Thursday, October 27, 2011

Winston-Salem Journal LTE's TH 10/27/11

Fear-mongering
There has recently been a mass influx of headlines from across the Southeast about new state immigration laws. Modeled after Arizona's infamous immigration law, these replicas in South Carolina, Georgia and now Alabama clearly threaten the safety and well-being of communities across the South and, frankly, the whole nation. It is sad to think that North Carolina may soon be following in the same draconian footsteps.
What is the main cause of this issue? The whole nation is frustrated with Congress and its dysfunctional ways — mostly, partisan gridlock and its inability to deal rationally with the many major policy issues of our time. The problem is the handful of conservative legislators who are using fear and misinformation to position immigration as a political wedge issue, basically using the poor economy to pursue a fierce anti-immigrant agenda.
Does this ring a bell? History shows this has happened more than once in this country. Is this really the type of country we want to be?
There is a massive need for serious, responsible solutions from policy makers, not the scapegoating and fear-mongering that has become the norm. It's time for state leaders to reject the politics of fear and to embrace the policies of immigrant integration. It's time Washington enacted the DREAM Act so real comprehensive immigration reform will bring people out of the shadows and into a nation that is more unified. This is the time to stand together, undivided and say, "Not in our state. Not in our name."

KEREN SALIM
Winston-Salem

Dangerously close
Columnist Charles Krauthammer is right on target ("Scapegoat strategy a desperate ploy," Oct. 19). Unfortunately, we are witnessing the making of an American tyrant.
President Obama has lied to us from the outset. Key examples include: transparency in his administration, bipartisanship, energy/environmental regulation reduction, spending reform and, worst of all, the true costs of Obamacare. Since President Obama can't run on his record, he is now viciously attacking those who disagree with him.
How can this man insist on increasing taxes on the "rich" — the job creators — when last year he emphatically said that it is not prudent to raise taxes on anybody in this poor economy? His recent demagoguery in supporting the Wall Street protesters (as outlined by Krauthammer) is dangerously close to calling for anarchy. Do we really want an American Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro at our helm?
God help us survive the next 13 months.

PETER T. WILSON
Winston-Salem

A fundamental right
A recent contributor to The Readers' Forum ("Ticket controls," Oct. 16) chastised Gov. Bev Perdue for vetoing the voter-identification bill requiring that voters present a photo ID in order to vote. He equated Winston-Salem State University's requirement of showing a photo ID in order to get a refund for an oversold NBA exhibition game to the bill that Perdue vetoed. His comparison is deeply beside the point.
No citizen has ever given up his life for the fundamental right of buying a basketball ticket. Voting is a fundamental right in a democracy. The Republicans claim that the voter ID bill is intended to prevent voter fraud. But, according to a policy brief from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, "… no credible evidence suggests a voter fraud epidemic. There is no documented wave or trend of individuals voting multiple times, voting as someone else, or voting despite knowing that they are ineligible." The policy brief reported that the closely analyzed 2004 election in Ohio showed a voter fraud rate of 0.00004 percent. Furthermore, the Brennan Center concluded that, "Raising the unsubstantiated specter of mass voter fraud suits a particular policy agenda."
In my opinion, the Republican-sponsored voter-suppression bill is part of a coordinated effort throughout the country to disenfranchise minorities, low-income families, students and senior citizens, groups that tend to vote Democratic. Gov. Perdue should be praised, not chastised, for vetoing the Republican attempt to restrict the right to vote in our state.

RUDY DIAMOND
Lewisville

Twin city
The headline on the front page of the Oct. 16 Journal quotes a Pride festival participant saying, " 'I'm happy with who I am.' " Maybe it's time for Mayor Allen Joines and the members of the city council to start thinking about changing the name of the Twin City from Winston-Salem to Sodom and Gomorrah.

REID JOYCE
Winston-Salem

50 comments:

  1. LTE #4.... and when he does, Reid Joyce, don't look back, and don't let your daughters get you drunk.

    Hmm, Lot was born in Iraq. I didn't know that. Of course back then it wasn't called Iraq, but it's still the same place.

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  2. According to Hebrew genealogists (as per Rabbi Mark Strauss-Cohn), Mary was descended from Lot and one of his daughters.

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  3. Which begs the question: The Messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (see Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:17; Ezekiel 34:23-24). According to the Chrstian claim that Jsus was the product of a virgin birth, he had no father -- and thus could not have possibly fulfilled the messianic requirement of being descended on his father's side from King David.

