They're Back

Surprise, surprise. Yet another offer on my house, preceded by 3 days of telemarketer calls and immediately followed by a higher offer, contingent of course on when their house sells and of necessity all done without either party ever seeing the other.
If they are who I think they are, their family has millions packed away. I'm just looking for a few tens of thousands to pay off my mortgage at this point. Stop being jerks. Although, I guess Good Fella types can't help themselves, and it's all about the big win with them. 

The Panic Is Spreading

I think I've managed to scare my real estate agent. He seemed a bit shaken the last time I talked to him. I believe he's finally figured out what's going on.
You see, he seems confused that people keep looking at my house, expressing an interest, even entering into contracts, and then mysteriously disappearing. Last week though, two people with important names approached him.
One of the names has connections all the way to state government. They also run one of the local banks.
Now for those of you who aren't used to corrupt, third world, pest holes, let me explain.
1) All my financial transactions are instantly known. Not, my transactions at the bank run by the family member, but anything done locally. It sounds illegal, but try proving anything.
2) Every time someone looks at the house, I get inundated with telemarketer calls. Okay, so this one is just middle school idiot level.
3) This is the worrisome one. Every time an offer is made, my phone usually gets hacked. It works intermittently and makes all sorts of calls on its own. This is the one that brings visions of state level interference to mind, but again, try proving anything. It might just be some hackers out to get me and several years of coincidental timing.
4) Of course, an offer has to be made first, which usually entails a second visit. Except that most times, the second visit returns to a broken into house with dog droppings on the floor. The droppings are always new. How do they know how to time it? Obviously, myself, the realtor, and probably others are being watched that closely. Who has the kind of time to do that?
Let's look at the second name.
Just read my blog on the doctor and church deacon who get sent to jail for drug dealing. Name number two was one of the people who stood to benefit from the situation. Again, it might just be coincidence.
Honestly, it feels like I'm being driven into bankruptcy by the Sopranos, while the police from the state on down are all bought off. Of course, I might just be imagining things. That's the worst thing about this. Every single coincidence might point in the same direction, but at the end of the day, they are just that. Low level coincidences with no proof.
I suspect my realtor just felt it too.

The Things You Find Out

It's amazing the things that occur during a time like this.
My little subdivision has a strange character. It started life as a small collection of family farms, started turning into a subdivision, stopped that growth, then all the spaces that weren't filled with farmers or residents, filled up with tourists.
In any event, like most places like this, there is always that strange house. The one that has lots of visitors who only stay for a short period of time. It makes you wonder.
Times like this tend to eliminate the wonder.
Now, the traffic is no more. The first week, no one went to the house. The second week, there was some 4-wheeler traffic, but they didn't stay long, and didn't repeat their trips. By week three, people would walk down to the house, usually surrounded by a flock of large dogs. They too didn't repeat the visit. I guess the house is out of whatever they were going there for.
I wonder what that is.
I would make a comment about the police officer who lives in the neighborhood, but if you've read my blog, you know about the cops of Appalachia by now.

Nothing to See Here or a Tangled Web

In my previous posts, I have raised questions about law and rural Kentucky. In this post, I revisit the issue.
People tend to think that drug dealing is the provenance of the trailer park crowd. Often, but not always. In the following diatribe, you can read about the high and mighty falling to the temptation of quick money.
You can read the official version by clicking on the link below.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdky/pr/clinton-county-doctor-sentenced-30-months-prison-illegally-prescribing-opioids

