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Another great resource wv has is our lay midwives. The american medical association would like to make it illegal to be a lay midwife but WV midwifes are fighting it tooth and nail.
Another great resource wv has is our lay midwives. The american medical association would like to make it illegal to be a lay midwife but WV midwifes are fighting it tooth and nail.
-Isn't Marshall U. known as "The Fighting Midwives"?
-One difference I have found so far in WV'ians is that most places they brag about their new car, but here a lot of people brag about how many miles they got on the old one. I like that better.
-In fairness to L.A., the haze is partly because mountains hold the coastal fog like a shroud over the city, and you can't always tell by looks, how toxic the air is on a given day. It's Not at all like the thick toxic clouds of the '50s, with smokestacks spewing black, grey, green and yellow plumes of chemical ash. But at the end of the day, there are a gazillion people in cars in L.A., so it can't be that good for you in the long run.
Last edited by citybilly; 08-22-2008 at 09:08 PM..
-Isn't Marshall U. known as "The Fighting Midwives"?
-One difference I have found so far in WV'ians is that most places they brag about their new car, but here a lot of people brag about how many miles they got on the old one. I like that better.
-In fairness to L.A., the haze is partly because mountains hold the coastal fog like a shroud over the city, and you can't always tell by looks, how toxic the air is on a given day. It's Not at all like the thick toxic clouds of the '50s, with smokestacks spewing black, grey, green and yellow plumes of chemical ash. But at the end of the day, there are a gazillion people in cars in L.A., so it can't be that good for you in the long run.
The air quality in LA is a zillion times better than it was 20 years ago. In fact we breath better when we go down there from Las Vegas. The air in Las Vegas is bad because it is in a valley surrounded on all sides by high mountains. It's like being in a bowl with a blanket over your head. The bad air can't escape until we get the right kind of windy day. But even if there were no people here the air would still be just as bad as it has something to do with what naturally comes up from the ground and hangs there between the mountains.
The air in West Virginia is always being cleaned by the frequent rains which the west doesn't have. The rotting vegetation and mold is what I notice when I go there, and it usually gives me a sore throat or bronchitis.
Hmmmmmmmmm, so here we are. Everyone seems to be talking survival or annihalation. I bet if our grandparents had computers they would have been saying similar phrases to these.I know those that went through the depression would. My grandparents raised me....now listen to me....grandma told me her dad dug ALL DAY to get a groundhog and it came out and ran between his legs and got away! I wonder what they ate THAT day!!!!!!!!!!???????? Not whistlepig for sure!Point is America has seen worse times and better times. Someone said ................nothing in itself is bad or good......thinking makes it so! Sure , I know a dollar wont buy what it did five years ago or even a year ago so raise a garden or do something that you normally would pay someone else to do.Get some pigs and raise them to butcher or get a calf and do the same. Survive! That is what its gonna take to see it through!
This country is giving away what soldiers DIED for and the powers that be are too ignorant to stop it! Heck, they applaude it! No matter who gets the presidency the ideas they espouse will sink us all. Point of this idea is the little man will still have a place to live and feed himself and his family.We dont control anything ....we dont control much for sure ......we DO control our ideas and hence our actions so lets get busy changing our immediate environment. Remember they said Y2K would be the end? It wasnt and this isnt either.
GOD BLESS US ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We live in a country of what used to be called 'nin-com-poops....social and educated Gadfly's who are given credible positions and postures because of someone elses ignorance...when the chips go down...West Virginia will be fine...enough old timers exist to help the young ones plant, hunt and survive. I've always touted a little food stored for later use...just like the old days when everyone provided for the winter...
If you think the politico's are going to take care of you...you need a brain transplant...A person takes care of himself or he dies..its that simple...
-Isn't Marshall U. known as "The Fighting Midwives"?
-One difference I have found so far in WV'ians is that most places they brag about their new car, but here a lot of people brag about how many miles they got on the old one. I like that better.
-In fairness to L.A., the haze is partly because mountains hold the coastal fog like a shroud over the city, and you can't always tell by looks, how toxic the air is on a given day. It's Not at all like the thick toxic clouds of the '50s, with smokestacks spewing black, grey, green and yellow plumes of chemical ash. But at the end of the day, there are a gazillion people in cars in L.A., so it can't be that good for you in the long run.
Nooo.... I believe we are the "Thundering Herd" ????