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  4. Fear mongering. Thank God that you have identified the only "wedge issue" around. We have used a booming economy to justify not enforcing immigration law. So being the dysfunctional folk we are, it only makes sense to enforce immigration law during a bad economy. I would like to see Dream Act cases dealt with case by case as there are some mighty good cases to be made...one currently in Davidson County as I read it. One thing though, emotions aside, there is a price to be paid by someone for illegal activity. The 23 year old man who steals a large sum of money and goes on to be a model citizen with a good job, family etc finally is caught by the law. There is a price to be paid and it will be paid first by his family when the man is gound guilty even though his family never knew of his transgression. Tough calls all around.

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  5. Dangerously close. Well yes this scoundrel is finally showing himself by his actions, free associations, alliances and attitudes. You couldn't tell all this during the 2008 campaign? His ideology and training are showing and this orchestrated OWS freak show is designed to deflect the trouble he is in. Make no mistake, with the lingering remnants of his criminal comrades from ACORN and SEIU running parts of this thing, that puts it in the White House.

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  6. A fundamental right. Yes voting is just that. Also along with this right is a fundamental expectation of free and fair elections. It is no secret that criminal organizations will be trying to rig as many votes as possible next year to support this President. Overwhelm the system and off you go. Democracy survives on "Four Boxes"--the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box and the ammo box.

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  7. Twin City. People will do what they do. I would not be surprised...(I'll never know of course)...if the vast majority of people in Western Civilization a century from now will be practicing Catholics. Not one bit.

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  8. " It is no secret that criminal organizations will be trying to rig as many votes as possible next year to support this President."

    WW...really? Would be nice to see some actual proof for a change. It certainly is no secret that a number of Republican organizations have been indicted for attempting to fix elections in 2004, 2008 and 2010. Not to mention Rep. Patrick McHenry's (R-NC) little game in his own party's primary in 2004.

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  9. As far as I'm concerned ACORN is a criminal organization because some of its members have been convicted of crimes within the its organizational framework. And there is no doubt that it and its members will support Obama in the upcoming election.

    Stick that up your enlarged pooper, Rush.

    Have I called you an idiot lately, Rush?

    Rush, you're an idiot. I call you an idiot every chance I get.

    An idiot, dolt, or dullard is a mentally deficient person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way.

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  10. Bob, your posts on the Journal site have mysteriously disappeared. You must have ticked off the wrong people with your references to Lot.

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  11. See, I keep telling everybody, you just cannot win any argument with the buckram because there is no way around his vast knowledge and his command of logic and language.

    It is obvious that if someone who is a member of an organization commits a crime, then that entire organization is a criminal organization. Basic logic.

    A list of criminal organizations based on that irrefutable logic:

    Republican Party
    Democratic Party
    All churches: christian, Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Mormons, etc
    All corporations
    All police departments
    All branches of the US military and merchant marine
    All state governments
    All county and municipal governments
    Boy Scouts of America (Girl Scouts, too)
    YMCA and YWCA
    The Flat Earth Society
    Chamber of Commerce
    New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders
    United Way
    The Association of Public Restroom Patrollers
    On and on, ad infinitum

    What really ticks me off is that the US Attorney General's office is doing NOTHING about any of this.

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  12. Rush....I know, you're too smart to admit you are wrong. You keep leaving out some little details in your nitwitted logic. You see ACORN practices and patterns to violate the law make it a criminal organization, not the others you cited.

    Have I called you an idiot lately?

    Rush, you're an idiot.

    An idiot, dolt, or dullard is a mentally deficient person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way.

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  13. It also ticks me off too that the USAO is not doing anything about it. They should have been rounded up and thrown in jail. But oh no, because they supported Obama, they were not.

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  14. @Arthur's 1040hrs: Mine ALSO mysteriously disappears, usually when I respond to Deb Phillips' comments. I guess it's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know. I have now made it a practice to copy the comment and re-post it as an original comment, not as a response to a post; unless someone complains to facebook I'm the only one that can delete it. Thank goodness for freedom of speech, eh?

