Sunday, February 13, 2005

JR on the latest online doings at the N&R, including some podcasting plans upon which Go Triad editor Jeri Rowe elaborated a bit this morning. 3:53:53 PM    comment []

Beaucoups des links on the Triangle blog conference. And even more links to coverage, with pics. Plus, Sue on this morning's N&R meeting with Dan Gillmor. 3:49:58 PM    comment []

Reason mag interview with Neal Stephenson. I'm about half-way through the final book of the Baroque Cycle, I'm glad I invested the time in this massive trilogy, which I have greatly enjoyed, but I still think Stephenson could use an editor. 3:31:59 PM    comment []

Hoggard reads between the lines of Margaret Banks' N&R front-pager on the St. James Homes fiasco and sees the work of the "benevolent oligarchy" which he says is Greensboro's "government-in-fact." Interesting, and perhaps partially true. But the article is clear that the project was in need of public funds as early as 1993, and that the crack trade was ruining the neighborhood long before anyone wanted that land for a baseball stadium. 3:28:41 PM    comment []

Giles Lambertson has written some heinous columns for the N&R before, but today's effort (unposted) may be a new low, a mix of subtle racism, historical revisionism, and overall cluelessness. Lambertson's theme this morning is the strong allegiance of black voters to the Democratic Party. A worthy subject for analysis, but analysis is not Giles' game. He's got a lecture for those blacks, and he's going to tell them what's what. "(T)here can be few tributes paid to black political wisdom during the last quarter century," he writes. "There hasn't been much of it." Surely, though, there are reasons black voters have gone Democratic? Giles gives us a history lesson. Truman desegregated the armed forces, Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock, blacks are getting love from both parties. JFK aids MLK, one for the Dems. Lambertson: "The situation got muddy thereafter, as philosophies, political strategies and public attitudes burst apart and fell together again in curious disarray. "But black America had fixated by then, so it really didn't matter. It simply decided that Democrats are the good guys and Republicans are bad. "...It seems to be a case of arrested development, the trauma of escaping from institutional racism leaving them numb to subsequent appeals." Got that? Those blacks and their simple decision making. "Arrested development." Lazy, almost. Nothing happened after 1960 that could possibly explain why black voters have favored Democrats. Giles? Does the name Jesse Helms ring a bell? He was right here in North Carolina. A Republican, an overt segregationist in the '60s and a subtler race-baiter for the rest of his career. Do you think black voters didn't notice? Just to the south of us, Giles, in the other Carolina? Strom Thurmond. Same deal. He actually quit the Democratic party and became a Republican because of Truman's move. Other minor details: The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson's War on Poverty. Nixon's Southern Strategy. Ah, but things have changed, right? Yes, they have, but you might ask Trent Lott or Billy Yow how much change is still to come. Lambertson glosses over -- no, Lambertson skips completely -- the last 45 years of history. It's those unwise, underdeveloped blacks making dumb decisions, not anything the GOP has done. It would be great to see more blacks voting for the Republicans, because that would indicate that the party is speaking to black voters, offering them a choice. Unlike Lambertson, who offers them insults. 9:18:53 AM    comment []

Here's one to get your blood boiling: a document written by self-styled "revolutionaries" that presumes to tell Americans how to run our country. This is Blue State stuff all the way -- plenty of Politically Correct jargon about our supposed obligations to some collective ideal but not one word about God. And it's already in wide distribution at schools supported with taxpayer dollars and throughout the halls of power. My newspaper column this morning is about the Preamble to the Constitution. Clearly the Constitution is more than a mere gay-marriage amendment away from conforming to the way we live now. Maybe a warning sticker, like the ones about evolution they put on textbooks in Georgia, would help. Certainly it's time to rethink the part that journalists call the "lede," that all-important, tone-setting preface to the entire document. Read the whole thing. 8:24:08 AM    comment []