Just a little FYI to everyone. The president of the American Medical Association is a woman, and proudly hails from Elkins, WV and plans to return to her hometown once she retires
Vec your hubby is the best of both worlds. An ex marine buddy of mine can survive dropped off anywhere on the planet with the clothes on his back and a honed knife. My ability to wilderness camp pales by comparison. I'm still dragging an iced cooler of packaged meat/produce with me, hiding behind pine sol to keep bears off scent, or resort to hiking trail mix version of a meal. I admire his skills beyond belief. He works for the post office in Jersey, so NJ best you don't p*ss him off.
Hunting? I've said this before-- what % of American's like myself have never had our dinners outside plastic wrap from a supermarket? I see this flaw in myself. Can they see it? How removed from life itself we've become as an abstracted to tenth power civilization? I could kill a human being to defend my brother in arms, but there's still the squeamish hand when it comes to animals despite being a sharpshooter. They're fluffy, fido, and bambi. Fowl, pork, and beef aren't animals in some bizarre disconnect of logic all happening in my head. Such is the byproduct of real life awareness from a suburban/urban upbringing.
R601 yes, I too had a struggling mom, and know all too well what instant milk tastes like. She killed it with a 15 cent box of My-T-Fine pudding mix. Normal kids got Qwik, carnation or ovaltine chocolate milk, but extraordinary children got butterscotch tossed into their pitcher. Pistachio for St Patty's day. Dandelion salad anyone? We didn't have the wherewithal to know how to kill a wild rabbit for dinner- it never even registered in our brains. Had a slice of gubbermint cheese once. Wasn't worth the abuse to get it. Mom opted out and we lived to tell the tale. ^5 mom! This all occurring in a relatively prosperous republican county in NY that some WV'rs would envy as greener crabgrass if only it wasn't air brushed on! hahahahaa
The trends of civilization have done nothing but encourage dependence because mass scale it feeds the institutions and the commerce that need us needing them instead of facilitating self sufficiency for all parties concerned. This is my problem with social liberalism. 1 in 6 on food stamps is another example of how statistics only tell part of the truth when the whole picture is needed to get to the roots. Should the actual cost of living be $15/hr and the prevailing wage is $12/hr, you can't very well be implying WV'rs want it that way. They've taken the advice of civilization herding them that way and is that ever so distasteful to same said civilization to admit?
Statistics have to say who & why that 1 in 6 exists, and more importantly if 3 in 6 qualify, because my family should have counted in NY statistics. There are military families who qualify for welfare. Which political party is ashamed of that fact enough to change it? Can you find out who these people are for real with a more refined picture? I'm not afraid to acknowledge it for what it is. If they're the wretched junkies nobody likes, lets suspend judgment long enough to see what soil they originate. I'm not content with oversimplified answers as still lives because that's where propaganda thrives. Sound bytes working for anyone? My snapshot of DC isn't all DC is. I've been back several times because it's not all bad. What gets my goat is that when it comes to WV, only those snapshots of what's ill pass for a comprehensive definitive. No other state in our union gets that press. Why?
Walmart, drug dealers and porn have something in common. Supply and demand rules, they'd have no existence if not for the substantial demand. I disagree with strippers, find it injurious to womankind, but the Columbia University student who found a way to cover her tuition/make a living in NYC yet have ample time for studies... how can I argue with her if our 'culture' is so sick as to make this the ideal financial option for a young woman with brains? Insanely enough it blames her personally for an entire industry and excuses her patrons, her noble gov't taxing her pasties & business owners profiteering as if babes in the woods. That so??
Love to have the dads of those 'girls gone wild' get a free pot shot at the charming young man producing the series, but who raised these drunken girls? Male disconnect of logic- can it occur to every father how hypocritical their sponsorship of porn is when they have a daughter? This is the world you build for that same creature wrapping her hand around your finger. If that doesn't hurt your heart & bring you to your knees, what's wrong with you? This isn't a cartoon. Grow up so your kids can. K?
In a similarly unpopular defense of walmart, the point republicans make that I can't dispute; this is capitalisms highest efficiency and without walmart most low income folks would be left out in the lurch from many goods being priced beyond their means. It's helped keep their cost of living down, along with middle class. Consumers need to ask themselves how many $30 dvd players they need when mfg plants in IL and OH close because they can't compete, their perfected designs for pots and pans stolen by chinese knock off artists selling at walmart for half. Why is it the intellectual property rights didn't apply to imports from china via walmart? Just Bill Gates well lawyered microsoft, nobody else? Huh? Want to tax imports to compensate for global trade deficits, what will that mean to the price of foreign oil coming to our shores? We're caught in our own hypocrisy where there are no easy adjustments without real change involved. We're way overdue for growing pains, and the harder people try to avoid change, the worse it will get.
