An End to April

In somewhat of an update from my last post, the month of April has continued to be a busy month. I closed on a house on Thursday and renovations began bright and early Saturday morning. Two 13-hour days over the weekend yielded some solid progress, but LOTS of work needs to ensue. Taryn says she'll start posting home renovation updates on her blog soon, so you can check there for details.

Meanwhile, this is the first day of exam week at Radford University. Many of the students I come in contact with on a regular basis will star slipping out of town for the summer as early as today, and by the end of Saturday's graduation, most will be gone until August. By the way, the commencement speaker at RU's graduation this year is Sen. Jim Webb, who you may recall from my posts last year that railed agains his Republican opponent, George "Macaca" Allen.

As the semester winds down for our neighbors at Virginia Tech, our thoughts continue to be with them. The media circus has left Blacksburg for the most part, but the family and friends of those who lost their lives in the horrific shootings of April 16 continue to try to get their lives back together.

And RU lost a student of our own this week. Matt Hale was injured more than a week ago in a skateboarding accident. He never recovered from the severe head trauma he received in that accident. The thoughts of many here at RU are with the family and friends of Matt Hale.

Here's hoping for a pleasant May here in southwest Virginia!

Life in Southwest Virginia

Since my last post, a lot has happened and is STILL happening. Everyone has heard about the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, a campus just 12 miles or so from where I live and work. And working on a university campus, the tragedy at Tech takes on a different meaning.

I communicated with a graduate student at Tech this week who said she had lost nine students from her graduate program plus a professor. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose so many friends and acquaintances at once. And obviously, for the families of all those who died, I know this is a horrific experience. My thoughts go out to all of those who knew someone injured or killed at Tech.

I could talk about the myriad social issues that surround this incident. I could talk about gun control or mental illness or violence in our society, but all that has been discussed ad nauseum of late. So I will move on to other topics.

In the time since I posted last, I've turned another year older and I am on the verge of moving yet again. Not too far this time. Only about eight blocks from where I currently live. I can say, though, that a birthday sandwiched between the Tech tragedy and the stress and financial strain of a move isn't the best timing. But what can you do?

Life is very busy at the moment, but I hope today's hectic pace will lead to good things in the future. And I hope we can get back to a normal life here in southwest Virginia.

Wal-Mart Sucks

So I was looking at this article about Wal-Mart and its corporate spying, strong-arm tactics, and general lack of ethics, when I said to myself, "Geez, Wal-Mart totally sucks. Like seriously, how evil is this company anyway?"

So I decided to Google "Wal-Mart sucks."

Here are a handful of the sites that I found!

Click here to see how Wal-Mart sucks!

Click here to see how Wal-Mart sucks!

Click here to see how Wal-Mart sucks!

Click here to see how Wal-Mart sucks!

Click here to see how Wal-Mart sucks!

Click here to see how Wal-Mart sucks!

Click here to see how Wal-Mart sucks!

Click here to see how Wal-Mart sucks!

OK, I could go on and on and on. I think you get the point. But if you do find some particularly interesting anti-Wal-Mart Web sites, send them to me as a Comment.

Happy shopping, anywhere but Wal-Mart!!

Has Paul Krugman Been Reading My Blog?

In today's New York Times, columnist Paul Krugman goes into more detail on the subject of my last blog entry. Here's what Krugman says:
"The infiltration of the federal government by large numbers of people seeking to impose a religious agenda — which is very different from simply being people of faith — is one of the most important stories of the last six years."

If you're not a Times Select subscriber you probably won't be able to read this link. But perhaps you can find the entire column elsewhere on the Internet. If you do, please post a link as a Comment.

And next week, Rudy Giuliani will speak at Pat Robertson's Regent University. I'm wondering how the lying, two-timing, politically, ethically, and morally corrupt former NYC mayor who loves to remind people that he was mayor during 9/11 (because he has nothing else going for him) will cozy up to the zealots at Regent. I'm sure it will be a sickening display similar to his pandering in Alabama earlier this week.

Building a Theocracy

Among the people who make my skin crawl, Pat Robertson is pretty close to the top. It's an elite list: Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Ann Coulter, George W. Bush. And interestingly enough, it seems all those folks have something in common: They all want to create an American theocracy. (They're also all hypocrites and total nut jobs.) What is a theocracy, you might ask? Defined, it is government of a state by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In the case of those aforementioned, they all want the United States to be a Christian state run by people with disdain for the time-honored separation of church and state.

Yet another example of this comes to mind when reading about the fact that Pat Robertson has a law school. Yes, at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., Robertson promotes "Christian leadership to change the world." This translates into Robertson hoping to create people more beholden to his view of law and the world than to the Constitution. This is a scary thing ... because it is working!

(In looking at the folks who will be speaking at Regents in upcoming weeks, by the way, Rudy Giuliani will be speak at Regent's Executive Leadership Series while Mitt Romney will give a commencement address on May 5.)

Here's yet another instance of the extreme Christian right trying to push its way into every aspect of our government. Not being happy with controlling the Executive branch, the Supreme Court, and the judicial system in general, Robertson and friends want to broaden the Christian army to include more judges and attorneys. Just what are they teaching at the Regent Law School? Here's a satirical look that probably isn't too far from the truth.

Monica Goodling, implicated in the ongoing scandal regarding the firing of eight U.S. Justices, is one of 150 Regent graduates currently serving in the administration.

I sure wish people like Robertson, Falwell, and Dobson would spend more time teaching the tenets of Jesus as opposed to building their earthly empires. It's all about money and power for these guys. And it's disgusting.