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In Our Schools: Could Montgomery County School Superintendent Tiffany Anderson be leaving her job for another? I certainly can't blame her, but the Board of Supervisors needs to step up and try to keep her. Overall, her perfomance has been good even though some people would take exception with that. And to those people and to those people griping about the 8.6% raise for teachers.......I say "shut up" and home school your brat.
How Can That Happen Files: How can a convicted murderer show up on the Appalachian trail over 20 years later to shoot two more people? The Economy: The "Economic Stimulus Package" is not going to have much "stimulus" to it after May and maybe June. I recently saw a survey that showed over 70% of people said they would use the money to "pay bills". And what do most say they will pay? The polls suggest they will be paying past due home mortgages and credit card debt. About all the package is going to do is to make the balance sheets at the mortgage lenders and the credit card companies look healthy for one month, maybe two. For certain, it is not going to prop up the economy thru November as the Republicans hope. Great Ideas: I picked this one up from WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, Kentucky. A website dedicated to selling the jewelry that your ex boyfriend or husband gave you at www.exboyfriendjewelry.com. I really marvel at the online ideas people come up with - but continue to detest people who copy someone else's ideas - especially mine - and promote them as their own. "Move on" and "wait 'em out" I am told by friends and partners. But is hard when you know they stole - they are nothing more than common thieves. I digress though. A Local Newspaper: The email box has been full of people saying that a new "local" newspaper is needed. I just barely mentioned it and "bam" here come the emails. If you wish to opine, as Bill O'Reilly would say, simply send an email to
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. We really hated to see Tim Jackson and the New River Voice go the way of so many papers in the NRV - he's one of the good guys in a business where there are very few. Local Politics: Ever thrown a party and nobody came? We all have. That's how you can describe local politics, the recent elections and local government these days. It's a simple fact: when less that 15% of the total registered voters show up to vote, then it is fairly easy to assume that over 90% of the total population in that same area doesn't give two hoots about local politics. As much as people want to make out there is this big group of concerned citizens - it's a bunch of BS. Case in point: At the start of the Christiansburg Town Council meeting, the room was full. But most of the people were there for one item - once that was done, you could have tossed in a hand grenade and not hurt anyone. So, when someone told me yesterday that the room was packed - I could do nothing but laugh. I'm looking for something better to do with my time. I'm no longer waking up everyday with a new idea of how to blast some local politician who is making hardly anything that compensates them for the phone calls, name-calling and everything else that goes with the job. Local, Town politics are simply too small and too much ignored for all of the name-calling, lawsuits and crap. The elections are over, stop all of the crap and let's get moving to something positive, like the many great events coming this summer. What will bring people back to the polls? Most of us thought several years ago that the hyper-local sites would do the job. They haven't and they usually fold. Not their fault - many do great jobs. But, the enthusiasm dies when very few people respond even thought the owner is spending many hours on content. What might have a little better response is if the hyper-local sites broke themselves down to neighborhoods. A neighborhood blog site could focus solely on single neighborhoods. In managing newspeople over the years, I used to tell them we were looking for "affect" news. News that "affected" the people who used our radio stations. That usually came down to three things: health, home and pocketbook (now you see why the turnout in the national primaries is so high - the issues are hitting home hard and gosh, now people are gonna have to say I was talking about "affect news" over 20 years ago). But, on local websites, many issues sometimes only deal with a small geographic area of a community, and if you don't live in that area, you're clicking elsewhere. All neighborhoods should form local websites where everyone living in the neighborhood can post comments, ideas and concerns. A site specifically dedicated to their neighborhood will keep them online longer and maybe start to care more. However, the fact is, nobody gives a damn about local politics.......or at least 90% of the population doesn't and now I don't............national / state politics is a different story. Changes have to be made. Oh and by the way, all that money we poured into a local news staff at the radio stations and all the stories they broke? Well, maybe 4 people have complained to me since the new owners got rid of the local news department on the payroll. More proof. Sports. SportsTalk Radio has been all over the "Eight Belles" incident at the Kentucky Derby, mostly in defense of the jockey and the sport. Tuesday, I listened to one such show that basically said, "these things happen in the business of horse racing. You have to accept it as part of the sport". I wanted to rip the radio out of the dash - but just switched it to Public Radio instead. We DO NOT have to accept this as part of the sport. Steroids and other performance enhancing drugs need to be tested for - many of you might not know that there is no testing policy in horse racing. Have any of these "sports experts" seen a horse that was on Steroids, got hurt and they still ran it? I have and it is a horrible and sad sight as they try and live out their years. Why are steroids in ball players such a big thing in Congress and they ignore the sport of horse racing? It is a travesty, and frankly, some of these sports guys need to run a mile with some midget on their back slapping the crap out of them to run faster - after they shot up a six pack of Rock Star drink in their veins. Blogs: Dumb blogs ask "why", point fingers and accuse. Smart blogs ask "why not", work on building consenus and finding ways to coexist with others. Count me in as "dumb", but I am getting nicer in my old age. National and World: Hillary is done. Fighting is breaking out in Beirut again. Cyclones, tornados, earthquakes, war and people being thrown out in the streets. Some people say we should "bring waving back" when meeting each other on the roadways. I say bring the finger back - it is far more appropriate with what people are having to live with today and for people who cut you off in the merge lane.
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Innocent XI was elected to the papacy because of his purity of character and unselfish and openhanded benevolence. His election was opposed by Louis XIV, with whom he had a long, bitter quarrel over Gallicanism, a Roman Catholic tradition of resistance to papal authority. As Pope, he passed strict ordinances against nepotism among the cardinals and lived very parsimoniously, exhorting the cardinals to do the same. What were the Gallican Liberties?
