In the wake of Mark Foley’s exposure as the gay pedophile that he is, Democrats have tried to tie any-or-all Republicans to Foley’s disgusting homosexual antics. Jim Webb ambivalently mumbled about this being a problem with politics, but most of the Left clamored for the return of all money, over $700,000 since 1995, distributed to other politicians from Foley’s PAC.

PACs collect money from people and businesses under the pretext of a position of public trust. Foley violated that trust and (has now) resigned the position. Democrats want to essentially reward Foley’s odious behavior by having the money given back to him.

Senator Allen is far more ethical. He demands an independent investigation —not just of Foley’s known offenses— but also of any possible cover-up or abetting. “Let the chips fall where they may” Not the words of a partisan, blind-follower like his opposition tries to claim.

Donating all the monies he received from the PAC, Allen is giving $5,000 in Foley contributions from two election cycles to a nonprofit group called Enough is Enough. The group works to protect children from online sexual predation and other explicit behavior. The donation is just and fitting.

The Democrats want an immoral predator to have the money. Senator Allen gave the money to protect children from those predators. The difference between those choices is stark.

With a hearty nod to Jerry Fuhrman and his continual contempt for the (mis)use of our taxes for ‘scenic trails’ promotion …

This is what we get from the scenic byway program: Drive-by photo-shooters. Faux histories of what they saw. “Copyrights” on other people’s property. There’s no economic benefit, no cultural benefit, and it’s deliberately destructive to our real historical narrative.

Where’s the economic benefit from tourists who pass through, camping on federal lands? Besides the occasional tank of gas, some (national brand) bottled water, and trail snacks? The numbers say tourists have to spend $200,000 before we break even just on the road signs and maps.

That doesn’t start to compensate for additional litter cleanup. I’m not sure what compensates for the —now prevalent— use of bushes as restrooms; the trespassing, fence climbing, gate opening, stock chasing, and other assorted disregard for property.

Copyright belongs to the creator of a work, not to the recorder of it. Pushing the camera button doesn’t give automatic ‘rights’ to an image of whatever the camera is pointed at. It’s like claiming copyright to photos of the Mona Lisa, or asserting rights to clandestine pictures taken in a theatre.

It’s contemptuous for shutterbugs try to profit at owners’ expense, without the owners’ knowledge or consent, and claiming possession to what isn’t —and was never— the photographer’s.

Worse yet is attaching their own narrative as ‘history’; oblivious intruders deliberately fabricating stories from their own illusions, then presenting it as fact.
It’s hard enough to get an accurate history without these morsels of misinformation littering the record. No thanks.

Tourism is genuine commerce, a reasonable goal to pursue. Colonial Williamsburg is tourism, Shenandoah Caverns is tourism, Mount Jackson’s Apple Harvest Festival is tourism, and Bryce Resort is legitimate tourism.

But aimless wandering is not tourism; and the little —if any— benefits are more than offset by the detriment from spontaneous promotion of itinerant driving.

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“Shenandoah County is a beautiful place, a gorgeous place to live. Everyday we are treated to more of the Creator’s splendors than many people see in a lifetime.”

Everyday. . . Every . single . day.

He blames alcoholism. He blames sexual abuse by clergy. He’s announced that he’s gay. He’s entered rehab ….

Forget all those other pretexts. Foleyism has a new excuse:

“It was the water.”

Anybody want to bet on it?

It figures. When it was just dying and defective fish, nobody blinked. When it was just constituents at risk, there was no concern. But when it’s their own health, lawmakers become outraged … about threats to their constituents of course.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said he was particularly concerned for pregnant women: “I don’t want us looking back 10 years from now saying we didn’t move with the appropriate urgency.”

Sure it’s urgent. Now. Three years after the discovery of intersex fish —male fish growing eggs on their reproductive organs— was made by investigators for the Shenandoah River Fish Kill Task Force. As they pursued this phenomenon, scientists also discovered bass from Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and even remote areas in Virginia that suffered from this condition.

In early September intersex fish were found in the lower Potomac River; not far from Washington’s water supply intake on the river. Suddenly Congress is up in arms, concerned enough to hold hearings.

Ten years after Congress ordered the EPA to identify hormone disruptors, it’s urgent. Now. Suddenly Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., says the order was “timely, it was important, it should have been done.”

“Fish are like canaries in the coal mine,” declares Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. Those fish were dying by the thousands in 2002, 2003, and 2005. Only local sportsmen and state agencies were concerned back then.

