Op-Ed & Politics


Editorials

Publisher's note: This post, by Matt Willoughby, was originally published in the Education of Civitas's online edition.

Rules Lead to Waste and More Changes are on the Way

(RAEFORD) - Hoke County Schools Assistant Superintendent Bob Barnes is telling the media the pre-K student who was forced to supplement her homemade lunch with chicken nuggets must have been confused when she went through the school lunch line. The girl's father says his daughter never went through a line -- the food tray w... (read more)
Publisher's note: The article below appeared in John Hood's daily column in his publication, the Carolina Journal, which, because of Author / Publisher Hood, is inextricably linked to the John Locke Foundation.

RALEIGH - Although those involved may John Hoodwish us to forget, there were actually two attempts over the past year to make a certain statistic, one percent, into a political cause here in North Carolina. Both flopped in telling ways.

The obvious example is the Occupy movement, whic... (read more)
Publisher's note: Our friends at Civitas had a bit of a problem with some entity who wished to use their good name to robo-call folks about issues that are not pertinent to the real John W. Pope Civitas Institute. We're just lending a hand here in helping get this word out. We're here to help.

Press Release:

Dear Friend,

I wanted to inform you that automated phone calls sent out repeatedly over the past week have nothing to do with The Civitas Institute. We have been the victim of either a... (read more)
Publisher's note: The author of this fine report is Sara Burrows, who is an associate editor of Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

State officials still pushing coastal counties to prepare for a one-meter rise

RALEIGH -- State officials are Sara Burrowspressuring local governments to plan for a one-meter sea-level rise by 2100, even though many independent scientists have argued the rise is highly unlikely if not impossible.

Even though a state advisory panel no longer recommends reg... (read more)

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Bloodless Warfare: Politics

What have a Republican primary for county commissioner. Now we need a Democrat primary for county commissioner.

Remarkably, even though Beaufort County has long been a Democrat County, there are only three Democrats who have filed to run for county commissioner. If Beaufort County Democrats are fully satisfied with the few Democrats who have filed, and do not wish a primary to winnow the field to find that best among that party's hopefuls, you may have your wish. I, on the other hand, believ... (read more)
Publisher's note: BCN publishes all information that we are sent, providing that it is not: pornographic in nature or blatantly false, with the possible exception of parody. The press release sent to us from Candidate Dority's camp, published in BCN on 022012, was obviously not pornographic, nor was it blatantly false, and running for office, in our Republic, is no barrel of laughs, and we unequivocally believe Candidate Dority was certainly not intending to elicit humor, so it certainly wasn't... (read more)
For Immediate Release:

(Charlotte, NC) Dan Forest, Dan ForestRepublican candidate for the office of North Carolina Lt. Governor, today named Velvet Shelton as his statewide Tea Party coordinator. Shelton is currently serving as the Surry County chairman for Forest's campaign. Shelton is a devoted Tea Party member who joined in the early days of the movement. She is also an active member of the Surry County Republican Party, where she has served on the executive committee.

"Velvet Shelto... (read more)
What we need is a primary. We also need just a few more candidates, but there is time yet.

The end of filing for elected office is high noon, February 29, 2012. There is still time for many others to come forward to seek an office, in which they may make a difference for the the betterment of our local community. While running for office is a noble endeavor, understanding the process of Republican politics / government is even more paramount.

Here at BCN, we have developed the resources, an... (read more)

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Our Founding Principles

Calvin Coolidge once said: "To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race."

On October 19, 1781, Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown to end the war for our Independence from Great Britain. The following year the Treaty of Paris was signed to officially end the war and recognize the existence of the United States. A new nation, conceived in Liberty, was born.

The next step was to figu... (read more)
Publisher's note: This is the third installment of a three-part series by Diane Rufino, which celebrates the rich history of the United States of America by examining three essential components of our past:

"Our English History"
"The Constitutional Convention of 1787 - A Miracle in Philadelphia"
"Our Founding Principles - The Beginning of the American 'Experiment' "

The first installment was a treatment of our English heritage before and after the American Revolution. In the second instal... (read more)
On June 16, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court issued one of the best and most important decisions ever on the principle of federalism. In the case Bond v. United States (09-1227), the Court unanimously held that individuals, and not just the states, have standing to challenge federal laws as violations of state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment. Justice Kennedy, often the "swing" judge on the Supreme Court, wrote the opinion. This decision hopefully shows that our high court is on the side of o... (read more)
Young adults often wonder what their rights are in the public school system with respect to religion. On the one hand there is the First Amendment right to religion itself (free exercise and the freedom from being forced to belong to a religion established by Congress), and then are a plurality of Supreme Court decisions which have interpreted the First Amendment, there are the views of religious groups and atheist groups, and then finally there are anti-religion "watch" groups which are ever vi... (read more)

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Words with the Publisher

I am writing this email to the county commissioners and managers. Please see that it gets distributed to the other commissioners. Most of them do not have email addresses listed. I am a native and lifelong resident of coastal North Carolina, live in Washington, and have a fishing guide service business based on the Pamlico River and adjacent waterbodies. My business is doing well so far, and there is a demand for people to travel to this area to enjoy our fisheries resources. The proposed ... (read more)
On May 8, 2012, North Carolinians will have the opportunity to vote FOR the Marriage Protection Amendment, an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Every day that goes by is another day when a judge can decide to substitute his values for those of North Carolinians. We need the Marriage Protection Amendment to prevent that.

Marriage is under attack across the nation. In fact, North Carolina's marriage statutes are presently being challeng... (read more)
It is High Noon in America. The eleventh hour has passed, and we have reached critical mass regarding the continuance of Liberty. The time for sitting idly by and watching the show has come and gone, we must now all become players in the game.

The issue is not healthcare. It is not taxes. It is not about Republicans or Democrats. What is at stake here is much larger, the attacks multiplying as a cancer to our freedom. Liberty, Justice and the American Way are at stake. Sounds like something ou... (read more)
Okay, we've established that no one wants to pay higher taxes for anything - on income; for goods or services; on capital gains; on estates; and most especially for motor fuel. Your editorial of December 31 entitled "State's Motorists Can't Catch Break" is just the latest example of telling people what they already know.

However, folks need to understand a couple of things about North Carolina's gas tax beyond the fact that it's higher than most other states.

First, North Carolina maintain... (read more)





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