|
Featured Sections Headlines Opinion Crime Blotter Stolen Property Happenings Country Cooking Wandering Minds Classifieds Off The Wall Cartoons On The Record Archives Church Listings Info Now! Featured Columns Dr. Myers Carl Langley Editor's Column Registered Sex Offenders for Edgefield County 2005 Crime Stats Video & Audio Updates Audio Archive (Testing) Video Archive Contact us Contact Info or E-mail the Editor Phone: 803-634-0964 day 803-279-5041 eve 803-279-8943 fax Mail to EdgefieldDaily.com PO Box 972 Edgefield SC 29824 School System EC District Office School Board Strom Thurmond Charter Schools Fox Creek Private Schools Wardlaw Academy Public Offices Edgefield County Edgefield Johnston Trenton Political State and Federal Legislative Contacts Local Political Parties Republican Party Democrat Party Chamber of Commerce Edgefield County Chamber Historical Edgefield Genealogical Society News links Edgefield Advertiser The Citizen News Aiken Standard North Augusta Star The State Augusta Chronicle Atlanta Journal United Press Associated Press FOX News Reuters CNS News WorldNet Daily Newsmax Drudge Report GoogleNews Yahoo!News New York Times New York Post Los Angeles Times Washington Times Washington Post |
 Carl Langley EdgefieldDaily.com Guest Columnist Carl Langley is a veteran newspaper reporter who began his career in 1957 after his Army service. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and has written three books based on his columns and editorials after retiring from the Aiken Standard in 2002. He spent 45 years in the newspaper business, most of it with The Augusta Chronicle and Augusta Herald. During his long career he held a number of reporting and editorial positions with the Augusta newspapers and was a reporter and special assignments writer and columnist with the Aiken Standard.  NOTICE:
Carl Langley's latest
book, "Parting Shots - Never judge a book by its cover" is now
available for purchase. The
book is available at Aiken Office Supply, the Aiken Standard, Ingate
Pharmacy, Aiken Drug, Artist Parlor, Gene's discount clothing, and the
T-Shirt Shoppe or you may e-mail your requests to: carllang@bellsouth.netProceeds from the book support Molly's Militia, a North Augusta-based kitten and puppy rescue service. Augusta Sheriff Wins Again in Legal Battle with Radical By: Carl Langley web posted April 30, 2008 GUEST COLOUMN – The Georgia Court of Appeals has handed down a decision that even the most incompetent of lawyers can understand. The court, in an announcement made public Tuesday, upheld a ruling by an Augusta judge who ordered an Aiken radio station owner and a loud mouth, brainless talk show host to fork over more than $6 million for slandering Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength. EdgefieldDaily.com Celebrating a Hero’s Special Flag By: Carl Langley (Photo) web posted April 21, 2008 GEUST COLUMN – I was invited to a flag raising on Patriots Day, and this was one ceremony it would have been a shame to miss. I learned about the beauty of the human spirit and the endurance of loving memories. It was on this special, refreshing day that I found myself surrounded with love and remembrance in abundance, and with so many people who love their country. EdgefieldDaily.com Charlton Heston, Defender of Freedom By: Carl Langley web posted April 9, 2008 GUEST COLUMN – I began my working years serving as an usher in my little home town’s theater and developed an attachment to the make-believe world of movies that lasted well into the 1970s. EdgefieldDaily.com Is High Court Poised to Disarm the Lawful? By Carl Langley web posted March 24, 2008 GUEST COLUMN – The Supreme Court of the United States is considering a lawsuit brought by a Washington, D.C., man and others who want to preserve the right to keep a handgun in their homes for protection against the nation’s increasingly brazen criminal element. EdgefieldDaily.com Preacher of Hate Doesn’t Have a Clue By Carl Langley web posted March 17, 2008 GUEST COLUMN – Dr. Jeremiah Wright, the raving lunatic who pastors a Chicago church, is about to do to Barack Obama what Hillary Clinton has not been able to do: deliver a knockout punch in the Democratic presidential primary. EdgefieldDaily.com Small Businesses Are the Lifeblood of Capitalism By Carl Langley web posted March 11, 2008 GUEST COLUMN – Charles Wilson, a high ranking cabinet official during the Eisenhower Administration of the early 1950s, is famous more for one statement than any of his many accomplishments in the private and public sectors of American life. EdgefieldDaily.com Hey Jesse, Al How about a Little Help? By Carl Langley web posted February 4, 2008 GUEST COLUMN – I read about a murder recently which was a little hard for me to