Comment Archives: Stories
Re: “Re: Moral Mondays”
I am so worried that Moral Mondays will not be effective. The arrests have dropped. If we can't get 150+ arrests every Monday I fear the steam will drain from the movement. What can we do to get the arrests higher?
Re: “A good death: Like Sue Otterbourg, more people are taking control of the end”
A great job, and a story I'll share with a friend who has just been told there's nothing else to be done for him, after nearly 12 years of dozens of treatments for multiple myeloma.
But I have to ask... Mrs. Otterbourg died 2 years ago; why has there been such a long lag in publishing this story?
Re: “N.C. education chief Bill Cobey is on the right track—but his fellow Republicans are wrong”
James -- I think there's enough confusion within the Republican ranks that Cobey, if he speaks out, can have an impact. That said, he's pro-vouchers and pro-charters, so he'll be no help on the immediate issues. (He did come out against the bill to create a separate state board for charter schools, an idea that in any event is clearly in violation of the NC Constitution.)
I was disappointed to hear Cobey say that he won't defend the Common Core standards against attacks, right after he'd expressed to us his favorable impression of the CC. He said he intends to be an implementer and steer clear of policy debates except where necessary to head off obvious blunders (e.g., a charter school board).
If space had permitted me to add a bonus #11 to my top 10, I've have said be guided by the Common Core. It's an effort to set out, grade by grade, the skills (competencies) students should achieve in math and reading/analysis. It's not a curriculum, not an Obama idea, and it's not intended to persuade your 10-year old that owning an assault rifle is a bad idea. (Although she might reason to that conclusion herself.) Rather, the Common Core came from the states and from business, with NC one of the initiators and early adopters.
I understand some Tea Party folks were in Raleigh today protesting our adoption of the Common Core. (I'm out of town.) Lt. Gov. Forest, the Tea Party favorite, is stoking the opposition, along with Fox News and the rest of the far-right conspiracy crowd.
Common Core means increasing intellectual rigor in course work, grade by grade, regardless of the specific curriculum a school district -- or state -- selects. Student achievement levels can be tested, and compared, across state lines. You'd think the Tea Party would like that. Business does.
Most important, should you move to Idaho, you can be confident that your child will ready for whatever the curriculum is in Idaho if his skills were up to par in NC. No moving and finding out that your kids are a grade behind even if they were A-students here.
I'd like to see Cobey fight for the Common Core and stand with June Atkinson, the DPI chief, who is fighting for it. For that matter, maybe Pat McCrory could say something about it when he's not busy "exercising" in his loafers.
Re: “Who's the moron? Sen. Thom Goolsby on the protests he calls "Moron Mondays"”
@Honz - Regarding Mr. Warren's comment: There's libelous and then there's ludicrous.
Re: “Better than the Senate version, the House budget is still bad”
The eugenics program was instituted under 'progressive' policies of the Democrat administrations of those years. It's good to see that the party has evolved to be against the program now.
Re: “Who's the moron? Sen. Thom Goolsby on the protests he calls "Moron Mondays"”
I'm amazed that Mr. Warren's comments made it pass the censor. But then again, we seem to be used to this type of absurdity as we have tried to interact with similar Mr. Warren type that are in the General Assembly.
Re: “N.C. education chief Bill Cobey is on the right track—but his fellow Republicans are wrong”
Do you have any sense that Cobey can have meaningful impact given the intellectual depravity of those calling the shots these days?
Re: “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could allow GM crops on national wildlife refuge lands”
I did make the point that if more GMO research had been funded publicly we would probably have seen a greater emphasis on quality traits visible to the consumer. However, I ALSO said, as part of the same statement, that I have long been disappointed by the meager level of funding for GMO research and other innovations designed to benefit farmers in underdeveloped countries. We could have made much more progress in this area with better public sector funding. The point about developing countries didn't make it into the article, but I think it is by far the most important of the two. -- Bill Thompson
Re: “Chuck Wakild, director of Division of Water Quality, leaving the agency”
Nobody finds this interesting? This wasn't part of anyone's planned retirement that's for sure.
Re: “Who's the moron? Sen. Thom Goolsby on the protests he calls "Moron Mondays"”
Two wrongs don't make a right. Did 12 years of Easley-Purdue leadership have unfortunate consequences? Yes. Is the right-wing agenda we see in the General Assembly harmful in many respects to North Carolina? Yes.
The Rev'd Barber may or may not be one's cup of tea, but to call him by the name of a heartless murderer is absurd and says more about the person posting than about Barber.
Re: “More on Randy Voller: Raleigh's Nina Szlosberg-Landis, 1st vice chair, resigns in protest”
Good grief. As a Dem, I am appalled at the state of the Party and I don't see how this mess will be fixed in time for the next cycle.
Re: “A good death: Like Sue Otterbourg, more people are taking control of the end”
Excellent sensitive story. Thank you, Barry.
Re: “How Wesley Wolfe hand-lathes a record”
Its about the palpable difference of holding something in your hand thats was made FOR YOU as opposed to digital files stored on a hard drive (which I hold heartedly embrace as well). But the idea of a record "collection" certainly has changed significantly :)
Re: “Dissent in the ranks over N.C. Democratic Party Chairman Randy Voller”
Deleting comments now, I see.
Re: “Who's the moron? Sen. Thom Goolsby on the protests he calls "Moron Mondays"”
hing that gets me is this. Where was these people when the inept Democrats had the state legislature and NC was bankrupt?!? These people need to get a break, if they can't be honest and fair in thier protests, they don't need to be protesting. The ones that protested in the 60's were protesting Democrats and REpublicans at least they were honest. All I see is them following the con man Reverend Barber the Charles Manson of North Carolina.
Re: “At UNC, Silent Sam romanticizes the Civil War and the old South”
I am the "lightly bedraggled" female student who was passing out the flowers. I understand that you were attempting to write a clever introduction to your piece, but commenting on my appearance added absolutely nothing to your story and is decidedly not clever. You did not comment on anyone else's appearance and I deserve the same respect. Please remove the phrase; it is unprofessional and unkind. Indy should know better.
Re: “With Frances Ha, Noah Baumbach makes a bid to be the next Woody Allen”
Linda B., you may find more of what you're looking for in our interview with Greta Gerwig: http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/greta-gerwig-on-the-end-of-youth-and-frances-ha/Content?oid=3649205
Re: “With Frances Ha, Noah Baumbach makes a bid to be the next Woody Allen”
Good review of "Frances Ha," especially the comparison of this film's New York 20-something scene with Woody Allen's earlier ones.
I would have like more about Frances' psychological journey. That is, in the beginning she seems just slightly off-center. Then, as she navigates among these creatively-cursing New Yorkers, she moves farther away from the center. To wit, she's just a little quirky when she cleans her room by taking all the dirty clothes from her bed and putting them on the window sill. She is in need of help when she tries to impress friends by booking a weekend trip to Paris, where she spends half the time sleeping and the other half wandering aimlessly. You should give up on her, but you don't.
Re: “More on Randy Voller: Raleigh's Nina Szlosberg-Landis, 1st vice chair, resigns in protest”
Your "grassroots explosion" of five online commenters is about as real as one of your daily acid trips, Carmichael. If that's your definition of grassroots, we're going to keep losing elections for decades to come.
Re: “June 10 Moral Monday”
I am so worried that Moral Mondays will not be effective. The arrests have dropped. If we can't get 150+ arrests every Monday I fear the steam will drain from the movement. What can we do to get the arrests higher?