"It's brutal, it's cruel, it's senseless. It's so unnecessary."

"We have no money, we have no medicine and now they want to take away the panhandlers licenses."

The invisible man is mute too

Ed Cone called Greensboro city council candidate at-large Gary Nixon the invisible man for his lack of internet presence.

My dad suggested that I email Mr. Nixon and just ask him why he doesn't have a website or a blog. So I did, to the email address listed in the N&R candidate profile. My first email of Sunday afternoon got no reply, so I sent a second on Monday night. Still no reply.

Ed worried that, not only is there a lack of information about Mr. Nixon, but that his avoidance of modern communication tools might indicate "luddism, or at least fuddy-duddism." Whatever you call it, ignoring email is an indication to me that this candidate would not be good at responding to constituents if elected.

Martin Street: Den of iniquity or home of Greensboro's next big thing?

Ryan Shell wrote this on his blog today:

"I had a conversation with someone last night about Martin St, which is located off of Lee St and just a few blocks from downtown. It’s a small street, but one that is widely known for gang activity, drug sales, and public consumption of alcohol – not exactly a lot of positives."

Martin Street rang a bell for me. It is the address of the headquarters for Urban Hotel Group, the newly formed company that proposes to build a $75 million hotel on Lee Street.

A tale of two stories

Two media outlets, same crime, two descriptions of the suspects:

From the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record:

"...three suspects, including one armed with a handgun..."

From WGHP:

"...three black males wearing dark colored hoodies."

"Danny Thompson Common Sense"

Occasionally, I post candidate videos as a public service. It does not constitute an endorsement..

Caamano for City Council

Reminded that this year's primary ballot for Greensboro City Council will list candidates alphabetically starting with "C," the candidate formerly known as Ryan Shell officially changed his name today to Ryan Caamano.

Your other left

This sign on Pisgah Church Road today warned of lane closure ahead.

Here is the lane closure:

Litterbug for city council

Is throwing your campaign literature into the yards of voters a smart way to engender support?

I appreciate his effort, but I have to give district 3 candidate George Hartzman the award for "most annoying candidate."

And did fellow district 3 candidate Jay Ovittore go on vacation?

McDonald's suckage

The McDonald's Big 'N Tasy with Cheese as advertised:

The Big 'N Tasty with Chese as served at Battleground/Cone McDondalds in Greensboro, NC:

Handicapping the at-large race

My updated expected order of finish for the Greensboro city council at-large race. Determined by an informal assessment of positive name-recognition, money raised, yard-sign distribution, buzz, my understanding of the Greensboro electorate and expected voter turnout. Numbers in green (up) and red (down) indicate the candidate's change in position, if any, since the last prediction.

1. MariKay AbuZuaiter +1
2. Nancy Vaughan -1
3. Robbie Perkins
4. Danny Thompson +4
5. Sandra Anderson-Groat +2
6. DJ Hardy -1
7. Julie Lapham -1
8. Gary Nixon +2
9. Ryan Shell -4
10. Jorge Cornell -1
11. Max Benbassat

City News blog is written by a team of city employees and will focus on city related stories.

in Calgary, Candada.

But what a great idea.

Deleted from News & Record story: "The threats would be coming more from them than the criminals."

Before the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record scrubbed their story on the reinstatement of AJ Blake to the Greensboro Police Department, Jerry Bledsoe printed the original. Here is what he says was subsequently deleted from the story without comment or explanation.

"It's obvious I can't work with (the gang squad)," Blake said. "The threats would be coming more from them than the criminals." 

Why would the N&R remove this without comment or explanation? 

Piedmont Publius: News & Record launders another story

SamH at Piedmont Publius about the News & Record's story "Police officer gets his job back after appeal.":

"I could swear I saw a quote from Blake in yesterday’s N&R online version saying he wouldn’t be rejoining the gang unit because he probably would face more harassment from fellow officers than the gangs themselves. An interesting perspective from a police officer who’s lucky to have a job, I thought to myself.

"But the N&R —city government’s media partner —– appears to have deleted that quote from both today’s print edition and updated online versions. Evidently they have some sort of interest in helping Blake ease back into his duties as a public servant."

Did the News & Record remove that commentary by Blake from its online story without comment? (It would not be the first time, or the second, or the third, or the fourth, or the fifth, or the sixth.)

[UPDATE: Jerry Bledsoe provides the deleted quoation.]

Endorsement of Hartzman

A letter in today's News & Record:
--------------

I have known George Hartzman for six years and believe him to be careful in spending taxpayers’ money.

He is young and has the ability and strength to add to his family and investment lives that of being a political leader on the City Council in District 3..

Also, I have read one of his books, “Thinking,” which is challenging.

John Hancock
Greensboro
 ------

No doubt.

