Opinion
It Comes to a Head
The NC Senate is expected to pitch its latest budget plans on Monday. Will a state-run lottery or additional tax increases be part of the mix?
Opinion
No. 677: Hooray for Sprawl: New Study Debunks “Smart Growth”
Sprawl is a word that has acquired a negative connotation in our language. Mention sprawl and the immediate image in most minds is of subdivisions gobbling up farmland and pristine forests and causing commuters to sit in time-wasting traffic jams to and from work. Many politicians say they are for “smart-growth,” which is a kind of fuzzy, ill-defined alternative to “nasty” sprawl.
Opinion
No. 676: UNCW Observes Ludacris Standard
This past semester several items were removed, as soon they appeared, from the student union at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Among them: antiwar flyers labeling President Bush a “bully,” depicting Lady Liberty impaling a dove by its rectum on a sword, and having the U.S. flag being produced in the exhaust fumes of B-1 bombers; magazines containing a photograph of men engaging in anal sex; a large sign advertising “The Vagina Monologues” calling for all [offensive slang for vaginas] to “Unite!”; and flyers in support of the war in Iraq.
Opinion
Another Dud for UNC’s Summer Reading Program
Last year, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's summer reading program managed to stir up controversy and even litigation by choosing Michael Sells' book Approaching the Qur'an as the book incoming freshmen were expected to read. The problem with that book, which overlooks Islam's propensities toward intolerance and violence, was not that it was promoting religion, but that it was a waste of the students' time. This year's choice is no better, and arguably it's worse. Incoming freshmen are assigned to read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
Opinion
Resigned to Their Fates
This week, NC Ag Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, Martha Stewart, and two top editors at The New York Times announced their resignations amid scandal. Should have happened sooner.
Opinion
No. 122: All the President’s Children: Hail to Storytelling
• Doug Wead: All the President’s Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America’s First Families; Atria Books; 2003; 464pp; $26.
Opinion
Another Diversity Argument
The UNC system now says it needs to up the number of out-of-state students to improve its national ranking. How does that square with its past statements?
Opinion
On Republicans and Overconfidence
State and national Republicans are swelling with confidence about their president's and party's prospects in 2004. Here are some reasons not to plan the victory celebration yet.
Opinion
No. 121: The Mysterious History of Worlds Together, Worlds Apart
• Robert L. Tignor, et al: Worlds Together, Worlds Apart; W.W. Norton & Co.; 2002; 462pp.; $62.50
Opinion
Unblocking NC’s Economic Arteries
Activist groups are resisting legislation to speed up the regulatory process, where delay is one of the impediments to a healthier North Carolina economy.
Opinion
Here’s to you, legislature
North Carolina lawmakers got one very right last week by loosening the regulation of alcohol sales at restaurants. Maybe sound legislating will be habit-forming.
Opinion
Opening the Credibility Gap
Political power often relies on credibility, which is why both Richard Morgan and a top Democratic political aide lost a little power last week.
