SubscribeThis is why I never pursued a career in avionics
Even though I spent nearly ten years in the United States Air Force working on airplanes and I have an associates degree in avionics, I’ve never tried to get a job in aerospace. This is exactly why. From today’s Herald-Mail:
Northrop Grumman on Thursday warned its entire work force of 180 employees at its facility north of Hagerstown that they could be laid off within 60 days, a company spokeswoman said.
“No new work is coming in right now. We’re hoping work will come in, in the fall,” said Leah Smith, the company’s media relations manager.
Northrop Grumman’s local operation is on Showalter Road near Hagerstown Regional Airport.
Company officials were trying to determine if employees can be placed at other Northrop Grumman sites, but did not know Thursday how many could be transferred and how many could be laid off, Smith said.
I feel bad for the folks about to get laid off. It wasn’t that long ago that Northrop Grumman was actively hiring people at the Hagerstown Regional Airport. And now they are giving them the boot.
Northrop Grumman made over $1.7 billion in profits last year, most if not all, of that money coming from the American taxpayer. Aren’t defense contractors great?
The Herald-Mail is once again passing incorrect facts as opinion
From a letter to the editor penned by Edgar M. Foltz Jr. of Greencastle, Pennsilvania published on March 5, 2010:
Unfortunately, capital punishment has been outlawed in some states, including Maryland. I realize, at the same time, that law, in too many cases, has been abused with the execution of innocent people, so those who enforce the law must be very thorough and fair in their judgments, obviously.
The above statement is factually incorrect. Maryland has not “outlawed” capital punishment. It has the death penalty.
This kind of stuff irritates me to no end. People are entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts. If a newspaper is going to publish a statement of fact, is it asking too much for the fact to be correct? I say it’s not.
Just to be clear, the blame for this falsity falls squarely on the Herald-Mail and not Mr. Foltz. Granted, it would have been good if he could have taken 15 seconds and done some quick research on Wikipedia. No, I blame the Herald-Mail entirely for this. This letter was after all sent to the editor. Why didn’t the editor edit this letter for truthfulness?
The Regal Valley Mall 16 is quickly turning into a real dump
Sheri and I went to the Regal Valley Mall 16 last night to see The Crazies (loved it) and I was surprised to see what a dump the theater has become. This 16-screen theater opened in the Valley Mall not too long ago. I don’t remember the exact date, but it looks much older than it has any business looking.
The place is a dump.
As the photo shows, most if not all of the seats are ripped, exposing large sections of dirty, ratty looking foam.
If Regal’s not going to replace damaged seating, they ought to at least invest in some duct tape. Since it now comes in different colors, they could even get some that matches the color of the seat.
It’s pretty obvious they just don’t care.
Stock up on toilet paper, milk, and bread, a ‘potentially paralyzing’ snow storm is coming to town
It looks like we are about to be hit with a massive snow storm. The weather forecasters are calling for up to 20 inches of snow for Friday and Saturday. I normally don’t pay much attention to the weather forecast. I figure it’s going to do what it’s going to do. If it snows, it snows.
There’s nothing I can do about about it.
Truth be told, I was already planning on staying home this weekend. Landon Donovan and the rest of his Everton teammates go into Anfield to play their cross-town rivals Liverpool. ESPN is showing the game in stunning HD. I can hardly wait. On Sunday, the Baltimore Indianapolis Colts face off against the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl. I’m picking the Saints to win which of course means the Colts will probably win in a blowout.
If the region is blanketed with snow this weekend, it wont really effect me all that much.
18 inches of snow makes this blizzard some kind of record
The blizzard looks to be over. The sun is shinning and it’s not snowing anymore, but the ground is still blanketed with the white stuff. The Herald-Mail is reporting that we received 18 inches of the stuff here in Williamsport.
The National Weather Service is saying this storm was a record for the month of December. I’m not sure why it’s important to categorize it by the month. It’s not like it’s August or July. It’s December, one of the months we get snow.
I guess a lot of people yesterday decided to would be a good idea to go out and drive around even though local law enforcement was pleading with people to stay off the roads and to please stay home. It’s not like there were a lot of places for people to go, except of course a snowy ditch on the side of the road. That’s where a lot of people ended up yesterday. In a snowy ditch.
Most if not all of the stores in the area were closed yesterday. I guess it’s hard to get people in the world of retail to come to work in the middle of a blizzard when you are only paying them minimum wage.
Yesterday was some kind of major shopping day in that it was the final Saturday before Christmas, the day we honor the birth of the Son of God, the man that told people to forsake treasures here on earth and to instead sell everything we own and give it to the poor. We honor his birth by ignoring what he said and instead we buy lots and lots of stuff for the people in our lives. If these people also happen to be poor, than so much the better.
