Friday's No. 2 editorial. Three years ago, the General Assembly tightened laws restricting the use of off-road all-terrain vehicles to better protect kids. Legislation, however, doesn’t trump adult responsibility. When that comes up short, tragedy results. This week in Guilford Superior Court, a Whitsett man pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the ATV-related death of his 3-year-old step-grandson. He reportedly lost control of the four-wheeler, which hit an embankment, rolled over and crushed the child. As a result, he will spend a few weekends in jail and several years on unsupervised probation. But a family will never be the same again. Try as we might, there’s no taking back a fleeting lapse of common sense. A spate of fatal ATV mishaps in the state led the legislature to act. After some waffling, lawmakers wrote guidelines for youthful operators, set safety equipment requirements and called for some riders to attend approved safety instructional courses. The law doesn’t apply to farm use. At the time, critics correctly pointed out that setting more rules is no substitute for adult responsibility. But the law did establish a much-needed framework for confronting and reducing ATV misuse. If riders do comply, they lessen their chance of serious injury. For example, studies show that wearing a helmet can reduce ATV injuries by almost half. And rider-safety courses regularly held by law-enforcement agencies and some motorcycle clubs also can help by familiarizing operators with an unfamiliar vehicle. The atvsafety.org Web site offers helpful safety tips and course information. With the arrival of warmer weather, ATVs will come out of winter hibernation. The hard lesson learned in a local courtroom is that adults must make sure they’re operated safely.

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The following is a Counterpoint: By M.H. “Skip” Dalton It appears the News & Record has finally realized what we bail bondsmen have been saying for so long. Too many people are being released with little or no bond. This means little incentive to go to court or stay out of more trouble. According to the newspaper, Judge Turner says that jail overcrowding is a prime factor in determining bond amounts. But magistrates say that the jail population has nothing to do with the setting of bonds. Go figure. Bail agents believe that a larger jail will help solve only part of the problem. With population growth comes increased arrests. More judges, prosecutors, clerks and courtrooms are added to accommodate the rise in cases. But a lot of defendants fail to appear because they have little reason to do so. In years past, the bond reflected the crime. The more serious the crime, the larger the bond. We all know bond is not to be used as a punishment but as a guarantee for court appearance. But things have changed. We bail agents see many times where a defendant is arrested on an order for arrest and released with a lower bond than the one he or she failed to appear on. Somebody didn’t bother to check the criminal history or didn’t use common sense. We also know that some people need to remain in jail. Most reputable bail agents will not get out a person who habitually fails to appear so as to not inconvenience the court or the victims. But by the same token, we won’t bond out defendants if it is not economically feasible. The bond fee is what we use to track the ones who fail to appear as well as to live on. The bad economy is also a reason some in jail can’t come up with the bond fee or collateral to post bond. When we bond someone out of jail, we can’t guarantee 100 percent that he or she won’t commit another crime or appear on the next court date. But if the bond is reasonable, we can reasonably guarantee he or she won’t commit other crimes because of fear of re-incarceration and financial loss. And we, more often than not, will see the defendant is brought to justice if he or she fails to appear. The writer lives in Greensboro and is part of Mid State Bail Agents Association.

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I was in a bad accident on westbound I-40 on Saturday, April 26, about noon. An older woman drove into my lane and I swerved into the median. Unfortunately, I lost control and hit the wire guard rail, flipping my car. In seconds, eastbound motorists stopped to assist. They risked their lives because gas was leaking from my vehicle. I am sure one of them alerted the Highway Patrol and ambulance. I was given loving care by people who stopped to free me from the vehicle, patrolmen and the folks at Moses Cone Hospital. No one left a name. All I can say to the rainbow of beautiful citizens of every age, race and gender is you have my deepest thanks. I wish every cynic who does not believe in the goodness of humanity had witnessed your heroism. Danita McDonald Greensboro

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Time for another installment of Randomocity. It's like a whole extra radio show every week that we do this. I tired of doing this every third week, so we're up to once every five. Seems safe enough.

