Charlotte City Councilman Andy Dulin, a Republican from District 6, posted several comments and photographs on Facebook and Twitter Tuesday to express his thoughts on Occupy Charlotte, at one point comparing the group to the KKK.

To summarize his stance, quoted directly from his Facebook page (all spelling, grammar and punctuation errors are his):

Ive spoken with and had a cup of coffee with the occupy spokeman and he does not even know what they want. I told him that I will come down there and elp them protect the 1st admin so they can protest and say what ever they want to but that I believe they should leave at dusk and come back the next morning. The occupy folks are winertizing their tents folks. Thay are now literally building structures on the Old Court lawn. Thats just not right and they should leave at night!

The "occupy spokesman" Dulin refers to is Harry Taylor, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2008 against Rep. Sue Myrick, the 9th District Republican incumbent.

Taylor had met with Dulin about two weeks before the councilman's social media comments. Taylor said he wasn't speaking to Dulin on behalf of Occupy Charlotte; rather, he was attempting to explain why he supports the occupiers. "I thought I had a really friendly meeting with him," said Taylor.

Creative Loafing shared screenshots of Dulin's comments with Taylor. He said Dulin's social media commentary was "similar" to what the councilman told Taylor during their meeting and that Dulin "doesn't want [the occupation] to exist." Taylor added, "The great thing is Andy didn't say, 'I want them to shut up'. Andy is not an enemy of the Occupy Movement. . .," but also, "He's going to vote against them staying, period."

In response to commenters on Dulin's Facebook page, the councilman said he had asked members of the Charlotte City Council "what they would do if the KKK showed up and wanted to camp at Old City Hall" indefinitely.

Gents, There is NO current ord to prohibit ANYONY from from camping on city property for infinity. The county has rules about camping in County parks for no longerthan 14 days but the city has none. To show obserdity by being obserd I asked some Council members what they would do if the KKK showed up and wanted to camp at Old City Hall for infinity. I suggested that they would probably be a bit more energizedto do something should that occur.

The KKK, of course, is a reference to the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist, domestic-terrorist organization founded in response to Jim Crow laws in the 1800s. It's responsible for robbery and conspiracy to blow up a natural gas plant (Dallas, 1997), beatings (Jordan Gruver, 2006), attempted murder (multiple, 1980) and lynchings (Michael David, 1981) to name a few of the organization's more recent crimes.

By comparison, Occupy Charlotte-related arrests have, to date, included two for jay walking (of two men who've never again been seen at the occupation site), eight for blocking an entrance to Bank of America's headquarters (though five of those arrested were from the Rainforest Action Network and not occupiers) and one for public urination.

We asked every city council member, including Mayor Anthony Foxx, if Dulin posed his KKK question to them. Most have not responded, but James Mitchell, Jr., of District 2, said Dulin had not said anything of the sort to him and Patsy Kinsey, of District 1, declined comment for now, she said, "because I don't know anything about that issue."

If you can't support your argument with raw facts, cook them up at a high temperature and add a heaping tablespoon of fear.

At least, that's the way some members of North Carolina's right wing seem to operate. This morning's News & Observer in Raleigh reports that "most of the state's district attorneys and Republicans in the General Assembly" are yelling that the N.C. Racial Justice Act could lead to numerous death-row inmates being set free on parole.

"Assuming just one defendant does win under their interpretation of the statute, you can apply that to every other case," Forsyth County District Attorney Mike Silver tells the N&O's Craig Jarvis. "There are approximately 119 inmates who could make the same argument."

Never mind the unlikelihood of that outcome. "The chances are zero," Robert Mosteller told Jarvis.

Mosteller should know. An associate dean at UNC Chapel Hill's School of Law, he co-authored an exhaustive 2010 N.C. Law Review article, "The Racial Justice Act and the Long Struggle with Race and the Death Penalty in North Carolina." He also litigated the precedent-setting case of death-row inmate John Wesley Oliver, who was re-sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001. Mosteller calls the anti-Racial Justice Act arguments "frivolous. It is completely political."

Officials are reiterating what we already know: Many of the fish in the Catawba River — our source of drinking water and one of the most endangered and stressed rivers in the nation — aren't suitable for eating because they're tainted with pollution. At this time, the governments of North and South Carolina seem mostly concerned with PCBs and mercury.

(Oh, but the water's fine. Don't you love how that's always added in to reassure us? The fish are tainted, but the water's fine. That makes sense, right? Can't you feel them patting you on your pretty little head?)

Lake Wylie, Mountain Island Lake and Lake Norman are all part of the Catawba River, all created by hydroelectric dams, all the source of cooling water for other energy plants — like coal an nuclear — and they're all owned by Duke Energy.

From The Charlotte Observer:

Toxic compounds called PCBs have been found in largemouth bass in the N.C. portion of Lake Wylie, N.C. health authorities said Friday in warning the public to limit consumption of the fish.

Largemouth bass also are likely to be contaminated by mercury, a toxic metal. A statewide advisory is already in effect for that contaminant, which was the subject of a federal crackdown this week.

Friday's advisory follows warnings for local lakes that were issued last January.

Then, for the first time, health officials warned the public not to eat fish - channel catfish - from Mountain Island Lake west of Charlotte. Mountain Island is the major water supply for Charlotte and Gastonia, although the PCBs found there pose no risk to drinking water.

Read the rest of this story, by Bruce Henderson, here.

Even though the state of North Carolina rang the alarm bell about tainted fish in Mountain Island Lake last January, it wasn't until late October when I first noticed advisory signs posted at Mountain Island Lake at a nature preserve where I hike regularly.

Here's one of two that I've spotted so far. Let's hope there are many more, since people fish all over that lake's shoreline.

• Rhiannon Fionn
• Fish Advisory on Mountain Island Lake

Further reading: EPA finally limits toxic mercury

Two years ago, I wrote a piece for Crossroads Charlotte titled, "The Case for Saying 'Happy Holidays." In it, I make the point that humans have been celebrating mid-winter for eons in a multitude of ways.

Personally, I'm not religious and don't celebrate anything this time of year unless you count appeasing my family with gifts and overeating. If people say "Merry Christmas," I say it back. Same goes for "Happy Holidays" or "Happy Chanukah," or whatever.

If I get to go first in end-of-year holiday greetings, I'll often say, "Happy whatever it is you choose to celebrate." That makes most people chuckle. What irks me, though, are those who think they need to offer a correction: "No, 'Merry Christmas'," they'll say.