Now that it’s stopped snowing and the roads look to be clear, I imagine the malls and other stores will be making up for yesterday with lots of shoppers. And yes, I will probably be one of them. I have a 30% off Borders coupon that expires on Monday. Plus, I think we still have a few gifts to pick up.
I look out my window and see white death
We in the north east/mid-Atlantic are getting slammed with a real life, honest to goodness snow storm. It started snowing last night before I got off work and it looks to have been snowing ever since. The state of Virginia declared a STATE OF EMERGENCY before even one snow flake fell.
Way to keep a stiff upper lip Virginia.
This morning the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning that is scheduled to stay in effect till tonight at 6:00 p.m. It looks like we wont be going anywhere today. Not that we really need to. I’m still reading the new Stephen King book (I love it) and I really should finish Call of Duty: World at War. When I last played, I was a Russian sniper stuck in a burning building surrounded by Nazi soldiers. I don’t know what I dislike more: having to pretend to be a Godless communist or being surrounded by Nazis.
I can’t help but wonder how this blizzard will be effecting the opening weekend numbers for Avatar. Having a major chunk of the east coast get hit by a monster of a snow storm has got to have an effect on the box office. Not that I was planning on going to see it. One one hand, being a science fiction nerd more or less requires me to go see movies like this. On the other hand, the movie looks to me to be a giant World of Warcraft game run amok.
Books-A-Million comes to the Hagerstown area
It was only a few weeks ago that I was saddened to learn that the Waldenbooks in the Valley Mall was closing. The book store had been a constant fixture in the Valley Mall as long as I’ve lived here in the Hagerstown area. We stopped by the Valley Mall this evening and I was pleasantly surprised to see that a Books-A-Million had moved and and set up in place of Waldenbooks.
It’s a Christmas miracle!
A large Books-A-Million opened recently in nearby Martinsburg, West Virginia. This one of course is much smaller, but it’s still great to have a place in the mall to buy books and magazines. Walking around inside tonight, it looks as though the sections are more or less the same as they were when it was a Waldenbooks.
Sending prisoners and the unemployed to Afghanistan
One of the most popular parts of the local newspaper, The Herald-Mail, is the Mail Call section. It’s where people call in and leave messages about the things that concern them. To be honest, I used to think that The Herald-Mail was just making up these calls. Most of them are almost too silly and too entertaining for me to believe that they are true.
I’ve since changed my mind. I’ve realized that the Hagerstown area has no shortage of the type of people that would call into Mail Call.
Here’s one that caught my attention today:
I’m a veteran. What they should do is empty out the prisons, and all these young guys hanging on the streets, and send them to Afghanistan. They’re not doing any good on the streets where they’re at now. All the prisoners and people that’s unemployed and stuff, roaming the streets, send them to Afghanistan. Let them fight the war.
As an unemployed person, I really appreciate being grouped in with people in prison. As bad as getting laid off was two months ago, if this person was in charge, I would be on a plane right now sitting next to Bernie Madoff and Charles Manson heading to Afghanistan.
That would really suck.
City of Frederick does not understand why hanging dummies from a tree might remind some of lynchings
To say that racism, or at the very least, racial insensitivity, can be found here in western Maryland is perhaps a whopper of an understatement. Every once in a while something happens that reminds one and all of this sad and depressing fact. The city of Frederick hung three dummies from a tree at a city park as part of a Halloween program. From a distance, they looked like actual people hanging from the tree.
To some, the dummies hanging from the trees reminded them of when black men were hung from trees by white southern supremest groups. The practice was commonly referred to as a lynching.
Though I don’t necessarily believe that whoever thought up this display was trying to recreate a lynching, I don’t understand what it has to do with Halloween.
Guy Djoken, president of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter, requested that the dummies be removed from the park. Republican Mayor Jeff Holtzinger refused saying that Djoken was only trying to drum up publicity for himself.
A quick check of the Frederick News Post comment section shows that Holtzinger is not alone. Some of the comments:
- “Gives the “race hustlers” something to do.”
- “My goodness, lets get Jessie and Al on the phone. Let’s make sure we have all the race baiters in court for this one. Get a life.”
- Guy Djoken is just like Obama, they are born in another country, come to the US, and try and run things, but are failures.
- “Hey…they just had a story on the news about BLACK BEAR season opening in Maryland. I guess the NAACP idot will have something to cry and complain about tomorrow. Why can’t they just go back where they came from if they are always offended about something. What a bunch of crap”.
Why can’t we all agree that hanging dummies from a tree is not the best use of city resources? To me, this just seems like a no-brainier.
Life is full of hard questions. This is not one of them.
Nice sunglasses buddy
There’s a Native American Indian Pow Wow going on this weekend at the Hagerstown Raceway. The Herald-Mail was kind enough to run photos from yesterday’s event so people like me can see some of the sights without having to go to the trouble of venturing out to the raceway and ponying up the $5 admission fee.