The book, BTW, is titled "Think." From the book's description:

"Think is an evolving philosophy questioning what did, is, could, should and shouldn't. The who to find, is you and what to do now."

WSJS newsman does not understand divorce rate

For the second day now, I've caught WSJS's newsman Smith Patterson reporting on Rockingham County's high divorce rate. A rate of over 15%, highest in North Carolina -- he says.

Wrong.

Patterson is reporting that 15% of the people living in Rockingham County are divorced and calling it the divorce rate. That is not the divorce rate.That is a measure of marital status--not the same thing. The divorce rate measures the rate at which marriages end in divorce not the percentage of people in any given population who are divorced.

Think of it this way. If you wanted to know a county's school system's graduation rate, would you measure the number of high school seniors who graduate from among the high school seniors in that system or would you measure the percentage of the entire county population who have a diploma? One thing would measure the schools' graduation rate, the other would measure the populace's educational attainment, two different things. Smith Patterson is erroneously reporting the populace's marital status as the county's divorce rate.

There are two big mistakes in saying that the divorced percentage of the population reflects the divorce rate.

1. A divorce rate must measure against marriages, not against the population at large (Children and other people never married cannot meaningfully be included in the population from among which the rate of divorce is measured). A county that has 1,000 marriages with 400 of them ending in divorce has a higher divorce rate than the county that has 10,000 marriages ending in 400 divorces -- same number of divorces, different divorce rates.
   
2. It fails to account for people moving in our out of the county. If I get divorced in Florida then move to Rockingham County, I contribute to the percentage of divorced people in Rockingham County, but I do not contribute to the percentage of marriages ending in divorce (the divorce rate) in Rockingham County because my marriage did not end in divorce in Rockingham County.

The Winston-Salem journal gets it right, reporting accuratley on the percentage of people living in Rockingham County who are divorced. WSJS's Smith Patterson, in reporting that this is the divorce rate, is just wrong.

Speakers from the floor. It could be worse.

Hat tip Lex.

Public Access Gold - He's scaring the boy scouts in the audience - watch more funny videos

"It is time for those who supported Mitch Johnson's witch hunt to give up and admit they were wrong."

Talk to enough people about the "black book" and you'll hear the kind of whispers I have. In fact, as John Hammer points out in this week's Rhinceros Times, the accusations against cops Wray, Brady and Sanders have, all along, been nothing more than unsubstantiated whispers.

They still persist in updated versions: "Oh, it's not THAT black book, it's the others that remain secret," or "Wait til the secret tapes come out." Yeah? Those sounds awfully similar to the "If you only knew what we know" that Hammer rightly recalls was the empty message that justified this colossal failure in public policy. In the end, the people saying "If you only knew what we know" did not know shit. And the people who tell me that there is another shoe, or two, to drop do not know shit either, except that they have a problem with reality. Hammer puts their BS straight up against the undeniable facts:

"It has been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of Justice and the Greensboro Police Department, and the allegations made against Wray and his staff are unfounded. Certainly if what Mitch Johnson said were true, one of these investigations would have turned up sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to take action, but they have not"

Read the whole thing.

Handicapping the at-large race -- UPDATED

It occurred to me that in my previous handicapping of the at-large Greensboro city council race, I ignored an obvious tool at my disposal--one that ads to the knowledge of "buzz." By using the search function of the main page of Greensboro101, I can see the number of times a candidate's name appears in a blog or news story in the past week. Armed with that additional data, here are my current predictions for the order of finish for the October 6th primary.

1. Nancy Vaughan
2. MariKay AbuZuaiter
3. Robbie Perkins
4. DJ Hardy +1
5. Ryan Shell +1
6. Julie Lapham -2
-------
7. Sandra Anderson-Groat
8. Danny Thompson
9. Jorge Cornell +1
10 Gary Nixon -1
11. Max Benbasst

Handicapping the at-large race

Judging by media coverage, finance reports, buzz and my perception of the Greensboro electorate, here is this week's predicted order of finish for the October 6th, Greensboro city council at-large primary, from which six will advance. (They do not reflect my order of preference, I remaining largely undecided, for what that's worth.)

1. Nancy Vaughan
2. MariKay AbuZuaiter
3. Robbie Perkins
4. Julie Lapham
5. DJ Hardy
6. Ryan Shell
-------
7. Sandra Anderson-Groat
8. Danny Thompson
9. Gary Nixon
10 Jorge Cornell
11. Max Benbassat

Jorge Cornell's Statement at 9/22 Candidate Forum

Grace.

Inbox: Greensboro homeless to have council candidates forum

In my inbox:
-------------------

The Interactive Resource Center would like to invite you to visit the participate in a candidates lunch and discussion with members of Greensboro's homeless community.  Please RSVP to communicationforchange@gmail.com or 430-3125.

