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        News flash: You’re all rubes.
        At least, that is, every American who doesn’t drink the far left, liberal Democratic brand of socialist Kool-Aid and froth at the mouth indignantly about the lack of governmental experience and general incompetency of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
        That’s the scoop according to the media — the overwhelming majority of whom are registered (if registered at all) Democrats.
        How do I know most members of the media are Democrats? Because I am a card carrying member of that pack of journalistic jackals who fancy themselves king makers and king breakers. In my 20 years of working in newspapers, attending journalism conferences, and drinking hard whisky in seedy bars with my brothers and sisters of the fourth estate, I’ve found Republican reporters to be about as common as attractive females at a convention of the National Organization of Women.
        Did you know that in journalism school aspiring reporters are taught to write copy at a fourth- to fifth-grade level so the readers can “get it?” That’s what the media elite thinks of everyman’s ability to grasp such difficult concepts as “What the definition of is, is.”
        Celebrities are another group who believe anyone not fawning over Barack Obama like a 12-year-old girl worshipping at the altar of the Jonas Brothers is a by-God, gun obsessed, Bible slinging yokel with an IQ measured in single digits.
        {mosimage}Recently, intellectual titan and spokesman savant for PETA and the Democratic Party, Pamela Anderson-Kid Rock-Lee, flexed her silicone … uh … muscles by slamming Palin with the following erudite barb: “I can’t stand her! She can suck it!”
        Bravo, Pam. Simply brilliant. Those seven years spent earning your bachelor’s degree at the Nancy Pelosi Community College and Home for Wayward Internet Porn Sensations is really paying off.
        Another celebrity who has taken Palin to task for her inexperience and “radical” views (Oh my God! The woman actually believes in God! She owns guns! She supports our military!) is thespian Matt Damon, who, when he’s not earning his living making films featuring the latest in submachine guns and rocket launchers, is enlightening and educating the illiterate, unwashed masses about such left wing talking points as the need for stricter gun control laws. Uh, Mr. Damon, sorry to interupt today’s lesson, but you’re needed on the set to kill about a million or so Ruskie spies with an unregistered Tec-9.
        Actress Annette Benning also dissed Palin, in between flying with hubby Warren Beatty around the globe in private jets, attending film premiers via a fleet of de rigueur limousines, and hitching a ride in Barbra Streisand’s Hummer — all so she could join Michael Moore and George Clooney for the latest lecture/rant by Al Gore about how we can reduce our carbon footprint by reducing America’s dependence on fossil fuels.
        Yes, folks, the media and celebrities are much smarter and much more enlightened than you and I when it comes to making decisions on who should be our political leaders — don’t take my word for it, just check out the nightly liberal love fests emceed by Katie Couric or Keith Olbermann under the guise of “real news.” Or, give a listen to economics wonk Paris Hilton, who reportedly recently reviewed every morsel of Obama’s campaign platform … all three lines of it … before exclaiming, “Like, you know, that Sally Palintino lady would be, like, a really bad choice for … uh … whatever she’s running for.”
        So, fellow rubes, break out your voting guide and go ahead and pencil in the Obama/ Biden ticket without examining their pasts or their past voting records (or lack thereof) — Lord knows the media’s not going to delve into the bone yard that’s rattling around in Barack’s or Tailgunner Joe’s closets. So relax and park your little brains in front of the tube for another episode of The Real World and ignore the real issues that are taking America down faster than Teddy Kennedy can knock back a tumbler of scotch.
        It’s just the right thing to do … stupid.

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        Remember the old joke about Mrs. Lincoln after Honest Abe had his unfortunate meeting with John Wilkes Booth? “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is asking America the same thing now. “Other than that, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, how did you like financial deregulation?” Are you enjoying watching the stock market, your retirement and various financial institutions tumble into a black hole of deregulatory fun? Hank is singing the old Limbo song, “How low can you go?”
        Nobody knows the trouble Wall Street has seen. Nobody knows the sorrow. Except for Hank. He knows because he’s from the Planet of a Major Investment Bank and is a creature of Wall Street. He wallows in credit default swaps, hedge funds, short sales, dark matter and charmed quarks. The Wall Street Wizards live in a parallel world that we mere mortals cannot hope to understand. The Wizards are better than us, smarter than us and unmoved by human emotion or ethics. We should trust them. Only they know how to unravel the large ball of poo into which they have driven the American economy. Do not think of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football that Lucy always pulls away at the last minute. Trust the Wizards. {mosimage}
        In Hank’s world when a corporate CEO drives his company off a financial bridge to Chappaquiddick, that’s OK. Pucker up America. You must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss. While the taxpayers are not going to get kissed by Bush’s bailout bill, they will experience another form of love that dare not speak its name in polite society.
        According to the Bush Administration, the event horizon of deregulation is going to suck the entire U.S. economy into it in 72 hours unless we give $700 billion and some groovy new superpowers to Hank Paulson to bail out his Wall Street buddies. Hank wants $700 billion of your dollars to spread around as good-bye gifts from the Bush Administration to the Greedheads of Wall Street. He wants superpowers to go with the pile of cash. Section 8 of the Administration’s Money Dump bill provides, and I quote: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
        This means that Hank can spend all of our money anyway he wants to and no one can say diddly boo. Section 8 enables Hank to speak ex cathedra on how he spends the money. Pope Hank, I will be infallible on financial matters. Like Richard Nixon once said, “When the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.” When Pope Hank blows the taxpayers’ money on his Wall Street buddies, that means it’s not illegal.
        Section 8 is an advance pardon for whatever Hank decides to do. Normally, pardons are issued after the wrong doing. Curiously, Section 8 issues the pardon in advance. That’s a pretty nifty superpower. Wouldn’t it be great to do whatever you want and no one could call you on it because you were protected by a Section 8 Force Field? Wall Street contends that Section 8 is necessary to save us from the mess the Wizards and the Bush Administration got us into. Some people will contend that Section 8 is a sanity test. If Congress just says no to Superpowers, it passes the sanity test.
        Section 8 once was what the armed forces used to discharge military folks who were deemed to be mentally unfit for service. There are no coincidences. Calling the Superpowers Section 8 of the bailout bill is just Hank Paulson’s idea of a little joke to go with his $700 billion going away present to Wall Street. The $700 billion is just the first estimate of what the bailout will cost. When was the last time the government’s first estimate of the cost of a project was accurate? The memory of man runneth not to such a time.
        Next time you’re at the Walmart buy up a whole bunch of Mason jars. Put your money in the jars. Bury the jars in the back yard. Be like Mrs. Lincoln, try to enjoy the play.

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        {mosimage}Like many Americans, I spend an impressive number of hours in my car, although I have to confess that I do monitor that time more zealously given today’s pain at the pump.
        I spend my car time in several ways — talking on the phone, with an earpiece, of course. I also listen to the radio, mostly NPR, oldies and the occasional book on CD. After growing up in a family of radio broadcasters and learning Motown along with their nursery rhymes, my children are encouraging me to broaden my musical horizons, and they are probably right, though old habits do die hard.
        Sometimes I just drive along and think.
        I also read every bumper sticker I can get close enough to see.
        We Americans may be tightlipped about our personal finances, but beyond that we wear our hearts on our sleeves and on our bumpers. Our bumpers celebrate our pride in our children by telling the world they are “Terrific Kids” and “Accelerated Readers,” and bragging about our grandchildren, who if we had only known how wonderful they were going to be, we would have had them first. We also crow about our favorite vacation spots at the beach with decals announcing WB, TI, HH, OBX, MB, BHI and MB. Most of us do brake for animals, but I have seen at least one Fayetteville bumper sticker advocating human consumption of cats. One of my favorites decorates the bumper of a member of my church — it reads, “Not so close. I am not that kind of car.” Another is not really a sticker per se, but the back of a motorcyclist T-shirt functioning as one. It reads, “If you can read this, she fell off.” 
        We Americans also wear our politics on our bumpers. I suspect this has been around since we have had cars to have bumpers. I have always liked these stickers and remember particularly the hot pink ones reading only “LURA,” which were the signature design of former State Senator Lura Tally.
        I have been a bit disappointed this political season, though, by the quality of campaign stickers. I have seen plenty of plain McCains and simple Obamas which now seem to be morphing into Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin without other comment. The closest I have seen to clever is “Jesus was a community organizer.”
        I have also been somewhat surprised by the  number of old, faded, and dated political stickers still riding the roads, particularly from the 2004 Presidential campaign. I see several variations of the discreet “W. The President” on both bumpers and windows. I also see a few red and blue Kerry/Edwards riding around forlornly. There are candidates from lesser races still holding on as well. Promoting those particular candidates is no longer an issue, so why do folks continue to show their undying support?
        Though it pains me to say so, I think our refusal to set aside partisan feelings from a bygone election reflects not only deep political divisions among our fellow Americans but deep social and cultural ones as well. These stickers tell us more about the people inside the cars than they do about the candidates they once supported, and drivers of those cars want the rest of us to get the message. It is all about perception, not persuasion. We are trying to say that not only our politics but our values are the same as those of our chosen candidate, and we want everyone else to know it.
    The same is true this political season, perhaps more so. The McCain/Palin stickers and the Obama/Biden ones demonstrate the driver’s support for their candidates but they also speak to values shared with their candidates, or at least the perception of shared values by both the person who put the sticker on the car and those who see it.
        {mosimage}Bumper stickers are without question a form of protected free speech, a right to be cherished. But I have to wonder as well, are they fanning the flames of partisan divisions, especially when they are left to ride around for months and years after an election — long after any political persuasion value has passed.
        We Americans are blessed to live in a country where we can express ourselves politically without fear of retribution. We are blessed to work within a political system in which campaigns are hard fought but eventually someone wins and someone else loses, leaving some Americans happy and some distressed. The point is, though, that the contest is over and it is time to look ahead to the next opportunity.
        We are going to be gripped by highly partisan politics for another few weeks in a political season made more vivid by the unprecedented financial uncertainty which has overtaken us. Rhetoric and negative ads will be with us until this election is over, even though pollsters tell us that most of us have already decided on our candidate for president.
        My fear is that whatever Nov. 4 brings, Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin are going to be on the roads with us for the foreseeable future.