It’s not like I haven’t seen a pow wow before. I was once at the Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick when one of these hokey events was taking place in the mall’s center square. I stood there in the mall and watched for a couple of minutes. I couldn’t really believe what I was seeing. What I saw were people that were supposedly honoring their ancestor’s culture and spiritual beliefs by prancing around the mall dressed in costumes made with synthetic materials. Nearly all of the participants were wearing eye glasses, something their ancestors probably didn’t do even if they weren’t lucky enough to have perfect eyesight. One of the female participants was wearing a costume made from pink buckskin.
Though there are many words I could use to describe what I saw, the words “traditional” or “authentic” would not be included.
The whole thing just seemed tacky. It would have been different if what I saw were people engaged in the historic and authentic reproduction of their ancestor’s beliefs. I didn’t see that. I saw something a lot different than that. Instead of honoring their ancestors, if anything, what they were doing was actually dishonoring those beliefs.
Maryland’s Sideling Hill Exhibit Center to close
One of the things getting the ax in the 2010 Maryland budget will be the the Sideling Hill Exhibit Center. It’s located out in the middle of nowhere where a big chunk of rock was cut out of a mountain back in the 1980’s to make room for Interstate 68.
The Harald-Mail reported that the Sideling Hill Exhibit Center cost $110,000 to operate in fiscal year 2009 and served 95,000 visitors. That works out to be $1.16 per visitor.
Some Maryland politicians evidently don’t want the center to be shut down. Washington County Commissioner Kristin B. Aleshire sent out an email to various officials:
I hope you will agree that the savings that will be achieved pale in comparison to the loss of this unique regional landmark and the economic benefit it brings to the many folks that travel this route for tourism, vacation, and general access to much of United States west of the mid-Atlantic seaboard.
Economic benefit? He’s got to be kidding. This is no “landmark”. It’s a mountain that’s been defaced so that a stretch of interstate could be put down. Let’s not pretend that it’s one of the seven wonders of the world or a work of art.
It has no historical significance. It’s just a big hole cut in a big rock.
People travel this route because they are going somewhere else. They aren’t going that way to visit the Sideling Hill Exhibit Center. I’d be surprised if a majority of them were even from Maryland or going somewhere else in Maryland. They certainly aren’t spending any money while they are there.
I think I’ve stopped there only once. It was to use the restroom. I’ve never understood why the site deserved a state-run exhibit center. It serves no benefit to the people living here in Maryland. Closing it sounds like a good idea, especially considering that the state has to trim $700 million from the 2010 budget.
City of Hagerstown might examine unpopular sidewalk repair policy
Hagerstown’s City Council tonight is discussing whether or not to create a special task force to review the city’s unpopular curb and sidewalk policy. Currently, the city of Hagerstown requires the owner of the home in which a broken or damaged curb or sidewalk sits in front of to pay for the repair.
These repairs cost anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000.
For years, Hagerstown home owners have complained about getting hit with these repair charges. They don’t own the sidewalk or curb, it’s public property. Why should they be saddled with the repair costs? What’s next, will they be stuck with paying to have the street in front of their homes repaired too?
Maybe I shouldn’t give anyone any ideas.
I think it’s absurd that the city council is even contemplating whether or not to form a special task force to look into this issue. I think they are doing it because they don’t want to be responsible for making the unpopular decision of continuing to stick it to home owners.
A task force should only be formed to catch a serial killer, not to figure out a way to pay for sidewalk repairs.
An authentic renaissance festival comes to Hagerstown
We stopped by the Hagerstown City Park to check out the Renaissance Festival that was taking place there yesterday. I must say, it was very interesting. Members of the Society for Creative Anachronism dressed in historic, authentic pre-17th-century European garb and demonstrated what life was like back then.
I really learned a lot.
I never knew people back then used duct tape. Not just regular old silver duct tape either, but fancy colored duct tape. Nor did I realize that the use of PVC plastic pipe was so prevalent back then. Before yesterday, I would have assumed that PVC didn’t hit the scene until some time in the late 20th century. I also didn’t realize that not only did people in pre-17th-century Europe wear eye glasses, evidently many of them even wore sunglasses. Not that I could blame them. The glare from the bright medieval Sun can be quite bright.
And not only did fighting men back then wear armor on the battlefield, as the above photo shows, they also wore wristwatches. What better way of telling what time it is? You could look to the sky to see where the Sun is, but you might get hit in the head with a giant yellow foam arrow.
I also learned, sadly, the cigarette smoking was as prevalent back then that it is today. Evidently not only did pre-17th-century Europeans smoke cigarettes, they even smoked filtered cigarettes.
