Gates Sites In OLF Bulls-eye

by Cal Bryant - September 22nd, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

GATESVILLE - Two sites in Gates County are among those being studied to possibly site the U.S. Navy’s Outlying Landing Field (OLF).

In regards to that issue, the Gates County Board of Commissioners have scheduled a special called meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday in the courtroom of the Gates County Courthouse.

Interim Gates County Manager Melinda Hoggard said Monday’s meeting is open to the public.

This is an important issue. The problem is that the Navy has allowed this to become a political issue because they are so dependent on politics to prepare to fight the current war against Islamofascism, a war that is expected to go on for a generation or two.

World War III, the cold war, was won when one man, Ronald Reagan, recognized the weakness of communism (its socialist economic system) and predicted that we could bring down the Soviet Union by making them spend themselves into bankruptcy. It worked.

I am not sure that anyone has yet seen the vision of how to defeat Islamofascism and win the current war, World War IV, in which we find ourselves, so it is difficult to know what is important.

This OLF issue is not a huge issue for our pilots at this point. That is part of the problem. The reality is our pilots are currently being trained and getting the practice this field is intended to provide at other fields. There is no real urgency to the issue. The concern of the Navy is way out in the future. The fields at which pilots are getting the practice they need are close in to towns and allow our enemies to watch the strategies the pilots practice. In addition the town's citizens are hostile to the training runs that are being done. We could lose the current fields or have practice curtailed or expose tactics we don't want exposed.

If the Islamofascists win control of another two or three Muslim countries, tactics could become a key issue in defeating the nuclear attacks that will become their standard methods of that future time.

Those who are opposed to building the OLF anywhere are enemies of our nation. Some of those who claim to be against a particular site are really against any OLF anywhere. That does not mean that opponents of a particular site are not justified.

Other issues are at stake too. Both Virginia and North Carolina have bases that provide huge economic benefit they do not want to lose. Neither wants this base built in a location that could encourage movement of these bases at some future time. So they want the OLF built convenient to their current bases. That constrains the choices the Navy has as well.

This political component makes it difficult to criticize those who are opposed to most of the sites since it is easy to portray them as political choices, not logical choices.

It is going to be interesting to see how this battle plays out.

Inner Banks Laughter - Blonde Humor

Why did the blonde get fired from the M&M factory?

Because she threw out all the W's!

Inner Banks Laughter - Marriage Humor

A guy dials his home and a strange woman answers.
The guy says, "Who is this?"

"This is the maid," answers the woman.

"We don't have a maid," says the man.

The woman says, "I was hired this morning by the lady of the house."

The man says, "Well, this is her husband. Is she there?"

The woman replies, "She is upstairs in the bed room with someone who I figured was her husband."

After a monent of stunned silence the guy starts fuming and says to the maid, "Listen, would you like to make $50,000?"

The maid says, "What will I have to do?"

The man tells her, "I want you to get my gun from my desk, and shoot the witch and the jerk she's with."

The maid puts the phone down; the man hears footsteps and then two gun shots.

The maid comes back to the phone, "What do I do with the bodies?"

The man says, "Throw them in the swimming pool."

Puzzled, the maid answers, "But you don't have a pool."

A long pause and the man says, "Is this 555-5309?"

Inner Banks Laughter - Political Humor

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, often tells audiences that before he arrived at whatever location he is at that day he asked his wife, "Ann, did you ever in your wildest dreams think that I'd be here in (fill in town) speaking to (fill in group)?"

He then gives her response: "Mitt, you weren't in my wildest dreams."

Sell Your Soul To The DOT

by Cal Bryant - September 17th, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

Apparently, I’m not alone in the fact that no Town of Ahoskie official has made contact with anyone in our neck of the woods. I’ve spoken with a few of my neighbors and they said the only thing they knew about the proposed bypass was what they read in The News-Herald last week.

Perhaps I’m too naïve, but I thought the town officials would at least have the courtesy to let those affected property owners know of their intentions to support Alternative #12 before they actually approved a resolution which will disrupt our lives.

Whoops, I forgot….we live outside of town, therefore we cannot vote for the leadership within Ahoskie’s borders. But yet our fate rests in their hands.

I agree with Cal that I do not understand the leadership of Ahoskie. The counter proposal to the original by-pass plan was incredibly stupid if Ahoskie wants to keep growing. Why would Ahoskie propose a solution that made it easy for Ahoskie people to go shop in Greenville and did nothing to get people from other areas to get to the big stores on the east side of Ahoskie? Do they really not appreciate how much business gets drawn to Ahoskie by Walmart . . . which then shops in other stores and businesses in Ahoskie as a result? You have to use the big stores to draw customers as a first step. This is a simple rule of modern city planning. That means you must get a Freeway to bring people to the big stores.

