Category Archives: Uncategorized

Monuments

NC Governor Cooper wants NC to Some people cling to the belief that the Civil War was fought over states’ rights. But history is not on their side. We cannot continue to glorify a war against the United States of America fought in the defense of slavery. These monuments should come down.

...

It’s time to move forward. And here’s how I plan to do that.

First, the North Carolina legislature must repeal a 2015 law that prevents removal or relocation of monuments. Cities, counties and the state must have the authority and opportunity to make these decisions.

Second, I’ve asked the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to determine the cost and logistics of removing Confederate monuments from state property as well as alternatives for their placement at museums or historical sites where they can be studied in context.

Third, the North Carolina legislature should defeat a bill that grants immunity from liability to motorists who strike protesters. That bill passed the state House and remains alive in the Senate. The Senate should kill it. Full stop. Those who attack protesters, weaponizing their vehicles like terrorists, should find no safe haven in our state.

Not The Onion

Belle and Sebastian were traveling to their show in St. Paul, Minnesota when they realized they left something behind in North Dakota—their drummer. Upon realizing drummer Richard Colburn was forgotten at a Walmart, frontman Stuart Murdoch tweeted out for help: “Shit, we left Richard in North Dakota. Anyone want to be a hero and get him to St Paul, Minnesota somehow. The gig hangs in the balance.” In an interview with the Current, Murdoch explained how Colburn sat in Walmart for four hours without a phone or identification, eventually checking into a hotel for the night. The next morning, Ellen Shafer, a publicist in Fargo, eventually found a volunteer to drive the lost drummer to the airport, according to the Pioneer Press. Murdoch took to Twitter again to assure their fans that the show would go on, letting them know that Colburn was on a plane “in his pajamas, sitting with a mimosa.”

Tradition

Mrs. and I are coming up on our 21st anniversary. The internet told me that this is the "brass and/or nickel" anniversary. So I hope she likes the Sousaphone I got her!

Toot! Toot!

How Did North Korea Build Their ICBM?

They didn't!

“It’s likely that these engines came from Ukraine — probably illicitly,” Mr. Elleman said in an interview. “The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. I’m very worried.”

Bolstering his conclusion, he added, was a finding by United Nations investigators that North Korea tried six years ago to steal missile secrets from the Ukrainian complex. Two North Koreans were caught, and a U.N. report said the information they tried to steal was focused on advanced “missile systems, liquid-propellant engines, spacecraft and missile fuel supply systems.”

Investigators now believe that, amid the chaos of post-revolutionary Ukraine, Pyongyang tried again.

Grab Your Pitchfork

“He has no historical view. He is only dealing with these issues now, and seems to think the world started when he took office,” a diplomat told BuzzFeed News, pointing to Trump’s remarks and tweets about defence spending. “He thinks that NATO existed only to keep the communists out of Europe. He has a similar attitude in Asia-Pacific with Japan, ignoring that the US basically wrote their constitution.” During his presidential campaign, Trump called out Japan to pay more for the security US provides, including for hosting the US troops in the country. Japan’s constitution restricts its military options.

They also believe Trump’s foreign policy is chiefly driven by an obsession with unravelling Barack Obama’s policies. “It’s his only real position,” one European diplomat said. “He will ask: ‘Did Obama approve this?’ And if the answer is affirmative, he will say: ‘We don’t.’ He won’t even want to listen to the arguments or have a debate. He is obsessed with Obama.”

It's alive