of thousands of dollars in a company, they should not vote on bills effecting this company. This is a major problem in Richmond and it  needs to be addressed.

I do not support uranium mining in Virginia.

These are things I pledge to do my best to change as your Representative. I will not make false promises and I will not engage in negative ads that cause pain and embarrassment to the families of the candidates. I plan to run on the issues and on the voting records of my opponents. If you can't run on your record you should not run. If there ever was a year to have a choice other than a D and a R in the 14th District, this is it. I choose to run for I believe in working for our community and our small businesses. I manage a small business myself and I know the grief we deal with on a daily basis sometimes. I will never refer to myself as an elected "official", I will be a true representative. I would love to see some of you folks tomorrow and have a chance to meet you.


Mary Martin
276-358-1461

--
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."  - Thomas Jefferson   Virginia Tea Party Patriots  www.virginiateapartypatr iots.com   Danville Patriots   http://danvillepatri ots.com/"

George Wallace Was a Democrat

Apparently some TV news staff imagine that anyone who was in favor of segregation was a Republican...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/12/exclusive-msnbc-host-apologizes-for-mistake-with-noted-segregationists-party-affiliation/

(For the record: While people who remembered Abraham Lincoln as "The Great Emancipator" were alive, the Democratic Party opposed Lincoln's Republican Party on as many points as seemed expedient...including race relations. Democrats were the party of segregation.)

"Honey" Costs Food Lion Money

This has happened three times in different supermarkets, during the past year: The supermarket hired another “outgoing people person” as a cashier—despite a local tendency for customers to prefer quiet, discreet, self-contained store employees. Cash in hand, I watched the register while Chatty Cathy went into one of those little monkey fits that attack extroverts when people politely ignore them. She chattered, flapped her hands, pulled faces—anything, anything, to keep from having to win real respect by doing an honest, efficient job! If she had simply done her job, ringing up the purchases, taking the payment, and thanking the customer, poor Chatty Cathy might start to doubt that she was still human.

Of course, like most of my own customers in this part of the world, I see no particular need to try to help anyone who is in any confusion about this. If you're all that easily confused, you're not completely human!

Desperate for attention, Chatty resorted to making herself annoying. She addressed me as “honey.”

I’ve discussed Scott County’s current “honey” problem on this web site, more than once. I think it’s a serious problem. I think we all need to help remind store employees that when people who aren’t being paid to be in their store are kind enough to pay for purchases, rather than robbing or vandalizing the store, the correct manner to show these kind and honorable ladies and gentlemen is respect—not some kind of boorish pretense of chumminess. Anyone who hands money to a store employee is either a “Sir” or a “Ma’am.” And, if the store employee is aware of any emotional feelings other than gratitude toward the customer, the store employee should be very quiet and try not to be noticed until the employee is able to get competent professional help to address those emotional problems.

There are situations when it’s good for everyone to ignore a deliberate insult. Caring for psychotic patients, testifying against criminals, and helping no-talent musicians achieve the oblivion they deserve when they add threats and insults to their acts, are three situations like that with which I’ve had some firsthand experience.

There are other situations when it’s not good to ignore an insult...when failing to complain about bad behavior merely encourages incompetent workers to whine, "But other people aren't complaining."

So, I had to chastise Chatty Cathy. I could not overlook her bad manners, just as I could not walk out of the store without paying for my groceries. This was my Christian duty. And although I chastised Chatty in a quiet and temperate way, I think what unhinged both Chatties most was that I didn’t let their little monkey tricks distract me from watching the cash register.

To be fair, it was only one store in Kingsport where I think most local people over about age thirty learned that, if you look at a cashier instead of watching the cash register, you will be paying for more than you take home every single time. Some customers and cashiers know each other. Some of the eye contact and conversation that take place in supermarket checkout lines are just ordinary, although misplaced, social interaction. However, because anything that distracts attention from the cashier’s actual job looks like the familiar routine of a group of well-practiced thieves, cashiers need to be trained to keep their eyes on their job and focus on making sure they have not scanned the most expensive item three times.

Anyway, Chatty’s hands were twitching, and as she made change she made an honest mistake...in my favor.

Every cashier needs to be familiar with the differences between a “Ma’am” (or a “Sir”) and a “Honey.”

Ma’ams flush toilets and make sure everything goes down. Honeys flush toilets only if they’ve dropped paper towels or wads of gum into them.

Sirs put things back where they were. Honeys knock things over. Honeys are very careless drivers, of cars as well as shopping carts, and have been known to forget to step out of the car before entering the store.

And both Sirs and Ma’ams always straighten out a mistake in their favor. Although they’re not chummy with cashiers, and don’t act chummy in public even if the cashiers happen to be their sisters, they don’t want the cashiers to be blamed for losing money at the end of the day. Honeys could care less. Honeys see an extra ten-dollar bill and think, “Hoo-ha, lucky day.” If it were a stray hundred-dollar bill they’d think, “Even luckier day.”

Calling people “honey” cost Chatty money. If it cost her her job, too, all to the good.

And maybe, if for the next five years or so I buy groceries in those stores without hearing one word other than “Thank you, Ma’am,” I’ll refund the stores the money Chatty Cathy cost them.

When choosing cashiers, I’d like to see stores focus on building an atmosphere of honesty and respect. Efficiency, cleanliness, and frugality are also good qualities in a store. “Friendliness” is not an issue. People who have friends don’t need, or actually even like, people who try to pretend to be friends while they are strangers. I do want to know that a human brain, with some individual judgment, is operating the machine into which I put money. I like a store to invest more in providing jobs to unskilled workers than in buying the latest electronic gadgets. I do not, however, want to know anything about a cashier while I’m buying groceries. If they're my friends or relatives, they can talk to me when other people aren't waiting in line.

Good cashiers are quiet and focussed. They should be able to make eye contact when customers look at them. They should be free from any need to try to make eye contact while they are ringing up groceries. They should have enough background and self-respect to be able to show gratitude to customers, rather than dumping sick ego needs all over the store.

Good cashiers are literate. They should at least have heard, if not learned and performed, the song “You Call Everybody Darling.” They should be able to use the word “honey,” without blushing, only in contexts like “...on aisle four, next to the peanut butter.” 

Really good cashiers are, in fact, people whom customers aren’t ashamed to claim as friends or relatives. And, because they know this, they feel no need to make a public display of chumminess in a situation that calls for task-focus and efficiency.

Can Music Be Marketed to Middle-Aged People?

Spokesmen for the music industry have been wailing about the loss of their biggest market. Baby-boomers used to buy more recorded music than any other demographic group before or since. Why did we stop? Have all of our music collections really become complete? Are we willing to pay for anything but food, medical insurance, medication, and retirement accounts any more? Can we even hear music any more?

So far as I can tell, most people my age have accumulated substantial record collections. That’s not why we stopped collecting records. They do wear out. Some of us would still be replacing our worn-out favorites if the industry were offering what we wanted to buy, but since the industry has written us off as antiques, we’ve written it off too. We listen to new music on the radio, if we can stand a steady diet of increasingly derivative, increasingly “hard,” and increasingly bad rock. Or, like me, we listen to music only in real life and store it only in memories, or on small-batch tapes.

