I am responding to the letter "Few with little to say" (March 3) criticizing the Journal for its front-page coverage of the Occupy Winston-Salem demonstrations at Wells Fargo, Winston-Salem City Hall and the Reynolds American Inc. headquarters on March 1 ("Protesters decry corporate influence in politics"). It's a shame that so few (15-24) stood with the 99 percent of us who are exploited by the 1 percent.
The letter writer's support of the latter makes me think he's a member of the plutocracy, which he believes the 99 percent are jealous of. He suggested that a better Journal story would have focused on the large church, temple and synagogue meetings which regularly help the downtrodden.
How did so many citizens get to be so downtrodden? Could they be victims of exploitation by the 1 percent, who are sucking the economic life out of the rest of us? The Occupy Movement is addressing the causes of so much suffering, and for that I say thank you to Occupy Winston-Salem, and to the Journal for its coverage of that effort.
The writer of the letter "No General Lee" (March 4) wrote about Cal Thomas' column "Is censorship the new pluralism?" and NASCAR's decision not to allow the "Dukes of Hazard" car, the General Lee, to appear at races. He called this censorship, as did Thomas, and he asked, "Am I missing something in this picture?"
Yes, he is, and so is Thomas. An organization like NASCAR deciding not to use something isn't censorship; it's the free market at work. The government didn't forbid NASCAR from using the General Lee; NASCAR thought it would lose money if it used the car, so it chose not to.
And "curtailing the exercise of religion?" Please. Give me one example of anyone's exercise of religion being curtailed — that doesn't involve imposing one's religion on other people. If your religion requires you to force it on people who don't want it, it's the wrong religion.
Literally speaking, the marketplace cannot censor or be censored — businesses like NASCAR have the freedom to choose and they're not obligated to say or promote anything. Only the government could serve as an agent of censorship, stopping citizens from saying or doing things it doesn't like.
Our government is, relative to the rest of the world, free of censorship. Government does not outlaw burning the American flag, nor does it outlaw waving the Confederate flag, even though the Confederate flag represents a faction that fought against the United States.
I found nothing warranting an apology in evangelist Franklin Graham's recent comment about President Obama's Christian faith or lack thereof ("Franklin Graham's troubling words," Feb. 27). ("He has said he's a Christian, so I just have to assume that he is.") In over three years in office, I recall few if any reports of Obama attending church. Our president has been quoted as saying he views people with small town, Midwestern values (aka Christians) as individuals who cling to their guns and religion, as if being religious is a weakness; a practice of uneducated, fearful individuals.
Obama mocked the Bible in a speech when he expressed confusion over which passages we might use to guide us. Apparently, his confusion over the Bible's guiding principles has become crystal clear to him since he also quoted Jesus in the Gospel of Luke as the basis to raise taxes to fund more wasteful government spending.
Given Obama's disparaging comments about Christians and Christianity, and the near-total-lack of evidence that he is a practicing Christian, I think Graham was quite respectful of Obama in giving him the benefit of the doubt.
I'm reminded of a sermon I once heard that asked the question: "If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you"? I think it's fair to say that after observing President Obama for the past three years, many could conclude that he is innocent.
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Are you satisfied with the crop of North Carolina candidates who filed by the Feb. 29 deadline?
* * * * *
No, because, if elected, it will still be the "same old, same old," as it has always been.
REID JOYCE
* * * * *
I am especially satisfied with the 31st Senatorial District Democratic candidate Delmas Parker. Parker is an honorable past educator and leader who will work to promote social change that will improve the lives of all North Carolinians.
Winston-Salem Journal | JournalNow Trader Joe's has announced it plans to build a store at Thruway in Winston-Salem. Maybe the song helped! http://ow.ly/9zdbA
Winston-Salem finally lands a Trader Joe's grocery store
By: FRAN DANIEL | Winston-Salem Journal Published: March 09, 2012
The rumors are over for local foodies, as Trader Joe's confirmed Friday that it has decided to come to Winston-Salem.
The grocery store chain known for its discounted wine and distinctive products will open this year in Thruway Shopping Center on Stratford Road.
Alison Mochizuki, a company spokeswoman, said the company chose this area because there are a lot of foodies here.
"It's a wonderful community," Mochizuki said. "We are really excited to come to Winston-Salem.
The 13,000-square-foot store will go in a portion of the former Borders space at Thruway. The typical Trader Joe's is between 10,000 to 15,000 square feet.
This will be the seventh Trader Joe's in North Carolina. There is one in Cary, another in Chapel Hill, three in Charlotte and one in Raleigh.
--------------------
If you go to the song link...I was there, way in the back. We had hoped to turn out a couple of thousand people, but it was the hottest day in several years, temp pushing 98...we had fun anyway.
I had hoped for a more downtown location, but the old Borders site will ease the loss of Borders itself a bit.
Hard to believe that we beat out Greensboro and Asheville.
