Exposing The Publisher: Using Sandy Hook To Further An Agenda


shoe pounderIn the aftermath of the Sandy Hook School shooting in Connecticut, I was left with a feeling of disgust and deep, personal sadness. Working for an inspection company, using Infrared techniques in the mid 2000’s, I had an opportunity to work for that school district. Though I never had the opportunity to visit that school in particular, I did work with many in that community.

However, when I read this article blog posted by the Publisher of that over opinionated web site, that I hate to mention, I had never felt more disgusted by a human being in my life. Not even the shooter of this cold blooded, child massacre could disgust me more than the man named Mark Hallburn. Known in my world as The Publisher.

For those of you new to whom this man is, let me give you a reason, a bullet point list if you will, why I go after scumbags like this.

Certified delusional.
Grandiose sense of entitlement.
Manipulative.
No compassion for anyone, other than himself.
Liar.
Cheater.
Criminal.

Look, my list could go on but what really bothers me about someone like this is he uses our 1st amendment like it was a cheap whore. He refers to that anytime he is stifled to saying something, anything, whether it’s true or not. But he has twisted his lies and halve truths around so much in his lifetime that nothing he says is even close to the truth. He then will abuse your right to free speech when your opinion is a counter or doesn’t agree with his. He has blocked myself and many detractors from posting the truth or viable comments from his web site, his Facebook page and other places. That’s not a complaint. I don’t care that he does that to me. I will still get the truth out.

Back to the original crux of this blog post. (Note, I did not claim to be a journalist of a news site, but let me be perfectly clear on what you are about to read. I did my research on this subject, which I can promise you, the Publisher…did not.) What disgusted me the most about The Publisher’s recent blog post that he tries to call a news story? The fact that he would even remotely use it in his ongoing custody battle with his second ex-wife and the judge that is over seeing that case. In a nutshell, Mark’s past has caught up with him and he has limited visitation with his son. For a good reason. Everything this mostly unemployed, criminal blowhard (and lets not forget the documentation of his delusion) has been taken into account in his custody battle, including the risk of flight with the child. Yet he tries to blame judges for the massacre in Newtown.

We begin with his first paragraph;

The Sandy Hook School massacre has left many people asking why. Before the shell casings cooled, the ‘why’ debate started. Gun critics blamed the National Rifle Association. Mental Health critics blamed the lack of mental health care. Almost overlooked in the debate were headlines from The Los Angeles Times: Connecticut Shooter Was Estranged From Father. The sub headline stated that the shooter “Hadn’t seen his father in two years-despite the father’s efforts. Another headline read, “Upset by divorce? Outsider? Seeking clues in school shooter’s past.

First off, Adam Lanza wasn’t set off to do what he did by not being able to see his father. It was his mental instability that led to these horrific acts. A product of today’s culture and politically correct nature. If a parent was to blame (and they weren’t) it would be his mother more so than his father. You see, Nancy Lanza was ready to move to Washington state (she is also a bit of a Survivalist as it turns out) and get Adam some help. Adam thought he was just going to be sent away. If that was his trigger, then what could anyone do?

Yet, here is The Publisher, taking an LA Times (very liberal and out of touch with this story being 3500 miles away) article and using it as a basis for his story to do one thing. Further his agenda. He hates Judge Kelly (the judge in his custody battle) so much that he will grasp at any shred of information that will help him sell his side of the story.

His side is false. I did my own research. A few phone calls and some friendly advise later and I was able to get the court documents (which are now of public record) of the Lanza’s divorce. Here is what I found;

The documents suggest the couple argued very little. They agreed to split up their jewelry, clothes and family photos and the usual banal items. Adam would live with his mother, the couple agreed, and they agreed to talk about the important decisions when they came up.

If they couldn’t agree on something when it came to Adam’s upbringing, Nancy “shall make the final decision,” according to the Sept. 24, 2009, settlement approved by Judge Stanley Novak.

Reading it over, there is nothing in the divorce court file that mentions why the couple decided to split or any underlying problems. The file simply says the marriage “has broken down irretrievably and there is no possibility of getting back together.” There was never a time that Adam Lanza was denied a chance to see his father nor was peter Lanza denied a chance to see his son.

So what The Publisher has done once again is taken someone else’s opinion, that happens to fit his agenda, and made it the underlying problem of Adam Lanza when quite clearly, he was just unstable. I could stop right there Mark continues;

There are many psychological studies and statistics that prove that children who come from broken homes suffer. Too many to list here. Many others prove that children without the strong presence of fathers in their lives also suffer. Yet America allows these situations to continue.

I don’t argue that point at all. That is true. But I say it is only a small part in this situation with Lanza. It certainly isn’t the judges fault.  What i take umbrage with is that he is saying we are  allowing this to happen.  No we aren’t.  What we have allowed is a decline in our family nucleolus.  We’ve forgiven too many moral inconsistencies and not been heavy handed enough with punishment and correction within the homes.  We try, oh we do indeed try, but we’ve been forced to get a second job while the spouse has been forced to get a full time one as well, leaving out kids to fend way too much entirely by themselves.

Here in West Virginia, Putnam(redeacted).com has identified two judges whose anti-fatherhood and anti-family stances are improper: Kanawha County Family Court Judge Michael J. Kelly and Supreme Court Justice Menis E. Ketchum.

In the case of Bill Henry, Kelly refused to return Henry’s runaway teenage daughter to him. She was staying with friends. In doing so, Kelly improperly stripped Henry’s right to be a father to his daughter. At one point the insensitive and arrogant Kelly said that “Anyone can live with anything for 19 days” but never reversed his temporary order.

We don’t know what happened in this case.  Number one, the video that the Publisher was given was edited and cut down to a 5 second clip of Judge Kelly’s quote.  We have no context to why that was said.  Number two, this is a child’s case and all records are sealed.  There is no information available as to why the Judge decreed what he did and there is no basis to what actually happened.  Again, a douchebag saying things to make you believe someone is corrupt.

In the case of Putnam(redacted).com Publisher Mark Hallburn, Kelly reduced Hallburn’s parenting time to less than 70-percent based on false allegations in a temporary custody hearing. Later, it was determined that the allegations were false and made merely on “beliefs” rather than fact. Despite numerous requests, Kelly has refused to reverse his fatally-flawed ruling and even rejected an Emergency Father’s Day visitation motion because he did not receive it 10 days before Father’s Day. Obviously Kelly does not understand the definition of “Emergency.”

I am surprised that The Publisher doesn’t pull a hammy when he reaches for these preposterous statements. First off, the allegations are, indeed, true. It’s been proven before in the past. This means that when it extends to the custody hearing, it’s still true. There are NO false allegations here. There is only fact that Mark cannot function normally within normal society and that has been proven time and again as well. The Publisher is also known to file a harassing amount of FOIA’s, lawsuit paperwork and motions such as this “emergency” fathers day visitation motion. He also demands the most ridicules forms of compensation when he feels wronged. Ten million dollars from AEP when his power flickered for 9 seconds, 1 million from a doctors office for making him wait and most recently he wanted his dead mother unearthed and brought back to life. I’ll let you read that and soak it in.