Here’s a Top Ten List of guidelines for marketing recordings to people currently in our forties, fifties, and sixties:

1. Forget about “changing the technology.” We converted from LPs to tapes of one style or another. Some of us then converted to CDs. I know one adult who’s bothered with an Ipod. (Middle-aged people are not amused by incorrect typing, either. If you try to tell us to put the capital letter somewhere other than at the beginning of a name, most of us say, “To Hell with it.” Forgive us, Michigan readers.) For most music collectors, one “conversion” is enough. You need to stick with one medium of recording.

2. And that should be cassette tapes. Why? Because the devices for playing and recording are simple, easy to carry, easy to repair, and made in the U.S.A. The sound system we use for recording the kids’ first musical efforts and exchanging “letters” with blind people is the one we like. Few people actually heard the superior sound quality CDs allegedly offered. All of us knew that the push to convert to CDs was coming from industry greedheads who resented that Erykah Badu was having to compete for air time with people’s grandchildren. Well, guess what, greedheads? We’ve been there, and we’re not going back.

3. Don’t forget the correct pricing. The value of one hour of recorded music is the same as the value of one hour of picking fruit or bussing tables or whatever we did back when we were starting our collections. Don’t even try to charge more. It’s a recording. A live concert may be worth $100 but a recording is worth $5. Young people would buy more recordings, too, if recordings were priced correctly.

4. Now, about the music itself: Many of our favorite musicians have retired. How are we going to get interested in new ones? Probably in the same way we did when our favorites were new ones. We might hear an appealing sound on a radio or TV show, or we might recognize a familiar song title on an album cover and decide to find out what a new singer or band had done with it.

5. Adding video content to music recordings was a clever gimmick for MTV, but the people who bought the most recorded music never wanted to watch our records. If there is a demand that new musicians invest their probably limited funds in videos, it’s not coming from us. 

6. Try to minimize the eroticism, or attempted eroticism, of new music. What do you think we think when we hear all those new recordings that seem to consist mainly of shrieks, gasps, and grunts with a beat? It’s not “I want to buy that.” It’s more like “Call the Department of Animal Control.” Middle-aged people do not need continual canned and packaged “excitement.” If we want to be adrenalin junkies, we can be fire fighters or ambulance drivers. Real life does enough to raise our blood pressure. The less said about the “excitement” of angry energy we hear in raps and protest songs, the better. When we enjoy erotic “excitement,” it might start with a modest, not excessive, stimulus from a recording of someone with a nice voice singing a lovesong, or whatever else. Erotic stimulation still works for middle-aged people if we pay attention to it only when we’re willing and able to follow where it leads. Most of the time, the effect we look for in music is relaxation, not “excitement.”  So, think in terms of one or two songs specifically about Romantic Love on a one-hour tape of songs about places, events, thoughts, and general good will toward people. Love songs should have a clear melody and stick to it, and most of them should be suitable for parents to sing to children and children to sing to pets. Romantic Love songs should feel like recognizing a twinkle in an eye, rather than being shoved into two strangers' bed.

7. If a musician’s face or normally clothed body isn’t effective cover art, landscapes are definitely better than bare waists or thighs. Janet Jackson, who seemed to start the waist-baring craze, really was an extraordinarily well built young woman...but unfortunately she did not present herself as a young woman whom middle-aged women, even those who’d had crushes on her brother, wanted to invite into our homes. A singer who can’t keep her shirt tucked into her waist and her skirt over her knees looks like someone whose next act might involve dancing on the table and passing out in the punch bowl. People who live to be middle-aged generally like to associate with others who are also sane and sober.

8. Everything that can be done with pounding drumbeats has been done. If you’re looking for something new that really does appeal to  some baby-boomers, try drum-free acts, with the focus on melody and harmony. Yes, my generation loved rock, but most of us originally loved our rock music as a variation in a background of what used to be mostly melody-centered music. Mix it up. Who said all music has to sound like a headache? Melody is fresh. The 1990s Gregorian Chant phenomenon was an echo of the 1980s Irish harp and dulcimer phenomenon and could probably have been replicated with Japanese koto music, European folk songs, Victorian Anglo-American pop songs, or anything else where the rhythm is only felt within the melody.

9. Not much has been done lately with musical instruments other than drums, guitars, and electronic keyboards. There has especially been a dearth of women instrumentalists. Redress the balance. There are women with big hands who play their own guitars, like Emmylou Harris. There are women who play more rarefied instruments, like Robin Roys with her classical harp. There should be more of both, and there should be more instrumental music played by men too. Middle-aged people bought lots of albums of instrumental music—folk and classical. Many of those albums are wearing out and need to be replaced. “Background music” in stores that entices, rather than distracting and annoying, tired middle-aged women shoppers, is instrumental music.

10. Calm down about the copyrights. When a song is successful, other people sing and play it, altering it to suit themselves, making it their own. This is known as the Folk Process. The only way to prevent it is to prevent interest in your song. Stop clutching at music—you’re killing it. Forget the sick greedhead idea of one songwriter selling one song, that can only ever be performed in one way, to one band whom one marketing company ship around the country, or around the world, and force to perform that song in a different city every night until a key member of the band dies from constantly trying to “medicate” all the jet lag. Accept a healthier idea of lots of local musicians tape-recording their versions of the song and selling them to people who’ve heard them perform live, while the local musicians have normal lives, with families, and day jobs, and a reasonable chance of good health. Don’t demand payment, other than possibly mentioning the songwriter’s name, unless and until a recording has achieved huge, lucrative sales. Instead of demanding that permission be purchased in advance before a radio station broadcasts a local church service in which the congregation sing a hymn, start writing copyright agreements in terms of “If over 500 recordings are sold, then payment...”

My generation hate greed, the way the Victorians hated lust—so much that some of us fail to recognize it when we succumb to it. Naked greed is what put a lot of us off being musicians and what’s putting nearly all of us off buying music these days. Curb your greed, and the majority of us who can still hear music will buy it again.

How Publicly Funded Insurance Doesn't Help Jane Doe

This post was written over a year ago and deliberately left in a file to "ripen," so that people wouldn't be able to guess the real identity of the Jane Doe I'd visited before writing it. My mother works with people like this, so do I, and so do several of my relatives. This Jane Doe could be any of a few dozen people who are alive and suffering today...

Once again the Kingsport Times-News has given op-ed space to a wail in which two nurses describe how two composite characters will suffer if they don’t have tax-funded insurance. The obvious fallacy here is that, if none of us had medical insurance, medical care would become much cheaper and the composite characters would be better off. What we really need to do, if we care about these hypothetical people, is to become uninsured and look for doctors who appreciate cash payments.

But meanwhile, consider a character in Kingsport, Tennessee. Lower-income residents of Tennessee have had “Tenn-Care” for several years now; it’s fair to say that “Tenn-Care” is a program Obamacare would have been well advised to choose as a model. In fact, since Tennessee residents who moved out of the lower income bracket weren’t forced to carry medical insurance but continued to pay taxes that support Tenn-Care, it’s fair to say that Tenn-Care is a legitimate, democratic—although very inefficient—way to help poor people who become ill. Young low-wage workers sometimes, not always, seem satisfied with the treatment they get from Tenn-Care. But then there are cases like...let’s get creative and call her Jane Doe.

This widowed grandmother lives, theoretically alone, in the small, cheap house where she’s lived for decades. She has several children and grandchildren who live nearby and drop in to visit her during the day.

Although she uses an oxygen device marked with warnings not to smoke near it, her children do. She shares her home with two long-haired cats. Though beautiful, the cats’ coats look rough because, well into the summer after a mild winter, they’re being eaten alive by fleas. The finished rooms in the house are close enough to ground level that Mrs. Doe keeps the front windows covered all day. In mild weather she opens windows for fresh air. In her neighborhood the fresh air still carries a good whiff of Kingsport factory fumes. (Kingsporters say their air smells like money. Residents of surrounding counties say it brings other things to our minds.)

