The Hatfield clan poses in April 1897 at a logging camp in southern West Virginia. The most infamous feud in American folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, disease inherited by the McCoy clan that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.(AP Photo)
Checking in with West Virginia blogs, we provide these recent stories of note:
--- Dave Tabler at Hillbilly Savants (I love that name!!) summarizes the history of America's very own Montagues and Capulets, none other than the Hatfields and McCoys of Kentucky and West Virginia. Click through, it's a short informative read. With a h/t (hat tip) to a commenter there, I point out this CNN article saying Disease may have fueled Hatfield-McCoy feud. Add that to the Blue People of West Virginia (well, Kentucky) as another Appalachian genetic anomaly.
--- The search for a new President of West Virginia University is generating plenty of controversy. The ever-useful Lincoln Walks on at Midnight notes the story has even gotten some National attention. For a straight-up blogger tell-it-like-they-see it perspective on the controversial background of Mike Garrison, the Fifth Column has all the details. I didn't live in the W.Va. during the Bob Wise administration, yet I have no reason to doubt his story of exploiting political power for personal advancement.
--- Back Porch Politics caught a "breaking" story of Sago and Darby mine windows appearing in front of Congressional committees. [The Gazette-Mail article has since moved here.] Ken Ward Jr. writes (emphasis mine):
Widows of the miners killed in last year's Sago and Darby disasters led the call for tougher enforcement by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.
"Despite Congress' good intentions, I have to wonder if little has actually changed," said Deborah Hamner, whose husband George was among 12 miners killed at Sago. "I fear that miners would fare no better today in an explosion than my husband and his co-workers did."
Melissa Lee, whose husband Jimmy died in the May 20, 2006, Kentucky Darby disaster, testified with Hamner at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Education and Labor.
Wanda Blevins and Betty Riggs, whose husbands died in the 2001 explosion at the Jim Walter Resources No. 5 Mine in Brookwood, Ala., also attended Wednesday's hearing.
"Somebody has to keep speaking for the miners," Melissa Lee said. "These men were not just coal miners. They were husbands and fathers and grandfathers."
--- I'll leave it to smarter people than me around here to say if a new book about West Virginia economic development, 'Unleashing Capitalism' Dissects State's Economy (Book provides some suggestions to trigger prosperity in Mountain State), has anything useful to say or not. I'm more than a wee bit skeptical when it's put out by a new "free-market" think tank with website links to right-wing welfare organizations (e.g., State Policy Network) and Heritage Foundation affiliates(e.g., PolicyExperts.org). The only effects I've seen of "free-market" policy is increased corporate profits, higher government debt, and rampant consumer debt--all achieved through greater government subsidies of large corporations. Any arguments that Republicans have never--in the many years of complete federal government control--properly implemented free-market control are as convincing as the argument that communism was never properly implemented in Russia, China or Cuba. Perhaps someone with greater fortitude than I can check out free links to the first four chapters.
How about you, found anything interesting on the web this week? |
