Whitney's light
I was very sorry to hear about the death of Whitney Houston, who at one time was a talented, bright, positive soul who cheered everyone who listened to her ("Singer Whitney Houston dies," Feb. 12).
I hope you will not receive any of those letters — and if you do, you will not print them — criticizing her for her later drug and alcohol problems, which almost certainly destroyed her life, and criticizing the media, the conservative's favorite whipping post, for reporting on Whitney.
Nobody glamorized her problems; nobody praised her for them. What we praise her for, and remember her for, was her beautiful, rich, seemingly effortless singing ability, her songs and her sparkling personality, which touched her listeners and made the world a little brighter. We will miss that Whitney Houston.
DEBRA A. SNYDER
Winston-Salem
The coach's punishment
I am writing about the decision reached by the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board on Coach Mike Muse. I, too, feel that this was a slap on the wrist. What would they have done to the student if he had spoken to the teacher in that manner?
Text messages are very different from emails. If Muse had been sending emails to a list of students it would have been different. The board has set a very poor precedent about reporting cases of abuse. Anyone who suspects abuse has a duty to report it. I realize that the student was not reporting anything, merely remarked that the texts were weird. I, too, find it weird that this man was texting a 16-year-old girl frequently.
If I were this girl's parents, I would not want this man texting my daughter frequently. I would think they would be trying to find out why he felt it necessary to text her. And further, the school board should be putting a policy about text messages into effect to prevent things of this nature from happening.
If I had a student at East Forsyth High School, I, too, would think about moving the student, not only from that school, but also from the county. Our schools here in Davie County have had this problem and it was hidden until it no longer could be, much to our sorrow.
There is a price to be paid for these kinds of things and sometimes it is too dear.
PAULETTE HENDRIX
Mocksville
Sum It Up
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Should school systems allow texting between teachers and students?
I am sure the school systems have established proper channels to communicate with students and their families. If teachers have further concerns about students, they should talk to their parents.
BOON T. LEE
No, school systems should not allow texting between teachers and students. Any communication between staff and students should be done through the school only. Technology is moving fast and our school board needs to step up to the plate and put these safeguards in place for all children. As I recall last year there was inappropriate (sexual) texting between a teacher and student. Is our school board even paying attention? Perhaps instead of squabbling over the right to opt out of the Pledge of Allegiance they could pay attention to the inappropriate indiscretions that are occurring under their noses each academic year. Our children deserve better.
SUZANNE CARROLL
No. If a teacher needs to contact a student regarding his or her grades, it should be done via mail, text or phone to the student's parents. Thankfully, I do not have a student in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system, but if I did, I would not want any teacher contacting my child via these methods. I would definitely want to be contacted personally by the teacher.
Contacting a student only opens the door for suspicion of the teacher. And I definitely do not think it is the school resource officer's place to contact a student for any reason via email, text or phone.
VICKI LYNCH
Absolutely. Why not? Should they be allowed to speak via the telephone? Should the student be allowed to raise his hand in class? Of course they should be allowed to text. How could you stop it? Invade their privacy? To those who do not recognize it, both the student and the teacher are part of the same human race. Get real.
CATHERINE W. PITTS
What happened to face-to-face conversations with students and teachers? Let's go back to some of the old ways to communicate, OK?
ELIZABETH R. ERVIN
Mari Carmen Aponte is a good liberal. She did what Obama told her to do. She promoted Gay/Lesbian History Month while she was the Ambassador in El Salvador. However, she's no longer the Ambassador.
ReplyDeleteYou would think a 'smart' president would know that some cultures do not accept gay/lesbian practices as normal. However, Gay History Month went to Ms. Aponte's head, and she decided she'd write an op-ed in the La Prensa Grafica citing the 'wonderfulness' of gay and lesbian relationships. Well, that did go over to well in El Salvador. She only had a one year appointment, and she was called back. Susqently, the Senate refused to renew her as an Ambassador.
No, many countries and their people still believe that gay and lesbian sexual activities are outside of the mainstream. What will North Carolinians say in the upcoming election?
