Early the other morning when I walked out the front door and up the sidewalk and leaned down to lift the newspaper the yard was swarming with caterpillars – not the furry caterpillars from years ago who would curl into a ball when touched, who seem to have vanished, but caterpillars with brown shells crossed…
Read MoreI won’t be blogging for the next two weeks. We’re taking a family trip to France: a week in Paris and three days in Normandy. I’m looking forward to visiting the D-Day beaches. My stepfather, Joe Dickerson of Murfreesboro, was in the first wave at Omaha Beach. He survived to fight on for months,…
Read MoreSenate Republicans propose merit pay for teachers and state employees. What a terrific idea! But we shouldn’t stop there. I’m thinking merit pay for legislators. We could hold a statewide referendum after every session to let North Carolinians vote on how much legislators should be paid. Should get their full pay, half pay…
Read MoreA scruffy-looking rock band comes on TV and the leaping in the air singer bawls, “Big bucks, quick bucks, mega bucks, jumbo bucks”…It was an ad for the Lottery Commission. Whose motto seems to be “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.” Back when the Democrats passed the lottery the legislature also passed…
Read MoreA Tapster had these thoughts in response to my blog on the GOP’s lousy crop of presidential candidates: “Look no further than the uncivil chaos on Jones Street to see weeds, chiggers and worms in the Republican crop there as well. GOP leaders have lost sight of their promised “jobs/economy” focus, and have let…
Read MoreA New York Times story reporting that Sarah Palin is moving toward running for President has this intriguing paragraph: “The drumbeat intensified on Tuesday night when the conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon was quoted on RealClearPolitics, a political news site, as saying that he was releasing a feature film he made with Ms. Palin’s acquiescence…
Read MorePlease spare us. Put us out of our misery. Don’t make us go through a months-long courtroom regurgitation of all the tawdry details of John Edwards’ campaigns, marriage and affair. Especially those of us who had anything to do with Edwards getting to where he could do so much damage and bring so much…
Read MoreLast election President Barack Obama won huge majorities among ‘early voters’so, naturally, now Republicans want less ‘early voting.’ Of course, no self-respecting legislator is going to put it quite that bluntly. Representative Bert Jones is an example. He told the press he’s for limiting early voting because it will ‘shorten campaigns.’ Think…
Read MoreIf the Republican Party was a farmer and his crop was the current field of presidential candidates, he’d be losing the farm. How can that be? How can a party coming off a landslide election sweep, a party consumed by its hatred of President Obama, a party convinced it has the right ideas for…
Read More