A reminder - Click on the 'Play It' link at the end of each commentary and you can listen along with me. Sort of.

Here are the rules: 1) can't spend any more time typing than the track is long; 2) have to type based on my own knowledge - no consulting the internets for confirmation, so if I put my foot in my mouth, so be it; 3) no skipping tracks - even if artists/albums repeat, no skipping.

Let's go.

#1 Bill Hicks - "Confession Time" : From Rant in E-Minor. My computer seems to love bringing up Bill Hicks, which is fine, but it does it a lot in random mode. This is Bill's bit about the show C*O*P*S and how it represents both the most base form of entertainment on television. It includes a bit of baiting of poor-white stereotypes, but it does include one of my favorite lines at the end. - Play It!

#2 Slim Dunlap - "Ain't Exactly Good" : It was hard for me to write much about that Bill Hicks bit because I hadn't heard it in awhile, but now Slim, I can talk about. This is from The Old New Me, which I think I reviewed awhile back here on the blog. Slim always gets kind of dismissed when it comes to members of the Replacements because of his taking the place of the sainted Bob Stinson. I always think it's silly when people talk about Replacements reunions - no one ever mentions Slim. He's still alive, you know, and a great, great guitarist. I'd love to see the 'Mats back out with Slim on lead. Maybe that's just me. Slim's solo records aren't revelatory in any way, but they're an awful lot of fun and there are a handful of songs on each one that are truly superb. - Play It!

#3 Guided by Voices - "Of Mites and Men" : From Earthquake Glue and, you know, I've always enjoyed GBV, but haven't spent a ton of time listening to them. I bought this album when it came out and there were good songs on it and this song is pretty catchy and nice - like a lot of Robert Pollard's best work - but I haven't listened to it enough to even recognize this song. Maybe I should become a GBV fanatic for awhile. Ah, when that guitar riff comes back up after the bridge - man, that's a nice moment. Hard hitting, short, a good rock song. - Play It!

#4 the Flaming Lips - "Bad Days" : This is from the Providing Needles for Your Balloons EP which was released after Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. This song would get re-recorded for Clouds Taste Metallic, but there's not much difference between this one and that one. I'm going to say right now, as I have before, that this is my favorite era Flaming Lips. Am I a bad person that, as much as the period in their career from The Soft Bulletin forward has been awesome for them a pretty remarkable one, that I just don't think it's as fun or as enjoyable as this era. This was where they finally got a hold of the incredible racket they'd been creating on their early records and harnessed it into a controlled derangement for the first time. So, for me, it's all about that mid-late 90s stretch of records. I'll include The Soft Bulletin as I see it as the link between the two eras, but yeah. I love this song - like great circus music from a weird, weird circus. - Play It!

#5 Outkast - "D-Boi (Interlude)" : Hmm, a sketch from Speakerboxxx. Boring. Skip it.

#6 the Replacements - "Skyway" : The new slate of Replacements re-issues (look for my reviews next week) will again raise the 'what's the best 'Mats album' arguments. If I'm feeling somewhat contrarian and, frankly, honest, I'll say Pleased to Meet Me and "Skyway" is one of the reasons why I think that. It's one of Westerberg's finest moments, hands down, and it's just so beautiful and hopeless and self-deprecating and infectious. This is what great music is all about. - Play It!

#7 Scott Walker - "Jolson and Jones" : Oh, here we go. This is the kind of random, bizarre stuff I love to pop up. This is from Scott Walker's latest album, The Drift. If you haven't heard this thing, hang onto yourselves. If you can imagine Walker's over-emotive crooning mixed with what, honestly, is close to industrial/noise atonal musical accompaniment. It's like Walker is hearing a melody that is just escaping the rest of us. It's a fascinating record just because of that. His singing, already a truly unique entity, is even more unsettling set above the sounds on this record. Look, there's a song on this album, "Jesse" I believe, that has to do with Elvis Presley's twin who died in the womb or something? Jeeze, the horns at just before the 3 minute mark on this song sound just like a man moaning. I really thought that was Walker for a second. I was going to be really impressed. I'm still just...forget all that Halloween music I usually play in October. I'm just going to play selections from The Drift each week leading up to Halloween and that ought to take care of it. "I'll punch a donkey in the streets of Galway." This is genius stuff. - Play It!