Good news re TJ's. When I lived in an L. A. suburb, there were 2 TJ's a couple miles either way from us. Our local TJ's will differ from the LA area ones in a pleasing way: ample parking. Southern CA TJ's have microscopic parking areas.
I'm laughing. People around here who complain about parking have never been out of the state. It always fascinated me when I was living in CA that the Freeway State had endless miles of roads but such a paucity of parking places.
Some years ago, when Reynolds moved their Planters/Life Savers headquarters from New Jersey to W-S, my wife and I were in town and attended a dinner party which included some of the newly transplanted Yankees.
Somebody asked one of them what he thought about his new home.
"First," he said, "I love the fact that I can park for free less than a block from my office. And second, two days ago I got a speeding ticket on my way home from work. In twenty years working in Jersey, I never once got my car going fast enough to get a speeding ticket." He was delighted to pay the fine.
Gloria Allred, the famed celebrity lawyer, sent a letter to the Palm Beach County Attorney's Office on Thursday saying prosecutors should consider a charge under an 1883 law making it a misdemeanor to question a woman's chastity.
"He has personally targeted her and vilified her, and he should have to bear the consequences of his extremely outrageous, tasteless and damaging conduct," Allred said in a phone interview Friday.
"Whoever speaks of and concerning any woman, married or unmarried, falsely and maliciously imputing to her a want of chastity, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree." _______________
Good Luck getting a conviction on that one Gloria. Fluke has already admitted that her sex life is so frequent that she requires the government to pay for her contraceptives.
These liberals never give up their nonsense, do they?
You know how liberals are: They never let a chance to make a fool out of themselves go by.
CNN, and a whole host of liberals, want Limbaugh off the air. Bill Mayer, of course, can stay. It seems the 'C' word is not so bad if you are a liberal advocate.
Those internets, unlike we hardy humans, have very weak immune systems...viruses and all that, you know. Even those Trojans which your Catholic employer's insurance doesn't pay for can't hold off Trojan horses.
Let's hope Bob's system doesn't have worms:
The worms crawl in, The worms crawl out, The worms play pinochle On your snout...
ccupy coverage
ReplyDeleteI am responding to the letter "Few with little to say" (March 3) criticizing the Journal for its front-page coverage of the Occupy Winston-Salem demonstrations at Wells Fargo, Winston-Salem City Hall and the Reynolds American Inc. headquarters on March 1 ("Protesters decry corporate influence in politics"). It's a shame that so few (15-24) stood with the 99 percent of us who are exploited by the 1 percent.
The letter writer's support of the latter makes me think he's a member of the plutocracy, which he believes the 99 percent are jealous of. He suggested that a better Journal story would have focused on the large church, temple and synagogue meetings which regularly help the downtrodden.
How did so many citizens get to be so downtrodden? Could they be victims of exploitation by the 1 percent, who are sucking the economic life out of the rest of us? The Occupy Movement is addressing the causes of so much suffering, and for that I say thank you to Occupy Winston-Salem, and to the Journal for its coverage of that effort.
ANNE PAISLEY
No censorship
ReplyDeleteThe writer of the letter "No General Lee" (March 4) wrote about Cal Thomas' column "Is censorship the new pluralism?" and NASCAR's decision not to allow the "Dukes of Hazard" car, the General Lee, to appear at races. He called this censorship, as did Thomas, and he asked, "Am I missing something in this picture?"
Yes, he is, and so is Thomas. An organization like NASCAR deciding not to use something isn't censorship; it's the free market at work. The government didn't forbid NASCAR from using the General Lee; NASCAR thought it would lose money if it used the car, so it chose not to.
And "curtailing the exercise of religion?" Please. Give me one example of anyone's exercise of religion being curtailed — that doesn't involve imposing one's religion on other people. If your religion requires you to force it on people who don't want it, it's the wrong religion.
Literally speaking, the marketplace cannot censor or be censored — businesses like NASCAR have the freedom to choose and they're not obligated to say or promote anything. Only the government could serve as an agent of censorship, stopping citizens from saying or doing things it doesn't like.
Our government is, relative to the rest of the world, free of censorship. Government does not outlaw burning the American flag, nor does it outlaw waving the Confederate flag, even though the Confederate flag represents a faction that fought against the United States.
BOBBY FIELDS
Winston-Salem
No apology needed
ReplyDeleteI found nothing warranting an apology in evangelist Franklin Graham's recent comment about President Obama's Christian faith or lack thereof ("Franklin Graham's troubling words," Feb. 27). ("He has said he's a Christian, so I just have to assume that he is.") In over three years in office, I recall few if any reports of Obama attending church. Our president has been quoted as saying he views people with small town, Midwestern values (aka Christians) as individuals who cling to their guns and religion, as if being religious is a weakness; a practice of uneducated, fearful individuals.
Obama mocked the Bible in a speech when he expressed confusion over which passages we might use to guide us. Apparently, his confusion over the Bible's guiding principles has become crystal clear to him since he also quoted Jesus in the Gospel of Luke as the basis to raise taxes to fund more wasteful government spending.
