General
A Tale of Two Tales
There are two competing political narratives on the state’s budget picture. The question is whether voters will buy either one. When a budget surplus was predicted last week, Democrats and Republicans pounced. “Chicken Littles on the left loudly cried North Carolina would lose so much tax revenue that students wouldn’t have teachers, roads wouldn’t be…
Read MoreWashed Up
A TAPster who has too much time on his hands and no love lost for my beloved OBX offers the rant. I post it here because I am, after all, fair and balanced. Highway 12 on the Outer Banks collapsed again last week. There was no hurricane, nor a storm of any kind. The moon…
Read MoreSchooling Democrats
On Monday, I wondered (“Why is School Out?”) whether Democrats in the legislature have retreated from the education battlefield. On Tuesday – coincidentally, I’m sure – the NC Democratic Party put out a news release: “Teacher Appreciation Week draws attention to consequences of McCrory education cuts: NC approaches massive teacher shortage as class sizes rise,…
Read MoreA Misunderstanding, Chapter 1
The Governor’s biggest challenge, a Republican consultant explained to the newspaper, is coming up with a way to overhaul Medicaid and stopping its persistent cost overruns – if the Governor can do that, the consultant said, it “practically will insure his reelection.” Which sounds fine – except for a misunderstanding. Six years ago, back in…
Read MoreIn Sambisa Forest
The soldiers slaughtered her husband, dragged her away from her children, then took her to their stronghold in Sambisa Forest. In their camp, when they learned she was pregnant, they told her that a week after her child was born she would be married to one of their commanders – one of the men who’d…
Read MoreA Strange Wickedness
We don’t know much about her. She was a nun around thirty years old who taught English and lived in a convent in Qaraqosh near the ruins of ancient Nineveh. When ISIS attacked the town, soldiers from nearby Kurdistan beat back the first assault then ISIS cut Qaraqosh’s water supply and, the night the Kurdish…
Read MoreBarney Frank Vs. Liberals
As a congressman, Barney Frank was a happy warrior and joyful scourge of Republicans and conservatives. In his excellent memoir, “Frank,” he applies the scourge to his fellow Democrats and liberals. Most tellingly, he dismisses the way Democrats dismiss white working-class males’ hostility as “a manifestation of excessive religiosity, a gun fetish, or homophobia.” Nor…
Read MoreAlvin York
I didn’t see much sense in making a lady in Indiana (or anywhere else) cater a gay wedding if she didn’t want to, so I said the Religious Freedom Act sounded like a fine idea – which turned out to be like lighting the fuse to a stick of dynamite. Before I knew it I’d…
Read MoreFalse Equivalence
John Drescher of the N&O called foul on Governor McCrory’s public-records stonewalling. But will the media referees let McCrory manufacture a counterpunch against Roy Cooper? It’s called “false equivalence.” It’s a favorite media-manipulation trick. Let’s say your candidate has a big, fat negative. Like you haven’t fulfilled a public-records request dating back to last July.…
Read MoreJim Hunt Documentary on WRAL
Here’s a TV viewing tip for those who want to see the right way to do politics and public service. Wednesday at 7 pm, WRAL will air a one-hour documentary, “State of Mine: The Jim Hunt Story.” It’s narrated by WRAL News anchor David Crabtree and was produced by WRAL News Documentary Producer Clay…
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