Done?

I know right!? Let’s continue;

Sidebar:

During the broadcast of my radio show I was informed (by a reliable source) that Mark Hallburns visitation rights sit at 25%.  That’s semantic’s you douchebag!  The Publisher says “below 70%” yet the real story comes out.  It’s such a small percentage because of his own wrong doings.

End Sidebar.

When Ketchum asked for-and received Emergency Father’s Day motion from Hallburn his arrogant response was to violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and order Hallburn not to contact the West Virginia Supreme Court about the case any longer. Kelly later retaliated by refusing to let Hallburn’s son travel with him out-of-state SPECIFICALLY because Hallburn complained to Ketchum who responded with the illegal order.

::coughBULLSHITcough::

How is this breaking his 1st amendment right? He’s already proven to be a harassing lunatic and can’t grasp the concept of “a right to” and “an abuse of” the first amendment. Judge Kelly wasn’t retaliating against anything. He was simply doing his job of protecting the child in this case. By the way, this was when The Publisher wanted to take his kid to see his dying grandmother which you just read about.

Kelly’s antics are nothing new. The group Men and Women Against Discrimination (bunch of crackpots) called for Kelly’s removal (didn’t work, failed miserably) from the bench years ago after he testified that he ignored (no, did his job) state law about parental custody. In the Hallburn case he commented that state law would not allow either parent to get primary custody-then, in his wrongful temporary ruling, gave primary custody to Dolores Halburn. Nearly a year later, because Kelly has not issued a final (close enough, just a matter of final details) divorce decree, that “temporary” ruling remains in effect, denying Mark Hallburn his proper rights as a father. This is classic Kelly misconduct (actually, he is just letting Mark hang himself): Acknowledge the law, then circumvent it (which The Publisher does with the truth). He clearly does this because the West Virginia Supreme Court, including Ketchum, allow Kelly to do this.

When Ketchum handed down the Administrative Order, he violated federal constitutional law. When Kelly cited that order and retaliated against Hallburn, he also violated federal constitutional law.

What law?  The right to be a douchebag, pond scum swiller?

Kelly and Ketchum claim to be highly educated men. However, their arrogance and misconduct only prove that they are fools that somehow managed to earn law degrees-then sucker voters into electing them. Kelly and Ketchum lack common decency and common sense. Therefore they have no business serving on any bench.

Blah Blah Blah. You know, I thought I was bad when I got on my rants about things that piss me off. At least I had the common sense to get my facts straight before I go off at the mouth. The Publisher has his running like a whip-poor-wills rear end. So Judge Kelly doing his job is nothing more than just antics and shenanigans to The Publisher? That’s just like the losers that owe money in Judge Watkins court and they get all PC and defensive when he yells at them for it. They bring false charges and force the man to change something that wasn’t really wrong to begin with. Oh and as far as the decree for Mark’s custody hearing? It’s pretty much final. But due to Mark’s own paperwork crush on the court system, it hasn’t been officially finalized. Thus, Judge Kelly can change this to fit the situation properly. This means Mark will lose even more visitation time because of his own selfishness, senselessness and stupidity.

I will state that after reading up on some cases that both Kelly and Ketchem have been involved with, they are truly intelligent and forthright men. They take their jobs to heart and have a passion about the law. They will not let a few bad apples make this system weak and for that, people point at them and say “he’s not fair, he’s not smart.”

Some may say that removing two judges over two cases is extreme. However, there are many more people that contacted Putnam(redacted).com citing abuse by Kelly. They are simply afraid that he will retaliate against them (like he did with Hallburn) and do not want their names and cases published. This alone is grounds to remove a judge. No one should have to fear retaliation-including the loss of precious time with their children.

This is not an outright lie…but it’s pretty close. No one of importance has contact The Publisher other than a few jilted Kool-aid drinkers and of course, The Publisher’s own cronies, namely Troy Sexton, whom just has a problem with the entire system because, well quite frankly, he’s an idiot. You see, in a nutshell, The Publisher likes to embellish things and he does it so much, he actually believes his own stories. But there will never be one ounce of proof supplied. By the way, no one other than the criminals that have faced these judges fears any due process.

In fairness to the courts, there are abusive fathers. Same for mothers. Each should be kept from their children until counseling and other intervention takes place. However, neither Hallburn or Henry abused their children and too many fathers are held back from parenting simply because ignorant judges automatically award primary custody to mothers.

Abusive fathers? Yes, there are certainly abusive fathers. I can name one right off the top of my head that The Publisher pals around with and defends. Troy Sexton. Oh wait, there’s another. Convicted child molester, Bob Harper. As far as Hallburn is concerned, what Judge Kelly is really doing is keeping the kid safe from a volatile, angry man that has little to his name and a shoddy job track record. There would be no way that kid would be safe with that man over the course of time. Visitations (and less of it in this case) is the key to the child’s safety.  Also, in Bill Henry’s case, we don’t know the man and we don’t know what happened behind closed doors that made the child run away.  He doesn’t air any dirty laundry in some blog publicly.

At this point, I know I have pretty much poked holes in every argument or statement The Publisher has made but I will offer up evidence that he alone has provided. I want you to read this next quote closely and if you have an ounce of common sense you will see the evidence as plain as day.

Complaints have been filed against both Kelly and Ketchum with the West Virginia Judicial Investigative Commission. It claims to have processes to deal with bad judges. However, those processes are broken and must be immediately replaced. The JIC has no option other than to do the following: 1) IMMEDIATELY order Kelly and Ketchum to restore every moment of lost time with their children. EVERY moment. This means rolling back the clock-which will be a huge challenge for Kelly and Ketchum-but is their problem. 2) IMMEDIATELY remove from the bench. 3) Throw them into prison for violating federal constitutional law. 4) Set down standards to make sure this does not happen again. 5) Change the way the JIC conducts business so that judges are properly supervised to make sure this does not happen again. 6) Turn over custody rulings to juries consisting of parents. 7) Order the West Virginia Supreme Court to immediately allow temporary orders to be appealed. 8) Turn over all courtroom videos to the news media for us to publish. (Redact the names of cases and digitize the images of petitioners and respondents) 9) Allow reporters into family law courtrooms to keep an eye on judges. 10) Allow the public to address the West Virginia Supreme Court justices at every hearing. 11) Transform the JIC into a civilian review board. 12) Two-year terms for all judges. 13) Recalls for all public officials-elected, appointed, and hired. This must include judges. 14) Term limits for all elected public officials-including judges.

