Monthly Archives: April 2016

Creating A Catch-22 For Landlords

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Owning rental property is one way to plan for your retirement. If you are handy and live close to the property, it can be a very profitable investment. If you don’t live nearby, a good rental agency can handle the details for you.

Yesterday Investor’s Business Daily posted a story about a new federal regulation that is going to make being a successful landlord more difficult.

The article reports:

The Obama administration has just made it easier for felons to move in next door. Landlords who don’t want tenants who are going to mug their neighbors or deal drugs will now be treated as racists and potentially sued.

Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued new guidelines to landlords, warning that bans against renters with criminal convictions violate the Fair Housing Act because they disproportionately affect minorities.

In effect, the Obama regime is now outlawing criminal background checks for apartment rentals, even though such screening is critical for the protection and security of tenants and property, and serves a legitimate business need.

In a newly released 10-page missive, HUD warns landlords they can be held liable for discrimination if they deny housing over criminal records.

It gets really interesting when you consider the other side of the coin:

So now landlords, real estate agents and property managers will think twice before turning away drug dealers and thieves, even rapists, who are members of this “protected class” — even though barring high-risk tenants serves a legitimate, nondiscriminatory purpose.

This puts landlords in a terrible legal bind.

To protect themselves from federal action, they would be wise to avoid even inquiring about the criminal records of prospective tenants. But if they fail to adequately screen them and rent to one who robs or hurts a neighbor, they could be sued by the victim for negligence.

No doubt many will see no option but to raise rents to indirectly exclude criminals from their rentals, which will just end up hurting everybody who rents housing — including innocent, law-abiding tenants.

In a move to protect the rights of convicted felons, the federal government has just created problems for the average American. I believe people who are renting property have the right to know the background of their renters. If a landlord feels that a former criminal has changed his ways, he should be free to rent to him. However, if there is no indication that a former criminal has changed his ways, the landlord should have the right to determine whether or not he wants to rent his property to that person.

Twisting The Minds Of Our College Students

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I have no idea what has happened to American education in the past fifty years, but we have created problems that will destroy our country. I have written numerous articles on Common Core, and if you use the search engine on this site, you can easily find them, but the problems are much deeper than simply Common Core.

We have forgotten that our Representative Republic depends on a well-informed citizenry. We have also forgotten that America was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic. The form of government that Americans take for granted was a totally revolutionary idea in its time. We need to teach our children our history. We also need to teach them how valuable our form of government is. We also have to deal with some basic myths that have wandered into our culture in recent years. The majority of countries in the world today began when someone came in, subdued the residents and formed a government. Look at the history of the British Empire. America, in some cases, totally mistreated the Indians. That is a fact. It is history, there is nothing we can currently do about it. Americans in the 1700’s and 1800’s owned slaves. So did the rest of the world. It’s time to realize that although we are not a perfect country, we are a place where people are free and opportunity exists. Western civilization is superior–women have rights, people are not dropped off of buildings for being homosexual, and we have freedom of religion. We need to teach our children these things.

Our colleges, unfortunately, are not teaching our heritage. This is not only sad, it is dangerous. Pride in your country is not a negative thing. It motivates you to work to preserve your freedom and help make your country better. Knowing your heritage is part of that pride. Yesterday The Daily Caller reported that an effort to restore the study of Western civilization as part of the curriculum at Sanford University failed miserably.

The article reports:

The ballot initiative was promoted by members of the school’s conservative-leaning Stanford Review. If passed, it would have called for Stanford to require that all freshmen complete a two-quarter course covering “the politics, history, philosophy, and culture of the Western world.” Stanford once possessed a similar requirement, but eliminated it after a student campaign in the 1980s that denounced it as fostering racism, sexism, and other perfidious -isms.

 Supporters managed to collect 370 signatures on their petition, enough to include it as a ballot measure for Stanford’s spring student government election.

But it turns out Stanford has no enthusiasm for requiring the study of Western civilization. In election results released Monday, the proposal failed by an overwhelming margin, with 342 votes in favor and a whopping 1992 votes against.

…The mere suggestion that Stanford require studying Western civilization had generated immense outrage among certain Stanford communities. A low-income advocacy group at the school suspended a member based on the suspicion that he wrote an anonymous piece supporting the proposal. A hostile column in The Stanford Daily warned that accepting the proposal would mean centering Stanford education on “upholding white supremacy, capitalism and colonialism, and all other oppressive systems that flow from Western civilizations.”

 

Western civilization does not oppress people. Again, the study of history would combat some of these ideas. Many Islamic states still allow slavery. Women have very few rights in most Middle Eastern countries. Our college students are being lied to. A good Western civilization course might revise some of their thinking.

 

When The Spin Just Keeps Coming

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Scott Johnson posted an article at Power Line today about President Obama’s interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday yesterday. The explanations regarding the problems with Hillary Clinton’s email server just seem to be getting stranger.

The article reports:

In his interview with Chris Wallace broadcast on FOX News Sunday yesterday, Obama explained that the classified information on her server wasn’t really classified and that the Top Secret information on the email server was not “really top secret top secret.”

