Time Marches On

Time is an inexorable process.  That is to say, nothing can stop it.  As surely as a single second ticks off the clock, a billion years will eventually go by.  Not that there’s nothing to mark certain moments in time.  It’s just that once that moment is gone, it quickly fades into the past.

There are, fortunately, relics from the past that survive to tell us of the significance of certain eras.  The Coliseum that was built in Rome, for example, or the pyramids of Egypt, tell of the greatness of these ancient seats of civilization. 

Closer to home, there are the highways that were re-built correctly during the Patton administrations.  Prior to Gov. Patton’s terms in office, every major roadway in the county was covered in potholes pretty much year round.  Any repaving was done as quickly as possible; usually a week would suffice to complete any job.  Fresh asphalt was put down in layers that looked as though it had been painted on with a brush.  And those potholes that the new pavement covered would reappear within weeks.

But when Gov. Patton was in office, a miracle took place.  For instance, when U S 460 from Mouthcard to Belcher got the royal treatment, the roadbed was dug up to a reasonable depth, a solid foundation was laid, and the road then got several rough coats of pavement before the finishing coat was applied.  Instead of getting the job done in a week’s time, this process took almost an entire summer.

This process was repeated all over the county.  Soon State Route 194, old U S 119, etc., all were sporting thick new coats of pavement over solid road beds.  The result is, these roads are all still in pretty good shape, lo these many years later.

But it has been a few years since Gov. Patton left office, and let’s face the facts:  When the good times are gone, they are gone for good.  And any driver can tell you now that the area’s roadways are once again sporting some pretty deep and fairly wide potholes.  That three-lane portion of U S 460 now has some potholes that are impressive to say the least.  Small cars are well-advised to go around them; otherwise they might be swallowed in the abyss.

Well, it did take a while, didn’t it?  I mean the potholes didn’t reform overnight.  Well, that might be because the administration that followed Gov. Patton’s, that of the one-term Gov. Ernie Fletcher, did something that no Governor before or since has done, and that is, he directed the Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement Agency to enforce the laws against overweight coal trucks.  That by itself did a great deal to help the roadways hold up.

Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end.  Those graveyard humps are back now.  Yes, after four years of cracking down on overweight coal trucks, the state’s enforcement agencies are now looking the other way again.  Well, anyway judging from some of the potholes I’ve traveled around.

This era may well have been the Golden Age for the area’s drivers.  Soon lore will be passed from father to son about roads that went on for miles and miles, and no potholes.  Not that anyone will believe it.

On tax day, some don’t pay

Vermont has a more interesting history than many may realize. It was in 1791 that the Green Mountain State was admitted to the Union, beating Kentucky by one year for the distinction of being the 14^th state. It might have made its entry earlier had its territory not been claimed by other colonies following the French and Indian War. Its territory was ceded to the British by the French following this conflict.

Vermonters didn’t recognize those claims, though. For 14 years, it was a self-proclaimed independent area known as the Vermont Republic. Not that its citizens didn’t take part in the war against the Brits. They did, just in their own inimitable way.  Vermont coined its own currency and abolished slavery well ahead of most other American states.

Vermont continues its maverick ways even today. Its junior U. S. Senator is Independent Bernie Sanders. Oddly enough, the man he was elected to succeed, Jim Jeffords, left the Republican Party in 2001 to also serve as an Independent. Sanders is one of only two independents in Congress now. Those years he served in the House of Representatives, he was usually the lone Independent in that chamber.

Senator Sanders was elected to the U. S. Senate in 2006. He has caucused with Democrats for purposes of committee assignments. And for the most part, he shares their ideological views, including opposing extending the Bush-era tax cuts that favor the ultra-wealthy of the nation. Senator Sanders contends that the tax laws are tilted heavily in favor of the wealthiest 1% of Americans and that the newly-elected Republican majority in the House of Representatives are intent on achieving a balanced budget on the backs of average Americans.

To offer up conclusive evidence of this, Sen. Sanders has compiled his Guide to Corporate Freeloaders. No need to use your imagination here. This is a group of incredibly wealthy companies that never have anything to fear from the IRS, and for a good reason. Thanks in all likelihood to their largess during both local and national elections, our laws are oozing with loopholes, exemptions, and tax-payer financed subsidies for the Greediest Americans.

Of course you know that the giant oil companies are well-represented on this list. Not that there are many of them around now; they’ve all merge to form super-huge mega corporations. And they all pretty much net super-huge mega profits, too. But that hasn’t cost them too much in federal taxes.

There are three on Sen. Sanders’ list: Exxon Mobile, 2009 profit of $19 billion, got $156 million back from the IRS; Chevron, $10 billion in profits, $19 million IRS refund; and Conoco Phillips, 2007-2009 profits of $16 billion, and got the standard $461 million deduction for oil companies. You’d think these behemoths would take pity on the other American taxpayers after getting by so easily, but if you’ve been by the gas pumps lately, you know better that that, huh?

Remember the trillion-dollar bailout of the banking industry? You know that last desperate act of Dub’yas administration? Bank of America and Citigroup both were recipients of this lavish expenditure of cash. Both profited handsomely: BOA, profit $.4.4 billion, refunded $1.9 billion; Citigroup, profit over $4 billion, yet no federal taxes.

