Kenney The Elder calls it quits:

As we get closer and closer to updating the RPV website, my place will be over there shortly. Which means this place - for the purposes of blogging - gets to be in limbo for a time. A long time.

I for one will miss his indepth posts on any number of subjects, but only for so long because I’m sure he’ll spout off about them to me at the next Kenney Bros. meet and greet. It is the rest of you who shall be deprived. Alas, poor Va. Blogosphere…

Via Boing Boing:

Rock The Vote.

And a potential would be Governor:

The organization charged with regulating Virginia attorneys is pushing to erase an ethics rule that for a half-century has prohibited the state’s legislators from being employed alongside lobbyists at the commonwealth’s largest law firms.

The change, proposed by the Virginia State Bar’s standing committee on legal ethics, could spark a bidding war among Richmond’s leading law firms, which would be free to hire the speaker of the House of Delegates or the Senate floor leader even as their lobbyists prowl the halls of the General Assembly.

…

Pressure to eliminate the rule in Virginia was sparked in part by Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath), who recently joined the law firm of Hirschler Fleischer P.C., a Richmond-based firm with a small lobbying presence. Without the proposed change, Deeds would be violating state ethics rules.

Deeds, who describes himself as a small-town rural lawyer, said his losing bid for attorney general in 2005 made it nearly impossible to keep his small practice alive. His plans to run for governor in 2009 will require a more stable income, he said. But he said there will be a firewall between himself and the firm’s lobbyists.

“For me to be able to continue the political journey, I had to find some stability. I had to do something,” Deeds said in an interview this week. “If I thought I were doing anything unethical, I would step away from it.”

Jim Riley get straight to the guts here:

Let me repeat, “Without the proposed change, Deeds would be violating state ethics rules.” They key word here is “proposed” as in “not yet in effect” or ”nothing has changed”.

And even though an opinion that could clear the way for him to practice in such a firm was issued in late January, he joined the firm in October.

Deeds said he joined the firm in October with the understanding that a request would be made to the state bar about the rule.

Senator Deeds took the job knowing full well he was creating an ethics violation and instead of inconvieniencing himself he put his constituents and the ethics in the backseat. You don’t knowingly and willfully break the rules and then expect them to bend to your will.

Chris over at Mason Conservative has some thoughts as well.

You win this round, Stomach. But just you wait. When you least expect it I’m gonna feed you Subway. Then you’ll know the true meaning of PAIN!

Ugh…

One of the Universal Truths that lie just beyond the fabric of modern society is the axiom that geeks, along with nerds and other peoples who overinvest in intelligence but boast underdeveloped social skills, make the best lovers.

Book Covers is a facinating blog about, well, book covers.

Google Webmaster Tools is a handy little site that lets you see what Google knows about your site. You can find out who’s linking to your site as well as what search terms folks tend to use when they stumble across you as well. There are a bunch of other little things I haven’t played with yet, but just this bit is a good chunk of info to start with.

Norman Leahy of One Man’s Trash fame makes his triumphant return to blogging at TWO of the best right of center blogs in the Commonwealth: Bacon’s Rebellion and Bearing Drift. Welcome back, Norm.

Too bad I have to work. Bah!

For the would be cultist in your life, love bombing. For the more risque there’s always flirty fishing.

Via Richmond Magazine’s Blog Squad:

Sometimes flowers don’t always get the point across the way you want. If that’s your dilemma, you might try a singing Valentine from the Richmond Virginians Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. On Feb. 13 and 14, members of the Virginians Barbershop Chorus across the region (Richmond, Henrico, Hanover, Chesterfield and eastern Goochland) will be hiring out their talents. For about $50, a tuxedo-clad quartet will show up with a red rose and sing two love songs for your paramour. For about $90 they’ll throw in a dozen roses, instead of the solitaire.

That’s pretty slick. Click the link for contact info and have ‘em sing to someone you love.

Quick aside, an AP article at the Times Dispatch that I found via Fark. What a roundabout way to find local news…

So by banning smoking states are cutting into their tax revenues:

Smoker taxes have been a small but critical source of cash in recent years, as all but a handful of states jacked up their tobacco taxes. Minnesota, for example, slapped an extra 75-cent charge on a pack of cigarettes to solve a budget problem two years ago; the state expects to collect about $451 million from smokers this year.

Bob Kurtter, a state budget watcher at Moody’s Investors Service, said it’s an easy call for budget-challenged states to turn to sin taxes: “They’re the most socially acceptable form of taxes you can raise.” Two years ago, tobacco taxes contributed $13 billion to state budgets.

But those collections are slipping as consumption drops. Just over a fifth of U.S. adults smoked in 2005, down from about one-fourth a decade ago.

The Minnesota Revenue Department projects tobacco tax collections falling by about 1 percent a year, or $4 million to $5 million. Tax research director Paul Wilson said he couldn’t say how a new statewide smoking ban would affect that projection.

Which brings us to why sin taxes are a slippery slope. If the government increases taxes on alcohol or tobacco in order to gain revenue, what benifit would there be for the government to restrict or combat these substances? It’s a short sighted burden that doesn’t address long term revenue concerns.

Spotsylvania authorities were tearing through a landfill after a human foot was found in the trash on Saturday:

Smith said it was a left foot, and that “we know it was sawed off, just at the ankle.” He said it was a clean cut.

He said the foot was covered with “sludge,” making it difficult to say what race, gender or age the person might have been. Perhaps because of the cold weather, the foot hadn’t undergone extensive decomposition, he said. It was sent to the state forensics lab in Richmond yesterday morning, Smith said.

Apparently it was also difficult to say what species the “person” may have been. This little mystery took a turn for the odder (Is that even a word? It is now!) when the state medical examiner’s office found the foot to be that of an ape:

Disposing of animal parts is a misdemeanor under the county’s ordinances, but Smith said he doubted authorities would investigate further.

I’d want to investigate just to find out what the hell someone was doing with an ape foot.

Ouch. ODU’s got a good squad, no doubt. VCU still leads the conference by one game and has two more conference games against NC Wilmington (3-11 6-17 overall) and Georgia St. (4-10 8-16 overall). If they don’t get lazy they’ll hold the lead going into the conference championship in a couple weeks. Here’s hoping…