Posts by Carter Wrenn
Afghanistan
President Obama stepped to the podium in the White House at a press conference – with Afgnanistani President Karzai beside him – and said he’s bringing 66,000 American soldiers home from Afghanistan sooner rather than later (which sounded fine). Then he added, Because the Afghan Army is now ready to whip the Taliban all by…
Read MoreThe Search for the Cure
To cure gun violence the Vice President met with the NRA, which told him the cure was fixing our broken culture – like violent video games; next the Vice President met with the video game industry which told him ‘Independent scientific research showed no connection between video games and real-life violence,’ then another group told…
Read MoreGrumpy
The Democrats in Raleigh are grumpy because Speaker Thom Tillis has set up a new nonprofit to be the ‘Voice of House Republicans.’ Now, like ‘em or not, Super PACs, IE’s, and 527’s are the new political reality – Obama had ‘em, Romney had ‘em, and now Speaker Tillis has one. The more curious…
Read MoreDelusional – for years
Baseball statistician Nate Silver suddenly became famous by writing articles for the New York Times – putting statistical models (like the models he used in baseball) to work predicting who’d win the Presidential Election. Then, the other day in an interview, Mr. Silver was asked which he found most frustrating – analyzing sports or politics?…
Read MoreThe Big Deal: 1 + 1 = 3
Up in Congress the Democrats wanted to raise taxes on 2% of the people — while the Republicans wanted to cut government spending instead. So they reached a compromise. The result? They voted to raise taxes on 77% of the people — and to increase spending. How did that happen? It’s hard to…
Read MoreRevelation
A brawl followed by an outbreak of brawls erupted Sunday morning in the small insular world of politics;–it started on Meet the Press when Wayne LaPierre of the NRA said, ‘The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun‘ — David Gregory nodded politely, said, ‘That…
Read MoreThe Real Reason
Pat McCrory called reporters down to the Albemarle building for a press conference and said two words and near about gave liberals from Murphy to Manteo apoplexy. He said, Art Pope. And five minutes later ole Chris Fitzsimmons was howling on Twitter, The Pope Administration begins…and about an hour later the Democratic Party…
Read More$250,000 a Month
Two years ago as businesses were struggling through the recession, a family business in eastern North Carolina that cares for shut-ins and older people in their homes received a letter from PCG Corporation of Boston saying, We’re coming to audit the payments you’ve received from Medicaid. Earlier, PCG (the ‘Public Consulting Group’) had told…
Read MoreA Cruel Trick of Nature
Back in the old days there was a breed of Congressman, rugged individualists, who, whenever he (or she) had to cast an unpopular vote, would shrug and say, Let the chips fall where they may. That political animal is now all but extinct. In the place of a troublesome conscience (when it comes…
Read MoreThe Oldest Institution?
At breakfast the other morning Tom, who’s liberal, folded back the page of his newspaper and slid it across the table to Mike, who’s conservative, rapped the headline with his finger, and said, ‘Now, that’s what I call progress.’ Mike glanced down at the headline – West Point Chapel Hosts Gay Wedding. And laughed.…
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