WHAT:  Meet the Candidates lunch discussion for Greensboro City Council candidates
WHERE: Interactive Resource Center, 3015 E. Bessemer Avenue
WHEN: Thursday, October 1, 12:00 to 1:00

Hope to see you there!

Liz Seymour, Director

Helping the News & Record do laundry

Yesterday, I wrote about the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record's difficulty aligning their heretofore fact-deprived narrative of the "black book" with common knowledge, resulting in this:

"The lawsuit accuses the city, former Police Chief David Wray, former Deputy Police Chief Randall Brady and Detective Scott Sanders of a pattern of harassment and discrimination that included an alleged photo lineup or “black book” of black officers used in criminal investigations."

 Today, without comment or explanation, the article looks like this:

"The lawsuit accuses the city, former police Chief David Wray, former Deputy Police Chief Randall Brady and Detective Scott Sanders of a pattern of harassment and discrimination that included a photo lineup or “black book” of black officers used in a criminal investigation."

I guess I should be grateful for small favors (I am); that somebody was big enough to bring that article inline with the facts (they were). I remain puzzled though by the N&R's willingness to launder articles without comment. It seems to me as if the paper of record should maintain some sort of, I dunno, record.

Can someone translate this News & Record article to English for me?

From an article today by Ryan Seals in the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record reporting that the Department of Justice has declined to prosecute the City of Greensboro for discrimination on behalf of black police officers, Seals writes:

"The lawsuit accuses the city, former Police Chief David Wray, former Deputy Police Chief Randall Brady and Detective Scott Sanders of a pattern of harassment and discrimination that included an alleged photo lineup or “black book” of black officers used in criminal investigations."

That is a meaningless jumble.  Try to answer this question: What is that paragraph describing as alleged?

This is the News & Record reaping the consequences of refusing to come to terms with the facts surrounding the "black book." The News & Record has now gone so far down the rabbit hole in avoiding admitting its previous reporting errors, that only gobbledygook can link its previous reporting with the common knowledge of its readers as informed by other sources.

[Update: The article has been edited.]

Greensboro Partnership city council candidate questionnaires

The Greensboro Partnership sent an economic development survey to city council candidates. As the title implies, it asks questions related to economic development or, at least, economic development the way it has come to be seen in Greensboro, including questions about support of the Greenway, incentives, creation of a water authority and the "critical importance" of completing the Urban Loop.

Because of its premise, my favorite question was this one:

#9. Public funding needs exceed the city's available resources. Which of the following options would you support as a way to finance public budge items?

The question about how the city can continue to support Action Greensboro was a good one too.

The completed surveys are available here. Click on a district (at-large, district 1, etc) and the individual survey results are available beneath each candidate.

Local media failures a pox on Greensboro

If you have given up on reading Jerry Bledsoe's "Cops in Black and White" in the Rhinoceros Times because you think you "get it;" or, if as someone rather surprisingly told me yesterday, you have formed an opinion that it is not worth your attention without having read any of it; or if you are a local journalist who worries that you might ruin your weekend with the discomfort of facing the failures of your enterprise and colleagues, do yourself a favor and read anyway this week's chapter 85.

It is about the incredible lie perpetrated on the people of Greensboro and how the lie gained a foothold that had people and institutions become invested in perpetuating the lie, even when their professional responsibilities were to refute it.

The storytelling by our local media regarding the "black book" is the most monumental failure of Greensboro's institutions in my lifetime. Their refusal to acknowledge or correct their mistakes is the most heartbreaking disappointment this Greensboro son has seen in anything "Greensboro" since moving here in 1970.

The News & Record gave its imprimatur to fabrications, then declined to dispel the myths when new information was revealed. This failure sits on the shoulders of editor John Robinson and publisher Robin Saul. Yeah, it's rude to call people out, and I don't like how it makes me feel personally. But these decisions were not made by a building or a masthead or a company, they were made by real people who bear their responsibility.

The News & Record opinion pages called for a full and complete revelation of the truth surrounding the black book. When that truth conflicted with tales already spun, The News & Record pulled up short, its windy protestations suddenly no longer serious. The News & Record rejected substantive critiques of how it covered this issue from its opinion pages by explaining that such examinations had already been thoroughly undertaken in local blogs. These decisions were not made by a newspaper, or an editorial page, or a corporation, these decisions were made by a real person; this failure sits on the shoulders of opinion editor Allen Johnson.

Local television follows the lead of local newspapers. As long as the News & Record is complicit in letting the myth stand, WFMY gets a free pass on their continued perpetuation of the black book myth, but they should know better.

There are two serious consequences to these failures. First, Greensboro can now look forward to another generation of unnecessary racial suspicion, between the "yes it was" implications of believing the black book myths and the "no it wasn't" understanding of the truth. Let's spend another thirty years with our fingers crossed that we'll just "move on" and forget. Without a mass forgetting, subsequent legitimate charges of racism will have a harder time being taken seriously, first having to prove they are not a product of the local media "crying wolf" again.