take, considering the youth of the slaying victim. But an analysis of this tragedy about a young man who made a shambles out of his life reveals he set the stage for his own death by choosing his associates. EdgefieldDaily.com Death Takes a Cowardly Killer from the World By: Carl Langley web posted January 31, 2008 GUEST COLUMN – The average American, burdened by ignorance on matters of historical significance, will not notice the death of a man a couple of days ago whose passage through life meant the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children. George Habash, the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was 82 at the time of his death from pneumonia in a Jordan hospital, which was 82 years more than this rat deserved to live. EdgefieldDaily.com Remorseless Killer’s Lifeless Hands end a Manhunt By: Carl Langley web posted January 15, 2008 GUEST COLUMN – In the end it was a pair of hands floating in a jar of formaldehyde that brought to a conclusion all the speculation about what had happened to a remorseless killer. EdgefieldDaily.com The Lunatic Fringe Will Buy Anything By: Carl Langley web posted January 9, 2008 GUEST COLUMN – Hillary Clinton’s main campaign mantra is the need to bring universal health care to millions of what she describes as the lost, the hopeless, the uninsured, the ones whose birthdays are overlooked and the ones who didn‘t get a single present at Christmas. EdgefieldDaily.com Robbers Are Victims of Price Gouging By: Carl Langley EdgefieldDaily.com Columnist web posted January 4, 2008 GUEST COLUMN – It’s amazing what you can stumble into while trying to ferret out some information. And that’s especially true when you are working through the tangled web of a court system. EdgefieldDaily.com A Special Christmas With Billy the Kid By: Carl Langley web posted December 17, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – Every growing boy should enjoy the companionship of a goat. There is much to be learned in keeping and caring for a goat. During this Christmas season I recall the time my brother and I got our own goat. On Christmas Eve of 1939 Billy joined our family. He was a solid white goat about six months old. EdgefieldDaily.com Life as a Small Town Mayor Was Interesting EdgefieldDaily.com Guest Columnist Part 4 of a 4-part short story web posted December 10, 2007 CARL LANGLEY – Being a small town mayor in most places is not a very exciting job, so a mayor’s main job is finding something interesting enough in town to grab and keep his attention. You can only watch so many haircuts at the town’s one-chair barber shop or watch so many oil changes and tire repairs at the corner gas station before dullness sets in on a grand scale. EdgefieldDaily.com A Gruesome Killing Scars a Small Town EdgefieldDaily.com Guest Columnist Part 3 of a 4-part short story web posted December 4, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – With Tim and his pal parked in a state penal facility, it appeared that life would return to normal, or what passed for normal in those days. But things were going to get worse. Much worse. The little petty crimes that had been inflicted on the town for several years turned into horror. A gruesome killing changed the town forever, splitting families and turning friends against friends. EdgefieldDaily.com A Chatty Girl Helps Spring the Jaws of Justice Part 2 of a 4-part short story By: Columnist Carl Langley web posted November 26, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – With the threat of jail removed by a judicial order, Tim loitered around town for several weeks, always managing to elude the mayor’s watchful eye Meanwhile, the mayor and several of his friends turned into night riders. He and his buddies patrolled at night with axe handles, hoping to come across Tim and his friends spray painting cars, overturning dumpsters, leaving bags of feces on people’s porches and engaging themselves in other civic pursuits. EdgefieldDaily.com A Brave Mayor Takes on the Criminal Element Part 1 of a 4-part short story By: Columnist Carl Langley web posted November 19, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – The sun was an hour away from filtering through the large stand of pines along the side of the street as the mayor wheeled his ramshackle Vega around the curve leading to his home. The Vega, a piece of junk bought during the midst of a divorce, wheezed and gasped at every stroke of a piston. EdgefieldDaily.com So You Think You Know Everything? web posted November 14, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com Grandparents Are Special People web posted November 12, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – Sitting on the worn stool, I watched the old man’s tanned and