aken away
The oldest Episcopal church standing in Forsyth County and the second oldest in Stokes County is being taken away (“Germanton church moving to Chapel Hill,” Oct. 4).
St. Philips Episcopal Church has sat on the county line since it was constructed in the 1890s, and generations of people have known and loved this handsome historic landmark. The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina has chosen to ignore the pleas of the community and is proceeding in removing St. Philips from Germanton to take it to a congregation in Chapel Hill. The village of historic Germanton is devastated by this action.
As an Episcopalian, I am shocked and embarrassed; as a resident of Stokes County, I am insulted and bereft; and as a preservationist, I am horrified. We would not have believed it then, that the Fall Community Service held on Oct. 18, 2009, in St. Philips was the last, ever.
MARTHA HARTLEY
King
A proud Republican
The Sept. 18 letter “Hard-right takeover” would be funny if it weren’t so sad. While the writer deserves respect and gratitude for her work for the Republican Party, she has a lot of nerve to talk about others being hate-filled and then proceed to spew her hateful remarks. I am a proud Republican and nothing she says is even close to the truth.
The Republican Party is the party that has always stood up for everyone’s rights. Our party was founded on the principles of ending slavery. The Ku Klux Klan was an arm of the Democratic Party and many white Republicans were slain by the Democratic KKK in defense of blacks. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were both supported by Republicans and opposed by nearly the entire Democratic Party.
The first woman elected to office was a Republican and women’s right to vote was led by Republicans and opposed by Democrats. So who has waged a real war on women?
The writer talks about compromise and cooperation. What is she talking about? This country is in the mess it is because of compromise and cooperation toward socialism and tyranny. We’re all about compromise, but it’s time for the left to compromise for a while back toward liberty and freedom.
With all due respect, I know lots of Republicans, my best friends are Republicans and the letter writer is no Republican.
KRISTIAN KRAWFORD
Kernersville
Sum It Up
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Do you think fracking poses a serious danger to North Carolina?
Yes, I think it will. It's already a serious danger everywhere else. Why would N.C. be any different?
LINDA MASON
I do not think fracking (or fracturing) is safe for North Carolina. Our water supply will be in danger, and what will we do then, truck in our water from other states (and how much will that cost the state)?
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., one of the largest insurers, has declined to insure damages that can be caused by fracking. I am quite concerned, too, about the people on the commission who will be looking into the safety of this type of drilling — it seems there are too many people with their own special interests to make an objective decision.
CAROLE BUTLER
Fracking has its inherent safety and environmental risks; just like the recovery on any natural resource. With the goal being energy independence and with reasonable safety and environmental safeguards, fracking should be pursued vigorously.
KEN HOGLUND
Yes, absolutely! It is a proven fact that fracking in Pennsylvania is an environmental disaster. A TV news clip shows a resident of a town where fracking is going on lighting up his tap water. The ground water in areas surrounding fracking sites is dangerously polluted with hundreds if not thousands of chemical toxins. It is extremely unsafe for human and animal consumption. It is also reported that fracking caused an earthquake in Ohio.
I suggest that the members of the investigative commission should live for a couple months near the site of fracking and then make their recommendations.
BOON T. LEE
No, I do not. Investigation after investigation, across various states, have debunked environmental fearmongers' claims against hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.
As recently as July 2012, false allegations that were perpetuated about hydraulic fracturing in the environmental documentary, Gasland — which centered on the town of Dimock, Penn. — were found by the Environmental Protection Agency to be baseless. The truth is that hydraulic fracturing has been taking place in the United States for over 60 years. The technology for hydraulic fracturing has undergone marked advancements, and the potential gains for North Carolina far outweigh the minimal risks.
DEB PHILLIPS
The oil and gas industry has brought its war for hydrocarbon treasure home now to the United States. Protected by exemptions from disclosure and pollution laws, using powers of eminent domain to force even unwilling private landowners to participate in the trashing of America for corporate profit, Big Oil and Gas will industrialize every inch of U.S. soil, as they deem necessary to their pursuit, from sea to shining sea. The assault, which will unfold over decades, has just begun, and the scope of this impending disaster is barely comprehensible even to the well-informed.
MYRA QUINN
The only ones that will benefit from fracking are the oil and gas companies and the politicians who are backed by them. Fracking will have devastating effects on our environment, economy, safety, prosperity and way of life.
What it won't do is make us energy independent or create a lot of jobs for North Carolinians. Everyone needs to review the research (not industry propaganda and half-truths or political sound bites) and let our legislators know how much this will hurt our state.