I really learned a lot. I look forward to the next renaissance festival where I can once again see history come alive.
Gandolfo’s New York Deli
We stopped in at a Gandolfo’s New York Deli today to eat lunch and ended up quickly leaving. It’s a chain eatery that’s supposed to mimic the type of deli you would see in New York City.
It is to New York delis what Outback Steakhouse is to the Australian outback.
I’ve eaten in a lot of New York delis. None of them have been like Gandolfo’s. You walk in and you see a giant black and white poster of John Lennon wearing a t-shirt with the words “NEW YORK” printed across the front. There were also Knicks and Mets banners hanging from the ceiling.
If I didn’t realize it was a crap restaurant by the looks of the hokey, jive decor, one look at the menu told me everything I needed to know. Instead of having sandwiches listed as what they are (e.g., turkey, roast beef, etc) everything had a cutesy, hokey name. There was the “King of Queens” and the “Madison Square Garden”. There was the “Yankee in the Rye” and the “Tri-Borough Bridge”.
I just wanted half a turkey sub. Is that too much to ask? When eating in actual New York delis in the actual city of New York and I wanted a turkey sub, all I had to ask for was a turkey sub.
We left before ordering and instead went to went to Freddie’s Subs, a real deli that doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. I ordered half a turkey sub and it was delicious.
When I got home, I looked up Gandolfo’s New York Deli on Google. They have franchises in 17 states. You know what’s one of the states they are not in?
New York.
It’s not like there is even an original Gandolfo’s New York Deli located a stone’s throw from the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s total crap.
The original Gandolfo’s New York Deli is located in Provo, Utah. The Gandolfo cooperate office is in Lawrenceville, Georgia. In other words, it’s about as fake as fake can be.
Pastor’s husband is a registered sex offender
From NBC Channel 25:
A Methodist minister in Boonsboro is in hot water with her church. Pastor Helen Smith is accused of not telling her parishioners that her husband is a registered sex offender.
Dr. Helen Smith has been pastor at Benevola United Methodist Church for 15 years. Her husband, 57-year-old David Smith has also been working in the music ministry. But now Pastor Smith’s leadership is in question.
It all started when a church member saw David’s picture on the internet. He was convicted of a third-degree sex offense after his adult daughter brought charges against him, claiming he sexually abused her from the age of five until she was 12.
According to the United Methodist Church, Pastor Smith knew about the allegations as early as 2005. The conviction happened in July 2008. Church leaders say Pastor Smith did not inform them or the congregation until December of last year and what she disclosed was inconsistent with court records.
His entry on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry site can be seen here.
In January, the Herald-Mail published an article about David and Helen Smith of Keedysville, detailing their eco-friendly, “green” lifestyle. It stated that they live off the grid, getting all of their electricity from wind and solar. The article mentioned that the Smith’s travel around the area speaking to groups, teaching people how they too can be more green.
Do any of these other groups include children?
Yes. The article mentions that they’ve worked with the Boonsboro High School Environmental Club, having students come over to their home. Maybe there needs to be a law against convicted child sex offenders from working with schools, having children come to their home. Oh, wait a minute. There already is.
Area realator compares city employees to Nazis
At a public hearing held to discuss the City of Hagerstown’s property tax rate, Tim Light, an area realtor, took the stage and accused city employees working in the Code Compliance Office of being like the Nazis who worked in the Gestapo.
From my favorite newspaper, the Herald-Mail:
After Martin finished his presentation, Realtor Tim Light took the stage.
Light said he represented several Realtors and investors.
The city should consider making more cuts, he said, rather than relying on property owners to create tax revenue. Light suggested starting with the Code Compliance Office because its employees turn away investors by using strong-armed tactics.
He compared the Code Compliance Office to the Gestapo and the Nazis.
“Code Enforcement killed property values,” Light said. “Everyone knows not to invest in the City of Hagerstown. It’s not profitable.”
Unless the folks working in the Code Compliance Office are hearding people into box cars and sending them to work camps in eastern Europe, I don’t really understand the comparison.
Roscoe Bartlett refers to Democrats as the enemy
Area Republicans gathered at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center on Saturday for the Maryland GOP spring convention where they talked about how awful Democrats were and how courageous Rush Limbaugh is.
From Hagerstown’s newspaper of record, the Herald-Mail:
As Democrats strengthen their federal control, U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., said he feels ambivalent.
Even while outnumbered, Republicans can fight full bore for their causes. Or they can be content to watch Democrats overspend and make bad policy decisions, benefiting the GOP, Bartlett said.The conventional wisdom, he said, is “when your enemy is committing suicide, you shouldn’t interfere.”
And I thought Roscoe Bartlett’s enemy, like all Americans, was al Qaeda. I should have realized Bartlett would put his political party before his country. Silly me.
