“Greatness is never given. It must be earned.” — Barack Obama
As some one who has had the occasion to do a lot of public speaking, I pay particular attention to speeches, speakers and general speechmaking of any sort whether it be impromptu, theatrical, extemperaneous or formal. The time for great formal speeches and statesmanship seemed to be in the past until the admittedly astounding rise of Barack Obama, and it is good to see such renewed interest in speeches from the Joe Six-Pack crowd. Yesterday, in the midst of a national moment of celebreation and rejoicing, we heard freshly sworn-in President Barack Obama’s first speech to the nation he now leads. More than just the typical quadrennial refreshing of executive authority and dusting off of pomp and circumstance, this event was widely anticipated to be a unifying touchstone and a lamplighting of historic proportion.
And it was.
Ok, yeah but how was the speech?
[ Link takes you to external site ]
As promised… WRAL’s feature on the Tryon Daily Bulletin
[ Link takes you to external site ]
Scott Mason of WRAL TV in Raleigh features small towns and forgotten corners of North Carolina four days a week. They’ve just profiled Saluda, part of my old Polk County stomping grounds. It’s certainly hokey when you put it on TV, but Saluda is a pretty special place. Not shown in the video, but one of my favorite places in the world is Ward’s Grill. The place is a time warp, I absolutely love it. Next time I’m passing through I’ll have to take my camera and get some photos to go with my milkshake and cheeseburger.
WRAL also featured the Tryon Daily Bulletin, but that video isn’t linkable yet. I’ll post it when it is.
Great technique; he keeps the wheels pointing in the right direction and doesn’t ever panic. Other than the 150mph part, this is an awesome example of good driving. I’ve gone into dangerous slides like this before without having ABS and made it, but none quite this insane. Seeing this makes me pine for a nice piece of German engineering again.
My life has sort of hit an oil-slick, and I’m in the midst of pulling out if it. The main problem right now: need a roommate. Any suggestions/applications?
During a segment with John Roberts on CNN this morning, the Bulletin got a little shout out from Pam Stone while discussing voter registration trends in NC.
More unaffiliated and independent voters? De Tocqueville is smiling in his grave.
I saw this movie a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. He asks a lot of simple questions to people who say they have the answers and watches them fall on their face trying get out of the way of the hypocrisy of their tradition. Especially memorable was the Creationist museum, which depicts humans and dinosaurs living together in an antediluvian harmony, as well as the Holy Land theme park in Orlando, Florida, where an actor playing Jesus gets gruesomely impaled every day, to the tearful applause of the crowd.
“If there was a god, I’d still have both nuts.” — Lance Armstrong
Religion is a cultural millstone, hanging around our necks. The sooner we discard it, the better our chances of survival. People professing no religious belief are the most under represented demographic in this country, and like any under represented (and growing) group, they will not persist sotto voce for long. Kudos to Bill Maher.
I worked for the local newspaper when I lived in Tryon, and still moonlight there a couple hours a week. I saw this ad run and got a chuckle out of it, but looks like not everybody had such a benign reaction. I don’t understand why they are complaining about all the free publicity — the controversy will blow over, of course, but this is publicity you couldn’t pay for.