PEGGY WERT
From what I've read, fracking poses a serious danger to North Carolina by adulterating the water table and increasing stretch energy (which is released into seismic waves). What I've read is only preliminary research.
We do know that, worldwide, potable water will outrank oil as a precious commodity in 20-30 years. We do know that, worldwide, plate tectonics is increasing. Since fracking can affect both potable water and plate tectonics, we would be better advised to hold off until we can get some answers.
No amount of money today is worth watching your grandchildren die of dehydration later.
DOROTHY MATHEWS
Absolutely not. Closed-minded environmentalists ought to have their brains fracked to open up the fissures of their minds.
Fracking fluids have gone green to further enhance safety and are used thousands of feet below the water table. Also, all fracking fluids are separated from the gas and trucked away to be reprocessed.
DON WOLFE
No, there are those who cannot accept anything new and innovative. When the automobile came to be, there were those saying it was the worst thing to mankind. When oil was discovered, there were those who said the earth would collapse from it being taken out of the ground. We as a society need to accept and embrace change.
FRANK SCISM
LTE #2... Proud Republican
ReplyDeleteThe Civil Rights Act was a bill proposed by John F. Kennedy and later pushed through Congress by Lyndon Johnson. The vote was not along party lines as you suggest but regional lines, those from former confederate states, and those from the 39 other states.
By party
The original House version:
Democratic Party: 152–96 (61–39%).
Republican Party: 138–34 (80–20%).
Cloture in the Senate:
Democratic Party: 44–23 (66–34%).
Republican Party: 27–6 (82–18%).
The Senate version:
Democratic Party: 46–21 (69–31%).
Republican Party: 27–6 (82–18%).
The Senate version, voted on by the House:
Democratic Party: 153–91 (63–37%).
Republican Party: 136–35 (80–20%).
By party and region.
Note: "Southern", as used in this section, refers to members of Congress from the eleven states that made up the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. "Northern" refers to members from the other 39 states, regardless of the geographic location of those states.
The original House version:
Southern Democrats: 7–87 (7–93%).
Southern Republicans: 0–10 (0–100%).
Northern Democrats: 145–9 (94–6%).
Northern Republicans: 138–24 (85–15%).
The Senate version:
Southern Democrats: 1–20 (5–95%).
Southern Republicans: 0–1 (0–100%).
Northern Democrats: 45–1 (98–2%).
Northern Republicans: 27–5 (84–16%).
Prior to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act, the South was staunchly Democratic. In fact in NC, there wasn't even a Republican Primary. Many Southern Democrats became Southern Republicans, Strom Thurmond comes to mind.
"The Republican Party is the party that has always stood up for everyone’s rights." false Does the Republican Party stand for marriage equality? I don't think so.
There's a big difference between supporting the treatment of humans equally and respectfully, and supporting a sexually perverted lifestyle.
DeleteBeing a homosexual is not perverted, asshole. I am not perverted. I am exactly who I am supposed to be.
DeleteYou made the analogy, I didn't.
DeleteSO WHAT? The author said the Republican party stood for Everyone's rights. I suppose that would include perverts too, only being homosexual is not perversion. I will not be called a pervert by you or anyone else.
Delete"...and supporting a sexually perverted lifestyle."
DeleteBucky, somebody ought to tie you up in a gunny sack and take you down to the river and throw you in. You are the most disgusting pervert that I have ever encountered, beneath the scum that is beneath the scum.
Go away you sick little closeted sissy!
Given your psychotic view of life, and twisted, irrational logic, your statement to me, indicates that I'm a fine American, and I should be held in high regard.
DeleteThanks Rush.
You have to be a little bit like Joe Biden in here sometimes.
DeleteWordly came by Roxboro yesterday and we had a very nice visit. Thanks for stopping by, Wordly.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed it, and also meeting all the critters.
ReplyDeleteI was right!
ReplyDeleteAs usual, I called the debate correctly. I predicted that Joey Biden would do something bordering on the absurd, like Rush would do. And Joey came through for me.
If you didn't know it was a Vice Presidential debate and you just turned on the TV, you'd think you were watching John Belushi at a Toga Party, bota bag in hand, yucking it up.
Despite being confronted with some the most serious issues of our time, Biden decided it was proper to just snear, roll his eyes, discount, and mock his opponent when his opponent put forth serious proposals to our serious problems.
Biden served as a perfect example of what the Democratic Party represents. A bunch of arrogant fools that think they know everything, and the correct course is to do nothing to correct our impending fiscal crisis.
