Jay Schalin

And the bad ideas keep coming:

Reducing Chapel Hill's $297.6 million annual appropriation could account for much of the UNC system's share of budget cuts. In return, Chapel Hill will gain the kind of autonomy likely to improve its standing in the world of academia.

Plus, it might make the school desperate enough for funding that it would finally acquiesce to the creation of a school of White Supremacy Western Civilization to combat all that cultural diversity stuff.

Have they rented a certain amount of page space from the N&O, or what?

North Carolina is trying to prepare for the future economy by putting recommendations from Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton's JOBS (Joining Our Businesses and Schools) Commission into practice. Two bills that Gov. Bev Perdue recently signed into law come directly from the commission's report.

Unfortunately, the JOBS Commission recommendations - and therefore the new laws - are based on false assumptions and unrealistic projections.

Here we go again: dueling studies about the value of studies, all in the interest of partisan politics.

Last month I resubscribed to the Raleigh News and Observer after nearly three years of protest. Though I still consider the editorial pages the weakest link in their value chain, Zabouti helped me understand that having a subscription was part of my civic duty. Today, as a full-price paying customer, I recognize I have another duty as well - to call out the good, the bad and the ugly when I see it. This weekend's editorial pages offer an excellent case in point.