Let's see what the news isn't talking about. The doctor in question came from an old and respected family. He was also the deacon at a local church. He had a prosperous practice. He was a local landowner and church bigwig. Why would he become a drug dealer? It's pretty obvious that he did, but look at the numbers of drug sales involved. Why would someone in his position, with his income, risk everything for what amounted to penny ante, street dealer levels of profit? Greed? Maybe. He has lost his practice and his farm over this. Either way, it was a stupid move on his part.
The government also put the owner of the pharmacy who filled the prescriptions away. He was also from an old and wealthy family. There are two main drug stores in town and he owned and ran one of them.
As you can see, wealth and position are no guarantee.
You might be saying, don't deal drugs and you won't have a problem. Again, maybe.
Let's look at how this bust went down. The good doctor was reported by the county coroner for a suspicious number of opioid deaths among his patients. On the surface fair enough, but this coroner let's a lot of suspicious deaths occur without question. Are they just stupid? Can they not really notice anything unless it's on the government checklist, like opioids are now? Well, these are the hills, so that's a definite possibility.
After the report, the feds came in and cracked down. Again, fair enough. Except, that you would have expected them to extend the net a bit and see what else they could find. After all, they were already in the neighborhood. There are plenty of drugs around. Almost anyone they stopped on the street could have given them a good lead. Did they even ask or did they just arrest the people who were complained about? That's just curious.
Did the amount of drug trafficking decrease? No, it appears to have gone up. Did the feds not notice this?
Sorry, but this does not appear to have been an operation to clean up the hills. It appears to be the feds operating on behalf of the locals taking out unwanted competition. I could be wrong, but that would imply that the good doctor was the main problem in the county, which I find hard to believe.

I Told You So

Apparently, I am not the only one to think that law enforcement around here is problematic. The Federal government seems to have reached a similar conclusion and tried to arrest a Pulaski county constable for corruption.

https://www.policeone.com/officer-shootings/articles/fbi-agent-shot-ky-constable-arrested-in-ongoing-corruption-probe-8SM7rRL6rwNi2EmT/

In true hillbilly fashion, the arrest did not go peacefully, with a minion of Pulaski county trading shots with an FBI agent. The fact that there were shots fired brings the question of what was the Pulaski county constable thinking? After all, one of his neighbors has already stated that the FBI identified themselves before the shooting started. Of course pre-dawn FBI raids aren't really appreciated in the hills, but still, what did he hope to gain? Being the hills, if he had managed to break contact with the FBI, he could easily have gone to ground. After all, the local law enforcers would probably have ignored his presence, just like they ignore all the drug manufacturers and smugglers. Was this his plan? After all, most sane people wouldn't shoot first after being told that the people outside were with the FBI. Did he not hear them and just respond to armed men outside? This implies that he was worried about more than being arrested, which makes you wonder just what he was into that made him so paranoid. Did he think he was being arrested on more serious charges and shooting was the best option? I can see someone letting something like that slip. The people here love nothing more than creating drama.

Of course, we will never know the truth. The only thing we will know is that the FBI tried to arrest a Pulaski county constable and he responded with gunfire, only stopping when he was hit. Such are the law enforcers in the hills.

Why?

The other day I was nearly bit broadside by a county road truck. The main reason for this was because said state employee was doing 70 mph on a country road. For those of you who don't like English measurements that's 112 kph.
Why was the road truck out there in the first place? Well, the county I live in is divided into 2 parts by the Cumberland river. Half of the county on the south side and half on the north. All, and I mean all or the services are in the south. To get to the north side, you need to spend 1 hour driving through the surrounding counties to get to a bridge. I understand why he was speeding. He was trying to single handedly cover an entire county that was an hours drive from his base. That doesn't justify his reckless driving, but it does explain why it happened.
There must have been a good reason for him to be there. There was. He needed to clear the roads after the snowstorm the night before.

The ice you see is on my windshield. As you can see by all the snow, they needed to get the snow plows out and running or no one would have been able to get anywhere. And yes, this is the road that the truck driver though 70 mph was justified on.

Can't Even Give It Away

I've been contacting local churches to see if they know of any homeless people who would want to live in my house in Albany for free in exchange for maintenance. At least then I wouldn't have the squatters and I might be eligible for a tax write off. Both good things. I got responses, but as soon as they found out the address, they disappeared. I guess being a car bum is preferable to living in that neighborhood.