Most of the house has a type of carpeting that was marketed as “Body Shag” in the late 1970s. What do you think about when you think about the combination of cigarettes, cats, children, dim lights, and carpets that have been in the house for thirty-some years? That is what you see when you walk into the front room in this house. You do not only smell it, although the combination of ashtrays, litter boxes, ants, roaches, mixed colonies of black, blue, and grey mold, and harsh cleaning chemicals wallops your chest when you walk in. It’s reached a level at which you can see it even if you couldn’t smell it.

Jane Doe doesn’t smell much of the world around her. Jane Doe has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD. She’s only about 55 or 60 years old. She sees as much as most people do, with glasses, and her eyes are what tell her that her house is bowling you over. She sees you wince, turn pale, decide to keep your shoes on even though you normally take them off in the door. She says, “Oh, if only I could breathe better, I’d love to get up and do a real spring cleaning. The curtains! That bathroom!”

It’s not exactly springtime but you know what she means. If you were brought up by my mother, which I realize only one other living person was, you chirp cheerfully, “I’ve got energy to burn off today. Let me vacuum!” Whether you’ve ever read anything on the subject or not, you just know that all the fur, ashes, and fungi in the air have to be aggravating, if not causing, Mrs. Doe’s COPD.

If you not only were brought up by my mother but are travelling with my mother, you go into full spring-cleaning mode. Without really pausing the conversation you start dusting, vacuuming, emptying wastebaskets. In fact you consider interrupting Mrs. Doe’s train of thought with a suggestion like “Let’s take down the curtains and go to the laundromat,” because it seems so obvious that Mrs. Doe’s lungs need that kind of help. You move chairs and sofas around, run the vacuum cleaner tube over the baseboards, take the cushions outside and whack them. Whack! Ack! Aaack! You knew that cushiony furniture and carpets trap a lot of dust and dirt, but the first ten or twenty whacks on these cushions make you feel like a cartoon character sending smoke signals.

You went to call on this lady because you were feeling energetic and humanitarian. After an hour you wonder where that feeling has gone. Your muscles are nowhere near being really tired. Your lungs are, however, exhausted from being in Casa Doe, and your back is tired because you’ve not dared to sit down, and your ankles itch. You realize that if you spent a day or two in this house, you’d have pulmonary obstructions that creaked when you breathed, itch all over, have a deep aching cough, have asthma and headaches and hives, just like poor Mrs. Doe, for whom these things have become a disability. Maybe heredity, diet, even some long-past infection have aggravated Mrs. Doe’s symptoms, but anyone who lived in her house would have to have symptoms similar to hers.

By the time some of the heirs of the house come over to check on Mrs. Doe, you’re glad to get out. In about an hour you’ve filled a large-sized Hefty bag with wastebasket contents, ashtray contents, clumps of hair, stray pieces of kibble and cereal, a full vacuum bag, and three hairballs. You’ve rearranged all the furniture in the front room and sitting room, dusted the wooden furniture, rolled up throw rugs and even had a go at steaming the big dark stains the rugs were arranged to cover, because Mrs. Doe has great faith in steaming carpets, although you suspect you’re actually encouraging black mold. When you picture the room in your mind, what leap forward are the things you didn’t have time to do—sponging down the walls with Tilex, dusting the carpets with Borax, laundering those curtains and cushion covers—all the things that you would want to have done before you'd want to sit down in Mrs. Doe’s front room. You did not do these things. Maybe you never will. The air in the house is still sickening. Mrs. Doe is still ill.

It seems obvious that, just to survive to the normal retirement age, Mrs. Doe needs a full-time housekeeper...the kind who’d shoo the smokers out onto the porch, vacuum every cat-accessible room every day, and shampoo the carpet with Clorox until the mold subsided.

So, what does Mrs. Doe get through Tenn-Care? Because she’s conscious, even ambulatory, a daily visit from a nurse is out of the question. There are nurses who, recognizing the importance of house cleaning in Mrs. Doe’s medical care, would be willing to accept lower hourly wages for staying with Mrs. Doe long enough to get that house clean. (Mother happens to be one.) But that’s not Tenn-Care’s policy. Nurses aren’t charwomen. According to the policy, a disabled patient whose health depends on cleanliness is supposed to be able to hire a Merry Maid. Right.

If Mrs. Doe were to become sicker, and qualify for a low-status nursing assistant, she might get some house-cleaning help. “But only light housekeeping,” explains an agent, who shall be nameless. “Our sitters do things like mopping and vacuuming, but they don’t have to launder curtains or rearrange furniture.”

I’m familiar with this routine. Likely you are, too. It’s the one where the day sitter with the little chart on which to check off the box for “cleaning” runs the vacuum cleaner briskly over the throw rugs, but does not pick up the rugs and look at the carpet underneath, nor at what’s under the chairs. If she has time left over, she sits down and chats, or watches television. Her job is to check off everything on the chart, not to think about the role moldy carpets and hairball-encrusted chairs may be playing in her patient’s illness. This kind of day sitter does not particularly want her patient to get well. If a patient gets well, all it means to her is that she has to wait a week or two with short pay until another patient is found, then learn a different route—so she actually has some motivation to want her patients to remain ill. Since her patients are a “case load,” not friends or relatives, she doesn’t care enough about Mrs. Doe to think about things like laundering curtains.

Few if any employees of the Tenn-Care system consciously think that their regimentation amounts to killing Mrs. Doe while she still has twenty or thirty productive years to live. They think about their jobs, about their positions in the system, about what they’re going to do with their wages. They no more hate Mrs. Doe, or want her to suffer, than they love her or want her to get well. This mind-set would have served them well if they’d been Nazi or Soviet prison guards. How well it fits American health care providers is a different question.

Social Workers Assigned at Birth?

Is this where the United Nations really means to go with their "Rights of the Child" rhetoric?

http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?SEC={AE2A6675-202C-4610-AF12-7B476DBDAD60}&Type=B_BASIC&persistdesign=none

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/11/nanny-state-scottish-legislation-would-pair-every-child-with-state-named-person-who-ensures-well-being/

Jack Weaver, Candidate, Virginia's Sixth District Delegate

If I'd been online on Monday, I would've posted this e-mail from Jack Weaver on Monday. Oh well, some reader in the Sixth District may still have time to vote...

From Jack Weaver, edited for format by Priscilla King:

"

Tuesday is an important day for Republicans.  It is the primary.  You will select whom you wish to represent you in the November election on the republican ticket.

I am the only candidate running in the 6th district that is not an attorney.  Who do you think will best represent your values and principles and the stewardship of the money you have invested in the state's treasury - a lawyer or a farmer/businessperson? Who do you think knows what it costs to operate a business both financially and work within all of the laws already passed -  a lawyer or a farmer/entrepreneur ?   Did you know for the next elected member of the House of Delegates already there are over 2,000 bills before them - do you think that we lack for more laws or more business and common sense responsibility?  Thanks to our members of both congress and the general assembly we already have over 74,000 tax laws.  Do you think we need more?

Do you think we have an income problem in Virginia or a spending problem?  It is clearly a spending problem.  I would vote to repeal this latest tax hike in Virginia.   Do you think the delegate's job should be a term limit job?  I do ! I am not looking for another career and neither should any candidate in my opinion.

