Deregulator: Alive since '85!

Here's an interview I did with Carolina Journal Radio on a math problem we discovered when President Obama was promoting his jobs bill.

No, I don't mean the Obama administration, dagnab it. I'm talking about the Butch Davis era at Chapel Hill. I probably couldn't find the posts now, but on Facebook I was calling for Davis to be fired a year ago, when the sordid mess came to light. And after the initial Marvin Austin tweets came to light, and the NCAA visited Carolina's campus, the situation worsened -- capped off by the academic scandal. All along, Davis pulled what Triangle Internet Legend BobLee called the "Sgt. Schultz" defense: I know nothing! BobLee — UNC alum, conservative curmudgeon, and all-around neat guy, has been the best source of info and insight throughout the debacle. He identified John "Black Santa" Blake, Butch's associate head coach and main recruiter (and, literally, former student, as Butch was one of Blake's high school teacher), who was on the payroll of a professional agent while he was recruiting high school kids and preparing them for the Lig. ...

Well, that was an interesting 36 hours. Sunday, Reuters reporter Ned Barrett quoted JLF Commander John Hood in a story on the John Edwards indictment. NBC's Today Show wanted to interview the boss, who was on vacation. So, after a few phone calls, Today found me. We did an interview at the office Sunday afternoon, and a sound bite aired in Monday's program. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy Then, Jon Stewart picked up on the story and did a segment on last night's Daily Show. The Daily Show - Tangled Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes , Political Humor & Satire Blog , The Daily Show on Facebook And I got a not-too-complimentary mention on the right-wing NewsBusters blog. Not a bad day.

2011 marked my fifth Merlefest and Cara's fourth. Last year, we swore we would not attend more than two days of the four-day festival. No matter how wonderful the music, how delightful the surroundings, and how enjoyable the company might be, spending more than 20 hours in the elements is too exhausting at our age. So, of course, we ended up buying passes for all four days of Merlefest this year. We survived three (and would have made all four had we not both spotted the first signs of colds Sunday morning). The original plan was to go only Friday and Saturday, but lineup was so strong this year that we decided to shoot for the entire weekend. Good move. The weather was ideal -- highs in the mid-70s, night temps around 50. Sunny every day. From the initial counts, the initial counters put attendance at just over 80,000 for the weekend, in the top three all time. We added Thursday when our friends the Wehrmanns got us tickets to the Wilkes Chamber Night event. For the cost ...

In recent months, I've noticed my daily routine changing. After waking, smooching my wife, starting the coffee, and feeding the pets, I stumble outdoors and pick up the paper. I'll check the headlines and see what idiocy is on the N&O edit page, and then boot up my laptop and read the news online. This is a big deal, and a total reversal of how I've consumed newspapers over the past four-plus decades. As a child, we often subscribed to two daily papers (The Winston-Salem Journal and The Charlotte Observer .) When I went away to college, at times, I'd take three -- the Charlotte O, the News & Observer, and The Durham Morning Herald . I'd often catch up on The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal in the library. I'm a newsprint and ink guy. And yet, I'm getting more and more of my information over the Web. For one thing, the N&O -- and most local dailies -- are shrinking, constantly. There was a time last year that, on a typical Mond...

http://deregulator.blogspot.com/2011/02/drew-decision.html

Well, that came out of nowhere. Larry Drew II was never likely to make frequent appearances in Carolina basketball highlight reels, but to quit the team in the middle of the season, five days before the Duke game? A guy averaging more than 20 minutes a game for a ranked basketball team just doesn't do that. Unless something's not right. Sure, Drew had lost his starting point guard job four games ago. But his minutes hadn't dropped significantly -- he became the sixth man, a defensive stopper, and the quality of his play improved once he started coming off the bench. Did Drew's mother play a role? She's been a pain to her other kids' high school coaches. Maybe she hassled Ol' Roy, too. But the Heels' troubles with Larry II came from Larry Sr. -- not because the elder Drew (who was a backup point guard for the Lakers at the end of the Magic Johnson era and is now head coach of the Atlanta Hawks) gave Roy a lot of grief. At least as far as anyone k...

Found on YouTube. Great tunes by one of my favorites. http://deregulator.blogspot.com/2011/01/four-decades-of-nick-lowe.html

Amazing what you'll find on YouTube. Here's an overview of one of my favorite singer-songwriter's careers. Starting with the Pub Rock legends Brinsley Schwarz, who formed in the late '60s (great 'do, Nick). That's Lowe on guitar, Ian Gomm bass, Billy Rankin drums, Bob Andrews B-3 and Brinsley piano. Next, from '78, with Rockpile (Billy Bremner and Dave Edmunds guitars, Terry Williams drums). Given all the costume changes, there's clearly lip-synching going on, and yet the music was done live. About five years later, it's "Half a Boy and Half a Man," with Paul Carrack keys, Marty Belmont (of the Rumour!) guitar, drummer unknown. Back when Lowe was Johnny Cash's son-in-law. A few years later, he remade one of the Rockpile-era classics, with some help from Huey Lewis and the News: In 1990, he did a great live set on VH1 (on a show hosted by Nile Rodgers' -- that's right, from Chic) that I saw when it first aired. ...

http://www.facebook.com/# !/henderson.rick/posts/191356510878738

Liberal? People hate it. Progressive? Headed that way ... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/01/democrat-decline-president...

For you NRBQ fans, gittar picker Scott Ligon channels Big Al.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/01/028073.php The hissy fit the left is throwing over the new Congress' fidelity to the Constitution is puzzling, since all members of Congress take an oath to protect and defend it. It's puzzling, that is, unless the left (like Ezra Klein) believe it has not true authority.

A sensible view of the Beam kerfuffle. http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/the-specter-of-minarchy/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110104/lf_nm_life/us_pinkfloyd_emi_1