Daily Archives: August 8, 2012

The News & Observer has a piece today explaining the impact of a midwest drought on food prices. It’s true.  I was in Indiana ten days ago, and the corn was short and yellow.  Even my untrained eye could tell it wasn’t healthy.  There’s no doubt yields will be down. The N&O does a prettyContinue Reading

The ‘newspaper of record’ is only four months late, but today’s New York Times carries a story about Charlotte blogger Steve Cooksey’s battle with the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition and the First Amendment implications thereof. This is old news to readers of Carolina Journal, thanks to Sara Burrows’ reports here and here. I hadContinue Reading

During the 2011-12 legislative session, 2,195 bills were filed, 1,234 in the House and 961 in the Senate.  Of those, 646 became law. That’s a 29% ratification rate. The 2011-12 General Assembly met for a total of 138 legislative days, making this session the shortest since 1979-80.  At a cost of $50k per day theyContinue Reading

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and a leader in the U.S. eugenics movement (click here to read about eugenics in N.C. and here to sample eugenics literature), discussing Planned Parenthood’s “Negro Project”: [We propose to] hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approachContinue Reading

Read enough biographies of George Washington, and you’re likely to get the sense that — as great as the man was — he was more lucky than good as a military commander. Known more for deft retreats than for brilliant battlefield victories, Washington deserves more credit for his stewardship of the first eight years ofContinue Reading

• Gov. Bev Perdue in May criticized Mississippi, so Magnolia State Gov. Phil Bryant will campaign in New Bern, Perdue’s hometown, for Mitt Romney.   • Democrat Linda Coleman, who’s running for lieutenant governor, calls on Republican opponent Dan Forest to repudiate his opposition to public funding of Planned Parenthood.   • Michael Jordan willContinue Reading

Politics has been dubbed “show business for ugly people.” It’s also been compared to a sporting event, since elections amount to zero-sum contests with teams and clear winners and losers. But Thomas Sowell‘s latest column suggests one major difference between sports and politics: more rationality, especially in use of statistics. Everyone understands that a pinchContinue Reading

Everyone knows Nazis were bad. Walter Williams wants to know why communists and their compadres have been able to escape the derision and scorn heaped upon their ideological cousins from Germany’s despicable National Socialist Party? Whether it’s the academic community, the media elite, stalwarts of the Democratic Party or organizations such as the NAACP, theContinue Reading