I am running because it is very simple  -  I care !!  I care about the next generations of Virginians as well as the current generation of Virginians.  I care - because I think a representative has to first and foremost represent all of the citizens rather than a selected few.  I care - because we have some very tough decisions coming to the Virginia General Assembly, including the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare), immigration amnesty, agriculture (by the way we have 26 lawyers and 2 farmers working on that - how do you think that is going to come out?) The Boneta Bill,  the Cole's Hill uranium mining, Common Core and Cscope in education (in my opinion I can not think of a more damaging program to education than both Common Core and Cscope), transportation, budget (who do you think understands budgets better, a lawyer or business person?) Economic development, which means small businesses too, which are so often overlooked as well as existing businesses.   Agenda 21 issues ( in my opinion we have no choice but to constantly monitor land issues), gun laws and regulations (the Second Amendment is a must to protect), the sanctity of life, marketplace fairness act. Coal is a big issue (regardless of what is being said by politicians and media - 35% of our energy is produced by coal, 35% produced by natural gas, 19% by nuclear, 10% by other of which only 5% is by wind and less than 1% by solar - what is the matter with folks thinking at this time solar and wind will solve the electrical problem in Virginia or the country and where are we  budgeting money - solar and wind - use these funds for  investment in coal and natural gas.  The list goes on and on and on, doesn't it?  To do it right - it is a full time job.

It is in your hands  - vote your choice - vote for the person who you feel will best represent your values, liberties and freedoms and most of all your conscience.

I am Jack Weaver, candidate, and I'm asking for your vote.

 Thank you and may God continue to bless America, this state and yourself.

"

How to Meet Trevor Loudon

If you'll be on the southeastern coast of the United States in late summer and early autumn of this year, you may have a chance to meet New Zealand's zealous conservative, Trevor Loudon, as he promotes his new book, The Enemies Within.

http://noisyroom.net/blog/2013/06/08/trevor-loudon-book-tour-update-dcmarylandvirginia-south-carolina-florida-georgia/

Morgan Griffith Shares Privacy Concerns

From Congressman Griffith's E-Newsletter:

"Information on the practices of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) continues coming to light, including conferences on which the IRS spent around $50 million over three years, at a time when we were being told there was little fat in the budget.  This follows the IRS admitting to having inappropriately and improperly handled applications from conservative groups.

Even more recent are reports of National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs that have been collecting data on the internet sites you visited and telephone usage records of most Americans.  Furthermore, it has been reported by the Wall Street Journal that credit card companies have provided customer information to the NSA.

These revelations have upset many on both sides of the aisle who are skeptical of government power and supportive of individual rights and privacies.  I opposed the long-term extension of the Patriot Act in part because I was uncomfortable with the idea of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court) giving secret organizations permission to look at the secrets of American citizens who hadn’t done anything illegal.

These are outrageous and disturbing examples of ineptitude and overreach that I will continue monitoring moving forward.

Event Data Recorders

A constituent recently reached out to express his concerns about ‘black boxes’ – event data recorders (EDR) that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates are currently installed in 96 percent of new cars and that, according to USA Today, track “your seat belt use, speed, steering, braking and at least a dozen other bits of data."

While the EDRs may be valuable in collecting crash data, questions remain – questions like who the EDR’s information belongs to, for example.  Does it belong to you, the car’s owner?  Does it belong to your insurance company, which may use the information to increase your rates?  Or does the information belong to lawyers or law enforcement, who may be able to access the information without a warrant?  Should you have the option to turn off the EDR?

While in the Virginia House, we debated similar issues.  I copatroned H.B. 2135, legislation to ensure that motor vehicle insurers could not include provisions in policies that would authorize the insurer to obtain data stored in the EDR, and supported H.B. 2134, that would clarify that information recorded to an EDR belongs to the owner and can only be retrieved with the owner’s consent or after having obtained a traditional search warrant issued by an appropriate court (not the secret FISA court).  Regrettably, these bills did not become law.

You may remember when the in-vehicle communications system OnStar came under fire for saying it planned to continue monitoring the vehicle activity of owners who no longer subscribed to OnStar.  OnStar even suggested that it may sell that data before media reports caused it to change course.

Important to note is that services like OnStar are optional.  The NHSTA has proposed making EDRs mandatory, recommending that all new consumer vehicles come equipped with EDRs beginning next year.  The NHSTA said, “in keeping with NHTSA's current policies on EDR data, the EDR data would be treated by NHTSA as the property of the vehicle owner and would not be used or accessed by the agency without owner consent."

However, after the events of the last few weeks, this may not sufficiently reassure many Americans concerned about their privacy.

It is past time for a federal solution.  For that reason, I am cosponsoring the Black Box Privacy Act, which will clarify that a vehicle’s owner also owns the EDR’s data and that the information may not be accessed without the owner’s permission or without having obtained a valid, properly-issued search warrant.  It also would require manufacturers to provide consumers with the capabilities to control the EDR’s recording function, in other words, you could turn it off.

I will continue working to ensure that the American people have more control over their information – be it phone records or the information collected by your car’s EDR. As always, if you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671.  To reach my office by email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov. "

Know Your Pests: Forest Tent Caterpillar

The Forest Tent Caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria (sometimes "disstrium"), is not common in Virginia or Maryland. For us it's more of a curiosity than a pest. "Look, Mommy, is that a tent caterpillar?" The answer is yes and no; it's in the same genus, different species. Both moths and caterpillars look alike in some ways and can be confused by people who are not familiar with them, but are easy to tell apart.

The most obvious difference between Forest Tent Caterpillars and Eastern (or Western) Tent Caterpillars is that the Forest Tent Caterpillars do not actually build tents. They do sometimes spin mats or sheets on which they can rest. They are gregarious, and sometimes cuddle together, but seem more independent of their family groups than Eastern Tent Caterpillars.

Another difference is the coloring of the caterpillars' final coats. For all Malacosoma species, there is some variation among individuals. Eastern Tent Caterpillars have a solid, narrow white stripe down the center back. Forest Tent Caterpillars have a row of white dots. The amount of grayish-blue in the caterpillars' coats varies, but nobody describes Eastern Tent Caterpillars as "blue." Some people, notably Margaret Atwood, do describe Forest Tent Caterpillars as "blue," because blue is the predominant color of some specimens.

This set of pictures shows both the darkest type of Forest Tent Caterpillar, with quite a strong resemblance to an Eastern Tent Caterpillar, and the palest "blue" type:

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/trees/forest_tent_caterpillar.htm

Spots at the ends of the body can suggest eyes, although a caterpillar's working eyes are closer to its mouth and not usually seen by humans...

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=7698

As this Wikipedia page shows, in addition to predominantly black and predominantly blue, some Forest Tent Caterpillars are predominantly brown...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Tent_Caterpillar_Moth

(I question reports that the caterpillars can be four or five inches long. Although I've seen few of them firsthand, the normal size they reach before pupating is about two inches. Like Eastern Tent Caterpillars, some may be all of 6 cm and some only 4 cm...but four inches, 10 cm, sounds as if somebody measured a caterpillar while it was molting.)

Like Eastern Tent Caterpillars, Forest Tent Caterpillars are a native species that successfully resist most predators and are held in balance by a tendency to overpopulate an area until they become vulnerable to plagues. This boom-and-bust life cycle can be a nuisance to humans. Although the animals aren't common in most parts of North America, in a few places they have overpopulated to the point where they killed their host trees by repeated defoliation. The caterpillars can also become a nuisance when there are too many of them; in some places it's been claimed that their crushed bodies gummed up train wheels on railroads.