All of these things must happen by the close of business, Friday, December 21, 2012 so that fathers can make sure their rights to be with their children are not violated on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

First off, there are no viable complaints. Secondly, most of them are filed by The Publisher himself. But did you read that? An insane rambling of a list of things that he wants done to the judges, the system and the Constitution itself and he wanted all done within a few days so he could what? Spend a few hours with a boy that doesn’t really want to spend anymore time with him other than to get some fast food and a bike. Other than that, the kid would have had to sit around on the couch watching movies and cartoons that his dad bought (that will turn him as gay as Perez Hilton) while daddy plays newspaper man and posts his drivel on an online diary of hate.  I don’t even have to go over the insanity that is this list he posted that he demanded be done. Do I? DO I?!

I didn’t think so.

Finally, the nail in the coffin for this entire article. The one line in this entire article that goes a long way to prove that Mark Hallburn, aka The Publisher, is nothing more than a raving lunatic with a sense of entitlement bigger than our national debt. It also shows how much of a threat he is to the general public.

It’s highly unlikely that any West Virginia father will shoot up a school like the incident in Connecticut. However we simply cannot afford another Sandy Hook incident or any other problems with our children because of the courts continuing to improperly interfere with the rights of fathers to parent their children.

A threat? Indeed.

It proves that this man is no more than a low life, looking to get first in line with his hand out for the government cheese, using and stepping on anyone (including his kid) to get there. As the great Mike Balburn, who’s super secret identity remains hidden for obvious reasons, the one that leads the way in revealing the ugliness of Mark Hallburn’s antics has pointed out on many occasions;

“Given his degree of agitation and volatility noted during our examination, any threats made by Mr. Halburn should be taken seriously and dealt with appropriately.”

Taken directly from Mark Hallburn’s own psychiatric report. It’s time to put this guy in his place and that means an extreme decision. Remove him from public and lock him away where he can pretend to be a news reporter, a home owner, a job holder and a loving father all he wants, only, he won’t be hurting anyone with his pretend life.

Exposing The Publisher: To Sell Or Not To Sell.


exposingI admit it.  It’s been too quiet here of late.  granted, I’ve tossed around a comment or two at the trailer park of posting forums called Topix but lately I’ve been more of a lurker when it comes to the antics of The Publisher, whom I am about to expose one more time.  My apologies if “expose” brought other visions to your sick and twisted little minds than was intended.

Currently, The Publisher: Mark Halburn of Putnam(redacted).com,  is facing some changes in his life.  It would appear that all his ranting, raving and acting like a general fool has gotten him in a little hot water with the lady of the house.  You know, the one that pays for his domain name for his “news” (Blog) site when he’s spent all his money on KFC and Taco Bell because a coupon for a freebie wasn’t enough.  Knowing things are about to change for The Publisher, I decided to try and alleviate him of the burden of his web site by offering to buy it.  Now, being an entrepreneur, I figured that I could buy his web site and actually turn it into a credible news site.   Of course, that was just crazy talk.  With all the damage he has done using that domain for his blogging and political attacks the best I could do is buy the domain and dismantle it.  But, I figured I would go in with high hopes and with a professional manner.

What follows is based on actual events.  No names were changed to protect the innocent.  There wasn’t any.

Now, as you see I just wrote up a quick e-mail saying I was interested and I expected there would be some back and forth where we would eventually work out an idea.  Would I pay for the just the domain and the name?  Could I be convinced this was a successful business and I could take it over as a business?  If so, would I get all the information I needed?  As you can see, I only offered to buy the web site, meaning the domain, so I could perhaps continue to run the site.  As you can also see, with no discussion, little fan fare and lacking in reality, The Publisher fired back with a price of $250,000.

$250,000!?

Yeah, I know all about the fact he wants $300,000 for his little blue shack on a hill which is only worth $89,000 appraised, but good lord.  I was even surprised by the price.  $250,000?!  Whew.  Well, despite the quoted cost, I figured I would push this for all it was worth.  At this point?  I was done being serious about buying the site because I knew it would never happen.  Not with a guy that had zero touch with reality.  However, I kept up the charade to see what I could get.

At this point, I had my accountant working on more research on this site to see how much something like this would actually cost to run, what kind of billable income there actually could be and what kinds of overhead there would be.  In an effort to learn more from The Publisher, I asked for the obvious, as you can see.  By the way, we tabbed that this site, with it’s readership and projected readership was worth about $2500.  He fires back by making this a package deal.  $250,000 for the site and the “office headquarters”, which he quoted at an addition $300,000.

::laughs:: Whoa there Nelly.  What the hell just happened here?

So, his “office building” is up for grabs too?  Office building?  You know,  his soon to be second ex wife’s house, whom she shares with her mother.  So now it’s gone from $250,000 to $550,000 but he did say “package deal”.  I assumed the original asking price of $250,000.  My question here is, does it come with a wife, kid and a mother-in-law in that asking price?

By this point he has no clue what he is doing.  All I wanted was a balance sheet or an income and expense report to see what the numbers were.  He tosses out the $2500 a month “billable” mail and then adds in a taunt about the “great debate” that I no showed to, like I was ever going to debate the mentally retarded.  Oh, and because I am from Vermont he decides to taunt me with a maple syrup joke.

Hahahahahaha!  Yeah, like I have not heard that before.  Who’s the dumb one?  me for living in a state that is famous for maple syrup or guys like Mark Haburn that pay $60.00 a gallon for it?

He gets a little ahead  of me in the mail trade off’s, but he starts to offer some of the costs associated to this because he doesn’t want to send me anything.  He doesn’t trust me.  As you will see later, he even says that.  He’s right though, he shouldn’t.  He ends with sort of a “take it or leave it” finality.

At this point I decided to really get the facts.  He’s called his web site a business for years and granted, we have seen a business licence and he has filed taxes on it, but I still say it’s not a business and I will tell you why a little later, just bear with me.  I went right after him.  I wanted a list of everything and if you are a business person serious about selling your business, you would offer that up.  Especially if you were asking 100 times what it was actually worth.

This is where he starts to attack me, saying that his “employees, contributors, editors and webmasters” would not work for me.  Of course they wouldn’t because he is all of that.  He’s had one contributor (another crazy “journalist” named Lawrence Smith) do some work for him and at one point he claims it’s all volunteerism.  We’ll get to that little white lie later.

As you can see, I kept at it.  I want that information now and at this point, I was willing to give him like a$1000 bucks just to dismantle the damn site and let him watch all his years of “hard work” disappear.  Plus, he’s been claiming for years that he has had editors, writers and photographers all working for him.  He’s claimed an office just outside of city limits he was renting.  If so, then I wanted the proof.

This was my last real attempt to get the information from him.  It worked too.  Mark said he was “traveling”.  I didn’t believe him because he was at Marshall University Graduate College taking pictures and playing journalist again.  That’s not traveling.  he says in his next mail that he wasn’t in Putnam County.  That was true.  He was just across the line in Kanawha County.

Let’s wrap up the capture’s here, shall we?

There you have it.  $1000 was my final offer.  Of course he turned it down.  My research of his “clients” revealed what we already knew.  He does a “barter” with them and once you enter Hotel Haburn, you will never leave.  He’s got a few fish on the hook that should have wiggled before they wrote the check but even when they are done paying him, he has left many of them on, just to have some sort of “proof” he has advertisers.