We've lost massive middle class/middle mgmt jobs. We've exported our environmental responsibility to st elsewhere where there are no rules and it hurts the whole globe. I don't like it. They creep me out. They're like the borg. Trends keeping all the money on top are happening in all industries for decades now and walmart only leads as THE business model to follow. Business having genetic dynamics, this is the equivalent of inbreeding. It's bad for everyone except the top 2% repubs notoriously protect and defend with misguided notions of what prosperity and free markets look like. That's where these new age republicans and I part company, because it's a cannibalistic economy when taken to that extreme. Not the symbiotic arrangement that's been historically healthy because all parties involved had take it or leave it as a legitimate option. Who has options when your electrified/gas powered life is dominated by a networked conglomeration? Only the conglomeration does. Liberals have strong arguments for concern I cannot deny.
Walmart being accountable for destroying our culture? First of all, how much of our 'culture' isn't the near mythology of a norman rockwell painting we selectively choose to recall? Your elementary history books lied to you as much as they did me. Weed lies out, we're back on solid ground. Secondly, WE, like the wretched junkies nobody likes, have to take the blame for any real cultural death transpiring. Where is our attention given? What did we invest ourselves and disposable income in? We're the adults and it's our watch. Don't shift the blame elsewhere as is the habit of American ego. Andy Warhol smacked America upside the head and nobody got the joke but they paid millions to be mocked by an elitist for brillo box/campbell soup labels. People volunteering to be slaves of appearance and status, true values in culture gets heaved to the curb because it's deemed not hip/new/improved? What's valuable? MTV? Think again! Likely this is preaching to the choir, said for the sake of being on the same page.
Walmart/Lowes and me? I'm not the conspicuous consumer ilk, I just need deck screws that work w/power tools and don't cost $5 each with high fallutin' hype, 40%+ markups of MLM franchises or expensive distributorships that add no value to product. Went on the cheap with the metal, the American brand doesn't function anymore. There is the failure in traditional American business, when the formulaic career track for mgmt. is proving to shareholders that their returns went up (today) at the expense of the health of the company (tomorrow). That tool/die engineering was paid for 5 times over with depreciation write offs decades ago, who are they kidding? Particularly when they aren't paying employees living wages to justify themselves (present tense)... some of us do pay attention to shareholder reports to know.
Lumber from box stores suck, no way I'm there unless it's trim because they're the ones bothering to stock the selection when no one else is. Sherman Williams puts out better paint and they're around the corner, so I'm there for paint. Same purdy brushes are cheaper at the box stores though, so should I buy them at sherman williams to be charitable? Is that doing them a favor? Tough love you don't buy it there and be sure to say why. Give them a chance to compete and be-all-that.
I'm guilty of feeding the box some of my money, but name alternatives is my point. Encouraging diverse industry in WV & America in general makes more sense to me than attacking what exists. People get hungry for what's missing in their diets & if they can reasonably afford it they pursue it. Walmart declaring wars against local grocers, farmers markets, gas stations, pharmacy's, dept stores... monopolies are supposed to be illegal in USA last I heard. Who owns our legislative & judiciary branches? We could put a special request to their owners and just pay taxes to them directly at the 24/7 smiley registers. End the charade, cut out the middleman, deny their pensions just like the airlines if turnabout is fair play. In light of McCain and Obama, Oh great and powerful Walmart, what's your foreign policy? (DK come on you gotta laugh).
Walmart as a religion? I can't relate because of where I was raised, but I'll relay the answer from rural folks throughout the country. There was a time in history when the talk of the town was hail hail the sears roebuck catalog arrived by pony express. There's this sense of awe at finally being able to participate directly in the market place because walmart was the only one who managed to deliver what no one else could for a century. Now modernity reaches just about every backwoods locale of USA because... they craved it. City folk on the other hand shun it and petition their gov't to oppose granting permission through ordinances/zoning reg's. They've got a vested interest in protecting the diverse landscape in place even if it is entirely paved over.
