Services held for Doug Blair



Funeral services for Doug Blair, 75, of Camp Branch, were held July 30 at Letcher Funeral Home. Burial was in Green Acres Cemetery at Ermine. A son of the late Charlie Blair and Irene Engle Bates, he died July 28 at Pikeville Medical Center. He was a stepson of the late Woodrow Bates, and a brother of the late Jerry […]

Snakes can be beneficial




Many people fear snakes but despite the fright they can cause, the majority of snakes are beneficial. Of the 33 varieties of snakes in Kentucky, only four are venomous (Northern copperhead, Western cottonmouth or water moccasin, timber rattlesnake, and pygmy rattlesnake). Most snakes you encounter around your home are harmless. If you are scared of them, try to remember that […]

Disappointed Democrats



It was not supposed to be this way. The power of the president, Richard Neustadt wrote half a century ago, is the power to persuade — sometimes with a carrot, sometimes with a stick, sometimes (as President Reagan did so well) by getting the country behind him, sometimes (as President Johnson did) just by wearing his opponents down. I have […]

Political Cartoon



Dems need a primary, too



Ed Rendell, do you have plans for 2012? Hillary Clinton? If you, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, or you, the secretary of state, are free next year and wouldn’t mind, would you please launch a primary challenge against President Obama? This request stems not from anger at Obama’s penchant for blithely negotiating away certain Medicare benefits or the need […]

Big news for women



Apparently, the federal debt ceiling crisis has eclipsed big news for America’s women. Let’s remedy that, please. On Monday, the Obama administration announced that insurance companies will have to provide birth control services to women with no copayment. The new rules also eliminate the copay for other preventive health measures — such as prenatal care, counseling and equipment for breast-feeding […]

And we’re to believe God said, ‘Marry that kid over there?’



Down in Texas, they’re trying a man named Warren Jeffs for polygamy and for putting his hands on girls young enough to play with Barbies. Jeffs is a Christian. You know how I know? Because he says so. Christianity, like Islam, is very, very inclusive. Buy a Bible, give a sermon, and whang-dang-doodle, you’re as Christian as two popes. Buy […]

Car Talk

Commuter turns vigilante; am I a jerk?

Dear Tom and Ray: I need to know if I’m being a jerk. Every day, I use a left exit ramp on the highway that starts out one lane wide. A second lane begins on the right — it brings no new traffic; it begins at a barrier. At the end of the ramp, about 100 yards on, the road […]

The top and bottom are killing the middle



To the Editor: This nation was once identified by a distinct, barebones philosophical outlook known as ‘American Pragmatism!’ The popular phrase “Git ‘R Done” basically captures this no nonsense, result oriented work ethic common to so many early Americans. Simply put, pragmatism constitutes a strong willed, clear eyed focus on identifying and overcoming obstacles in a prompt and practical manner. […]

The way we were



August 3, 1961 Funeral services were held for Clara Belle Salyer Fields, great-granddaughter of Col. L.H.N. Salyer who was an early settler in Letcher County and a colonel in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Mrs. Fields was the widow of L.W. Fields, a prominent attorney in Whitesburg. She and her husband set up housekeeping in Fieldcliff, the large […]