I will give Biden credit on one front, he intimidated the moderator to the point that she cut Ryan off for him when Ryan was in the process of slamming the Obama Administration.
Had Biden not turned into a bully, and had he not used a yucking-it-up attitude, I'd have given the debate to him. However, Biden is supposed to be the VP, not John Belushi.
I was too tried after pharming with Phargo yesterday to watch the debate.
DeleteHe jokingly showed me his man cave, and you won't believe this Bucky. It has animals running through it, and if you look out the back there are horses and out front they are "laying". It even has a flat TV screen, Bucky, and you know what's on it, Bucky. I know it's hard for you to imagine, but it has "Letters to the Editor Branch Office on it."
All this caterwauling (now that's a Stab word) about Biden being assertive in the debate. It seems to me Bucky, and this is just my opinion, that you might be just a little bit envious of all that alpha male spirit he displayed last night.
I like aggressive. If he'd just left off all that goofy, disrespectful laughter, sneering, etc., he would have won the debate outright. But he came across as an old, cantankerous, out of date, liberal fool.
DeleteOn another note: I've never said Bob was a bad person.
"Biden's style resonated perfectly with most Democrats, and that's why you see the numbers fall along party lines," Dave Stroup, 28, a Washington-based Obama supporter and digital organizer with the Sierra Club told ABC News this morning
DeleteABC News
_________
I think the debate was a wash-meaning neither party benefitted from the debate.
Obama watched the debate last night on CNN, the most liberal name in news.
DeleteWhat a surprise!
Belushi
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdRc7F9lDEc&feature=related
LTE #1 - Here is a description of Kristian Krawford's first novel Cinnamon:
ReplyDelete"Cinnamon Fairfield's life is falling apart! She has shopped herself into a pile of debt, her boss isn't happy with her work, and her friends are tired of her nagging them about God. She's not even sure she can hang on to the perfect guy. And things are just about to get worse. This is not the life she had planned! God has valuable lessons in mind for Cinnamon--if only she opens her mind and heart."
I can hardly wait to read that! Sorry guys, but she's a Tar Heel grad, although she does have some sort of "certificate" from the Great Satan Duke, as well.
Virginia Foxx is also a UNC grad, as is Art Pope, who graduated a year after I did. He also went to Duke Law School, just like Nixon.
DeleteSome of my Duke friends claim that Nixon's attendance at Duke law is as fraudulent as he himself was...they say he really went to UNC.
DeleteI used to live across the street from the house on Clarendon ST. that Nixon lived in while at Duke. The sign above the door to the toilet read: Nixon Library.
DeleteMost of the best lawyers don't come from elite law schools. They come from the UNCs of the country.
DeleteIn order to be a good lawyer, one has to have 'common sense', an intuitive mind, along with academic intellect in order to be highly effective. That entire group of attributes frequently seems to be lacking in people that go to elite law schools.
Romney went to Harvard Law School.
DeleteIs he applying to be a lawyer?
DeleteAgain, 'frequently, does not indicate absolutely. What's in the air up there Bob? You've lost your edge.
Bucky, you've lost your mind. All I did was state that Romney went to Harvard Law School. I did not make any judgements or make any qualifications. I only stated a fact. If stating facts is losing an edge, then I've completely lost my edge. Perhaps you should try stating facts occasionally, try it, you might like it. But somehow, I doubt it.
DeleteCome on Bob. I know you too well. You're no simpleton. Don't play coy with me.
Delete"There have been few figures more important in the recent history of colleges and universities than Bill Friday," biographer William Link wrote in the introduction to his book, "William Friday: Power, Purpose & American Higher Education."
ReplyDeleteA truly great man, Bill Friday, passed away.
A hugeloss.
DeleteWe had three great symbols of NC, now only Mt. Mitchell and Ocracoke are left.
Very sorry to hear. A great man and a gentleman too.
DeleteNo, no!! Can't believe in one year we've lost Andy Griffith who personified NC's friendliness, sense of humor and values to the outside world, John Medlin who personified NC as a banking giant, and now Bill Friday who personified NC as the preeminent education center of the South. Coming at a time when our public schools are under their greatest threat, this is an incalculable loss.
DeleteLTE #1 - Gotta love it when the ignorati start spouting the nonsense that they hear on talk radio. It’s one thing for Limbaugh and company to play the fool…they get paid big bucks to do it. I doubt if anyone is paying Ms. Krawford to show her butt.
