Thursday, October 21, 2004

One of North Carolina's brightest young philanthropists, Michael Brader-Araje, says donors need to let non-profit professionals do their jobs with less interference. Conservatives are better at this than liberals, he notes. 3:00:22 PM    comment []

All your opinions are belong to Media General: a North Carolina-based Kos diarist explains why the Winston-Salem Journal and another Media General newspaper could not endorse Kerry, even as they ripped Bush. The absentee landlords in Virginia wouldn't let them speak their minds. "But what is most insulting to readers - and dangerous to our democracy - is the fact that Media General is lying about the pressure they are putting on their papers...Ray Kozakewicz, manager of corporate communications for Media General, said the company does not get involved in the editorial decisions of its 26 daily newspapers...'Each newspaper is locally operated by the editorial team,' he said. 'It's a local decision in each case.' This is a big fat lie.  I have spoken to several reporters in the Journal newsroom about this.  All of them know that the lack of endorsement was due entirely to corporate pressure." It's a fine piece of journalism, this blog post by a North Carolinian who doesn't have to answer to Richmond before expressing an opinion. 2:56:24 PM    comment []

Yesterday I participated in a political forum for local high school students. It was pretty informal, just me and City Councilman Tom Phillips taking questions and shooting from the hip. Tom is good in that kind of situation, even when he is wrong about an issue, and it went pretty well. Today I did a similar program at Greensboro Day School, along with NC Senator Kay Hagan and GDS teacher Ben Zuraw. This time we had to sit on a stage which made it harder to connect with the crowd, but Kay and Ben are quick and knowledgeable and so the conversation flowed and that went pretty well, too. 1:38:39 PM    comment []

Jim Capo, a Libertarian candidate for Guilford County commissioner, says at his campaign blog that third-party candidates can elevate the tone of partisan races. "How can the other two candidates in my race go after each other in attack dog fashion when they risk an above the fray response from the outsider candidate who will get even-handed coverage in the major news daily?" Jim says he could work the same magic on the fractious county commissioners. He also reports on the District 7 forum at Irving Park School. (I'm linking to the main campaign page, not the individual posts, both dated Oct. 21 -- Jim, your permalinks all lead to Oct. 12). Yesterday Jeff Jarvis noted that blogging has raised the credibility of Libertarians, but that actual Libertarian candidates often revert to stereotype and squander those gains. I'd say Jim, a blogger and a candidate, fits into both sides of that analysis. 1:18:38 PM    comment []

A couple of letter-writers have responded to serial bile-spewer Tony Moschetti's latest angry missive in the N&R, in which Moschetti complained that "The liberals and their lapdog shills in the elite media went orgasmic when they could tell us that 1,000 Americans had been killed" in Iraq. Moschetti's attempt at putting this number in perspective was to note that "Last year, in three of our more famous 'blue' cities, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, 1,695 Americans were killed." This letter points out that Moschetti's statistics overlook the Iraqi civilian casualties, which would be a more apt comparison to the number of civilians killed in US cities. Or maybe he should compare the number of troops killed to the number of cops killed. In any case, he's not making a whole lot of sense... ...and he's not alone. The charming post linked here minimizes US casualties in a way that would do Moschetti proud. 9:41:39 AM    comment []

Slashdot interview with Neal Stephenson. Cryptonomicon was one of the best books I've read in a while. I am enjoying Quicksilver but have not quite fallen in love with it yet. 7:50:16 AM    comment []

A Duke student writes an ignorant article headlined "The Jews." The student, Phil Kurian, is duly lambasted by other writers, as detailed in this post by Duke poly sci prof Mike Munger. Munger cites N&O columnist Barry Saunders on the real meaning of the 1st Amendment: "'freedom of speech means you can say what you want. But you still gotta take the ass-whuppin''if people disagree with you." Munger goes on to post a clever little anti-PC list of things to call people when you are offended, and includes this dictum: "nothing is more upsetting than an opponent who is making a better argument than you are, using logic and evidence and that sort of thing, your best bet is to be a big crybaby and act all hurt." The problem I'm having: by including that list and that dictum in a post about the furor over Kurian's column, Munger seems to be saying that Kurian had the better argument, and that his critics are just calling names. Mike? UPDATE: Munger elaborates. "Of course, [Kurian] is taking the ass-whuppin he deserves..for his remarkably poorly argued and bigoted column. But the response has not been 'What a stupid argument you made!' It has been 'The Chronicle should be closed down for publishing this,' or 'Kurian should be arrested, or punished.' Or, even 'Duke should be boycotted by all Jewish students and alumni, because an independent student newspaper published one editorial by one student seeking attention for making an outrageous argument.'" 7:44:10 AM    comment []