FOX News has posted the transcript of the interview here; I quote the relevant passage here. I have embedded a video of the interview below (about 16 minutes). Obama is asked about Clinton’s email setup at 8:35 of the video.

The media coverage of Clinton’s email scandal has been pathetic. Perhaps it is too much to expect any member of the press at the White House daily press briefing today the logical follow-up questions, but I offer a few in the spirit of constructive criticism.

Will Obama now see to the immediate release of the 22 emails withheld in their entirety by the State Department from its production of Clinton’s official email? Obama has told us that the documents are not “really top secret top secret.”

If the emails are not classified, will they be released? I doubt it. What about the emails that contained information labeled “Special Access Programs” (SAP), a level above Top Secret. Are they no longer considered classified?

The article concludes:

If one remains detached from the seriousness of the issues, Obama’s comments are laughable. Taking them at face value, Obama’s comments undermine laws that his administration has otherwise enforced against journalists and government officials. Insofar as Obama is duty bound to enforce the laws of the United States, his comments are, to say the least, not really presidential. They constitute the apologetics of a pathetic hack.

The media has not covered the Clinton email story very well, but if you have a friend who has ever handled classified material, talk to them about it. The story you will hear about the seriousness of having classified material on an unsecured server is very different than the story Hillary Clinton and President Obama are telling.

Once Is A Mistake–Twice Is A Decision

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Yesterday The New York Post reported that the Obama Administration is making the same mistakes that led to the housing market collapse of 2008. One of the major causes of the economic collapse of 2008 was the amount of money borrowed for housing loans that was not going to be paid back. There were a number of causes of the problem. The economy had been good for a while, interest rates were reasonably low, people had moved into bigger houses, and banks were pressured to give loans to people with questionable credit and unsubstantiated income. As gasoline prices doubled, many of the people who had taken out loans that were on the edge of their ability to repay found themselves unable to make the payments. The banks, in turn, sold those mortgages as if they were going to be paid back, and they were not paid back. The YouTube video Burning Down the House provides one of the best explanations of the cause of the 2008 collapse that I have seen. I am posting it here in case YouTube takes it down:

That was then, but where are we now?

The story in The New York Post reports:

As Paul Sperry recently noted in The Post, Team Obama has pushed mortgage lenders to offer home loans to folks with shaky credit, setting up conditions for another housing-market collapse.
Wasn’t the last one bad enough?

Credit scores of approved borrowers, for example, have been trending down, even as their debt levels have grown.

The Federal Housing Administration and government-sponsored “independent” lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been demanding lower credit standards — just as the feds did starting under President Bill Clinton, in pursuit of the same “affordable housing” goal.

Some borrowers need only put 3 percent down to get a Fannie Mae loan — even if the downpayment is a gift. Fannie also has started up a new subprime-lending program.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently warned that mortgage underwriting standards have slipped and now reflect “broad trends similar to those experienced from 2005 through 2007, before the most recent financial crisis.”

When the economy and housing prices turn south again, a lot of these loans will go bad, just as they did last time.

The writer of the article states that he doesn’t believe the loans will cause a worldwide problem this time because the banks have learned their lesson. He does point out, however, that a large portion of housing loans made in America are government insured. That means taxpayers will be on the hook this time (I thought we were the last time). Hang on to your hats. Here we go again.

A New Way Of Causing Divisions Among People

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Divide and conquer can be defined in politics, sociology and economics, as a strategy to gain or maintain power. It is possible to set up artificial divisions between groups of people that prevent them from getting together exercising their freedom and rights. If a government can keep people fighting each other, it can prevent them from looking at any problems the government may be causing. It can also cause people to be preoccupied with their differences while an overly powerful government takes control. That is exactly what is going on in American today.

Here is one example reported by CBN News:

College campuses across the U.S. are participating in a poster campaign to raise awareness about “institutional oppression.”

The posters list several categories of privilege but puts an emphasis on “Christian privilege.”

“If you can expect time off from work to celebrate your religious holidays, you have Christian privilege,” said the poster which originated at the University of San Francisco. 

…Posters put up at Virginia Tech, Oregon University, and the University of San Francisco suggests that Christians receive an assortment of unearned advantages. 

“Today, I was diagnosed with privilege”, said Elizabeth Campbell, chairwoman of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom chapter at Virginia Tech. 

“Symptoms: white, Christian, straight, ‘cisgender,’ and able bodied,” Campbell wrote on YAF’s website. “Virginia Tech deciding who does and does not have privilege is not okay. Going up to a sign and reading that you should ‘check your privilege’ just because of the situations you were born into, and paths you have chosen for your life, is categorizing and dividing people further.”

Parents, take a good look at what your children are learning in college. How much is it costing you to have them fed this garbage?

The First Amendment Is In Danger

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The First Amendment protects the right of free speech. It reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Evidently some of our state attorneys general are not aware of this law.

On Friday, The Blaze reported:

It only took a week before the warnings from free speech advocates to come to fruition about the 17 state attorneys general launching investigations into climate change skeptics, as the probe has expanded beyond an energy company to a think tank.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank in Washington, moved to quash a subpoena from the U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker.