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    Dear Editor:
        After reading Mr. Dickey’s column in your magazine, I’m not sure I ever want to read your magazine again. Of course, his (Sarah) Palin bashing was probably found to be very humorous by yourself and your staff, but how about printing the other side and telling the truth about Sarah Palin? And how about some truths about Mr. Obama that have not made it into your paper.{mosimage}
        Sarah Palin did not try to censor books at the Public Library. She has stated that again and again in the press conferences and one-on-one reports she has done with many of our liberal press members. And as for her foreign policy experience, apparently Pitt doesn’t read anything that doesn’t agree with his point of view, or he would know she leads the Alaska military and has to know what’s going on over the border in Russia and elsewhere, because Alaska is the site of one our first-line defenses.
        Has Pitt heard anything about his Obama taking millions from Fannie Mae? Maybe that’s why they had to be bailed out. Has he heard anything about Obama’s relationships with people who really hate America? That’s a great qualification for our Commander-in-Chief, to be anti-American, as is his wife, Michelle, who is only just now proud of her country. 
        Do you really think that leftist-leaning (perhaps a socialist?) is going to get us out of a mess that our Congress and past leaders have gotten us into? There are so many people who have come here from socialist and communist countries to get away from that kind of regime — why are we allowing it on our soil?
        What ever happened to personal responsibility and people taking care of their own? If parents had a child who became pregnant or who caused a pregnancy, it used to be up to the parents to deal with the problems. Not anymore. Now it’s everyone else’s problem. At least Sarah’s family is taking care of their daughter personally, along with the baby’s father, and not putting her on welfare for everyone else to take care of. That is what is going on in this country. Nothing is anyone’s fault anymore. Why should we bail out people who made stupid loans that they couldn’t afford? Years ago, when purchasing a house, we hadn’t investigated thoroughly into what all of the closing costs would be, and we got caught short. We almost lost the house, but borrowed money, finally, from a family member, whom we had to pay back. We didn’t expect the government to bail us out. It was our fault and our responsibility.  Borrowers know that the interest rate on an ARM loan will go up, and if they don’t, they need to read their paperwork better. And, of course, the banks are going to lend them money with the knowledge that they may make more money when the rate does go up. Where have all these people been? Living underground? A variable interest rate means the INTEREST WILL CHANGE, maybe down, usually up. Why is that everyone else’s fault?
        But it is the way our entire society is going. The few who work have to constantly bail out those who think it’s easier to live off of everyone else. What is wrong with people being well-off if they have worked hard to earn it? It’s OK with me.
        And just so you don’t think I am one of those wealthy people, at this point I am 64 years old and through circumstances, have no health insurance and live on $13,000 a year. Could you do that? But I have to make my own way, and I don’t expect everyone else to take care of me or my problems. That is what this country was built on and the way it should be. I don’t mind helping those who try to help themselves, but I do mind helping those who blame everyone else for their problems and they need to get off their duffs and help themselves.
        Lois Croxton, Autryville

    Stop Picking on Palin
    Dear Editor:
        Today I read the article in the Up & Coming entitled, “Palin Is More Of The Same Washington Politics.” I was so appalled by it that I was compelled to write. It left me so shocked that I immediately grabbed a highlighter and started to mark everything I thought was obscene and unnecessary.
        So, let us begin.(And yes, I do expect this entire email to be read and responded to.)
        You started your article, saying, “Sarah Palin reminds me of Marge Simpson on steroids...” Why was this needed? It was not. Just because you are against a certain party member, does NOT mean you can go and reference them to a fictional character on “steroids.” Where did that come from? Steroids of all things? I find it horrible that you actually could stand yourself putting down another person like this!
        Next.
        You now go on to say how “white” the Republican convention was.
        WHAT!?
        What does that have to with politics? Just because they don’t have an African-American representative standing there does not mean anything! Also... Look at yourself! You are also Caucasian. Perhaps you are stuck in a dream where the world is perfect and all have the same skin color. Perhaps in your dream world, these “Republicans” are the odd ones out, and have snow-white skin!
        “It won’t matter if the arctic ice cap melts, as we will always have a sea of Caucasian delegates at Republican conventions to remind us of what a blizzard of white looks like.”
    Wow, that took some guts to say.
        So, let’s look at some Democrats: Kerry — white; Edwards — white; Biden — white; Clinton (both) — white.
        I could go on. My point being you cannot judge an entire party by the color of their skin! Just because Barrack Obama is black, does not mean that every other politician has to be!
        Now, onto the subject of lobbyists, censorship, the Bridge etc. Sarah Palin is indeed in a pickle about these subjects. Remember, she has not answered all the questions behind these subjects. Perhaps she doesn’t because she doesn’t want to raise publicity, or maybe she’s afraid the answer will not be want the people want. Whatever her reasons are, the point is that she HASN’T settled these debates. So, do not go and speak of these matters as if you know for a fact that you know the answer.
        I shall now go onto a subject that I hate in any party — the invasion of personal lives.
        “Queen of moose burgers?”
        Might I say that Alaskans are very used to hunting for moose. Why do we make such a deal out of this? My explanation: We do not hunt for moose.  Because we are from a different environment when anything out of our regular lives comes into play, for some reason we have to go insane! I felt as if this could’ve been left out.
    “Change is coming! Change is coming!”
        You complain about his chanting of this saying. Tell me sir... What politician hasn’t? Obama says, “America will change.”
        “The conventional theory is when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging.” That is true, but if you’re in a hole... you can’t get out. You either struggle crawling up the sides, only finding that you will only fall back down in a pitiful fail — you use your shovel and start digging up the sides of the hole you created, trying to fix it.
    Stop making references to John McCain’s age! Reagan was up in his years when he became president, and he became one of the greatest leaders this country has had!
        I could go on, telling of my resentment towards politicians because of how they do nothing but eat each other alive. I could go into my beliefs of how elections should be handled, but I won’t. I won’t lower myself down to your level. Can you dig it?
        Yours Truly,
    Sarah Brown, 14 years old, Fayetteville

    IT’S OBAMA TIME
    Dear Editor:
        I will vote for Sen. Barack Obama for president on Nov. 4. His policies are fine. He has enough experience — as much as John Kennedy in 1960. What seals the deal for me, though, is simple yet intangible: He inspires me and I believe he will inspire this country. This candidate effortlessly weaves the Preamble to the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln’s first Inaugural Speech into his message to us.
        At the heart of Sen. Obama’s message are these values of America itself: that government is of the people, by the people, for the people; that we journey together to aspire to a more perfect Union; that these truths are self-evident, that all men are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that government is instituted to secure these rights; that we must respect each other and seek common ground despite our differences.
        Our country has turned away from these uplifting sentiments in the last eight years. This administration has cut corners with Constitutional rights. It ran up a reckless trillion dollar deficit with boondoggle after boondoggle to buy votes in Congress. It mangled its response to the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina when incompetent cronies at FEMA let anarchy reign until New Orleans was ravished. It lied about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction to justify a useless, endless war that has killed too many Americans to prop up a people and government that do not respect us. It used illegal political loyalty tests in hiring at the Department of Justice and fired U.S. Attorneys deemed politically unreliable. It censored scientific opinion at regulatory agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission to fit a slanted political agenda. It worsened the energy crisis by cozying up to Middle East potentates and Big Oil and failing to provide incentives for conservation measures that are the most economical way to reduce our oil addiction.
        I hear Sen. Obama urging us to get away from government for special interests and lobbyists, to turn away from government that divides us and turns us against each other. He offers government that can provide a safety net and not be our enemy. We cannot be selfish and ask how government can stuff our wallets. President John F. Kennedy said “If a society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” Every American should be entitled to a good job, a decent home, a safe neighborhood, health care, food and a sound education.
        I will close with a perhaps less familiar passage from Lincoln’s First Inaugural: “By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.”
        I have had enough of folly these last eight years. On Nov. 4 I will vote for Sen. Obama for President of the United States of America. I trust he will lead us to sunlit upland meadows. God bless America, land that I love.
        Grainger Barrett, Fayetteville