leathery hands guide the heavy crimping tool around the end of a piece of tin pipe. As the tool worked along the edge the tin collapsed in a succession of tiny folds, alike in length, width and depth. The three-foot sections of pipe were joined and held tight by the fluted ends to make venting for wood stoves, heaters and other fireboxes. EdgefieldDaily.com Abuse Mindset Seems a Twisted Dilemma web posted November 5, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – The stepmother thought the three children were sneaking snacks, therefore to punish them she beat them. She beat them with a wooden stake, the type used to mark the corners of property boundaries, before resorting to a belt after a warning from an Aiken County Family Court judge. EdgefieldDaily.com So You Think You Know Everything? web posted October 30, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com So You Think You Know Everything? web posted October 22, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com A Theory on Global Warming web posted October 12, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – Now that Al Gore, an assortment of nut cakes from academia and far-left scientists, entertainment industry fruit loops and others have just about convinced many of us that we are going to bake, it is time for some direct action in this global warming business. EdgefieldDaily.com Judge Tunes Out Radio Station Owner, Former Talk Show Host web posted October 8, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – The owner of an Aiken radio station and its former loudmouth talk show host have been given a lesson in the American judicial system, and those who have followed this miserable case for months should be pleased that these two losers earned failing grades. EdgefieldDaily.com So You Think You Know Everything? web posted October 1, 2007 CARL LANGLEY – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com So You Think You Know Everything? web posted September 24, 2007 CARL LANGLEY – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com So You Think You Know Everything? web posted September 17, 2007 CARL LANGLEY – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com So You Think You Know Everything? web posted September 10, 2007 CARL LANGLEY – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com So You Think You Know Everything? web posted August 28, 2007 CARL LANGLEY – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com Vick Should Play, but for his Prison Team web posted August 27, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – The headline in the Augusta Chronicle read, “NAACP says Vick should play.” I agree. EdgefieldDaily.com So You Think You Know Everything? web posted August 21, 2007 CARL LANGLEY – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com The lunatic fringe is at 10 percent and holding web posted August 13, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – One of the downsides of living in a free society is that the more sane among us too often find ourselves putting up with the crazies allowed to run free when they should be bouncing off of walls covered with foam padding. EdgefieldDaily.com So you think you know everything? web posted August 6, 2007 CARL LANGLEY – The following is a weekly quiz compiled by retired newspaper reporter, editor and columnist Carl Langley. It is aimed at expanding a reader’s word power and general knowledge. Take the quiz and write down your answers to see how well you score. EdgefieldDaily.com An Elderly Senator Calls Out Dog Fighters By: Carl Langley EdegefieldDaily.com Guest Columnist web posted July 30, 2007 GUEST COLUMN - West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd has filled me with pride for his fearless denunciation of the thugs who operate pit bulldog fighting rings. “Barbarians,” cried Byrd as he stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate and lashed out at those he denounced for engaging in what most decent people regard as a horrifying blood sport. Byrd, now in his late 80s and a dog lover all his life, was unsparing of his use of the words barbaric and barbarian. He repeated them over and over, and I hope the thugs who support dog fighting were listening. EdgefieldDaily.com The Late Terry Haskins Spared Many from Misery By: Carl Langley EdgefieldDaily.com Guest Columnist web posted July 24, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – There is joy in our land these days. Video poker, the beast that at one time looked like it would not die, is on life support and fading fast. Which means that the profiteers of this long-running scandal, once sheltered by the Duke of Clarendon and his not-so Merry Men in our state legislature, soon may have to find honest work. EdgefieldDaily.com