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On the Senate floor last week, I quoted John Adams’ famous remark that “facts are stubborn things.” It was my way of warning the groups who were spreading misinformation about my background check legislation that facts, not lies, ultimately prevail. Unfortunately, my commonsense bill had a setback last week. The legislation got bipartisan support from [...]
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Please take a moment and appreciate your legs and your loved ones. As I write this on Monday afternoon, I am thinking how this time last week I was in Boston running away from bombs. This article is exclusive, use Cleeng to view it in full. The rest of this article is exclusive, use Cleeng [...]
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The framers of our Constitution believed in freedom and were intent on limiting the power of government. I have come across commentary that calls this a “quaint notion.” There are some that are uncomfortable with this idea because it implies an adversarial relationship between us and government. On the flip side of the argument, I [...]
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Since this is a column in the farm section, we might assume that all readers are familiar with the three-point tractor hitch. However, there was a time that I wasn’t aware of this apparatus. We never had a three-point hitch on the New Jersey farm. Our ‘40s vintage Allis Chalmers WF tractor simply wasn’t so [...]
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Putting a meal on the table for a husband and 10 kids during the Great Depression gave my grandmother an up close and personal view of the adage: Waste not; want not. OK, so it was a recession, not a depression that we just went through, but a lousy economy is a lousy economy and [...]
Continue reading …The West Virginia Legislature completed its 2013 session over this past weekend. I can now breathe a sigh of relief. Legislation is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. Legislators take an oath to defend the Constitution, but I’m of the belief that they should also take an [...]
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Saturday night, I walked out on Zachary Taylor Street in Harpers Ferry beneath the night sky to look for the aurora borealis. Scanning north across the Potomac, there did seem to be a greenish cast to the heavens above Maryland Heights. Much more spectacular was the “every day” night sky to the west, where Jupiter [...]
Continue reading …The Old Hippie (aka wife, Stephanie) is pawing away in the garden already. I usually like to fire up our classic, antiquated red Troy-Built tiller and turn up a straight and orderly seedbed, then just kind of look at it for a while. The newly-turned soil amid the fresh green grass and budding apple trees [...]
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KEARNEYSVILLE – Peas, Peas, Peas. Peas are rich in fiber, folic acid and vitamin A. We should all be eating them, and if possible, growing our own. Peas are a cool-season vegetable, meaning they will perform best when temperatures are in the 70s and will be just fine if subjected to a light frost. Their [...]
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Early in the last century West Virginia was a dark and isolated region dominated by coal mines and company towns that were brutish and barren. They were places where adults and children alike labored in danger and poverty. These conditions and the mine wars they spawned provoked voyeuristic interest among astonished newspaper readers in New [...]
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