    SUPPORT CROP WALK
    Dear Editor:
        A teenage girl celebrating her birthday after asking all of her guests to bring along canned goods for Second Harvest Food bank.
        A young girl in Parkton inviting her little friends to collect money and walk in the Oct. 19 CROP walk.
        Young soldiers driving out to Second Harvest to ask how they can help feed the hungry.
        What do these and many other heartwarming stories have in common? They’re all in response to Tim Wilkins’ excellent Sept. 3-9 article, “Travel a Mile in Shoes of Hungry During CROP Walk.”
        And did I mention that Tim volunteered to walk and invite donations from his friends and coworkers? When Tim Wilkins talks the talk he — literally — walks the walk. (To sponsor Tim, please call Up & Coming Weekly at 484-6200.)
        As for the “other” paper in town, while they have reported our region’s food crisis, they still haven’t reported on strategies to solve the problem. Once, they gave an incorrect number for CROP Walk, and twice they omitted the the phone number and address of Second Harvest. Thank God for Up & Coming!
        In terms of increased requests for food assistance, Fayetteville has the third largest food bank crisis in the nation. At 59 percent, we rival Katrina-ravaged New Orleans’ rate of 63 percent. Veterans, single mothers with small children, old folks... indeed, all kinds of folks are hungry.
        A community-wide attack on hunger is urgently needed. Faith groups, businesses, fraternal organizations, schools, military units, politicians and all individuals with a heart for the hungry have to take a strong, compassionate action.
    To help immediately with donations of food, money, or your time, please contact David Griffin or Denise Giles at Second Harvest Food Bank, 406 Deep Creek Road, 485-6923, or www.ccap-inc.org.
        To join 1,000 of our neighbors in our Oct. 19 walk to fight hunger here and around the world, see crophungerwalk.org., or call Michelle Bedsole at 401-5653 or the Rev. Laura Lupton at 868-8293. Our goal is to give Fayetteville the biggest percentage increase in CROP Walk results in the entire nation. Up & Coming is certainly doing its part. Now, it’s up to us. Let’s defeat hunger NOW!
    Jeffrey Brooke Allen, CROP Walk Planning Volunteer, Fort Bragg

  • Details
        “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” More than 200 years ago, the French writer Voltaire expressed that thought. 
        I agree whole heartedly. That thought should be the mantra of every journalist and every newspaper in our country. If it isn’t, then they have missed the boat. And I can tell you, there are a lot of journalists standing out on the dock wondering where the boat is.
        {mosimage}We are the Fourth Estate and it is not our job to decide the issues. It is our job to report the issues. It is not a reporter’s job to slant an issue, make assumptions or add in their opinion. A reporter’s job is to report the facts. Just the facts and nothing but the facts. That seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way.
    Over the past few months, we have taken much criticism from readers who think we should go further in reporting a story. They want us to take conjecture and hearsay and incorporate it into a story. That’s not going to happen. Not under my name and not on my watch.
        If you find an opinion in this paper, it’s going to be clearly labeled under the header Opinion or it’s going to be here in the publisher’s notes. That’s where it belongs. And, in the confines of those opinion pages, you’re going to read a lot of stuff you might not agree with. I know I do.
        It is not our job to silence that opinion — but rather to give it voice. And we’re happy to do so. The ideal that Voltaire communicated so clearly 200 years ago is alive and well at Up & Coming Weekly.
        Over the past two weeks, we have come under a firestorm of criticism for allowing  contributing writers to express their opinions about the upcoming election — most notably columns that have been less than complimentary to Sarah Palin. We’ve been called a “liberal rag,” we have had folks tell us they won’t read our newspaper anymore and we even had one business owner remove our rack from his business.
        Good. We’re doing our job.
        In a free society, one of the greatest ways for an individual to express his thoughts and opinions is through the editorial pages of a newspaper. Again, those thoughts and opinions, by design, fall under a heading that reads “Opinion.” Up & Coming Weekly has built its reputation on being Fayetteville and Cumberland County’s community newspaper. We are the people’s alternative voice. We are the communities “other side of the story.” We have been your voice for more than 13 years. We don’t take sides, and we welcome contributions from all sides of the political spectrum. We have never refused to accept articles from individuals because of race, religion or political affiliation.
     If readers want to read more conservative opinion pieces rather than the recent liberal point of views then write it and send it in. Then, if we don’t put it in the newspaper then you can call us a “liberal rag.” To date, we have only heard from one side.
        Do you have an opinion? Then share it with us as long as it is not libelous or slanderous. We love hearing from you and invite your letters and opinions. Our address is on almost every page of this publication. Let me give it to you again — send any letters, opinions, features and articles to me personally at editor@upandcomingweekly.com.
    I look forward to reading and printing them. There’s a chance that I may not agree with your opinion, but I surely support your right to have it and express it.

  • Details
        I’m an attractive, 42-year-old single mom with a 13-year-old son. I’ve been widowed for three years, and I’m finally ready to date. I’ve found myself increasingly attracted to this man (actually, I’m yearning to jump his bones), but he’s only 32. I sense the attraction may be mutual. The problem is, I’m the queen of mixed signals. If a good-looking guy checks me out in the grocery store, I scurry to another aisle and kick myself later. After this guy went out of his way to call to say he wished our conversation hadn’t been interrupted at a party the night before, I told him, “I’m just needy; I’ll talk to anyone who’ll listen.” Please don’t tell me to find a man my age. They don’t give me the time of day — except for the ones who creep me out. What I can say or do to let this man know I’m interested without coming off as a desperate older woman?
                          —Own Worst Enemy

        You’re right to worry about coming off as a desperate older woman. You probably do sound desperate — desperate to get rid of the guy: “I’m just needy; I’ll talk to anyone who’ll listen.” Should he call back, maybe add, “You’ll do, since the suicide hotline guys started hanging up on me when they realized I don’t want to kill myself, just bore them to death.”
        Your signals to the guy might be mixed, but they’re coming through loud and clear to me: You want a relationship; you’re just too terrified to have one. You’re probably scared of both success and failure: What if Stud Boy likes you? What if he likes you, then leaves you?! And you’re sure the grocery store guy, upon closer appraisal, will realize he’s made a terrible mistake, so you scurry away like a bug after the lights come on: “Yes, yes, I look like a woman, but I’m really a giant cockroach wearing a lot of Better Separates.”
        There’s something in you that doesn’t think all that highly of you — the part that suspects this guy’ll see you as some ridiculous old bag. Wowee, a whole 10-year age difference. (Any excuse’ll do!)
        When you do meet a guy who creeps you out, your old insecure-speak should come in handy. Nothing usually makes a man on the make want to bolt like the words “I’m needy,” except maybe for the announcement “I’m off my meds, I’ve got a loaded gun in my purse, and what a cool coincidence that the back of your shirt looks so much like a bullseye.”

  • Details
        The New York Post spotted several Manhattan businesses that tried to appeal to nudists this summer with special events. Among the most challenging were John Ordover’s monthly dinners at selected restaurants (such as the Mercantile Grill), where about 50 diners eat and drink naked (served by the restaurant’s regular, clothed staff), and the Naked Comedy Showcase at People’s Improv Theater in the Chelsea district, where once a month, naked comedians perform (and a section in the audience is reserved for naked patrons).
     
    Weird Science
        In July, microbiologists writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that the Malaysian pen-tailed tree shrew subsists on a diet of fermented palm nectar that is roughly the equivalent of 100 percent beer. “They seem to have developed some type of mechanism to deal with that high level of alcohol and not get drunk,” according to one researcher, who hoped further study could help with human cases of alcohol poisoning (and other rare instances in which people ingest alcohol for purposes other than getting drunk.) 

    Intelligent Design
        Among the photo exhibits at New York City’s Museum of Sex in July was the display of the genitalia of the spotted hyena, which was described by Bloomberg News: “(B)oth the male and female have penises. The female, it turns out, has a scrotal sack, too. For reproductive purposes, the male transfers his sperm through the female’s penis, which doubles as her clitoris.” Other exhibits included “Gay Dolphin Blow-Hole Sex” and a “Deer Threesome,” featuring a “Bambi” with two stags. Said the museum’s curator, the exhibit simply compensates for museums’ traditional animal exhibits in which depictions of genitalia are suppressed. 

    It’s Good to be a British Prisoner
        Ian Brady, now age 70 and perhaps the most famous British murderer of the 20th century, complained recently that the psychiatric inmates housed with him in Ashworth Hospital still qualify for government allowances up to the equivalent of about $200 per week whereas prison transfers like him receive “only” one-fourth that amount.

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    Even The Spirits Seem Confused in The Ghost Whisperer

        {mosimage}In The Ghost Whisperer’s season premiere (Friday, 8 p.m., CBS), Jennifer Love Hewitt returns as a woman who solves supernatural mysteries by talking to spooks. Why this is best accomplished in skimpy negligees I’ve never known. This week, Hewitt’s Melinda helps a psychologist who died in a fire along with a sexy patient. Then the psychologist comes back to life. The patient doesn’t, but he can hear her ghost talking to him. Melinda can both hear and see the ghost, and she hopes to ask it who started the fire. But that won’t be easy, not the way the damn thing keeps disappearing at dramatically convenient moments.
    “Ok,” says the skeptical psychologist. “Let’s just pretend for a minute that this whole thing isn’t nuts.”
    I tried pretending for a minute, but I only got as far as six seconds. This whole thing is nuts.

    GARY UNMARRIED
    Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. (CBS) 
        The scenario feels familiar: A slob (Jay Mohr) is recently divorced from his prissy wife (Paula Marshall), raising kids who have one character trait apiece. The script is full of non-punchlines from the lazy-sitcom-writer’s handbook: “I haven’t seen you this freaked out since that swan chased you at Disneyland!”
        But wait. Mohr and Marshall are solid comedians, and Ed Begley Jr. adds a welcome dose of eccentricity as the ex-wife’s egghead fiancé. Despite the mediocre script, I detect signs of chemistry among these actors. I haven’t laughed at Gary Unmarried yet, but I expect to sometime before the end of ’08.

    STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
    Friday, 9 p.m. (Cartoon Network) 
        George Lucas milks his Star Wars franchise in this animated series. Sadly, The Clone Wars takes its cue from the last three Star Wars films rather than the first three. It’s heavy-handed and humorless, lacking the charm that made Star Wars a force (or Force) to be reckoned with in the 1970s and ‘80s. The characters speak in grave tones about matters of great importance — to them, not us. Yoda is trotted out for the umpteenth time to utter wise words with inverted syntax: “Tragic are these losses. But prevent more we must.” You’d at least expect stunning visuals in a Lucas production, but the animated characters look like escapees from a PlayStation 1 videogame.
        Stupid is The Clone Wars. Star Wars post-1983 I hate.

    SANCTUARY
    Friday, 9 p.m. (Sci Fi)
        A forensic psychiatrist (Robin Dunne) investigates a routine murder that, on closer inspection, looks anything but routine. A boy with strange powers accidentally kills three people with a squishy tentacle that grows out of his body.
        The psychiatrist follows a trail that leads to a fantastical mansion presided over by a kindly British doctor (Amanda Tapping). It houses mermaids, flying creatures and other “abnormals” who are feared and misunderstood by regular folk.
        Sci Fi’s new series is a little too much like X-Men, though it can’t match the movie franchise in terms of emotion or excitement.
        I’m going to stick with it, though, having long been a sucker for squishy tentacles.

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        Over at Cape Fear Harley-Davidson, the retailer’s All Harley Drag Racing Association team (AHDRA) — in just it’s first full season of competition — has ridden 125 horses to second in the overall points standing in the AHDRA’s Super Sport division.                                                                                                                                                                            {mosimage}And the four-person team is chomping at the bit for first.
        Steve Lowery, who, when he isn’t tinkering around in the guts of engines in the service bays of Fayetteville’s only authorized Harley-Davidson dealer, tears down the quarter-mile track aboard a 99 cubic-inch rocket that reaches speeds of 128 mph on the straightaway.
        And on the weekend of Oct. 10-12, Lowery hopes to spur that steel stallion on to victory at Rockingham Dragway in Richmond County and inch the team closer to the Super Sport championship.
        “We really want to be number one,” said Andre Mitchell, the team’s coordinator. “That’s what it’s about.”
    The AHDRA — which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary — sanctions and promotes drag racing events across the United States. What began as a club racing organization in the late ‘70s has expanded into a hugely popular motor sport boasting 16 different classes ranging from 224-mph Top Fuel bikes to the aforementioned Super Sport division. Currently, the Cape Fear Harley-Davidson team, formed last spring, sits atop the Eastern Division points standings and trails the overall leader by just 79 points with one race to go — the Screamin’ Eagle Performance Parts Nationals at The Rock.
        “Sam was racing on his own and we decided that we would form our own race team,” said Mitchell, who, like the other team members, is employed with Cape Fear Harley-Davidson. “Sam had purchased a frame before we started the team and then we bought an engine. We were in three races — Bristol, Richmond and Rockingham — last year at the tail end of the season. But this is our first full season.”
        The team has rocketed to success in it’s inaugural season, challenging for the Super Sport championship despite missing several races (Mitchell says the high cost of gas kept the team from traveling to several races out West). Lowery rode the stripped down Harley — no lights and no charging system on a bike he has to almost lay down on to ride — to the victory circle in the   Screamin’ Eagle Performance Parts Bike Week Nationals in  Gainesville, Fla., on the weekend of Feb. 29, tearing down the track in a hide-peeling 10.390 seconds.
        The unprecendented success of the first-year team has not only left other teams gasping in the wake of Lowery’s exhaust, it’s also brought out a little bit of the green monster in some of the Cape Fear team’s more established rivals.
        “They’re a little bit jealous,” said the team’s crew chief, Mike Bradley. “At this last race (the S&S Jim McClure Nationals in Dinwiddie, Va.) the team that’s actually in first place, when we went out were actually jumping up and down, glad we were gone.
        “Despite that, it really is a tight-knit community of racers,” added Bradley. “Everybody, knows everybody, and everybody helps everybody … Your opponent will lend you spare parts.”
        And unlike some other motor sports, this one is extremely fan-friendly, says Mitchell.
        {mosimage}“The pits are open,” said Mitchell. “You can go right in the pit and hang out. You can watch the guys tuning up their bikes … You can walk just about up to their bikes.”
        Mitchell says the team is also good for Cape Fear Harley-Davidson’s business.
        “It goes a long way for advertising,” said Mitchell. “If we can make horsepower on the track, we can make it for you.”
        The team, which also includes Cape Fear Harley-Davidson’s service manager, Billy Lawton, (he directs the racing operation) isn’t exactly filling its pockets with cash from all its success — if the team wins the points championship it will take home just $3,000 in prize money.
        “We do it for the advertising it brings Cape Fear Harley-Davidson … and the thrill of winning,” said Mitchell. “It’s costs about $1,200 a race for us, counting travel and putting fuel in the bike. We earn the money to pay our expenses. We do have sponsors … but we sold raffle tickets for $3,500 in parts and labor that the dealership was nice enough to let us buy at cost.
        “Harry Hawks won the raffle back in May,” said Mitchell. “We raised almost $10,000 and that’s what we’ve raced on this season, plus help from our sponsors.”
        The team’s sponsors include Cape Fear Harley-Davidson, Valley Auto World Inc., Dale Harris CPA and Smoking Gun Tattoos.
        The team — which has finished in the money in five of its eight races — will go for the points championship Oct. 10-12 at Rockingham Dragway, which is 10 miles northeast of Rockingham. The gates will open at 8 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 10, with qualifying at 4 p.m. Gates will open at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday; there will be qualifying runs all day and the  Screamin’ Eagle Performance Parts Shootout kicks off at 5 p.m.     On Sunday, Oct, 12, gates open at 8 a.m., with the Cape Fear Harley-Davidson team (hopefully) going for the gold beginning at 12:30 p.m.
        For information and ticket prices, you can call The Rock at (910) 582-3400, or check out the Web site at www.rockinghamdragway.com.

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        Igor (86 minutes) goes above and beyond the standard animated fare, thus begging the question, where has director Anthony Leondis been hiding himself? Even more importantly, why hasn’t writer Chris McKenna done anything besides this and American Dad scripts? For two relative unknowns like Leondis and McKenna, creating the first animated movie out of a new production studio, the work is doubly impressive. The dialogue is unexpectedly clever, the characters compelling, the humor sly and sophisticated. For what initially seemed like a Tim Burton wannabe picture, Igor stands on its own as an animated film with adult appeal.
        {mosimage}Once upon a time, there was a fantasy world named Malaria. A change in climate caused the entire economy of this once beautiful land to revolve around being evil, under the guidance of King Malbert (Jay Leno). In this Brave New World, the upper-class becomes the scientists, and those born with humpbacks are forced to serve as Igors, trained as bootlicking stereotypes. 
        Even our hero Igor (John Cusack) is forced to hide his brilliance and serve a master named Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese). Despite his conformity to social expectations, Igor fiddles around with mad science on the side, giving Scamper the Rabbit (Steven Buscemi) immortality, and keeping a Brain (Sean Hayes) alive in a robotic jar.   
        A series of unfortunate events leads Igor to create a Frankenfemale, filled with pure evil. Sadly, his plans go awry and instead of a killing machine, Eva (Molly Shannon) is a sweet and cuddly doll. Despite Igor’s attempts to turn into a force for calamitous destruction, Eva refuses to change. 
        Meanwhile, the evilest of all evil madmen, Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard, brilliant as always) is trying to cheat his way to victory in the upcoming Mad Scientists Fair with the help of Jaclyn (Jennifer Coolidge). All the wackiness culminates in a revelation that most of the audience probably saw coming, but was satisfying, nonetheless.   
        Of course, if you wanted to get intellectual and search for philosophical themes amongst the cuteness, this is the film for you. On the surface, this is a nice update of the Frankenstein story with a subversive vent, making the Igor the hero instead of the scientist. The film also easily illustrates Marxist themes, with the Igors serving as the oppressed proletariat to the mad scientists’ exploitative bourgeoisie. Scamper the Rabbit, who totally steals the show, is a tribute to the basic existential dilemma. Though he is essentially immortal, he kills himself over and over again, only to return to a life made meaningless by that very same immortality. This is a movie with something for everyone.
        Although music is used in a very clever way, I was not completely on board with all the selections. As rife with irony (and therefore hilarity) as it may be to have blind orphans dancing to “I Can See Clearly Now,” it’s still a missed opportunity to offer a more subtle brand of humor, which the filmmakers manage to do in almost every other area. 

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        A pair of heavy metal heavyweights hope to deliver a knockout punch to Fayetteville music fans on  Oct. 15 when Taproot and Sevendust play Jesters Pub.{mosimage}
        Both bands are highly regarded by critics and fans alike, with Sevendust having topped the independent album charts with three of the group’s eight albums, while Taproot has reached as high as No. 33 on the Billboard charts; also, Taproot was hailed by Rolling Stone as “the next contenders for the new metal-crown.”
        In addition to its chart success, Sevendust has a local connection, with Cumberland County’s own Clint Lowery providing guitar and vocals for the Atlanta-based band.
    Sevendust is famous for its incendiary live shows — a fact not lost on Taproot’s lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Stephen Richards.
        “They’re one of the best live bands I have ever seen,” said Richards. “They’ve got me shaking.”
    Taproot, based out of Ann Arbor, Mich., is touring in support of a new album, Our Long Road Home, which Richards says is aptly named as Taproot gets back to its “roots.”
        “Over the course of our four albums we’ve really matured as men,” said Richards. “We’ve all came back home to Ann Arbor and some of us have families. So we’ve changed... Our music has changed.”
        Richards acknowledges that some hardcore Taproot fans may be put off by the new album, which is more melodic and not quite as heavy as previous CDs, especially the band’s debut on Atlantic Records, Gift.
        “Some fans wonder why we didn’t simply recreate the heavier music from Gift,” said Richards. “But what they don’t realize is that when that album came out, most of the songs on it were three years old.
        “We’ve changed and so has our music,” said Richards. “But the new album (released Sept. 16) has gotten good word of mouth on the Internet and on our Myspace page. After one week we had already sold 7,700 copies and were in at 65 on the Billboard charts.”
        Despite being more polished than past Taproot efforts, Richards says there are still plenty of “heavy” songs on the CD.
        “The album’s first track, ‘The Path Less Taken,’ is not only heavy, but I think it’s the best song Taproot has ever recorded,” said Richards. “And there are several other songs that would probably qualify as being in the ‘heavy’ class.”
        Sevendust is also pushing its newest album, Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow, which is a sort of “home brewed” affair — the songs were worked out in the home of guitarist John Connolly.
        “It was very exciting to work that way,” Connolly said on the band’s Web site. “With a lot of songs, we’d sit there and go, ‘oooh, it’s not the strongest in the bunch.’ And then all of a sudden we’d get all the pieces in the puzzle and finish it up and everyone would say, ‘Wow, that’s our favorite song on the record.’”
        Drummer Morgan Rose also expressed his happiness with the intimacy of the living room CD.
        “It was a good way for us to work,” Rose said. “We were able to get away from the record for a little while, then periodically revisit it while we were on the road, and let other people hear a little bit of what we had done and then go back in the studio to get back to business.”
        The album also features an appearance by Chris Daughtry of American Idolfame and a cameo by former Creed guitarist Mike Tremonti.
        These high-profile collaborators led to a quilt work of different music styles and sounds that leave the highly regarded album sounding much different from previous Sevendust offerings.
        Tickets for the Oct. 15 show are $25. For more information, call 423-6100, or email jesterspub11@hotmail.com.

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        Dear EarthTalk: I’ve suddenly been seeing a lot of those tiny “Smart Cars” around. Who makes them and what is their fuel efficiency? And I’m all for fuel efficiency, but are these cars safe?
                                     — David Yu, Bend, Ore.

        Originally the brainchild of Lebanese-born entrepreneur/inventor Nicolas Hayek of Swatch watch fame, Smart Cars are designed to be small, fuel-efficient, environmentally responsible and easy to park — really the ultimate in-city vehicle. Back in 1994, Hayek and Swatch signed on with Daimler-Benz (the German maker of the venerable Mercedes line of cars) to develop the unique vehicle; in fact, the company name Smart is derived from a combination of the words Swatch, Mercedes and the word “art.”
        When initial sales were slower than hoped for, Hayek and Swatch pulled out of the venture, leaving Daimler-Benz full owner (today Smart is part of Mercedes car division). Meanwhile, rising oil prices have driven up demand for Smart vehicles, and the company began selling them in the U.S. earlier this year.
    Measuring just a hair over 8 feet long and less than 5 feet wide, the company’s flagship “ForTwo” model (named for its human carrying capacity) is about half the size of a traditional car. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the car’s fuel efficiency at 33 miles per gallon (mpg) for city driving and 41 mpg on the highway (although actual drivers report slightly lower results). Three For Twos with bumpers to the curb can fit in a single parallel parking spot.
        And with soaring gas prices, the cars have been selling like hotcakes in the U.S. The company’s U.S. distributor is working on importing an additional 15,000 cars before the end of 2008, as its initial order of 25,000 vehicles is almost depleted. Some four dozen Mercedes Benz dealers across the country have long waiting lists for new Smart vehicles, which sell for upwards of $12,000.
        {mosimage}As for safety, the ForTwo did well enough in crash tests by the independent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) to earn the group’s highest rating — five tars — thanks to the car’s steel racecar-style frame and liberal use of high-tech front and side airbags. Despite such good safety performance for such a tiny car, IIHS testers caution that larger, heavier cars are inherently safer than smaller ones.
        Beyond safety concerns, some analysts bemoan the ForTwo’s price tag as unnecessarily high given what you get. The cars are not known for their handling or acceleration, although they can go 80 miles per hour if necessary. The Web site Treehugger.com suggests that eco-conscious consumers might do better spending their $12,000 on a conventional sub-compact or compact car, many which get equivalent if not better gas mileage not to mention likely faring better in a crash.
        But for those who need a great in-city car for short errands and commutes, today’s ForTwo might be just the ticket. Environmentalists are hoping Smart will release the higher mileage diesel version of the ForTwo, which has been available in Europe for several years, in the U.S. soon. And they are keeping their fingers crossed for a hybrid version which could give the hugely successful Toyota Prius — which looks almost huge in comparison — a run for its money in terms of fuel efficiency and savings at the pump.

        CONTACTS: Cool Climate Calculator, http://bie.berkeley.edu/calculator.html; EarthLab, www.earthlab.com; CarbonFootprint.com, www.carbonfootprint.com; CarbonCounter.org, www.carboncounter.org; Conservation International, www.conservation.org; The Nature Conservancy, www.nature.org; BP, www.bp.com.

        GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com

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        On Sept. 12, tens of thousands of North Carolinians, panicked by incessant press coverage of a hurricane headed towards Texas oil country, rushed out to top off their gas tanks. Many found their local stations were already out of gas. Others found huge gas lines clogging rush-hour roadways and wasting both time and fuel.{mosimage}
        Frustrated North Carolinians probably thought Ike caused it all. But here are two other names that will forever be associated with this disastrous episode: Mike and Roy.
         That’s Mike Easley and Roy Cooper, whose irresponsible threats of prosecution deterred some service stations from pricing their scarce gas stocks rationally. As reports of rising pump prices proliferated throughout North Carolina, these two “leaders” hurried in front of the press to urge consumers to report instances of “price gouging.”
    Cooper added helpfully that there was no good way to define what his office would deem to be illegal pricing.     “It’s one of those things where you know it when you see it,” he said.
    Imagine that you own or manage a service station, and just heard this obscene little bit of political demagoguery. Would you take the risk of incurring a $5,000 penalty per violation of a state law even that its own enforcer can’t explain or define? I wouldn’t. I’d leave my price low enough to avoid adverse publicity, even if it fell far short of replacement cost and generated long lines, and let my pumps quickly run dry.     That’s what many stations did. They reacted rationally to an irrational government. As a result, motorists had no incentive to purchase only a gallon or two of suddenly expensive gas if their cars were truly empty. Instead, those who arrived first at the station filled up, a form of hoarding. The lines grew long. And the gas ran out.
        Prices are signals. They convey information. They aren’t arbitrary, or wishful thinking, or technicalities that can be brushed aside with the wave of some ignorant politician’s hand. In a highly competitive business such as gas retailing, where prices are posted in enormous neon lettering, the information changes quickly as thousands of people — managers, suppliers, meteorologists, and customers – make predictions based on the best-available information. Faced with the possibility of supply disruption, if you price your existing stock too low, you’ll run out quickly (meaning that you’ll lose the in-store sales that actually earn your profit) and lack the revenue to replace your stock with tomorrow’s more-expensive supply. Price your existing gas too high, and you’ll lose revenue to your competitors as desperate consumers, mindful of even small differentials, drive right past your station.
        It’s hard enough at such times for managers to get their pricing right. Even if Easley and Cooper had managed to keep their mouths shut, there would have been some lines and empty tanks. But by threatening businesses owners with thousands of dollars in civil penalties just for running their businesses, they made a difficult situation far worse.
        Products have no inherent “reasonable” price. When circumstances change, perceptions and preferences change — and these determine the price. A bottle of water is worth more in the desert than at the lake. When you artificially reduce the price of water sold in the desert, it will run out more quickly, and few will have an incentive to transfer water from the lake to the desert to satisfy the higher demand.
        I’m not saying free enterprise engineers perfection. There is no such thing on this Earth. Human beings will always make mistakes. But in general, allowing prices to rise in anticipation of a shortage encourages consumers to purchase only what they immediately need and businesses to bring more supply to market faster (because they expect to earn a higher return than on an alternative investment of resources). The process may be messy, but it works.
        What doesn’t work is for politicians to blunder into the picture with clubs and threaten to bludgeon people.     That’s what Mike Easley and Roy Cooper did last weekend, an error for which they certainly deserve condemnation and ridicule.

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        {mosimage}Many people find it easy and convenient to use credit and ATM cards. But what do you do if you lose a card or a thief steals it from you? There are steps you can take to limit your financial loss in the event that your credit or ATM card becomes lost or stolen. Follow these tips:
        • Report the loss or theft of your credit and ATM cards to the card issuers as quickly as possible. Many companies have toll-free numbers and 24-hour service to deal with such emergencies.
        • Follow up your phone calls with a letter. Include your account number, when you noticed your card was missing, and the date you first reported the loss. Send the letter to the address provided for billing errors and keep a copy for you records.
        • If you report the loss of a credit card before it is used, the card issuer cannot hold you responsible for any unauthorized charges. If a thief uses your card before you report it missing, the most you will owe for unauthorized charges is $50 per card.
        • Review your next billing statements carefully. If they show any unauthorized charges, send a letter to the card issuer describing each questionable charge and reminding the card issuer when your card was reported lost or stolen.
        • If you report an ATM card missing before it’s used without your permission, the card issuer cannot hold you responsible for any unauthorized withdrawals made on the card.
        • If unauthorized use occurs before you report the loss of your ATM card, the amount you can be held liable for depends upon how quickly you report it. If you report the loss within two business days after you realize it is missing, you will not be responsible for more than $50 for unauthorized use. If you wait more than two business days, you could lose up to $500. If you fail to report an unauthorized withdrawal within 60 days after your bank statement is mailed to you, you risk losing all the money in your account and the unused portion of your line of credit.
        • If unauthorized transactions show up on your bank statement, report them to the card issuer as quickly as possible. Once you’ve reported the loss of your ATM card, you cannot be held liable for additional amounts, even if more unauthorized transactions are made on the card.
        • To protect yourself from card theft, loss and fraud, know where your cards are at all times and keep them secure.
        • For ATM card protection, it’s important to memorize your Personal Identification Number (PIN) and keep it a secret. Don’t use your address, birth date, phone or social security number as your PIN.

  • Details
        “A fascinating and complicated story of regional identity,” wrote New York Times film critic A. O. Scott earlier this month in praise of a North Carolina film that opened in the Big Apple earlier this month.
    Although we like to think of our state as a “film friendly” place, successful homegrown productions are still rare, and unabashed praise from the New York establishment is noteworthy.
        The film, Moving Midway: A Southern Plantation in Transit, is now showing in selected theaters in North Carolina. It is noteworthy for reasons other than the favorable reviews of a New York critic.
        Moving Midway’s creator, Godfrey Cheshire, is well known as a writer about films, though not as a filmmaker. A Raleigh native and graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, he now lives in New York. He has earned a national reputation as a perceptive observer of films made by other people.{mosimage}
        For some time, he has wanted to find a project that would give him a chance to turn his critical knowledge of the art into practice. That opportunity came when he learned that his cousin, Charles Hinton Silver, planned to move his family’s pre-Civil War plantation home away from the increasingly crowded outskirts of Raleigh to a more pastoral setting in keeping with its original setting.
        Documenting the mechanical and engineering challenges of picking up a gigantic house and moving it a long distance could, by itself, make for an interesting story.
        But Cheshire had more of a story in mind. He wanted to capture the family members and their memories of their experiences in the old house. He knew that some of them would have mixed feelings about detaching the house from the land and its surroundings. The Hinton family had owned and occupied this land since pre-Revolutionary times, and there were the spirits of ancestors to deal with.
        The saga of the move combined with the extended Hinton family’s reactions to the house’s relocation would, thought Cheshire, make for a poignant story if he could capture it on film.
    After the project was underway, something happened to make the Moving Midway story even more moving for the viewer.
        t turned out that the extended Hinton family was even more extended than Cheshire first thought.
    Shortly after he began work on the Moving Midway project, Cheshire ran into another Hinton in New York. Robert Hinton, also a Raleigh native, is a Yale trained historian. His grandfather had been born on the Midway Plantation — in the slave quarters. Coincidentally, Robert Hinton is a scholar of North Carolina history, focusing on the region’s transition from slave to free labor.
        Other African-American Hintons appeared and became a part of the project, some tracing their ancestry to a union between a Hinton plantation owner and an enslaved cook.
    By the end of the film, the various branches of the Hinton family come together at the relocated Midway Plantation house.
        Today’s North Carolina is so different from that represented by the past days of the old Midway Plantation that it is sometimes tempting to minimize or disregard our history. But our future can be much better if we learn how our past influences who we are and will be.

  • Details
        I’m a 25-year-old woman who spends an exorbitant amount of hours daydreaming about this 28-year-old guy I met nine months ago. We’re both musicians, and both tired of the games men and women play. He tells me I’m an absolute catch, and leans in when we talk in the hall like he’s trying to get closer. He has said he’s timid with girls he likes, plus I told him, “When I really like a guy, I tell him so.” Oops. I later backpedaled, explaining that I wait till the last possible moment. I’m just aching to reveal my feelings, but have only made hints while we’ve both been drunk, and I don’t think they’ve registered. Oh, yeah, did I mention he’s my roommate? What if he isn’t interested? What if I lose a tenant and a friend? How can I broach the topic of taking our friendship to the next level without scaring him away?
                  —Mooning for my Roomie

        Just get in bed with the guy and see if he complains. Say something only vaguely explanatory. Like “I saw a bug.” Or “I had a bad dream.” Or “Whoops! There was a lot of fog in the hallway, and I guess I got lost on the way back from the bathroom.”
        The worst thing you could do is lay your feelings out like a big, dead carp. Guys normally aren’t huge fans of the old “Can we talk about the relationship?” They’re particularly icked out by hearing it from a woman they have yet to even feel up. Plus, if you spell out interest that isn’t reciprocated — “I’ve spent nine months festering with lust for you!” — there’s no taking it back. An unreciprocated move, on the other hand, can be pretended away: You were drunk. You don’t know what came over you. Maybe it was the fog!
        You can spend the next nine months following the guy around the apartment with a little curl of drool hanging from your mouth — or decide it’s worth it to you to risk losing a tenant and a friend. Actually, if he is into you, you should lose a tenant, since it’s ill-advised to move in together before the first date. As for losing a friend, OK, not super-fun, but surely there are more where this one came from. Finally, let’s say he doesn’t share your feelings. Maybe you can stay roomies and friends — if you can accept, without going all weird, that he’s never going to ask if you, uh, wanna see his etchings. In fact, like one half of some old married couple, you may eventually become convinced your head will explode if you have to ask him one more time to pick his etchings up off the living room floor.

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        According to police in Bethlehem, Penn., four kids (ages 9 to 14) grabbed a donation box in August at RiverPlace park (contributions to an organization that maintains the park’s portable toilets) and ran for nearby woods, with several police officers in pursuit. Three boys were caught, but the other made it a little ways into the woods before falling into a manure pit built by homeless people at their encampment.
        About 10 years ago, reported LA Weekly in July, Southern California was awash with hysteria over household “toxic mold,” in which lawyers convinced jurors that a wide range of illnesses was caused by fungi that previously had been minor irritants controlled by ordinary cleansers. (Centers for Disease Control maintains there is no basis for such hysteria and that the only at-risk people are a tiny number vulnerable to specific fungi.) Among the mold alarmists then was announcer Ed McMahon, who famously received a multimillion-dollar settlement by claiming that mold killed his beloved dog. Recently, McMahon even more famously publicly lamented his potential bankruptcy, in large part because no one wanted to buy his house (although the reason now seems more the mortgage credit crisis than the home’s alleged toxicity).
     
    COMPELLING EXPLANATION
        Jonathan Williams, 33, was convicted of cocaine possession in England’s Guildford Crown Court in July, as jurors rejected his explanation that the pants he had on (containing the cocaine) were not his.
        That explanation also failed in August in Naples, Fla., for Richard Obdyke, 19, when police found a stolen debit card in his pants. (In both cases, the men said they had no idea whose pants they were wearing.)

    RECURRING THEMES
        The Texas criminal justice system continues to astonish. In August, federal judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio ordered a final-hours’ stay of execution for Jeffrey Wood based on serious concerns about his sanity, that the Texas state courts had somehow summarily dismissed. Judge Garcia said substantial evidence supported at least holding a hearing on the issue but that state law seemed to require the inmate to prove his insanity first in order to obtain a hearing on whether he is insane. That, said Garcia, is “an insane system.”

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        {mosimage}My wheels can take me around; they can also take me down. That is what happens in “the dead spot.” Sounds like a pitch to a movie, but I just wanted to make a point. The place I am talking about is the place you learn about in driver’s ed called the blind spot; however, for a motorcycle it is really the dead spot.
        Fayetteville is heavy with traffic. Every day, thousands of people enter and leave the base and they have a lot on their minds. People are picking up or dropping off their kids. Fayetteville is a town in motion. It seems everyone is distracted and not paying attention to vehicles around them or the drive home. Reilly, Ramsey, Raeford roads, the mall area and everywhere is congested with heavy traffic. As a motorcyclist you have to not only know what you are doing on a bike, you have to anticipate and know what others are doing as well.
        So what is a blind spot? The blind spot is an area of the vehicle that the driver cannot see around or into. This includes the back, back left and back right surrounding areas of the vehicle. If you are in someone’s blind spot and you are on a motorcycle you are in a very dangerous place. This spot is so big that you could be located beside the vehicle thinking the driver knows you are there, when he doesn’t. If the driver cannot see you, he will hit you if he moves over into your lane. Cars hit other cars all of the time. If a car’s blind spot is so big that it cannot see a car, they certainly cannot see a motorcycle. Same goes for 18-wheelers, but they have more surface area and therefore, more dead spots to content with.
        So, what is your best defense? Never let yourself get into a spot in which the other driver cannot see you. As you come along the side another car, the opposing driver’s blind spot runs from the front of your tire along their vehicle to your left or right rear bumper. The driver is limited by his right, left, or rear view mirrors; his blind spot is your dead spot. The heavier the traffic the more likely a driver is to maneuver suddenly, so be alert and careful. If you find yourself in someone’s blind spot then move forward or drop back. Just get out of it and become visible to the other driver.
        As the driver of the motorcycle you too have blind spots. You can only see what is behind you by your left and right mirrors — you cannot see directly behind you. You may be limited by a passenger, your helmet, or other obstacles. Look before moving into another lane. Don’t trust your mirrors. Turn your head. Use your turn signals at least 500 yards before you turn. Use hand signals before the turn.
        Know your surroundings. You are the only one that can protect you. If you get hit by another car it doesn’t matter whose fault it is. It will be you that will pay. Protect yourself. Remember: stay alert, stay alive.
        If there is a topic that you would like to discuss, please send your comments and suggestions to motorcycle4fun@aol.com. RIDE SAFE!