Bartlett told the crowd that he was with Rush Limbaugh. He said that Limbaugh had the courage to not say that he wanted Barack Obama to succeed.
It should be no surprise that Roscoe Bartlett would think that a draft-dodger like Rush Limbaugh is courageous. Rush Limbaugh avoided military service during the Vietnam conflict by claiming to have an “old football injury”, and then claiming to having a pilonidal cyst on his buttocks. Roscoe Bartlett avoided military service during World War Two by claiming he wanted to pursue a career in the ministry, though ne never actually did.
This is the man that once called for higher gas prices. He failed to report roughly $1 million in property sales in official documents. He also bowed to Reverend Sun Myung Moon at a crowning ceremony held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter what Roscoe Bartlett says or does. The people of the 6th district of Maryland will continue to reelect him to the U.S. House of Representatives every two years.
Maryland man kills his family and then himself
From the Frederick News-Post:
A 34-year-old CSX Railroad worker killed his wife and three young pajama-clad children before turning a shotgun on himself, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.
The body of Christopher A. Wood was found that morning at the foot of the bed in the master bedroom of a two-story house in the first block of Washington Street, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said.
Jenkins, whose career in law enforcement spans 20 years, said the crime scene was “the worst thing I’ve ever seen in Frederick County.”
Wood’s wife, Francis Billotti-Wood, 33, and 2-year-old daughter were found dead of undetermined causes in the bed of the master bedroom.
The couple’s two sons, ages 5 and 4, were found dead in the bedroom they shared, also on the second floor.
I would say that it’s a given that unless Sheriff Jenkins had ever seen a man brutally murder his entire family, this would by default be the worse thing he could ever see. I cannot imagine seeing anything worse.
Francis Wood and her children were cut with knifes and shot with a .25 caliber handgun. Christopher Wood committed suicide with a shotgun.
The bodies were discovered on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. by Francis Wood’s father. He was concerned because he had not been able to reach anyone for at least a day. Upon finding his daughter, son-in-law, and his three grandchildren dead, he left contacted the police.
Police found five different suicide notes believed to be written by Christopher Wood.
Hagerstown Tea Party a raging success
It would seem that the Tea Party protest held in Hagerstown yesterday was a huge success. The Herald-Mail reports that there were “about” 300 people in attendance. The event’s organizers were hoping to attract 200 people.
I’m still not sure what the protest was actually about. I heard over and over again that it was a grass roots, non-partisan movement, but when you look at the people behind the movement, you only see Republicans.
Was it about wasteful government spending? Where have these people been for the past eight years?
Much of the angst coming from these Tea Party people seems to be directed to President Obama. Do they realize that he has only been in office for less than three months? Do they know that unless they make more than $250,000 a year, their taxes under Obama were cut? I hope these people compare their 2009 tax return to the one they filed yesterday. The amount of taxes they will be paying in 2009 will be less than what they are paying for 2008.
I hope those that stood in the rain yesterday in downtown Hagerstown throwing tea bags in that plastic wadding pool will compare their 2009 tax return to their 2008 tax return.
Unfortunately, I don’t think they will.
Hagerstown Tea Party
From the “official” Hagerstown Tea Party freebie Google Blogspot website:
TEA PARTY PLANNED FOR HAGERSTOWN MARYLANDThe Hagerstown Tea Party represents people who are concerned about their family’s and their children’s future, who are concerned about the skyrocketing national debt, and who think the government is spending too much of their hard-earned money. The Hagerstown Tea Party is a part of a national movement of Tea Parties planned in over 1,500 cities across the U.S. scheduled for April 15.
The Hagerstown Tea Party expects to have approximately 200 participants. Main Speakers include Delegate Chris Shank and Delegate Andrew Serafini. The event is scheduled for this Wednesday, Tax Day, rain or shine from 3-6 PM in the University Plaza. The plaza is located right next to the University of Maryland Hagerstown Campus and across from Hagerstown Post Office in the middle of the Dual Highway.
Please contact Neil Parrott for more information. He can be reached by phone at 240-329-2645 or by e-mail at hagerstownteaparty@myactv.net.
I don’t know what’s funnier: that they think 200 people are going to show up for this thing or that they are wrong about where the University of Maryland Hagerstown Campus is located.
The Hagerstown Post Office is not on Dual Highway. It’s on Franklin Street. The University of Maryland Hagerstown Campus is on West Washington Street.
What a waste of money
Yesterday there was a special ribbon cutting ceremony at the Hagerstown Regional Airport celebrating the new commuter service to Baltimore. Cap Air will be flying passengers from Hagerstown to Baltimore and will be receiving $1.2 million from the federal government in the form of a special subsidy for the service.