So, I asked for income and expense reports.  Employee lists.  Since this was a web based business, I wanted verifiable traffic logs. Lists of visitor IPs, ISPs, OS and location.  He also would have had to send that same inform for his .com as well as his .org because of his change over last year.   So, what did I eventually get after pressing?  One page of his 2010 Tax forms.  One page.  Just a page from an online tax form that could have just been filled out with numbers and made into a jpg.  However, I believe the form page I have is real.

Now, let me say that I have never doubted that the web site is registered as a business.  I have seen the proof.  I still call it a non business though, at least in the way Mark claims it.  He’s not a journalist, he’s a blogger.  Bloggers make money by selling advertising too.  The good ones at least.  The ones that are read.  The ones that are worth paying for.  He’s not a successful businessman, much less a successful member of society and he just can’t, won’t and will never see that.

Remember when I said I don’t believe this is a viable business?  Here is why.  It’s not for the fact that his profit (which is what you pay taxes on when you run your own business) was only $2448.  At least it made some money, on paper.  But don’t believe what you see.  This “business”?  Is really a tax shelter.   I can also wrap up my explain of the little white lie I mentioned.  He says that his contributors and “photographers” (interesting note here from Mike Balburn; the exif information that is embedded in photographs reveals that Mark takes all his pictures) are volunteer yet on his little tax form he supplied me, he writes off $1150 in contract labor.  There is nearly 9 grand in car expenses, nearly $12oo in utilities.  It goes on and on.  Basically, he’s paying 100% of his household bills with income from his various jobs he’s held over the course of the year plus about a closer number of $600 for “advertising” on his site.  By the way, speaking of advertising, he wrote off $1500 in advertising for his own site.  $1500?!  On what?  Plus 4400 in “other expenses”.

Business?  No.  Tax shelter?  Yes.  Yes indeed.

So this begs a question.  Will Mark ever sell his web site for $250,000?  No.  Will he sell his house….oh wait, I’m sorry… his wife’s house for $300,000?  No.  His soon to be ex wife may be able to sell the house and move away but she won’t get that much for it.  If she thinks she can she is either as crazy as Mark is or has been so brain washed by Mark that she is a walking zombie.

Update: Rumor mill has it that Doed’s might have pulled the divorce papers.  I will now go with the latter for the reason behind her brainlessness.

So there it is, folks.  The Publisher has been exposed.  He’s been pants’d in the middle of I64, if you will.  He want’s no less than $250,000 for a web site that is worth no more than $2500, he still has delusions of being a businessman and a journalist which we have proven time and again that he is not and he uses his business licence to set up a tax shelter for his pathetic life.

To sell or not to sell, that’s no longer a question.

Exposing The Publisher #11


Here’s a quickie for you.   The Publisher over at Putnam(redacted).com has been busted by yours truly, right out of the July gate.

I was reading the Beez Buzz today and read a fantastic opinion piece by John Bornschein about honoring Independence Day.  I caught a screen capture of it actually.

Later in the day I ran across a letter that was “sent” to Putnam(redacted).com that the Publisher printed from a “letter writer”.  I caught a screen shot of that too.

Imagine my surprise when I got done reading.  Huh.  July 1st is only a few hours old and The Publisher is still up to his old tricks.  Mr. Publisher?  I demand you close down you trash blog or admit to the fact that it is what it is.  An opinion blog and not a news source.

Crook.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog reading.

 

Exposing The Publisher Detta, Tama, Tento (#10)



Dit. Tama. Cette. Diese. Questo. Este. Detta. Acest. Tento.

Any way you choose to say it, it all means the same.

The number 10.

In my continuing effort to make sure that you, the reader, the listeners or those brothers and sisters in arms in Putnam County, are fully informed of the story telling that The Publisher likes to tell over at Putnam(redacted).com, I bring to you EtP10. In a continued effort of yellow journalism, The Publisher has once again “created” a story out of nothing. Once again, he attacks Mayor Edwards, accusing his “staff” of planting political signs for the Mayor’s reelection campaign in The Publishers yard. I present to you;

“Here’s Your Sign.” 

As always lets begin with the title of his attack piece.

Edwards Campaign Harasses Critics Again

Right off the bat, he accuses.

Signs Placed In Front Of Home Without Permission

The byline. Even though you eventually come to find out that The Publisher says that he doesn’t blame the Mayor for personally putting signs up in The Publisher’s yard, he leads you to believe such. This is bait and switch.

During his 2007 campaign for mayor, Scott D. Edwards chose to campaign on a Hurricane street corner across the street from the employer of this publisher’s wife. This publisher has been one of Edwards’ strongest critics, citing his anti-family and anti-jobs stance that hurts the City of Hurricane and Putnam County.

Wow. I think I just heard a hamstring snap as he reached for that first statement. The Publisher accuses Edwards of picking a spot specifically because The Publishers wife worked in a building across the street? I’m going to let that sink in for a moment.

First of all, while chatting up the mayor in casual conversation over cheeseburgers and a Pepsi (note: that’s what I was having when I wrote him an email, I have no clue what he was having), I got the impression Mr. Edwards had no idea that The Publisher’s wife was working in any building on any of the street corners he chose to do his hand waving and hello’s. As any smart, intelligent, politically oriented candidate would do, he chose his spots strategically. Highest traffic flow gets you to wave that hand and say hello more which translates into “impressions”. It’s the smart thing to do. Edwards did not choose a street corner based on a critic or where that critic’s wife works. End of story.

All this is, is an attempt to once again for this critic, The Publisher, to try and sully the name of a candidate, The Mayor, just because his panties are still in a bunch about Walmart. It’s all about Walmart. “Edwards is anti family…” because he brought in a Walmart. “Edwards is anti jobs…” because he brought on a Walmart.

Shortly after he was elected, in a tainted election, while this publisher was working in South Carolina, a City of Hurricane inspector cited this publisher’s pregnant wife for weeds on a hillside behind our home. Edwards’ business, Netranom Communications, (the Old Town Hall building) and the current Hurricane City Hall had tall weeds, but they weren’t cited. City inspectors have repeatedly refused to cite Edwards for the issues at the Netranom building. It’s part of Edwards’ double standard and dirty politics.

Tainted election? There has never been proof of this. It was a sore losers late attempt to try and change the minds of those that had already spoken though the ballots. Sam Cole lost in a close election and he didn’t even care until someone started to whisper in his ears about “rigged elections” and “unsafe ballots” or some other hooha. Could it have been Mark Halburn? An obvious critic of Mayor Edwards that was doing the whispering through his opinionated web site? I’ll let you be the judge. Never mind the fact Cole had a solid recount done with the same results. You can count 100 times and nothing was going to change.