Second, Greensboro is consigned to going forward knowing we are operating at the disadvantage of having small media that will choose concealing their own ineptitudes at the expense of pursuing the truth; that any genuine understanding of who we are as a community is in jeopardy; that any perception we think we have of ourselves, if gleaned from the media, may simply be a chimera.

We face a future almost certain to include stepping on some otherwise avoidable landmine because the institutions reponsible for shining the light on our path will extinguish the light if they find themselves poorly reflected in it. They would prefer to let us stumble through the dark rather than utter the simple but too-big-for-Greensboro words of "We made a mistake."

Talking to dad about the elections

I'd like to think it is because he repects my opinion, but even if it's just to give us something to talk about, that's okay too. Either way, my dad always asks for my thoughts about municipal elections. He asked about the upcoming primaries today. I'll keep the conversation private, but one thing that occured to me is that we have the best slate of candidates I've seen in over a decade.

That's not to disparage anybody who has run in the past, but this year we have an exciting breadth of attributes and qualifications among the candidates that we simply have not had in a while -- if ever. It is going to be damn difficult to narrow down the at-large candidates to only three. We are fortunate to have that kind of dilema. If you want to see what I am talking about, check out the News & Record's Amanda Lehmert's most excellent collection of elction and candidate information.

Thumbs down: Lowe's Home Improvement supplier Web-Don Countertops

I ordered a 3' x 6' laminated counter top from Lowe's in mid August. I was told it would arrive on August 31. On September 2nd, having not heard anything, I called Lowes and was told it had been backordered and would be delivered to the store on September 16. Today I got a call. It has been back ordered again and may arrive next week.

The Lowe's vendor making this coutnertop is Web-Don out of Winston-Salem.

Be advised: Thumbs down.

Baucus's Trojan horse. Will Hagan bite?

Senator Max Baucus released a health care bill from the Senate Finance Committee yesterday for which North Carolina's Democratic senator Kay Hagan offered her partial support.

The Baucus bill is a gift to insurance companies disguised as health care reform. Let us hope Hagan recognizes this.

Matt Taibbi explains the principles reflected in the Baucus bill:

Those principles seem to have been: no single-payer system, no meaningful public option, no meaningful employer mandates and a very meaningful mandate for individual consumers. In other words, the only major reform with teeth would be the one forcing everyone to buy some form of private insurance, no matter how crappy, or suffer a tax penalty. If the public option is the sine qua non for progressives, then the "individual mandate" is the counterpart must-have requirement for the insurance industry.

Children at play. News & Record editor's juvenile antics

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record added a note to a letter to the editor today saying "The News & Record opposes the state Education Lottery."

The News & Record's web site lists several people as on the editorial staff who are, in fact, no longer with the N&R including Becky Layton, Elma Sabo and Dennis Shelton. Clearly the editorial staff listing online is not up to date. So I emailed the editorial page editor Allen Johnson. Here is the exchange, each message copied in its entirety*.

Hi Allen,

Can you tell me who are the individuals that formed that opinion on behalf of the News & Record?

Yours,
Roch 

Allen replied:

Yes, they are listed every day on the top of the editorial page.

I responded.:

I did not ask you where they are listed. Will you tell me, please, who they are.

He wrote back:

They are on the page. I don't have time to do your reporting for you, Roch.

Seriously? What's next? "I know you are but what am I?" "Your mama?"

Geez.

[* My first message had the subject line "The News & Record opposes the state Education Lottery."]

Bloggin' Bencini

A new blog appeared on Greensboro101 today that I hadn't seen before. It is written by Rob Bencini. Bencini, former economic developer for Guilford County, promises a "different eye-opening way of looking at business, the economy and economic development."

This should be good.

Congratulations Lex

Former (Greensboro, NC) News & Record reporter and citizen journalism sacrificial lamb Lex Alexandar has a new job. He was kind of coy about it, only hinting at it at his blog, mumbling something about not mixing blogging and work. Yes! Weekly announces it plainly however, so congratulations Lex on your new job as Director of External Communications at Greensboro College. Lex is one smart dude, he should be a great asset to GC.

You know what grinds my gears? Unsigned newspaper editorials.

Can someone explain this to me? Why does the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record still insist on publishing unsigned editorials? There are two editors at the N&R, Allen Johnson and Doug Clark. Any editorial is going to be written by one or the other and it is pretty easy to tell whose ideas you are reading. What is the advantage of publishing an unsigned "staff" editorial? Seriously. Other than trying to fool people with some kind of man-behind-the-curtain pretense of weightiness, is there a good reason I am failing to see? Seriously, I must be missing something.

