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‘Happy’ message

Every recreational golfer of my generation shares at least two things in common: We grew up revering Tiger Woods, and we know “Happy Gilmore,” the 1996 Adam Sandler golf comedy, like the back of our hands. Which millennial, while lining up a putt on the green, hasn’t told himself at some point to just “tap it in — give it a little tappy, a tap-tap-taparoo”? Who among us, before hitting a challenging tee shot, hasn’t at some point first closed his eyes and attempted to escape to his very own “happy place”? And above all, which of us hasn’t spent hours upon hours at the ...

Summer heat and hot tempers

They say that heat makes people cranky, and it sure seems like tempers and egos are clashing all over the place within West Virginia state government. Take the recent drama over the Legislative Economic Development Assistance grant program, the reincarnation of the former Budget Digest, where lawmakers used to put earmarks for projects in their legislative districts. Instead of lawmakers putting earmarks in the general revenue budget, past legislatures and governors came to an agreement where the Legislature appropriates money into a line item within the Governor’s Civil ...

What kind of government do Americans want to pay for?

Having extended most of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and added even more tax breaks, Congress is once again punting on the central fiscal question of our time: What kind of government do Americans want seriously enough to pay for? Yes, the Big Beautiful Bill avoided a massive tax increase and includes pro-growth reforms. It also adds to the debt — by how much is debatable — and that’s before we get to the budgetary reckoning of Social Security and Medicare’s impending insolvency. Against that backdrop, it’s infuriating to see a $9 billion rescission package — one drop in ...

Moderation in all things

Moderation in all things is our deliverance from the strife and upheaval of extremism. The Aristotelian means recognizes that wisdom and truth are more chiaroscuro than prime colors. Drawing lines are the heartland of civilized law. It can be said without exaggeration that civilization was born when the first human reflected, “I could be wrong. I need to entertain alternative views.” Thomas Jefferson underscored in his first inaugural address, “All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be ...

Students enjoyed Wetland Wednesdays

People still ask why they do not see horses in the pasture near the Historic Kump House anymore. It’s a long story, but the fact is that so much water has been draining through the old pasture that it has eroded the land, and Kump pasture has become an urban wetland over the last 60 years. Drainage pours under highway 33 onto the horse pasture, and land near the old gate is some 15 feet lower than it was in the 1950s. Now that pasture gate opens to our Wetland Classroom. We were happy to host YMCA Day Campers July 2 when they learned about the plants in Kump wetland that were here in ...

Scoring points

Lately, Donald Trump has been obsessed with scoring points, rather than with the realities that follow from them. His budget bill is fraught with numerous unseen risks, including inflation and increased deficits. As for trade, he gets on swimmingly with Britain’s Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, but not so well with the European Union. Indeed, one worries that none of his legislative triumphs, which were to mark the beginning of Trump’s “golden age,” truly succeeded as intended. On paper, the President has been as successful as any before him in taking command of the ...