There is a special government program called the Essential Air Service (EAS) that is designed to link rural communities with the national transportation system. Maryland’s two U.S. Senators, Barbara A. Mikulski (D) and Benjamin L. Cardin (D) had to seek a special waiver so Hagerstown would be qualified.
Hagerstown of course is not at all qualified for this special subsidy. One can easily drive from Hagerstown to either Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) Airport or Dulles International Airport in Virgina. Either airport is only an hour drive away.
It was recently announced that the unemployment rate here in Washington County is now at 9.9%. That $1.2 million subsidy going to Cap Air isn’t going to be making a dent in our unemployment rate.
Jonathan R. Burrs for mayor
Being that I’m now living in Williamsport and technically I have to stake in who the city of Hagerstown elects as it’s mayor, I feel like making my opinion in the matter known.
I endorse Republican Jonathan R. Burrs for the mayor of Hagerstown.
I realize that as a card carrying tree hugging liberal, I should probably be endorsing a Democrat if I’m going to meddle in the city politics of Hagerstown. The problem with that is I’ve never really subscribed to the notion that party affiliation matters all that much at the local level. As the mayor of Hagerstown, it doesn’t really mater what his views on gay marriage are or whether or not he supports a woman’s right to choose. Things like this don’t really come up an awful lot when it comes to running a city the size of Hagerstown.
I like the fact that Burrs not only knows what a fiber-optic cable high-speed Internet system is, he believes that it’s in the city’s best interest to establish one as a way of attracting high-tech businesses to the area.
That’s smart.
If you are a Republican living in Hagerstown, I urge you to go to the polls on March 10th and vote for Jonathan Burrs for mayor.
If you come to Hagerstown, you better bring your own road salt
Hagerstown Police Chief Arthur Smith reported that there were 47 traffic accidents in the city on Wednesday, December 24 from the hours of midnight to 8:00 a.m. The reason? Because the city failed to spread salt, that magical high-tech substance that lowers the temperature in which water freezes.
Only a partial salt spreading crew was scheduled to be on duty. Whatever that means.
The totally retarded aspect of this story is that everyone knew that the weather forecast was calling for freezing rain on Wednesday. If there are two words you don’t want put together its “freezing” and “rain”.
I’m guessing that there were even more accidents than the 47 that were reported. Most fender-bender type of accidents don’t get reported to the police. The city screwed up by not scheduling salt to be spread on a night where freezing rain was in the forecast and it’s going to cost people a lot of money.
Charges dropped against Hagerstown cop
All criminal charges have been dropped against 24-year old Hagerstown police officer Curtis W. Kelley. He had been charged with first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment after his live-in girlfriend told the police that he pointed his service weapon at her during an argument.
He allegedly said he wouldn’t shoot her because she wasn’t worth the bullet.
Officer Kelley’s lawyer was able to get the charges dismissed because Kelley’s girlfriend originally testified that she “did not believe he would shoot her,” but that she was concerned Kelley might harm her later. His lawyer argued that the assault charges required the victim to be in fear of bodily harm at the time of the incident. Being fearful of harm later on didn’t count.
Either pointing your weapon at your girlfriend during an argument is wrong or it’s not. I don’t quite understand exactly how her mental state at the time should be a factor. Frankly, it’s officer Kelley’s mental state at the time that should be a concern, not his girlfriend’s.
Maybe he shouldn’t be a cop
Hagerstown police officer Curtis W. Kelley, 24, has been placed on leave with pay and has been charged with various crimes in connection to allegedly pointing his departmentally issued handgun at his live-in girlfriend.
On September 12, Officer Kelly and his girlfriend got into an argument after she told him she was meeting a male friend she has known since kindergarten. Officer Kelly picked up his handgun that had been sitting on a table in their apartment and pointed it at her. He then allegedly said he wouldn’t shoot her because she wasn’t worth the bullet.
Now that is just rude. I’m pretty sure that the Hagerstown Police Department provides bullets to their officers for free. How bad must a woman be if she’s not worth a free bullet? It’s not like it was a special or exotic bullet. It was just a plain old regular 40-caliber bullet.
That’s no way to treat a lady, especially one you share your life with.
It’s also not a good idea to destroy your girlfriend’s self esteem before she heads off to spend time with a male friend. That’s just asking for trouble. [Herald-Mail]
Shop at the Hagerstown Prime Outlets and you might have your car towed away
Some Black Friday shoppers at the Hagerstown Prime Outlets mall discovered upon finishing their shopping that their cars had been towed away. There were so many shoppers at the Prime Outlets that all of the parking spaces were full. Many people began parking on the grassy areas.
Evidently the Prime Outlets has a rule against parking on the grass. The problem is, they do not post signs stating this fact. They keep this rule to themselves.
Shoppers who had their car towed away were forced to pay a towing company $250 to get their vehicle back.