16 months, actually. August of 2010 to December of 2011, you can't even get the simple stuff right.
DeleteI suppose you meant subsequently. And the Senate did not refuse to renew her,a minority of senators kept the vote on renewal from taking place, her ambassadorship has never been brought up for a vote, a little thing called cloture.
DeleteActually, the cloture vote was on December 12th, 2011, and her call back wasn't until Jan. 1st, 2012, when her term ended, so it wasn't subsequent at all.
DeleteI suggest immediate and concentrated psychiatric intervention. Anyone so fixated on one aspect of sexuality and the male posterior, even if just trolling, is severely disturbed. Failing that, we perceive your obsessive point, Anon. Enough. Move on.
DeleteGay marriage and related issues are in the news, daily. Failure to discuss and properly vet these issues will result in significant social problems down the road.
DeleteBesides, I thought we could discuss current events in here?
Then those current events, such as the NJ gov's veto can be cited/ discussed, and without anatomical references.
Delete"Gov. Christie to veto gay marriage bill."
DeleteAnatomical references?
@Stab re Anon's proclivity to the subject of homosexuality: Anon fairly asserts that the subject is current events. I assert that it's current events that he goes in search of, as evidenced in his tedious repetitive comments on the subject, that has long been wearing us thin.
DeleteThey gotta be round, they can't be oval! Hello! Hello!
DeleteWe saw where a "compassionate conservative" got us in 2008, I shudder to think where a "severely conservative" would take us.
ReplyDeleteGov. Christie to veto gay marriage bill.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/16/new-jersey-passes-gay-marriage-bill-christie-expected-to-veto/?test=latestnews
Gas was $1.84 per gallon when Obama took office. It's now close to $3.53. Can you say Jimmy Carter days are here again?
ReplyDeleteGas was less than $1.00 per gallon when Carter was POTUS. It looks like you are advocating socialized gasoline with the govt determining the spot price instead of market forces. I will let you in on a little secret: even Presidents don't have power over how much oil is used world wide or when refineries shut down for maintenance and to begin the switch over to summer time blends. Also, each state has its own gas tax rate which affects the price which is why gas in SC is $0.20 cheaper than in NC.
DeleteJesus...when will you people stop running against Jimmy Carter. No new ideas whatsoever. Hey, maybe Brezhnev is up to no good!
DeleteI'm beginning to believe, based on what I've heard, Carter was better than Obama. That's pretty pathetic.
DeleteIt's worse than you think...they are still running against Andrew Jackson with these stupid immigration laws in Alabama and Arizona, a continuation of South Carolina's foolish attempts to nullify the federal import tariffs during the Jackson reign in the WH. In a sort of preview of their later secession stupidity in 1860, South Carolina began raising an army to prevent federal troops from enforcing the tariff law.
DeleteMaybe President Obama should follow Jackson's example and tell them that "...if a single drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I can lay my hand on engaged in such treasonable conduct, upon the first tree I can reach."
The Koch Brothers have more to say about the price of gas than President Obama. They are two of the biggest oil speculators in the world.
DeleteNEW YORK (AP) — For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world's biggest gas guzzler, is — wait for it — fuel. There's at least one domestic downside to America's growing role as a fuel exporter. Experts say the trend helps explain why U.S. motorists are paying more for gasoline. The more fuel that's sent overseas, the less of a supply cushion there is at home.
Gasoline supplies are being exported to the highest bidder, says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "It's a world market," he says.
Refining companies won't say how much they make by selling fuel overseas. But analysts say those sales are likely generating higher profits per gallon than they would have generated in the U.S. Otherwise, they wouldn't occur.
Not only are they still running against Carter and Jackson, they are still trying to nominate Ronald Reagan who a) has served his two terms, therefore ineligible to run again b) has Alzheimers and c) is dead. In other words, he ain't coming back!
DeleteThe states that sent the most Tea Party members to the House were all once part of the confederacy. Imagine that.
DeleteShocked, shocked!