The Virgin Islands subpoenaed 10 years worth of communications, emails, statements, drafts, and other documents regarding CEI’s research on climate change and energy policy. This included private donor information. The demand is for information from 1997 to 2007.

“CEI will vigorously fight to quash this subpoena,” CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman said in a statement. “It is an affront to our First Amendment rights of free speech and association for Attorney General Walker to bring such intimidating demands against a nonprofit group.”

The subpoena itself is part of several states’ investigations into whether Exxon-Mobil violated any laws in showing skepticism about climate change. Several other states, led by New York state Attorney General Erich Schneiderman, are using the racketeering statutes – commonly used to go after organized crime – to investigate companies government officials say might have misled the public about global warming.

States are investigating whether Exxon-Mobil violated laws by showing skepticism about climate change. What? Showing skepticism about something is now a crime?

On Monday, The Daily Signal reported:

Speaking at a press conference on March 29, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said, “The bottom line is simple: Climate change is real.” He went on to say that if companies are committing fraud by “lying” about the dangers of climate change, they will “pursue them to the fullest extent of the law.”

The coalition of 17 inquisitors are calling themselves “AGs United for Clean Power.” The coalition consists of 15 state attorneys general (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington State), as well as the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. Sixteen of the seventeen members are Democrats, while the attorney general for the Virgin Islands, Claude Walker, is an independent.

The inquisitors are threatening legal action and huge fines against anyone who declines to believe in an unproven scientific theory.

In the Middle Ages, I believe that those who stated that the earth was round were treated the way that climate change skeptics are being treated by these attorneys general.

The Daily Signal further reports:

The officials on hand during the announcement talked only about targeting large companies. But Anthony Sadar, a certified consulting meteorologist and author of “In Global Warming We Trust: Too Big to Fail,” fears it could expand to individuals.

“RICO, to my knowledge, is meant to target organized crime, drug traffickers and illegal gambling, not energy companies,” Sadar told TheBlaze. “If it can be used to make big industries cave, then they could go after others that view long-range global climate projections with some skepticism.”

Attorney and author Chris Horner, a senior fellow at CEI, agrees.

“It is clear that, with most opposition already chilled and most support for opponents already scared off, the itch this effort is trying to scratch is the desire to coerce a massive fund to underwrite the global warming industry,” Horner told TheBlaze.

“That explains the call for civil RICO. Still, if they manage to get an investigation rolling into political speech as racketeering, nothing inherently limits it from turning into a criminal pursuit; any state or federal department of justice official who joined in in such a scheme would have already abandoned any normal restraining impulses,” Horner said. “Similarly, there is nothing inherently limiting these investigations to corporations or groups.”

It is my fondest hope that the companies investigated will sue the state attorneys general involved in this into the next galaxy. This is a total affront to free speech. It also sounds very much like a totalitarian government bringing in the thought police. This is a total misuse of the RICO statutes. There needs to be a huge pushback against the states that are involved in this.

When watching this situation, we need to remember that climate change could very quickly become a billion dollar industry. To some extent it already has. Government subsidies finance alternative energy companies, and the United Nations wants to redistribute the wealth of prosperous countries in the name of past sins that may have impacted the climate. Oddly enough, the wealth would move from free countries to countries where the  money would go to tyrants leading the country and not to the poorer people who might actually need it.

For anyone new to reading this blog, one of the most informative sites on the internet for valid information on climate change is wattsupwiththat. I strongly recommend checking that site periodically to see the next stunt attempted by those who will profit greatly if they can convince the rest of us that we cause climate change.

Going Over And Above What Is Required

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Anti-Semitism is becoming a worldwide problem. It is evident in America by the way our college students have tried to discourage investment in Israel and have overlooked the aggression against Israel while criticizing Israel’s response to that aggression. Somehow the scientific and humanitarian contributions of Israel are often overlooked.

The Times of Israel posted a story on Thursday illustrating how far Israel will go in its humanitarian efforts. Some of the details of the story are classified for obvious reasons, but here is the story:

…But one five-year-old girl from the war-torn land  (Syria)has led doctors, as well as Israel’s security services, to take unprecedented steps to try to save her life.

The girl arrived at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa in recent weeks with very serious wounds that she received after finding herself caught in a firefight between rival militias, according to an exclusive report Wednesday night on Channel 10.

Some two weeks after she arrived at the hospital, after her wounds had nearly healed, Rambam doctors discovered the young girl had cancer.

They refused to release her, insisting that they could not let her cancer go untreated. The girl had grown used to the hospital, and had friends among the other children being treated there, they said.

Security officials agreed.

The article goes on to explain that the little girl needed a bone marrow transplant, and the doctors were looking for a donor.

The story continues:

And so a search began for a bone marrow donor, a search that led to a relative living in a Middle Eastern country designated an “enemy state” under Israeli law, a designation that prevented the relative from entering Israel.

It was at this point that Israel’s security services stepped in, mounting a secret operation in the enemy country that helped smuggle the relative out of that country and into Israel.

