February 2006
Gina Trapani of the blog Lifehacker has written an informative tutorial called Lifehacker's guide to weblogs comments. Go read the whole thing and let us know - do Orange Politics commenters follow this guide?
These are the main points:
- Stay on topic
- Contribute new information to the discussion
- Don't comment for the sake of commenting
- Know when to comment and when to e-mail
- Remember that nobody likes a know-it-all
- Make the tone of your message clear
- Own your comment
- Be succinct
- Cite your sources with links or inline quoting
- Be courteous
- Don't post when you're angry, upset, drunk or emotional
- Do not feed or tease the trolls
Guest Post by Alan McSurely
Since the press reported the massive unconstitutional domestic spying program of President Bush and Vice President Cheney 2 months ago, a spontaneous grass roots impeachment movement has taken off. One poll showed over 53% of the American people favored an impeachment investigation, over 90% of African Americans were for such an investigation, and over 24% Republicans. This belief that our two leaders have committed crimes is well grounded. The men lied to Congress to give them authority to invade a sovereign nation. Their intentional lies, mixed with their massive ignorance of the Iraqi nation and stumblebum incompetence in handling basic governmental functions has led to the murderous mayhem in Iraq that has destroyed the Nation's leaders, its culture, and tens of thousands of its children. This is a high crime.
The Carrboro Transportation Board has recommended a roundabout at the Carrboro High School entrance at Smith Level and Rock Haven roads. My guess is that public resistance to this roundabout may be strong. (Read the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Status Report, Vol. 36, No. 7). I further doubt NCDOT and the school system will push it. My guess is that without serious community education about the difference between a modern day roundabout and a Boston rotary this proposal will go over like a lead brick.
Candidate filing for 2006 races closes tomorow. Two more candidates are announced in the Herald. There seems to be a dearth of Commissioner candidates, even if Barry Jacobs announces a re-election campaign.
I am still waiting for someone to challenge the Register of Deeds on a platform of allowing gay marriages. Mark Dorosin, where are you...?
Guest Post by James Protzman
In 1930, the US had 262,000 public schools for 28 million students. Guess what those numbers were 72 years later?
In 2002, the US had 91,000 schools for 54 million students. That's a drop of 170,000 schools while the student population nearly doubled. The average public school has gone from serving 100 students at a time to almost 600 students. This doesn't seem like a positive trend to me.
Here in the southern part of heaven, this trend is evidenced by our chronic difficulties in siting schools and in the growing popularity of both charter and private schools. For example, the Emerson Waldorf High School in Chapel Hill will graduate its first senior class this year. The Carolina Friends School has a growing waiting list in all grades as well. Both offer small school environments – but at a hefty price. Long gone are the days when Chapel Hill High School and Lincoln High School were both in the downtown area and young people were part of daily life in our communities. Maybe we should add “public school†to list of important assets when we think about planning the future of downtown.
Here's an update that I just got from the town on the Leadership Advisory Committee's first meeting this Thursday. Contrary to what you may have read in the paper, I am not a member of this committee. And now that it's going to be broadcast live, I don't even have to drive down to The Friday Center to stay in the loop.
I don't do this often, but here's UNC's press release in it's entirety:
New Carolina North Leadership Advisory Committee to meet March 2
CHAPEL HILL – A new Leadership Advisory Committee for Carolina North will meet for the first time Thursday (March 2) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The meeting will be held at 5 p.m. in the Redbud Room – a change from the previously announced Dogwood Room – of the William and Ida Friday Continuing Education Center.
Guest post by Steve Sherman
This week UNC and Internationalist Books play host to Bill Talen and Savitri Durkee, better known as Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. Bill and Savitri hail from NYC, where their pentacostal anti-capitalism started with preaching against sweatshops in the Times Square Disney Store.
Since then, the Reverend has performed enough Starbucks exorcisms to get himself permanently banned, held services inside Wal-marts, and spread the gospel of community, justice and anti-capitalism through revivals across the country. He's been profiled in the New York Times Magazine (and the London Observer Magazine) and has a book, "What Should I Do if Reverend Billy Is in My Store?" just released by the New Press.
The Reverend will be giving talks about his work Tuesday at Ibooks and Wednesday on campus, and will lead a revival service Thursday night. For more information, visit www.revbilly.com
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