The easiest way to control this species is the same technique that works with Eastern Tent Caterpillars. Host trees are deciduous; egg masses are easy to find on the ends of twigs. Forest Tent Caterpillars prefer forest trees like oak, maple, and aspen to fruit trees like apple and cherry. Egg masses of both species look very much alike. Prune the infested twigs in winter, before the eggs hatch, and there will be no need to kill the caterpillars.

Like Eastern Tent Caterpillars, Forest Tent Caterpillars don't sting or bite, but a few people are allergic to their soft fur. As with the hair of most animal species, including humans, the chances of allergy reactions are greater when the hair stays in contact with more sensitive skin for longer periods of time in warmer weather. (Human hair can also cause contact dermatitis in humans; wearing a "hair shirt" or vest was a medieval torture technique favored by penitent monks.)

Forest Tent Caterpillars are usually seen in spring. When I've seen them it's always been two or three weeks after the Eastern Tent Caterpillars have gone into pupation. (Usually in late May. The timing of this series is getting away from me. I apologize.)

In the Midwest, Forest Tent Caterpillars have become such a serious pest that they've even been nicknamed "armyworms." In the East "armyworms" means a different nuisance species. Nevertheless:

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fidls/ftc/tentcat.htm/ 

(Note: Although this seems to be a legitimate U.S. government web site, something about it seems to clash with some, not all, of the computers I've been using...so beware. If your browser claims it's a security risk, you're not missing a great deal. Most of the basic facts about this species are at the other web sites linked above.)

In some times and places it may be worth trying the various harmless icky things these web sites mention people having done to control this species: whack them with sticks, drown them in soapy water (the fur is water-resistant, and in warm weather tent caterpillars enjoy paddling in cool water), squirt them with Deet or alcohol. However, even when they're threatening to defoliate trees that are barely recovering from late frost or previous defoliation by other insects, this web site does not recommend poisoning the land just to kill tent caterpillars.

Ten Strangest Sea Creatures

Thanks to Elizabeth Barrette for sharing Jonathan Wojcik's Top Ten List of weird sea animals, with color photos:

http://listverse.com/2013/06/05/10-incredibly-strange-cephalopods/

Les Adams Up for Election Tuesday, June 11

Unfortunately the computer shows only the countries, not the cities or states, in which people are reading this. So we don't know how many of you actually vote in Virginia's sixteenth House district. We don't. (I'm in Gate City...I'm afraid to say anything about a candidate for the Rival School's town!) If you have a vote in Tuesday's election, however, you may be interested in supporting Les Adams. The heading below came from Patricia Evans:

"Please remind all of your family, friends and neighbors to vote for Les Adams for Delegate on June 11^th!

From Les Adams:

As we enter the home stretch, we still need your help! Turnout for this election will be low and every vote will count.

If you can help between now and June 11^th, please contact the campaign at 434-432-1600 and we will get you involved in the Adams Army.

Specific things you can do to help include:

• Making phone calls and door-to-door visits to 25-30 of your friends/neighbors
• Contacting your family and close friends this weekend to ask them to vote for me on June 11^th
• Working a shift at the polls on the day of the primary

Going into the home stretch, I am honored to have received the endorsement from Delegate Ben Cline and the Virginia Conservative Victory Project. I’ve run a campaign based on Principled Conservative Leadership, and the endorsement of the House Chairman of the Virginia Conservative Caucus is another validation that I am the true conservative candidate in this race.

Adding to the momentum, Martinsville Republican Committee Chairman Jeff Williams and Darriel Burnett, a grassroots conservative activist, have endorsed my candidacy for the 16^th House District. Also, we have more people joining the Adams Army daily.  Below are two new additions:

“As a retired investigator from the Pittsylvania County Sheriff's Office I would like to publicly endorse Les. He is what we need to not only to be our voice but he is a hard worker who I have worked with in our court system and know him to work tirelessly for what is right for all. I will be voting for Les on June the 11th and again in the fall race.” - Larry Dockery, Pittsylvania County

Virginia Right: “I was very impressed with the resume of Les Adams, especially that he taught part-time at the Helms School of Government at Liberty University and was unafraid to give a church affiliation.  We need more followers of Christ in politics.  I am thrilled and honored to endorse Les Adams for House of Delegates in the 16th District.  Please remember:  Every vote counts!  Make sure you are voting next Tuesday as turnout will be light.” - Sandy Saunders

YOU are the most powerful advocates in your community, so your support is very important to me.  Please remind all of your family, friends and neighbors to vote on June 11^th!
--
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."  - Thomas Jefferson  Virginia Tea Party Patriots       www.virginiateapartypatriots.com   Danville Patriots http://danvillepatriots.com/   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyqTlje8RxQ "

IRS Investigation: The Dogpile Grows

Now it's the Washington Post's Joe Davidson...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/irs-waste-undermines-federal-employees/2013/06/06/8ef09ea6-ced3-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html?wpisrc=nl_fed

This web site has received e-mail suggesting that the IRS should be completely abolished. Would the IRS be missed? Hmm. Nothing else is quite as certain as death and taxes, so if we didn't have the IRS, what would we have?

Can Business Owners Refuse Service Because They Don't Like You?

It should be an open-and-shut case: If you're a business owner, and you're foolhardy enough to turn away customers, that's your prerogative.

Billy Hallowell could be giving positive publicity to the business owner cashing in on Jack Phillips' excessive interest in his customers' private affairs, but instead he's chosen to write the story as follows:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/07/will-christian-baker-who-refused-to-make-wedding-cake-for-a-gay-couple-go-to-jail/

Should any court in the United States even hear this complaint? If Phillips wants to tell some other customer, "I'm not baking a cake for your daughter's wedding because she can do better than to marry that young man," or maybe, "I'm not baking a cake for you, period, because you borrowed something from me and didn't bring it back," that's his privilege. And someone else's gain.

Yet Another Reason Not to Buy an I-Phone

Or, if you do buy an I-Phone, at least keep it out of reach of children...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/07/israeli-8-year-old-reportedly-racks-up-4600-in-game-charges-on-parents-iphone/

Makers and Takers, Part III (Updated): Hard Work Is Selfish?

(Update: I worked on this one for a week before deciding, "Just post it already," and still didn't like the last paragraph. So now there's a new last paragraph.)

That the Boy Scouts voted to admit boys who proclaim themselves homosexual to their ranks doesn't sound to me like the end of the world--merely the end of the Boy Scouts--but I've shared Lloyd Marcus' more worrisome concern that "independence, self-reliance, education, and hard work" are now sometimes seen as more selfish than welfare-cheating.

http://www.lloydmarcus.com/?p=3542

Nobody wants to be mean about the hardships and misfortunes that might constrain decent people to plead for some sort of tax-funded "relief." Even as we're thinking "Tracy wouldn't be suffering so much from the heat if Tracy had drunk less alcohol and/or done less 'experimenting' with street drugs," we're also aware that Tracy is suffering; we don't want to invoke karma, or constrain our consciences to bring us into contact with the undercooked meat or contaminated vaccine that might do to our livers what booze and pills did to Tracy's.