The relative arrived in Israel on Monday, Channel 10 reported. Both child and donor are now quarantined at the hospital, where the girl is expected to undergo a first round of treatment this month.

That is called compassion.

Expect To See More Cases Like This Before November

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Voter fraud is a problem in America. As more states are becoming aware of voter fraud, they are beginning to take action against it–requiring voter identification or keeping a better watch on voter registration rolls.

The Blaze posted a story today about some recent action taken in Philadelphia:

The Indiana-based Public Interest Legal Foundation announced that it is suing the city of Philadelphia in federal court Monday for its failure to respond to information requests regarding possible non-citizen voters.

PILF filed the lawsuit Monday against the Philadelphia City Commissioners on behalf of the Virginia-based American Civil Rights Union election integrity group, according to the Washington Free Beacon. ACRU and PILF sought answers to their inquiries about Philadelphia’s surprisingly high number of registered voters in comparison with the number of citizens actually eligible to vote during elections. But when the city’s commissioners did not respond to the inquiries, PILF filed the lawsuit against them.

The article explains that the lawsuit states that because the county involved has more registered voters than eligible citizens living in the county. it is possible that they are mot properly monitoring their voter registration lists.

The article concludes:

But the city of Philadelphia did not respond to PILF’s requests for updated registration data, the number of voters ineligible for various reasons, the source agencies that provided this information, the records indicating citizenship or immigration statuses, and more, the Free Beacon noted.

“Corrupted voter rolls provide the perfect environment for voter fraud. Failure to clean the rolls aggravates longstanding problems of voter fraud in Philadelphia,” said J. Christian Adams, PILF’s president and general counsel, according to its website. “Philadelphia may not be using all the available tools to prevent non-citizens from registering and voting. Concealing list maintenance records from the public isn’t good government, and it violates Federal election law.”

It is much easier to commit voter fraud in a large city than a small town. Generally in a small town people know each other; in a large city, a poll worker might not know that someone had recently died and was not voting. In a national election, this is particularly relevant because one or two large cities in a state can determine who gets the electoral college votes of that state. Voter registration lists need to be purged on a regular basis to keep our elections honest.

Common Sense Has Taken A Vacation

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Yesterday Judicial Watch reported that only three United States airports require security checks on their employees. If Judicial Watch knows this, does anyone believe that people with nefarious intentions are not also aware of this?

The article reports:

In all of the cases, airport workers used their security badges to access secured areas of their respective facilities without having to undergo any sort of check. As if this weren’t bad enough, last month government records obtained by the media revealed that 73 employees at nearly 40 airports across the nation were flagged for ties to terror in a June 2015 report from the DHS Inspector General’s Office. The files identified two of them working at Logan International Airport in Boston, four at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and six at Seattle-Tacoma International in Washington State. Here’s the government’s explanation for letting the potential terrorists slip by; the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) didn’t have access to the terrorism-related database during the vetting process for those employees. You can’t make this stuff up!

Now we learn that only three of the nation’s 300 airports—Atlanta, Miami and Orlando—require employees to undergo security checks before work, even though there’s an epidemic of illicit activity among this demographic. The unbelievable stat was delivered by DHS officials testifying at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing this week. In the aftermath of the Belgium terrorist attacks, the hearing was scheduled to address efforts in this country to prevent attacks on passenger and freight targets that could lead to mass casualties. The head of TSA, Robert Neffenger, told lawmakers that the agency has increased the inspection of employees five-fold in the last five months but admitted improvements must be made and the nation’s airports will provide a report by the end of the month assessing their vulnerabilities.

It might be a really good idea to correct this situation quickly.

The Law Of Unintended Consequences At Work

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The video below was posted on YouTube today:

Raising the minimum wage has a negative impact on both small businesses and on those seeking to enter the workforce. This video shows one example of the law of unintended consequences regarding the minimum wage. Minimum wage jobs are for low-skilled employees entering the workforce. Anyone attempting to support themselves by working for minimum wage needs to be encouraged to seek further education or increased job skills.

Random Comments On The Republican Presidential Primary Race

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I need to state up front that I voted for Ted Cruz. If Donald Trump is the nominees, I will vote for him. Generally speaking (with a few exceptions), I will vote for anyone other than Hillary Clinton. I don’t want to put her in the White House because I think she is corrupt and has no respect for the American people. It is also deeply troubling to me that she does not believe unborn babies have Constitutional rights. I wonder if there will be other groups of people in the future that she will decide do not have Constitutional rights.

Ted Cruz won in Wisconsin. That temporarily slows down the Trump train. However, it does not alter the fact that the Republican establishment does not want either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump as the nominee. The hope of the Republican establishment is a John Kasich, a Paul Ryan, a Jeb Bush, or someone else of that ilk. Obviously the Republican primary voters do not share that idea.

So where do we go from here? We can expect all sorts of news stories describing horrible actions of both Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Some of them may be true; some of them may not. So far the big charge against Ted Cruz involves the DC Madam before he was married and a statement his father allegedly made. The charges against Donald Trump tend to change daily. Watch for a lot of news stories trying to sell the idea of a ‘fresh face.’ That trail balloon was put up earlier in the week. I am sure it will be back.