As for the weeds part of this yellow journalism piece? Oooops. There goes the other hammy! Seriously? Is there any proof that his second wife was ticketed for tall weeds? Any proof at all? Do they really enforce that statute anymore? Oh, wait. Weeds at a computer business as well, no ticket there? Oh, ok. So basically we have another untruth out there, tossed up like a softball by The Publisher. Excuse me while I take a swing here. He takes a picture of tall weeds in behind the City Hall building and tries to sell that (with no proof) as to have been taken in 2007?  I call dirty journalism.

::bat crack::

I will say this though. Don’t be a stooge, Mr. Publisher. Cut your damn grass if you are looking to make an impression to sell that double wide.

So when Edwards’ re-election campaign signs showed up in the grass in front of our home, Thursday, May 12th, 2011, we weren’t surprised. Edwards says he didn’t do it. We believe him. However, we don’t believe he didn’t know a supporter was putting them there. And despite Edwards assertion that the culprit will be prosecuted, more than 24 hours after the trespassing and malicious mischief occurred (I decided to leave all his spelling mistakes and grammatical errors…that‘s not me), no one from the Hurricane Police Department had fingerprinted the signs. Chief of Police W. “Mike” Mullins hung up on this publisher when he was asked why the signs were not fingerprinted and why the Walmart surveillance video had not been viewed.

Oh my. There are so many things in this little paragraph that just tickle me pink. He totally believes his lie and thus herein lies the crux of my expose’ in this article. It is my belief that Mark Halburn aka The Publisher, did in fact steal signs from various places about the city of Hurricane and deliberately destroyed them to “create” a story to put Mayor Edwards in a negative light.

When asked about the accusation, Mayor Edwards responded with the following quote; “ Me nor my people did this — not sure who did. He emailed me and said he was out of town and demanded 1 trillion dollars per sign per day for yard space rent.”

Yep. You heard that right. One trillion. I have to wonder if Mark sat there laughing manically, his pinky finger resting at the corner of his mouth when he wrote up that email to Mayor Edwards?

Oh yeah, you want to see the entire email The Publisher sent Mayor Edwards? I thought ya might;

“For the second campaign in a row, you have chosen to harass my wife. Last time you campaigned in front of her employer. Today, while I am out of town, she awoke to find TWO of your campaign signs in our front yard. Since these were UNAUTHORIZED, the overnight space rental fee is $1 TRILLION per sign. Yes, I WILL be making this public as just your latest unethical conduct! How do you sleep at night? The payment is due IMMEDIATELY at the City National Branch, in Hurricane! Mark.”

I giggled. Seriously. Until I laughed. Is this guy crazy? Wait!

Don’t answer that.

When I talked to Mayor Edwards a few days later about the missing signs he stated that he had been told a few signs were missing. To quote; “Well, they were stolen from what appears to be random locations… Some in subdivisions and some on main roads.” 

I agree that the culprit be prosecuted. Go ahead and look at any Walmart footage. It’s not going to show anything than an empty parking lot and a few cars rolling up and down Progress Way. As far as the finger printing goes, yeah, do that too. It will find that Mark’s greasy little paw marks are all over them in specific places, not just from “uprooting” them from his yard and crunching them in a barrel to take pictures of the offending signs. The Publisher could be nailed with theft of property, burglary and destruction of said property. Who knows, if he stole enough of the signs and it’s proven he did, then it could be a felony. There’s a hell of an add to the ole rap sheet for ya. No wonder Mullins hung up on his ass. Oh yeah. Can I answer the question of “How do you sleep at night?” for the Mayor? Thanks. Like a hard working Mayor.

::bling smile and a thumbs up!::

We removed the signs and placed them in a more appropriate location. Edwards was sent a bill for the space rental for the time that the signs were in the grass. Naturally, Edwards hasn’t paid the bill. He sent the following email:

“Thank you for letting me know that there were some of my campaign signs in your yard. If they are still on your property, I will be glad to come and get them, but I do want you to know that I did not place them there. Actually, I noticed numerous signs of mine had been moved to different locations last night. I was out until midnight, so it had to have taken place between midnight and 7 am, which is when I noticed the others that were moved. If it happens again, please let me know and I will remove immediately.”

The “appropriate location” was a garbage bin. First off, if The Publisher was any kind of decent human being and this was indeed a prank by someone knowing how much of a critic he is to Edwards, he would have called and said “I have your signs, come get them or I will bring them in. They are not supposed to be on my lawn.” I would not have deliberately broken the law and destroyed them and then taken photographic proof of this.

As far as Mr. Edwards paying the bill? Well, a collection has been started and the office is up to $6.75 in coins and dollars. We here at a State Of Mind have started a matching collection of $6.75 in Pepsi cans so we are well on our way to paying off this two trillion dollar debt. That’s a lot more than the liberal Publisher’s current leaders administration has saved up towards it’s trillion dollar debt.

As for Mayor Edwards going out of his way to respond, it’s a lot more than he needed to do. He was polite and apologetic about this happening and has not once accused Mark of any wrong doing. I have and I will stick to it. What surprises me is The Publisher didn’t burn these signs. He is a suspected firebug after all.

So far, Edwards has not picked up the signs for fingerprinting despite a request to do so.

So here it ends. Number ten. A decology, thus far, of Exposing the Publisher. The Publisher wants the police to investigate, finger prints to be taken, signs to be picked up and trillions of dollars to be deposited into his account. Huh. I just realized we can add extortion to the charges in this little episode (temper tantrum?) by The Publisher. I bet no one thought of that yet, did they. Especially The Publisher.

One final note. The Publisher posted a photo of a supposed Mayor giving a photographer the middle finger. I chose not to repost that. But I did come up with something of my own to cap off this expose, if you will. I call it a three finger book for The Publisher to read.

I just hope he can read between the lines.

Exposing The Publisher #9


Shhhhhhhh…can you hear that?

::crickets::

Yeah. I know. It’s been pretty quiet around the State Of Mind hidden offices lately. Between the rat race, the radio show, family and good friends, I’ve been busy and really? I can’t complain about any of that. That doesn’t mean I have neglected my duties to Exposing The Publisher, however. I’ve recently come across a few articles written by the West Virginia Mad Man, Mark Halburn and have been verifying certain details so that I can bring you the ninth installment of Exposing The Publisher.

I call this one The Crickets Are Crying. Don’t ask me why. I think it’s because I started out with a cricket joke. I’ll probably end with one as well.

Now, lets lay out a little back story first. Remember when The Publisher got all bent out of shape about not being able to swim in the pool Waves of Fun during a Dog Swim? It was an event for pets sponsored and supported by the Putnam County Parks and Recreation Department. They spent roughly $250 bucks and made close to $2000 for the pampered pooches that day. The Publisher boo hoo’d and whined because he couldn’t go for a swim and then tried to claim they spent over $1100. He, of course, was proven wrong.