Return to Stupid

I went back to my house in Albany the other day to clear some junk out. I had meant to bring a truck load of garbage to the dump, but that was not to be.
Since I don't have a pickup truck, the plan was to rent a U-Haul van to move the old furniture and construction debris, but that was not to be.
I've rented U-Haul vans before. The procedure isn't too complex. That is until you get to the hills. You see the local nobility thinks they should just sit back while everyone else does the work and then gives them money for the privilege. Consequently, I arrived at a deserted group of storage buildings to pick up the truck. The rental company told me to call when I arrived there. Silly me. I thought that meant they lived next door, and when I arrived, they'd come over in 5 or 10 minutes to hand over the vehicle. No such thing. When I called, they told me the key was in the back of the truck. Well, there was only one U-Haul truck so it wasn't too hard to find. Of course it was backed against the wall of a storage unit and the freezing rain the previous night had frozen the door shut. It soon became obvious that the door wasn't going to budge without some serious work. Added to the fact that I would have had to do said work with about 1 foot of free space, it did not seem like a good idea. After a few minutes of telling the rental agent that the door was stuck and receiving the same response of "the keys in the back", I told them to forget it. They then told me that they could come out in 3 days to fix the problem and I could get the truck then. Yeah, right.
So far, typical hillbilly efficiency.
Of course by this time I has attracted the attention of a neighbor's dog, who decided that I didn't belong there.  Now I got to deal with a snapping, frothing at the mouth dog. Fortunately, I've dealt with such types before, so I managed to convince the dog that I was in charge, and we parted amicably with the dog wanting to play. Of course, I wasn't feeling too happy about hillbillies by this time.
Since I was in the area anyway and I had help coming, I figured that I should go to my house and at least put all the garbage in the barn.
As I approached my house, the neighbor from hell pulled into the left hand lane of the road to check his mail. Did he do it because he saw me coming, or was he just clueless? Who knows? Anyway, I came to a stop and waited for him to get his mail and drive on, but he refused to budge, so I had to drive around him. No big deal, but I was batting 1000 with the hillbillies this day. It was really annoying.
The spooky part came after I pulled into my driveway and was taking some tools out of my car. There was a lot of barking and when I looked up, there was the neighbor from hell driving slowly by and checking me out with another neighbor's dogs snapping at his tires.

Here's a picture of said neighbor watching me through binoculars. This happens to be a good day, but I've seen him stand outside and watch like this in the pouring rain for 45 minutes. Why 45 minutes? Because that was when I was done doing what I was doing, and staying there to see how long he'd stand there seemed pointless.
Why not call the law? You're looking at the law. Yes, Clinton County Kentucky made someone with a criminal record a deputy jailer. Not quite the same as a deputy sheriff to be sure, but still spooky in a small town when you have one behaving like this.
I was just lucky that I had someone over to help me move stuff or who knows what stories he would have made up. That's the lesson for today. Never go anywhere in Appalachia without a witness.
Those of you who get to move stuff out of your old house and take it to the dump. Can rent a truck to do so, and have a neighbor who is nice enough to help, count yourselves lucky. In other parts of the country, even throwing out old mattresses can get complicated.

Stupid Republicans

This blog takes us to the entire Commonwealth, not just the hills and hollers.
Recently, Kentucky voted out its Republican governor. Of course, the democrats saw this as a victory for themselves. In actuality, it just proved that the Republicans are so stupid that they can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It's kind of like watching Joe Biden's clone.
Let's explore what Matt Bevin did to lose.
1) He tried to reform the teacher's pension plan. Granted, it needed reforming, but, in the Appalachian part of the state, teaching is one of the main get out of poverty cards. The pay is poor, but against this was a great pension plan and vacation time. At least the teachers can still count on the vacation time.
2) He insulted the rural folk, claiming their schools took too many snow days and they were weak. Sorry Matt. You live in a flat part of Kentucky with road crews. A large part of the state has 20 degree grades leading to hairpin curves where the county road department thinks waiting for spring is the appropriate response to snow. Show some consideration.
3) He went to the counties bordering Ohio and told them he was going to put tolls on the bridges.
4) He put a 6% tax on services. Now Kentuckians have to pay an extra 6% for haircuts and car repairs. Thanks a lot. That really helped the economy.
As you can see, not really a conservative platform.
Why bring this up? Because now another Republican is trying to get a 25% tax passed on vaping products in order to protect the children. Kentucky has an very high smoking rate, so the Republican response is to put a 25% tax on vaping?
There are a lot of stupid Republicans out there.