The GOP establishment has about six or seven weeks to sell the idea of a Presidential nominee that is not currently running. I see that as an impossible task, but I have been wrong before. Paul Ryan says he is not interested. I hope he stays with that position. John Kasich wants to win at pretty much any cost. Do any of these people realize how many people will stay home in November if the establishment picks a candidate that did not run?

Watching the Republican establishment fight Ted Cruz and Donald Trump makes me wonder why they have been AWOL in the fight against President Obama’s policies during the past eight years. It confirms my suspicion that the Republican establishment is no different than the Democratic party. That is the reason the voters are revolting during the Republican primary. We have given the establishment a chance, and they have failed. It is time to give the outsiders a chance.

Praying For College Students Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

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America was founded as a Christian country. It was set up so that everyone would have freedom of religion, but the idea was that our rights came from God and that He would be acknowledged in our daily lives. We have definitely wandered away from that concept although some of us still respect it. Our culture has become secularized to the point where some groups within our country do even have a realistic concept of church or church people. Unfortunately many of our college campuses fall into this group.

Steven Hayward posted an article at Power Line today that illustrates how far America has come from its roots.

The article reports:

This story out of Indiana University yesterday hardly needs comment (but I’ll supply some anyway):

Everyone mistook a priest for a KKK member last night

Rumors of a klansman on campus have proven false after a priest innocently made his way through Bloomington.

Last night around 9:15 PM, social media became a furious storm of confusion regarding a man in white robes roaming along 10th St. and purportedly armed with a whip.

Students thought the white robes indicated Klu Klux Klan affiliation.

In the spirit of Hoosiers helping Hoosiers, students were quick to look out for each other by spreading word of this potential safety risk.

Below are some of the tweets during the incident:

CollegeStudentsPriestA later tweet reported, “This man is a very kind priest from St. Paul‘s. He walks around campus praying the rosary for students. No hate from him. Only love.”

A further tweet: “Just imagine if this had happened at Yale. There’d be a squadron of police cars and a campus-wide safe space.”

The whip may have been either Rosary beads or a rope tied around his waste as part of his robes.

What it the world are we teaching at our colleges?

Justice Turned Upside Down

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According to a CNS News article in January 2014, Planned Parenthood’s net revenue increased 5% to total of $1.21 billion in its organizational fiscal year ending on June 30, 2013, according to its new Annual Report 2012-2013. I don’t have the latest revenue figures, but I am sure they are impressive. It is sad that the abortion business is so profitable. It can also be concluded that because of the amount of money it generates, Planned Parenthood has a certain amount of influence. I have no doubt that the influence of Planned Parenthood is involved in the following story.

CBS News in Sacramento, California, is reporting that California Department of Justice agents raided the home of David Daleiden Tuesday. David Daleiden is the founder of a group called the Center for Medical Progress, which released videos last year of Planned Parenthood selling aborted baby body parts.

The article reports:

Rachele Huennekens, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Kamala Harris, said in an email that she can’t comment on any ongoing investigation.

Harris said in July that she planned to review the undercover videos to see if center violated any state charity registration or reporting requirements. She said that could include whether Daleiden and a colleague impersonated representatives of a fake biomedical company or filmed the videos without Planned Parenthood’s consent.

Harris, a Democrat, is running for the U.S. Senate. Daleiden suggested in the social media posting that the raid was politically motivated because Harris has accepted campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood.

Daleiden faces related charges in Texas. One of his Texas attorneys, Terry Yates, did not return telephone and email messages Tuesday.

Ever notice how frequently the ‘I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation’ excuse is used? This is a glaring example of the negative role money can play in politics.

The article further reports:

Texas authorities initially began a grand jury investigation of Planned Parenthood after the undercover videos were released in August.

But the grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of misusing fetal tissue and indicted Daleiden and a colleague, Sandra Merritt, in January on charges including using fake driver’s licenses to get into a Houston clinic.

Daleiden previously said his group followed the law in making the videos. His post Tuesday called the raid an “attack on citizen journalism” and said he will “pursue all remedies to vindicate our First Amendment rights.”

What Mr. Daleiden did used to be called investigative journalism. Unfortunately, under the current government (unfortunately at local, state and federal levels), investigative journalism is only allowed if it supports certain political interests.

Regardless of how you feel about abortion, this is not a good thing. Essentially this means that any American who steps outside the wishes of a powerful business can be harassed by the government. Right now the issue is abortion, but in the future the issue could be anything. This sets a dangerous precedent.

About That Treaty…

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It is no secret that Iran has been a major provider of funds and arms for terrorists in the Middle East and other areas in Asia and Africa. The Iranian nuclear treaty does not seem to have slowed their arming of terrorists or their belligerent attitude.

Yesterday Fox News reported that a U.S. Navy ship stopped a shipment of arms going from Iran and likely headed for Yemen.

This is one of the pictures from the article:

IranianArmsShipmentThe article reports:

The Navy said the shipment included 1,500 AK-47s, 200 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 21 .50-caliber machine guns.