More local hypocricy on health care

Local blogger Brenda is against "government run health care." She doesn't even like the bipartisan Baucus proposal on health care. She is afraid "Our great grand children are going to be paying our doctors bill for us."

Brenda is on Medicare.

More and more I am seeing people opposed to health care reform are either stupendously selfish--"I've got mine, you can go jump in a lake" kind of people--or they are confused.

Will somebody tell T Dianne Bellamy Small to contact me? I have her email address

According to the News & Record, city council person T. Dianne Bellamy Small's campaign email address is tdbsforcouncil@gmail.com. I tried to send to it. It was not a valid account. It is now, belonging to yours truly.

It's the twenty-first-friggin' century people. Let's try to keep up. If I weren't such a nice guy, I could sit here for the rest of the election season and impersonate a city council representative with this whizzbang new technology. As it is, I'll help her get that address back if she wants it.

[UPDATE: I have been informed that the email listed at the N&R was a typo, I am told the correct address is tdbsforcouncil@mail.com and the N&R web site now lists that as the email address.]

I love me some irony

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record would not allow online comments on freelance columnist Charles Davenport, Jr's most recent column. N&R editor Allen Johnson provided various reasons for why not, each at odd wtih the facts, then finally wrote a post attempting to explain why again and people use his post as a forum to have the discussion not allowed beneath Davenport's column.

Greensboro101.com: The crowd knows

Another thing I like about the new Greensboro101.com is that it is really easy to see what local items people think are worth recommending.

Item previews include a "Recommend this item" button.

Items that have received at least one recommendation are shown in the "Hot" tabs on the main, news and blog pages. The wisdom of the crowd brings the notable items to our attention.

Greensboro101.com: Local, smarter

One of the things I like about the new Greensboro101.com is that it gathers all of the latest items from Greensboro sources on one page. At a glance, you can see the latest items from a variety of sources on one screen.

If you want to see the latest from only newsorgs or only from blogs, that's easy. Just use the navigator in the upper left corner to select the blog or news home page.

Animated building projection

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

Greensboro time lapse

From Mark Wagoner Productions:

Got Headphones? Klangstrahler Projekt

Psy trance funk. Good nice and loud.

 Hope - Klangstrahler Projekt

[UPDATE: Sorry, the link to this song has broken]

Big Brother watching -- update on greenway bench camera

According to Greensboro College, the camera trained on the Greenway benches was installed on the "Greenway right of way." The online plat and data viewer do not show any such right of way or easement. I have asked Lex Alexandar in his capacity as the new Greensboro College director for external communications to point me to documentation that delineates this right of way. [Update: Greensboro College granted an easement to the City of Greensboro in June of 2008. Documented here.]

According to Jeri Rowe, the camera is owned by the City of Greensboro and was moved from another location to meet this need. Jeri says Action Greensboro has purchased another camera to replace the one that was moved at a cost of $6,000. It is unclear if Action Greensboro will own that camera and lend it to the city, give it to the city or sell it to the city.

Pictures taken by the camera are available online for a limited time each day.* They are deleted automatically at midnight. Today's were posted at 8:52 AM. It is unclear when the pictures were taken as there is no date or time stamp.

Of the sixteen pictures available online today, only one shows a human subject.

The rest look like this:

[* Update: Apparently, the pictures were made available online only by request, only for fifteen hours before being removed and subsequent pictures are not posted to the City's web site as a regular matter of course.]

Much better blogs

One of the features I really like about the new Greensboro 101 is the ability to read the latest local blog posts sorted by blogger (or author).

From the Greensboro 101 home page, use the navigator in the upper left corner to go to the Blogs page.

 

On the Blogs page, you may then select the "Blogs" tab, which will display the list of local bloggers.

Click on the name of a blogger in the list and the titles of their latest posts will be displayed. Click on a particular post and it will appear in the viewport window.

.

Jeri Rowe, man's man.

The News & Record's Jeri Rowe called me yesterday to discuss my post about his report on the surveillance of benches on the Greenway.

What a refreshing conversation. My post was highly critical of Jeri's reporting, but Jeri did not call to argue or to roll over for the sake of avoiding confrontation. Instead we had a man-to-man conversation about the issues at hand -- honest, forthright and productive. Jeri explained to me where my knowledge was lacking and acknowledged my legitimate concerns. We joked about whether the proper spelling is "gawd-awful" or "gawdawful" and I feigned shock at his salty language. But in the end, we had a better understanding of each other, the issues and, most importantly, how to proceed in pursuit of a positive outcome. Jeri said he would follow up with an attempt to clarify some of the questions I raised (some of which have subsequently been answered).

Jeri did not call me to cover his ass, brush me off or jerk my chain. He called to learn, understand, educate and open a door to solutions -- honest, productive, unfortunately rare and much appreciated.

