I’m going to write about that tonight. Jessie and Tamara Rose both withdrew, along with some other veterans, so I assumed it was money. They both are from Fairbanks, so they have to get their teams down to Anchorage, and then back after the race. In addition to everything else I would assume that sponsorship money is drying up.

The percentage around here is probably higher, because we got hit with the BP oil spill that wiped out a couple of years, along with the almost total lack of construction jobs because of the housing mess. This has been a better winter than the last few years, and Spring Breaks are starting, so some things may improve, but there are fewer businesses still around if they do. If the gas prices go to $5/gallon, the bad times will be back.

The Florida legislature is just as bad. Cutting everything to give tax breaks to people who don’t need them, while increasing fees on working people who need to drive to find work. Spending their time to increase the number of people carrying guns, and continuing the ‘War on Women’. They really are pathetic.

Speaking of the Iditarod, I was disappointed to hear that Jessie Royer would not be running this year. I poked around on the internet, and she wrote on her website that it was just getting too expensive, so she had to drop out. That’s a real shame, but I’ll bet money is tight for a lot of them these days. Fewer people and businesses with extra cash right now.

As a business person, I was curious as to what percentage of people in our area were on some sort of public assistance. According to a local social services person, since 2008, the figure has increased substantially, and we’re getting close to 30%! Bryan, that’s nearly a third of the people (well, I know you can do fractions without my help – just venting here)!!! And the amount of any assistance is limited by lack of funds for many of the programs, so there are still cold and hungry people that aren’t being helped.

But our legislators are too busy worrying about the sex lives of females in the State of Virginia to spare the time for hungry people.

I can spell your name because I know several people with the name, and one of them lives in West Virginia, so it must be a popular name up that way. The odd thing is that none of those I know in real life are Latinas, odd only because I know a lot of Latinas.

I’m not sure if our Governor will ever see the light. It’s probably just the flashes of the cameras in this media storm surrounding him. No matter how stupid someone is, that seems to get their attention.

And YES! The Iditarod is soon!

One week to the Iditarod.

The governor has seen the light and is running away from the bill.

For what it’s worth – I see no reason to cover Viagra et al. It sounds like a personal problem, not a medical problem, to me. You get old and a lot of things don’t work like they used to, so you get over it. Sounds like a drug company propaganda campaign to sell a product that ‘cures a disease’ the drug company created.

To add to the comedy in Virginia, one of our female State Senators, Janet Howell, has added her own amendment to the anti-abortion bill.

It requires men to get a rectal exam before being prescribed erectile dysfunction drugs…

Here’s Huffington Post’s take on it: Rectal Exam Amendment

Welcome to Virginia.

A cattle prod would be useful in that application, Badtux 😈

Steve, I have a hard time believing the people who are behind this actually know any women, in all senses of ‘know’. They damn sure hate women, or they wouldn’t even consider something like this.

If I were a woman in Virginia, I would try to organize a little Lysistrata action. If such action (inaction?) could include legislators’ wives, so much the better.

– Badtux the Jealous Penguin
(* I shoulda gone there before Fixer and Montag!).