links for 2009-09-17

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  • Lex: Reinforcements
    Lex has been writing about the efforts of Florida's US Rep. Alan Grayson to get an audit of the Federal Reserve done, and soon. Apparently Rep. Grayson now has a Senate counterpart in Delaware's Sen. Ted Kaufman. Lex pulls a quote from an interview with Grayson in which he's asked what the Fed's been up to:

    "Congressman Grayson: They are performing a truly remarkable, surreptitious transfer of wealth from public to private hands. They are taking their ability to print money and shore up failed banks. They are simply stuffing money into the pockets of private interests."

    (tags: economics government)

  • Triad Biz Journal: Winston-Salem home sales down 20%

    "There were 445 sales of existing single-family homes in the Winston-Salem area, compared with 558 in August 2008, according to data compiled from the Triad Multiple Listing Service and released by the Winston-Salem Regional Association of Realtors."

    (tags: realestate winston-salem)

  • Lex: Can we PLEASE let the smart people run things for a while?

    Lex posts about an item concerning a film on Darwin that can't find a US distributor because the subject would be too divisive for US audiences. Huh? Here's the scariest part to me: "US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution." Can that 39% figure possibly be right? I'm hoping it really is the result of a loaded question like, "Do you believe that Darwin or God was right?" Somehow I doubt it, though.

    (tags: science culture)

  • Triad Biz Journal: GSO home sales drop in August

    "Greensboro home sales in August, at 490, were down 21.7 percent compared to August 2008, when 626 homes were sold, according to data released by the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association. The August total also was down about 4.3 percent from July, when 512 existing homes were sold."

    (tags: realestate greensboro)

Sustainibility Quote of the Day

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Fec, writing about the sustainibility movement, provides the quote of the day:

If climate change is a fact, and I believe it probably is, then we need to do something about it. However, clean coal, carbon capture and offsets are myths. Before we begin to indoctrinate society, I’d just like some agreed upon methodologies, rather than the hocus pocus money grab going on now.

Mostly Local Market, Lewisville

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According to this article from the Winston-Salem Journal a fellow named Tom Raif has opened a market focused on selling locally grown food has opened behind the Brush Strokes art studio on Shallowford Road.  From the article:

He's still in the process of filling the shelves. But he had local tomatoes and squash last week. Pears and apples came from Virginia. Eggs came right from Lewisville. He bought beef off the hoof from Pfafftown and had it processed locally to sell ground beef, steaks, roasts and soup bones. He also has chickens, whole and in various cuts, and plans to add sausage this week.

Right now, he's dealing with wholesalers who can get local produce, but he hopes to work more directly with farmers. He said he has contacted two organic farms about supplying him with pumpkins and other fall produce.

He also plans to add fresh breads, handmade soaps and other items soon.

Sen. Franken Does the Minnesota State Fair

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Former (maybe current) comedian and current US Senator Al Franken of Minnesota has gotten some YouTube love from his recent visit to the Minnesota State Fair.  Here he draws a map of the United States from memory:

And here he debates some folks about health reform and manages to actually have a novel thing called a conversation with them.  Credit also goes to the crowd for treating him with respect.

Love him or hate him I don't think there's much doubt that the man is sharp.

Youth is Served in Winston-Salem

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Looks like the east side of Winston-Salem is going to have a city council member who's barely old enough to drink legally:

Derwin Montgomery, a 21-year-old Winston-Salem State University senior, defeated Democratic incumbent Joycelyn Johnson for the East Ward seat on the Winston-Salem City Council during the Democratic primary Tuesday.

Montgomery garnered 530 votes or 57 percent of the votes cast in the East Ward. Johnson received 228 votes or 24 percent of the votes cast in the municipal primary. With no Republican challenger, Montgomery becomes one of the youngest city council members in recent history.

Montgomery attributed his success to the more than 400 Winston-Salem State students who supported his candidacy and participated in early voting, which concluded on Saturday, Sept. 12.

He sounds like an impressive young man: Deans Scholar, Youth Minister at Calvary Baptist, first VP for NAACP's Youth & College Division and he's planning on enrolling at Wake Forest U next fall in the dual degree program for law school and divinity school. 

Let's see, what was I doing at 21?  Well, on any given day I could find the best happy hour in town based on the criteria that buying one beer for $1 could get you access to an all you can eat taco bar.  That's huge when you're 21 and broke, or 23 and broke for that matter.  Other than that I was pretty much worthless.

Congrats to Mr. Montgomery and here's hoping he lives up to his potential.

links for 2009-09-15

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  • Fear was no excuse to condone torture
    From an opinion piece in the Miami Herald written by two former Marines (Charles C. Krulak was commandant of the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999. Joseph P. Hoar was commander in chief of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994): "We have seen how ill-conceived policies that ignored military law on the treatment of enemy prisoners hindered our ability to defeat al Qaeda. We have seen American troops die at the hands of foreign fighters recruited with stories about tortured Muslim detainees at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. And yet Cheney and others who orchestrated America's disastrous trip to “the dark side'' continue to assert — against all evidence — that torture “worked'' and that our country is better off for having gone there."
    (tags: war government)
  • Michelle Malkin and the anatomy of the 2 million protester lie | Media …
    How an official crowd estimate of 70,000 for the conservatives' march on Washington turned into a reported 2 million on some media outlets. Keep in mind that rally/protest numbers in DC are ALWAYS disputed and the holder of the rally always questions the estimate of the whoever's in charge. For that reason the National Park Service stopped providing estimates for the number of people on the National Mall during events, and you'll notice that the 70,000 estimate came from the DC Fire Department. Still, 70k to 2m is a little outrageous.
    (tags: government politics)
  • AVC: Speaking My Mind
    Fred Wilson nails writes about his right to speak his mind on his own blog: "I am not an expert in everything I write about. But that is not going to stop me from speaking my mind about things other than venture capital and web startups. It might annoy or piss some people off. It could even hurt our business because those people are less likely to do business with me or our firm.

    But I've made the decision to put myself out there, speak my mind publicly, and say what I think. And I am going to continue to do it."

    What he said.

    (tags: blog blogs)

  • Upcoming Plastic Bottle Ban Has Some Counties Moving

    "State officials are educating public and private solid waste management facilities to separate the banned items from the waste stream before those items arrive at a disposal facility. If necessary, enforcement of the disposal bans will be applied primarily at disposal facilities such as landfills and transfer stations by the N.C. Division of Waste Management. The law does allow for accidental or occasional disposal of small amounts of banned materials. However, starting a recycling program for the banned materials is the simplest and easiest way to ensure compliance."

    (tags: environment recycling northcarolina)