My wife and I and our 6-month-old baby were recent visitors to your fair city, to see my wife’s parents. We have been to Asheville before and know parking during daylight hours can be difficult, at best. On a Friday evening, I parked my car next to Zambra’s restaurant to go in and pick up […]
Author: Webmaster
Showing 5146-5166 of 9872 results
Follow the right path to citizenship
In response to Joanie Peditto’s letter [“A Path to Citizenship Is Good for Everyone,” Sept. 17], I believe the United States does have a path to citizenship—which she touts. It is our legal immigration system, which is probably the same system that gave her grandmother a path to citizenship when she came from Europe. — […]
Neither a borrower nor a lender be
With all of the discussion surrounding the current financial crisis, it is surprising that one of the underlying causes is seldom addressed. We are constantly bombarded by the media with grim accounts of America’s various addictions: addiction to foreign oil, addiction to drugs, addiction to our wonderful new technologies that distract us when we drive—to […]
Perk up that memory
In your copy of the 1997 book Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis, please turn to page 108. Let us read together the second paragraph, which begins: “The costliest episode in the saga of Keating’s (CEO of Lincoln Savings & Loan) began in early 1997 … as Lincoln was […]
Create a petroleum reserve?
On Wednesday, Sept. 24, I attended a press conference in Buncombe County where most of the elected officials and heads of government offices, schools and safety, along with the Buncombe County Sheriff, discussed the gas shortages. The conclusion was that we needed a committee. I totally disagree. We do not need to study the problem. […]
How remote do you have to be?
I lived in the landlocked Himalayan Third World country of Nepal from 1993 to 1997. All Nepal’s fuel came over the border from India, and then over the Himalayan foothills on a precipitous two-lane mountain road. Despite earthquakes and monsoon landslides and despite an incompetent, bickering government, we never experienced fuel disruptions such as those […]
Vote as if your freedom depended on it
If you haven’t noticed, our country and world have been taken over by a right-wing cabal who: show no respect for human life and no mercy to the suffering; have instituted public education that teaches rote memorization in place of critical thinking; have built many new prisons in remote places around the country (read: security); […]
The first debate
Barack Obama was very impressive in the Sept. 26 debate. He presented the kind of judgment and leadership we will need if we are really going to change our country back to the respected world power we once were. John McCain said he wants to go on indefinitely spending $10 billion a month in a […]
Look ‘em in the eye
In terms of clearness, honesty and civility, Obama won the first debate—hands down. I want a president who can look the opposition in the eye, as Obama did. I want a president with courage and judgment (Obama), not a spineless flip-flopper who’d sell out the integrity of his campaign for a vote (McCain). And what […]
Score one for Obama
Obama answered the [debate] questions much better than McCain. He outlined the things he would do for the middle class. McCain didn’t even mention the middle class. McCain’s health-care plan doesn’t address folks with preexisting conditions. Five thousand dollars won’t buy you affordable insurance if you have a preexisting condition. Obama looked more relaxed […]
For the people
It was clear from the Sept. 26 presidential debate that Obama won. He is much more in touch with what the people of the United States want. No, not big companies or the very rich, but the average person in the United States. Obama is a true representative of “we the people” and “for the […]
Fool me twice?
John McCain is given a free pass on his political, policy and character issues, while corporate interests scour things like Michelle Obama’s college thesis for any dirt they can find. Can you even begin to imagine what would be said about Obama had he returned from the war, traded in his first wife (disabled from […]
Rounding up the citizens
Recently, community organizing has been in the news because one of the two candidates for president worked as a community organizer. There have been snickers, belittling comments and general disrespect for what a community organizer does. I think those who have that perspective are unaware of what community organizing is all about. When some people […]
Dry harvest
Editor’s note: Liz McCarthy, a UNCA senior from Crystal Lake, Ill., who’s majoring in photography, spent the past few months serving as a photo intern for Mountain Xpress. In June, she embarked on a mission to document the area’s small farms and how their products reach local markets. But as the summer wore on—and the […]
Ralph and Hillary, Barack and Sarah
I’m voting for Obama, but I think Nader would be the best president. I trust that Ralph would have a huge effect on the biggest barriers to world peace: uncontrolled capitalism, militarism, ecological devastation, sexism and racism. Though I’m often dismayed by Barack’s views, I do know he’s at least a guaranteed revolution in racism. […]
Internal combustion
When it comes to opening for The Black Keys (playing a sold-out show at The Orange Peel this week), Ryan Schaefer (front man of Knoxville-based Royal Bangs) says his group is “kind of nervous.” Driving ambition: Royal Bangs have always taken a D.I.Y. approach. These days they’re taking advice from The Black Keys. “With the […]
Oderus among us
For nearly 25 years, a rumbling has come from the seedy heavy-metal underground. Covered in foam-rubber masks, claiming to be born on another planet and found while hibernating in Antarctica, GWAR has gone from a curious oddity of Richmond, Va.‘s metal scene to a metal institution. But when asked about the band’s status to some […]
Not so fast, swift-boaters
Jerome R. Corsi, captain of the “Swift Boat,” has set sail one more time. One of his former shipmates has admitted, finally, part of the game plan. T. Boone Pickens said: “I have a plan, and it starts with air.” Well, this is nothing new from the past eight years of Republican rule. — Bob […]
Fierce dedication to craft
It’s hardly a commune, but the nine artists featured in this year’s core show at Penland Gallery live, work and play together while also sharing the same studio space. Upon acceptance into this competitive two-year program, Core Fellowship artists work part time for Penland School of Crafts, doing everything from preparing meals and collecting linens […]
Code red hits home
Kudos to the Xpress and Rebecca Bowe for our city’s first comprehensive article on climate change and its relevance to Western North Carolina. All local papers, including the weeklies and the daily Asheville Citizen-Times, are to blame for the sad fact that only 56 percent of the citizens of North Carolina know that a new […]
From Norway to WNC
Sometimes you have to hike on another continent to appreciate the Southern Appalachians. Negotiating the rocks and stark mountains of Jotunheimen National Park in Norway, I ponder the differences. Jotunheimen—which means “the home of the giants”—is the most-visited park in Norway, yet it attracts only a fraction of the 10 million people who travel to […]