You can’t be a good Christian and a Democrat, a private evangelical university told its students when it refused to recognize a student club with ties to the national Democratic Party.

Liberty University, the Lynchburg, Va., school founded by the fundamentalist Rev. Jerry Falwell, derecognized the College Democrats because school officials consider ( Read more... )

It's been a year of firsts and frustrations.

I have much to celebrate and many reasons to be grateful as 2008's last few grains trickle down the sandtimer, but this memorable year wasn't without its share of setbacks and malevolent misadventures.

In the name of career advancement, I moved from New Bern to Gastonia for a job at my company's largest ( Read more... )

Critics of the Iraq war simply don't understand, the hawks and the Bush backers sigh. Talk to the troops -- any U.S. servicemember will tell you the lumbering fiasco edited for cable news isn't the same conflict he's fighting.

The stories supposedly squelched by mainstream TV networks and newspapers are heartening. A soldier cradles the limp body of ( Read more... )

From the monumental to the humdrum, nearly every conspiracy theory converts cynics into true believers the same way. Conspiracists exploit a kernel of truth - usually little-known or underreported fact - and build on this firm foundation a fantastical palace of postulation and wild conjecture.

Sadly, such is the case in “Zeitgeist: Addendum,” a film ( Read more... )

Nearly every Friday night, the liquor would flow, the pizza would scald the roof of my mouth and the conversations ranged from the crude to the confessional. It rarely if ever qualified as a party, just a small gathering of friends alternately lauding and lamenting life.

It's a rare day here -- months and miles from those paleskin pow-wows -- when I ( Read more... )

The Independent Register couldn't rise from the dead, but it has been reincarnated.

No return is planned for the hold-and-fold broadsheet newspaper that Eric, William and I published in 2005 and 2006. But a new Web site is preserving the paper's fiery spirit, and we three contrarian commentators are back on the beat. The site, www.indieregister.com, ( Read more... )

 A stout, white carton with folded sides and an inky red sketch of a towering pagoda.

A baked boomerang with ancient wisdom (and lottery numbers) on a thin strip of paper hidden within the crunchy cookie.

Buddha’s bronze belly - rub it for good luck - and serene smirk greeting you at the door.

Add a pair of chopsticks and choose two entrees from Lists ( Read more... )

We've wandered the vast aisles forlornly, darting from frozen foods to health and beauty to electronics to cleaning supplies. Overhead, rows of fluorescent lights bathe the hulking superstore in a pale yellow glow.

We wait in human gridlock for our turn at the cash register, advancing inch by interminable inch. The cashier scans our purchases, fills ( Read more... )

The move to Gastonia was bound to get better, if only because it couldn't get much worse.

It was 10 p.m. last Monday, and I'd just arrived in my new apartment - in a tow truck. My bruised Buick had begun hesitating at high speeds, making interstate driving a dangerous proposition. After a two-hour botched repair job in Garner ($250) and a series of ( Read more... )

There's something decidedly disheartening about waving goodbye. It's difficult to frown, however, from a height of 18,000 feet.

Covering my last Cherry Point Air Show for the Havelock News, I had the chance last Friday to ride in an Aero L-29 Delfin jet with pilot Jerry Conley. The sleek two-seater performs simulated chases and dogfights with a BAC ( Read more... )