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  15. A few from Biggovernment.com search voter fraud, page 1:
    3 Out-of-State SEIU Operatives Registered and Voted from Wisconsin Hotel
    by Media Trackers, posted Oct 26th 2011 at 10:13 am
    ...n in Wisconsin. Stoner, like Thompson, still has an active voter registration in New Jersey. According to Stoner’s Wisconsin voter registration form, he simply listed “Residence... Comments (59)




    #OccupyMilwaukee Protester May Have Voted Illegally in Wisconsin
    by Media Trackers, posted Oct 25th 2011 at 8:32 am
    .... When registering to vote on election day prior to the new Voter ID law as Austin Lee Thompson did, one had to have been a resident of Wisconsin for 10 days with intent to stay and provide ... Comments (73)









    Convicted Bank Fraudster Robert Creamer Leads Democrats, #OccupyWallStreet Against Bank of America
    by Joel B. Pollak, posted Oct 10th 2011 at 10:12 am
    ...rically played an important, but waning role, in mobilizing voters on the left. “There’s been a lot of talk about how the progressive base is demobilized,” said Robert Creamer, a longt... Comments (38)



    ..

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  16. The New Black Panther Party Case, the Racial Double Standard, And the Rule of Law
    by Joel B. Pollak, posted Oct 5th 2011 at 8:07 am
    ...partment of Justice to investigate states that have enacted voter ID laws: Career lawyers in the civil rights division of the Justice Department, who were frequently sidelined and overruled ... Comments (63)




    Special Report: ‘The Rebranding of ACORN’
    by Tom Fitton, posted Oct 3rd 2011 at 7:57 am
    ...t Obama’s former employer, remains active in registering voters on public assistance to re-elect Obama and other leftist candidates. In Colorado, for instance, Judicial Watch uncovered... Comments (21)




    Obama’s HUD Has Given $730,000 to ACORN This Year Alone. What’s Another $15 Billion More for Alinsky Groups?
    by Matthew Vadum, posted Sep 21st 2011 at 7:14 am
    ...ar ago, ACORN continues to operate. Project Vote, ACORN’s voter fraud facilitation division, is still business. It operates out of ACORN’s old Washington, D.C., office across from the U... Comments (39)









    Ohio Dems Threaten Yet Another Union-funded Ballot Referendum
    by Bytor , posted Sep 15th 2011 at 2:11 pm
    ... time to cast a ballot, Ohio Democrats call the bill “voter supression” and have again enlisted labor unions to finance and organize a petition drive. They have until September 3... Comments (46

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  17. Biggovernment.com = just another right wing crackpot website.

    Plenty of allegations, no convictions, or even indictments...just jaws flapping in the breeze.

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  18. These are from page one and there are more.
    On Eve of Election to Replace Weiner, Turner Has ‘a Certain Confidence and Optimism’
    by Joel B. Pollak, posted Sep 12th 2011 at 7:33 pm
    ...)"][/caption] I asked Turner whether he was concerned about voter fraud: “We’ve had poll-watcher meetings today in both Queens and Brooklyn. We have lawyers–about two dozen... Comments (57)




    ACORN, Soros-tied D.C. Official Admits Apparent Voter Fraud
    by Matthew Vadum, posted Sep 9th 2011 at 6:18 am
    ...on after admitting she committed what appears to constitute voter fraud. The resignation of Andrea “Andi” Pringle comes as several U.S. states initiate a much-needed crackdown on rampant... Comments (46














    Is the DOJ Partnering with Scandal-Plagued Project Vote?
    by Tom Fitton, posted Aug 29th 2011 at 6:28 pm
    ...tting a full-court press on key swing states to manipulate voter registration laws in order to “get out the vote” for Obama and the Democrats in 2012. And leading that charge is Estell... (73 Comments)




    BREAKING: Obama Dirty Tricks Operative Buffy Wicks to Run Campaign Unit Named After ACORN’s Voter Fraud Factory
    by Matthew Vadum, posted Aug 26th 2011 at 12:13 pm
    ...lier this year pleaded no-contest in a major ACORN-approved voter fraud conspiracy in Nevada, works at Project Vote as a field director even now according to the group’s website. The missi...

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  19. A 3.6 earthquake centered 1 mile east of Berkeley on the Hayward Fault shook the Bay Area at 5:36 a.m. today, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

    Pat Robertson said that god was sending a message to those evil red commie OWS demonstrators.

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  20. North Carolina General Statute 14-177.
    Crime Against Nature.

    If any person shall commit the crime against nature, with mankind or beast, he shall be punished as a Class I felon.

    Gotta love the "with mankind or beast" bit...right out of the bible.

