The Law of Political Thermodynamics: If The Heat Is On Someone Else, It’s Not On You.
Thank you, North Carolina. You make Texas look good.
North Carolina used to be my favorite foreign state. I went there any chance I got and Bubba and I considered retiring there.
But, we’ve changed our minds. We were hoping to retire from having to fight crazy, mean people and North Carolina went blue in 2008. Not so much now.
North Carolina House Majority Leader Paul “Skip” Stam went all up the side of the head of The North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Her name is June Atkinson and she believes that private schools and public schools in the state should take the same standardized tests.
Atkinson said she would like to see students at private and public schools take the same tests so parents can compare scores. She also said private schools should receive performance grades based on student achievement, just as public schools will.
The legislature upped the testing requirement for private schools, but schools can choose which national tests to administer and don’t have to report scores unless they enroll more than 25 students with vouchers.
Skip Stam’s reaction to that?
“She should stick to her own knitting,” said the Apex Republican.
I can’t retire to North Carolina now. I can’t. I would go to jail for knitting needling assault.
As long as the North Carolina House Majority Leader is issuing an opinion, there is something he should know. Opinions are like belly buttons. Everyone has one.
1Hey, if you don’t mind rusting we’ll welcome you in Washington the Evergreen state. Where there hasn’t been a Republican governor elected since 1982.
2I would suggest a body location where you could put those knitting needles but it’s apparent his head is firmly planted there.
3Stick to her own knitting? ‘Cause that’s the only sort of thing women are good at, what with them not having brains enough to be Superintendent of Public Instruction, for example.
Way to reach out to women, GOP.
4LynnN — Right you are! “Knitting?” Really?? I wonder what, exactly, is the “knitting” of the Superintendent of Public Instruction if not education?
Kip — Yes, indeed, Washington State wants JJ and Bubba. Washington is still blue, but with enough political shenanigans to keep it interesting.
5Well, I can’t knit. But I can lay concrete, do electrical work, maintain my cars, and practice medicine without a license on occasion.
Knitting is my friend’s specialty. She knits with a group of elderly women at her church, then donate the scarfs, gloves, sweaters, etc… to the homeless shelters.
I wouldn’t knock knitting. The end product offers something useful to others. Unlike Mr. Stam who is, apparently, useless.
6You listen up, JJ and Bubba. You absolutely are not allowed to move away from Texas. You hear? Especially since ALEC and the Koch brothers took over North Carolina. We can all go help ’em out if we need to, but you gotta vote HERE in Texas, assuming JJ and related women aren’t among the 34% of women who haven’t got their voting IDs all lined up right.
7I was going to suggest true-blue Maryland, but Marge is right– they need your votes in Texas a lot more than we do here. Unless you can figure out how to vote in both states, but apparently you need to be Republican to get away with that.
8I too am planning on retiring to North Carolina in about 16 months. My wife and I even put an offer in on piece of property in Hillsborough NC, but that kinda fell through. We started our quest for our little slice of retirement heaven in Apex, a very lovely town filled with some of the nicest people you would ever like to meet. But after watching this year’s General Assembly’s assault on all the principles I value I’m beginning to wonder if we should retire to NC. One of the reasons we did not choose Charlotte NC was that all the places we were being offered were in SC and I wasn’t about to spend my retirement having to wear Kevlar and superglue my lips shut every day. The Reverend Barber says the nuts can count and they can see that this is their last desperate hope to retain power. I’m sure hoping and prayin’ the preacher is right. Maybe that’s my mission in retirement to help feed the poor, protect the vote and stay sober. I guess old soldiers never really retire. Work calls. Y’all take care.
9“Skip” Stam?
10I’m pretty sure this is not the kind of knitting to which “Skip” Stam refers: (Momma do NOT look) http://www.governmentfreevjj.com/
11Paul, et al. Oh, wait. Don’t give up on North Carolina yet! If you look at one of those nifty county-by-county voting maps, you’ll see the concentrations of blue. Look more closely and you’ll notice they’re not all just large cities. The key to the blue areas is where the colleges and universities are. I go to Charlotte frequently and really don’t like it much (if my kids weren’t there, you couldn’t give me a free ticket!), but Asheville, Boone, and other small towns *if they have a college or university*, are another matter. Boone seems particularly nice, and not as touristy as Asheville, so probably more affordable. Just avoid Charlotte and keep on lookin’!
12@Kay Carrasco: Thanks for encouragement. We’ll keep trudging cause we feel it is worth it.
13RA: That is precisely the kind of knitting, Mr. Skippy needs. How bout we all knit him one.
14Same up here in Badgerland. We are now supporting private religious school students with vouchers & the parents get to deduct the tuition from their taxes. Separation of church & state?
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