The horrifying details are leaking out. Reports indicate
that UNC class president Eve Carson was kidnapped and hauled along to ATM
machines before attempting an escape. She was shot from behind and then
point-blank in the face, blowing three fingers off her right hand — her last
act on earth a frantic effort to shield her face.
This description is as accurate as anyone knows because
Orange County Superior Court Judge Carl Fox has sealed the indictment against
the two perpetrators arrested in the case. And the District Attorney can’t
decide if he should seek the death penalty. Is it because one or more of the
alleged killers is “underage”? Or is it because justice in Orange County is
often tempered with politically correct sensitivity? Fox has been known to bend
the rules in the past, and I’m sure the DA is receiving heat from the usual
suspects who always pop up and blame “society” for the actions of
“disadvantaged” groups.
But whatever the reasons for the stonewalling in
Hillsborough, why aren’t the local mass media beating down the door to find out
what’s really going on? If the accused parties had misused campaign funds, been
involved in a sexual liaison or driven a state-owned vehicle for personal
errands, reporters and TV vans would be camped outside the jail 24/7. Pre-trial
publicity is certainly involved here, but the public’s right to know trumps
that canard in the case of Carson. One conclusion is clear. The prophylactic
thrown over the accused parties certainly inures to their benefit, allowing
time for advocacy groups to concoct their defense.
Over at UNC-Chapel Hill, where Carson was murdered, it’s not
too late to join in the “year-long discussion of the death penalty.” Back in March
— the month Carson was killed — The Justice Theater Project presented Still …
Life “to call attention to the needs of the poor, the marginalized and the
oppressed” — in other words, the people who commit murders and end up on death
row. Or you could have visited an “interactive multimedia installation … that
looks at the death penalty through images and sound.” Believe me, the
discussions at Carolina did not include pro-death penalty points of view. And
rest assured the dozens of other subsidized activist groups hanging around the
university will coalesce to undermine bringing Carson’s killers to justice. In
the end, it will be your fault.
Notes From La-La Land
Word is the city of Raleigh drained water out of the Falls
Lake reservoir a year ago in response to predictions of an active hurricane
season in summer 2007. The severity of the drought was duly exacerbated — but
no “named” storms came close to North Carolina. The same meteorological
“experts” are relied upon for estimates on climate change. These new lords of
the universe can’t even predict a thunderstorm tomorrow, yet nations are
committing billions of dollars to heed their advice about global warming.
•••
Obviously sanity is not a prerequisite for environmental
theory. In a devastating irony, a global famine is under way as activists push
to abandon gasoline and pump bio-fuels made from corn to power automobiles.
Corn has become scarce and expensive, and people in poor countries are going
hungry. Meanwhile, the lunacy continues as the very same activists block access
to the world’s oil resources. The righteous and deranged environmental Left is
far more dangerous to our future well-being than terrorism.
•••
Speaking of nutcases, Bill Ayers has been in the news of
late associated with presidential candidate Barack Obama. The problem for Obama
is that Ayers was the leader of the notorious 1960s and ’70s domestic terror
gang the Weathermen — later changed to the Weather Underground in a politically
correct nod to the girls in the group. I made a point to attend a talk by Ayers
in 2006 in Washington, DC, to hear what he had to say about his days as a
stooge for the Soviets. Many of his antics are discussed in his 2001 book
Fugitive Days — featured on the cover of The New York Times Arts section on 9/11.
Ayers unfortunately opined he missed the heady days of blowing up buildings for
fun. But I wanted to ask him a few questions up-close and personal. Go to
www.metronc.com and click on “My Usual Charming Self” and scroll to “You Don’t
Need A Weatherman.”
•••
Hats off to Thad Woodard, executive director of the NC
Bankers Association, for orchestrating the Salute The Troops parade in downtown
Raleigh April 26. Vietnam began the separation of the military from the public
domain. Until then it was common to see servicemen and women in uniform out and
about. The Christmas parade in Raleigh featured marching bands from Fort Bragg
and Camp Lejeune. Soldiers and sailors and Marines took pride in their service
to the nation and were treated with grateful respect. Sadly, the anti-war
movement went to work on the military presence in society and never let go.
ROTC programs were run off campuses or forced to change to kinder, gentler
names — for example Navy ROTC became “The Curriculum for Peace, War and
Defense” at UNC-Chapel Hill. At Yale the protestors ran the Navy off campus. In
the mid-’90s the school asked the Navy if they would like to return. The Navy
said no thank you.
•••
Tony Blair hadn’t been gone long before the true stripes of
his New Labour Party — now under Prime Minister Gordon Brown — went on display
in a typically inane politically correct piece of legislation. The UK has
officially outlawed “wolf whistles,” the time-honored tradition by working
class stiffs to recognize female pulchritude. Blair kept the Party within the
bounds of rationality. Without his personal leadership, the nanny state ninnies
are on the move.