#8 Television - "Friction" : After all seven and a half minutes of that, I needed this. I will forever and ever be amazed by Television. This song especially - I had a late period understanding of this song. It comes in the bridge as the guitars and everything rush back for the final verse. The bass does a little jolly dance across the guitars and sends everything plummeting back into the verse. With Television the focus is always either on Tom Verlaine or Richard Lloyd, so it's incredibly easy to overlook their immaculate rhythm section - Fred Smith and Billy Ficca. Give the bass a listen in this song. It's as melodic as anything else. What a debut album. - Play It!

#9 Midnight Oil - "Arctic World" : During my interview with Patterson Hood, we went up the street from the Cat's Cradle to get dinner and when he sat down in my car, he had to move my copy of Diesel and Dust. He immediately commented on what a great album it was and we got to share a moment extolling the virtues of this album. Midnight Oil is a truly gifted band and there's a stretch of about four or five albums in the middle of their career that are pure amazing music. This is definitely one of them. This is one of the album's slower moments and one of Peter Garrett's best vocal performances. - Play It!

#10 Josh Rouse - "Under Cold Blue Stars" (live) : I don't know if this is a bootleg or from a radio EP that I have, but either way this is Josh Rouse back in the Under Cold Blue Stars era, which is probably still my favorite of his albums. Although just earlier today I was thinking of some music from his first album. His albums have grown increasingly..sort of meh for me. He still writes great music, it just doesn't quite pierce me the way it used to. There are so many songs on Under Cold Blue Stars that are affecting - probably "Women and Men" is the one that always nails me the most. His live bands are always excellent at turning his album material into a warm and living, breathing creation on stage as evidenced by this performance. - Play It!


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There is much work going on around here, so please bear with us over the next few weeks as we clean up our house… C.

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Braselton, Ga. — Greensboro College’s Josh Cumming shot a day 75 and is still in fourth place. Cumming’s round produced 14 pars and 4 bogeys. His three day tally is 225 (+7 ), 10 strokes behind the leader. Cumming is 3 shots out of second and just one behind the third place golfer. Individual Standings: http://www.golfstatresults.com//public/leaderboards/player/static/player1277.html Josh Cumminig [...]

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I just wanted to write a quick reminder about this Web site.  GreensboroPolitics.com was started last year in an effort to help keep citizens of Greensboro informed with what is taking place, or not taking place, in the world of Greensboro politics.  My goal has been to post factual information and keep my opinion out [...]

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The protest petition bill will not be pushed threw in the short session because it is to controversial.  It appears things are on hold until 2009. 

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If you haven’t taken the latest GreensboroPolitics.com survey and you would like to, please do so today as it closes tomorrow.  Click here to take the survey.

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Biden on Bush’s ’statement’ to the Knesset today: “This is bulls**t. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset … and make this kind of ridiculous statement.” And a word of advice for the President from Senator Biden: Joe Biden, the chairman [...]

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Jerusalem Post: ““Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said. “We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if I could only [...]

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Though I’m now a few thousand miles from San Francisco, I join in celebrating the state Supreme Court’s ruling in the same-sex marriage case. My personal view is that the government ought to get out of the business of certifying anyone’s personal relationship (and, concomitantly, stop conditioning legal rights, privileges, and benefits on marital status). [...]

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Sheanon Williams, Miguel DaSilva each scored a goal as the Carolina Dynamo defeated Raleigh/Cary 2-1 on Wednesday night at MacPherson Stadium. Carolina improves to 2-0-0 on the season with the win. In the women’s contest, the Lady Dynamo lost their second game of season, dropping a 2-0 decision to Atlanta.