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    Burn After Reading (Rated PG-13)   4 Stars

        {mosimage}Burn After Reading (96 minutes) is a worthy follow-up to the Coen Brothers’ Academy Award winning No Country for Old Men. Unlike the latter film, which was good but not great, the ending to this movie actually makes sense.
        At its heart, the film is a twisted spy caper movie in the same way that Fargo was a criminal caper movie. All the elements are there, but the plot is a little bit to the left of what you would naturally expect. The highlights of the movie include the fabulous ensemble cast and the dialogue, which, despite all the criticism, the Coens’ excel at writing.
    We open with a cinematic plunge towards a building, where CIA analyst Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is threatened with demotion, resulting in his subsequent resignation. Once home, his wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) is outraged at his unemployment, and consults with a divorce lawyer while Osbourne decides to write his memoirs rather than look for another job.
        It turns out that Katie is having an affair, and this leads into an exploration of her relationship with Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) and his wife Sandy (Elizabeth Marvel).
        Meanwhile, the files the divorce lawyer copied from Osbourne’s computer are found at a local gym, where the employees’ misinterpretations lead Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) into a series of misadventures. These misadventures culminate in a trip to the Russian Embassy with unexpected consequences. At the same time, Linda is obsessed with an Internet dating service where she meets the aforementioned Harry, who has clear issues with fidelity.
        Osbourne’s discovery of his wife’s divorce action leads him to ever-escalating violence, but his former employers the CIA are too busy playing catch-up to intervene in his rampage (other than to cover it up). We end on a hilarious note, with a CIA official (David Rasche) summing up the final toll from Osbourne’s break with the social compact for his unnamed superior (J.K. Simmons).
        Overall, it was a very enjoyable movie that I am still thinking about.
        Even so, there are issues with the acting, and not everyone will respond so positively to it. While it is nice to see the Coens’ return to their darkly comic roots, the film is a smidge short for such a complicated plot. While most of the acting is spot on, The Clooney overacted just a tad in his introductory scenes, and Swinton (who earned my undying devotion with her 1992 role as Orlando) does not quite manage to achieve the nuanced character she was trying for, instead coming off as a caricature. Her lack of clear motivation probably stemmed from her lack of screen time, understandable in an ensemble cast such as this.
        Interesting to note is the lamentable fact that of the main cast, Tilda Swinton is the only actor whose character was not written for her specifically. According to several interviews, the Coens’ actually wrote the characters specifically for Malkovitch, McDormand, Clooney and Pitt to play.
        Another disappointment, this one on a purely personal level, stems from the failure to have Rasche speak to his gun as to an old friend. No, I do not think he should be inextricably identified with his 1986 role in Sledgehammer for the rest of his career, but this is a movie that plays up the gun violence to the extent that a longing glance at a gun would not have been out of place.
        As with other Coen movies such as Raising Arizona and Fargo, this one is a story of self-important people too wrapped up in their own self-aggrandizement to look realistically at the world around them.

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    The Amazing Race is Nowhere Near as Exciting as its Score
       

        The new season of The Amazing Race (Sunday, 8 p.m., CBS) begins with edge-of-the-seat excitement. Eleven pairs gather in Los Angeles to kick off the race around the world. The host reveals their first destination — Brazil — and they’re off! Accompanied by a soundtrack of deafening drums and screeching brass, the pairs jump in their cars and speed off to the airport! But they’re slowed by L.A. traffic! And the airline ticket lines are excruciatingly long! Then they endure the endless flight to Brazil as the soundtrack reaches a fever pitch!{mosimage}
        Hold on. In reality, there’s nothing very exciting about inching forward in traffic, waiting in line and taking a long intercontinental flight. The deafening drums and screeching brass just make us think it’s exciting. With that kind of soundtrack, I bet even this blurb would be a heart-pounding thrill ride.

    SURVIVOR: GABON
    Thursday, 8 p.m. (CBS) 
          Last season’s Survivorwas stunning, thanks to  a wily group of women who blindsided all the men. Week after week, Amanda, Parvati, Natalie and Cirie seduced their teammates into a false sense of security before lowering the ax. It was wonderful to watch them spin their webs, to the point where not even dudes holding an immunity idol were safe.
        The cast for this season’s premiere has already been announced, but I won’t be surprised if Amanda, Parvati, Natalie and Cirie blindside the producers and show up in Gabon unannouncedsexual slang is enough to get a laugh.

    PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
    Friday, 9 p.m.
        I watched the national conventions, so I have a pretty good idea of how the first presidential debate will go. Democrat Barack Obama will say that the country is in terrible shape, that the Republicans are responsible, and that we need a change. Then Republican John McCain will say the same thing.
        I know there’s a logical flaw in there somewhere. I just hope that, with the aid of a slide rule and blackboard, I can figure it out before the Nov. 4 election.

    THE SIMPSONS
    Sunday, 8 p.m. (FOX)
        In the season premiere, Homer becomes a bounty hunter, armed with a Taser. “Finally,” he tells his partner Flanders, “a practical use for electricity.” Homer tucks the Taser into his pants, despite the fact that it keeps shocking him in a very bad place. “It looks cool,” he explains to Flanders. Crackle. “D’OH!”
        The economy is tanking, the war is dragging on, and the presidential election is getting uglier by the minute. At least we have The Simpsons.

    COLD CASE
    Sunday, 9 p.m. (CBS)
        There’s nothing flashy about this series, in which detectives look for fresh leads on stale cases. No actor particularly stands out; none of them are babes. The director doesn’t try to get our attention with zippy editing, an overbearing score or gruesome corpses. Instead, Cold Case emphasizes solid TV storytelling.
        In the season premiere, a new clue comes to light in the murder of a college football star in 1973. The detectives track down the suspects one by one, looking for holes in their stories. Nothing special about that, but you have to give Cold Case credit for involving us in the mystery, and even touching our hearts by the end.
        My only quibble is that the bad guys are a bit too easy to spot.

    PARIS HILTON’S MY NEW BFF
    Tuesday, 10 p.m. (MTV)
        Paris Hilton lives most of her life on reality TV, so it makes sense that she’d use this MTV series as a way to search for a new best friend. But if I were the winner, I wouldn’t be too smug. Paris is just as likely to drop her in a 2009 series called You Know What You Did.

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        When America fell in love with Alan Jackson, they fell in love with his humorous, good time music like “Chatahoochee.” Eleven albums later, America is still in love with Jackson, but they’ve seen all sides of his music, from his ballads like “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” to traditional country like “Murder on Music Row.” On Thursday, Oct. 2, Jackson fans will get a chance to take a stroll down memory lane when he brings his Good Time tour to the Crown Coliseum.
        Jackson, one of country music’s greatest voices and most accomplished artists, will share the stage with Trace Adkins, another bigger than life country music star. The double-barrel pairing of two of country’s most exciting performers is sure to bring country music fans of all ages to the Crown for a night of honky-tonk madness.
        {mosimage}Three-time CMA Entertainer of the Year and most nominated artist in CMA Awards history Alan Jackson is “one of country music’s true masters” writing songs that ‘make life’s mundanities carry emotional heft and make it look easy.” (USA Today) He has sold more than 49 million albums and topped the album and country album chart this year with Good Time, which produced two number one singles, “Small Town Southern Man”  and “Good Time,” bringing Jackson’s career total of number ones to 33, 23 of which were written by the Grammy-winning songwriter.
        Jackson’s early music was carefree and paid homage to the honky tonks of days gone by. When his music took a on a more serious vein, he noted that while his fans enjoyed the music, they still looked forward to hearing the whimsical music which gave him his start. Good Time is a return to that music.
    While Jackson’s music has grown over the years, one thing has not changed. He has remained committed to his country roots. While others in the country music arena let their music move toward the mainstream, Jackson held on to traditional country — paying homage to country greats like Hank Williams.
        His song “Murder on Music Row,” a duet with George Strait, criticized the state of country music. The song raised the question whether or not traditional country music was actually dead. The duo was invited to open the 2000 Academy of country Music Awards with a performance of the turn. Rolling Stone noted, “if Garth and Shania have raised the bar for country concerts with Kiss-style production and endless costume changes, then Alan Jackson is doing his best to return the bar to a more human level.”
        Since releasing his platinum debut album in 1996, the Louisiana-born performer, musician, author and actor Trace Adkins has recorded seven studio albums, which netted him 24 singles on the Billboard chart.  His latest chart-topping CD, American Man: Greatest Hits Vol. II includes the multi-week number one single “You’re Gonna Miss This.” After his strong showing on NBC’s hit reality series, The Celebrity Apprentice, Adkins is turning to the big screen. He’ll soon appear in the feature film American Carol, an irreverent comedy directed by David Zucker. He is set to release his next studio album this fall.
        Tickets are $48 to $58. Additional fees may apply. Tickets may be purchased at the Crown Center Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster.com or by calling 910-223-2900. The Crown Center main box office is located at the Crown Coliseum and is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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        Curt Taylor, guitarist for Atlanta-based metal/rap band Primer 55, describes his crew’s music as “heavy rock with a hip-hop feel.”
        Yeah, heavy like the circus fat lady after she’s eaten a pan of lead-filled cookies; heavy like the Hindenburg after that lead zeppelin crashed and burned in a New Jersey field; heavy like the band’s biggest influences — NWA, Rancid, Ice T, Soulfly.
        {mosimage}And if you want to catch this “heavy” act that has sold more than 750,000 CDs around the world, you need to float on over to The Rock Shop on Sept. 26 and weigh the band’s talent for yourself.
    “People try to describe our sound all the time,” said Taylor, “saying we sound like this band or that band. But in the end, we just sound like Primer 55.”
        Primer 55 was formed in 1997 in Memphis, Tenn. After gaining some word-of-mouth fame for its brutally intense live shows, the band released its self-titled debut CD in 1999 on the independent label Propellant Transmissions. Shortly after this release, the group was offered a contract with Island Def Jam, releasing Introduction to Mayhem in 2000. The band has issued two CDs since, and is working on a new recording for major label My Family Records that will hit the shelves by the end of the year.
        Band members include Taylor and Bobby Burns on guitar and bass, vocalist Donny Polinski, and Mikey Terito on drums. Burns also plays guitar with the phenomenally successful Soulfly, serving as a musical foil to guitarist extraordinaire, Max Cavalera.
        “It’s an extremely tight unit as far as musicianship goes,” said Taylor. “When we do a live show it’s like a well-oiled machine.
        “And even though we’re classified in the metal genre, we’re really not guys playing detuned seven string guitars,” added Taylor. “We play low, groove oriented rock.”
        You can check out some sound samples on the band’s Web site, www.myspace.com/primer55rocks. The songs provided are all intense, metal/rap songs — sort of the alien love child of House of Pain and Slayer — except for the standout acoustic tune, “My Girl.”
        The Web site also contains photos and testimonials from Primer 55’s fan base — a group Taylor says is among the most enthusiastic in rock.
        “Our fans are some of the rowdiest, craziest out there,” said Taylor. “And we’re especially looking forward to playing Fayetteville because it’s known as being a town that really supports heavy rock. And it’s a military town and we know how rowdy soldiers can get — we’re huge supporters of the military and everything they do for this country.”
        The Primer 55 show will get started on Friday, Sept. 26, at The Rock Shop at about 8 p.m., kicking off with opening bands Slamhandle and Abydos. Tickets are $10 and $12. For more information, call 321-ROCK, or check out the Web site, www.therockshoplive.com.

