Stories written by Mark PellinAn award-winning journalist and former editor of The Rhinoceros Times in Charlotte, Pellin has been called everything from a misguided troglodyte to a professional agitator. He prefers the label of a realist, the guy in the crowd telling everybody that not only doesn’t the emperor have any clothes; he’s trying to steal ours.
Pellin has covered the Char-Meck scene for the better part of two decades, earning his fair share of fans and more than a few critics who wish he’d move to Nome, Alaska, and be eaten by wild bears.
When he’s not writing, he stays busy enjoying time with his wife and two kids. When he can break away for some R&R, he likes to fly fish (even if he doesn’t catch anything) and camp (even if it rains).
A key ingredient in the Obama Administration’s recipe for winning the future is to dump billions of dollars into building a high-speed rail system on par to compete with those in China, which The One consistently holds up as the gold standard for future transportation. Turns out China’s high-speed rail is more Fool’s Gold and […]
April 28, 2011 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »
Or purse, as the case might be. Either way, more Americans are relying on government assistance than at any other time since the Great Depression. This from USA Today: A record 18.3% of the nation’s total personal income was a payment from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other programs […]
April 28, 2011 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »
At the risk of going all Henny Penny on the weather geek front, a storm system predicted to move into the Char-Meck area tonight looks to be a real whopper. Be safe, folks. This from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management Staff just concluded a conference call with the National Weather Service (NWS) regarding the […]
April 27, 2011 | Posted in Mark Pellin | Read More »
Team BO, the most transparent presidential administration is recent memory, finally releases The One’s long-form birth certificate. Let the newest wave of conspiracy theories about conspiracy theories begin. Frankly, I’ve never understood all the furor and angst over where Obama was born. The guy’s broken the Constitution in so many different and more damagingly profound […]
April 27, 2011 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »

Hitting taxpayers up for a $55 million funding increase, and then canceling a budget workshop scheduled for this week, apparently passes for compromise these days with the school board. It’s also what passes for fiscal conservatism. A majority of the board last night endorsed a proposal, floated by board chair Eric Davis, to seek an […]
April 27, 2011 | Posted in CMS Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
A little bit of perspective on the uptown paper’s gushing headline: Six-figure salaries thinning at CMS While the number of educrats pocketing $100,000 or more has shrunk from last year’s total of 104 to this year’s number of 85, let’s take a collective breath of reality and recall that last year’s number represents years of […]
April 25, 2011 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,CMS Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
Send us a youtube clip of your favorite tunes (editor@pundithouse.com) and we’ll work them into the mix. This is Bob Mould:
April 23, 2011 | Posted in Mark Pellin | Read More »

The bigger government is better government brigade in Minnesota is taking to heart the notion of taxing anything that moves. The state’s department of transportation is recruiting volunteers to test technology that could be used to impose and collect a vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) tax: “This research will provide important feedback from motorists about the effectiveness of […]
April 22, 2011 | Posted in House Specials,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »
Glenn Beck tags Mike Huckabee as a progressive: “He’s the guy. He will play along with the party politics. He will get along to get along. He will move things along. He does not want to disrupt giant government, I don’t think he for this kind of giant government . . . He’s perfect for […]
April 21, 2011 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »
Well, at least parts of it. The Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners last night relinquished its right of first refusal to either purchase or lease nearly a dozen institutes of lower learning recently shuttered by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, clearing the way to put the properties up for lease on the open market. Tell me it would […]
April 20, 2011 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,CMS Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »