A shameful error
The people of North Carolina have joined others in committing a shameful error by building discrimination into our state constitution. The action was unnecessary — state law in North Carolina already bans same-sex marriage.
It seems that the vehicle that did this also attacked those people who shun marriage but have a family with benefits. The implications are beyond this letter, but many will ultimately be determined by the courts. People (men, women, children) will suffer in ways also to be determined. This may have been the real reason for the Amendment One activity.
ROBERT C. MARCH
Pfafftown
Innocent media
The writer of the May 23 letter "Media doesn't care" accuses the "media" of being biased. But I believe that she is biased herself while the organizations she accuses, in this instance at least, are pretty much innocent.
She thinks that Mitt Romney is being unfairly hammered for a high-school prank while President Obama isn't being scrutinized for his college drug use. But Obama wrote about that drug use in one of his books, years ago. It is literally old news . Every time we learn something new about Romney, is the media required to dredge up something old about Obama in the name of being "fair and balanced"? That tit-for-tat approach may keep the conservatives from pouting, but it doesn't have anything to do with news. That approach would place bias into the process.
Her other complaints are trivial. So the taxpayers have to pay for some of the president's fundraising travel — when has this not been the case? Was she upset when either George Bush or Ronald Reagan did the same? I doubt it.
As for her statement about the "$40,000-per-plate dinner at George Clooney's Beverly Hills mansion," concluding that "the 'one percent' is good if it is composed of movie stars or professional athletes and gives to the Democrats": Nobody says it's bad to be rich. What's bad is when the rich suck more and more from the middle class and poor.
She misunderstands the message of the Occupy movement — and so much more. On purpose?
JANE SIMMONS
Winston-Salem
Educational excellence
I, like millions of people, listened to the audio of the recent classroom discussion that happened down in Spencer ("Teacher in video suspended," May 22). If ever there was an indictment of the North Carolina educational system, there it was for all to hear.
For any number of reasons, we should all be ashamed of our school system. This "teacher," Tanya Dixon-Neely, having influence over children is disturbing.
Teachers are supposed to raise children up, educationally, morally, ethically and in general demeanor by setting the example and by maintaining classroom standards. That she will hang around doing damage to young ones and ultimately be granted a pension funded by the taxpayers of North Carolina seems a grave injustice.
If this is what we get for our tax money, I firmly believe we and our children are being done wrong.
RALPH CHAPPELL
Winston-Salem
Concerns
America is in grave danger while the thinking is that all is well.
The large national debt, in the trillions of dollars, is being ignored, and spending continues. U.S. taxpayers must love the quote from Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, who is getting billions of dollars from the U.S. and recently thanked America for "your taxpayers' money." The U.S. has given and continues to give billions to Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries that have unstable and corrupt governments.
We are divided by religion, race and civil issues and slowly giving up our freedom to foreign ideology. Laws are not being enforced, as you can get arrested for expired tags on your car but not for being here illegally. The decline is due to the partisan leadership in Washington.
RON KIRKPATRICK
Kernersville
Government regulation
Government regulation is the means by which bureaucrats and politicians gradually replace common sense with government dependency, and they are succeeding.
PATRICK KELLEY
Winston-Salem
LTE #4...Concerns: Yes, one can be arrested for an expired tag. It is a misdemeanor which is a criminal offense. Generally though, it's a ticket and up to but not to exceed a $100 fine. Also NCGS 20-176 (c1) states: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person convicted of a misdemeanor for the violation of any provision of this Chapter except G.S. 20‑28(a) and (b), G.S. 20‑141(j), G.S. 20‑141.3(b) and (c), G.S. 20‑141.4, or a second or subsequent conviction of G.S. 20‑138.1 shall be imprisoned in the State prison system unless the person previously has been imprisoned in a local confinement facility, as defined by G.S. 153A‑217(5), for a violation of this Chapter.
ReplyDeleteBeing present without documentation in the U.S. is a civil offense, a bit different than a criminal offense. In 2011, over 400,000 people were deported for being here illegally, a record number. If the law is not being enforced, it's difficult to explain over 400,000 deportations. So your point is a bit askew.
I was stopped a few years ago for an expired license plate, let off with instruction to go DMV office and renew (I had actually renewed online, and was awaiting the sticker). The deputy who spotted me asked me if I new what drew his attention to me. The expired sticker? No, my plate itself, which reads "PASADENA," where I worked some years back. He was from Compton, which is part of greater Los Angeles also. We chatted about CA for a bit before parting friends.
DeleteThe Company Mitt Keeps: Donald Trump
ReplyDeleteHeadline by ABC News
Have you ever seen a similar headline about Obama? Noooooo! How about a story about his autobiography when he reported that he was a pot-head, and a cocaine user? Nooooooooo!
And the mainstream claims they are being objective. What joke!
APRIL 11, 2008 6:00 A.M.
DeleteThe Company He Keeps
Meet Obama's circle: The same old America-hating Left.
By Andrew C. McCarthy
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/224165/company-he-keeps/andrew-c-mccarthy
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!
Deletehahah, that story is in a book he wrote for all to see and read, very open and honest about it too. Unlike Mitt who forgets, besides what Obama smoked, he did to himself, what Mitt did, he did to others.
DeleteBucky, you constantly remind me of the chorus from a Pete Seeger song performed by the Kingston Trio:
DeleteWhen will you ever learn? When will you eeeeeh-ever learn?
Left over from yesterday for OT:
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that embezzling church secretaries are more numerous that SEIU thieves, but from what I've read, the take per theft is higher with the SEIU. This bothers me not, as that leaves less money with which the ideologues can make mischief.
I don't consider Taft-Hartley as war on unions, as it modified the odious Wagner Act, so-named for a British socialist who naturalized, ran for Congress, and introduced the legislation. The NRLA basically made unions a law unto themselves, and put us on the way to one of SEIU mouthpiece Craig Becker's stated goals, mandatory union membership. T-H redressed the imbalance caused by the NRLA after the public tired of thousands of postwar strikes and elected an R Congress. The R's had campaigned on a basis of "Had Enough?"
T-H banned the closed shop (but it still exists in practice in places), sitdown strikes (aka trespassing). It did allow business owners more leeway in resisting organization, but union activity is still allowed on company premises, which I don't understand. It also allowed right-to-work laws, which among other things make it easier for employees to shed unions, since decertification is somewhat difficult (and can be dangerous). More in the next installment.
Your point re the threat of unionization being a prod for employers to do more for their non-union staffs is taken. That harkens back to my assertion that unions should be involved in collective bargaining, not in the leftist politics of their chieftains. I have said repeatedly that people are entitled to FREELY choose agents to represent them.
ReplyDeleteSometime in the past year or so, there was a union election across the VA line. The vote was somthing like 200-45 in favor or unionization. While I hate to see unions win anything, as that means more dough to Dems, I remarked that the employer probably had it coming, if sentiment was that overwhelming.
Bob may recall sometime back that I remarked to him during the WI union reform efforts that bosses can be buttholes and that unions can have a salutary effect there. It sometimes may be well to have a grievance procedure with 3rd-party representation, but that goes back to unions involving in collective bargaining freely agreed to, and not political activism paid for by dues. I am sensitive to teachers' working conditions here, and see where aggressive representation might help, but that could come from a school board that knew its business, certainly not the case here.
I'll give governor Walker some credit. At least he didn't order "shoot to kill."
DeleteIn 1886, Wisconsin unions were fighting for the eight hour work day that we take for granted today.
Union protestors were going from factory to factory to urge workers to walk-out until their employers adopted eight hour work days.
This, of course, was not to the liking of the factory owners, who pressured Gov. Rusk to stomp down the unions with an iron fist. And stomp down he did as the protestors made their way to North Chicago Rolling Mills in Bay View:
Guardsmen had positioned themselves on the hill above the entrance to the plant as the crowd moved through the Kinnickinnic Valley.
Major George P. Traeumur, the commander, called the governor, who had set up a temporary headquarters in a Milwaukee hotel. He gave the order to fire. According to the Milwaukee Daily Journal's report of the shooting, an officer told the troops:
"When you are ordered to shoot, pick out a man and shoot to kill."
The marchers were warned to stop their advance. When they did not, the troops fired. When the shooting was over, at least seven people were dead, including one young boy.
Dad and the Teamsters:
ReplyDeleteMy parents moved here, along with toddler Stab in the very early 50s. Dad took a job as a long-haul trucker with McLean. They put him into immediate service, sending him out before he could obtain his Teamsters card, destination New Jersey. As soon as he and his partner arrived at the terminal, the local goons demanded to see union cards. They warned Dad not to show up without one again.
As soon as Dad got back to WS, he was turned around and sent straight back to NJ, where the goons again demanded to see cards. Dad still had no card. The kindly altruistic goons "beat the shit out of me," as Dad put it. The NJ police, also unionized, were uninterested in investigation or charges.
While Dad was still in NJ, the Teamsters went on strike. He and his partners broke the strike and drove their truck out of the terminal, followed by carloads of irate goons and truckers. The chase went on for miles, with Dad at one point making a U-turn through gas station parking lots at an intersection. They made it back to WS, though, and a Teamsters card was finally obtained. Labor peace followed.
My Dad, strikebreaker, my hero :) The best I could do was cross a public employee picket line in MA.
Exactly what I was talking about....thanks Stab for sharing. People that take up for unions are either fools or stupid, or both.
DeleteLTE #1 - No doubt, those behind this nonsense have much bigger plans down the road.
ReplyDeleteLTE #2 – I am always amused by those who babble on about media bias, because they have no idea what they are talking about. I especially like the paranoids who natter on about “the mainstream” media refusing to cover certain things.
All nonsense. As the New York Times slogan says: “All the news that’s fit to print.” They mean that, and they report more news and report it more accurately than anyone else in the US. If you think that they leave stuff out on purpose, you’re deluded.
The latest Pew survey shows that during the 1st quarter of 2012, media coverage of President Obama was 18% positive, 48% negative and 34% neutral. During the same period, coverage of Mitt Romney was 39% positive, 32% negative and 29% neutral. Roughly the same as throughout 2011.
LTE #3 – So we will indict the entire educational system over the foibles of one idiot. Sort of like indicting mankind because of Michelle Bachmann.
LTE #4 – Bob already dealt with this. It should be pointed out that the deportation process is extremely well targeted, as well. Who’s leaving? Criminals.
LTE #5 – We used to have reasonable regulation of many things, then along came the Great Man Reagan, whose religion was deregulation. We found out in 2008 what that led to.
People who whine about regulation strangling their businesses are simply incompetent and inefficient…our companies have one person who deals with all government regulations, on an extremely part time basis…less than 5% of her total working time. The secret is organization and automation.
The financial bandits are already finding ways around Dodd-Frank, so be prepared for another big crash a few years from now.
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: There are most likely far more heterosexual couples affected by A1 than homosexual couples. The amendment does serve a dual purpose of coercing those "living in sin" to "legitimize" their relationship. The courts will have their say, as Mr. March notes.
LTE 2: I find complaints about "media bias' to be patently absurd in this day and age of talk radio, cable tv and the internet. There are plenty of outlets of every persuasion available, so anyone can immerse themselves in the ideology of their choosing to their hearts content. This, of course, is a major problem we are facing, because people are only hearing what they want to hear. This leads to erroneous thinking that Obama was the 1st POTUS to ever do drugs, take a "vacation" (being POTUS is a 24/7/365 for 4 years job) on the taxpayer dime or hobnob with celebrities for a high dollar fundraising event.
LTE 3: An indictment of the entire state education system because of one teacher? Oh, really? "Teachers are supposed to raise children up, educationally, morally, ethically and in general demeanor...". Oh, really? As if parents have absolutely no role to play in raising their children? It's the teacher's job to educate their students. Raising a child "morally, ethically and in general demeanor" is the job of the parents. Abdicating the role of parent to the teachers is what "damages" the child. If you expect your child's teachers to raise your child, then you shouldn't be having children.