Most recently The Publisher posted an opinion piece on his blog (we are no longer referring to it as a “news site”) that centered on an investigation into the Putnam County Animal Shelter. Since The Publisher still insists on calling his blog a “news site” and continues to lie to his readers (ie: his clicker finger) I decided it would be a good time to get the writing juices flowing and pop out good ole #9.

The Publisher was pretty blunt by calling this “FBI Looking Into New Animal Shelter Spending.”

Lets begin, shall we?

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been asked to look into the spending of private funds for the new Putnam County Animal Shelter.”

Yeah. You know who “asked to look into” things? The Publisher himself. No one else. He didn’t get any calls. He didn’t get any letters. No one but him has said boo. Just because of The Publisher’s petty little jealousy of dogs and cats, just because he regrets his criminal records concerning trespassing and pools, he has to come up with a story, spread some horse manure around in the right area’s and call it a bed of flowers. I call it what it is. Bullshi….wait. Horseshit. Yeah. Horseshit.

“Putnam(redacted).com received a return call this week from a Charleston agent whose name we are withholding.”

Ok. Lets see if I can rephrase this the right way, so it makes sense and tells the TRUTH. Lets, for a moment, give The Publisher the benefit of the doubt and say he did indeed get a call back from an agent of the FBI. One, the only reason he would have gotten a call back was because The Publisher probably harassed the answering machine of some poor sap that was told to cover the office while the other agents went out to make some real busts.

Two, the call was probably a return call to tell The Publisher that he’s a crack pot, they don’t have any authority over the Putnam County Animal Shelter and that if he called back again, there would be an investigation alright, but it wouldn’t be into the PCAS. I’m sure the agent may have used the words douchebag, fat boy and pudgy digits, but don’t quote me on that. Really though? This is just a out and out lie and no phone call ever took place. According to phone records, there was none. I could just stop here, but lets tear down more of The Publisher’s dream.

“At issue, apparently, is whether or not work at the new site has gone through a bidding process.”

How about a different question here. Why would the FBI even care about this?

“It’s a gray area,” the agent says, who disclosed that he will be reviewing the matter with the United States Attorney.”

::coughsBULLSHITcoughs::

Excuse me. I had a little phlegm there. Actually, no. I don’t have any phlegm. I do call bullshit here. He is now quoting some figment FBI agent of his imagination. You can get in trouble for this kind of stuff.

“Earlier this year, Putnam(redacted).com received several telephone calls asking questions about bids. We spoke with former fundraising chair Jeff Barnes who says the only spending he did was for the annual Fur Balls and confirmed each had a bidding process. However, Barnes says he never spent any of the money raised for work at the new site.”

Again, I call Shenanigans. Why anyone would call this guy, of all people, with his reputation, about the bidding process of the PCAS is beyond me? No one called him. It was just his vivid imagination that once again ran wild with an idea and manifested itself into more sock puppets “creating” a story. He then called and harassed yet another county employee and tried a little yellow journalism by getting a quote from someone that could be involved, just because he’ did some fund raising.

“When Putnam(redacted).com filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with Putnam County Manager Brian Donat, his response was that the county was never in possession of the private funds and has not spent any of that money.”

Of course that was the response. There is no story here. There wasn’t even a need for an FOIA here. It was just The Publisher trying to feel and look important by filing this document and that document and doing a little yellow journalism.

“After contacting the West Virginia State Police we were referred to the F.B.I. who confirmed they had already been contacted about the issue.”

::coughsBULLSHITcoughs::

Ahnnn…ahemmmm…arkahhhh…

Wow, must be a frog in my throat. No. No wait. No frog either. I’m calling more bullshit. Again, it comes down to phone records.

“We spoke with Pray Construction President Mark Grigsby and asked whether he had to bid out the work that his company has done at the new site. He declined to comment other than to say, “We don’t comment about our business with private firms. This was not a government contract.”

“It is important to note that no charges have been filed against anyone about this issue, only that questions are being asked. Karen Haynes is now in charge of private fundraising. She has not been accused of breaking any laws.”

“We will update this situation if anything develops.

Well now. We finally come to it. Right there in his own attack piece, The publisher answers his own question. “This is not a Government contract.” Pretty much tells you right there that the State Police or the FBI need not be involved in anything as far as an investigation into the PCAS. Once again, quite simply, this is a vendetta piece by The Publisher because he couldn’t swim in a fucking pool that he once again obsessed over because he couldn’t keep his hairy, fat body from dripping some sweat down his back and into his stained Fruit of the Looms.

As a former journalist and the concerned adopted son of Hurricane, West Virginia, I felt it was my duty to lay out before you the worst attempt at yellow journalism that’s come down the pipe since the August 29th, 2007 article that read “Bush Calls for the Mass Murder of Iranians!” over on Inforwars.

The next call The Publisher should get from any federal, state or country official should be one that will send a couple of guys in white suits and a jacket that goes on backwards.

I now return you to the concerto of crickets.

::crickets::

Model Jessica Plyler…LIVE on the Bad Side!


April 22nd, 2011

9PM

Bad Side…LIVE

Join Tyler as he welcomes in to the C.I.C, model Jessica Plyler!  Jessica will be in to talk about her modeling career, what she aspires to do in the future and her recent participation in the Hooters Bikini Contest.  Questions from the fans are welcome.  Just call 1-661-349-9255.  Live, Friday night (April 22nd) and only on http://www.talkradiox.com.

They call it…a Threepeat!


Click on the banner to see the 2011 Frontier Fifty List!

It started as a hobby.  This broadcasting thing, that is.  Though the seeds of broadcasting were planted in my youth, it wasn’t until 2002 that I began my career, if you will, as a radio broadcaster.

That youth I mentioned?  Those seeds?  Planted in my brain in the backyard of my parents house while playing wiffle ball with my brother.  What young boy could resist calling out a shot that sails over the split rail fence that marked the outfield wall of the backyard wiffle ball stadium?  I say few, my friends.  very few.

From those days of announcing every Redsox player that played in the pros from 1975 to 1983 as if they stepped up to bat in front of the peach colored shed that doubled as the backstop of our stadium, to the day I fired up my first Fancast broadcast in October of 2002, I never had a clue I’d make the impact as I have.

Joining TalkRadioX in 2006, I have gone from broadcasting fantasy sports on the week ends to a full fledged daily talk show and a weekend “club” atmosphere show with music and callers.  I was just happy I could do what I have fun doing.

Yet, what I am most proud of out of all this?  Being one of the 50 most influential net based broadcasters (along with my fellow compatriots at TRX) for the third year in a row.  Damn skippy.

Exposing The Publisher #8


Good evening ladies and gentlemen.  If you will all take your seats, we can begin.

As you know I have been supporting the efforts of PutnamLIES.com over the last few years as well as supporting those in Hurricane, West Virginia and Putnam County in general.  A few people have asked why.  Quite simply, it’s because Mark Halburn is the quintessential example of an entitlist and it is my duty as an American citizen to stop this kind of lazy behavior.