After the U.S. seized the weapons stash from the dhow, a traditional sailing vessel, the Navy let the crew go. A U.S. official told Fox News current rules do not allow western naval forces to seize the crew in addition to illicit cargo. “You have to find a country willing to prosecute,” the official said. 

A defense official reached by Fox News would not reveal the nationality of the dhow’s crew.

Last month, Iran announced that it tested missiles marked with the phrase “Israel must be wiped out,” in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution tied to the recent nuclear deal. The resolution forbids Iran from working on its ballistic missile program for eight years and bans sales of its conventional weapons.

It is becoming very obvious that the only reason Iran was even willing to negotiate the recent nuclear deal was that it wanted the economic sanctions lifted. It is also becoming very obvious that even stricter sanctions need to be imposed. Iran is acting as a major supporter of terrorism. That needs to stop. Allowing Iran to continue arming terrorists and building a nuclear program to wipe out Israel is simply the suicide of western civilization. To allow Iran to continue its present behavior will have horrible consequences in the not-to-distant future.

No One Likes Being Lied To

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No one likes being lied to. However, some lies have greater consequences than others. The Washington Free Beacon posted a story yesterday about an investigation into lies the Obama Administration told Congress about the Iranian nuclear deal. Evidently what Congress was told about the concessions made to Iran actually bore little resemblance to the deal that was finally agreed to.

The article reports:

The concerns come after statements from top officials last week suggesting that Iran is set to receive greater weapons and sanctions relief, moves that the administration had promised Congress would never take place as White House officials promoted the deal last summer.

“When multiple officials—including Secretary Kerry, Secretary Lew, and Ambassador Mull—testify in front of Members of Congress, we are inclined to believe them,” Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) told the Washington Free Beacon.

“However, the gap between their promises on the Iran nuclear deal and today’s scary reality continues to widen. We are now trying to determine whether this was intentional deception on the part of the administration or new levels of disturbing acquiescence to the Iranians,” Pompeo said.

Congress is believed to be investigating what insiders described to the Free Beacon as a range of areas in which administration officials may have understated the breadth of concessions made to the Islamic Republic when trying to persuade lawmakers to sign off on the final deal.

The article goes on to detail the areas where the actual deal does not resemble the information Congress received.

The article notes that Secretary of State John Kerry promised that under the agreement signed with Iran, Iran would be prohibited from carrying out ballistic missile tests.

The article reports:

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., shifted course last week, refusing to call recent Iranian launches a “violation” in a letter she signed criticizing those launches.

Note to Ms. Power: Iran is not particularly impressed nor responsive to criticism.

The article further reports:

“The Obama administration is involved in yet another sleight of hand on sanctions relief as well as the status of U.N. missile sanctions,” Dubowitz sai. “This is very familiar to those who tracked the Iran nuclear talks and recall the many ways in which broken commitments were justified and redlines were abandoned.”

Iranian allies on the U.N. Security Council, mainly Russia, have defended the missile tests, arguing that resolution 2231 has only “called upon” Iran to refrain from these tests.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin recently stated that the newest U.N. resolution governing the nuclear agreement only suggests that Iran stop test firing missiles.

“A call is different from a ban so legally you cannot violate a call, you can comply with a call or you can ignore the call, but you cannot violate a call,” Churkin was quoted as saying. “The legal distinction is there.”

Congressional critics have dismissed the argument and are pressing on the Obama administration to stand up to Iran’s defenders.

“The Kremlin’s absurd legal argument after Iran’s March tests that ‘legally you cannot violate a call’ would essentially allow the Iranian regime to do anything it wants to further develop its ballistic missile program,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter.

The Iranian nuclear deal was a badly negotiated deal. It was something that President Obama wanted to put in his legacy, and he gave away the store in order to get it done. He then added insult to injury by reporting the details, nuances, and intricacies to Congress in a manner that may not have been entirely truthful. Congress may not be unified on much, but they are pretty unified on the fact that they don’t like being lied to.

It will be interesting to see exactly what this investigation uncovers and also to see exactly what will happen if in fact Congress has been lied to. We have about eight months left of the Obama Administration. Get out the popcorn, it is going to be interesting.

The Battle For The Soul Of The North Carolina Republican Party

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North Carolina is currently reflecting the battle going on in America for the soul of the Republican party. The establishment is pushing their agenda, and the grass roots are screaming to be heard. There is a reason that the two leading candidates are not the choice of the people regarded as Republican leaders. The grass roots are angry. They have been sending Republicans to Washington for a number of years now only to be brokenhearted about what the people they send do. There is very little difference between the Republican and Democratic parties right now, and Americans are looking for an alternative to both.

In North Carolina the battle is reflected in the treatment of the Republican State Chairman. Hasan Harnett who was elected last year at the state convention. He was not the choice of the establishment Republicans in the party. Hasan is a conservative, as is his vice-chairman, Michele Nix. Lately he has been locked out of his email and evidently his office. The Central Committee of the North Carolina Republican Party has not treated him well.

The Daily Haymaker has posted a number of articles on the events.