Welfare addicts and welfare pushers, however, who seem to have underdeveloped consciences in the first place and who are wide open to suggestions coming from those who want to destroy the United States, show no such reluctance to be mean about those of us who want to earn our livings honestly even if we're not super-rich right away. When they see someone trying to maintain a business, market an invention, promote their art/writing/music/etc., this emboldened Welfare Class no longer hesitate to step right up and tell us that we're fools, crazy, stupid, conceited, show-offs, etc. etc. etc.

Maybe, if we think an individual is salvageable, it's still worth handing the person a copy of Broke and explaining that, although Team Beck's interpretation of these statistics was debatable when the book was new, by now it's widely acknowledged that if anything Glenn Beck was too cautious. The United States cannot afford to continue offering welfare benefits in the style to which we've become accustomed. If we want to continue offering some benefits to the most needy and deserving, we're going to have to tighten the rules and push a lot of people back into self-supporting work, rather than sabotaging small businesses and encouraging more welfare dependence.

Not all welfare pushers are aware that they're participating in an effort to destroy the United States. In fact, when some of the more salvageable people who've been encouraging welfare dependence read the statistics, they stop pushing the welfare-cheating lifestyle...or at least they stop pushing it on those of their neighbors who are trying to be makers rather than takers.

Many people have problems with paradoxes, and this is one of them. When people insist on working and receiving payment for something they do, they're not being "selfless." They are being "selves"; they are, as Abraham Maslow put it, "actualizing" their best and healthiest selves. If you, thinking from your id, your yetzer, the part of you that's concerned with the most immediate and obvious benefit to yourself, are thinking about the difference between a have-less neighbor who stays at home sucking money out of the federal government (at least more of that money came from other people than came from you) and a have-less neighbor who wants you to buy a product or service, the one who's in business for himself/herself may seem to you to be aggressively placing her/his profits ahead of yours. Nevertheless, it's the have-less neighbor who accepts a parasitic lifestyle who is sustaining his/her self by doing harm to you...

For Christians, one step toward resolution may be to consider the history of the word and concept "selfishness." Although Christianity has a concept of self-sacrifice, early Christian literature presupposes that nobody had much of a problem with self-esteem or self-love. Pathological altruism was not a widespread form of mental illness at the time of Christ--nor is it now. Generosity meant then, and means now, considering others as equally valuable with self. Self was always recognized as being valuable.

Self-sacrifice was worthwhile only in relation to absolute good and evil. "That a man lay down his life for his friend" was not unheard-of; in fact some first-century Mediterranean cultures still had the custom of "surety," where someone could volunteer to be imprisoned and if necessary punished in someone else's place, and the Old Testament warned an idealistic young man to be very cautious about offering himself as "surety" for a friend. Jesus, whose death would otherwise have been a senseless piece of brutality on the part of a despotic government, was the Messiah whose perfect life and perfectly unmerited death made him a "surety" for all of Israel, or all of humankind, in a cosmic sense. For an ordinary mortal to be tortured and killed as, say, a thief, like the two men who were crucified beside Jesus, might be unfortunate or unfair but was not perceived as a sacrifice. For an ordinary person to try to be "sacrificed" was recognized as insanity.

The Bible provides absolutely no support for the idea of dependence on other people's generosity. In fact, the New Testament is quite harsh in condemning the first-century equivalent of welfare cheats. "Spots are they and blemishes." (2 Peter 2:13) "If any man provide not for his own, and those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (1 Timothy 5:8) "If any will not work, neither let [them] eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10) The early church was especially generous toward widows because contemporary laws were especially unfair to widows, often preventing them from inheriting property or control of businesses, but in time St. Paul had to prescribe limits even for generosity toward widows. The church could not afford to "take them into the number" if they were younger than seventy years old. (1 Timothy 5:9) Younger widows, if unable to manage businesses or property, would need to remarry or look for domestic work, because the church couldn't afford to feed them forever. There is no hint that it was at all "selfish" for these widows to be concerned about supporting themselves, whether they had children or not.

In fact the Bible never suggests that it's "selfish" for anyone to be concerned about providing for self. The Bible writers presupposed that everyone would provide for self whenever possible, and only needed to be reminded that other selves deserved consideration too. Greedy exploitation of others was condemned, but demanding one's rightful wages and even one's right to inherit property was encouraged in the Bible.

"Unselfishness" became an ideal around the time Auguste Comte seriously proposed a Humanist religion as an alternative to Christianity. "Unselfishness" or "devotion to humanity" was supposed to replace devotion to God. (Hat tip: although Comte became my research project, I learned about him from Erica Carle.) While the Humanist religion was widely regarded, even by Comte's personal friends, as a symptom of his mental decline, "unselfishness" seems to have been attractive to followers of traditional religions in the nineteenth century...because in some ways it was easy. The old Christian ideal of generosity had called for practical action. "Unselfishness" could be watered down into an emotional mood, or at least into a bland, polite manner. Welfare cheats could pat themselves on the back for being "unselfish" if they let someone else take the white meat of the chicken at dinner.

When I started writing for Associated Content (when Priscilla King came into existence!) my motto was "Seeking the Highest Good for All." What this means is rejecting this false dichotomy of "selfish or unselfish." The Highest Good for me is not to harm other people. The Highest Good for someone else is not to harm me. Real conflict between the Highest Good for one living creature and another is rare, and usually involves members of under-predated parasitic species, such as dog ticks.

Sometimes the Highest Good for all parties involves not worrying so much about what someone else has. In the Bible Jesus told the story of an employer who offered the same wages to the emergency relief crew who started working in the last hour that he had paid to the regular staff who'd been working all day. Was that fair? Well, it certainly wasn't "equal," but as the employer said, hadn't he paid the full-time workers what they'd agreed to be paid? So, yes, that was fair. Maybe this employer needed to rethink his system of payments before the next payday, but for that particular day, giving people the unequal wages for which they'd agreed to work was fair.

"Equality" does not mean fairness; it can be used to mean outrageous unfairness. Equality of rewards for the same investment might be considered fair. Equality of outcomes, independent of investment, is not fair at all.

For example, the United States developed the most democratic and libertarian economic system on Earth. The United States then proceeded to become the most successful nation on Earth. People who are identified as poor in the United States today enjoy privileges and luxuries that were available only to the richest of the rich in other times and places. People in less democratic countries enjoy fewer of these privileges and luxuries, and may have listened to Marxist-influenced people who have told them that it's not fair that they're not equally as wealthy as citizens of the United States. Well, for one thing the extravagance of some people in the United States is dysfunctional and disgusting even to us, and doesn't need to be imitated by people whose cultural traditions of modesty, simplicity, and frugality may be worth preserving...that's a different rant. What should concern Americans today is that we've seen more socialistic nations go bankrupt, and our own economic situation shows trends that could lead us into bankruptcy too--and some people seem to be actively working toward the undesirable "equality" of going bankrupt, or collapsing entirely, just like the socialist nations.

The Bible does not actually tell us that we're all "equal in the sight of God." On the contrary, the Bible constantly hammers on the theme that after being created equal we raise or lower our value, in the sight of God and of humankind, by what we do with whatever God gave us.

Welfare-cheating, in which people who could work more and/or spend less than they do siphon benefits away from people who really need financial help, must be understood as one of those things that lower the value of a human being.

Whether it's the socialist religious training that gives some people in our current administration a blind faith that the U.S. economy can always support an ever-increasing number of welfare cheats, or a more sinister plan to destroy the U.S. economy, people who are concerned about ethics and morality need to confront the current administration's ridiculous claim that welfare-cheating boosts the local economy by putting more money in the hands of people who are more likely to spend it foolishly.