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        Dear EarthTalk: How can I measure — and then improve — my overall “carbon footprint?” What are the major areas of one’s daily life that one measures?       
                             — Andy Fusco, Passaic, N.J.

        With global warming dominating so many headlines today, it’s no surprise that many of us are looking to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases our activities produce.
        By assessing how much pollution each of your individual actions generates — be it setting your thermostat, shopping for groceries, commuting to work or flying somewhere for vacation — you can begin to see how changing a few habits here and there can significantly reduce your overall carbon footprint. Luckily for those of us who want to see how we measure up, there are a number of free online carbon footprint calculators to help figure out just where to start changing.{mosimage}
        One of the best is the University of California at Berkeley’s Cool Climate Calculator. The free Web-based tool takes into account daily driving mileage and grocery and electricity expenses, among other factors, to assign a carbon score, which users can compare to similar households across the 28 largest urban areas in the U.S. Some of the results are surprising. For example, residents of eco-aware San Francisco tend to have bigger carbon footprints than those in more conservative Tampa, Fla. The reason: San Francisco has a higher cost of living and colder, wetter winters (requiring more fossil-fuel derived heat).
        Another great carbon footprint calculator is available at EarthLab.com, an online “climate crisis community” that has partnered with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection and other high-profile groups, companies and celebrities to spread the word that individual actions can make a difference in the fight against global warming. Users just take a three-minute survey and get back a carbon footprint score, which they can save and update as they work to reduce their impact. The site provides some 150 lifestyle change suggestions that will cut carbon emissions — from hanging your clothes to dry to sending postcards instead of letters to taking the bike instead of the car to work a few days a week.
        “Our calculator is an important first step in educating people about where they are, then raising their awareness about what they can do to make easy, simple changes that will lower their score and positively impact the planet,” says Anna Rising, EarthLab’s executive director. “Our goal isn’t about convincing you to buy a hybrid or retrofit your house with solar panels; our goal is to introduce you to easy, simple ways that you as an individual can reduce your carbon footprint.”
        Other green groups and corporations, including CarbonFootprint.com, CarbonCounter.org, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and British Oil Giant BP, among others, also offer carbon calculators on their Web sites. And CarbonFund.org even allows you to assess your carbon footprint—and then offers you the ability to offset such emissions by investing in clean  energy initiatives.

        CONTACTS: Cool Climate Calculator, http://bie.berkeley.edu/calculator.html; EarthLab, www.earthlab.com; CarbonFootprint.com, www.carbonfootprint.com; CarbonCounter.org, www.carboncounter.org; Conservation International, www.conservation.org; The Nature Conservancy, www.nature.org; BP, www.bp.com.

        GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

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        Is there anything old North Carolina political wisdom can teach Barack Obama as he responds to John McCain’s choice of a running mate?
        Here is a summary of some good advice I have heard over the years from North Carolina political old timers.
        1. The Battleship Rule — set your course stay on it. Your campaign is like a warship that has an assigned mission. If you try change direction every time an enemy ship fires a shot across your bow, you will let your enemy set your course for you. And your enemy will not be leading you where you need to go. Translation: Do not let the shots from the Sarah Palin phenomenon turn your campaign away from its demonstrated strengths of hope, change and strength for our country.
        2. The Sanford Rule — respond with speed and strength. Back in 1950 when a young Terry Sanford was trying to help Frank Graham win a U.S. Senate election, he saw Graham ignore his opponent’s substantive negative messages. Graham lost. So, in Sanford’s own campaigns for governor in 1960 and the U.S. Senate in 1986, he responded quickly to every important negative message against him. His response always took the opponent’s claim and turned it around into something that showed Sanford’s positive message. He showed that he was a fighter, but he did not violate the “Battleship Rule.” Sanford always fired back quickly but did not change course. Were Sanford in Obama’s shoes today, he would be pounding McCain for his weak, impulsive, careless choice of a running mate. Nor would Sanford bow to the whines of Republicans that Palin is being unfairly treated by an examination of her record. I can hear him saying, “Since McCain forgot about vetting Palin, somebody has to do the job for the American people.” 
        {mosimage}3. The Sheriff’s Rule — don’t despair if the sheriff is for your opponent. In the old days in North Carolina, sheriffs had great power on election day. Therefore every candidate wanted the sheriff’s support. However, the Sheriff’s Rule reminded candidates that, no matter how popular the sheriff was, he also had lots of enemies. Those enemies would be good prospects to be supporters of anyone the sheriff was against. The message for Obama in the Sheriff’s Rule is this: While Sarah Palin is gathering supporters for McCain, she is also making many enemies. These people are waiting for Obama to rally them.
        4. The “Never Act Like a Victim” Rule — never hang your head down like somebody is beating you down. People don’t like their political leaders to play the “victim’s” role. They want their leaders to show a fighting spirit and respond to every adversity with personal optimism and cheer. (See the Sanford Rule above.)
        5. The “Pay Attention to Your Base” Rule — never forget the importance of keeping your core base energized. John McCain had this rule in mind when he chose Palin. Obama needs to tend to his base, but not pander to the base as McCain did.  (See the next rule.) Obama’s supporters deserve to get the information, positive about their candidates and negative their opponents that give them the spirit to work enthusiastically.
        6. The “Remember the Middle” Rule — elections are usually decided by the “persuadable” voters. Usually they are moderates. A candidate who is perceived as too far to the left or to the right loses those voters.
        7. Finally, the “Keep Your Sense of Humor” Rule — stay cheerful and upbeat and tell jokes that make a point.

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        The national party conventions are over, the polls are bouncing, the candidates are racing down the homestretch, and I’m grumpy.{mosimage}
        As a grumpy think tanker, I’m not alone. Back in April, a coalition of Washington policy nerds called the Brookings-Heritage Fiscal Seminar released a sobering document entitled “Taking Back Our Fiscal Future.” The authors spanned the ideological spectrum, including analysts from the Right (Heritage Foundation & American Enterprise Institute), and the Left (Urban Institute and Brookings Institution). The upshot was that this year’s political candidates aren’t saying much about the biggest domestic problem facing America: entitlements.
        “When the next president and Congress take office in January 2009,” the seminar participants observed, “they will face one crucial question that has been largely absent from the current election campaign: how to narrow significantly the enormous gap between projected federal spending and revenues.” With Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending largely on autopilot, and slated to dominate future spending, the ability of any politician to address other domestic priorities will be severely constrained.
        Think that the United States has inadequate and deteriorating infrastructure in need of modernization? You’re right, but prospects for more investment are dimming. Think that major tax increases to finance skyrocketing entitlement benefits will discourage entrepreneurship and capital formation while squeezing household budgets?
        The Bush administration didn’t help matters with its overspending and the addition of Medicare Part D. Earlier, the Clinton administration missed an opportunity to enact significant entitlement reforms during the 1990s.
        In their paper, the Brookings-Heritage folks exploded some of the myths sometimes voiced on the Right or Left to downplay this long-term fiscal crisis. Although pro-growth policies, restraint in discretionary spending, and health-care reform could ameliorate future deficits a bit, they won’t eliminate them. Tax hikes could reduce the deficits a bit, too, but both accounting and economic realities intrude. “Raising taxes will not address the underlying forces – population aging and health care cost growth – driving spending and revenues apart in the coming decades,” the authors wrote. “Even raising revenues as a percent of GDP to European levels – levels that are unprecedented in the United States — will not be sufficient.” I might add that burgeoning entitlements don’t just pose fiscal challenges. They also signal a troubling change in familial and social relationships. Seniors ought to be cared for primarily by their families and communities, not by impersonal federal programs that transfer dollars from those who don’t have older living relatives to those who do.
        Of course, many citizens have made life-altering decisions on the basis of the promise of perpetual Social Security benefits, full Medicare coverage, and Medicaid financing of nursing-home care (an issue that intrudes into state budgeting here in North Carolina and elsewhere). Sudden, wrenching changes would be unfair and impossible. The Brookings-Heritage think tankers make no such proposal. Instead, they recommend that the next president and Congress enact explicit long-term budgets for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that are sustainable, limit future increases, and require congressional review every five years.
        Beyond general principles, the coalition outlines some specific ideas that could be part of a broad-based entitlement reform, including progressive indexing and other means-testing methods, mandatory personal savings accounts, changing the tax treatment of benefits, encouraging private long-term care insurance to reduce reliance on Medicaid, and replacing payroll-tax financing with some other federal tax levy.

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