• You dropped the "Non Sequitur" strip? You kept "Get Fuzzy?" You kept "Over the Hedge?" Does anybody at the Gazette ever read the comics?

• How come the Republicans who blame Obama for his "many failures and ridiculous obscene agenda" never identify what those failures are? Could it be that they are really unable to identify anything that he has done as ridiculous or obscene?

• Why do you suppose Pete Thaw doesn't want the smallest percentage of the Kanawha County BOE budget to go to the Kanawha County Public Library. Could it be because his family can afford to buy books and he begrudges the underprivileged who rely on the public library for all, or nearly all, of their reading material? The library relied on 1.25 percent of the BOE budget for 40 percent of its operational costs. He thinks he's clever saying, "The most addictive thing in a bureaucracy is OPM -- other people's money." Whose money does he think funds the BOE?

• Them people who the reader says have "got more sense than they've got there in D.C.," them people's the ones who voted for them there folks in D.C. who fight and bicker and get paid for taking breaks. That's how this here democracy works. Ya gotta find candidates to run for office who want to work and represent the people and who can win, and ya gotta stand up for your rights and vote.

• Sequester (n.) -- indiscriminate, across-the-board spending cuts which require no thought. When the bill which included the sequester passed, John Boehner said, "I got 98 percent of what I wanted." Anyone who believes it is "Obama's sequester" must not understand how a bill becomes a law. If the Congress passes a bill to stop the sequester, I haven't heard Obama threaten to veto it.

• The statewide smear campaign airing now on local radio by the NRA against Senator Manchin is totally misleading and downright false. Joe never called for any bans and never called for a national background check. He simply stated that we need a sensible discussion on the massive amount of gun-related deaths in our country.

• I just saw another person going down the road with their dog's head hanging out the window in 34-degree weather. Don't let your dog do this. You're going to make it sick.

• So the old state attorney general had an office of consumer protection to protect us from the wrongdoings of business and industry and the new guy has an office of federalism and freedom to protect us from the federal government. Well, folks, you get what you elect. You should have read the paper before you voted for that guy.

• Just remember, you can't spell the word Mountaineer without NIT.

• Please explain to me how attacking the teachers is supposed to help education.

• Someone said that expanding Medicaid would put more money in health-care providers' pockets. You couldn't be more wrong. Medicaid pays almost nothing. Health-care providers don't like it and don't want Medicaid patients. If Medicaid is expanded, it means you are going to have to pay more for your health care because Medicaid pays about 10 cents on the dollar.

• I never thought I'd live to see the day where a West Virginia couldn't find .22-caliber shells in our state.

• Hitler's goal was about where the United States is today. Strongest military in the world, bases at strategic locations around the globe, secret police everywhere. Why are we in trouble?

• The best basketball at the collegiate level in West Virginia is West Liberty. They could either beat the Mountaineers or Marshall any day. I've seen them play a couple times this year. They play team ball. They're aggressive on defense and they can shoot the ball. Three things that neither Marshall or West Virginia can seem to be able to do.

• I was nine years old at the time of the Woolworth Department Store blaze. I remember it vividly. I remember the deaths of the firemen and how remorseful everyone was. I remember how the roof collapsed and the firemen fell several floors into the basement of that inferno. It is beyond me that your newspaper cannot go beyond a paragraph and a picture of a plaque. Where are the names of those that died? They had families, friends, and admirers.

• Seniority is all about the money. They can hire a new teacher much cheaper than they can a more senior teacher.

• To the person who said that the Bible tells "why we're having weather we're having," please provide the relevant chapter(s) and verse(s). Otherwise, quit using the Bible as an excuse for making fanciful political remarks such as "Congress doesn't read any bills they sign."

• So Dave Hickman is worried about WVU's Big 12 basketball schedule, game times, travel, etc. Well, isn't this something that Oliver Luck should have known before moving WVU into that conference? Also, Dave, not to worry since given the pitiful record and caliber of play of Bob Huggins' team this season, its doubtful the Big 12 will be scheduling few, if any, WVU games for those late national prime time broadcasts next year.

• The U.S. has traditionally had the capability to fight three pointless and costly wars simultaneously. Due to proposed budget cuts, we will now have the capability to fight only two.

• When you buy an item out-of-state, you do not pay a West Virginia sales tax. Why should you have to pay the tax if you obtain it over the Internet or order it by mail?

• I would like to give a big thank you to the Kanawha County inmates who picked up all the trash in Cross Lanes and on Rocky Fork Road. They did a wonderful job. Please, folks, do not throw trash out on our highways. It makes us all look bad. We have a beautiful state and should be very proud of it.

• To those fools calling for the impeachment of the president, I ask on what grounds? The Constitution calls for impeachment for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." So, what are the charges? Put up or shut up.