ReplyDeleteComparing the Republican party of the past to the current Republican party reveals all we need to know about the person doing the comparison. Let’s look at just one of Ms. Krawford’s ridiculous claims, which happens to be “true”.
Jeanette Rankin, the 1st woman elected to Congress, was indeed a Republican. She held degrees in biology, philanthropy and social legislation from several schools, including Columbia. Like Ann Romney, she worked as a public health nurse in the slums of New York’s Lower East Side, becoming in the process a pacifist and lifelong advocate of civil rights for the poor and women.
She’d fit right into the new Romney/Ryan Republican Party, wouldn’t she?
Here's one for you, Stab. Two airplanes just flew over at very low altitude. Both had two propellers located at the very end of each wing and dual tail fins.
ReplyDeleteGood AM, Bob. Those would be the Marine Corps' Ospreys, an expensive hybrid aircraft that can land and take off like a helicopter, and then fly as an airplane, much faster than a helicopter. It can carry 24 fully equipped Marines.
ReplyDeleteah cool, they've been flying over here the past 3 days
DeleteThe Osprey program,riddled with problems and exorbitantly expensive, is a perfect example of what is wrong with our military planning.
DeleteA few years back, the manufacturer, seeing that the budget was going to be cut due to oconomic hard times, managed to lock us into contracts through the end of fiscal year 2013 with an extension through 2017. The contracts have such high kill penalties that all 21 aircraft will probably be bought in 2013, plus 77 more through 2017.
Piasecki’s X-49 Speedhawk and Sikorsky’s X2 programs offer all the needed functionality for far less cost, but that is your military at work and par for the course.
And President to be Romney says that he will increase the military budget. I guess he's worrying about the make believe material to build five bombs mentioned by Liar Ryan last night during the debate.
Re the "perverted" discussion above: Bob is as decent, honorable, kind, and generous a person as anyone I know, ranks with Susan in my pantheon of sterling people. Bucky, to use a shopworn phrase, you know not whereof you speak.
ReplyDeleteThe Osprey has been an expensive and problem-plagued program. I will look at the two you mentioned OT. I note that military procurement is public works spending, after a fashion. Increasing it here and there would be a bit of pump priming.
ReplyDeleteI suggest reopening the F22 lines, examining our tanker buys with an eye to increasing, and look at our carrier situation, and keep upgrading the M1 tank series. Oh yeah, and replace the M4 carbine with a harder hitting, more reliable rifle.
I have no problem with the pump priming part, but our weapons development and acquisition programs are in chaos at the moment.
DeleteThe navy's new carrier program is moving ahead, even though it has been pointed out repeatedly that the reduced crew size of the new carriers will have a negative impact on their operational efficiency.
The current carriers are not capable of 24/7 combat ops because there is not enough crew available to staff the flight deck. The new carriers will have smaller crews, thus will have even shorter combat ops capabilities.
As to the M4, everybody knows what the problem is. The M4 is merely a many times modified M16. When the 16s were first delivered in Viet Nam, they jammed like crazy. There have been fixes applied over the years, but the M4 is still the most unreliable long gun used by any major player.
If you read the military journals, it is like listening to a bunch of children squabbling...the army says the M4 is fine, the Marines want nothing to do with it, Spec Ops is using the H&K mod that solves the jam problem, but the Army won't touch it...enough, enough.
Meanwhile, troops everywhere are still scavenging the combat zones for AK47s...they may not be as accurate, but at least they work.
These are just two of many problems that we shouldn't be having. Don't even get me started on the Navy's new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), which so far is a disaster...I can't really imagine what anyone was thinking when they dreamed this up.
Some guy that floated around on a ship off the coast of Vietnam, playing bunk-boy with his shipmates, claims to know about weapons? Please.
DeleteGood afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: I can understand the distress of losing an historical building that stood as an icon for such a long time. If the building is not being used, however (had it been used at all in the past 2 years?) and some other town can benefit from it immediately, then why let the building go to waste when it can be used elsewhere? If the plans to move the church were in the works and well known, was there any effort to purchase the building and land from the Diocese so the church could remain in Germanton? If the church is so "beloved", then why isn't it currently being utilized to justify its current location? Germanton had it, they're done with it, someone else wants it to actually use instead of just letting it rot, and now Germanton is crying foul??
LTE 2: Hmmm...Kristian Krawford Kernersville...hmmm...Anyway, today's R party ain't in no way shape or form your grandfather's R party. "This country is in the mess it is because of compromise and cooperation toward socialism and tyranny." - what on earth is KKK talking about?
