General
Rare Old Bird
Here’s a nice compliment – and a striking statistic – from a reader: “According to today’s (New York) Times only 7.1 percent of all bloggers are over the age of 51. You have always been ahead of the curve!” And I blew past 51 long ago.
Read MoreStooping Low
Everyday the bru-ha-ha between our local Progressives and the Italian transplants on the School Board gets more entertaining – the whole thing’s turned into a microcosm of modern life with far-left Liberals, Democrats, Progressives, Italians, Southerners, far-right Republicans, NAACP Reverends, a Duke Professor and a liberal Baptist Church all going at one another tooth and…
Read MorePraying in the State House
Back in May the State House invited Reverend Ron Baity down to Raleigh (from his Baptist Church in Winston-Salem) to be Chaplain for a week but when the minister got up and ended his first prayer with “In Jesus name” House Speaker Jack Hackney promptly fired him. Because, Hackney says, by tradition prayers in…
Read MoreObama and Wall Street
The anti-Wall Street talking Obama administration just let Goldman Sachs off the hook for bilking investors for billions with a wrist slap. Now, granted a $550 million fine sounds like real money. But consider this: It’s less than 5% of Goldman Sachs $12 billion in profits. And not one Goldman Sachs executive got…
Read MoreWho Can You Trust?
It’s a bad time for once-trusted institutions. Highway Patrol: Yes, the vast majority of the line troopers are courageous and honorable. That’s why they – and the public – and mad at the people at the top. UNC-TV: Pulled off a rare two-fer by looking both unprofessional AND spineless. It’s bad when your…
Read MoreSurprise and Wonder
Politicians, like most people, are creatures of habit plodding along each day going through the same routines day in and day out – then just when you figure there are no surprises left in human nature (or, at least, in politicians) somewhere deep in subterranean caverns tides shift and suddenly you find yourself staring open-mouthed…
Read More911
One of the hardest things to do in politics – when a “crisis” comes at you every day, or every hour – is to recognize when you face a truly defining moment. Governor Perdue faces one now with the Highway Patrol. How she handles it could determine the course of her governorship – and…
Read MoreUh-oh
A veteran Democratic politico asked me this week: “Are you feeling as bad about this coming election as I am?” Yep. Especially after this report on the state parties’ fundraising byJim Morrill in the Charlotte Observer/N&O: “The Republican Party, meanwhile, has raised more than $1 million since January 2009 to Democrats’ $649,000, though…
Read MoreThe Three Reverends
The Right Honorable (and Colorful) Reverend William Barber (head of the local NAACP) has laid the political birch-wood to the Italians on the School Board again; the Reverend Barber, who’s been holding demonstrations and protests lampooning the Italians, climbed up on his soap-box at his latest protest and announced the Italians are taking Raleigh back…
Read MoreFinding Hope in Numbers
Ever since Governor Perdue’s brief honeymoon ended, public polls have brought her nothing but bad news. So her advisers not surprisingly found a silver lining in Public Policy Polling’s numbers on her and the Highway Patrol. But don’t get carried away. Last week’s poll found that 67 percent of North Carolinians have a…
Read More