How Did It Get This Bad?

How did the hills get this bad? Well, they have a history of corrupt government. They have a history of feudalism. But, so do a lot of other places. Since I arrived in Appalachia, I have seen glimpses of a time that did work. It doesn't now, but I have seen glimpses. So, what went wrong?
I blame the gummint, or government as most people know it. If you look at the average, American, middle-class family, you will see that their birthrate is basically at replacement levels. If you look at the lower classes, you will see a different story. Lower class families in the United States are allowed to have 6 children, and they get more money for each child up to the magic number of 6. The money is not a small amount either. These lower class types get free housing, free utilities, and if you want to get annoyed, go to Wal Mart on the first of the month and watch the middle class people buying hamburger, while the welfare types have their shopping carts filled with steaks and lobster. Of course, having nothing to do, they just hang around all day and engage in petty theft, vandalism, and other acts to annoy the neighbors. Nature or nurture doesn't matter either. These people generally don't go to school and grow up wanting to collect a gummint check like mommy and daddy. This idiocy has been going on for over 3 generations now. Let's take a look at the numbers.
Every group of people will have idiots. People who are unfit to live in society and are just a major drain on it. Kind of like cancer. Usually this number is small, say 10%. Not an ideal condition, but one which can be lived with. Now, let's see what happens when the government gets involved. Since the cancer class is having 6 kids, in generation 1 they go from 10% of the population to 25% of the population. You are going to start seeing problems at this level. By generation 2, they will be 50% of the population. At this point, you are getting a ghetto. In generation 3, where we are now, they make up 75% of the population. No society can survive this. Of course if you own 1000 acres of land, it gives you lots of minions. If you're a politician, you get lots of votes. If you are a government worker or store owner, it lets you launder lots of federal money. If you are middle class, you might as well not even try. You don't have a chance with numbers like this. Fifty years ago, the local nobility needed to reach some agreement with the middle class. The middle class was needed for their survival. Now, they can just count on the federal monies funneled through the welfare crowd. They don't get as much money of course, but they do get total control. The middle class does not stand a chance. 
Of course, it will be even worse when generation 4 comes along, when they will by 90% of the population.

Return to Clinton County Kentucky

My situation in Clinton county Kentucky seems to be getting worse. I'm simply not going to be allowed to sell the property. It all started when my real estate agent showed the property. I showed up the following weekend to find the house broken into and dog droppings all over the floor.
Of course there were no dogs. They'd been left in the house for a few days to mess it up right after the hillbillies saw someone look at the house, and then removed.
When I showed up to the house, the neighbors three dogs came over to visit and the trailer people all came to their doorways and glared at me. When I went into my house, I saw the droppings of said dogs. Now, if I did anything to the dogs, who were on my property, and obviously the perpetrators of the mess, I'd be in jail for animal cruelty. Of course, that's better than showing up when the dogs are in my house. Then I'd have half a dozen hillbillies calling the cops and claiming that I stole them. In case you hadn't guessed from my previous posts, there is no real law in Eastern Kentucky. The law just wants to keep their numbers up and protect their buddies, so I be in the wonderful position of proving the hillbillies wrong.
In any event, when the law showed up, they gave me their standard answer. You have bad neighbors, move everything with any worth off of the property, get some cameras and get us pictures of them breaking in, and then we can do something.
Can someone explain to me why I'm paying taxes? I'm obviously not getting any benefit for my money. And Eastern Kentucky wonders why they can't break the generational poverty cycle. News flash. When people aren't secure in their property unless they are actively guarding it, then you are going to end up with a poverty stricken area.

