News & Observer

Even Pope himself doesn't lay it on this thick:

It's painfully hard to understand why detractors demonize a man for providing affordable goods in low-income areas and why they want to jeopardize the jobs of the 7,000 people he employs with a boycott.

Okay, Burgetta, let me explain it to you, since you apparently don't have the capacity to grasp how political influence impacts the lives of citizens:

In their quest to fill in content gaps, the N&O is giving column space to war propagandists:

I take it personally: Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wants to murder me, my family and my people.

An Israeli attack might harm U.S. interests and disrupt international oil supplies (though I doubt it would cause direct attacks on U.S. installations, troops or vessels). But, from the Israeli perspective, these are necessarily marginal considerations when compared with the mortal hurt Israel and Israelis would suffer from an Iranian nuclear attack.

I think this is kind of big news...I haven't been able to confirm this, but I might be the first out lesbian columnist for the News & Observer. I might be the first out lesbian columnist for a major newspaper in NC; I have no idea. Anyway, my column will appear in The Durham News, its Bull City community edition. It's a monthly column (I rotate with other local folks), a gig for six months.

Mark Schultz, the editor of TDN and The Chapel Hill News (as well as one of the Western Triangle editors for The News & Observer) just asked me out of the blue to do this. I was recommended by one of my old pals and former neighbor in Old West Durham, John Schelp, since I'm a Durham native. It's a small world.

Most people consider themselves fairly well-informed, and are not likely to admit that they (personally) are vulnerable to manipulation. Those other people are, of course, but not me. And while we might think we carefully "choose" the sources of our information, our brains often store and edit things according to a different set of often less "enlightened" rules. Whatever. It's part of our psychological makeup, and not likely to change any time soon.

The N&O's editorial board has seen the light, calling on the NC Utilties Commission (NCUC to deny Duke's request to build two new coal fired power plants at their Cliffside operation). They also call on the Legislature to pick up the pace and work to find better solutions to the energy supply vs. global climate change conundrum.

The good news: Senator Charlie Albertson has already filed a Renewable Portfolio Standard bill. The bad news: legislators filed a RPS bill last session which didn't go anywhere, and the utilities are one of the strongtest forces in the Legislature.

Before the fight goes to the Legislature, stopping the Cliffside project must happen. Duke is calling on the NCUC to make a decision on Cliffside by February 28.

Below the fold for more on how to help...