north carolina

Chris Knight's avatar

Here comes something that I haven’t done in… what, at least six years?  To be honest I can’t remember.  I think the total amount of times that I’ve endorsed a candidate has been less than three.

(Okay, I guess I kinda endorsed myself during that very wacky school board race in 2006, but that mostly came during the process of chronicling that process here on the blog.  I didn’t actually come out and say “I endorse myself!” although that would be kinda funny…)

For many years I have had a policy and I have kept strictly to it, without any exceptions.  It is this: I will not vote for any candidate whose campaign runs a single negative ad against an opponent.  If a candidate cannot win on her or her own merit, then that candidate doesn’t deserve my vote.  All a negative ad demonstrates is that the candidate running ...

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Celebrating
that one unaccountable man has redefined more than six thousand years
of tradition from across the width and breadth of human society with one
stroke of a single pen.

Seems more than a little ridiculous to me.  To say nothing of arrogant and presumptuous in the extreme.

I’ve seen a lot of hate and viciousness since yesterday afternoon.  Most of it seems to be coming from those who were most clamoring for “equality of love”.  I can’t understand that.  Or maybe I can and I don’t care to articulate why… because what would be the point?

It’s
not same-gender marriage.  Same-gender marriage is a contradiction.  It’s an
oxymoron.  It is something so illogical that it cannot exist.  There will be consequences. Legal and
otherwise.  Especially legal.  Ramifications for both “sides” of this debate.

Personally, I’m not worried at all about yesterday.  Marriage is something beyond human establishment.  It’s untouchable. 

...
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Gowron, not David Waddell
(but Gowron should have
resigned too, when you
think about it…)

That does it: if I ever run for office again and win, I’m going to give my acceptance speech in High-Elvish Sindarin!

Indian Trail is a nice town near Charlotte here in North Carolina.  And one of its city councilmmembers – one David Waddell – had decided that “enough was enough” about the way the officials of Indian Trail were handling what he considers to be development run amok, among other things.  Exasperated by it all, David Waddell decided to resign his seat.

Except that he did it using the Klingon language: the tongue spoken by the proud warrior race from the Star Trek franchise.

Here’s the story from The Charlotte Observer:

An Indian Trail councilman decided to boldly go where no
politician has gone before – and tendered his resignation this week

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If you are in the neighborhood of western North Carolina this weekend, you won’t find much more good times than at the Fourth Annual Popcorn Sutton Summer Jam.  And if you aren’t in the neighborhood and have some time, you should come anyway!

Since its humble beginnings as one evening at a Maggie Valley restaurant three years ago, it has grown into a two-day event bringing people from all walks of life together to celebrate the life and art of late moonshiner Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton.  With lots of live country and bluegrass music, food, local crafts and a plethora of colorful characters walking about (some no doubt dressed as Popcorn himself), the Popcorn Sutton Summer Jam is a rollickin’ fun festival honoring the man and the Appalachian culture he was proud to represent.  Bring along your lawn chair and get ready to enjoy the show!...

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Longtime readers of this blog know that I don’t play the partisan game.  And I haven’t bought into the “conservative/liberal” mentality for a very long time.  Regardless of affiliation, we should expect all of our elected officials to put the Constitution and liberty of the American people ahead of their political agendas.

Richard Burr, North Carolina, Senate, Senator, ObamaCare
Senator Richard Burr
(North Carolina): Part
of the problem in D.C.

That being said, North Carolina’s Senator Richard Burr is now shown be a bitter disappointment.  Burr is choosing capitulation over leadership, and what is easy over what is right.

From the article at The Hill…

Blocking a government funding bill over ObamaCare is “the dumbest
idea I’ve ever heard,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said Thursday.

Burr
argued stopping ObamaCare’s funding is not going to be achievable as
long as President Obama is in the White House, and that Republicans
risked taking the blame if they

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This past Friday evening saw musical parody genius, pop culture icon and now bestselling author “Weird Al” Yankovic come to Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, North Carolina as part of his seven-city book-signing tour promoting his just-released children’s tome My New Teacher and Me!…

"Weird Al" Yankovic, Al Yankovic, My New Teacher and Me!, Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, North Carolina, signing

My New Teacher and Me! is the follow-up to Weird Al’s acclaimed 2011 children’s book When I Grow Up (available as a standard book and as a newfangled iOS app for your iPad!).

I arrived at the store about three hours before the signing (incidentally, Quail Ridge Books is a really nice independent bookstore: I’m gonna make it a habit of swinging by there any time I’m in the Raleigh area) and bought a few copies to get signed.  I wound up reading My New Teacher and Me! in the interim and found it to be a delightful and well-crafted (and funny...

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I’ll be damned if (Lord willing) I get blessed with children and I put them in a government-run school.

They’re not here yet.  But I already love them too much than to subject them to the insanity of a modern public school.  And few things exemplify that madness more than do zero-tolerance policies.

(Hey, I ran for school board once.  It can’t be said that I never tried to make the public schools better.  But things won’t going to get better until more people get up the gumption to tell the bureaucrats “ENOUGH!“)

Two stories demonstrating my point.  The first is about seven-year old Christopher Marshall of Suffolk, Virginia.  He was suspended from his elementary school last week per a policy of “zero tolerance”.

What was his crime?  Pointing a pencil as if were a gun at another student and making “bang! bang!” noises with it.

Yeah, ...

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When I first heard the news I didn’t expect to be feeling this much heartbreak.  But I am.  Maybe ‘cuz I’m understanding how much The Rhinoceros Times was an influence on my early years as a writer and for long, long after…

The Rhinoceros Times, The Rhino Times, The Rhino, newspaper, Greensboro, North Carolina, John Hammer, William Hammer
Just one of the many fine editions of
The Rhinoceros Times produced
between 1991 and 2013.

It was first reported this morning that The Rhinoceros Times is going out of business.  The issue on the stands right now is the final one that will be printed.

So for those not from this are who are wondering: The Rhinoceros Times (or simply The Rhino Times or just “The Rhino”) found its origins in a bar called The Rhinoceros Club in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina.  From a one-sheet newsletter started by John Hammer in 1991, The Rhinoceros Times fast found an eager audience among those who hungered for an ...

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At last night’s monthly work meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education, the proposal was put forth that the board should begin each session with prayer.  It’s been a longstanding custom to have a moment of silence.  If the board approves of it at the May 13th meeting, that would be replaced with a public prayer before an official function of government.

Here’s the story from today’s News & Record…

Board members spent nearly an hour talking
through the finer points of whether they should open meetings with
prayer. It was discussion that at times became tense but never
contentious.

The school board currently opens its
meetings with a moment of silence. Board member Ron Price asked the
board to consider adding prayers during the last meeting.

The members will vote on the issue May 13

The possibility of a lawsuit was brought
up Monday night by

...
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I’m writing this on Friday afternoon.  It was on Wednesday night that Kristen, Chad, Marissa and I saw “Weird Al” Yankovic and his band in concert as part of his Alpocalypse 2013 tour!  I’m still coming down from the high and I think everyone else is too (especially Marissa who was bouncing off the walls so hard during class at school yesterday that she reportedly had to be sedated with Valium).  And after seeing Al live for the seventh time I have to say: this was easily the best show I’ve seen him perform yet!  Weird Al and his band were positivalutely ablaze with energy and sheer fun.  They were electrified and enthused as I’ve never seen any performers in a live concert!  This is a man who obviously loves his work and that comes across very well.  I’ve also never seen an audience so “into it” as they ...

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