December 19, 2011
The final few weeks of the year, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, offer multiple opportunities to observe and participate in long-established traditions.
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December 5, 2011
One can often determine the worthiness of a social or political cause based on the language utilized by its champions. Words have precise meanings, which are established and agreed on by common usage. Consider the term “culture.” By definition...
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November 21, 2011
News regarding public education is a staple in the diet of those who follow current events. Rarely does a day go by without yet another foul-smelling bowl of stew from the education front. Toothsome dishes they are not; they reek of futility and failure.
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November 7, 2011
Liberals are motivated by emotion and sentiment, often to the exclusion of reason. When this phenomenon rears its unsightly head, it should be addressed. In recent weeks, we have been reminded that envy is not only an emotion but also a major component of...
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May 2, 2010
One's opinion of the tea party movement depends, to a large extent, on the sources from which one derives the news of the day.
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April 4, 2010
It is interesting and instructive to study the ever-changing nature of warfare, and to compare the tendencies of heroes past to the inclinations of those who direct modern engagements. In mid-February, for instance, the U.S. military reportedly "fire...
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March 7, 2010
Little Johnny can't read or write because, in government schools, the interests of teachers' unions prevail over the interests of children. Unions may be beneficial to educators, but they are indifferent -- if not hostile -- to the intellectual developmen...
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February 7, 2010
It is unfortunate that race so often plays a pivotal role in the resolution of issues that fundamentally have nothing to do with race. This is a social disorder that is particularly acute in Greensboro and Guilford County.
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January 24, 2010
I have a confession to make: I am a "behind-the-times, anti-science, flat-earth climate skeptic." These are the terms British Prime Minister Gordon Brown used last month, on the eve of the Copenhagen climate confab, to describe those of us who d...
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January 10, 2010
If an all-male hockey team were to play a game against an all-female team, on which club would you place your 20 bucks? If you believe a male victory is a foregone conclusion, you need not apologize; you are neither a “misogynist” (one who hat...
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November 29, 2009
Hysteria often results in misleading headlines, false beliefs and needless hand-wringing.
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November 15, 2009
If we imagine politics as a tug-of-war contest, Tuesday, Nov. 3, represented a dramatic shift of momentum. Only a day earlier, liberals stood on dry ground, as conservatives wallowed in the waist-deep muck into which they were (deservedly) pulled a...
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November 1, 2009
October 18, 2009
It is amusing to observe the antics of those who disregard ancient wisdom. Several years ago, despite our ancestors' advice on discretion and valor, the editors of The Baltimore Sun penned a critical response to an op-ed written by Bill Buckley. Al...
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September 20, 2009
Henry Bemis, who loved all things literary, would be delighted to hear that the Books page has returned to the News & Record. Conversely, Mrs. Bemis (she would not permit us to address her as "Helen") is probably turning over in her gr...
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September 6, 2009
The platform of the National Socialist Movement is a moron's manifesto, a self-contradicting tract penned to accommodate the sophisticated tastes cultivated in our nation's finest trailer parks. Outside of the ignoramus community, it does not merit seriou...
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August 23, 2009
When a young man was shot to death three weeks ago at Hickory Trails in Greensboro, this newspaper's editorial board declared the broad-daylight killing "unacceptable." Rightly so. "Also inexcusable," the editors continued, "...
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August 9, 2009
Imagine an experiment in which "Victoria," a recent college graduate with a degree in English, takes over a 10th-grade class, the racial composition of which is 80 percent minority. A few miles down the street, in another 10th-grade classr...
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July 26, 2009
There are limits to the severity of justice dispensed by mere mortals. This is unfortunate, because many of the deeds perpetrated by our fellow man are so incomprehensibly vile that even the ultimate sanction, the death penalty, seems inadequate. Yet ther...
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July 12, 2009
Late last month there appeared in these pages a series of immigration-related news articles, all of which broadcast the perspective of those who favor amnesty and the extension of full benefits to illegal immigrants. The frequency of such reports, and the...
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June 28, 2009
Several months ago, Aaron Stevens, a black police officer in Hopeville, Ill., quit his second job in order to prepare for a written exam. Passing the examination, which was taken by several dozen other candidates, was prerequisite to promotion within the...
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June 14, 2009
How quickly we abandon our collective conscience for the promise of economic development. It is distressing to witness the state's shameless groveling for a few dozen jobs, and the hastiness with which so many of our representatives disregard as archaic i...
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May 31, 2009
Conventional wisdom maintains that teachers are overworked, underpaid and belong to a profession insufficiently appreciated by the public. Not surprisingly, then, Gov. Bev Perdue's recent executive order, which cut teacher pay by 0.5 percent, incensed not...
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May 17, 2009
Observations on this, that and the other: Two or three times a year, it seems, many topics draw my attention simultaneously, rendering difficult the winnowing process. So, rather than choosing one subject to address this week, I have written a few sentenc...
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May 3, 2009
Only one-fifth of the Winston-Salem Police Department's latest class of recruits are "members of underrepresented groups." To most of us, this statistic is a matter of indifference; we read it with a shrug of the shoulders as if to say, "So...
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