Hoptown News

1130 The Shopping Spree

If we have so many unemployed people, where is the money coming from to set the shopping records? All sales are higher than last year in the retail markets. Sales for some higher ticket items are up 25% over last year. I'm beginning to doubt the government's unemployment figures. There must be a lot of people working that have been missed in the count. Just my opinion.

1130 CCHS Principal

Apparently CCHS has finally found a principal to get the school straightened out. I hear nothing but good things about him. Hopefully he can keep up the good work in the days ahead and get things straightened out over there.

1129 Cain is Able

Pres candidate Cain is able to keep a straight face while controversy swirls around him. Kind of like Newt Gingrich. Cain has a 13 year affair with a woman and thinks it won't affect his candidacy. How many more women are out there waiting to lower the hammer? The Republicans are really putting on a show this year. No matter who they elect he or she is going to have bruises all over from the negative campaigning.

1128 Where have all the readers gone?

It appears we have no readers for the Hoptown News anymore. I'm afraid Facebook may have taken over as the medium of choice. We were getting several page views and all of a sudden they dropped off. Comments have been few and far between. I'm going to try it a little longer but unless readership picks up, I might as well throw in the towel. If anyone has ideas about how to increase comments, please let me know.

1128 Child Abuse and Molestation

This rash of child molesting and child abuse has got to stop. Sending underpaid and undertrained social workers to stop it isn't going to work. The national news over the weekend had at least 5 new reported cases involving sports, porn, beatings and various other charges. These are crimes and should be prevented by sending trained personnel to check out complaints. Social workers are not routinely trained to go into a dangerous situation of domestic unrest. If you're going to ask them to do it, then make sure they understand what they are getting into, train them in self defense and arm them. No perpetrator of a crime is going to be afraid of a sweet little girl who is trained to talk to people about their problems. Give her a gun and a badge and the results will be different.

1122 Hint for commenters

After you comment, your comment is immediately on the page. Sometimes you have to click the refresh or reload button to update your computer to show the new comment properly. If you want your comment to be a post for a new subject, just attach a note to that effect and I'll move it from a comment to a post.

1122 Outbreak of child abuse

It's impossible to pick up a newspaper, turn on a tv or radio without being bombarded by new of the latest case of child sexual molestation. It's not only local, it's a nationwide epidemic. At first it was the Catholic Church. Now it's everywhere. Colleges, churches, schools. What's going on? Have our morals slipped so badly and we have become so numb that we don't pay any attention to this tradgedy anymore?

I think it's time to rewrite the laws on this subject to make it more harsh if caught abusing a child. Of course a person is still innocent until proven guilty and I respect that. But in cases where there is no shadow of a doubt, I think castration would be in order for males. I don't know what to do about females who molest males.

Our legislators need to be encouraged to address this issue and give it the debate that is due. I know it's a subject no one cares to talk about but it has to be done. Think of the countless thousands of lives that are being twisted out of shape in the victims of this scourge.

1122 Say it isn't so.

About a month ago, one warm afternoon a friend of mine was sitting in his yard swing on Pembroke Road drinking a beer. The beer was a popular brand in a distinctive can. A KSP trooper pulled up in the driveway and said "if you're going to drink that beer, you'll have to go inside or behind the house. You can't be seen drinking from the highway" or words to that effect. My friend got up and went inside not wishing a confrontation with the trooper.

It appears that the trooper was correct. I checked with a couple of sources and they confirmed it. So, if you you're going to have a cool one like you would at Wings and Rings close to the highway, better put it in a styrofoam cup. It seems doing what you want on your own property is not 100% acceptable.

1121 What was that again?

I can't help but criticize our friends at the KNE. Saturday's paper had an article about the truck/buggy accident that is in the news. The headline of the second section of the article referred to "wreckless driving" as the charge. Somehow wreckless driving doesn't sound to bad.

1120 It's working

Best I can tell the blog is working. We're getting lots of page views but few comments. You have to enter something in the name box to get it to accept your comment. Anything will do. We will monitor comments for content and if they get too rough they will be deleted. I have never had to delete very many comments but I will if I deem the comment inappropriate.

Comment on something so we can see how it goes.