One article reports:

Leaders of two of the largest, most active Tea Party organizations have issued releases announcing their intention to protest at the NCGOP 2nd congressional district meeting in Sanford on Saturday, April 9.

Moore Tea Citizens and the Asheville Tea Party issued the following statement:

[…] It has been very obvious from the moment of Mr. Harnett’s election at the 2015 State Convention, that the Central Committee has been highly displeased that their establishment insider candidate, endorsed by Governor McCrory, Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, was not the choice of the GOP base.

Conversely, The GOP party members who elected Mr. Harnett are not at all pleased with the NCGOP Central Committee for their non-transparent, secretive tactics thwarting Chairman Harnett attempts to be successful. These tactics include: denying him access to NCGOP headquarters, his email account, and false accusations of hacking the website.

The grassroots support for Chairman Harnett is based in his Conservative credentials and relationship with his GOP constituents. The grassroots contend that neither has been embraced by the party establishment elites.

The NCGOP war on the grassroots has also gained much media attention in both state and national news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal. This ‘rift’ has even caught the attention of talk show host Rush Limbaugh. If this is not resolved, it has the potential of damaging the outcome of our general elections in November.

[…]Liberty loving citizens who refuse to sit down, and shut up, please join us to support NCGOP Chairman Hasan Harnett. Chairman Harnett is a fine man and Patriot. He does not deserve this treatment from NCGOP party elites whose only interest is to protect their power, not represent WE THE PEOPLE.

Come and join the many so together we make a difference.

Another article in The Daily Haymaker reports:

If you’re a regular reader of this site, you are pretty well caught up on the details of the NCGOP saga.  Well, beleaguered party chairman Hasan Harnett has emerged from his bunker to rally his supporters and fire off a few volleys at his Central Committee foes: 

I understand the concerns about having a conflict with district conventions, but my main premise for pushing forward was to put the divisive infighting behind us so we can move forward in beating Democrats in the fall. Consequently, I am canceling the Executive Committee meeting on April 9th and am asking that you not sign the petitions to call for a special meeting on April 30th.

Likewise, I am a volunteer Chairman and must work for a living to provide for my family. The NCGOP staff was already notified on January 27th of my schedule. I am traveling out of the country on business starting April 23rd thru May 1st (see the date and time stamp below). The only Saturdays in April I am available are 4/2, 4/9, and 4/16 of which all of these dates have district conventions. Due to scheduling constraints, we should not have our next Executive Committee meeting until after the State Convention.

It is also apparent that the Central Committee is attempting to schedule an April 30th Executive Committee meeting. The sole premise of the Central Committee’s petition for the April 30th meeting is to remove your State Chairman during an election year. Who likes junk mail? The statements in the letter you received are nothing more than bald faced lies. Furthermore, the claims in that letter have no factual basis whatsoever and is why most of you have placed these petition letters in either your recycle bin or underneath your junk mail. If you already signed it, please email me requesting your signature be removed from the petition, and I will make sure it is eliminated. For anyone still contemplating, I urge you not to sign the petition for the April 30th Executive Committee meeting.

Instead, let us focus our energies on the ongoing District Conventions and upcoming State Convention. We are moving on because there really is no time to waste. We have an exciting year ahead of us and today is a new day. While there are a number of issues to address, I believe we can find the appropriate solutions together.

All of your feedback is greatly appreciated. Feel free to call, email or text me should you have additional thoughts.

Respectfully,

Hasan

This is a good move on Harnett’s part.  It frees up folks who were interested in giving the scheming Cotten gals an old-fashioned piece of their mind. 

And from a friend who attended a recent District Republican Committee Meeting:

I believe the National Convention outcome is behind the hoopla to remove Hasan. At the moment, Hasan gets to pick a slate of 30 Delegates and 30 Alternates. Presuming that we have a brokered convention in Cleveland, for whom those delegates vote could make a huge difference in the outcome. I suspect Hasan would pick people who support Cruz or Trump (I don’t know which), and the RNC has a huge problem with both of those people. Therefore, I believe it is the RNC and their state power brokers who originally backed Craig Collins for Chairman of the NC GOP who are behind all of this unrest.

A lot is at stake with the election of delegates to the National Convention. There is much behind the scenes jockeying to have delegates at the Convention who will support certain candidates, ESPECIALLY IF IT IS A “BROKERED” OR “CONTESTED ” ONE. The power players have their claws out.

We need to thwart this scheme, and hold to the will of the body!

NOW THAT I HAVE STATED WHAT I BELIEVE IS THE REAL PROBLEM, here are the concerns Constitutional Conservatives should have about how the District Convention was conducted. The folks who are constantly calling for party unity at all costs, the “Establishment Republicans,” are well versed in techniques to use in procedures to get their way. First, they know that Convention attendees are in many cases not committed enough to devote a great deal of time to do the Convention’s business. Many come to rally the party, hear speeches, meet candidates, have a good time, etc. Therefore, the first tactic is always to put off hearing the business they want to thwart until folks are getting anxious to go home, and then call for a count of attendance to check to see if the meeting still has a quorum. Thankfully, this tactic was not working last Saturday.

