From the September 18, 2013, Asheville Citizen-Times:

An anti-abortion activist [Margaret Peal] has been hired as a senior policy adviser at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the latest in a string of politically charged hiring decisions made at the embattled state agency.

Records show Peal recently served on the board of the anti-abortion Carolina Pregnancy Center, a group that emphasizes Christian scripture and encourages abstinence. She was also an early organizer for the conservative Eastern North Carolina Tea Party and gave $1,250 to the 2012 campaign of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

When we moved here, this state was promising to be a southern version of Pennsylvania.  Now it is rapidly mutating into a northerly version of Texas, thanks to Republican control of all branches of government.  It is all about cutting taxes and reducing services.

Oh, by the way.  Our North Carolina anti-tax Republicans are anti-tax only when it comes to those who can afford to pay.  In the latest update to North Carolina sales tax law…

• The sales tax on manufactured and modular homes (the kind you find in trailer parks) increases from 2.0% to 4.75%, effective January 1, 2014.

• The sales tax will now apply to newspapers sold by vendors and home-delivery carriers, effective January 1, 2014.  This targets readers who do not use the internet.

• Effective July 1, 2014, breads and other baked goods sold at a bakery thrift store will be subject to the general state and local sales tax (6.75% in my area).  Prior to this, such items were subject to the 2% food tax rate.

• The “Sales Tax Holiday” for clothing, school supplies, instructional materials, computers, computer supplies and sports or recreational equipment sold between 12:01 A.M. on the first Friday of August and 11:59 P.M. the following Sunday, is now repealed.

Our state Republicans are seeking to reverse defeats from the 1960s and maybe the 1860s.  If you thought North Carolina had become a purple state, you would be wrong.  This is a chimera state, composed of several different populations with different origins and cultures and values.  The color of chimera is not purple but a blotchy blue-gray.

The FDA announced today that it approved a drug for treatment of late-stage pancreatic cancer.  Most people who have pancreatic cancer live six months after the diagnosis.  The newly-approved drug extends this time by 1.8 months.  The drug costs $8000 a month.

What is an additional 54 days of life worth, when you know you are delaying the inevitable by such a short time?  Will the 54 days be quality days or feel-bad days?  If you were in this position, would you ask for the drug, no matter what it costs or who is paying for it?

It is unfair for me to pose such a question without venturing my own answer: I would decline to take the drug.  If there is something I haven’t managed to do in the six-plus decades I’ve walked on this planet, then maybe it doesn’t deserve to be done during the final 1.8 shitty-feeling months of my life.  Instead of spending money on some drug later, what about spending it on a rewarding experience now?

Sha-la, la-la-la-la, live for today.

Let’s talk about Pothole Forgiveness Time (PFT).  PFT comes into play whenever you are behind the wheel, you drive into a rut or pothole, and all the passengers experience a jolt.  When a passenger experiences a jolt, someone is to blame, but the time from blame to forgiveness (PFT) varies, depending on where one sits in the vehicle.

If you are the driver, you will forgive yourself for hitting the pothole in one or two seconds.  OK, you think, I hit that pothole but we’re all past that now and there’s a lot of road ahead.  I’m at the wheel.  Let’s keep driving.

If you are one of the back-seat passengers, you forgive the driver in five seconds or so — you have put your faith in the driver to transport you to the destination and you are not in a position of control.  You just raise your eyebrows at the bump in the road, look back and hang on.  After a while, you have forgotten about that pothole.

But if you are the front-seat passenger, the intensity of the jolt is fifteen times that felt by the driver and the back-seat passengers.  Your PFT is measured in minutes, if not tens of minutes.  You think, I could have avoided that pothole!  I can’t believe he didn’t see it!  Who is this person, anyway, sitting in the driver’s seat — I can do better than he’s doing, why should I trust him?

Husbands and wives experiencing PFT lasting more than thirty minutes are advised to leave the vehicle immediately and go directly to bed, where such infractions may be put into proper perspective.