What Feudalism Looks Like

In my last post, I claimed that feudalism was alive and well in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. If you want details, you need to look no further than the actions of former governor Bevin as he left office this month. He issued 428 pardons. Many of them for violent offenses.
He pardoned a child rapist, because he didn't tear her hymen. That sounds like something a medieval lord would say, doesn't it?
Why would he do something like this? Well, aside from his total disregard for the people of Kentucky and as an example of psychopathic behavior. One need look no further than the following picture.

This image shows the home of the parents of one of the people Bevin pardoned for murder. It turns out that they had donated $21,500 to Bevin. We now know what Bevin considered the peasants under his care to be worth. Can you say feudal lords who are above the law boys and girls? This is why rural Kentucky will always fail and be filled with poverty and misery.
The lesson here is that if you can afford a house like the one shown here, and if you are close to the local lords and ladies, then you can do no wrong. You can do whatever you want and the legal system works as your personal enforcement arm. Sounds good, if you have the money and the consent of the local nobility. If you are missing either of these, your stay here will not be so pleasant.
Now, if you have nothing, are addicted to meth, and have a large extended family, rural Kentucky has a place for you. Kentucky seems to enjoy bringing people like this into the Commonwealth. The last two homes I've had here have had dwellings with outhouses within a mile of me. No they weren't there when I bought, but Kentucky seems intent on spreading impoverishment areas.
If, however, you want to buy a 60 acre farm and retire peacefully, I'd advise you to forget it. Survivability comes from money (and I don't mean middle class here) and connections with the local powers that be. If you just have the money, the local nobility will take it from you. Remember, the law works for them. You will find your property repeatedly stolen and vandalized. You'll find law enforcement who won't respond to your calls, but will be there in five minutes if anyone calls on you, and if you've never dealt with the drug crowd, be advised that they like lying and trying to get people into court. It's fun for them. You'll need to have witnesses and proof of your actions 24/7 to survive this. You'll find yourself suddenly surrounded by meth houses. You'll find your property value drop to near zero. The purpose of this is to get you to sell at a loss. If you can deal with all this, Appalachia just might be for you.
I've even seen members of the local nobility loose everything in the course of power struggles, but that's rare. There are usually enough non-locals to sate their appetites. 

Feudalism

Feudalism is alive and well in Kentucky. I know, it's widely known that connections are what matters in getting ahead, and the value of a degree from a school like Harvard is mainly valuable in terms of the connections that you make, and not in the knowledge gained from your courses. Hillbillies carry the concept to a new level, like they do with everything else they touch.
To the hillbilly, kin is everything. When you first arrive in hillbilly land, one of the things that the more observant notice is that there are family names that run all the way to high offices in Frankfort. These same families have kin that are in and out of the local jail on a regular basis. Now, in a normal place, this wouldn't be a big deal. You'd have two branches of a family that took different life paths and the family branch that "made it" would be rightly embarrassed of the branch that didn't. That's not quite the case in Eastern Kentucky.
In Eastern Kentucky, kin is everything. So the drug dealing branch still has connections with the political office class. It's kind of like the mob, only they control law enforcement and the courts. That, boys and girls, is called feudalism.
I should have known the first time I called law enforcement here and the first question they asked was, "whose kin are you, and whose kin are you calling on". You see, without knowing the family connections, how could anyone be expected to know which law applied. Silly me, I always thought that there was one set of laws, but you soon learn differently in Kentucky.
If you want to witness feudalism first hand, come to rural Kentucky.

