Potpourri: Aug. 20, 2012
GOV. Tomblin wants all state agencies to cut spending by 7.5 percent a year. If this reduction were applied to the $20 million, six-year contract of WVU's football coach, Charleston lawyer Charles McElwee points out that it would save $1.5 million in the coming six years.
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The British Empire once was the world's strongest, surrounding the planet. But it faded as colonialism ended and naval power receded. In recent decades, many young Britons focused on rock concerts and other entertainments, causing the late British writer-comedian Peter Cook to predict the once-mighty empire will "sink giggling into the sea." The finale of the London Olympics featured rock dancing and nonsense routines, perhaps fitting that prediction - but it was delightful anyway.
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Relatives said Thomas Caffall was "crazy as hell" and they feared him. Yet he bought an arsenal of assault guns and used them to kill a constable and neighbor Tuesday near Texas A&M University, before police killed him. We wonder if the gun lobby thinks "crazy as hell" people have a right to bear arms?
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A West Virginia "news story" circulating on the Internet says two Mingo County men were returning from a night of frog-catching when their headlight fuse burned out. They inserted a .22-caliber cartridge into the fuse slot, which seemed to work - until the bullet overheated, fired and wounded the driver in the genitals. Snopes.com says it's a bogus tale.
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Bearing arms in West Virginia: John Allan Rogers Jr., age 37, was found shot to death on West Side railway tracks.
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Morgantown native Michael Tomasky, now an international political writer, wrote a cover story for the Aug. 6 Newsweek saying Mitt Romney would be "a mouse in the White House." The analysis says Romney is too wimpish and indecisive, often reversing positions to suit political audiences, to face grim decisions required of a U.S. president.
GOV. Tomblin wants all state agencies to cut spending by 7.5 percent a year. If this reduction were applied to the $20 million, six-year contract of WVU's football coach, Charleston lawyer Charles McElwee points out that it would save $1.5 million in the coming six years.
***
The British Empire once was the world's strongest, surrounding the planet. But it faded as colonialism ended and naval power receded. In recent decades, many young Britons focused on rock concerts and other entertainments, causing the late British writer-comedian Peter Cook to predict the once-mighty empire will "sink giggling into the sea." The finale of the London Olympics featured rock dancing and nonsense routines, perhaps fitting that prediction - but it was delightful anyway.
***
Relatives said Thomas Caffall was "crazy as hell" and they feared him. Yet he bought an arsenal of assault guns and used them to kill a constable and neighbor Tuesday near Texas A&M University, before police killed him. We wonder if the gun lobby thinks "crazy as hell" people have a right to bear arms?
***
A West Virginia "news story" circulating on the Internet says two Mingo County men were returning from a night of frog-catching when their headlight fuse burned out. They inserted a .22-caliber cartridge into the fuse slot, which seemed to work - until the bullet overheated, fired and wounded the driver in the genitals. Snopes.com says it's a bogus tale.
***
Bearing arms in West Virginia: John Allan Rogers Jr., age 37, was found shot to death on West Side railway tracks.
***
Morgantown native Michael Tomasky, now an international political writer, wrote a cover story for the Aug. 6 Newsweek saying Mitt Romney would be "a mouse in the White House." The analysis says Romney is too wimpish and indecisive, often reversing positions to suit political audiences, to face grim decisions required of a U.S. president.
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