Contributed by Shell Suber
Got this email from a friend. Not sure who wrote it or where it got started. Does anyone really know where these things come from?
Somehow, when you make analogies of the economy with drinking beer, it seems to make sense.
Understanding Derivatives – a Primer
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit.
She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar.
Contributed by Shell Suber
A few weeks back, The State printed an editorial in the wake of the election while public discussion of voting was still on everyone’s minds. It was their position Alvin Greene’s vote total was evidence South Carolina needed to do away with the straight ticket option on voting machines.
The full editorial: “Stop encouraging voters to abdicate decisions” – Nov. 23, 2010.
Contributed by Vince Williams
My marriage changed forever on April 20, 1992 when our beautiful daughter, Marie, was born. I could not imagine prior to that moment what it meant to be a father. When I held her for the first time and realized that she was my responsibility to show her love and compassion and the joys of life, I knew she deserved my best.
On November 27, 1993 my first son, Chris, was born. The first time I saw and held him I realized that love is not a zero sum product. Love is an infinite gift. When Chris was born my love for my family wasn’t split from three ways to four, it increased in magnitude. More family means more love.
Contributed by a concerned citizen
On Tuesday the 21st, the FCC will be voting on the issue of their new Net Neutrality policy. The topic of net neutrality is a national one but is one that can have a very real and direct effect on our state. I am a graduate of Clemson University (Go Tigers) and care about the state of the economy and educational opportunities of South Carolina. We cannot let subpar access to the Internet play a role in these issues.
Contributed by Warren Mowry
I read the sad news today that Bob Feller, the great Hall of Fame pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, has been moved to hospice care as a result of leukemia. He’s 92 and, until last year, was vital and had been a good will ambassador for major league baseball.
Feller was in Greenville in the early 1990s, while the Braves’ AA team called it home. He pitched, believe it or not, at about 75 years of age, against a bunch of fans drawn from the stands. Nobody even got a loud foul ball off of him. I know, because I saw it happen.
Contributed by Shell Suber
Opponents looking to challenge first-term presidents are acutely aware defeat is the likely outcome of their efforts. After all, since World War II, America has fired only two presidents after one term. (Ford, who was never elected President or Vice President, does not really count against that statistic.)
That being said, if you study the conditions needed to create that rare political “perfect storm” necessary to unseat a president, you have to conclude that 2012 is shaping up to be – potentially at least – just such a storm. For best results, compare Jimmy Carter’s one-and-done presidency to Barak Obama’s first two years.
Contributed by Rick Brundrett, Senior Investigative Reporter, www.thenerve.org
If you want to see a concentration of power, look no further than the S.C. Legislature.
In the 170-member General Assembly, a governor’s veto of a bill that applies only to a particular county, known as local legislation, can be overturned by just a single legislator. By legislative custom, lawmakers outside a county’s delegation typically don’t participate in votes on local bills.
But the single-vote practice is being challenged in the state’s highest court.
The S.C. Supreme Court last week heard oral arguments in a case pitting the Fairfield County School Board against the county’s state legislative delegation.
The five-member court is under no deadline to rule, though some legal observers expect a decision before the Legislature returns to session next month.
Contributed by Shell Suber
Take a slow, deep cleansing breath and quietly, thoughtfully consider this: A year from now you will be drowning in primary election coverage as a breathless media covers and re-covers a frenzied field of Republican hopefuls jockeying for the right to challenge Barack Obama for the presidency.
Next Christmas campaign operatives will be grasping at every scrap of good news and spinning every modicum of forward momentum in hopes of creating the perception – real or imagined – that public opinion is surging in their candidate’s direction.
Fifty-eight short weeks from now, everyone will be over-analyzing the results of the Iowa caucuses. The New Hampshire primaries will be a week later with South Carolina and Nevada – a newcomer to the early contests calendar – four days after that. Florida will follow in two days with Super Tuesday a week later to finish off the craziest three weeks in the American political cycle.
The Carolina Soapbox 