One more thing: There are plenty more where these came from.

Hillbillies is alright for me

With the annual Hillbilly Days celebration upon us, it would behoove us to reflect upon the pejorative sense in which the term “hillbilly” is generally used.  Upon hearing this term, an image is immediately brought to mind to the inhabitants of those regions wherein these stereotypes are said to dwell, and few are happy with it. 

This even extends to our little celebration in April when clans from all over the nation get together and search for their inner hillbilly.  This can be troubling for those of us who have no problem parading around in our “best” bibs, whilst imbibing some good homebrew, and generally “swangin’” around the town of Pikeville some.

Believe it or not, however, this is not the only instance in the history of “Hillbilly-dom” where the user of the term “hillbilly” has come to grief, and overcome the situation, I might add.

Over in the town of Richwood, West Virginia, there once lived a man by the name of Jim Comstock, a newspaper editor by trade, who published one of the best local newspapers ever in the history of our great land, “The West Virginia Hillbilly”. Mr. Comstock had a very well developed sense of humor for an editor. The motto for his paper?  “A weakly (SIC) paper, edited by an editor who can’t write, for people who can’t read.”

The name “West Virginia Hillbilly” upset many within the Mountain State, what with its great motto “Montani Semper Liberi” or “Mountaineers are always free”. Many an appeal was made to Mr. Comstock to “please take that degrading name off your newspaper!” and at length Mr. Comstock acceded, and actually changed the name of his newspaper.

The very next edition of the “West Virginia Hillbilly” came out with a new title, Jim Comstock style. In small normal type at the top of the paper were the words “The Mountain Laurel, formerly”-and in its usual bold banner type-“The West Virginia Hillbilly.”

(“What?!? I changed it!”)

The intelligence of Jim Comstock showed through in every edition of his newspaper.  He had fans all over the country, and as great as the outcry that brought about this mock name change was, the outcry over an actual name change would have drowned it out quite easily.

Jim Comstock was at ease at with who he was. He knew and loved his state of West Virginia, his town of Richwood, and its inhabitants. And he did not cower in the face of those who know nothing of the joys of being a hillbilly.

And I would suggest to all of you who are in town to celebrate with this great Hillbilly nation that you take heart as Jim Comstock did while he was alive, and own up to who you are. Do not let the Philistines cause you to forsake your heritage.

There are those whose butts are too tight to ever ease up and have a good time. If that is the case, let’s hope that they stay in whatever uptight state they may find themselves in.  As for the rest of us, we’ll all be in Pikeville this week, enjoying being what God in his Wisdom made us to be, and what everybody sensible would want to be for a few glorious days in April-Hillbillies!

Password Safety

My, our life has certainly changed in the New Millennium, mainly because we all now have computers. All those letters, for instance, that used to go by way of the United States Post Office are now handled via e-mail.

And paying those monthly bills? Now you go to your online bank account, point and click, punch a few keys, hit enter, and voila, the bills are paid and usually in record time.

Then there are all those social networking sites. Keep up with friends, new and old. What was the old saying? One is silver, the other gold? Yep, no matter how far away your friends are, get on the facebook and you can tell what they’ve been doing, or are going to do. They, of course, will be able to keep tabs on you as well, depending on how much you are willing to disclose to them while on this site.

These are but a few of the things that we use our personal computers for. The one thing that is central to everything we do online is a password. That is the one thing that opens your life up to anyone who can hack it.

Unfortunately most people take a rather cavalier attitude when it comes to selecting the one word that will be used to protect their privacy. Most passwords are about as sophisticated as the combination used by King Roland in “Space Balls”, Mel Brooks’ spoof of “Star Wars”. When forced to surrender the only thing that protected the atmosphere of his home planet, he reluctantly disclosed that it was 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) opined that it sounded like the combination an idiot would use on his luggage. He told the combination to his boss, President Skroob (Brooks backwards, played by Mel Brooks), who then said “Oh, great! Now I have to change the combination on my luggage!”

The fact is most people do use the same rather simple password for everything. Well, it’s easier that trying to remember a dozen different passwords. That’s tough. But if someone gets your password, there goes the neighborhood. If you can get into someone’s facebook account, you’re probably going to be able to access their bank accounts as well. And that is a whole ‘nother can of worms. Yep, the credit card would hit the shredder then.

Truth is, almost nobody can begin to imagine how sophisticated an arsenal the truly dedicated hacker has at his disposal. Just as there are an unknown number of troublemakers out creating new forms of the trojan (from the horse of the same name, used in the same way, to take control of your computer), or viruses, or worms, so it would seem that there are an equal number writing programs whose sole purpose is to hack your passwords.

There are some good guys out there, though, who can help us in our quest to enjoy the computer without having our identities stolen. John Pozadzides has written on this subject. In a piece entitled “How I’d Hack Your Passwords”, he reveals how easily most passwords can be hacked, and how to create a more unbreakable one. Simply google that title and follow his simple advice. Otherwise, you risk losing more than you might ever imagine.