A Year Away?

The Ayatollahs over in Iran say they want to enrich uranium so they can build a nuclear power plant and, if that were so, they could buy plutonium rods from Russia tomorrow and be in business.   But, instead, the Ayatollahs say they want to enrich uranium themselves with centrifuges which doesn’t sound unreasonable until…

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Jamie’s Voice

There will be more pain, more tears, more heartbreak as the trial goes on. But Jamie Kirk Hahn’s voice in the courtroom reminded us what was lost that awful April evening two years ago.   A witness who had talked to her by phone about a campaign billing problem described her as “genuine and honest.”…

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The Job Chase

A TAPster who spent many years as a private-sector economic developer offers this:   The myopic, confused and naïve approach of North Carolina Republicans to the state’s business recruitment efforts continues to baffle experts who toil daily to bring good jobs here.   Our Republicans are opposed to incentives as “corporate welfare,” and they don’t…

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Second Fiddle to South Carolina

This is about as good a tale of conniving as I’ve heard: I can’t remember why but forty years ago back in 1976 the state legislature moved our Presidential primary up from May to March – then the unexpected struck and Ronald Reagan whipped Gerald Ford.   It was the first time Reagan won a…

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Calling More Less

It rang a little jarring to open the newspaper and read, Stam Introduces First Bill of New Session – To Limit Eminent Domain.   No doubt Representative Skip Stam was right but it was a little like watching a knight errant tilting at a windmill – because, after all, Eminent Domain isn’t one of the…

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A Darker Power?

The Reverend William Barber got up to pray at a memorial service for three Muslim students killed in Chapel Hill and, right in the middle of his prayer, pointed his finger straight at Reverend Franklin Graham and said Graham lit the fuse to the powder keg that led to the murders.   Barber’s thinking went…

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Tata on Ice

The saga of Tony (Thriller) Tata continues. You can just hear that guy who does the movie trailers: “By day, he’s the powerful commander of DOT. At night, he’s A.J. Tata, mild-mannered novelist.”   Tata’s two roles collided last week when icy roads caused thousands of accidents back home while Thriller was in Chicago flogging…

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Inclined to Devilment

The local school board has a new training program to teach teachers that all cultures are equal and to move away from the ‘belief any culture is superior to another’ – which sounds fine except the concept of cultural equality rests on a kind of moral relativism that leads to odd places.   Take ISIS.…

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GOP Mysteries

Back when ex-Sen. Lauch Faircloth was a Democrat, he’d joke: “There are two things I’ve never understood: electricity and Republicans.” Evidently, he figured out Republicans, because he became one. But some of us still struggle. Three cases in point:   First: Republicans fought Obamacare because they said millions of Americans would lose their health insurance.…

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Shameful

A loyal TAPster outraged by Thom (No Clean Hands) Tillis contributes today’s blog:   Just when we thought it couldn’t get any colder last week, Senator Thom Tillis embarrassed North Carolina again, voting against Loretta Lynch’s nomination as US attorney general.   Lynch is the daughter of a Baptist minister from Greensboro who opened his church to protesters…

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