Welfare People

The welfare people of Appalachia form a unique and distinctive breed. They also form a violent cancer in society. I'm not speaking of city folk on welfare here. I know little of them. I'm talking about their country cousins.
It looks like I'm headed into bankruptcy soon, because the local welfare types have decided that the house I have up for sale is theirs, and I can't afford to pay $600 a month to give them a place to squat.

Here is a view from my driveway of a standard hillbilly welfare cluster. No, I didn't buy into this neighborhood. When I bought the house in 2005, it had older people and young families. Then the patriarch of the family died, the young families all divorced, and the drug/welfare crowd arrived. It happened over the course of a couple of years. I never realized that hill families relied on their patriarchs so much, but here's the proof. 

Anyway, it's all about clan for these folk, like it's all about gang for their city cousins. Let me explain what you are looking at. The mobile homes you see are owned by some relative or other. You see, everyone is related to everyone, and if you have land, instead of selling or renting, you let your welfare relations live there. You arrange a payment schedule from their welfare check under the table and it's win-win. You get tax free money and an army of minions. The minions get a really cheap place to stay, and with their welfare checks and benefits, free food and utilities, a pretty good lifestyle. You can't really see it, but the cars in the driveway are all late model. 

Now comes the fun part. There are probably at least 8 adults living in these buildings. And no, you're not going to get a count. Aside from the fact that they lie, this is the area where the census worker was found dangling from a tree. These people don't like questions. Welfare will pay you more for each child up to a maximum of 6. So, since they are unwilling to work, each pair of adults can be counted on to have 4 - 6 children. That adds up to a lot of people. 

Now for the part that would be amusing if it weren't happening to me. I went to check on the house the other day, and found that it had been broken into and an air conditioner had been torn out of the wall. Every time I go there, they seem to show up the next day and do enough damage to let it be known they are there. Naturally, my realtor is afraid to go there anymore. It's annoying and no one is going to buy a house that is constantly being robbed by the neighbors. 

I called the local sheriff, and not getting a response the state police. When I arrived, the neighbors all stood there and glared. When I called the sheriff (and understand these people all have police scanners) they stood there and glared. When I called the state police, within 10 minutes, 3 different cars sped up to first house, filled up with people and drove off. They left a preteen boy. You can't see him, but he's under the tree in the center. He went and sat under the tree with a cell phone and watched the house until I left about 90 minutes later. And, no, he wasn't alone, there was an adult watching him from inside, so he had backup. I swung back 5 minutes later just to see  and the neighbors were coming back. So, I have about 20 people, with no jobs and nothing better to do, just watch my house and see what damage they can cause. That puts them at a great advantage. Of course, if I even try to talk to them, I'll get 20 people swearing that I'm violent and the sheriff will be there within 5 minutes. And people wonder why I'd rather live in a world without police. They are really counter productive at the moment. 

The state police called after a half hour and took a statement,. They weren't willing to come out and take fingerprints either, but that's understandable. They can't really get a conviction unless the value is over $500, and they were 1 trooper, who was 70 miles away. I wasn't willing to wait 4 hours until he could get there, and he wasn't to keen on the idea either. At least he called back. 

The sheriff? About 7 hours later, my wife posted about the incident and lack of response on facebook. Remember, everyone is related to everyone in the county and connected via facebook. The sheriff called and took a statement within 5 minutes. 

Really? The sheriff responding more quickly to facebook than a call to dispatch. That pretty much tells you what you need to know about him.

So I have the sheriff, who will only respond to the calls of the welfare people. The state troopers, who are rare and busy, and 20 people who are out to seize my property and have nothing better to do. What chance do I have?

By seize I mean get the house into forclosure. Then the bank sells the house at auction. The only bank that will really give a loan on the house is run by the rich part of the family, so, they will set the price. Thus the usefulness of minions. 

More On The Death Watch

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about how there were some "important" families around here and that things tended to always happen to benefit their clans, including the deaths of their opponents.

