Daily Archives: February 28, 2012

A new kind of hate hoax

Written on February 28, 2012 at 4:36 pm, by

“One of the basic principles of dialectics is that there is no such thing as abstract truth, and what is concrete, in which the second dominates the first, characterizes the materialist approach to knowledge and truth.” — V.I. Lenin When one’s cause becomes so important that actual facts (i.e., the truth) no longer matter, bewareContinue Reading

Tillis forms unemployment insurance fraud task force

Written on February 28, 2012 at 3:36 pm, by

N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis announced this afternoon formation of a new task force targeting unemployment insurance fraud. Reps. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, and G.L. Pridgen, R-Robeson, will co-chair the group. All three discussed the issue during a news conference. (The final questions deal with Tillis’ campaign finance reports.) Click play below to watch the 21:15Continue Reading

The president is right about drilling

Written on February 28, 2012 at 3:08 pm, by

President Obama and his spokespeople are continuously telling us that new drilling for oil will not bring gas prices down. He’s right. It’s discovering the oil, bringing it to the surface, getting it to refineries (probably through a pipeline), refining it into gasoline, and transporting it to gas stations that will bring gas prices down.

NYC releases teacher effectiveness data

Written on February 28, 2012 at 2:25 pm, by

Last week, the New York City Department of Education released performance data for the district’s 18,000 public school teachers.  According to an article in Governing, The reports rank individual teachers based on their students’ performance in math and English over a five-year period, concluding with the 2009-2010 school year. According to the Times, a spokesmanContinue Reading

Atkinson probably won’t have a primary after all

Written on February 28, 2012 at 12:55 pm, by

Barring a last-minute entry by another candidate, state schools superintendent June Atkinson, a Democrat, won’t have a primary after N.C. Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, announced today that he’ll run for state House rather than the top education post. From his press release: Democratic House Minority Whip, Rep. Rick Glazier today announced he will seek aContinue Reading

Gibson Guitar case an ongoing travesty of justice

Written on February 28, 2012 at 12:32 pm, by

Last year, heavily armed federal agents stormed into the Gibson Guitar factory, claiming that the firm had violated the Lacey Act. Still no charges of any wrongdoing months later, as you learn in this post. Wouldn’t it be splendid if our next president told his AG, either these vicious attacks on  people and companies stop,Continue Reading

JLF releases annual By The Numbers report ranking N.C. cities and counties by tax and fee burden

Written on February 28, 2012 at 11:43 am, by

Charlotte tops the list again this year as the John Locke Foundation ranks North Carolina’s larger cities based on their local government tax-and-fee burden. While the Queen City is one of five in the large-size category that take more than $2,000 each year per person from local residents, the average North Carolinian surrenders about 4.5Continue Reading

Democrats aren’t eager to file for state legislative office

Written on February 28, 2012 at 10:35 am, by

Candidate filing for the North Carolina primary ends Wednesday. We’re bound to see a flurry of last-minute filers today and tomorrow, because 21 Senate districts (out of 50) and 52 House districts (out of 120) didn’t have at least one Democratic candidate as of this morning. Using partisan ranking data from the N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation,Continue Reading