::crowd murmur::

Please.  Please settle down.  I know it’s been a while since I posted one of these Exposing The Publisher volumes on the site but I had stopped talking about the “publisher” because Mike over at PutnamLIES was doing such an awesome job.  But with the “publisher” beginning to unravel with future elections coming up for Hurricane, it was time for the super sub to come off the bench and assist the master.

This weeks effort is focused on an article written by the “publisher” that focuses solely on a business owned by Mayor Scott Edwards of Hurricane.

We begin.

County Pulls CompuPro Signs

Company Failed To Comply With Warning Letter

By Mark Hallburn

Publisher, Putnam(Redacted).com

After getting complaints from Putnam(Redacted).com readers, we investigated whether Putnam County took action against CompuPro for illegally placing signs alongside streets in Scott Depot.

Ok, lets kick this off with some honesty. No one complained about this to Putlam(Redacted).com. It’s just a personal vendetta against the mayor by some blogger with a chip on his shoulder. That’s all this story really is. The “publisher” is pissed off at the world because he is an entitlist and needs someone else to blame.

The answer, we learned, is yes. Action was taken. Signs were removed.

You want the truth about the signs? I got in contact with Mayor Edwards, the owner of the business that the “publisher” is about to reveal in the next line and he had some interesting things to say. About the signs;

“Tyler, my CompuPro manager thought that he had removed the signs (had no idea they were against the rules since there are so many of them around). The county sent a letter and my manager removed a bunch of them, but obviously not all of them since we received the letter.”

Edwards wrote in a letter to this writer.

What we were surprised to learn was the name of the apparent owner of the company: City of Hurricane Mayor Scott D. Edwards. When we called CompuPro, Netranom Communications, which is owned by Edwards, answered the line. City of Hurricane employees verified that he owns the business. However, it isn’t licensed in the city, even though Netranom is in the city limits. In fact, Netranom is in the old Hurricane City Hall.

So? Does this matter? Mr. Edwards, much like myself, is a businessman. Most mayors are in most cities. They have other pursuits that have been successful that have led them to become a leader. When asked about the Putnam(Redacted).com “publishers” ranting about the signs, Mayore Edwards had this to say;

“He is also mad that this business is not in city limits, but it didn’t make business sense for me to go this.”

Mark continued in his rant;

Why were the signs placed illegally? Why didn’t Edwards open his new company in the City of Hurricane? Why didn’t his company remove the signs when it was warned in a January 20th letter? We’d like to know. Edwards has not responded to an email seeking comment.

Seems to me like Mayor Edwards is a pretty smart businessman. He knows where certain goods and services are needed and offers those goods and services in a professional manner. The signs were used to promote the business. Much like a lot of the political candidate signs you see strewn about the lands come election time, some of these signs were not picked up, simply because they were forgotten or possibly moved without the managers knowledge. With that said, these signs were never placed illegally, most were picked up and some were forgotten and later removed after another reminder letter.

“There was no fine or anything like that. Appeared to be a “no harm, no foul” deal.”

Edwards added.

I’d like to add that Mr. Mayor has not responded to the “publishers” email and I have a guess as to why.  Please note, I DO NOT speak for Mayor Edwards here.  You don’t answer letters from crack pots that will have future  restraining orders put against them.

“We take action against any illegal signs,” says Putnam County Office of Planning and Infrastructure Director Sandra Mellert. “We issued a warning, the signs weren’t removed, so we took them down.”

The company has until February 25th to pick them up, according to the January 25th, 2011 letter posted above this article.

No, not true. Well, the letters were sent, that much is true. Signs were removed by the manager of CompuPro and then the rest that were missed were removed, along with any other remaining political campaign signs and other unauthorized signage, by the town. By the way, this quote is just a verbatim out of many town hall ordinance books.

Putnam(Redacted).com received copies of these letters through a Freedom of Information Act request that was initially resisted by Putnam County.

More abuse by the “publisher”. Sidebar here. The “publisher” has been abusing the FOIA for years, thinking it is his way of “striking back” at the empire. Meh. He should read up and understand the FOIA information here. There is a reason he gets charged more than a news site would. His site isn’t a news site at all! He’s not even a commercial filer.  End sidebar.

And if Edwards wants to open another branch of CompuPro, there are vacancies at the Hurricane Gateway Center and Hurricane Marketplace. Of course, in those locations, CompuPro would have to pay the City of Hurricane’s Business and Occupancy tax, something it doesn’t have to do at its location just outside the City of Hurricane’s border.

Wait a second. A couple of years ago the “publisher” was claiming he had his “business office” right down the street, just across the city line. So, why the hoo ha then if that were true? Why bother the Mayor of Hurricane about a business he owns that isn’t within town borders if your own office isn’t even within town lines? Hippo-crite. Oh wait, he originally said that he had the business office just across the town line so he didn’t have to pay B&O taxes on his “news site” business. Then he found out if he were a “news site” he didn’t have to pay B&O taxes. But the truth is all he has is a business license certificate which anyone can get but he doesn’t make any money from said “news site” business because it’s an opinionated blog site.

So… what is this really all about?

“Halburn just wants to try to pick a fight, but I’m not going to fall for it. I figure that his ranting about me will pick up soon since I am running for Mayor again this year (election is in June). Should be interesting.”

Said Mayor Edwards when asked about the situation.

I am going to wrap up this edition of Exposing The Publisher with this thought. The “publisher” likes to “create news” all the time. He also likes to rail against those he feels he has been wronged by, the local government, local business establishments where he has had a bad experience and so on. So he creates news stories. None of it is news. It’s all opinionated rants. Much like my radio show. But at least I am aware that my stuff is opinionated ranting. I’d also like to point out something I noticed today and perhaps we will do an in depth feature on this, but it seems to me there are a lot of fires in and around Hurricane, West Virginia that the “publisher” reports on.

Hmmm…more news creating by the “publisher”?

::crowd gasp::

Did I just accuse Mark Halburn of setting fires to create news?!  Yes. Yes I did. That should be investigated.

I Found My Thrill On Hoover Hill


“Should I ask what Hoover Hills is?” Rita asked.

“And where the or what the… is Hoover Hill?” Martha soon posed there after.

Ah yes. It’s always a blast getting back in touch with old friends. Old college acquaintances or at least three chicks I stalked around Winooski back in the college days when stalking was cool. And yes, I was put up to that even though the other party will deny it to her grave.

::toothy grin::

So in a recent comment discussion in a  Group on Facebook, the topic of Hoover Hill came up. Just what is Hoover Hill? Well, lets start with this;

Hoover Street (marked with the balloon with the letter A) is a side street that sits off Shelburne Road in Burlington, Vermont. As you can see by the picture above, it’s a street that runs through a small neighborhood. What you can’t see is that it’s a slow incline running west to east. Now, please note the arrows. The yellow arrow, pointing at a bush in the picture, is to represent where the hill of Hoover Street crests and then immediately drops off and takes a sharp right hand turn. The red arrows are basically showing the cliff face that is off in the distance. These are important because when you are doing 40 miles an hour up the hill and then crest it, all you can see is the cliff face staring down at you. Once over the crest of the hill you have to take a hard right or run into these huge cement blocks that line the road, preventing idiots doing 40 miles an hour from plunging into a natural pit created by mother nature. It should also be noted that in 1985, when Hoover Street was first discovered, the trees between the two arrows, weren’t there.