Blood Sports Are an Evil Inheritance web posted July 18, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – Cockfighting and dogfighting are the evil hand-me-downs from ancient times, and despite laws prohibiting them in most of our states they still flourish. I am animal lover, so each time I hear law enforcement officers have raided and broken up one of these horrid events I give a rousing cheer. I long for the day when this despicable blood sport is purged forever, but I fear it will take a dramatic change in some people‘s attitudes. EdgefieldDaily.com A Dark Cloud Falls Over My Old Home Town web posted July 10, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – The Mafia, in all its hideous glory, could have learned a thing or two about the crooks, criminals and others who have run afoul of the law in my old home town. EdgefieldDaily.com God bless you, Duke Flannagan web posted July 2, 2007 COLUMN – A few days ago I browsed through my hometown newspaper and came upon an obituary notice that left me stunned. It was a short piece about the death of a man I met many years ago, the kind of person who attracted others as easily as a magnet picks up iron filings. EdgefieldDaily.com Rogue Prosecutor Caught in His Own Web web posted June 22, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – In the summer of 2006 there was general agreement among anyone with half a brain that Durham County. N.C., prosecutor Mike Nifong’s charges of rape, kidnap and sexual assault against three Duke University lacrosse players eventually would blow up in his face. EdgefieldDaily.com A Hate Crime is in the Eye of the Beholder web posted June 7, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – In the busy race-baiting worlds inhabited by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton any unkind word spoken by a white person against a person of color is a hate crime, and so are actions that are later found to be false but whose revelations are greeted with silence EdgefieldDaily.com A Close Up Look at One of Nature’s Miracles web posted May 29, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – Several years ago on a Saturday morning my wife and I loaded up some household throwaways and headed for one of Aiken County’s recycling centers. We drove into the center, pulled up to a huge bin and tossed away what once had been treasured items. We got back in the station wagon and started to pull away when my wife said, “Hold on a minute.” EdgefieldDaily.com Court sentencing recalls bad political times web posted May 14, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – In 1998 I was covering the South Carolina political campaigns for the Aiken Standard newspaper, and my focus was on the battle for governor between incumbent Republican David Beasley and Democrat challenger Jim Hodges. EdgefieldDaily.com Racial Rabble Rouser Could Use a History Lesson web posted May 1, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – Al Sharpton, the New York street preacher, racial gadfly and proven outright liar, was able to gin up so much verbal heat he cost a nationally syndicated radio talk show host his job, but poor Al still can’t pass a 5th grade history test. EdgefieldDaily.com Michigan legislators fleeing from reality web posted April 16, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – The Detroit News is speaking out against what it calls an “excess of idiocy,” and if ever a newspaper had it right this one does. EdgefieldDaily.com Wanted Now: A few Good Men to Lead Us web posted April 4, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – It’s a shame that this country and our motherland of Great Britain no longer have people like Viscount Kitchener, Bomber Harris, Chesty Puller and George Patton to help reinforce the principles of a democratic society. EdgefieldDaily.com Religion can be directed only be reason and conviction web posted March 24, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – “Religion can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men are entitled to the free exercise of religion.” - James Madison, fourth president of the United States. EdgefieldDaily.com Dogs, one of God's wonderful gifts web posted March 12, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – They live in a world filled with boundless joy that comes from their love for the ones who care for them, and they are privy to secrets that not even the greatest researchers have been able to diagnosis with any great degree of confidence. EdgefieldDaily.com A Veil of Secrecy Protects the Worst of the Worst web posted February 27, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – There are few crimes that rank on the loathsome scale with murder and rape. But there is one, when