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If President Bush used his speech to the Israeli Knesset today to slam Barack Obama as an appeaser of terrorists, he was way out of line. It's terribly inappropriate to haul domestic partisan politics into an overseas address. But it's not clear that's what he was doing. Bush didn't name Obama, who seems to have inserted himself into Bush's reference to leaders who would try to reason with Iran and Syria. What do you think? Are Democrats overreacting? Is the president guilty as charged? Was Bush being wickedly clever? Oh, heck. Surely we can eliminate the third possibility.

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Boom!

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Just finished adding Deprivation by Jess Ann Trueman to Blogsboro's list of Free Online Novels.

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I recently had the pleasure of reconnecting with a couple of high school friends, Tom McCarthy and Michael Hutchinson, I hadn't talked to since those days. Both men have gone on to become tremendously successful in their fields. That alone was delightful to me -- they're both great guys whom I looked up to even back then. Catching up on our lives, they shared with me what some of our mutual friends are now doing.

One such friend: Col. John Hort, who is leading an infantry battalion in Sadr City:

"The enemy kept coming back to some of the same buildings," Colonel John Hort, the commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, said during a recent visit at Thawra II, a joint U.S.-Iraqi outpost that abuts a section of the wall that has been a hotbed of militia resistance. "We ended up having to use some larger ordnance out of our air force to reduce some of the buildings around here."

This would be the same John Hort that I used to knock around with, go to movies with, talk about girls with, and played tennis with. A good friend then. A very brave man now.

I am praying for Col. Hort's well-being, and his troops', as they brave enemy fire in combat. May our Lord watch over you, John.
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Now playing: Chor der Wiener Staatsoper, Dame Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Horne, Martti Talvela, Sir Georg Solti & Wiener Philharmoniker - Messa da Requiem: II. Dies Irae: 9. Lacrymosa
via FoxyTunes

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It seems the American Red Cross and Johnson & Johnson have been involved in a lawsuit over licensing the red-cross logo. And it seems a judge has told both sides to get over themselves....

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Nick Carr gives Clay Shirky's cognitive surplus thesis (video version here) a critical reading; Shirky (and many others) respond in Carr's comments. Carr and Shirky are both right, of course. Previously: Shirky questions Carr's open-source analysis. The Ginger v Mary...

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The California Supreme Court presumed today to write new law, ushering in the brave new world of gay marriage for our nation's most populous state. An activist majority of its justices elected to sway with the prevailing cultural breezes. For...

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The protest petition bill will not be pushed threw in the short session because it is to controversial.  It appears things are on hold until 2009. 

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As I sit here typing out this entry I am reminded of last night’s tae kwon do (TKD) session by a subtle pain in my knees. I started practicing TKD again in January as a way to control my stress and to get out of the house. I had taken it a year [...]

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There's this idea that newspaper journalists are devoted newspapers readers. From the outside, it's intuitive. Many journalists work for newspapers. Newspapers print journalism. Journalists read journalism. Journalists read newspapers. But it's been true for years that journalists are just like everyone else. They read whatever holds their interest...plus, if they are newspaper reporters, they read whatever they personally wrote that morning. It has been an open secret for the 30-plus years I've worked for newspapers that some of us do not read much of the paper at all. That should have told us something then about what we were publishing, what people wanted and how people were spending their time. With the exception of a few places, it didn't. There are certainly still some obvious lessons there. But the times have changed. Journalists here are younger than our "typical" newspaper reader. They are more wired, have different interests and many "new" ways of getting information. Like more and more people, that they don't actually read a newspaper from cover to cover doesn't mean they aren't informed. They use the Web. And, of course, they are in a newsroom that is focused on news for most of the day. They hear and talk about it so sometimes the newspaper delivered the next morning isn't as new to them as it is to the typical reader. All that said, I'm thinking that on principle alone a newspaper journalist ought to read a newspaper, but I'm an old-fashioned loyalist in that way. I was thinking about this after Robert Niles at OJR posted a question about how many newspapers you read each day. The answers in his unscientific poll aren't surprising.