We're being told that trying to make or do something useful and collect reasonable payment for our work, living within our means, avoiding debt, and saving money in case of our own future need, have now become more "selfish" (and conceited and so on) than welfare-cheating. In other words, the behavior that made the United States a great nation is now more "selfish" than, er um, settling for an "equal share" of the poverty of the nations that have not been able to bring themselves to follow the example we set them during our 200-year economic rise.

We need to start admitting the truth. Really needing some sort of financial help is no sin, but sitting around depending on it, or enabling social workers to make a career of "helping" a designated welfare class make parasitism a lifestyle, is a vile sin. Welfare-cheating is selfish; it robs the disabled. Welfare-cheating is begging, only without thanking the people who hand you money. Welfare-cheating is prostitution, only without sex appeal. Welfare-cheating is robbery, only without the effort of breaking into buildings. Welfare-cheating is treason, only without any benefit to any other specific country. Welfare cheats are two-legged dog ticks.

Honest work, by contrast, does incidentally happen to feel good, and may (or may not) pay more than welfare-cheating or other vices and crimes, but regardless of those benefits it is still the right thing to do. Sometimes the right thing to do also happens to feel good, like drinking water on a hot day, or like telling your mother you love her.

Pris's Book: Alley Cat Tales

Per reader request, the first volume of the Patchnose Cat Family History has been written, will not appear on this web site, and is available to those of you who pay for it.

Alley Cat Tales is the true (in essence) history of the most interesting family of cats the Cat Sanctuary has seen or heard of. I didn't plan for a "baker's dozen" of stories to end around the point in time where this blog begins, but the stories seemed to come out that way.

As Yahoo readers may remember, the rule I used for telling these animals' stories was to "translate" their behavior into words. I have no idea what the animals think about human politics or religion, although for me they are both a religious and a political statement. I do know what they think about cat food (cheap is fine but it needs to be fresh) and being indoors (wide range of opinions) and one another (they love their family and are generous and hospitable to friends).

What they seem to think about the things they do seem to think about ought to be lively, edgy, and "adult" enough for anybody. And yes, the things the cats seem to think about include some details about my personal life that seem to be of interest to some online readers and will never appear at this web site.

Both animal and human conversations are fictionalized: the animals' because after all they don't speak English, and the humans' because only snippets of the things we really said are relevant to the story and there's no reason to drag a complete real-world conversation into a story that's not even about the humans who had it. However, the stories are fact-based.

In Alley Cat Tales regular readers will, for the first time, find out what became of Mackerel, meet Princess Grace, and learn the rest of the story about how I was able to part with Mogwai.

I'd like to sell reprint rights to a big-name publisher and turn this short book (I can squeeze it onto 20 single-spaced pages, but I won't ask you to read it that way) into a coffee-table book with big clear type and pretty pictures of mixed-breed cats...preferably featuring residents of the Sullivan County Animal Shelter in Blountville, Tennessee, where the Kingsport Times-News recently reported that, yes, two more super-social cats, not noticeably related to each other, had met and become friends.

Realistically, I suspect that my cats and my human family may be too edgy for a corporate publisher to consider, so I'm offering the text-only, hand-bound paperback version for the standard $5 + $5 shipping.

And if, after reading about the cats either here or in the book, you skeptically say "I don't believe cats are like that"...all I can say to you is: adopt two or more alley cats from Kingsport, Tennessee. Even in the Patchnose Family not every single cat has been "like that," but you never know what kind of cat you might meet in Kingsport. Some of them are amazing.

Cuccinelli Campaign in Danville, Virginia

From Patricia Evans:

"Character, Integrity, Someone Virginia can trust! Virginia needs Ken Cuccinelli for Governor as our nation stands at a "Threshold"   http://youtu.be/sSCpGgDCWaQ

It's time to get to work:

The Danville Republican HQ for Ken Cuccinelli for Governor 2013   http://www.cuccinelli.com/  is officially open.  It is located at 625 Piney Forest Rd. The Forum Suite 207.  Volunteers are needed!  We will start phone calls this weekend. If you can help, please contact Josh Puccio at  jpuccio@rpv.org  or call  434- 466-5329
Neighborhood Knock for Cuccinelli ( see flyer attached )

Please join us on Saturday June 15th for a Neighborhood Knock 
Walks will start from the Danville Republican HQ at    9am   12 pm   3pm   6pm
To volunteer for the Neighborhood Walk for Cuccinelli ( phones or doors ) please contact  Josh Puccio at  jpuccio@rpv.org  or call  434- 466-5329

--
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."  - Thomas Jefferson  Virginia Tea Party Patriots       www.virginiateapartypatriots.com   Danville Patriots http://danvillepatriots.com/   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyqTlje8RxQ"

What's Verizon Reporting About You?

From Karen Bracken, edited for formatting by PK:

"

Patriots,

 

There is always one way to make companies do the right thing and that is citizens taking a stand against their products.  Hit them in the pocketboook.  Their profits are all they care about and it is all their shareholders care about.  So want to make companies like Monsanto, WalMart, MasterCard, Starbucks and Verizon do what is right? Hit them where it hurts.

 

I have been a loyal Verizon customer for years.  I retired from Verizon with 28 years of service (land lines) and another 2 years with Verizon Wireless.  I can tell you THIS…..the Wireless portion of Verizon is their cash cow.  It is the only truly profitable part of the company.  Without VZW the rest of Verizon would not survive.  So even though I have been a loyal customer and a retiree of the company I will be canceling my service with them ASAP!!!  And I will let them know why.  I canceled Master Card, I refuse to purchase anything that I know is produced by Monsanto, I canceled my car insurance with Progressive, canceled AARP (now belong to AMAC) and now I will make the biggest sacrifice of all.  I will find another cell phone carrier.  There are many carriers and it will take a little adjustment but believe me Verizon will get the message and they will get their lawyers to fight the federal government rather than sell out their customers that keep them in business.  We keep them in business and we can put them out of business too.

 

If you take the challenge be sure to let them know WHY YOU ARE CANCELING your service.  If they fought back and lost that would be one thing but they did not fight back.  They took the easy road for them and told their customers they do not matter.  It is also possible VZ is not the only one.

 

Karen

 

This is just the beginning....

NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily

Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama

• Read the Verizon court order in full here

• 

Under the terms of the order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data and the time and duration of all calls. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP.

 

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

 

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

"

 

[KB helpfully copied the whole Guardian article into her e-mail. I checked; clicking on the headline should open the full report.]

 

Hmm. I don't think I use Verizon. For those who do, and want to switch, there's an alternative:

 

"

PLEASE SHARE WITH EVERYONE you know.  Post on FaceBook and Twitter.  This software was developed by a concerned conservative from Tennessee.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZDfYVYoryXo#at=13

 

I downloaded this app to my ANDROID and it is AWESOME!!!  You can view it on computer and IPHONE too.  It is a free application!!

 

Karen Bracken - I WILL NOT COMPLY - WILL YOU?

www.americadontforget.com 
"

About Islam: The Trailer

While the computer center was closed, I composed an article for "Speak Your Mind About Islam Day," as which this day has been officially designated. Unfortunately, it's long enough that the most efficient way to post that article, now that it's written, is via floppy disk, and this computer center doesn't have floppy drives. So instead of trying to rewrite my thoughts about Islam from memory in my limited online time, I've decided to post them the next time I'm at a computer center that still has floppy drives, which should be within the next week or two.