Here is an old story along the same lines. It also shows how the press here obfuscates the truth. It concerns the death of the sheriff one county over.

https://www.odmp.org/officer/16249-sheriff-samuel-wilson-catron

What the news story tells you is that an assassin shot and killed the sheriff, one of the deputies who was running against him was indicted, and two of the people involved got life sentences. It's like they're trying to avoid telling the truth on the issue.

The local story fills in the blanks. The deputy really wanted to be sheriff, but he didn't have a chance of winning the election. He therefore hired a criminal to shoot the sheriff and since he was the only other person running, he gets the job. He would have gotten away with it too, except he hired someone who was stupid enough to actually show himself after the assassination to see if he really got the sheriff. Then when he was caught, he squealed on the deputy immediately. The speed at which the local criminal class around here turns snitch is amazing. If the deputy had hired a more intelligent hit man or hired him through a third party, he would have gotten away free and clear.

Imagine a place where law enforcement acts this way, then imagine how the rest of Kentucky acts. Is a death watch surrounding the top families really so fantastic?

From the Mouths of Babes

One of the nice things about having connections in the educational establishment is that students say the most amusing things. I was talking to a middle school teacher the other day (middle school consists of grades 6 - 8, about age 11 - 13) who related the following story:

They were discussing the government and were explaining that they lived in a dry county. A dry county is one where the sale of alcohol is forbidden. Why a state that is famous for whiskey production has more dry counties than any other in the United States seems hypocritical, but it is typical Kentucky. Anyway, the teacher was explaining that they lived in a dry county, so you couldn't buy alcohol there. One of the students immediately replied, "Sure you can. Just go to the trailer park down town and go to the third trailer on the left".

The really amusing part was that a lot of the students seemed to know about this. Now if 11 - 13 year olds know this, you'd expect the police to as well. Especially since a trailer park in the South is hardly a private space. But that's Kentucky. The law can be incredibly blind depending on who your are and whose interests are served.

Kentucky Colonels

The above is the license plate of a Kentucky Colonel. What is a Kentucky Colonel, you may ask. The Colonels are listed as a voluntary, philanthropic organization. In order to become a Colonel, you must be nominated by a current Colonel and then appointed by the governor. The appointment is supposed to be for some philanthropic work that has benefited the people of the state.
Personally, I don't know of any philanthropic works actually done by the Colonels I run across. Rather, it's more of an I'm connected and important type of thing. Now I ask you, in a state that has been nominated for most corrupt in the country, is it a good idea to give one class of people a special license plate that proclaims them politically connected all the way up to the governor? It sounds more like a get out of tickets plate than anything else. 

Kentucky Efficiency

It's now time to spread the net to the entire state of Kentucky. The shocking thing is that there haven't been more Kentucky posts given the current governor and attorney general. Today we delve into the world of health insurance.
Kentucky state and state affiliated employees have the option to sign up for "livingwell" insurance. This allows you to save a bit over $1000 a year in premiums. In order to receive this benefit, you need to fill out a questionnaire about your health. That's it. No doctor visit. No actual checking on your health. Just answer a few questions once a year and you are good to go. Of course, this is administered by Humana, that quintessential  Kentucky company. Of course, as an insurance company, they are very concerned about security. Also, you need to complete the questionnaire by July 1st, of you get to pay an extra money next year.
I recently went to fill out my questionnaire and found I was locked out. Of course no one told me I was locked out. There were no warnings. I was simply put into an endless loop. I then had to go through the long and annoying call center process to get my password reset where I was told that since I hadn't been on the site for about a year (Duh, I only go there to fill out my annual health assessment, like almost everyone else), that I'd been locked out for my own protection. No real problem for me. The call center was so inept that I was laughing for most of the call. But what about everyone else? What about all those people who wait until the last 48 hours to fill out their assessment, only to find they are locked out and need a call center to give them access? I'd hate to work in that call center in a couple of weeks.
The question is, is this an attempt to force people to pay more, or just total stupidity on the part of Humana's administration. Since Kentucky is know for both corruption and stupid, we will never know.