Do I have this right? Taxpayer money spent on private property?

Fox 8 is reporting this morning that Greensboro Parks and Recreation has installed cameras a camera to monitor the infamous Greenway benches.

According to the Guilford County Geographic Information Data Viewer, the benches are on property owned by Greensboro College. If that is correct, I have to ask: Is it appropriate for the taxpayers to fund equipment installations on private property?

I have made a public records request of the Greensboro Public Affairs office to view the pictures taken by this camera.

[Update: Greensboro College granted an easement to the City of Greensboro in June of 2008. Documented here.]
.

Am I as dumb as I look?

I emailed (Greensboro, NC) News & Record editor Allen Johnson to ask why comments were not allowed on Charles Davenport's column on Sunday. Allen replied that it was the N&R's policy not to enable comments on racially sensitive columns. When I pointed out to him that of the four columns in the past month about race, three of them allowed comments and only Davenport's did not, Allen replied:

"Sorry I wasn't clear. We allow comments on editorials and signed staff columns because they are written by staff people who are able to monitor and participate in those dialogues.
Not so with free-lancers."

That is at odds with the facts too. Columns by freelancer Ed Cone allow comments, as do all of the other freelancers. Even Davenport's column from August allowed comments.

Contrary to Allen's initial explanation, comments are allowed on columns about race. Contrary to Allen's second explanation, comments are allowed on columns by freelancers.

So why were comments not allowed on Davenport's most recent column? Who knows? One thing is sure, it was not for any of the reasons offered by the News & Record's editorial page editor.

This kind of thing is so Greensboro, and so tiresome: Someone in a position of authority is asked a direct question and proceeds by jerking the questioner around. It is so small. Greensboro deserves better.

Update: On his third try, Allen says, contrary to the evidence, it really is that they do not allow comments on columns about race... or sex.

Why Charles Davenport, Jr. is insulated from comments at the News & Record

I emailed (Greensboro, NC) News & Record editor Allen Johnson to ask why comments were allowed on every column, editorial and letter on Sunday except for Charles Davenport Jr.'s. Here is the entirety of his reply:

"We as a general policy don't enable comments on racially sensitive content because the comments tend to get ugly and out of hand."

Update: The facts collide with Johnson's explanation. In the past month, there have been three editorials about race, each had comments enabled.

• "Take a direct approach to racial justice" -- by Doug Clark
• "Being safe rather than sorry" -- (An unsigned editorial about reporting on Nazis)
• "Greensboro is a poor location for Neo-Nazi gathering" -- (An unsigned editorial)

I could find no other columns about race in the past month in which comments were NOT enabled. Davenport's appears to be the only one.

Update II: Allen offers as a subsequent explanation that the N&R does not allow comments on columns by freelancers, also contrary to the facts, as documented here.

Update II: On his third try, Allen says, contrary to the examples above, it really is that they do not allow comments on columns about race... or sex. 

I love you, Greensboro

May this serve us well.

Big Brother's anonymous little brothers

In an unsigned gawd-awful piece of reporting, in which the author makes a number of unattributed assertions*, the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record reports that unnamed "bench advocates put in a camera bought with private money" to photograph people on the Greenway benches.

What? Who are these people with a camera trained on public benches? Who is collecting the photographs it takes and what are they doing with them? Are city representatives among the "bench advocates" and have they lent some sort of quasi official sanction to this vigilante surveillance?

I have emailed N&R reporter Amanda Lehmert and editor John Robinson and asked them to clarify.

(*In addition to the unnamed "bench advocates," the story also asserts, without attribution or explanation, that the words inscribed on the benches are "words that mean much to Warnersville residents," and that the unnamed "folks involved want to keep those benches beside Warnersville.")

Update: Amanda informs me it was Jeri Rowe who wrote the piece. I have emailed him asking for comment too.

What the? Charles Davenport insulated from criticism?

Earlier, I commented on Charles Davenport's silly and superficial column in today's (Greensboro, NC) News & Record.

This evening, I went back to Davenport's column at the News & Record to see what, if anything, readers had to say about it in the comments. But comments are not enabled on Davenport's column. They are on Allen Johnson's column; George Will's column; the guest editorial and the paper's unsigned editorial, In fact, every one of today's News & Record columns has comments enabled -- except for Davenport's.

Strange.

.

The left are like Nazis. Meaningless drivel from Charles Davenport

Ed Cone brings to our attention a column by Charles Davenport in this week's (Greensboro, NC) News & Record in which Devenport says that a lot of what modern American Nazis want sounds a lot like what American liberals want.

Yawn.

A lot of what the American National Socialists want also sounds a lot like what modern conservatives want, including:

- Prohibiting abortion
- The right to bear arms
- Withdrawal from the United Nations
- An end to welfare
- Reestablishment of the nuclear family

To paraphrase Davenport, if not for the their unsavory perspective on some other things, many -- perhaps most -- conservatives would subscribe to the agenda.

And there you have it. A superficial comparison no more a commentary on the American right than Davenport's comparison to the American left.

Davenport's shtick as the perpetual divider of all observation to antipodal left or right is tired and increasingly useless.

As I said, "yawn."

More local "Medicare good/government health insurance bad" nonsense

One of Ayn Rand's central themes in "Atlas Shrugged" is that adherence to reason is the highest measure of human life. As several of her characters explain and illustrate, if your "thinking" has you maintaining contradictory propositions, then one of your premises is wrong. "A is A," as she writes; A cannot be A at one moment then B at another.

Medicare is government health insurance. So, if you insist that you are against government health insurance and then use Medicare as an example of a good alternative to government health care, you are engaged in the very broken thinking that Ayn Rand described as despicable and dangerous. You are abandoning your mind.

I haven't finished "Atlas Shrugged" yet, so I do not know if reason wins or if the world falls to the mindless mystics. In our current health care debate, it is abundantly clear where reason is being abandoned.

Something groovy this way comes

Tuesday.

Greensboro Public Library's David Theall is smart

Having recently criticized the City of Greensboro for their user-unfriendly distribution of press releases, I think it is only appropriate to note an admirable exception. Press releases from the city library's David Theall arrive with a meaningful subject line and the press release in the body of the email (I know, sounds normal, but it is not the way most City press releases are sent). Somebody ought to call David for some pointers -- or give him a promotion.

Council candidate Vaughan offers public economic interest disclosure

[full disclosure: The candidate's husband is a client of my web site design services]

In March, 2009, the Greensboro City Council passed a resolution supporting legislation that would require municipal officials to comply with the same ethics guidelines as state officials. Although not yet required by law, at-large city council candidate Nancy Vaughan has completed and made public the North Carolina State Ethics Commission 2009 Statement of Economic Interest. She has issued a challenge to "current city council members and candidates to complete the same form."

Problem: High vacancy rates. Solution: Encourage building

Sometimes dumb is just plain dumb. Guilford County Commissioners are contemplating a gift to the construction industry in the form of tax rebates for building or adding on to property. As District 3 City Council candidate George Hartzman points out, the Triad has a glut of space:

Retail Vacancies: 10.5%
Office Vacancies: 18%
Warehouse Vacancies: 22.6%

According to Forbes, Greensboro is the nation's fourth most vacant city.

Look, Commissioner Arnold, nice try. You get an A for good intentions but please, put the idea down and step away from the table. Incentivising the production of something already in oversupply earns you an F in economics. If the interest is honestly in trying to stimulate economic activity, give a tax credit to everyone and anybody who creates a job. The current plan is not economic stimulus, it is a stinky stew of narrow thinking and political patronage.

Broken PTI promotion

The Bargain Blog says that Piedmont Triad International Airport has started a new "digital advertising campaign" to promote low fares and convince us that flights from PTI are often cheaper than from Charlotte or Raleigh.

This was the fare advertised today.

The ad takes one to the Delta web site where there is no $218 flight, but simply the form to search for fares. After several configurations of dates for GSO to CUN, the actual lowest fare offered was, one-stop (Atlanta) $468.83.

Hmm.

Orbitz offers sixty-three flights on those days, from GSO to CUN, each cheaper than PTI/Delta's "Low fare," the cheapest, $298.00 on Continental.

And, as for PTI's intention for this promotion to convince us that flights from PTI are often cheaper than neighboring airports, Orbitz offers the same travel dates from Raleigh Durham, one-stop, for $218 total and from Charlotte, non-stop, for $446 total.

If one is going to launch a digital advertising campaign, one should have some idea of how people shop digitally.

On Medicare and against "government run health care"

Mike Baron seems like a nice guy. He has certainly had some very hard knocks and one can only sympathise with the devestation wrought by his job loss and subsequent cancer. Still, symapthy is not an innoculation against critisism for hypocricy.

Mike says:

"We must never allow government to run health care."

He also says:

"I now live on Medicare and disability."

How is that possible?

Steve Gordon of Kernersville disinformed, News & Record gives him extra space without correction

It is one thing when the editors of the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record allow misinformation to go unchecked on their opinion pages, it is even more troubling when they give authors extra space to assert make believe without comment or correction.

Today, the N&R gives the additional words of a "counterpoint" column to Steve Gordon of Kernersville. In it, Gordon writes:

"First, the United States has had to borrow money from practically every major nation on the planet, mainly to cover the trillions of dollars of deficits run up by incompetence in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs..."