The general trend of my opinions won't be a surprise to regular readers, but there will be a story I've not published before, and there will also be comments on an obscure book by Hannah Hurnard and the latest one I've seen by Salman Rushdie.

Judge Orders Google to Participate in Spying

Mark Horne's headline offers little room for improvement, except that the order included Yahoo and MSN as well as Google...

http://lastresistance.com/2221/judge-orders-google-to-be-evil/

Sniff. Memorable names for things like this, or like Prozac Dementia or like Amber Alerts, are sooo unfaaair...Anyway, fair disclosure to all Gentle Readers. (Feels like I post this reminder every week. Do I really?) You are at a Google-based web site. You are using the Internet. Your every keystroke and mouse move may be being recorded in some weirdo's basement in your least favorite foreign country. Feel free to do all kinds of things that wouldn't rate publication in the newspaper because newspaper editors would consider them boring, but don't do anything that you would really want to keep out of the newspaper.

American Planning Association and Agenda 21

Tom DeWeese's article was headlined as containing "the smoking gun" proving that the Planning Association is working in support of U.N. Agenda 21:

http://americanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/1994APAdoclinksUNPCSDUrbanEcologyandAgenda21.pdf

(Karen Bracken, whose cyberspace home is www.americadontforget.com, kindly e-mailed a plain text copy to me. So I've read it. I am, as usual, in a hurry to check e-mail in between doing two real-world jobs, so I've not thought of anything to add to it. If you have trouble using the PDF link above, feel free to e-mail http://americanpolicy.org or americadontforget.com or salolianigodagewi@yahoo.com.)

Boneta Farm Fights On

Forwarded almost simultaneously by Karen Bracken and Patricia Evans, here's the e-mail from farmer-turned-activist Martha Boneta, containing links and a sample e-mail Virginians should be able to use to support the ideas behind the stalled Boneta Bill. Since you will have to edit the e-mail in order for it to be honest or relevant, I'm posting it as it came in, quirky formatting and all, and warning anyone who uses it to do their own editing.

"
From Martha Boneta

Dear Friends of Liberty!

ACTION ALERT: In response to the overwhelming tsunami impact of our efforts and the efforts of thousands of liberty loving Virginians, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services ( VDACS ) has formed a committee to explore what can be done to help Virginia's small family farmers. VDACS has asked for comments from Virginians about what you would like to be done.

Please help Virginia's small family farmers keep government from taking away our economic freedom and property rights! Do you have ideas or suggestions to share with this Work Group?  Please send VDACS an email to:

webmaster@vdacs.virginia.gov

I want to thank you all for your unshakeable dedication to protecting the economic freedom and property rights of Virginia's small family farmers. Many of you drove many hours and miles to Richmond during the general Assembly in support of the Boneta Bill and I am forever grateful for all you have done and continue to do for freedom!

A sample email is below:

Subject: Boneta Bill VDACS Committee

Dear Commissioner Lohr:

I am writing in response to your request for citizen comment.

I am president of the Virginia Patriot Freedom Coalition and am writing on behalf of myself and my organization. We support the Boneta Bill- Freedom to Farm Without Fear.

Below please find several points I ask that you consider in your decision making process: 

- Virginia has the opportunity to be a national leader in the local food movement.

-this is about property rights, economic freedom and farming rights

- Farmers are being forced off the land because of heavy handed over regulation that is over burdensome and costly for small family farmers.

- farmers must have the right to sell what they produce on their own land Like fiber from sheep.

- Virginia must embrace agriculture as a way of life in our communities as our society continues to demand the freedom to choose.

-In Fauquier County, the government is harassing small  family farmers over their farm buildings requiring all kinds of burdensome restrictions that are unreasonable, costly and that ultimately will force farmers off the land.

- Fauquier county is imposing unbearable setback requirements. requirements are stifle economic freedom and take away the property rights of small family farmers. These setback requirements were imposed after small farmers had already been engaging in commerce often for years.

- small farmers must be able to sell not only what they produce but also value added ancillary items in order to be viable off season and continue to farm like being able to sell a glass of lemonade at a peach orchard on a 100 degree hot summer day without being in fear of being fined and arrested!

VICFA to Participate in On-The-Farm Workshop Looking Ahead to 2014... VICFA has been invited to participate in an On Farm Activity Work Group. As a result of several bills considered by the 2013 session of the Virginia legislature, a working group has been formed to discuss the on-farm activities that should be protected as well as how local governments can assist farmers. The purpose of this group is to facilitate discussions and ideas and to formulate recommendations for the 2014 legislative session. This group has no authority to change current policy or regulations. A report will be made to the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources. VICFA's participation will help to focus on what other counties have or have not done to promote on-farm activities and how we can better ensure that our legislature protects and assists working farms throughout the nation. We encourage you to help us!  Do you have ideas or suggestions to share with this Work Group?  Please click here to visit the VDACS website and share your comments and suggestions. For more information on VICFA as well as information on our upcoming Annual Meeting, please be sure to visit www.vicfa.org.   VICFA P.O. Box 6838 Charlottesville, Virginia 22906-6838

--
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."  - Thomas Jefferson   Virginia Tea Party Patriots  www.virginiateapartypatriots.com Danville Patriots   http://danvillepatriots.com/

Karen Bracken - I WILL NOT COMPLY - WILL YOU?

www.americadontforget.com

Must Candidates Be Party Members?

Should a candidate whose name will be identified with a political party on the ballot have to be an active member of the party?

Over in Washington County, Virginia, this question has been raised about the nomination of "Republican" Tim Mowery. Catherine Turner, who no longer lives here, forwarded this link around:

http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_7d80ac74-ccc1-11e2-86bf-0019bb30f31a.html

...With the following explanation:

"Our good friend Vernon Smith is running for the Wilson District seat against newcomer, Tim Mowery, widely acknowledged as coming on the scene with departing long-time incumbent Dulcie Mumpower's blessing.

Now don't feel bad if you've never heard of Mowery. He admitted to the Repubican Executive Committee last Friday night that he'd never actually attended a local GOP meeting!
"

Having no vote for either of these gentlemen, this web site can only add: "Ha! Ha! Hoot! Attention Tea-Party-phobic Republicans of Washington County: people in Scott County are laughing at you!"

Ten-Year-Olds as Honorary Adults

According to Erica Ritz, a ten-year-old (name withheld) is tough enough to take a gun from two adult burglars and use it to scare the burglars away, without even shooting them...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/04/brooklyn-robbers-flee-after-10-year-olds-warning-shot-with-their-gun/

Even if we allow that most burglars are not exactly the mental or moral equivalents of adults, this is still a great story.

Meanwhile, some readers have probably already received multiple petitions on behalf of ten-year-old Sarah Murnaghan, whose family think it might extend her life (current life expectancy: three to five weeks) for her to receive an adult lung transplant:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/04/the-surprising-quote-sec-sebelius-delivered-regarding-a-dying-10-year-old-who-cant-get-a-lung-transplant/

Kathleen Sebelius' remark is startling to me; the question I'd be asking, if I were U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, is how much longer Sarah Murnaghan could reasonably be expected to live even with the transplant. I've hesitated to sign the family's petition until I see medical testimony that this child could (1) survive the transplant and (2) accept a donor lung and (3) have any hope of doing anything more, with however much time the operation might buy her, than wish she'd been allowed to die in peace.

How close to adulthood is a ten-year-old child? Morally...or medically?