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Afraid of voters

Playing with representative democracy is a delicate game, one that can evoke strong emotions and foster resentments. Democrats have lost two elections in 2000 and 2016 where they won the popular vote and lost the presidency. Both results have had profound consequences from the Supreme Court, which was constructed by the ruthless Mitch McConnell, to the notorious Project 2025. A great deal was done by states that ignore Baker vs Carr, which mandated “one man, one vote.” Texas is a good example of trying to seize five seats by changing the rules mid-census. It is a legal method ...

War or defense?

Donald Trump‘s decision to ditch the name of the Department of Defense and call it the War Department is not as strange as it is made out to be. It is simply reverting to its old name, which dates back to August 7, 1789. It was changed by the National Security Act of 1947, which assigned it to the Defense Department. It also created the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency. Established as a means of unifying all branches of security, the measure was sold as an efficiency move. However, over time, it became more corporate in its approach and mission. It ...

Community Calendar

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Inter-Mountain’s Community Calendar is reserved for nonprofit, civic organizations. Unless otherwise noted, events listed should be considered free and open to the public. Entries appear in chronological order and as space allows. FOREST FESTIVAL GRAND FEATURE PARADE SEATS: will be available at Otterbein United Methodist Church at 1100 South Davis Avenue in Elkins. The seats for the Oct. 4 parade are on sale now. Parade seats may be reserved by calling the church office at 304-636-0569 Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. All seats must be paid for by ...

W.Va. loses a good man

West Virginia is a small state, and state government is not large, so the longer you cover certain politicians, the more chances you have to see the human side of the people you cover and even become friends. That’s the way it was with Tim Armstead, the late justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and the former minority leader who rose to become the first Republican speaker of the House of Delegates in nearly 83 years. I attended the visitation for Armstead last Tuesday in the chambers of the House of Delegates, not as a news reporter but as a friend. I have a ...

Britain — The Land of the Unfree

When the Irish comedian Graham Linehan arrived at London Heathrow Airport this past weekend, he was greeted by five armed British police officers who arrested him for — get this — three rude tweets. Or, as Linehan wrote on his Substack, “I was arrested at an airport like a terrorist, locked in a cell like a criminal, taken to hospital because the stress nearly killed me, and banned from speaking online — all because I made jokes that upset some psychotic crossdressers.” Whether or not you find his words offensive, it’s hard to disagree with Harry Potter author J. K. ...

Wikipedia and Google

While artificial intelligence may make the student research paper obsolete, if today a student does their own research and writing, it’s quite possible they will use Google to search their topic, and Google will invariably send the searcher to a Wikipedia article. If they were to write about cable news, the Wikipedia results are as biased as ... well, cable news. Their entries on Fox News Channel and Newsmax are remarkably different from the ones on CNN and MSNBC. Right away, in the second sentence, Wikipedia tells us Newsmax “has been variously described as conservative, ...