I know where these people were parking. The only reason anyone would ever park there is because there’s no other place for them to park. This is such a scam. [MSNBC]
This is a top job?
Hagerstown’s local newspaper, The Herald-Mail, has a section on their website entitled “Top Jobs“. I think they simply republish on their website the jobs printed in the paper version of the newspaper, but I’m not sure.
While looking over the website this morning, one of the ads caught my attention. It’s for “exotic” dancers at a strip club.
Only the Herald-Mail would refer to a job where a young woman is required to remove her clothing on stage to entertain perverts as a “top job”.
I don’t remember seeing anyone with the name Bible on the ballot
The local newspaper has a photo slideshow on their website that featured various photos taken in Washington County on Election Day. The local newspaper being what it is, failed to put the photos into any sort of context. They didn’t identify anyone in the photos. They offered no explanation as to what the photos were capturing.
For instance, what is this man actually campaigning for? I don’t remember seeing a candidate on the ballot with the name “Bible”. I also don’t remember anything on the ballot that had to do with abortion. I think I would remember that.
If he is Pro-Life, does that mean he is against the death penalty too?
There was something on the ballot concerning gambling. It had to do with allowing slot machines here in Maryland. Personally, I could care less about slots. I don’t gamble or play games of chance. It has nothing to do with my morals or anything like that, I just find gambling to be extremely boring. With that said, I voted to allow slots here in Maryland. The reason? Who am I to tell someone that wants to play slots that they can’t. It’s none of my business.
What exactly is this man trying to get across to the voters? He has a checkmark in the box next to Pro-Life and an “X” next to gambling. Don’t they mean the same thing, a checkmark and an “X”?
I take it that this man was a McCain supporter. I find that to be extremely ironic in that out of the two candidates, Obama is the one that is a born again Christian. He’s the only one that has been married to the same woman his entire life. McCain on the other hand, not so much. He left his first wife for a woman much younger then himself, a woman who’s vast fourtune was built on selling of beer. Most Christians frown on drinking beer, let alone making millions of dollars selling it.
The First Amendment works both ways
Today’s Herald-Mail had a semi-interesting Mail Call entry. It’s from a person who claims they were “verbally assaulted” on election day:
I am writing this to the gentleman and his wife who verbally assaulted me on Election Day as I stood outside E. Russell Hicks Middle School. I would like to remind these fine U.S. citizens that I was well within my First Amendment rights to be there, just as much as they were. Not only am I also a U.S. citizen, but I am also a Christian. I appreciate the constitutional rights that our forefathers fought so hard for. … I was merely peacefully performing a civic duty and standing up for something I very strongly believe in. It would be a dismal day in this great country to wake up and realize that those unalienable rights had been taken away from us.
Except the gentleman and his wife also have First Amendment rights which means they are well within their rights to tell this Christian person standing outside the polling place exactly what they think of him or her. Freedom of Speech works both ways.
This person never bothers to say where exactly they were standing while “peacefully performing a civic duty.” It’s an important point because this person may have been breaking Maryland election law. In Maryland it’s illegal to canvass, electioneer, or post any campaign material within 100 feet of either the entrance or the exit to a polling place (Maryland Election Law § 16-206).
Man faces fines unless he moes his grassland habitat
Sharpsburg resident Dean Joyce has been notified by the Washington County Commissioners that he has to mow his natural meadow habitat down to 18 inches or he will face huge fines. Joyce decided to return his 3-acre field into a natural grassland habitat shortly after moving into his home in 2000. He is originally from Australia and he wanted to learn more about the flora and fauna of the United States.
I have to hand it to the Washington County Commissioners. When they decided to illegally give $10,000 to a Hagerstown all-star Little League team to supposedly cover travel expenses that were already being covered by Little League, I thought they couldn’t do anything as stupid ever again. Clearly I was wrong.
Joyce’s field is the way a field is supposed to look. It’s natural. It’s the way God intended a field to look. [The Herald Mail]
Maryland is getting tough on chicken poop
Maryland regulators have announced new regulations that will severely control how Maryland chicken farmers on the Eastern Shore store and handle chicken poop. Evidently many of them store the stuff out in the open and the rain washes the poop into the Chesapeake Bay.
They also spray the stuff on their corn fields. When the rain comes, it washes it from the corn fields into the Chesapeake Bay.
As you probably already know, chicken poop is rich in nitrogen. That’s probably why it smells so good. The nitrogen causes the amount of oxygen to decrease in the Chesapeake Bay which leads to bacteria outbreaks.
If your crab cakes have been tasting kind of funny lately, you might have been tasting the chicken poop. [Washington Post]
To think some people believe Hagerstown has a problem with racism
Yes, this says what you think it says. Click here to see a larger image. I don’t know what is more disturbing, that something like this could be found in Hagerstown’s own Rocky Ridge Collectibles or that the seller wants $45 for it.
