July 20, 2006

Fighter jocks "in the weeds"

Posted by Jon Ham at 5:21 PM

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More legislating next week

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 4:21 PM

State lawmakers will be back in Raleigh next week for at least some activity.

The Senate plans a rare Friday session, but Senate leaders have warned their colleagues that they'll head home after that session -- with plans to return for at least a final day of business next week.

Meanwhile, the House has sent most members home with plans to reconvene Monday evening.

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New RBC Tower Approved

Posted by Jenna Ashley Robinson at 3:10 PM

Designed by Cooper Carry, the firm that did the Progress Energy II tower, the RBC Tower will house the U.S. headquarters for RBC as well as 11 stories of condominiums. The Raleigh Planning Commission on Tuesday approved this final version of the building. One question remains: is the city kicking in any public money to fund this new addition to Raleigh's much-touted, revitalized downtown?

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Re: Golden Age

Posted by Shannon Blosser at 2:59 PM

Here is my question regarding the new "World Trade Center" movie. Why is it fine for this movie to come out now when "United 93" was considered in the media to be too real and would bring up too many emotions. From the clips that I've seen of the WTC movie, that movie may bring up more emotion than United 93.

So how is one movie better than the other in the eyes of the media? Is it because Oliver Stone is directing? Is it because Nicholas Cage is in it?

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Re: Baseball joke

Posted by Paul Chesser at 1:36 PM

Here's another one.

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Baseball Joke

Posted by Dr. Michael Sanera at 1:07 PM

George Will has a great baseball joke in the current "Cato's Letter."

White Sox Manager Jeff Torborg went out to the mound one day to take pitcher Jim Kern out of the game. 

Kern said, "Skipper, I'm not tired." And Torborg said, "We know you're not tired, Jimmy, but our outfielders are." 

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Bottom story of the day

Posted by Jon Sanders at 1:00 PM

AP headline: Bush acknowledges racism still exists

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Nuptials not necessary in NC

Posted by Paul Chesser at 12:17 AM

You may cohabit now.

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Throwback to Hollywood's Golden Age

Posted by Paul Chesser at 10:58 AM

He gives away too much of the story, but Cal Thomas says Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" is "one of the greatest pro-American, pro-family, pro-faith, pro-male, flag-waving, God Bless America films you will ever see."

Yes, that Oliver Stone.

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'Ashamed to be French'

Posted by Paul Chesser at 10:52 AM

It's not who you might think (are those really her teeth?) or for the reasons you might think.

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Can you hear the Drumbeat?

Posted by Michael Moore at 10:15 AM

So this article was in the Asheville paper today, it seems some people can't dig good music....

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I'm going to blog this blog about bloggers

Posted by Paul Chesser at 09:56 AM

All you ever wanted to know about the blogosphere.

By the way, did you ever notice it only takes one mis-typed letter and they become booggers?

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Democrats have a plan to make college more affordable

Posted by George Leef at 09:22 AM

The cost of a college education continue to rise, so naturally a bunch of politicians (Democrats in this case), want to throw federal money at the problem. Inside Higher Ed has the story.

The basic idea is for the federal government to provide block grants to states "in an effort to help them keep college costs down." To get the money, the states would have to keep their higher ed spending at least constant and keep tuition increases down to the rate of inflation. How much the states would get would depend on attendance and graduation rates.

Obviously, this doesn't really keep costs down, but only spreads the costs around to federal taxpayers. It also creates the same kinds of incentives that states often create for K-12 funding -- money depends not on educational results, but on the number of bodies. If this idea were to become law, we can expect more gimmicks to get weak students into college and to keep them there until graduation.

Several politicians, including governor Easley are quoted as saying that the Republican Congress hasn't done enough to help students afford college. I'd like to know where in the Constitution Congress is given the power to make people's educational choices affordable.

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The ACLU spanner in the works

Posted by Jon Ham at 08:27 AM

Ever notice that every time someone tries to fix a problem the ACLU is there to botch it up? Las Vegas is experiencing that right now as they try to keep the homeless from taking over city parks, as they've done in many other cities. The left's most glaring problem is that it doesn't understand incentives and disincentives, which is why economics baffles them so. Free food and bleeding-heart handouts are a magnet for the homeless, who reward a community by turning public places into outdoor latrines. Even the libs on Durham's 9th Street realized that several years ago when merchants began a campaign asking people not to give money after panhandlers got out of hand. I say show them the city limits like we used to back when we had some backbone.

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The "Big Dig" as a legacy of liberalism

Posted by George Leef at 08:27 AM

Writing in the Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby has a searing column today on the fatality in one of the tunnels in Boston's "Big Dig" project and the egg that is smeared all over the faces of the local politicians who only recently were heaping praise on this quintessentially big government project.

Remember, though, government projects are not contaminated by greedy, profit-seeking business people who would cut corners and endanger people. Government projects are undertaken with all appropriate regulations and safeguards. Government projects are always done with the public interest in mind.

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Anti-Wal-Mart law struck down

Posted by George Leef at 08:17 AM

That law passed earlier this year in Maryland which singled out Wal-Mart for not providing as much in the way of health insurance benefits as Big Labor thinks appropriate has been struck down by a federal judge on the grounds that it is incompatible with the federal ERISA statute. You can read about it here.

Naturally, the meddlers at the AFL-CIO who want to use the law to accomplish what they can't get through voluntary action are whining about how "big companies" should be compelled to pay their "fair share." The response to that is simple: employee compensation packages are none of the government's business at all.

My only regret here is that the judge chose to invalidate the law on narrow grounds of federal pre-emption rather than the broader ground that this sort of vendetta by legislation is an unconstitutional denial of equal protection of the law.

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