ranked in the category of moral depravity, that can equate with murder and rape. EdgefieldDaily.com Where has all the good music gone? web posted February 19, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – Johnny Mercer’s grandmother knew the infant she was holding in her lap would someday be famous for his musical talents. The legend has it that the doting grandmother told family members and friends that the six-month-old baby she was rocking in Savannah in the early years of the 1900s would begin humming a tune each time he heard a piano playing. EdgefieldDaily.com A starlet’s death exposes the empty minds of millions web posted February 13, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – web posted February 13, 2007 COLUMN – All she ever did was stand there, flashing a manufactured smile, tossing her bleached blonde hair in come hither fashion and mumbling the one-syllable words that exposed her intelligence - and all the while looking as pretty as she could. EdgefieldDaily.com Nation's Slide in Education Is Picking up Speed web posted February 5, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – For the second time in the last several months an interesting e-mail has arrived at my desk, and this time it was passed along to me by a friend who has long shared my fearful outlook on the decline of American education. EdgefieldDaily.com Duke Lacrosse Non-Case Exposes Some Unsavory Business web posted January 29, 2007 GUEST COLUMN – A noted author once wrote that there is nothing more dangerous than an outraged mother protecting her brood. Some time back I watched CBS’ popular news magazine show “60 Minutes” (one of my favorite viewing areas in a bleak television landscape) and saw firsthand what the writer was talking about. The mothers of Duke lacrosse players Collin Finnerty, David Evans and Reade Seligman were being interviewed by CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl, and what these mothers had to say should send shivers up the spine of Durham, N.C., prosecutor Michael Nifong. EdgefieldDaily.com One lucky dog web posted January 15, 2007 GUEST COLUMN - Lucky hobbled down the ramp leading up to his new home. With his tail wagging briskly, a dog’s university sign of welcome, he was eager to greet the guests arriving for dinner. On this sunny, warm afternoon the big, friendly dog was well on his way to recovery from wounds that could have killed him. Only a few weeks back his life was slowly ebbing away because of two broken legs that had left him unable to seek help. EdgefieldDaily.com The state of the nation web posted January 15, 2007 GUEST COLUMN - A couple of weeks back I wrote a piece chastising liberal college and university professors for tainting the minds of young students whose parents spend thousands upon thousands of dollars for the right for their children to be taught by the mentally deranged. EdgefieldDaily.com God save the USA! web posted January 8, 2007 GUEST COLUMN - My, my, my. It seems I have put a gentleman named Alan White into a tizzy and tied his undies into knots with my commentary about liberal college professors running amok on some college campuses. EdgefieldDaily.com Taking on education web posted January 2, 2007 GUEST COLUMN - By even the most conservative of estimates it now costs American parents about $25,000 a year to pay for the college education of a single child, and you can add several thousand more for the incidentals. That’s a burdensome investment in preparing one’s offspring for the future, so any parent expects his or her student will receive an education that lays a firm foundation to succeed in a highly competitive world. EdgefieldDaily.com Quoting reality web posted December 26, 2006 GUEST COLUMN - For many years I have made a habit of jotting down some of the more memorable quotes heard during the past year, and now I share with your readers some of them with accompanying commentary. EdgefieldDaily.com Three rousing cheers for Goldman Sachs and free markets web posted December 21, 2006 GUEST COLUMN - There’s nothing like a success story, or hundreds of success stories, to set our liberal scolds and complainers to weeping and wailing and screaming their protests against the free enterprise system. EdgefieldDaily.com Goodbye Kofi, And Don’t Come Back web posted December 18, 2006 GUEST COLUMN - The good news for a war-weary world is that the United Nations, a long-time haven for some of the planet’s worst liars and thieves, will soon be under new management. At the top of the international pecking order of people who shun honest work is South Korean diplomat Ban Ki-moon, who took the oath as new UN secretary general last week and immediately vowed to change the character of the world body. EdgefieldDaily.com |