Given Obama's disparaging comments about Christians and Christianity, and the near-total-lack of evidence that he is a practicing Christian, I think Graham was quite respectful of Obama in giving him the benefit of the doubt.
I'm reminded of a sermon I once heard that asked the question: "If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you"? I think it's fair to say that after observing President Obama for the past three years, many could conclude that he is innocent.
MICHAEL W. PHILLIPS
Advance
Sum It Up
ReplyDeleteThe Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Are you satisfied with the crop of North Carolina candidates who filed by the Feb. 29 deadline?
* * * * *
No, because, if elected, it will still be the "same old, same old," as it has always been.
REID JOYCE
* * * * *
I am especially satisfied with the 31st Senatorial District Democratic candidate Delmas Parker. Parker is an honorable past educator and leader who will work to promote social change that will improve the lives of all North Carolinians.
SUZANNE CARROLL
Mr. Phillips' cup doth runneth over with Christian love.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the liberals would say if a Fox channel came out with a TV program entitled 'Snotty Liberal Atheists'?
ReplyDeleteWinston-Salem Journal | JournalNow
ReplyDeleteTrader Joe's has announced it plans to build a store at Thruway in Winston-Salem. Maybe the song helped! http://ow.ly/9zdbA
Hallelujah!!!
ReplyDeleteWinston-Salem finally lands a Trader Joe's grocery store
By: FRAN DANIEL | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: March 09, 2012
The rumors are over for local foodies, as Trader Joe's confirmed Friday that it has decided to come to Winston-Salem.
The grocery store chain known for its discounted wine and distinctive products will open this year in Thruway Shopping Center on Stratford Road.
Alison Mochizuki, a company spokeswoman, said the company chose this area because there are a lot of foodies here.
"It's a wonderful community," Mochizuki said. "We are really excited to come to Winston-Salem.
The 13,000-square-foot store will go in a portion of the former Borders space at Thruway. The typical Trader Joe's is between 10,000 to 15,000 square feet.
This will be the seventh Trader Joe's in North Carolina. There is one in Cary, another in Chapel Hill, three in Charlotte and one in Raleigh.
--------------------
If you go to the song link...I was there, way in the back. We had hoped to turn out a couple of thousand people, but it was the hottest day in several years, temp pushing 98...we had fun anyway.
I had hoped for a more downtown location, but the old Borders site will ease the loss of Borders itself a bit.
Hard to believe that we beat out Greensboro and Asheville.
Good news re TJ's. When I lived in an L. A. suburb, there were 2 TJ's a couple miles either way from us. Our local TJ's will differ from the LA area ones in a pleasing way: ample parking. Southern CA TJ's have microscopic parking areas.
ReplyDeleteI'm laughing. People around here who complain about parking have never been out of the state. It always fascinated me when I was living in CA that the Freeway State had endless miles of roads but such a paucity of parking places.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago, when Reynolds moved their Planters/Life Savers headquarters from New Jersey to W-S, my wife and I were in town and attended a dinner party which included some of the newly transplanted Yankees.
Somebody asked one of them what he thought about his new home.
"First," he said, "I love the fact that I can park for free less than a block from my office. And second, two days ago I got a speeding ticket on my way home from work. In twenty years working in Jersey, I never once got my car going fast enough to get a speeding ticket." He was delighted to pay the fine.
If you live here, count your blessings.
Gloria Allred, the famed celebrity lawyer, sent a letter to the Palm Beach County Attorney's Office on Thursday saying prosecutors should consider a charge under an 1883 law making it a misdemeanor to question a woman's chastity.
ReplyDelete"He has personally targeted her and vilified her, and he should have to bear the consequences of his extremely outrageous, tasteless and damaging conduct," Allred said in a phone interview Friday.
"Whoever speaks of and concerning any woman, married or unmarried, falsely and maliciously imputing to her a want of chastity, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree."
_______________
Good Luck getting a conviction on that one Gloria. Fluke has already admitted that her sex life is so frequent that she requires the government to pay for her contraceptives.
These liberals never give up their nonsense, do they?
You know how liberals are: They never let a chance to make a fool out of themselves go by.
DeleteCNN, and a whole host of liberals, want Limbaugh off the air. Bill Mayer, of course, can stay. It seems the 'C' word is not so bad if you are a liberal advocate.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/10/opinion/fonda-morgan-steinem-limbaugh/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Good luck with that one Gloria, uh, Steinem.
Sorry to hear Bob's internet is down. Hope it feels better soon.
ReplyDeleteThose internets, unlike we hardy humans, have very weak immune systems...viruses and all that, you know. Even those Trojans which your Catholic employer's insurance doesn't pay for can't hold off Trojan horses.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope Bob's system doesn't have worms:
The worms crawl in,
The worms crawl out,
The worms play pinochle
On your snout...