Posts by Carter Wrenn
A Hundred Years in Afghanistan
In Argentina they’re celebrating the first snowfall in Buenos Aires since 1918. At Cape Canaveral they’re getting ready to launch a new spacecraft to Mars. And in Afghanistan a man just traded his sixteen-year-old daughter to settle a debt he owed for nine sheep. Which turns out not to be unusual. In Afghanistan fathers trade…
Read MoreMen, Women, and Talking
Sometimes scientists say some pretty incredible things. Like the geologist who said – without a doubt – that he’d discovered indisputable proof while digging in the mud in the Amazon that South America was once part of Africa, ten million years ago. Or like the statistician who said he’d proved with a certainty of three…
Read MoreThe Long Knives Out for Thompson
Fred Thompson is surging in the polls so the political long knives are out on, of all things, Watergate. According to the spin Thompson – who was Republican counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee – was too pro Nixon in 1974 (AP, 7-8-07). Pro Nixon? Thompson was the man who asked the question that revealed…
Read MoreMore on Black’s $500,000
What is it about House Democrats and office buildings? Earlier this year, Democratic Representative Thomas Wright landed in hot water for using campaign funds to buy an office building in Wilmington. Now, former Speaker Jim Black is trying to explain away the $500,000 he got from a lobbyist and deposited in his campaign by saying…
Read MoreThe SBI Investigates a ’37 Ford
There’s an odd flap brewing at the Division of Motor Vehicles. It goes like this: A DMV employee, Joey Gardner, claims the head of the department, George Tatum, had a friend’s replica of a ’37 Ford reclassified as a real ’37 Ford – to save his friend several hundred dollars in taxes (The News and…
Read MoreBlowing Your Own Foot Off
Trying to put the icing on his comeback as a leader in the Senate, Trent Lott led the fight to pass President Bush’s Immigration Bill. He failed. Then grumped: “Talk radio is running America.” Then he suggested bringing back the Fairness Doctrine (McClatchy, 7-9-07). So we have a Republican Senate Leader proposing to muzzle Rush…
Read MoreIn Iraq in 2012?
I asked a friend who is supporting one of the Republican candidates for President, What’s he going to do when the surge fails? He said, Well, that’s simple. Here’s what’s going to happen. If the surge works Washington will bring the troops home. And if it fails Washington will bring the troops home. Now, I’ve…
Read MoreFred Thompson on the Rise
There’s a new poll out from Public Policy Polling, the Democratic pollsters in Raleigh. There’s not much change in the Democratic or Republican primaries for Governor. Beverly Perdue and Bill Graham still lead as they have since last fall. (And, in the Republican primary, a whopping 60% of the voters are still undecided). There is…
Read MoreAnother Black Eye for the School Board?
Ten months ago, a local developer signed a contract to buy thirty-two acres in Wake County (for $2.5 million). He purchased the land on June 6. And sold it the next day for $3.3 million. In other words, he contracted to buy the land, then found a second buyer, then flipped it and made a…
Read MoreEuphemisms
As just about everyone knows no one is more adroit than a politician when it comes to using a euphemism to hide bad news. The Mayor and his two liberal allies on the City Council – Russ Stephenson and Thomas Crowder – have a euphemism they’re using for raising taxes: Impact Fees (The News and…
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