Are you kidding me, John Mundell?

Reader, I now present you with the long-awaited and much-anticipated second installment of the "Are you kidding me...?" series here on CoreyInscoe.com, where your faithful blogger asks idiots that say absurd and asinine things, "Are you kidding me?" (For the first installment, click here.)

The UNC Dance Marathon raised almost $400 thousand for the North Carolina Children's Hospital this weekend. That's a great thing, right? Who would say otherwise?

Well, apparently, UNC-Chapel Hill junior John Mundell would. This sorry excuse for a Tar Heel wrote a letter to the editor in the Daily Tar Heel that chastised the Dance Marathon for not caring about homelessness. Umm, what? To Mundell it's unfair that all this money goes to kids in the hospital when the real problem in America is homelessness.

Sure, homelessness is an issue in our country and in the Chapel Hill area. There's no doubt that something should be done about it. But does that mean the Dance Marathon is wrong for raising a bunch of money for kids in a hospital? No.

Let's go ahead and knock some technicalities out of the way. The letter claims that the marathon is giving to "one of the richest hospitals in the country and not helping those who are unemployed, homeless, and without the health insurance." Sure, some of that money goes to the hospital, but a good part of that money goes to the families who can't afford to keep their kid in the hospital. If Mundell decided to do any research before shooting off his ignorant letter, he would have read this on the marathon website: "The fund provides for expenses not covered by insurance or Medicaid that families may not otherwise be able to afford."

It's obvious that Mundell has no experience with Dance Marathon and didn't even take the time to look into the charity to learn something about it before writing this letter. He didn't even get the slogan right ("For the Kids").

He has a point that there should be more focus on homelessness, but it makes no sense to belittle another charity event for raising a lot of money for a worthy cause. Start your own charity event!! Do a dance marathon for the homeless. Do whatever you want, but don't get mad at another successful charity. The marathon has worked from the ground up to become one of the largest events at UNC. The first year there were only 78 dancers, but since then -- because of hard work from dedicated people -- the marathon has raised a total of more than $2 million over 11 years.

But wait, it gets better. The second paragraph of the letter contains this little gem:

"To be honest, I'm thrilled that DM is finally done this year because I'm sick (almost as much as one of the actually sick children) of hearing, 'Do it for the kids!'"

You read right. Mundell compared his situation to a sick child in the hospital. Regardless of what you believe, the fact that he compared his "plight" to that of a child who spends months or years in a hospital is heartless and absurd.

Not only that, but what he's saying is ridiculous. It's like saying "Man, I'm so tired of those pink ribbons!! Why do people care so much about breast cancer?"

Mundell repeatedly says that "homeless" doesn't have the same ring as "sick kid." Maybe not, but they're both worthy causes, and if he really cared about homelessness, he would do something more than sending in an ignorant and inconsiderate letter to the Daily Tar Heel.

Are you kidding me, Justin Crowder??

After censoring a fair article about the "UNC bubble mentality," last week, the Daily Tar Heel decided to publish this little gem of an Op-Ed piece by guest columnist Justin Crowder called "Your O.C. votes won't make real difference." Wait, seriously?

Let's go to the tapes:

"The truth is that no matter which man in sworn in as president next January, very little about our day to day lives will change. The average American will still work 40 hours a week for less than he or she deserves, people will still complain about rising prices and the sky will still be that lovely shade of Carolina blue.

"This lack of change is because our system of government is stagnant. The two-party system exists to propagate itself. Sure, Democrats would love to have a dominating presence in all three branches of government, but they most certainly don’t want to push the Republicans into oblivion. They need each other because their paired existence ensures no bothersome third party gets in the way of their shared power."

OK, fair enough, the two-party system isn't exactly my favorite either, but it's not like that is going to change any time soon. Now here's the part that really got me:

"The Young Democrats would have you believe that North Carolina is a battleground state that may swing the election in favor of Obama, but with the state’s voter demographic, Obama is fielding a college team against an All-Pro team. At UNC it becomes easy to forget that we’re in a very solid Bible Belt state that usually goes red. Some may call predicting an Obama loss here a poor judgment, but history predicts his loss.

"Harshly put, a vote for Obama here in Orange County will be nothing more than trying to empty the ocean with a single bucket. By the same token, a vote for McCain is like trying to raise the level of that same ocean with a bucket. North Carolina is not going to go any way but to McCain, just as California will inevitably go blue."

Excuse me??

Sure, he goes on to say "I’m not saying you shouldn’t vote, because voting is one of the greatest civic duties," but that doesn't make up for the fact that he basically said that it would all be in vain. That's exactly what we need, someone telling the already apathetic young voter population that they don't need to vote. Thanks, Justin.

Even if we ignore his stance on voting, his column is, for lack of a better phrase, completely full of crap. I don't know what news he's been reading -- if anything -- but North Carolina is definitely a battleground state. Obama has a six-point lead according to Public Policy Polling, a three-point lead according to Rasmussen Reports and is dead even with McCain according to Pollster.com.

Maybe he should do a little research next time instead of spewing out more of this trash from his dorm-room computer.

Here is a video of Rachel Maddow talking about the close race in NC including an interview with NC Governor Mike Easley.



Here's how the race looks in NC according to Pollster.