Buford T. Justice Lives

It is time once more to poke fun at the government of Clinton County Kentucky. As the title implies, I am casting aspersions on the local law enforcement community. The community that had me fill out a complaint on a post it note. But that was two sheriffs ago, and believe it or not, it has been downhill ever since.
This time I tried to report a theft, but it didn't go well.
Going to check on the house, the door was open. Of course the sheriff was called. It took 3 hours to respond. That would be understandable if I lived in Alaska or Montana, but 10 minutes from the courthouse? They said he was busy leading funeral processions. I thought a theft and a possibility of the intruder still on the premises would have been more important. I guess I was wrong. Three hours wrong seems a bit excessive though. And Europeans wonder why the people in Middle America will never agree to limits on firearms. Would you, if you had such stellar enforcers of the law to protect you?
Anyway, no thieves were there, but a gun safe had been professionally drilled into and opened and everything of value had been taken. A bit of a backstory, never use US Bank. Once they find that you aren't living there, they get worried about protecting their investment, and their property protection teams are less then professional and don't hesitate to seize the property with no notice. If you want the situation resolved, then you get to try to get two call centers to talk to each other. It's great fun. Anyway, at the time of this incident three people had keys to the property; myself, my realtor, and the bank's property protection contractor.
The door was opened with a key. There was no breaking and entering. The safe was professionally drilled into and everything of value was taken.  The sheriff replied that it was the work of squatters. Apparently, there are a lot of empty houses in Clinton county (I wonder why), and the sheriff can't spare the manpower (be bothered to) remove them or check on the houses. The fact that the door was opened with a key didn't seem to register. Neither did the fact that the beds weren't slept in and there was no trash in the house. Just an entry with a key and a professional clean out job. It was squatters. Of course, no fingerprints were taken. It was claimed that the county couldn't afford a fingerprint kit. Of course, the sheriff wouldn't call on the sate police to take fingerprints either, even though he retired from that force (makes you wonder about them to). The annoying part is that everyone who had key, has fingerprints on file, being bonded in some service or another. The door was opened with a key. It seems like a slam dunk. But I guess such things aren't important to law enforcement in Clinton County Kentucky.
Of course, although one shouldn't judge by appearances, I think the sheriff's photo says it all.

Just remember, this is the photo he provided the local newspaper when they did his welcome aboard article. 

If you want to buy a 19th Century farmhouse in rural Kentucky, just let me know. I can get you a good deal on it.

The Clinton Death Count

Most conspiracy theorists know about the Clinton Death Count. Basically, it refers to the number of mysterious, yet useful deaths that have occurred around the Clintons. There have been quire a few deaths that were convenient to the Clintons. The number is in the triple digits. Does this mean there is nefarious activity afoot? Of course not. It's just curious.
So why bring this up? Because the same happens in the hills of Appalachia on a regular basis. When someone gets in the way of one of the first families here, death is not an uncommon outcome. The main causes are heart attack and car accident, and neither of those is particularly uncommon around here, so maybe it's all just a coincidence. It's still amazing that when one of the first families is ready to move into a position, a way is usually opened for them. Of course, they may just have picked a likely target and waited, like an evil insurance company. I've heard locals speculate that they had a demon working for them. Whatever the reason, it is curious.
My personal belief is that the shunning has a lot to do with it. If you want to know what shunning is go out one day and have normal relationships with everyone around you, and then go out the next and have trouble buying groceries. Then realize that everyone, friends, co-workers, and the people in the grocery store are all acting the same. Then realize they will keep it up for years if need be. Then realize that it's nothing you've done. Someone, somewhere told them to act that way, so they did. And since there's nothing you have done to create the situation, there's nothing you can do to fix it. If you're predisposed to heart problems or bad driving in the first place, the odds are the situation will reach critical levels under this treatment.