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By: beth

I admit it's gotten bad. I'm to the point I can't live without visiting the place several times a week. I've actually considered taking a lower paying job just to work there. I must admit without World Market you probably would have had to lock me up in the asylum if it wasn't for their imported British scones and clotted creme. I'm also quite fond of several of the imported chocolates. My real problem has come with the wines though. I only need to thank S.F.I. & Sanjuro for turning me on to the place. It's gotten so bad that I started eyeing a wine rack. I know nothing about wine, nor wine racks but I love looking at the different wines, and their descriptions, imagining what they may tastes. One of my favorites so far is a French wine called Red Bicyclette Rose which is a strawberry & watermelon wine. Oh my god! Tonight we maxed the credit card on some real Italian pasta & sauce. I picked up two bottles of wine to try. One is another French wine "Parallele 45"

Parallele 45 is solid, with fresh plum, violet and grilled herb notes, all backed by an iron-tinged finish;

and a Italian wine called La Bastarda:

La Bastarda is the charming and spirited sister wine (although the name may not give you that impression) of another mischievously named wine made from Tuscany’s most famous red wine grape: the Sangiovese. They bear a striking family resemblance and are recognizable in their good cheer. They’re both offspring of Rendo Masi, winemaker in Tuscan hillsides situated to the east of the cultured city of Florence.

Again, they could probably put sewage water in a bottle and I'd find it interesting, but it's fun to try different one. I guess that's my attraction. In some sort of way I get to experience different cultures and different tastes by trying different foods and wines. My biggest question for my wine aficionados is why is there no "British Wine"? Am I missing something, or are they just not good at making it? I mean France makes wine, why not the Brits?

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved. Greensboring.com Greensboro, NC

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Pete Newcomb posts a great remix of the Bill O'Reilly meltdown. Not safe for work, people with good taste, people who object to vulgar language, people who just ate, etc.

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It's a pretty sweet deal: play a round at Bryan Park's top-rated Champions Course on the weekend for $33 versus $59 ($54 if you live in Greensboro) if you take advantage of their twilight special. The catch? Not good until 3 p.m. Can you still squeeze in 18 holes? Possibly, though doubtful. There's always that one foursome out there (you know who you are) who are s-l-o-w, causing a ripple effect that results in late tee-off starts and other fun. Foolish optimists that we are, our group is teeing off at 3:15 p.m. Saturday. We'll be packing our flashlights just in case.

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This day is truly one of the worst days I've had since being in Greensboro.

Right now, LIFE SUCKS!!

But wait, what's that up ahead??


Is it a ray of light, a glimmer of, dare I say it, ... hope?


??????????


Stay Tuned...

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Guilford County's legislative delegation to the General Assembly has decided not to run a bill that would restore protest petitions to Greensboro. That decision was reached during a legislative delegation meeting that wrapped up in the past hour. Under rules for the legislative short session, legislators are prohibited from running bills that are controversial among their delegation. One objection is enough to stop a bill from being filed. In the case of Greensboro, all legislators who represent a portion of the city must sign off on such a bill. Sen. Phil Berger was the foremost "no" vote. His district covers all of Rockingham County and portions of Guilford County, including areas where the city has done satellite annexations. Berger explained that without a resolution from City Council asking for the change, and with numerous people e-mailing him both in support and against the bill, the measure is better left until the legislature returns in 2009. "I don't think anyone can say this is not controversial," Berger said. Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat, was going to file the bill but confirmed she could not do so under the rules. More on this later.

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Democrats launch into hysterical hyperspace over Bush’s address to the Israeli Knesset. Bushes “outrageous” statement: “Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.” Democrats respond: Biden: “This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of [...]

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