"A Song To Kill For" by Billy Edd Wheeler

"A Song To Kill For" is Billy Edd Wheeler's only novel. Wheeler is best known as a songwriter and playwright in addition to also having done some performing in the field of country music, having been a popular after dinner speaker for many years. This novel was self-published under the label Infinity Publishing which is virtually non-existent on the internet. They have been defunct since October 2023. I purchased this copy from Amazon and it was publication on demand. I'm not certain if Infinity which had been primarily a children's book publisher was an imprint of Amazon, or if it might have been owned by Wheeler and later sold to Amazon. While this is a self-published novel,Wheeler has a lenghty history as a playwright having written at least nine plays, several of which were produced for quite a few years as outdoor dramas around the southeastern US and Midwest. Wheeler also wrote several songs which were major hits as performed by others. Those songs include "Jackson" which was a signature duet for Johnny Cash and June Carter; "The Reverend Mister Black" which was a hit for the Kingston Trio;"Coward Of The County" which was a massive hit for Kenny Rogers; and, "Coal Tattoo" which has been recoreded by numerous artists with history in the Appalachian Coalfields including Kathy Mattea, The Kingston Trio, and Jim Croce. His well received plays include ""Hatfields and McCoys", "Young Abe Lincoln", and "Johnny Appleseed". It shouldn't surprise anyone to know that his greatest impact as a writer came in the area of playwriting since he held a masters degree in playwriting from Yale University in addition to his bachelors degree from Berea COllege. This book is worth reading even though it is not a great novel. It is funny, fairly well plotted, and has some well developed characters including the protagonist Gabriel Leatherwood who seems to, at least in part, to have been an alter ego of Wheeler himself. Leatherwood is a native West Virginian who is a musician and songwriter who traveld to Nashville only to have several of his early songs stolen by the lead villian who is the owner of music publishing company. Leatherwood decides to take on the company and its owner along with a sizeable cast of lesser villians who assist in his crimes including murder. Along the way, Leatherwood is lucky enough to fall in love with a beautiful female attorney, get invited to the White House to perform, and survive a rather graphic attempted murder by one of those villians. In the end, he marries the heroine, saves his songs, becomes rather wealthy, and chooses to return to Appalachian West Virginia with the woman of his dreams. I repeat, the book is worth reading especially if you are a musician of the country persuasion, an Appalachian, a writer,or if you enjoy crime stories and mysteries. It is not a great novel or a perfect novel. But it is worthy attempt at a first novel by a gifted writer in other areas of the arts.

My Thirty Minute Phone Call From Mitch McConnell!

Last night, just as I was falling off to sleep, my telephone rang and I answered. To my ecstatic surprise, it was Mitch McConnell in the flesh, so to speak, since so many million Americans have begun to doubt his existence. I spat, sputtered, regained control of my rapidly beating heart and finally responded, "Mr. Senator, thank you very much for calling me! I'm surprised you remember me since it has been so many years since we last spoke." Mitch rejoined, "Not remember you??? How could I not remember you? We ate pinto beans together at the old Rock House Restaurant at the mouth of Slone Fork between Hindman and Mousie in the summer of 1968 when we were both just young whipper snappers. You were sixteen years old and fresh out of high school at that wonderful old Knott County High School at Pippa Passes on Caney Creek, what an institution! I was a young, wet behind the ears attorney, just twenty-six years young, just graduated from law school the year before, working for Marlowe Cook in his run for the US Senate seat as his college coordinator with all the colleges in the state. We were desperate for every vote we could find so he sent me to see you in Knott County because you were enrolled in Alice Lloyd College after a wonderful academic summer or two in Upward Bound, that reprehensible program which had been such a waste of federal money by Democrats." I was thunderstruck to say the least but I tried to speak, to ask what he could possibly need from me now almost 60 years after that fortuitous bowl of pinto beans. I tried to speak, to question why it was his idea to call me now. "You and that bowl of pinto beans changed my life forever. You actually agreed to be the campus student chair for Marlowe Cook and Richard Nixon, God bless their sainted souls! You worked that job so hard, called me once a week at my office in Louisville and repeatedly told me the truth, that there were no Republican votes on Caney Creek. You taught me how to face the truth with that kind of honesty. You set me on the path to great power, motivated me to become a powerful United States Senator and Senate Majority Leader for a record stretch. I'll never forget you or that wonderful bowl of pinto beans." I said,"Sir, I'm afraid that you have more important calls to make than this one. I hope you don't intend to waste twenty minutes of your valuable time with me as you have with so many of your Republican colleagues! To my utter surprise, Mitch then said with a sly chuckle, "Waste twenty minutes? Oh no, this won't be a waste, and I'm going to give you a full half hour unlike the others. Just relax and listen as I tell you my plans." I agreed to sit quietly and listen as the half hour flew by, or actually just twenty-eight minutes of it. I can't divulge what plans Mitch told me about but they were fantastic, exhilirating, stupendous, supercalifragilisticexpealidoscious, but he swore me to secrecy. Then just as my bedside clock showed the call to have been going on for twenty-seven minutes, I heard a stentorian but heavenly voice in the background of Mitch's call. "Mitch, it's time. Let's go, please!" I heard Mitch respond, "Peter? Saint Peter, NO, it can't be. I have so much to do. I was just telling Roger Hicks how much I have planned from now until the end of my term...". Then,to my utter consternation, the line went dead...and, I suspect, the line did not go dead alone.

Walking At The Lexington Arboretum, June 2026!

A few weeks ago, I had an appointment in Lexingtno, Kentucky, and took a hike of an hour or so at the Lexington Arboretum which is a lovely, peaceful, and educational place to walk in beautiful, flowering, and wooded setting at the southern end of the University Campus. I frequently walk there when I am in Lexington. The Arboretum has a combination of fairly wide paved trails and others in the more wooded areas which are unpaved but usually filled with tanbark. I prefer the wooded trails and usually try to walk those unless it is after a recent rain since some of them are more prone to a bit of mud than others. On a busy day at the Arboretum, you might meet a half dozen or so people on the wooded trails. On a busy day,you might meet more. On the particular day I have in mind, I only met a few. At one area, there is small circular patch of perhaps a quarter of an acre open area beside the trail with a large central tree, a circular path at the outer edge of the circle, and a concrete bench for resting and meditation near the tree. I rarely stop when I am walking but sometimes will circle that area just to see if anything interesting is in bloom there. On the day I have in mind,I noticed a large plastic big mouth jug with a lid and a sheet of hand written paper on the front. The jug was filled with small scraps of paper. The sign read Free Poems, Take One or something nearly like that. I reached in and took one, the first one on top of the pile. I have scanned it below.

It was written on a receipt from Food Lion, Morgan Square, Route 522 South. It turns out that this store is actually in Berkley Springs, West Virginia. There is one other potentially identifying item on the receipt which I won't list in this blog post in order to prevent less honest people from having the ability to track down the author of the poem. The poem isn't the best poetry I have ever read. Neither is it the worst. This is what it says in seven lines:

It's nice, sweet, a bit too much leaning toward paganism for me perhaps. But it was a very nice gesture for some woman named meagan to leave a jar of her poems, all written on small scraps of paper in a waterproof jug in a forested patch of the Lexington Arboretum. Thank you, meagan!

"Mysteries Of Winterthurn" by Joyce Carol Oates, Some Responses to Reading It!

In the past, I have read and written on this blog about at least one of Joyce Carol Oates' books, "Where Is Here" which is a collection of short stories which I liked a lot. I have also read some of her short stories which have been published independently elsewhere. I have to say that this book, "Mysteries Of Winterthurn" which is generally described as a novel is an interesting book. There are parts of it which I like a lot. There are other parts of it which fail to impress me. First and foremost, I would not say flatly that I see it as a novel. I think of it much more as a Short Story Cycle which is generally described as a collection of short stories with several common aspects including common characters, common setting, a rational timeline which is evident across all the stories, and in most short story cycles all the stories are viable if viewed as being independent of the others. The book is composed of three stories which are also arguably novellas ranging in length from 150 pages to almost 200. The stories have a common protagonist, Xavier Kilgarvan, who is a young man of about 20 or so years in the first story and a man of nearly retirement age in the third. The stories progress across his lifespan in a rational timeline, but there is a sizeable gap of time between each subsequent story and the next. All three are set in Winterthurn a rural,small town in New England. All the stories share a common cast of lesser characters. Each story involves murders which Xavier works to solve since all are unsolved at the time of his initial involvement. The writing style in these stories is very different from the style in the short story collection which I mentioned above. That writing style is reminescent of the work of Edgar Allan Poe or other major writers of early American mystery or detective stories. I believe that Oates set herself the task of emulating as closely as possible the writing style which is generally seen in early American murder mysteries or the English examples such as the work of Conan Doyle. The language is cumbersome, verbose, and replete with words and terms which have nearly fallen out of use in spoken English in America today. I commend Joyce Carol Oates on that effort to emulate the earlier style of writing. She did an excellent job of making the book appear to almost be a 19th century work in the genre. But it is a cumbersome read in today's world. I have to admit that as I read the book I was unmotivated to read it straight through from beginning to end. I had to take a break between the stories, read other works by other authors which were written in more modern styles. After reading another book following each of the stories, I was able to motivate myself to return and complete the book. I have to admit that I rarely, if ever, begin a book which I do not finish reading. I firmly believe that if I begin a book I owe the author an obligation to complete it. That author has spenta sizeable chunk of their time writing the book,obtaining a publishing contract, and marketing the book with public appearances, book signings, and other promotionial work such as radio and television interviews. If you are a devoted reader of murder mysteries, you might love this book. If you are not such a reader, you might stop long before you reach the end.

The Right Wing Radical Repugnican State Legislature Just Reduced Medicaid Reimbursements By 4% More

The political cartoon above is from a time when the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill was still being debated in congress and largely ignored by the general population of our country. TRAITOR Trump, the Criminal Syndicate which supports him by posing as "cabinet", and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party lied unceasingly to the American public in order to get the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill passed. There was total disregard on the part of millions of Americans to the obvious widespread damage the bill was intended to do to the entire country and to the overall American economy. The Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill was passed by the Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in congress and signed by TRAITOR Trump on July 4, 2025. I am proud to say that on July 4, 2025, I was present at Rosenberg Square in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, that day as Ned Pillersdorf officially announced his candidacy for the US House in Kentucky District 5. Where were you? A key provision, literally a legislative time bomb, of the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill was that most of the damage it was planned to do was delayed until 2026 after the midterm elections. It was literally a legislative wolf in sheep's clothing and that was very intentional because the Right Wing Radical Repugnicans and TRAITOR Trump knew if they made it effective immediately upon ratification and signature it would guarantee the electoral defeat of most of its supporters. Now, the cat is out of the bag, the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill is rapidly becoming effective and the horrible damage it was intended to do to most of America and Americans has begun. But to make matters worse in Kentucky, the Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in the state legislature has just passed, over Governor Beshear's veto, another 4% cut in Medicaid reimbursements which will make the effects of the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill far worse on Kentucky hospitals, clinics, and medical providers. Below is a map of hospitals in Kentucky which were initially placed in danger of permanent closure by the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill. What is interesting is that if we look at the point where the borders of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana meet on the Ohio River just west of Cincinatti and draw a line straight south from that point to the Tennessee border we find that 23 o the 35 endangered hospitals are east of that line. The effects of the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill were always intended to do more damage in Kentucky east of that line than to west of the line. Congressman Hal Rogers and every other Right Wing Radical Repugnican member of the Kentucky legislative office holders at the federal level voted in support of that bill. Now every member of the Right Wing Radical Repugnican state legislature has voted to remove another 4% from Kentucky Medicaid reimbursements to medicaid providers. They did that over the veto of Governor Andy Beshear. That extra 4% of income to hospitals and providers will increase the damage of the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill to a point where the number of hospitals in Kentucky which will be in even more grave danger of closure will be greater. Will it rise from 35 hospitals to 40, to 45, or even 50? We won't know until the closures start happening and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican legislators nationwide start denying their support for the Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill, and those elected at the state level start denying their support of the additional 4% cut in Kentucky Medicaid reimbursements. Very few businesses, where they are country stores, beauty shops, and family restaurants can survive a loss of 4% of their income for an extended period. It is the dream of TRAITOR Trump and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party that those effects will be permanent. It is the dream of the Kentucky legislature in Frankfort that those horrible effects of both the Big,Vicious, Ugly Bill and their own 4% cut in Medicaid reimbursements will be permanent. None of them give a tinker's damn what you think or how their actions might affect you, your family, your family business, your aged parents and grandparents, your child with multiple medical issues,or your neighbor next door who is battling cancer or heart disease. They are happy now! They were happy the day they passed each of these highly damaging pieces of legislation! They will still be happy when your local hospital closes, or your local general practitioner decides to move to a state with a state legislauture and federal elected representatives who give a damn about their constituents, hospitals, medical providers, and citizens! Get used to it! Or get up off your ass and fight to remove every one of those Right Wing Radical Repugnicans from office for life! You have to learn to Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out! You have to learn to defend yourself, your family, your neighbors, your state, and your nation. No matter how much you are hurt they will not come to your aid. The sources of their incomes and their happiness are not the same as yours. They have protected themselves and abandoned you! What are you going to do about it? Your only option is to vote, not just to vote, you have to vote the way you should have been voting all along, STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, Every Election, Every Race!

Ned Pillersdorf Appearance At The Mountain Arts Center, July 4, 2026

Yesterday, July 4t, 2026, my wife Candice and I attended a meeting at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, in support of the campaign of Ned Pillersdorf for the US House in Kentucky's 5th district. The event was smaller than I had hoped for but it was attended by somewhere between 75 and 100 people on a very hot day which I am sure kept others away due to the extreme heat even though the event was held indoors. Tommy Webb, one of the best voices in Bluegrass, was also featured at this event, sang a few songs, and delivered somoe of his political wisdom. The event was smaller than I had hoped for but still fairly well attended on a day hot enough to keep many from traveling. I would say that most of the attendees at the event are politically involved people who attend at least a few such events each year. However, this is no ordinary year! We are facing a concerted effort by TRAITOR Trump and the Criminal Syndicate which supports his TREASON while posing as a "cabinet" to destroy America and American Democracy. There were close to dozen there whom I have known, at least superficially, for anywhere from a year or so to fifty or more years. Three members of my extended family were there, Jack Terry, and Ed and Judy McGuire who live only a mile or two away from the MAC as the Mountain Arts Center is known. I was particularly pleased to see famed AppalShop filmmaker Herbie Smith and his son Attorney Evan Smith who works for AppalRed Legal Defense and Research Fund in Prestonsburg. I had known or known of Herbie Smith and his work literally since the days of the inception of AppalShop in the late 1960's or early 1970's. I had met Evan at the Memorial Day event at the home of Ned Pillersdorf and his wife, Retired Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Janet Stumbo. Retired Big Sandy Community and Technical College History Professor Tom Matajasic was also there and spoke to Candice and I briefly. I had also initially met Tom at that same Memorial Day event. Famed barbecue cook James Butler served the food as he does at many events in which Ned is involved. His food was excellent as always. But James is much more than a barbecue cook. He is also a local minister and serves on the board of the Floyd County Animal Shelter. Ned's daugher, Sarah Pillersdorf, was there as she is at most of her father's campaign events, and also works as a child support enforcement worker in Louisville. Naturally, her mother Janet Stumbo was there and we spoke briefly about a few issues. Tommy Webb and I were able to have two conversations during the afternoon, one just as he arrived in which we laughed about a lunch we had almost two years ago in which I had attempted to induce him to begin supporting some Democratic candidates publicly since he has often quietly expressed some liberal views. But like most Bluegrass musicians, he has rarely appeared publicly at such events, if ever, since many fans of Bluegrass have historically been to one degree or another conservative. But I firmly believe that is changing rapidly as it is with most previously conservative people in America. Due to the actions of TRAITOR Trump and the Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet", America and Americans have suffered in a multitude of ways over the last 11 or so years since the tragic day TRAITOR Trump rode down that gold escalator and began to promote the farce that he was fit to be the leader of the free world. The time is long past for all Americans to do our duty and put an end to his TREASON. We must elect a Democratic president in 2028, and we must elect Democratic majorities in both houses of congress. This nation and our Democracy cannot survive if that does not happen.

July 4th 2026, After 250 Years America And American Democracy Are Under Attack From Within!

Today, July 4th, 2026, is the 250th anniversary of American Democracy and America and American Democracy are more endangered today than we have ever been. That danger is centered in the White House, being directed by Fascists inside the White House. Let's just look at a few recent headline stories from across the country. The American Civil Liberties Union has worked to defend and protect American Democracy every day since its founding in 1920, 106 years. Almost ten months ago,that organization posted this story on their website. While a headline which screams "How Trump's Attacks On Our Democracy Put America At Risk" should be shocking, rare, and terrifying, headlines and stories about the danger which TRAITOR Trump and the Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet" pose for us and our Democracy, they are so commonplace since June 16, 2015, that millions of Americans ignore them totally. This so-called "second administration" of TRAITOR Trump is doing a great deal of things which previous FASCISTS and would be dictators have been doing since atleast 250 years ago, and millions of Americans insist on claiming that all they do is in the best interest of the country. The ACLU story in particular is and should be chilling to any lover of this country and our Democracy. Early in the story it states "There is now a coordinated assault on the constitutional architecture that has sustained American democracy. This assault should alarm anyone who values constitutional governance and the personal freedoms we so often take for granted." That should terrify every citizen in this country and it does not. The formerly sacred institutions of American government are now being utilized to install FASCISM in the country and most people do not understand that fact. The article moves on to state that Federal agents have repeatedly detained or arrested public officials conducting legitimate oversight, including Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka, Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, and Senator Alex Padilla, who was tackled and detained for asking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem questions. Students, including green card holders, have been detained and threatened with deportation for writing op-eds or expressing views that deviate from what the administration deems acceptable.

In some ways, the facts in this previous quotation from the ACLU article are now old hat since the article is more than 8 months old. We have seen ICE agents murder two people who were peaceful protestors in Minnesota and little or no outrage has been seen in the general populace. We are now seeing several Americans charged with vandalism and other crimes for touching a $16million dollar disaster at the Reflecting Pool literally in sight of one of our nation's most hallowed shrines to Democracy, the Lincoln Memorial. An Olympian who once epitomized American values to the watching world has been charged in an overt act of domestic terrorism in order to silence opposition to TRAITOR Trump and his TREASONOUS enforcers who, after giving a multi-million dollar secret and unvetted contract to one of his supporters, to repair the reflecting pool did a damn fine job of gravely damaging that symbol of American Democracy. And nobody seems to care.

An active duty American Air Force Major was arrested on July 2, 2026, in his full uniform for using his constitutional right to free speech to openly criticize TRAITOR Trump's actions in Venezuela. That was a direct violation of the US Constitution for anyone, whether in uniform or not, to be arrested for utilizing free speech to question what are clearly two totally unjustified wars against two countries with the basic intent to steal their assets such as oil, gas, rare earth minerals, and other valuable possessions of two sovereign nations. Major Jason Watson knew full well that he had chosen to end his military career before he opened his mouth that day. It should be a shock to every living American of sound mind when such a career military officer finds it necessary to willingly give up a career in which he has volunteered to literally place his life on the line to defend this nation. But it has not been seen as a shock to most people in this country. Most people are either to uneducated, uncaring, or ignorant to understand that such a person would find it necessary to place his life on the line, as he swore to do when he was inducted into the US Air Force, in such a manner contrary to the publicly stated intent of the people who have disastrously found themselves in charge of this country's military. Major Jason Watson is much more an American Hero today than he has ever been before when he willing complying with orders to participate in war crimes and international terrorism against Venezuela and Iran. The former Olympian David Hearn is now much more an American Hero than he ever was as an Olympic canoeist. Both these men, both those murdered citizens in Minnesota, and every other American who has simpley stood up in a No Kings Day Protest is much more a loyal American patriot than any of the hired thugs who arrested or murdered them.

Today, July 4th, 2026, America and American Democracy are far more endangered than they ever were in any of our previous wars. Democracy is being attacked in ways it never was by Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, or Emperor Hirohito of Japan. We are under attack from those who are allowed to walk freely every day into the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the US Supreme Court and all of our government departments to pretend they are "making America great again". Those people, TRAITOR Trump and his many minions, are the most dangerous enemies America has ever faced. It is long past time for every American citizen to Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out in defense of our Democracy or it will be lost forever long before November 2028.