LTE 4: "Grave danger"? Has Mr. Kirkpatrick taken a glimpse how the rest of the world is faring? Yes, spending is continuing and will continue due to mandates. Foreign aid will also continue because it is in national interests to do so. How else is the US to influence countries of vital interest? The US has always been divided by religion, race, and civil issues. The difference is that people in the past learned to compromise, whereas today people are taking a "my way or the highway" approach and view compromise as an affront to "the cause". A person can be arrested if caught entering the US illegally, but not for being here illegally because just being here without documentation is a civil offense rather than criminal. The reason we have partisan leadership in DC is due to gerrymandered districts which means House reps only have to listen to 15-20% of the populace to get elected.
LTE 5: Government regulation is what keeps society from collapsing upon itself from excessive greed. Regulations exist because people have demonstrated over time they are unable to regulate themselves when it comes to making an extra buck.
I will amend my LTE 4 response concerning past compromise to add a major exception for slavery which was only settled through war. Outside of slavery, the nation has generally found a way to compromise on the issues in the past.
DeleteYou don't need to amend it much dotnet, there was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 which both dealt with slavery before there was war.
DeleteInteresting article from Forbes Magazine no less:
ReplyDeleteWho Is The Smallest Government Spender Since Eisenhower? Would You Believe It's Barack Obama?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/05/24/who-is-the-smallest-government-spender-since-eisenhower-would-you-believe-its-barack-obama/
Thanks for the link, Bob.
ReplyDeleteAs always, the truth doesn't matter, only the ideology.
What's really fascinating about the study is that it totally stands all the nonsense on its head. Who was the biggest spending President? A Democrat of course!!!
Nope. It was the Great Man Reagan, of course. Who was second? Bush II. Who was third? Bush I.
Smallest spender? Obama. Next smallest? Clinton.
Who's a fool? Anybody that buys the "big spending democrats" bullshit.
Will it make any difference? No. Why? Because fools will believe what they want to believe.
And because Goebbels was right...tell a lie often enough and it becomes ridiculous to try to contradict it.
BTW, the article wasn't written by Forbes. It is reprinted from some outfit called MarketWatch, obviously a fellow traveler in the world of the lying liberal media.
DeleteWhat's that you say? MarketWatch is published by who? That bastion of lying liberal media The Wall Street Journal?
Say it ain't so, Joe. ROTFLMAO
Thank you, Dr. Goebbels.
Jesus...when will we be able to drive a stake through the heart of all this racist birther bullshit?
ReplyDeleteAlthough from a political point of view, the longer Romney kowtows to that toupeed jackass, the more spineless he looks. Or nakedly ambitious, take your pick.
Delete01/20/13 or 01/20/17 as the case may be, Arthur. OTOH, we have the equally crackpotty truthers who claim GWB and Cheney really flew all 4 911 airliners, or something like that. Perhaps we can have all rounded up and guarded by space aliens at Area 51.
DeleteYeah, but you don't see Obama sucking up to them like Romney is w/ the Donald. The ole false equivalency doesn't quite work here.
DeleteAnd just anecdotally, the lefty posters around here -- like me -- aren't birthers like the righties. (Deb and Wes to name two)
DeleteWe aren't truthers like the righties seem to be birthers.
DeleteNo false equivalence. They are the same type of kooks. As for Romney and Trump, in my narrow-minded way, I have missed that, liken that to Obama/Ayers or Obama/Wright now that it is brought to my attention.
DeleteArthur, a year ago I knew little about Mitt Romney and thought that he might make a decent President...I mean he is a sort of presidential looking guy.
DeleteSince then I have learned far too much. He is a classic silver spoon baby who has no idea that the average voter does not hang out with owners of sports teams and other high rollers. And he has demonstrated that he will do or say anything, no matter how crazy, to get his party's nomination for POTUS.
