Posts by Carter Wrenn
Making Legislators Look Reasonable
The Democrats have gotten plenty fired up about the ‘Moral Monday’ protests down at the state legislature – even an old war horse like Gary, catching a whiff of grapeshot in the air, rode to the sound of the guns, defending the protestors from a broadside by Governor McCrory. But, in another way, all…
Read MoreThree Great Powers
Right now there’re three great powers in Republican politics in Raleigh: The Governor, the House, and the Senate. Now the Governor’s pretty easygoing – the kind of fellow who, when he can, will go out of his way to avoid a fight. Even when he disagrees with folks, he’s not inclined to say much…
Read MoreWho Spent the Most?
The other day the News & Observer wrote a long report comparing the State House and State Senate budgets – but who, other than a certified budget expert with a PhD, could figure out the welter of numbers? The newspaper wrote – in great detail – about who spent money on what: How the…
Read MoreTorpedoes
It seems Republicans up in Congress have split into two hostile tribes – whether you call them ‘Moderates and Conservatives’ (as they did forty years ago) or the ‘Conservatives and Pragmatists’ (as they did twenty years ago) or ‘Insiders and Outsiders’ (as they do now). Now, say, on spending, the Conservatives (or Outsiders) are…
Read MoreThe Culture War
These days conservatives are reeling in the face of the sudden ascendance of gay marriage as a popular issue – they’re looking back at all the votes traditionalists (or old fogies) have won in referendums (including one in North Carolina just a year ago) and then looking at the latest polls saying there’s been a…
Read MoreBest Quote of the Day
John Drescher recently shared this quote from a column by A.C. Snow: “In my many years I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a Congress.” -President John Adams
Read MoreThe Last Word on Iraq
Just after we invaded Iraq ten years ago, having lunch with a businessman, I said, Well, they say we have to do it to stop terrorism but I wonder if it’s not about oil too. He laid down his fork. Looked up. Don’t kid yourself. It’s all about oil. Well, I thought, getting…
Read MoreHow Did We Come to This?
There’re some strange doings going on over in the General Assembly. For decades, free markets have been an article of faith with Republicans. We don’t like government manipulating markets to pick ‘winners and losers.’ But when Tesla Motors sold eighty fancy electric cars over the Internet in North Carolina, the Automobile Dealers Association…
Read MoreLust and the Professor
Lust has undone more men than most any other sin and, about a year ago, over in Chapel Hill, it turned an aging professor into a drug runner. Professor Paul Frampton was born in a working class family in a working class neighborhood in England, earned three degrees from Oxford, earned a Ph.D. in…
Read MoreThe Democrats Awaken – Round 2
The same day the Democrats tore into Crime Control Secretary Kieran Shanahan they also let fly at Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Aldana Wos. Now doctors are a complex group of highly intelligent people who labor under a singular handicap: They’ve mastered one incredibly complex subject (say, neurosurgery) no one else can…
Read More