    This statute is still on the books. NC courts have interpreted it as banning all oral and anal sex, regardless of the sex of the participants. So beware, all you class I felons out there.

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  21. Excellent cites and references for your assertion whitewall........the idiot asked, and he received.

    Don't expect the nitwitted idiot to admit he's wrong though.

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  22. Rush.....I think the law was meant to encourage all of your sexually aberrant friends to go after the right hole.

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  23. Indiana Democrat resigns over 2008 vote fraud. Nobody will find these on "approved" web sites of course. There is a pattern.

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  24. whitewall......there's a ton of news on FoxNews that never appears on or is down played by other news organizations.

    People used to scoff at people's comments about the liberal main stream news organizations NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC. It's clear now that people were right all along.

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  25. OIC, a "pattern"...that demonic press keeps on hiding things.

    This story and all others were thoroughly covered by the New York Times, which is the only newspaper in the US that covers everything. Oh, I forgot, they are a bunch of liberal commies...ha, ha...paranoia reigns.

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  26. I watch Fox Business Network so I can see Lou Dobbs since he moved there from CNN, and yes I watched him on CNN too without hesitation. I can't help where he is.

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  27. Here's a link to the New York City Socialists.

    http://dsanyc.org/

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  28. The NYT goes to extraordinary efforts to ensure that their reporting is as accurate as possible. Unlike the Wall Street Journal (multiple times), they have never been forced to print a retraction of a major news story.

    The problem that some people have with the Times is that they don't like facts, indeed, prefer lies which agree with their own biases. When someone yelled at President Truman "Give'em hell, Harry!" the president replied "I don't give'em hell...I give'em the truth, and they think it's hell."

    People like Buckup who live in an extreme fantasy world are as frightened by the truth as they are of death itself.

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  29. Pretty much everything the idiot says can be discredited.

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  30. A federal judge refused to drop the charges against 'Johnny'. I'll bet Reille was upset.

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  31. Where's Daddy? He's in the slammer.

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  32. "Ma, ma! Where's my pa?"

    "Gone to the bughouse, ha ha ha!"

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  33. Good afternoon folks!
    LTE 1: It's history repeating itself as people seek somebody to blame for all of their problems, then believe the solution is to eliminate the offenders one way or another. Existing immigration laws are not set up to deal with situations involving undocumented immigrants who have been here since infancy. They are essentially people without a country. The DREAM act is the most sensible way for providing them a path to citizenship.
    LTE 2: A rant that borders on hysteria. If Mr. Wilson wish to call unfulfilled campaign promises lies, then everyone who has ever run for president and won has lied through his teeth. Btw, the POTUS can't do squat without congressional approval, so Mr. Wilson's fears of Obama becoming some sort of tyrannical dictator are totally unfounded. As Ray Davies sang, "paranoia will destroy ya".
    LTE 3: Same public fear and paranoia that explains what's happening in LTE 1. The time for examining a photo id is when the person registers to vote. The greatest potential for fraud is with absentee ballots where a person could vote multiple times without adequate safeguards. As Diamond shows with his citations, the description of widespread voter fraud is highly exaggerated (or for Mr. Wilson's benefit: a lie).
    LTE 4: Sodom-Gomorrah. Has a nice ring to it. It would provide an interesting name for the local baseball team: the Sodom-Gomorrah Dash :)

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  34. Bucky: "As far as I'm concerned ACORN is a criminal organization because some of its members have been convicted of crimes within the its organizational framework."

    Bucky that's completely absured. Do you consider the military a criminal organization because some of it's members have committed crimes within it's organizational framework? Do you consider law enforcement a criminal organization because some of it's members have commted crimes within it's organizational frame work?

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  35. Bucky, you keep saying the same old thing over and over again. Are you expecting different results or just wasting your time and energy which shows a complete lack of personal responsibility.

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  36. -Fox News host Eric Bolling apologized for racist insults he made toward President Obama,
    -the entire right wing media and blogosphere — all of them — fell for yet another fake outrage: the false claim that President Obama had offered to apologize to Japan for the bombing of Hiroshima in WWII.

    Fox News, of course, quickly spread the bogus anti-Obama story far and wide before anyone could notice that it was a complete fraud, thereby ensuring that it would become a right wing article of faith, impervious to logic or facts.

