I was over in western Maryland earlier today, read a local paper. My goodness, what trash.

[ThomWV]

I took a good long motorcycle ride this morning and afternoon, got myself over into the high country in western Maryland and parts of West Virginia's eastern panhandle. I stopped at a fast food place for a burger and glanced through the local paper while I ate it. I do not recall the name of the paper but it was from Cumberland, Maryland. Reading the editorial and letters section was like tuning in Rush on the radio. It was little less than hate-speech in print. If that sort of tripe is being passed for news and thoughtful opinion elsewhere in the country then we are in far worse trouble than I thought. It was hatespeech dressed up as news and clearly designed to not only convince the reader of the failure of Government but to go the step farther and suggest that Government was the enemy of the people. All that from one saturday issue read casually in a Micky-D's, I just can not imagine how anyone could stand up to a constant barrage of that mindless crap and come put with anything resembling a rational political point of view.

On Edit: When I finished reading and eating I crumpled that hate-filled rag up and stuffed it into the greasy trash. Garbage where garbage belongs.

[Wilms]

1. At least you didn't go hitch-hiking through there.

:scared:

[Bitwit1234]

2. This is the norm for the panhandle those people have always

been like that they would vote for the devil himself if he put an R after his name. I can't understand where they came from. Racist, hate and violence are their middle names.

[HillbillyBob]

9. It was not so bad when I grew up in that area

The idiots started to really get bad when they all foolishly voted for runnyraygun and it has been a downhill slide in manners and anti intellectual nonsense. I left many years ago and now still talk to some friends and family there, the ones that have not lost their friggin minds. I remember growing up there when the factories started to close and the pollution was pretty bad I think sometimes that the outputs from coal burning(the Ridgelely Dump was on fire for years and it was full of tire scraps from the Kelly Springfield plant,Celenese, Westvaco pulp and paper mill(miles away but could smell it).
Then jobs went away and Cumberland and Ridgeley are now depressed as far as I can see.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Cumberland is nasty. That's where the soldier who exposed Abu Ghraib war's life was threatened.

Remember Joe Darby, and that report on him and Cumberland on "60 Minutes?" Was up in Hagerstown not far from there today. Went through Cumberland a couple years ago. Nasty place, quite frankly. Not familiar with the newspaper, but hard to believe it could top the Harrisonburg (VA) Daily News-Record. Ugliness and pure dittoheadness for many years.

[ThomWV]

5. Actually its also just a few miles from where Christie England came from, Ft. Asby, WV

I've been through there, as I recall (without bothering to go look at my map) its about 30 or so miles from Cumberland, in the same area.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Good luck tonight! I'm rooting for you!

[Samantha]

8. Yes, I have a little place there -- I actually lived there for 8 years

I chose that area because of the beautiful countryside and wonderful history. Yes, it is a very rednecked area, but it has compensations.

My taxes on my place are $360 a year. It is a great place to retire to as long as one has the Internet and can still hear voices of reason. That's why one finds the occasional transplant there.

And then there is this -- Dolly Sods Protected Wilderness, what can one say....






Sam

[DebbieCDC]

4. It's the same in the Northern Panhandle of WVA

I grew up right across the river from Wheeling (in Ohio) and where once was a solid blue, union, democratic area is now total mouth-breathing red state teabag nation. My cousins still live back there and keep me posted on how bad it is. I used to drive through that area all the time when I lived in DC and was going back to Ohio to visit. Once you get off of I-70 and turn off to go through WVA it's red territory all the way to Pittsburgh, which at least is a LITTLE better.

Glad I got out of there after college and now am FAR away in Seattle.

[cap]

7. I grew up there

my Dad and his best friend called it "the cave".

The sad thing is that what Obama is trying to do for folks benefits these people. There are no jobs there and there never has been. There is a huge number of people on welfare and food stamps. The school system is pure crap; it is 2 years behind the national average. The only thing to do is to join the military or for a few people, try to go to college. My best friend works as a mail clerk in a bank; bright woman but low aspirations and low horizons. Married her sweetheart right out of high school. These are the folks that will get covered by health care reform yet they spit on it. Raising educational standards will only help these folks. I hate to sound so patronizing but the best thing out there is the stuff that is provided by the federal government. I shudder to think what would happen to people without the federal government providing subsidies to the school system, free lunches in school, food stamps and welfare.

And, yup, they do listen to Rush. Their congressman is Roscoe, father of 11 children. The big employer is the state prison. Before the state prison, there was no crime. Now, there is a healthy heroin industry out there.

The folks who did Abu Ghraib live out there. I have thought a lot about what goes on and why such things happen; one day, I will write my thoughts down.

A friend of mine returned there after working in DC and is a professor of computer science in the community college trying to uplift the minds and present an alternative viewpoint. It is a very tough row to hoe. I know. My parents did the same thing in their time. It is a truly thankless job.

[WVRICK13]

10. I Live Near There

and it is really bizarre. We have people coming into our offices for food pantry vouchers with McCain Palin stickers on their cars. Read my post in the West Virginia group. The Hardy County Commission did a proclamation honoring Confederates. I am eventually moving to a warmer climate outside the country. Unfortunately most of those countries are considered third world. I guess I am ready for that since I have lived in a third world state most of my life. West Virginia is a banana republic without bananas.

[tblue37]

11. The owner of our local rag is very RW. His editorials are

like that, and he also pushes for a RW slant in the rest of the paper.