DeleteRIP Claude Rains.
@dotnet: reminds me of an Onion headline "Democrats Dig Up FDR's Corpse to Run for a Fifth Term".
DeleteThat still would've been better than W., IMO.
We could run a ham sandwich and it would do a better job than Obama.
DeleteYou've got to love the deep thought and originality that go into comments like the one above.
DeleteThen you should run a ham sandwich because non of your potential candidates can win a general election. It's the weakest field in the history of the world.
DeleteGood afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: I'd much rather remember the WH of the mid-80's - early '90's as well. Her much publicized problems over her last 20 years cannot be denied, however. Bringing them up can perhaps serve as a warning to those who are kidding themselves about the abuse of prescription pills and alcohol.
LTE 2: I don't have a child and I find it "weird" that a teacher/coach would frequently text a 16 y.o. student of the opposite sex. I can understand the occasional text to inform about practice or to answer a question. I especially don't understand texting between an SRO and a student. As for the punishment, it appears to be in line with comparable incidents that have occurred according to the article, so I have no issue with it. Which brings up:
Sum it up: Well, this incident shows what all can go wrong when teachers and students text each other so for everyone's sake, ban the crap out of it. Ms. Carroll's response is the best I've seen of any LTE or post on the subject. I also really like Ms. Lynch's response.
Dumbest governor in America? I could have told them that a long time ago.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wxii12.com/news/30485598/detail.html
What the above poster and the woman that he quotes do not know is that such statements do no harm to the person that they are about, but they certainly have a boomerang effect on the person who made the statements, revealing them for what they are.
DeleteIn this case, since the remark was made at a McCrory rally, it will do him harm in the general election in November.
"The home loans responsible for blowing up the housing market are regaining popularity.
ReplyDeletePrices are climbing for some bonds backed by subprime mortgage loans given to higher risk borrowers, with one index rising 14 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal."
Insanity?
In the words of a popular folk song of the 1960s:
"When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?"
It's interesting that whenever I drop by, the forum lights up. When I'm not participating, this place is as dead as a liberal Democrat's brain on election day.
ReplyDeleteand I'll bet you thought that song was about you, too.
DeleteFactually speaking, the busiest day of posting this month occurred on a day that you didn't post.
DeleteBob, I believe that that would apply to more than one day. People are encouraged to post comments when the conversation is not interrupted by his non sequiturs.
DeleteSome time back, when he was posting under another of his cowardly noms de plume, I sent a collection of his his comments to some of my psychiatric friends.
He is a classic psychopath, narcissistic division, as evidenced by two of several things:
1. His belief that the world, in this case, this forum, revolves around him.
2. His laughable insistence that he always wins arguments here, when any reasonable person can see that the opposite is true.
He is sort of the Newt Gingrich of the LTE Forum. Newt and his sycophants think that he is a great debater. But the truth is that Newt has never won a single debate. Were he to go up against someone like President Obama, even his fan club would be forced to shut up.
Stab was right to suggest that he needs urgent mental care. The bad news is that, at the moment, there is no known effective treatment for any of the varieties of psychopathy, because there is a genetic deficiency involved that is not yet understood.
Gov. Christie voted the N.J. gay marriage bill.
ReplyDeleteThe fat man sang quickly on that one.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/17/us/new-jersey-same-sex-veto/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
vetoed
DeleteAs always, Zero merely copies and pastes stuff, having no idea what is behind it. Governor Christie's veto is a perfect example.
ReplyDeleteChristie is not, like Zero, an anti-gay bigot. New Jersey already has a gay civil union statute, but many gays believe that it is flawed to their disadvantage. Christie has urged the state legislature to fix that law and has said that he will sign it at that time.
His veto is purely political, with an eye to the 2016 South Carolina primary. We used to call South Carolina the Palmetto State, but is has always actually been the Bigot State. The fools who started the Civil War have not improved their genetic stock in the 150 years since then.
Meanwhile, the legislature has 2 years to try to override Christie's veto. A lot of stupid, angry old bigots will die between now and then.