As he busily shakes his Etch-A-Sketch to rid himself of association with nuts like Bachmann, Perry, Cain, etc, he refuses to deny the ultimate nut case Trump. Why? Because the Donald has billions that Mitt needs for his campaign coffers.
Say what you will about Obama, who I still have reservations about, the other side has long since receded into insanity.
Trump is just playing a game with Obama. Are you people too thick to understand that?
DeleteHa, ha, Stab. Are you saying that Cheney and Bush did not fly those planes? A friend of a friend of mine, who also happens to be a union member, told another friend of a friend that he was at ground zero on 9/11 and actually saw Bush grinning out of the cockpit of one plane, and Cheney out of the other.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, in DC, a friend of another friend whose friend is a Navy admiral said that he was standing just out of the flight path of the plane that struck the Pentagon and that there was no doubt in his mind that the face he saw in the cockpit window was Dick Cheney, unless it was "Rummy" Rumsfeld or Paul Wolfowitz or one of his childhood enemies. Other sources have told me that it was Tricky Dick himself.
If you are now questioning these identifications, your credibility rating is dropping to near zero...we know it was them.
As to Area 51, let's not get too jokey. DANGEROUS. The government's official explanation, after over half a century of denying that Area 51 even existed, is that it is an adjunct of nearby Edwards Air Force Base, used to test ultra secret stuff, and that if we are just patient, we will get to see all that stuff at Edwards in a few years.
I am normally a pretty rational guy, but having driven the highway between Vegas and Reno a few times, I've got to say that all those warning signs near Area 51 creep me out. I have heard from more than one bartender, some of them cousins of a friend of a friend of mine, that Area 51 is essentially the breeding ground for the anti-christ himself, being developed from some anti-christian aliens who landed there long before the 1940s.
I have seen several authentic photographs from the area of people who look eerily like Mitt Romney with the word "Mormon" stenciled on their foreheads.
Do you dare to disbelieve any of this?
Be afraid...be very afraid.
I tend to take bartenders seriously, as I esteem the profession.
DeleteI went to a couple of air shows at Edwards, saw F-35, F-22, B-2, et al, but no apparent products of Area 51.
Perhaps the birchers et al should be interned in Roswell where they can join Hale-Boppers who missed the comet.
Arthur, I never considered you a truther. I do consider Deb, Wes, and Harvey to be cracked pots.
DeleteAs a one time bartender at California's busiest bar, I concur. Bartenders are wise beyond their times.
DeleteBut Roswell is even more DANGEROUS than Area 51. Many are unaware that the key evidence in that case was provided by "Nurse X", who almost immediately vanished forever.
I now know that she was, of course, my cousin. Recently we have summoned her through seances. If I told you what she told us at those sessions, I would be immediately killed by the Obama/union/Bush/Clinton/Kennedy/Bachmann/Nixon/Trump/Limbaugh cabal that now rules the world.
Please do not mention Roswell again. They intercept and scrutinize every reference to Roswell and will soon find us all. If anyone comes to your front door identifying themselves as either a US Marshall or a Stokes County deputy sheriff, run, don't walk, out your back door and keep on running for your very life.
The middle class is fleeing California. They've been Californicated enough.
DeleteGolly, now I can't say "Roswell" or "Voldemort." Oops, just said 'em. I guess I'm in double trouble. But I tipped a bartender tonight. Perhaps I am under his protection. Good night.
ReplyDeleteStab, you're in more than just double trouble. Now they know who you are. Your life expectancy just shrank from years to hours. Don't say I didn't warn you.
DeleteI, on the other hand, as a Mac user, have Apple's "stealth mode" on my side, which allows me to surf in a carefree manner without fear of discovery by nefarious world rulers like Rush Limbaugh or Tony Orlando and Dawn (don't ask...you don't want to know what they are up to).
But there is good news for you if they somehow missed you this time.
If you are using Internet Explorer you are still dead meat. But if you are using FireFox or Google Chrome as your browser, you can download and install Stealthy 2.2, which will make you almost as invisible as I am.
Knock, knock!
Who's there?
US Marshals.
Oops!