Is a Hybrid Car really the best choice to save fuel?

The Toyota Prius gets about 45 mpg a Volkswagen Golf Diesel gets about 52 mpg. The Golf will run circles around the Prius while saving fuel. Just watch the video.

Mineral County Planning Commission hears requirements for Zoning

Wednesday night the Mineral County Planning Commission was visited by Michael Dougherty of the WVU Extension Office. Mike spoke for 21 minutes to the commission on what was required for implementing zoning in Mineral County.

His speech is complete with all the parts below.

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3

Hillary Clinton Supporters Call Fox News Fair and Balanced, Indirectly

Democrats, especially those of the pantsuit persuasion, have many times over the years chided Fox News as being a bastion of conservative bias. They love bashing the network's "Fair and Balanced" slogan.

Certainly over the years Fox News has gotten its shots in at both Clintons while other networks cast a glow upon them. This primary season saw the Clinton backlash candidate within Democratic circles result in the nomination of not a formidable Clinton Part II, but of Jimmy Carter and George McGovern rolled into one vague and incomprehensible package.

Hillary Clinton thought she had this one in the bag. Based upon the media love affair with her over the years, why should she have felt any differently. Negative media coverage, not just in stories, but also photo selection, point of view, even jokes, assailed her as it normally does the GOP nominee. She found out suddenly what it was like to be a Republican.

Last week her supporters called out MSNBC and CNN for their presumed bias against her nomination. Of course they hauled out the sexist card against those two organizations. Interestingly by default she acknowledges Fox's claim of fair and balanced coverage. Stories also surfaced last week describing the possibility of retribution against those who turned on the Clintons. In our state, Governor Manchin only announced his support of Obama after receiving the blessing of the Clintons. Not that it matters since Joe Manchin would rather be seen with Mao Tse Dong at this point than Barrack Hussein Obama (of course there's not much difference between those two.)

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Speaking of disciples of Mao Tse Dong, Delegate Carrie Webster (D-Kanawha) spent over $73,000 in the primary! The party of the common man has 80% of the $1.28 million that all legislative candidates have at this point, according to Lincoln Walks at Midnight.

Voters must look past the flash and dash that the Democrats can afford and pay attention to their pro-abortion platform that also endorses the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol was voted down by the US Senate in 2000 99-0. It would have been 100-0, but Strom Thurmond was too ill to vote. It would effectively destroy much of the coal market. Additionally it would place restrictions on the US economy that competing third world nations would not be burdened with. Senators Byrd and Rockefeller as well as all our representatives voted against it.

Illegal to be Overweight Part Two

If you saw the previous article about Japan passing laws to outlaw obesity, you know what I am talking about. That country established national waistline standards that will cause towns and cities to be punished if their citizens are too overweight.

The big question here is, how would the state find out if people in a given city are too fat or not? My guess is that the government has too much access to health care numbers on individuals. They can leverage that information against towns and cities who will then bring compulsive power down upon individuals. All this effort for a problem that is none of the state's business.

It can't happen here, right? Too late! Governor Joe Manchin expends state resources to gather information about what kind of exercise each child in school does every day. That's right. Children must report their physical activities on a calendar every day or they receive a D in their physical education class. Are you an aspiring valedictorian that believes in freedom and keeping government out of your life? Too bad. Uncle Joe says you have to tell.

Expect more of this kind of interference if the government ever gains control of health care. That will give them access to all your information. Governments cannot be trusted with the economy because they make economic decisions for political reasons. That is why the Soviet Union fell apart and why China has abandoned real Communism (although they maintain their dictatorship.) It is why Britain has almost no dentists and why people there have taken to extracting their own teeth.

Socialized health care will not only result in poor decisions by politicians, it will also allow the government to craft policies to encourage you to be healthier whether you like it or not. Someday compare pictures of those who led our Revolution and crafted our Constitution with those who founded fascist and communist states. The American founders are certainly a mixed bag. For every trim George Washington you have two or three pear shaped Franklins or John Adamses. You also have a few morbidly obese men such as General Henry Knox. Look at the Nazis. Outside of morphine addict Hermann Goering, you have a group that was obsessed with physical fitness. Look at Stalin's inner circle. Krushchev was a little pudgy, but most of those men stayed pretty fit as well.

The difference is the freedom to choose. Our society is based upon that ideal but it is difficult to maintain it. The enemy is the nanny state and they don't take all our freedoms at once. They use what Stalin called "salami tactics." If you slice away a bit at a time, no one notices. Uncle Joe Manchin takes a little freedom by forcing kids to give up their privacy "because it is for their own good." Socialized health care by comparison is giving away the farm. We put this crucial part of our system into government hands and we have told the world that we are no longer free.

Illegal to be Overweight?

If we need any more indications that what we used to call liberal democracy is on the decline, we just need to look at Japan.

When someone uses the term "liberal democracy" or "classical liberalism" they do not mean the left wing socialist style liberalism that has gained ascendancy in the current Democratic party. Liberalism at one time referred to those who advocated breaking through the restrictive regulations of 18th century mercantilism to create freedom and opportunity for individuals and business. It meant that people needed freedom from government so they could thrive. Individuals and businesses had the freedom to make choices and the responsibility to live with them. There was no contradiction between the fact that these people called themselves "liberal" and that the word derived from the same Latin root that gives us "liberty."

After World War II, societies began exercising their democratic rights to trade away their liberties. In America those advocating more restrictions and less freedoms called themselves "liberals." Europeans traded their economic freedoms for what they felt would be a more orderly economy. The socialist regulatory state resembled Mussolini's Italy more than a classically liberal state. On the Continent this was understandable since real democracy had only existed there a short time. The virus has recently infected Britain, however. Their so-called liberals forced the population to give up their guns. And this country was the origin of the idea of natural rights!

That brings us to Japan. They recently passed legislation that established a national standard for waistlines. Towns and cities that do not meet national standards will face sanctions. Of course this means the people will suffer eventually. This kind of legislation probably appeals to some American nanny staters who would use the power of the state to force people into certain lifestyles. However it reeks more of the physical obsession of states designed by Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini.

The anti freedom virus has infected too many states. We must work to turn back the tide.