John Wilson went from teaching school in Raleigh to leading the NCAE and then the NEA. He went from leading teacher protests against Governor Hunt in 1984 to working with Hunt 10 years later to raise North Carolina’s teachers’ pay above the national average. He wrote a recent blog in Education Week (“The Most…
Read MoreD.G. Martin – TV-radio host, newspaper columnist and finalist for Most Interesting Man in the World – riled up the Republican Party with a recent column. State GOP Chair Claude Pope accused D.G. of comparing Republicans to Nazis. “Inexcusable, disgusting and shameful,” Pope fumed. He called on UNC-TV to suspend D.G.’s show “Book Watch,”…
Read MoreSome fellow up in the mountains decided it would be a cute idea to drop a possum in a tinsel draped cage twenty feet onto a stage on New Year’s Eve at a party. To the possum’s chagrin, the State Wildlife Resources Commission agreed it was a cute idea and gave the fool a…
Read MoreAn old friend who now lives in Maryland wrote the other day and asked, What in blazes is going on in the North Carolina legislature? Well, right now, thankfully, nothing. The legislators have decamped. But what kind of devilment went on in the legislature before the peace of August southern afternoons was restored?…
Read MoreTranslation: “To be backward, rather than to seem backward.”
Read MoreIt was a frozen moment in time, a sort of thirty-second epiphany revealing the compounded double griefs of fading courtliness and ascending Yankeedom (I say Yankeedom because most Yankees never experienced the good fortune of having a maiden aunt whose sole purpose in life was to indoctrinate – by force if necessary – wayward nieces…
Read More“You have a Republican majority that is doing exactly what they were elected to do.” – Claude Pope, state GOP chairman “They really messed up when they screwed with the mothers, the teachers and the women.” – Shannon Shanks, Wilmington teacher Well, in 2014 and 2016 we’ll find out who’s right. Republicans may…
Read MoreNo sooner did the state legislators vamoose out of town than the pundits begin publishing post-mortems and obituaries. Republicans, they opined, had a ‘breathtaking session,’ marched right off the right end of the earth, passed bills that hurt everyone from the poor to the lame, halt and maimed, and got pounded for their wicked…
Read MoreThe absurdly awkward photo says it all: Governor McCrory turning away from a stunned protester left holding his plate of cookies. Next time, Governor, give them hush puppies. In truth, McCrory didn’t want the abortion bill. He didn’t want to sign it. He certainly didn’t want this WRAL headline: “Abortion law breaks McCrory…
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Once upon a time, there was a great and powerful newspaper: The News & Observer. Everybody…
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The shouting, sign-waving and cane-wielding by congressional Democrats at the State of the Union isn’t a…
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Curmudgeonly Cajun James Carville says Democrats just need to “roll over and play dead” and wait…
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