Sum it up: I haven't had time to look into all of the details to make a judgment on safety of fracking. From what I have heard, the amount of gas under NC's surface doesn't appear to be worth the cost of pursuing. The oil and gas industry obviously owns a number of legislatures across the country including the majority in NC which is why this is being pursued. Fracking is a classic case of legislatures voting for the ones they are really working for.
Heating energy costs are projected to go up about 14% this winter, locally (WXII). We need 'fracking'.
DeleteWe don't need for our economy to be destroyed, even more, by rising energy costs as Obama has proposed, through 'green' energy.
Our soldiers and Marines have been picking up and using AK-47's and AKM's since Viet Nam. They aren't particularly accurate, but are very tolerant of dirt and the like, thus reliable. They are also fun to shoot.
ReplyDeleteNever quite figured the rationale behind the LCS, which appears to be solution sailing in search of a problem.
Gallup changes polling methodology amid threats from David Axelrod, an Obama crony.
ReplyDeleteThey are now going to use 50% cell phone and 50% land lines to conduct its polling research.
This would, obviously, change the polling population because more young people, who typically favor liberal candidates, will be polled.
Of course, all theses liberal dopes, like Rush, say no big deal, because it helps their candidate in the long run.
I say it's just another form of political bullying by the Obama Administration in order to win the election.
I did not watch the VP debate, attended a "Rockford Files" rerun instead. A friend of centrist persuasion did watch, said Ryan looked like Eddie Munster, Biden laughed like Fred Flintstone, and both are baldfaced liars. The fact check articles I have read appear to agree with his latter assessment.
ReplyDeleteAdd to the death toll, though not an NC death: Command Sergeant Major Basil Plumley died at age 92 of cancer. This guy was a soldier for the ages, fought in WW2, Korea, Viet Nam, did 5 parachute jumps into combat in his career.
ReplyDeleteHe was featured in the book and movie, "We Were Soldiers, Once, and Young . . . " He was sergeant major of a battalion commmanded by Lt. Col. Hal Moore in the battle of Ia Drang in 1965, the first major engagement between our forces and the North Viets.
He was portrayed as a tough as nails noncom in teh movie by Sam Elliott. People who knew Plumley said the actor actually underplayed the fiercely committed soldier, and said some of Elliott's lines were quotes from the forthright Plumley. The movie is worth obtaining and watching, and the book, by Hal Moore and a correspondent who accompanied the battalion into battle, is a good read.
Agree on all, great book, pretty good movie.
DeleteCommand Sergeant Major Plumley won 40 medals in all, including 2 Silver Stars, 2 Bronze Stars and 4 Purple Hearts, but perhaps his greatest achievement is winning three Combat Infantryman awards by qualifying in three different conflicts. Only 324 men are known to have ever accomplished that, none since 1972.
Compare to 3,457 who have received the Medal of Honor.
The only rarer achievement is the 14 men who received the Medal of Honor twice for two separate actions.
Earning the 3rd CIB, and escaping posthumous award was quite a feat, a tribute to his skill and to luck. Going into hot LZ's in 3 different wars is not a long-term career plan.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere up above somebody said that the best lawyers don't come from the "elite" law schools, which, of course, is ridiculous, since the best law schools only accept the cream of the crop.
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago, Erin Geiger Smith and Gus Lubin, two of the top experts on lawyers, published their list of the best 11 trial lawyers in the USA. These same people make all the other lists as well, because they do one thing better than anyone else...win in the courtroom:
Phil Beck Boston University
David Bernick U. Chicago
David Boies Yale/NYU
Evan Chesler NYU
John Keker Yale
Stephen Neale Stanford
John Quinn Harvard
Steve Susman Texas
Dan Webb Loyola Chicago
Ted Wells Harvard
Mary Jo White Columbia
Not a single non-elite law school in the list.
Hey Stab, I submitted a photo to be published via email. It was submitted at your suggestion after the bizarre photo that Bob put up showing a dog peeing in Romney's mouth.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bucky
Yes, Bucky, I received it and replied. All submissions are appreciated, and I found it tastelessly humorous, but it is somewhat outside the sloppy standards of this site. I believe Bob removed the dog pic, also. It was a few degrees more acceptable to me than the pic you sent, which is why I let it stand.
ReplyDeleteFor the curious, Bucky sent me a PhotoShopped pic of an elephant and donkey in apparent sexual congress, a political commentary of sorts, I guess.
Yep, that's about his speed.
Delete