September 2004 archives

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Thursday, September 30, 2004

Cleansing time: Professor doesn’t fit UNC-CH image

The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill can take a measure of comfort in recent conclusions of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigation of an incident involving a professor’s widely circulated e-mail attack on a student. But...

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Meanness: Those caught pilfering signs could be in for big trouble

The caller must have been motivated by real concern, because he was a politician and he didn’t even care if his name didn’t get in the paper. His concern was about his campaign signs. It happens every election in Wayne...

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Dreams lost: The great promises of the U.N. go unfulfilled

The United Nations appears to be on course to deliver to mankind the greatest betrayal in history. It was chartered with the highest of ideals: “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” ... “to reaffirm faith in fundamental...

Monday, September 27, 2004

Law passed, but Currituck is victim of state’s stalling

A baffling story has developed up in Currituck County. The site of the county’s airport is actually owned by the state. But Currituck now has “several commercial business” enterprises interested in locating there, and county officials are anxious to...

Saturday, September 25, 2004

Air Force angels

You hear all sorts of reasons why Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is good for Goldsboro. Charlotte Boyette has two of her own — Tonja Orwig and Davin Allen. Ms. Orwig and Allen are both stationed at the base. Sometimes...

Friday, September 24, 2004

CBS’s blunder: Network got too friendly with the Kerry campaign

One important point is being overlooked in all of the indignant second-guessing of CBS News for its horrendous blunder. And there is no other way to describe what CBS did. The reporting of a fraudulent document as if it...

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Guest editorial: Shooting holes in rhetoricabout ‘assault rifles’ ban

As you know, the law banning so-called assault rifles died last week. Good riddance. It was phony through and through. Even the name was a lie. The law did not ban real “assault rifles” — that is, rifles that...

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Decorum: It begins with judge’s example

We should expect — demand — a high code of conduct on the part of our judges. And we undoubtedly get that from the vast majority of them — both in the courtroom and in their private lives. But...

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Cop shakedowns: Can this happen in our community?

As residents of our county reel with the shock of alleged misconduct within the Mount Olive Police Department, let us pause and reflect on the fact that the department itself initiated the investigation. The police chief, the district attorney...

Monday, September 20, 2004

Standing firm: Pickle company was right to defy union’s boycott

For five and a half years, Bill Bryan stuck by a principle. Bryan, the president of Mt. Olive Pickle Co., refused to yield to a demand by a farm workers’ union to buy only union-picked cucumbers. For that refusal, the...

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Letters: Thoughts on some that didn’t make the forum

A newspaper can’t print every single letter that comes to its forum. The News-Argus prints as many as possible — all that are submitted, provided they are not too long and they follow other rules for publication. The ones...

Friday, September 17, 2004

Prisoners of war: Wayne programs express the community’s thanks

Anyone who serves in the U.S. military learns quickly that one of the most frightful consequences of combat is capture. Our prisoners of war may be subjected to unthinkable pain and humiliation. In recent years, enemies have tortured Americans not...

Thursday, September 16, 2004

The memos: OK, Dan Rather, it’s your turn now

Dan Rather put his credibility and that of CBS on the line when he presented on “60 Minutes II” his “documentary” evidence that Lt. George W. Bush, former National Guard fighter-interceptor pilot, not only performed poorly but refused “direct orders”...

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

An opportunity: Everyone can participate in Saturday’s Litter Sweep

Many of our fellow citizens and private businesses will be involved in next weekend’s Litter Sweep. And, in fact, all of us can have a part. It’s sponsored by Keep Wayne County Beautiful, the city of Goldsboro, Wayne County and...

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Quick surgery:Suppose Bill Clinton had lived in Canada

President Bill Clinton’s quick, successful heart bypass surgery inspired an interesting question at the Cato Institute. The institute, based in Washington, is one of those private agencies where scholars do research and write papers to help amplify issues. It has...

Monday, September 13, 2004

Tie-breaker: Supreme Court wouldn’t determine the winner

The polls have see-sawed in the presidential election. First, Sen. John Kerry seemed to have an edge. Now the polls indicate that President Bush has caught Kerry and surpassed him by a small margin. The polls may or may...

Saturday, September 11, 2004

How to cook barbecue in eastern North Carolina

When it comes to putting on a festival, folks around Goldsboro are past masters. Future ones, too, according to what seems to be shaping up for the end of October. Already we have our Daffodil Festival at Fremont, Pikeville’s Independence...

Friday, September 10, 2004

Preemptive plea: Government can’t sue to keep you from suing

“Tell them they can’t sue me.” That, in essence, is what the city of Burlington pleaded to North Carolina’s courts. It was referring to the Alamance News. This has been an interesting legal case all along — the Alamance News,...

Thursday, September 9, 2004

Again ... sigh: Another prominent official goes down

For the second time this year, North Carolinians are seeing a successful and highly respected elected official facing the prospect of prison time. The first was Commissioner of Agriculture Meg Scott Phipps, daughter of a former governor and granddaughter of...

Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Victimized: Dropping of Kobe Bryant’s charge was long overdue

The Kobe Bryant rape case has been dismissed in Colorado. It happened about a year too late. For Bryant, it was a year of uncertainty, fear and humiliation. As a side issue, it was also an expensive year. His legal...

Tuesday, September 7, 2004

Double standard: Beat up on Bush, but Kerry is off-limts

The American public has been witnessing intriguing, even baffling, laments over “attack” ads and verbal comments against political candidates. Interestingly, the concerns have reached a fevered pitch only in recent days. For months, and especially during the Democratic National Convention,...

Monday, September 6, 2004

Child killers: What propels evil extremists?

The hostage catastrophe at a Russian school is another sad reminder of the extremes to which Islamic zealots will go to achieve their objectives. We Americans cannot comprehend the callous killing of hundreds of schoolchildren. We don’t understand how anyone...

Saturday, September 4, 2004

SAT results show remarkable increase

There is little enough reward for the people who run Wayne County’s schools, but they got a nice reward last week. It was the compilation of the scores that Wayne’s high school juniors earned on the Scholastic Aptitude Test this...

Friday, September 3, 2004

Playing games: Politicians recapture our television time

Now that the Olympics are over and politics is back in its preeminent spot on television, here are a few thoughts on each. First, note the difference: Olympics are, not is. Politics is, not are. Politics is a singular noun....

Thursday, September 2, 2004

Invasion: What Moore was doing at the GOP convention

Many Americans were surprised by the presence at the Republican National Convention of a man who shows his contempt for the party and for President Bush as often and as scornfully as possible. He was brought to our attention by...

Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Too independent: Black female nominee getting shunned in Senate

How times do change. Not so long ago you couldn’t have invented a better biography to win the sympathy of those who have a heart for the underdog: Female, black, born in 1949 to Alabama sharecroppers, moved to California, graduated...