Labor Day has come and gone and football season is upon us. During the off season there have been several high profile domestic violence incidents involving NFL players that are marquee names. One of those is Ray Rice, former star running back of the Baltimore Ravens.

There has been a firestorm in the press recently regarding Planned Parenthood. According to Politifact, “Controversial videos released by an anti-abortion group have highlighted the murky guidelines for using fetal tissue for research purposes” saying further that “the Center for Medical Progress, has accused Planned Parenthood of selling aborted fetuses for a profit, a charge Planned Parenthood has denied”. The ensuing investigations have made certain quarters pretty nervous. Consider this headline from ThinkProgress that appeared on July 15th: “No, Planned Parenthood Isn’t Selling Aborted Baby Parts”.

I’m going to take the liberty this week to split this column in two as there are a couple of items of note that I would like to bring to your attention. The first one is all good. The second - not so much.

Thomas Hobbes writing in his famous work Leviathan said, “They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that mislike it, heresy: and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion”.  Leviathan was published in 1651 and the “private opinions” it espoused caused the English bishops to use their influence in the House of Lords to sponsor a motion to have him burned as a heretic. However, they had to settle for a mere condemnation by Parliament - and Hobbes was ordered to stop publishing such controversial books. He lived to be 91.

There’s a sign that is familiar to most of us as we cross the border on our way home to West Virginia from neighboring states. It says: “West Virginia - Open for Business.” There are similar signs that dot the landscape as we drive from one county to another declaring the local county to be a “certified business location.” I’m tempted to ask the rhetorical question: “Certified by whom?” However, it doesn’t matter. The marketplace has its own way of certifying localities as to how open they are for business or not.

There’s a sign that is familiar to most of us as we cross the border on our way home to West Virginia from neighboring states. It says: “West Virginia - Open for Business”. There are similar signs that dot the landscape as we drive from one county to another declaring the local county to be a “certified business location”. I’m tempted to ask the rhetorical question: “Certified by whom?” However, it doesn’t matter. The marketplace has its own way of certifying localities as to how open they are for business - or not.