Lying is not a sign of incompetence

We are a little behind on this, and things in general, but we wanted to post on Zach Matheny's comment that lying would prove that City Manager Johnson was incompetent.

Lying does not mean one is incompetent. Sadly, we have known many quite successful people who lie. In our experience, some very competent people do lie, they just aren't caught. Incompetent people usually are caught, because incompetent people are bad liars because they are well, incompetent.

If lying was a sign of incompetence then more than half of all politicians are incompetent. The definition of incompetent is to be not good at something, not to be dishonest.

So the only conclusion that we can make from Matheny's statement is that Mitch does not lie, which either makes him incompetent or that he is very competent and because of that he is a good liar. Or at least able to foll Matheny.

Hagan needs more than Greensboro to beat Dole

We have said many times before that we think highly of Kay Hagan. While we may not agree with her on many issues, one being her support to end out-of-state student caps for North Carolina public universities, thus limiting enrollment for children of tax-payers, but we like her personally quite much.

So it saddens us to lose her from the NC Senate, where out county needs her clout. Her run against US Senator Dole is misguided in our opinion. She is not ready for a state-wide race. It takes more than Greensboro to win. State Senator Hagan would have been an ideal candidate to run for US House, but the Senate is just too much of a reach for her at this time.

The Social Experiment ends on Beauty & the Geek

We read with sadness today that "Beauty & the Geek" will be ending it's run on the CW after this season. It doesn't surprise us, we think the show jumped the shark last year by adding a female geek and a male beauty. When we saw that, and then this year's batch of losers and ladies, we knew it's time was near.

The trouble with reality shows is after the first season or two they stop being real and start being vehicles for the people in the shows. While the rise to true (or semi) celebrity has been rare from the shows (Greensboro's Jeff Varner has done decently, we suppose, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck from"The View" is pictured below) people still try to take their 15 minutes of fame from the medium and turn it into a half-hour or more.

Survivor was great for us for the first two seasons or so. Then people started talking about "the game" and "strategy" from the first minute they were on air and we lost interest. The contestants stopped being themselves and started being what they thought would give them airtime.

"Beauty & the Geek" truly had no way to keep itself fresh. The geeks got, well, more strange and anti-social than geeky. and the beauties weren't just shallow beauties, but manipulative women who were actually kind of nasty in season 5. Megan Hauserman, who we admit was one of our favorites, actually seemed to start this trend, going straight from "Beauty & the Geek" to "Rock of Love II." If the purpose of her first show was to expose her to a wider world of more depth, she obviously didn't take notes.

But we still enjoyed it, even if it lost its innocence. In honor of the show, we present our all time favorite beauties:

Lauren Bergfield from Season 1 - Lauren came across as the ultimate party girl, but with a decent heart. You just knew that she could tease you all night, drink you under the table, and then leave you feeling good the next day despite waking up alone with a killer hangover. After the show Lauren went on to be in the Lingerie Bowl and do some internet show on sports we never watched.

Brittany Knott from Season 2 - The ultimate girl next door, Brittany is our all time favorite. Of all the beauties on the show, she was probably the only one you would bring home to mother rather than just brag about to dad.

Megan Hauserman from Season 3 - Megan came across as cold, calculating, and also demeaned herself with Brett Michaels on "Rock of Love II." She also is beautiful, and as one person described her to Brett, "Has a big rack," and that counts for something.

Ironman

The rash of superhero movies over the years has left us somewhat disappointed. None of them came across to us as truly satisfying. Either they were too cartoonish or took themselves way too seriously.

Ironman walked the line amazingly and we loved it. The film was worth every penny we paid to see it, and that is the highest compliment we can give a movie.

It also marked the return of Gywneth Paltrow to our hearts. We first fell for her in "Great Expectations" but she has been absent in our thoughts for a long time. She made a great Pepper Potts.

Go see the film.

Bad News for Obama's Grandmother

" I can no more disown him (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown my own white grandmother." - Barack Obama, March 18

We don't hold politicians to a an extremely high standard, we know too many of them. One of our favorite jokes about them is that we only trust the ones who we have their cell phone number, and we don't trust half of them.

But at least of them are honest in their duplicity. They don't pretend to be something they are not and they know that in politics loyalty is what gets you ahead. If you get a reputation for not following through on deals or keeping the faith, you are dead in the water.

Obama knew Reverend Wright for decades and had to know his character, warts and all. He had years to make the decision on if those faults surpassed the shining points of his character.

None of our friends are perfect and some have attributes that bother us. But none of our long time friends has an attribute that would cause us to disown them. If they did, they would not be our friend now.

Reverend Wright was Obama's friend for long enough that Obama should have pulled the plug long ago if he disagreed with his views that strongly. To suddenly say that the man's views are vile is nothing more than political posturing.

Once again we have to ask, "Can you really trust a man who wears a wife beater?"

Clinton stands by her man

In contrast to Senator Obama, Hillary Clinton stands by her man. No amount of affairs or embarrassments can cause her to leave her ticket to the big leagues. Why should it matter that her husband admitted to an affair on national television? It didn't stop her from being first lady, getting into the Senate, or running for President.

While Obama dumps friends, Clinton stands by her wandering husband through think and thin, keeping her eye on the prize. So one Democratic candidate will cast off anyone that holds him down, another will cling tightly to anyone that will pull her up, regardless of the association.

What a slate of candidates the party has given voters. If the Democrats ever got smart, they would put up ones who actually pull their base together, rather than pull it apart.

We do give her credit for doing a a beer and shot, though. She was better at it than Obama was bowling.

Et tu, Obama?

Rev. Wright married Obama. He baptized his children. Senator Obama donated $26,000 to his church last year. Then Barack "I like wife beater t-shirts" Obama dumped Rev. Wright.

How can you claim friendship for 26 years and then turn your back on somebody like that? We don't blame Wright for being mad about it.

Obama knew what Wright was, or said, for decades and it did not bother him. Then he runs for President and the man disgusts him.

We doubt the character of a man who is friends with someone for years and years and then throws them to the wolves when they embarrass them or are no longer useful. That isn't friendship, that using people.