Gordon repeats an unfortunate but increasingly common theme among the popular right as of late, asserting myth as reality by unteathering an argument from the facts. Gordon mimicks a sound argument, he strings together comprehensible words and seemingly founds his point on things that, by the strong conviction of their assertion, sound a lot like facts, but they are not. His opinion is a house of cards, built on fantasy; built on crap he either made up or does not know to be untrue.

The FACT is that Medicare and Social Security face future unfunded liabilities, but they currently pay for themselves by taxes and trust fund assets. The government does not borrow "mainly" to cover incompetence in Medicare and Social Security. In inescapable reality, the government does not borrow for these programs at all. Gordon is just flat wrong and the News & Record says "Here is something worth additional space." Geez. How embarrassing.

It is one thing if people opposed to helath care reform want to oppose it on an emotional level. Pretending that they can explain their opposition rationally by making things up is absurd. Ayn Rand would find the complete dismisal of objective reality despicable.

How to cut a hole in a tile floor for a dryer vent

I needed to cut a four inch round hole in a tile floor for a dryer vent. This is one of those things I expected to find instructions for on the Internet. My searches came up short though so, for those who come Googling behind me, I offer my instructions, with help from an outstanding young sales associate from Lowe's, for "how to cut a hole in a tile floor."

Cutting a hole in a piece of tile is one thing, it is a different proposition to cut a hole in tile that has already been laid. You have to be careful not to cause the tile to crack. It can be done. Here is what you will need:

1. A RotoZip tool.
2. A RotoZip diamond grit Floor Tile XBIT
3. An electric drill
4. A hole saw attachment for your drill.
5. A magic marker or carpenter's crayon.
6. A vacuum cleaner
7. Aluminum Snap-Lock pipe
8. Bathroom and kitchen caulking
9. A caulking gun
10. Tin snips
11. SAFETY GOGGLES (No joke, you are going to put your face very close to high speed equipment and flying particles. DO NOT follow these instructions without proper eye protection or you will hurt yourself.)
    
12. Dust mask. You are going to be hovering close to a dusty work area for an extended period of time.
    

Mark the hole.
Begin by marking the outline of your hole on the tile. You do not want your hole obstructed by floor joists, plumbing or wiring. Look under the floor before you begin and make sure you know what is underneath your hole. (Find a "landmark" such as a pipe, electrical outlet or heating vent from which you can measure distance below and above the floor to make sure you will not encounter obstacles.)

Depending on the color and surface of the tile, you will find a magic marker or a carpenter's crayon most effective. Simply trace the outline of the hole saw drill attachment in the desired location. After you cut through the tile, you will use the hole saw to cut through the sub floor, so it is okay if your circle is a little wider than the hole saw itself, in fact, you want that or else the hole saw will get stuck if it does not have a little play. An outline of the hole saw will be just the right diameter.

Cut the hole.
Put on your dust mask and safety goggles. With the diamond grit floor tile bit on the RotoZip tool, begin to cut your hole. START VERY GENTLY. The trick here is that you are going to slowly make many passes around the circumference of your hole, cutting an ever-deepening groove. Be very patient, it will take some time. Until you have an established groove, you risk having the tool "jump" on you and scratching the tile. To avoid this, start the tool above the tile and slowly lower it to the tile at about a 45 degree angle to make contact -- not straight down. You are not "drilling" -- think more like "engraving" or "routing." Slowly move the bit around the marked circle in a clockwise direction. Keep the bit at an angle to the floor. As you make several passes, you will begin to cut a circular groove. As the groove deepens, you will be able to speed up your progress by GENTLY "rocking" the bit from an angle to vertical and back again as you go around the circle.

Vacuum and cool
Dust in the groove you are cutting will slow your progress. A heated bit will slow your progress. Vacuum the dust from the groove often. Let the bit cool while you are vacuuming and maybe an additional couple of minutes of cooling every so often.

Finish cutting the tile and backerboard
Depending on how your floor was laid, you may find a layer of backerboard beneath your tile (you should hope so, actually, as that is part of a professional installation). Continue to cut with the RotoZip if you encounter backerboard. Cut completely through the tile, cement and backerboard. You should end up with a circular piece of tile and backerboard you can lift or gently pry out of your hole. (If the tile remains attached, just move to the next step. You can use the hole saw in the groove you have cut, just make sure you have cut a groove all the way to the wood.)

Finish cutting the hole
Once you have reached the wood sub floor, use your drill with the hole saw attached to complete the hole. Hold the drill vertically and "drill" straight down until you have sawed completely through the floor. Congratulations! You've made a hole!

Making a dryer vent. 
If the purpose of your hole is to vent a dryer, use the tin snips to cut the aluminum snap-lock pipe to length. "Roll" it to lock it into shape. Friction may hold the pipe in your hole, or you can use some duct tape on the other side to hold it in place. Apply caulking. Let dry. You can now attach your dryer vent to this pipe and vent it from underneath your house as desired.

This is what you have when you finish: