newsobserver.com projects - Larry Womble - Comments

Re: Executions bill leads to emotional debate

dahedgehog — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:54:53 -0400

Someone needs to get Stam to complete the circle:

"This bill is not really about race," said Rep. Paul Stam of Wake County, the minority leader. "It's about the death penalty."

Guess what, dude. If a defendant is "3.5 times more likely to face the death penalty when the victim is white than when the victim is black," then the death penalty is about race.

Re: Looking for support

gercohen — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:22:29 -0400

"“Good Morning Eugenics Supporters,” read the e-mail sent from Rep. Larry Womble’s office.'

Reminds me of a fundraising appeal where the caller said he was raising money "for cancer". I told him that I would prefer to give money "against cancer.". It turned out he was raising money for the American Cancer Society and was using shorthanded speech to describe his cause.

I have often heard similar shorthanded misuses of "for"

Re: House votes to furlough itself, judiciary

melted — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:07:17 -0400

Hopefully the state Senate will do the right thing and take the same pay cuts as they are asking the rest of state employees to do, but it isn't a for sure when the likes of Tony Rand and Marc Basnight will do everything they can to descimate the lives of state employees. I hope the Senate will step up to the plate but it isn't a given.

Re: Recent House bills

tangoz — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:30:39 -0400

Those anti-life Democrats are trying to stop the Pro Life and NRA license plates.

Re: Recent House bills

ncpoli — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:16:28 -0400

Does anyone have background infor on H677? Why eliminate specialty plates? Beyond making our state look completely boring, don't some of the procedes from those plates go to charity? I'm sure the Democrats who sponsored this bill aren't anti-charity, are they?

Re: Quick Hits

ThunderPig — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:12:41 -0400

Ada Fisher is the one what should be resigning.

She has been a stalking horse for Katon Dawson in the RNC race, she can't get over that loss, and seems to spend more time attacking her fellow Republicans than doing something constructive. Enough, already, Ada!

Re: Quick Hits

captsfufp — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:28:33 -0400

I haven't read the anti-texting bill, but from the way it's being reported...it just doesn't make sense. You can access the internet but not text? I have no idea how you enforce that...does the law enforcement officer have to look at your phone to determine whether you wrote "brb" or were checking the latest on UtD via the Internet?

Re: Quick Hits

bkrueger — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:06:21 -0400

Fixed it. Thanks.

Re: Quick Hits

mdougyr — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:03:22 -0400

You put an extra "p" in happy.

Re: Legislature honors black history week

tangoz — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:14:40 -0500

Isn't all of this AMERICAN HISTORY? Good or bad this history is a part of our fabric. We all benefit from learning OUR history. No one group has dibs to a particular part of our history.

Re: More House bills

awbeal — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:57:07 -0500

I have a suggestion for the legislators offering a constitutional amendment making the state superintendent of schools an appointed position. I agree with them! But they also need to change Article 9 of the Constitution (http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Legislation/constitution/article9.html) to say that the superintendent is the CHAIRMAN (not the secretary) of the board of education. This sort of accomplishes what Gov. Perdue set out to do: put together the chairman and CEO into one accountable official.

Re: The Tobacco Caucus

cdtew — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:31:59 -0500

I haven't seen any numbers on this directly, but according to the NCDA's statistics, we exported $409,600,000 of raw tobacco in 2007. If that is included in the total cash receipts for tobacco (~$586,451,000), then it can be assumed that nearly 70% of tobacco profits come from exports out of the state.

I would still say that $186 million is a large amount of money for certain eastern counties,and there's possibly a generalized interest that the legislators that represent all tobacco counties might have in seeing no state adopt such regulations. The regulations are, let's admit it, ultimately aimed at reducing smoking by making it more inconvenient to be a smoker (as well as the short-term benefit of reducing second-hand smoke). That attenuated concern, however, is probably why ~45% of legislators from "Grower" districts voted for a smoking ban.

Re: The Tobacco Caucus

danmanley2299 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:25:00 -0500

Locke,

I would expect nothing less from you, using your holier than thou research to pull up such repugnant regimes to prove a point. Very clever, you might want to realize it’s 2K9, and that fear mongering is not working like it use to. A ten second research into places that ban smoking can easily counteract your rhetoric of “societies” and will show places that most folks wouldn’t mind being compared to. I think you are plenty smart, but it may be time to reinvent your self and find a new way to trounce on peoples emotions and fears.

No one is attempting a “puritanical ban” on smoking; folks will be able to still get their highs from smoking. I think when someone else’s puritanical enjoyment of smoking leaves their lungs and enters into airspace shared by children, elderly, and pregnant women is when concern arises.

On another note, I would like to know the percentage of leaf grown in NC that stays in NC. That is the real question. These companies are buying leaf grown oversees because it is not regulated and less controlled. Moreover, there high quality products are being sent overseas where there is a market for it.

Good day.

Re: The Tobacco Caucus

GrayJ — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:01:38 -0500

While I understand this post to a degree, you must understand that the "tobacco caucus" is actually much larger. Because Reynolds American has thousands of current employees and a lot more retirees (for the most part who are ardently loyal) that live in several counties surrounding Winston-Salem. I believe any legislator from Forsyth, Davie, Davidson (excluding Holliman), Stokes, Surry, and Yadkin could easily be included in the tobacco caucus.

Re: The Tobacco Caucus

jonoflocke — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:20:41 -0500

While we're compiling useful information, I wouldn't mind a look into societies that have enacted the kind of puritanical bans on the enjoyment of tobacco that are under discussion here. In my own limited observations, I've counted Nazi Germany, the Soviet bloc, Cuba (here is a tobacco-producing police state), and al Qaeda when they can. In the U.S., of course, it's an idea that spans political parties; e.g., both Sen. Clinton and Gov. Huckabee support it.