Recent Comments
Re: “Dumping on Dix”
Cripes almighty! Get real.
Unfortunately for the author and editor, I have a long enough memory to debunk this cartoon. Please start with facts. Please. The misdirection and fallacy of this cartoon demeans your intelligence and the basic charge of journalism. Tell the truth.
This plan was hatched over a decade ago by democrats, under Jim Hunt and a democratic house ca. 2001. Now, the republicans are in charge and that makes them your target?
The closure was spurred by a groups wishing to reform mental health care and government property use called Coalition 1989, then Coalition 2000, then Coalition 2001. The failing community homes program was invented then.
What is wrong with having chronically ill patients in state institutions, as long as they receive proper care?
Re: “U.S. History According to Charles Koch: The conservative billionaire could be teaching your kids”
Heaven forbid that our children learn more about the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the revolutionary war and those who risked and gave everything for our freedom, or what once was freedom.
I took civics and learned remember a lot from previous cultures and nations. But I had to reread and study the Constitution and Bill of Rights recently to refresh my memory of them. I did not study them in depth in school and wish that I had.
The founding fathers (male word may be the main irritating factor here to liberals) devoted time, intelligence and experience into writing our main operative documents. They should be honored, understood and revered. They can easily be worked into exercises in reading, civic, history or literature without destroying the liberal agenda in education.
Re: “Judges should strike down GOP redistricting”
Apparently, you do not remember the US House district that ran from Jones County to the Triad, either 1991 or 2001. Or Mel Watts' district in NC. David Price's district should leave a warm fuzzy feeling with you. "What's turnabout is foreplay."
Re: “Braking News”
I find it tragically amusing that a faction of the voting public considers money sent to Washington and money received from Washington are fair game, sacred and fully justified, in all its legislative and regulatory glory. It's "free," they say. "No one is hurt or impugned "
I beg your pardon. Washington has stolen our social security and medicare funds for nearly fifty years. Then, to make up for that political expediency and fiscal irresponsibility, borrowed enough to sink future budgets to the point of national bankruptcy.
Buying the loyalty of the welfare class was effective, as witnessed in the last election. However, allowing the private sector to thrive and create real jobs is not good.
The debate is framed by the right as restructuring America along its free market principles. The left argues each act of this restructuring by quoting figures and statistics without considering that every benefit and coverage is paid for with our tax dollars, managed by the profligate spenders in DC.
There should be a few one term members of Congress, but the work that they do now will essentially save our economy and, ideally, keep us from becoming entirely a welfare state.
FDR did not save the country by spending and growing government, no matter how many truly useful laws were enacted. The private sector dug us out of the depression of 1929-32 by a decade long recovery in the 1950's.
But who is looking at where money is really generated anyway? "If the agenda fits, we must acquits."
Re: “N.C. State wants to sell its largest forest and invest the proceeds in Wall Street”
An ideal yield from the market would be 3%. On $ 117 million, it would be $ 3.5 million, or 75% more than the forestry sales. However, per sewermine, volatility is the main difference. Until the US economy stabilizes and investment returns become more predictable, the move would remove a permanent asset and replace it with a one-time sale "profit." The main factor in evaluating one investment over another is risk. Timber for sale and education vs. market volatility over the last thirteen years.
The example of the US government sale of low radio frequencies has produced a lower quality TV broadcasts and reduced involvement of the FCC in its original mission. What effects will this sale produce on the education of tomorrow's foresters?
What fortune teller could deny that NC State may want a coastal campus in fifty years? Where is our stock market headed without a manufacturing base? Can the financial sector ever be trusted again to lead the market? Or can you sell a piece of lumber in good times and bad?
Re: “Why Aqua NC customers are furious about their service”
According to company records, there are 73,000 water customers and 14,600 wastewater customers. The 53 counties or service area appears to be correct. However, claiming 250,000 customers in the article does not.
Which is it?
Since these systems are small ones, options like tertiary treatment of drinking water are out of the question financially. The company takes over marginally affordable water systems to start with and they can not compete with municipal systems for additional funding of treatment and distribution. What pollution exists in the adopted systems was there before Aqua took over. New wells are another matter.
Aqua provides a needed/required service.
Re: “N.C. State finds buyer for 80,000-acre Hofmann Forest”
The sale strategy of the Hoffman Forest in Onslow County, NC reflects the corporate mentality of the current board and dean of the DNR at NCSU. The sale represents the conflict of ideas between the two sectors in society. A corporation analyzes an asset in terms of what it needs at the moment with the assumption that it paid for it at one time. The college received a gift which cost it nothing and generates $2 million a year.
Placing an investment in the stock market, which may return 3% per year on average, may boost the income from yield to 3.5%. The logic seems sound, almost doubling the yield without maintenance costs of land, depending on portfolio costs by the broker. The stock market looks promising. Yields are high. Profits of certain sectors and companies are good. Forecasts are splendiforous, as expected. The timing, however, is questionable.
Washington pundits say that there is recovery, yet there are few jobs being generated. Another school of experts say that the American economy is perilously close to disaster. The real estate and banking collapses demonstrate credible examples of the second condition. Asset analysis of both private and public sector enterprises reveals an unsure footing for recovery and growth. Most of the faulty decisions made by corporations were prefaced by a change to short term thinking, not toward long term gain and stability.
What would be the harm of holding the forest until the economy demonstrates stability and proven growth as an interim strategy? If, at that time, the sale and reinvestment is desired, then, sell the parcel.
The losses experienced in 2008-9 were catastrophic for some investors and retirement funds. Whole stock broker companies failed, Banks failed. Some lost all in the precursor to the promise of a massive economic melt down. The Dow Jones index lost more than 50%, an event unseen in the last fifty years of reports.
Until we return to the stability of the 1950's, the model for increasing revenue for the college is flawed by the potential for loss of value on the market. The trees standing in the forest will remain until harvest, barring forest fire. The market for lumber is relatively constant. The "asset" will continue to grow no matter what happens to the stock market.
Compare the risks and rewards without the cloud of current corporate cogitation.