Although endocrine disruptors are logical suspects, we just don’t know what is causing this defect. We don’t know what’s caused the fish kills. EPA could accomplish their task, and make no difference.

Worried about hormone-influencing pollution, Ed Merrifield, a Riverkeeper™ franchisee frets, “… how can anyone say it is not in our drinking water?” Easy there, Ed, it’s eggs. If you have eggs on places they shouldn’t be, it’s in the water.

The Shenandoah River Fish Kill Task Force is determined to find the cause; not conclude a cause and order EPA pursue a detection strategy. The Task Force needs to be supported, because “science needs to drive the solutions.” (EPA)

It’s true the EPA should have completed their task on time, or notified Congress if they couldn’t. In return, Congress should refrain from political grandstanding and remember they can’t casually legislate an end to cancer or heart disease. And threats to other people’s health should be as important as threats to their own; those elected are supposed to serve the public, not themselves.

Direct entry of comments is blocked. The word ‘intersex’ draws comment- and porn-spam robots like flies. Email to have a comment entered.

The disgrace formerly known as Congressman Foley is history. As should be.

But before anyone gets carried away with further political posturing and pretensions of outrage, Jerry Fuhrman has a reality check. Read it, because Jerry’s absolutely right.

There’s more to the ‘gay-marriage’ agenda than supporters have been willing to talk about. While you’re there, read Jerry’s “As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap“.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling visited Shenandoah County this Monday morning at the county government center. The call was part of Bolling’s promise to spend time in Virginia’s rural areas and meet with localities to discuss their concerns.

There was some social time before the scheduled meeting with the Board, and we got to meet Bill’s wife Jean Ann Bolling, and his staff chief Jeremy Greenfield who accompanied him. It was also an opportunity to share a humorous Bolling-story with the other Supervisors.

Lt. Governor Bolling spoke at the Martinsville blogger conference on the topic of cooperation across partisan boundaries. He pointed out that once elected, Republicans and Democrats had to work with each other both in the legislature and —in his case— in the executive branch. Extremism and hate-speech undermines that, and is harmful to working for Virginia.

It was a good, thoughtful speech that resonated with me —an independent serving with a Republican-majority Board. At the end, Lt. Governor Bolling took questions from the audience. One Democrat-paid blogger, Josh Chernila was apparently unable to let go of partisanship and attacked Bolling for using the word ‘Democrat’ Party instead of ‘DemocratIC’ Party.

It was unforgettable, because Josh was seated next to Eileen Levandoski, a paid Democrat staffer and blogger who uses the term ‘Democrat’ Party. Talk about irony. It gets better. Josh later defended his silly attack by claiming that incorrect word use was part of a vast right-wing conspiracy to ‘make servants’ out of Democrats! For this he gets paid. Oh my!

During the meeting, Supervisors had the opportunity to share our concerns about the projected reduction in road funds. Shenandoah County got less funding this year than it had last year. The reduced road funds were painfully obvious last winter when many roads didn’t get snow cleared, but there’s also been less maintenance overall.

The Lt. Governor discussed the recent legislative stalemate over transportation funding, in his words “just two wasted days out of my life”. He pointed out that as long as one side refused to compromise and dug their heels in, nothing would get accomplished.

Bolling did take a copy of Shenandoah County’s projected transportation funding —a projection forecasting a 40% reduction in road funds over the next 6 years— and promised to find out what was happening that caused the loss.

He also discussed recent DEQ regulations that require new sewer treatment plants in Mount Jackson (~$18 million, population 1,700), New Market (~$23 million, population 4,500), and Woodstock (~$20 million from 4,000 people).

The Lt. Governor pointed out that state DEQ requirements are mandated from EPA at the federal level; there is little or nothing the state can do to change the requirement. Virginia does provide grants —and Bolling specified some of them— in addition to low interest loans that reduce plant costs considerably.

Our Lt. Governor did make an observation: If Shenandoah County is trying to direct growth into the service areas (we are) then high treatment plant costs are best offset by insisting on or sticking with that strategy. Higher numbers of users per plant lowers the cost per individual. He’s absolutely right, but it had never been presented in that light before!

It was is gratifying that Lt. Governor Bill Bolling visited Shenandoah County. It’s the first time since I’ve taken office that ‘Richmond’ recognized Shenandoah County even exists! We appreciate his visit, and his commitment to the rural areas of the state.