Though the elimination of a dangerous intersection (the 11 - 561 crossroads) is a good idea, the new bypass route #12 is further away from the current business community's big stores than the original bypass. That means that rather than bring people from long distances to Ahoskie, it will encourage traffic to bypass Ahoskie and go to cities with easier proximity to their large stores.

It is not just the secrecy of the Ahoskie leaders that seems unacceptable. Their logic seems unacceptable too.

Inner Banks Laughter - Relationship Humor

One day, Adam sat outside the Garden of Eden shortly after eating the apple, and wondered about men and women. So looking up to the heavens he says, "Excuse me God, can I ask you a few questions?"

God replied, "Go on Adam, but be quick. I have a world to create."

So Adam says," When you created Eve, why did You make her body so curvy and tender unlike mine?" "I did that, Adam, so that you could love her."

"Oh, well then, why did You give her long, shiny, beautiful hair, and not me?" "I did that Adam so that you could love her."

"Oh, well then, why did You make her so stupid? Certainly not so that I could love her?" "Well Adam, No. I did that so that she could love you."

Inner Banks Laughter - Married Humor

A married man left from work early one Friday afternoon. Instead of going home, however, he squandered the weekend (and his paycheck) partying with the boys. When he finally returned home on Sunday night, he ran into a barrage of epithets from his wife. After a couple of hours of nagging and berating, his wife asked "How would you like it if you didn't see ME for a couple of days??"

"That would suit me just fine!!" the man said.

Monday went by, and the man didn't see his wife. Tuesday went by with the same result. Wednesday went by and he STILL didn't see her. Thursday, the swelling went down a bit and he could see her a little, just out of the corner of his left eye.

Inner Banks Laughter - Relationship Humor

Love: The act of associating horniness with a particular person.

Love At First Sight: What occurs when two extremely horny, but not entirely choosy people meet.

Fred Smith Statewide BBQ Tour In Halifax County

The Fred Smith Statewide BBQ Tour is becoming famous, especially in small counties of North Carolina. Fred is known for his hard work and taking the extra effort. That he is actually going to every county in North Carolina to meet with the people is appreciated as Senator Smith campaigns for Governor of North Carolina.

That this tour is not the typical sweep through and meet VIPs is appreciated by the people who want to get to know him. Fred is also personally signing his autobiography for anyone who comes out. He will be coming to your area and if you want to meet this man so many want to see be our next governor, all you have to do is take a couple of hours from your schedule. Fred will be in your area soon.

What brings the people out? Fred Smith's story is about the values of hard work, honesty, loyalty and the qualities that made America great. From his mother, a teacher and his father,a coach-- he learned two important lessons- If you work hard and get a good education, you can acheive the American Dream!

Below is the bus that was the center of our convoy from the BBQ in Martin County at noon to the evening event in Roanoke Rapids. Since I was covering both events, I got to tag along on the convoy from Martin County up to Halifax County. That was a fun time too. Fred's comments about the day can be found on his web site here. Fred touches on some of the sights we saw in our beautiful state as the convoy passed through.





Wedenesday night Fred was at the Kirkwood Adams Community Center, in the community of Roanoke Rapids, working hard as usual after a very long day of meeting the people of North Carolina.




As people started to arrive Joe Humphries worked hard to get everyone checked in, and for those who forgot their copy of the autobiography, Joe had some extra copies on hand.




There was an excellent turn out for a week night, and the nearly 50 people who showed up were treated to some great BBQ.




Gene Minton greeted everyone and acted as Master of Cermonies.




Howard Smith led the pledge of allegiance.




Pastor Randy Martin introduced Fred to the gathering.




Senator Fred Smith (shown below) spoke of his love for our State of North Carolina, and his belief that government is out of touch with what the majority of people want. He talked about the things that make us great and the things that help us enjoy the freedom of our great nation America. Though I have seen him make a powerful speech in a more formal environment, these talks are always low key and personal. It is part of what makes them such a great connection between Fred and the people who come out.




Afterwards Fred always takes time to finish signing autographs and talking with those who came to meet him. Fred really lives the theme of his autobiography, "The difference between good and great is a little extra effort.

The Halifax County stop on the Fred Smith Statewide BBQ was a resounding success thanks to all the great people who came out.