The Discovery

As stated earlier, it was fall of 1985 when Hoover Street was discovered. Not far from the corner of Hoover Street and Shelburne Road is another corner that hosts a Dunkin Donuts. I think it’s still there. At any rate, there was one day this writer was conned into going to DD’s for some coffee and Munchkins since he didn’t have class for a couple of hours and ended up flying by the corner that held the Dunkin Donuts. A left hand turn later and history was made. In my rush to just get turned around in my 1972 Chevy Nova I put the pedal to the metal (this was an actual true statement with this 1970’s muscle car) and headed up the incline of Hoover Street. I hit the top, sailed over, went wide eyed, screamed a silent scream and shit my pants.

Quick thinking had me jerking the steering wheel to the right to make the turn and avoid the home made car crushing machine known as 3X3 cement blocks. Brakes were hit and gravel flew from under the tires. The car came to a stop, the muffler rumbling a low growl as the car idled and my heart pumped four times faster than it should have been. Knuckles were white as it gripped the cheap, $8 steering wheel cover. It was quiet for a moment as the reality of what happen sank in.

“That…was fuckin AWESOME!” I exalted.

The Share

It was a week later that I finally decided to share this little ‘better than sex’ secret. I had experienced the Hill three more times during the week, one of those times, once the light of day had settled below the horizon. It got better each time. Two hours later I’m sitting in Freeman Hall waiting for my first victim to share this with. Larry walked in and I was out of my chair before the door could shut.

“We’re going to Dunkin Donuts! Lets go!” I said.

“You don’t drink coffee!” Larry replied as he blindly followed me anyway.

“But I eat donuts.” I said, barely containing my excitement.

A few minutes later we are zooming past the Dunkin Donuts.

“Uhhh….you just drove right past it.” Larry noted.

“Damnit!” I offered up my best acting job. “Oh well, I’ll take the next left and spin around.” I added.

The Nova was ready too. I could feel her hum as we took the left and started up the hill. I was focused on the upcoming thrill but could sense Larry grabbing onto the dash as we picked up speed instead of slowing down.

“What are you doing?” Larry posed with a sudden, nervous urgency.

“You’ll see.” I quipped back.

As we neared the top of the Hill Larry looked over at me, wide eyed. I caught his look out of the corner of my eye and laughed as we hit the crest and flew over the top. Larry let out a bellow and I followed with one of my own, if only to add to his terror. When I cranked the wheel and stamped on the brakes, I looked over at Larry, the car shaking in it’s own excitement. Larry was looking at me like I was the Devil, laughing manically at his expense. For a moment, I was. Breathing heavy and holding the dash like it was a life preserver from the Titanic, Larry finally sat back, a grin on his face.

“That…was fuckin AWESOME!”

The Girl Stories

Details from that day forward are a little foggy only because Hoover Hill became an addiction, much like crack to a dope fiend. Like fresh baked cookies to a fat kid. Like latex to a dominatrix. Like KFC to Mark Halburn. Like Jack & Gingers to Nancy. Like, well, you get the picture. I couldn’t shake the thrill of the Hill. I remember one day taking Liz and Jo over the Hill. I think Jo punched me in the arm hard enough to leave a mark and Liz had an asthma attack. Or maybe it was Cindy that had the asthma attack when I took her over. Maybe it was both. I don’t recall. But there were many more.

Then there was the time I decided to put the old adage of violence (or thrills) turns a woman on. I was dating a gal named Kelly when I took her and her friend over The Hill one night without telling them anything. It was a sneak attack and a last minute decision after pizza one night on Shelburne Road. A slow grin crept over my face as I took a right onto Hoover Street under the guise of looking for a friends house “since we were there.” The Nova roared up the hill and actually caught air (to this day I believe we did, even though it was improbable) before coming to a 90 degree power skid and stop. I sat there giggling as Linda (name has been changed to protect the guilty) poked her head up from the back seat and asked;

“I better see white puffy clouds and hear harp music so I know I am in Heaven, because I just died.” She laughed nervously.

Kelly sat in the semi darkness listening to me laugh. I could swear she had a small grin on her face as she rubbed her legs together. That was before she slapped me across the face and called me a bastard.

Heh.

Long story short, I did prove that chicks get all worked up over thrills (and violence, as evidenced to the hand print on my cheek) because after dropping Kelly off at home due to curfew, I got a kiss from her that straightened my tongue, shoelaces and other things that shall go unmentioned. But it was the back seat romp with Linda (hence the guilty name change) that proved the theory correct.

Epilogue

It’s been nearly 25 years since I took another person over Hoover Hill. Oh, yes, I have been over a few times since the good ole college days but the thrill isn’t what it used to be. Trees have grown up, blocking the view of the cliff face, which was the highlight of the cresting of the hill. The cement blocks are gone and so is that element of crushing danger. Plus, when you do something hundreds of times, you become a pro at it and it becomes mundane. But, for a brief few months between 1985 and 1987, Hoover Street and the Thrill of the Hill was the best thing ever.

The Oscars: Opening Statement


The night of February 27th will be a big night for many movie aficionado’s with the airing of the 83rd Academy Awards.  Last year brought us a lot of buzz from the expanded Best Picture category to the battle between Avatar and The Hurt Locker.   It was an exciting night to follow.

This year there may not be as many films worthy of awards as there have been in the past (according to film critics) but that doesn’t diminish the excitement of the coming event or the night of the gala spectacle that is the Oscar’s.

This year at Passport Video we will be doing several things for your enjoyment and participation.  An Oscar’s section has already been set up, a contest is planned and web reviews will be written all month long.

Oscar Section: Caitlin has recently set up our Oscar’s section, located in the middle of the store on the now famous “I” section encaps (between Comedy & Action).  The movies there are in order by year, top five nominees for the last decade, 2000 to 2010.

Oscar Contest: Beginning Monday the 7th, Passport Video will make available; a form you can fill out (check box style) of the top ten categories of the Academy Awards selections.   The object will be to predict as many winners as you can.  The person with the most correct picks wins a special $50.00 Gift Certificate which you can use any way you want.  Purchase your favorite Oscar winner movie or use it as store credit!  A Bonus category will be chosen for a tie breaker.  Ask for more details and rules next time you visit the store.

Web Reviews: From now until February 27th, I will be posting the staffs thoughts on all the categories.  Who we think will win an award, who we would like to see win an award and what we think of the nominations in general.  Look for a new post every couple of days until the night of the event!

February will be a fun month as we also have President’s Day and Valentine’s Day with which we will have special events of sales for.  Look for more eight here on the web.