    -Yesterday, Fox contributor Liz Trotta, a former Washington Times editor and three-time Emmy winner, clearly wasn't [being careful] when Fox host Eric Shawn asked about Clinton's Kennedy comment. Instead, she made a distasteful joke (in the clip above).

    Trotta: "And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama. Well, both, if we could."

    Shawn: "Talk about how you really feel."

    With an uproar in the blogosphere, Trotta appeared around 9:40 this morning to apologize

    it just never stops at Fox or anything owned by Rupert Murdoch for that matter.

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  37. Well, Bob, you really can't lose playing to the lowest common denominator...there's a sucker born every minute.

    As George Carlin liked to say: "Consider how stupid the average American is, then remember that half of them are even stupider."

    In other words, read the posts by Buckboy and his pal Anonymous (AKA Roblo) to see what Carlin was talking about.

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  38. That's one of my favorite Carlin quotes, actually.

    And it was nice to see that Roblo's still his usual sweet-natured, happy-go-lucky self.

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  39. Yes, he has a unique savoir faire.

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  40. LOL, a tea party group is asking Michele Bachmann to get out of the race.

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  41. Good News from Oakland: Iraq veteran Scott Olsen's condition has been upgraded to fair.

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  42. Not surprising re Bachmann, since she has the worst poll numbers against Obama at minus 14.2, worse even than Newt Gingrich at minus 13.

    The only GOP candidate hanging with the president is Romney, at minus 1.2, but since he changes his positions more often than he changes his underwear, who knows where he will wind up.

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  43. Got that tip about Romney's underwear from Buckminster Fullercrap, who is the world's leading authority on men's wrong end wear.

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  44. Good evening, folks!

    LTE1: Population shifts have been a natural fact ever since there have been living creatures. Eventually, lines on a map don't matter. The fact that we are here in the WS-GSO area commenting is a reflection of population shifts in times past.

    Population shifts can be managed, but short of machineguns, cannot be stopped. And the shifts can be mismanaged, as Alabamans are finding out. They are compelling immigrants to displace themselves, and the jobs the immigrants leave are in part going unfilled. In the meantime, Mississippi and Lousiana can continue to rebuild after Katrina and at a faster pace.

    The LTE writer is right about so-called conservatives, but elsewhere, liberals seek to wreak their own damage upon the body politic.

    LTE2: Mr. Wilson waxes hyperbolic, as he does once a month. Hmmm, isn't it about time we heard from Dr. Cutri again?

    A dilute and more reasoned commentary re President Obama is, "I disagree with most of his policies," which is my own stand. As for the Chavez comment, that's nonsense.

    LTE3: The big problems with voting have to do with gerrymandering and money. Both appear to be intractable.

    LTE4: I salute and defer to dotnet's comment re Sodom-Gomorrah, which may be the line of the month.

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  45. Oh, re LTE1: if I were so inclined, I'd open a Leopard's Limb, with a Word watch section for the LTE writer's comment re "influx of headlines." That must be an interesting sight, probably a shift that will result in Sodom-Gomorrah.

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  46. Stab and dotnet are geniuses and saviors of us all.

    We don't need to change the name of the city, just the baseball team, to the Sin City Sodomites. After the top of the first, there is a procession from the outfield depicting Lot, his wife, their daughters and other residents of Sodom and Gomorrah. Already, we have boosted employment.

    Then, when they reach the mound, Lot's wife looks back at the city skyline and turns into a pillar of salt. The next half-inning, with the wife safely out of the way, Lot and his daughters get up to some hanky panky.

    Each half inning, we depict the descendants of Lot and his daughters until we reach Mary, mother of Jesus. By now, NC has full employment and the city can lend Billy Prim a trillion or so to build a new stadium holding say half a million people. Religious pilgrims will come from all over the world (except, of course, the Muslim part...we will have our own customs division at Smith Reynolds Airport, which will be the largest and busiest in the world.)

    By then we will have dispensed with baseball entirely so that there will be time to depict the life of Jesus, climaxing with the crucifixion and resurrection.

    The show will go on every day, with a matinee and an evening show, except for Christmas Day, which will be reserved for the usual display of greed and family harmony.

    By then the population of W-S will be about 30 million and I will have moved to Asheville or Raleigh or somewhere civilized, but ALL of our problems will have been solved.

    And think of the spinoffs. Anatomically correct action figures of Lot, his wife and daughters, a Mary figure that actually gives birth, the possibilities are endless.

    Who says American innovation is dead?

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