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).
Leftist politicians know they’re successful when they can get people to not only accept, but also rejoice having their rights stripped away, accompanied by the expansion of government control. Such is the case this month for Mecklenburg County, where the public policy police were in town to help the masses celebrate the one-year anniversary of […]
January 7, 2011 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,County Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »

Faced with a multi-million-dollar budget deficit that has led to wholesale shuttering of public schools, pink-slipping hundreds of teachers, slashing funding for libraries and parks, cutting services for wounded and disabled Veterans, and reducing social services across the board, the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners spent the bulk of its Tuesday night meeting approving a […]
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January 5, 2011 | Posted in County Beat,House Specials,Mark Pellin | Read More »
The Queen City could’ve been a contender, if only there were fines attached to our new spy-bin recycling program, similar to what they have in the Rust Belt metropolis known as Cleveland. Maybe next year – until then, here’s an enlightening list ranking some of 2010’s busiest busybodies, from CNSNews and Michelle Malkin. Making the […]
December 30, 2010 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »
Cribbing off the Bard of Avon: an earmark by any other name would still smell as rotten. Such appears to be the case with the so-called fiscally conservative majority set to take control of Congress. You know the ones, those Republicans who were all fired up for a ban on spending earmarks. Turns out they’ve […]
December 30, 2010 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »
Less than a month after surviving a coup to unseat her as chairman of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, Jennifer Roberts, a Democrat, is back to playing party politics and stirring up partisan ploys. Roberts earlier this month hatched an idea to send a letter of support and thanks to Congressional members of Mecklenburg’s […]
December 28, 2010 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,County Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
Luke 2:1-14 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up […]
December 25, 2010 | Posted in Mark Pellin | Read More »
“Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.” – Ronald Reagan ———— “The Supreme Court has ruled that they […]
December 24, 2010 | Posted in Mark Pellin | Read More »
I thought global warming alarmists had hit rock bottom with revelations that their research books had been cooked with faulty facts, but I was wrong. This is a new low, courtesy of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who stoops to using Santa as a political weapon to advance a radical environmentalist agenda. This from The Huffington […]
December 23, 2010 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin,National | Read More »
Given the track record of our local weather gurus, I’ll believe it when I’m hip deep in it. Still, we’ll run with the theme and some other assorted holiday goodies. Let the caroling commence:
December 23, 2010 | Posted in Mark Pellin | Read More »
What could possibly go wrong? I mean aside from having two dysfunctional government entities merged into one with more consolidated power and authority, more and greater reach and scope, and more sprawling bureaucracy with less transparency and efficiency? City/County consolidation, despite professions to the contrary, isn’t about saving taxpayer dollars by shrinking government, at least […]
December 23, 2010 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,City Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »