President Obama held a summit up in Washington about terrorism but decided not to say the words ‘Muslim terrorist.’ Instead, he announced, he was leading a crusade to stop ‘Violent Extremism’ and, then he put his finger on the root cause of the villainy: Violent Extremism, he said, is caused by political disenfranchisement and…
Read MoreThe Ayatollahs over in Iran say they want to enrich uranium so they can build a nuclear power plant and, if that were so, they could buy plutonium rods from Russia tomorrow and be in business. But, instead, the Ayatollahs say they want to enrich uranium themselves with centrifuges which doesn’t sound unreasonable until…
Read MoreThere will be more pain, more tears, more heartbreak as the trial goes on. But Jamie Kirk Hahn’s voice in the courtroom reminded us what was lost that awful April evening two years ago. A witness who had talked to her by phone about a campaign billing problem described her as “genuine and honest.”…
Read MoreA TAPster who spent many years as a private-sector economic developer offers this: The myopic, confused and naïve approach of North Carolina Republicans to the state’s business recruitment efforts continues to baffle experts who toil daily to bring good jobs here. Our Republicans are opposed to incentives as “corporate welfare,” and they don’t…
Read MoreThis is about as good a tale of conniving as I’ve heard: I can’t remember why but forty years ago back in 1976 the state legislature moved our Presidential primary up from May to March – then the unexpected struck and Ronald Reagan whipped Gerald Ford. It was the first time Reagan won a…
Read MoreIt rang a little jarring to open the newspaper and read, Stam Introduces First Bill of New Session – To Limit Eminent Domain. No doubt Representative Skip Stam was right but it was a little like watching a knight errant tilting at a windmill – because, after all, Eminent Domain isn’t one of the…
Read MoreThe Reverend William Barber got up to pray at a memorial service for three Muslim students killed in Chapel Hill and, right in the middle of his prayer, pointed his finger straight at Reverend Franklin Graham and said Graham lit the fuse to the powder keg that led to the murders. Barber’s thinking went…
Read MoreThe saga of Tony (Thriller) Tata continues. You can just hear that guy who does the movie trailers: “By day, he’s the powerful commander of DOT. At night, he’s A.J. Tata, mild-mannered novelist.” Tata’s two roles collided last week when icy roads caused thousands of accidents back home while Thriller was in Chicago flogging…
Read MoreThe local school board has a new training program to teach teachers that all cultures are equal and to move away from the ‘belief any culture is superior to another’ – which sounds fine except the concept of cultural equality rests on a kind of moral relativism that leads to odd places. Take ISIS.…
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