If You Want Something to Be Complicated, It Will Be

Childhood obesity is certainly a problem — but a government problem? The First Lady thinks so. I disagree. We know what causes obesity, and we know what to do about it. This is not rocket science. It just takes common sense and discipline. Ah yes, discipline. It’s that last part that way too many Americans seem to have a problem with.

The N&O’s skewed world view

Why has the N&O made such an issue, with stories and columns, about Reyn Bowman’s “retention incentive” of $275,000 when they don’t blink an eye at the millions in government waste going down the rat hole that is Rolling Hills?

Bowman, as CEO of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau, shoveled manure for Durham for 20 years, combating regional bias, pushing for Durham’s rightful place as a non-hyphenated town all its own, extolled the virtues of a downtown that could be (which is finally seeing progress), and he did it all with grace, charm and good humor.

His retirement bonus, if you will, amounts to a little more than $13,000 a year in what he and the DCVB say was an agreed-upon-in-advance deferred compensation. Bowman’s retention incentive is small potatoes compared to the millions that are wasted routinely by Durham’s elected officials, city and county. Where are the reporters, columnists and raised editorial eyebrows when real waste and boondoggles need to be examined?

I say Bowman deserves every penny of his golden parachute, and I wish him a fun time on his Harley.

Media Matters is a joke, seriously

Media Matters, the Soros-funded so-called media watchdog on the left, is especially good at spit-take inducing analysis. Today is a good example.

They complain about a CNN panel last night on the Brown-Coakley election, calling it biased. Here’s their take on the panel, made up of Paul Begala, Alex Castellanos, Erick Erickson, Dana Bash, John Avlon and Gloria Borger:

That’s two conservatives (Castellanos and Erickson), an independent who used to be a speechwriter for Rudy Giuliani (Avlon), two journalists (Bash and Borger), and one liberal (Begala).

Balance, anyone?

First of all, Bash and Borger may be “journalists” but anyone who has ever watched them over the years know there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between them and Begala. Second, if Media Matters is so upset about a former Giuliani speech writer being included on a panel, where’s their outrage at the likes of George Stephanopoulos and Chris Matthews, two Democratic operatives who are not just periodic guests on panels but hosts of their own shows?

‘It’s disgusting. I’ve never seen anything like it’

Mort Zuckerman, editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report, is not a right-wing crackpot, so his assessment of Obama’s first year is a stinging indictment. “He’s done everything wrong,” says Zuckerman. He also points to the baseline corruption and ethical vacuum that pervades the Obama era:

It is disgusting, just disgusting. I’ve never seen anything like it. The unions just got them to drop the tax on Cadillac plans in the health-care bill. It was pure union politics. They just went along with it. It’s a bizarre form of political corruption. It’s bribery.

Hey, he’s from Chicago. A lot of folks saw this coming a long time ago.

This Massachusetts Map Says It All

Courtesy of the Weekly Standard’s Mary Katharine Ham is the Massachusetts map that tells the Scott Brown story. This will shake up liberals all across the country.

Oh By The Way, Charters ARE Public Schools

Once again the reporting on charter schools fails to acknowledge a key fact — charter schools ARE public schools. From the AP story about concerns that North Carolina’s 100-school cap on charters will hurt the state’s case for “Race to the Top” grant funds.

Charter schools receive public money but are run by private boards and have fewer regulations to follow. Charter schools will figure into how a state is scored for its application.

From reading this story, you would think charters are private schools and the state is providing them with a gift of public money. Wrong.