And that was not the only piece of racist crap sitting on the shelf. No, it was only the most agregous. There were other similarly framed works of racism for sale along with this one.
Sorry for the crummy quality of the photo. I took it with my camera phone. I had to temporarily move a stack of cowboy hats to get a clear picture. Who would have guessed that the same vendor that was selling this framed piece of historical hate would also be selling cowboy hats?
It’s 2008. It would be nice if we could finally get past this type of stuff.
Maryland college bans smoking
The smoking lamp is permanently off at Montgomery College, a community college — also known as the 13th and 14th grade — here in Maryland. No more smoking cigarettes, pipes, cigars, or any other tobacco based products.
I’m not sure if this ban also applies to marijuana.
Montgomery College Snuffs Out Smoking [Washington Post]
Creepy scientist accused of anthrax attacks cashes in
Steven Hatfill, former Army scientist named “a person of interest” in the 2001 anthrax attacks will receive $5.8 million to settle his lawsuit against the Justice Department. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft wont have to pay a cent of that figure even though he’s the one that made a public spectacle in naming Hatfill.
I miss John Ashcroft. Not only could he sing a pretty tune, he once lost an election for the U.S. Senate against a dead man. How funny is that?
Back in 2001 when the anthrax attacks were going on, Steven Hatfill worked at Fort Detrick in nearby Frederick. I used to work with a guy whose wife worked at Fort Detrick. Though she didn’t personally know Hatfill, she knew who he was. She said that everyone that knew Hatfill immediately suspected him of the attacks. When it comes to knowing how to manufacture weapons grade anthrax, there aren’t that many people with the skill and knowledge required. Not only did Hatfill have both of those things, he was also supposedly really weird. Supposedly he just gave people there the creeps.
And these are people that work around the world’s most dangerous pathogens on a daily basis.
Kid saves the world by cleaning up junk at a local Civil War battlefield
This from the local TV station’s website:
40 volunteers gathered at 9 a.m. to pick up trash throughout Antietam Battlefield.
“The battlefields are so important they support so many businesses around Maryland everywhere else where there are battlefields and it’s really important part of our history,” said Christopher Stockhaus, volunteer.
Stockhaus and his family traveled 13 hours just to help out. His participation is part of a school project.
“We’re supposed to save the world in a sense and something that we’re interested in. My entire family is interested in the Civil War and we saw Park Day and said that would be a good way to help save the world,” said Stockhaus.
Volunteers spent less than three hours to fill the dumpster. There’s a lot of this plastic sheeting and even an old mattress and refrigerator was found.
I cannot imagine driving 13 hours to go pick up trash. I have a hard time getting the motivation to clean out the back of my car. I guess wherever the Stockhaus clan lives is free of trash. I wonder if it took them 13 hours to drive straight here or did they stop every 25 miles to pick up trash. I’m just assuming that they drove in an automobile. Maybe they marched here on foot dressed like famous Civil War generals. That would be something.
How embarrassing. We are so pathetically lazy that people drive 13 hours to come here and clean up our trash. Unless somehow it was tourists that dumped a mattress and a refrigerator on the Antietam battlefield. Maybe the Washington Country Visitors Bureau ought to think about launching a whole ad campaign centered around the idea of people coming here to clean up after us.
If your pick-up truck has fake testicles hanging from the trailer hitch, you better stay out of Maryland
At least if my state delegate gets his bill passed. This from the local Hagerstown Herald-Mail:
ANNAPOLIS – Washington County Sheriff's deputy Matthew Bragunier figures that he sees, at least once a day, fake bull genitals flopping from the hitches of pickup trucks.
They're only a toy, but they're also unpleasant to look at, said Bragunier, worried what his 2-year-old girl might think someday.
"My daughter's going to see this," he said. "She's going to ask what this is. I don't want to be put in that spot. I don't think I ever want to be in that spot."
Del. LeRoy E. Myers Jr., R-Washington/Allegany, agreed.
This week, he filed a bill for Maryland to ban the toys and others like them.
The bill prohibits any "model, sign, sticker or other item" that shows uncovered human or animal genitals, as well as human buttocks or female breasts, from motor vehicles.
I too saw a pickup truck with fake bull genitals flopping from a trailer hitch. Once.
I thought it was stupid. I didn't think a special law needed to be passed. What's next? What part of the redneck culture will be regulated with a special Maryland law? Rebel flags? Dale Earnhardt tribute decals? Worn out 2000 Bush/Cheney stickers? If you take away a redneck's right to hang fake bull genitals from his trailer hitch, what's next?
I just think it's funny that the anti-fake bull testicle bill was sponsored by a guy named "LEROY".
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