Bashing Walmart won't solve the 'reasonably affording' part of the equation that fuels the wholesale trend. I cannot march in protest because it's not inherently wrong. I can protest loudly at their practice of working employees 39.75 hrs to define them as p/t & instruct them to apply for welfare bennies because they don't want to cover health care insurance for the bottom end of their company (how contemptuous is that when they're ironically the same folks who need to shop there!). Sam the founder being alive today, I doubt highly he'd be proud of his heirs conduct. Such is the problem with inherited wealth too far removed from building something from dirt on up. By 3rd/4th generation it's usually in ruins through complacency, entitlement, and arrogance. Kept alive artificially on paper through mergers/ takeovers riding out brand recognition of a dead thing. More logic disconnect. Seeing a pattern here?
Drug habits are optional to engage if you mean to avoid reality, as is misc porn for similar reasons, but affordable produce and school supplies? Learn from the competition, level the field, and do better. Ma and Pa stores are getting net based with so much less overhead that used to burden them out of biz. Niche markets too specific for walmart are there for them so long as shipping rates don't get out of hand to dissuade customers. Word of caution is be aware of who your customers are and stay in tune with their disposable income levels. Have a product that meets them, you've got something. The net is great news for rural folk who don't have high traffic demographics in their backyard. The train no longer blows past your neighborhood leaving you with nothing but smoke and dust. It's really up to you now.
(Example: Not far from WVU there's a community of folks who harvest $$ mushrooms, ginseng, ramp and saffron. Why? Because it's the asset of WV's terrain & climate without damaging it and it fetches a higher price on niche market. Going for volume markets like Nebraska agri-biz isn't practical for the small guy. The only thing in your way now is your willingness to learn.)
Offer me a better way, I'll try it. I'm not innocent, but I aim for the right thing. I think most are well meaning like that, but pragmatism won't get sacrificed by those who've known hard times. I don't know the perfect solution. I've only seen these angles so far. Feel free to add to the bigger picture, as the more these things get discussed openly by people who vote, the better we'll be at articulating what we expect to be solved by our representatives, and the better choices we can make all around. Voting with your feet and $$s is a much more powerful tool that requires no gov't whatsoever. You'll be heard better with complaints as a customer than you will as someone with a sandwich board sign along the roadside. Market share for commerce, and in case of politico's, voter support, is the holy grail that motivates those folks. Ignoring that fact- as the sage farmer replies- 'Welp, how'd that work out for ya?'.
My personal solution has been more potent; I vote with my 401k because as an 'investor' these CEO's <allegedly> work for, I don't want to hear any garbage about how "the investors made me do it" when their motives are purely selfish. Considering how we've been robbed of pensions, middle class & liberals would be wise to take the reigns of their own 401k plans and actively participate in shareholder voting to take back America instead of being caught under that bus. Lower classes unfortunately don't have that option so use your clout to vote for them if your sympathies are that strong. My version is to petition contingencies in CEO contracts for company under performance to significantly reduce their compensation rather than lay off working class. When the problem is defined as a lack of demand for production & no new product can be created in a timely fashion, find a way to inspire CEO's to pay close attention to the writing on the wall and have a plan B product in hand. How would you vote? I encourage everyone to wear that hat because the world is quite a different place when it's your job to decide how to fix what's broke. Apologies to everyone if I sound preachy because that's not my meaning. Awareness is paramount which may have been lost in my verbosity.
Comic relief from such heavy topics- Want culture you say? Art is everywhere if your eye/ear is tuned. In a salute to modern capitalism... TOM WAITS STEP RIGHT UP LYRICS
He wrote this song in the 70's based on the collective marketing pitches being spewed voluminously to the point where- choking to death on it- he regurgitated it back out in one streaming sentence! hahahaa Even funnier to hear the song live and thanks to the net, here it is for any interested music aficionados. YouTube - Tom Waits - Rockpalast 1977 01 Step Right Up Skip the first 1:30 blowing off musicians tuning instruments.
Vec your hubby is the best of both worlds. An ex marine buddy of mine can survive dropped off anywhere on the planet with the clothes on his back and a honed knife. My ability to wilderness <.............................>it is for any interested music aficionados. YouTube - Tom Waits - Rockpalast 1977 01 Step Right Up Skip the first 1:30 blowing off musicians tuning instruments.
OH MY ,,,!
This is the longest post I have ever seen!
Do you have too much time on ur hands?
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Step right up
(DK come on you gotta laugh).
