More on the frightening and dangerous SUPCO decision..

Here is a link to the opinion. Please to go page 25 of the PDF document to read Sandra Day O'Connor's dissent-- a brilliantly reasoned argument.

The end of American property rights

I am stunned and angered by today's U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding property rights in America.

Basically, the government can seize anyone's property and sell it another private entity so long as that entity is contributing to the "good" of the community (i.e. Economic development).

This a sad day for the republic and is one of the worst and most dangerous Supreme Court decisions ever rendered.

Church and state

I would be very interested to hear thoughts on today's editorial in The Star. Particularly, I'd like to hear from advocates of school prayer, etc.

"I hate Republicans ... they have never made an honest living in their lives"

That quote is from Howard Dean and is the jumping off point for this column by Peggy Noonan which is terrific.

Question: What do you see as the level of discourse in Cleveland County?

Citizen Journalism

This is a fascinating piece from the folks at the Poynter Institute on citizen journalism. What do you think of some of these ideas? Check out the new web site for the newspaper in Bluffton, S.C. Like this model?

Back in the blogging business

Been on my longest vacation in years -- 10 days in Fla. -- so I've been out of the blogging "binness" for a while, but I'm back and ready to bore you ... er, entertain you to death. I'll be posting tomorrow on a topic of interest, in the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to get home quickly without driving on Forest Hill Drive -- man, that pipe work has TORN UP that road. What a pain.

Bo let Carrie back in the game

I thought Bo had an off night on AI last night. Carrie didn't hit a home run either, but if people were undecided, Bo didn't hit the home run he needed. I thought for sure he would win, but now I think Carrie might take him.

Btw -- a 2 hour finale? I think I'll be tuning in when it's 1 hour and 55 minutes old.

Diversity works for race, gender, etc., why not political ideology?

I've been making the case for years to friends at the Poynter Institute in St. Pete (at which I was fortunate enough to be invited to be an journalism Ethics Fellow in 2001) that newsrooms needed to get more ideologically diverse or face extinction.

Studies have shown that journalists are overwhelmingly liberal (although many of them call themselves moderate, the percentage of journalists who voted for Bill Clinton over Dole was more than 80 percent, according to one survey).

Anyway, columnist John Leo has written a column right on point.

Question: What logic applies to say, racial diversity in newsrooms that does not apply to ideological diversity?

For Sports, Dial 1; For news, dial 2 ...

You won't be put through to voice mail if you are trying to reach someone in The Star's newsroom between 8 a.m. and about 1 a.m. This column is a great (and funny) explanation of why not. Take particular note of the writer's line about somebody being on a pay phone trying to call in breaking news.

A scary quote

Here is what former newsman and now, allegedly, respected journalism scholar Marvin Kalb has to say about the White House reaction in the wake of the Newsweek fiasco:

"This is hardly the first time that the administration has sought to portray the American media as inadequately patriotic," said Marvin Kalb, a senior fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. "They are addressing the mistake, and not the essence of the story. The essence of the story is that the United States has been rather indelicate, to put it mildly, in the way that they have treated prisoners of war."

"They are addressing the mistake, and not the essence of the story?"

Is he joking?

I always thought that FACTS were what we were supposed to be reporting, not "essences," whatever they are.

If we get to a point where we gloss over factually incorrect stories because we THINK their "essence" is true, it's a sad, sad day for journalism.

Here is a link to the entire New York Times story, by the way.

Academia -- the left's dictatorship

Right on point to a comment I made a couple days ago regarding the sad state of affairs on American college campuses is this column I found by Roger Kimball for the Wall Street Journal. Very powerful stuff.

Worst songs ever

We were having a discussion in the newsroom about our LEAST favorite songs ever:

Here is my preliminary list:

"Take these broken Wings" by ????
"Against the Wind" by Bob Seger
"Don't you forget about me" by Tears for Fears
"I want to know what Love is" by Foreigner

Care to add to the list?

City of Shelby violates public records law

Here is the link to today's story in The Star as well as an editorial on the issue.

My question: Are people so out of touch with government that they don't even care that major decisions involving their tax dollars are made in secret?

Post-EOG week

So, with EOGs in the rearview mirror, we should be getting the scores back this week -- most will pass, of course, which leads us to "Post-EOG Week." That's when the kids who did not pass get 2 weeks of intensive remediation, while the rest of the students ... watch movies?

Let's try this -- check with your child and see what SCHOOL WORK actually gets done in the last 2 weeks of school. Post (anonymously if you must) in the comments section and let's compare notes.

Who's in?

Phony racism

Here is an interesting and quite provocative column by Steve Chapman.

Question: Howmuch real racism exists in Cleveland County? What is the hard evidence of this racism? How does one PROVE rampant community racism?

Anybody else have "Cujo" for a dog?

Sometimes my cock-a-poo is the kindest most gentle dog in the world. Then, there are mornings like this morning. I was loading up my youngest for school and the dog jumped in the car. Normally I'm able to quickly shoo her out, but this time the dog WOULD NOT MOVE! It took my 15 minutes of cajoling, yelling, prodding with a broom, bribing with food, etc. to finally get her to move.

Other times, lately, she just growls or even snaps for no reason.

Any advice?

Panthers trades

Trades made during the NFL draft don't receive nearly enough attention. To wit, the Panthers made two terrific trades during the draft this weekend.

1) First, the Panthers moved back in the second round 9 spots (from No. 45 to No. 54) and, in return, got a fourth-rounder from the Seahawks.
2) Then, the Panthers traded two OTHER fourth-rounders to the Packers for a third-rounder (Pick No. 89)

If you put those two trade together ..
The Panthers gave up:
Pick nos. 45, 115, 126
The Panthers got:
Pick nos. 54, 89, 121

In other words, they moved back 9 spots in the second round and moved up 26 spots from the fourth to the third round and another 5 spots in the fourth round. And even more beautiful is that the Panthers were clearly targetting Eric Shelton in the second round -- a player they still got at No. 54.

Those kinds of trades can make the difference between a contender and a pretender.

Had any school papers come back recently with purple ink?

This excellent column by George Will discusses the new trend to "protect the feelings" of children by never having them lose or be subject to anything upsetting. Question: What happens when they grow up and enter the real world?

Had any school papers come back recently with purple ink?

This excellent column by George Will discusses the new trend to "protect the feelings" of children by never having them lose or be subject to anything upsetting. Question: What happens when they grow up and enter the real world?

Had any school papers come back recently with purple ink?

This excellent column by George Will discusses the new trend to "protect the feelings" of children by never having them lose or be subject to anything upsetting. Question: What happens when they grow up and enter the real world?