New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof will speak at Duke University next week about gender inequality in the developing world.

Kristof is the keynote speaker for Duke's Jean Fox O'Barr Distinguished Speaker Series. The lecture is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Page Auditorium. It is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a book signing.

Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, is the co-author of a new book, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide."

Another Galifianakis is making waves.

Longtime political observers may remember former U.S. Rep. Nick Galifianakis, best known for his unsuccessful U.S. Senate run in 1972, which paved the way for Sen. Jesse Helms' three-decade career.

His nephew Zach has a new comedy coming out called "The Hangover" and was the subject of a lengthy profile in the New York Times magazine last weekend.

A standup comic, the younger Galifianakis talked about his uncle's political career while on stage at the Purple Onion, in a clip available on YouTube.

"My uncle was winning and then Jesse Helms came out with this slogan ... that said 'Vote for Jesse. He's one of us.' — meaning he doesn't have a freaky long last name and it turned the election," he said. "I hate the right. I hate them with a passion."

Incidentally, Zach Galifianakis stars with a Helms in the new movie — Ed Helms of the TV show "The Office."

We presume he's no relation.

Paul Krugman is taking Blue Cross to task.

The liberal New York Times columnist harshly criticized Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina over reports it plans to run a series of ads attacking health care reform.

According to reports in the Washington Post and the N&O, the ads show Americans being prevented from choosing their doctor and forced to wait months by government bureaucrats, though Krugman says many HMO's already do that.

"“We can do a lot better than a government-run health care system,” says a voice-over in one of the ads. To which the obvious response is, if that’s true, why don’t you? Why deny Americans the chance to reject government insurance if it’s really that bad?

Krugman argues that none of the plans currently being discussed would force people into a government-run health care plan.

The ads were prepared by Capstrat, a Raleigh public relations firm.

Another New York Times columnist is headlining the Emerging Issues Forum.

After last year's turn by Thomas Friedman, the annual Raleigh event this spring will feature conservative commentator David Brooks.

The theme this year is "Changing Landscapes: Building the Good Growth State?" 

"We are thrilled to have David Brooks speak to us about our infrastructure imperative," said former Gov. Jim Hunt. "We anticipate his creative, national perspective will inspire our state's leaders." 

Brooks will talk about how plans for infrastructure investment can be updated to keep pace with changes in the economy and technology.

He has recently gained attention for cautioning against seeing infrastrucutre spending as a solution for economic problems, saying too much spending on repairing existing infrastructure could hurt urban and suburban innovation and slow momentum for a transportation revolution. 

The forum will be held Feb. 9-10.

Another top adviser to Barack Obama has Tar Heel ties.

Cassandra Q. Butts has not been appointed to any official posts within the Obama administration yet, but she has known the president-elect since they applied for financial aid at the same time at Harvard Law School.

A profile in The New York Times said she is "a utility-infielder player with wide breadth in a number of areas" who could be in charge of legal advice or personnel for the president.

Butts moved to Durham when she was nine years old and earned a bachelor of arts in political science from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her first job was as a counselor for the Durham YMCA, and after college she worked for a year as a researcher with the African News Service in Durham.

She also has worked for the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank that employs Elizabeth Edwards and Obama's top domestic policy adviser. 

Hat Tip: Triangulator 

Thomas Schaller urged Barack Obama to write off North Carolina.

In a guest column in The New York Times on July 1, the author of "Whistling Past Dixie" argued that the then Democratic presidential nominee might find Virginia within reach, but not North Carolina and Georgia.

"Mr. Obama can write off Georgia and North Carolina for the same reasons that Mississippi is beyond his reach — although the math in those two states is slightly less daunting," he wrote.

He argued that black voters already cast their ballots at a relatively high rate, and said the "white vote" would serve as a "formidable counterbalance."

Schaller, a professor of politics at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, was wrong about Obama's chances here, as it turned out.

Next, we'll see what he says now. 

Has North Carolina seceded from the Confederacy?

The aftermath of last week's historic presidential election has led many national commentators to speculate that North Carolina and Virginia are no longer part of "the South."

The latest example comes from the New York Times today, which not-so subtly credits all those former New Yorkers moving to places like Cary for Barack Obama's wins here.

Along the Atlantic Coast, parts of the "suburban South," notably Virginia and North Carolina, made history last week in breaking from their Confederate past and supporting Mr. Obama. Those states have experienced an influx of better educated and more prosperous voters in recent years, pointing them in a different political direction than states farther west, like Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and Appalachian sections of Kentucky and Tennessee. 

A similar urge to separate Tar Heels from their Confederate brethren has long been at work in the move to redefine the South Atlantic states (give or take a few neighbors) as "the Southeast."

Dome has always thought of the region as "the Shallow South" — the opposite end of the pool from the Deep South.

Two liberal bloggers came the closest to predicting North Carolina's presidential race.

Nate Silver, a statistics nut who runs the Web site FiveThirtyEight.com, and Kirk Ross, who writes the Exile on Jones Street blog about the legislature, both predicted Barack Obama would win the state. Silver said by 0.6 percentage points; Ross by 0.5 to 1.5 points.

The actual margin, according to uncertified results from the State Board of Elections, was 0.3 points.

The two were among 16 bloggers, pundits, professors and consultants who predicted an Obama win in the Tar Heel state, according to an informal tally by Dome the week before the election.

Because of the narrow margin, the 13 who predicted a McCain win (including the Eight Ball) shouldn't be too ashamed, except maybe the four conservatives who predicted a win by three or more points — Sen. Richard Burr, Red State editor Erick Erickson, blogger Ed Morrissey and editor Fred Barnes.

And no points go to the five mainstream sources who refused to make a prediction (Rothenberg Political Report, Congressional Quarterly, Cook Political Report, New York Times and MSNBC.)

A brief sentence from the New York Times today:

In North Carolina, Republicans said that the huge surge of African-Americans was one of the big factors that led to Senator Elizabeth Dole, a Republican, losing her re-election bid.

The New York Times has called for Kay Hagan.