What did work was to keep moving for amendments to the motion to adopt the resolution requesting an investigation of the NCGOP Central Committee – to keep stirring in minutia – until people tired of the controversy and wanted to get this over so we could elect delegates and go home. When this point was reached, there were the usual calls for party unity, etc. (The irony is that the folks calling for unity tended to be firmly in the group that caused the dis-unity in the first place.)

I would like to restate that the people calling for unity are the people who have undercut Chairman Harnett since he was elected. It is difficult to respect their calls for unity when they are refusing to back their duly elected chairman. If the Republican party wants to be a viable party in the future, they need to do some serious housecleaning. If you want to be a Democrat, join the Democratic party. If you want to be a Republican, respect the grass roots–they are the ones who usually do the work.

 

Reining In An Out Of Control Government

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Civil asset forfeiture has become a problem in America in recent years. I have written about a number of cases of forfeiture in recent years. Two of these stories are here and here.  Hot Air posted an article today citing what Florida has decided to do about this government abuse of power.

The article at Hot Air reports:

Some great news in asset forfeiture reform is coming out of Florida. S.B. 1044, approved by the legislature earlier in the month, was signed into law today by Gov. Rick Scott.

The big deal with this particular reform is that, in most cases, Florida police will actually have to arrest and charge a person with a crime before attempting to seize and keep their money and property under the state’s asset forfeiture laws. One of the major ways asset forfeiture gets abused is that it is frequently a “civil”, not criminal, process where police and prosecutors are able to take property without even charging somebody with a crime, let alone convicting them. This is how police are, for example, able to snatch cash from cars they’ve pulled over and claim they suspect the money was going to be used for drug trafficking without actually finding any drugs.

The civil asset forfeiture law was put into effect to allow municipalities to sell off the assets of criminals and use the money for municipal purposes. In order to trace drug money, a law was passed that any cash deposit of $10,000 or more had to be documented by the bank involved. This law was abused and used against small businesses that generally made cash deposits of less than $10,000. They were accused of making the small deposits to avoid the law, and their bank accounts were seized. A number of small businesses were forced out of business by these actions. Aside from the fact that that this is simply government overreach, it is also a violation of the Sixth Amendment.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Montana and New Mexico have already passed laws to curb the abuse of civil asset forfeiture laws. We need this trend to continue.

Stating The Obvious

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The Hill posted an article on Friday about some recent comments by President Obama regarding the nuclear deal with Iran.

The article reports:

In comments following the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, Obama denied speculation that the United States would ease rules preventing dollars from being used in financial transactions with Iran, in order to boost the country’s engagement with the rest of the world.

 Instead, Obama claimed, that Iran’s troubles even after the lifting of sanctions under the nuclear deal were due to its continued support of Hezbollah, ballistic missile tests and other aggressive behavior.

“Iran so far has followed the letter of the agreement, but the spirit of the agreement involves Iran also sending signals to the world community and businesses that it is not going to be engaging in a range of provocative actions that are going to scare businesses off,” Obama said at a press conference.

“When they launch ballistic missiles with slogans calling for the destruction of Israel, that makes businesses nervous.”

The ballistic missiles with slogans calling for the destruction of Israel are not an indication of a new attitude. The Quds Force is named the Quds Force because Quds is the Iranian name for Jerusalem. The Quds Force is the group that will be given the ‘honor’ of taking Jerusalem when ‘the time comes.’ This represents the attitude of Iran since the Iranian revolution in 1979. I don’t know what President Obama thought was going to change when he agreed to the nuclear treaty.

The article concludes:

Despite the lifting of sanctions, American companies are still banned from doing business in Iran and foreign banks are prohibited from using the U.S. dollar for their Iranian dealings. Earlier this week, multiple reports indicated that the White House was considering easing financial rules to let foreign companies use the dollar to do business with Iran.

But on Friday, Obama appeared to shoot the idea down.

“That’s not actually the approach that we’re taking,” he said.

“It is not necessary that we take the approach of them going through dollar transactions,” he added. “It is possible for them to work through European financial institutions as well.”

Instead, Obama said, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and other U.S. officials would help “provide clarity” to global businesses about what kinds of work they can do in Iran under current rules.

That sounds an awful lot like ‘the rules will be what I say they are.’

If You Don’t Like What Someone Is Saying, Change The Meaning Of The Words Used

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One of the things I miss about New England is Howie Carr. He has always had an ability to hit the nail on the head when discussing politics. He posted an article in the Boston Herald today discussing how the political class and the media have changed the meaning of words to suit their needs. Evidently the English language is something of an ever-changing, growing thing (like the way Democrats see the U.S. Constitution).

Some examples from the article.

On Friday night, Obama referred to an airstrike as a “kinetic action” and his sock puppets in the media nodded. If George W. Bush had said the same thing, they would have described it as a “war crime.”

…Bernie Sanders lashed out at Hillary Clinton, saying that she took money from “the fossil-fuel industry,” which was formerly known as “Big Oil.” But now the big tent of bad energy must be expanded to include coal.

…With these people, every day is 1984 and they’re the Ministry of Truth. Obamacare is the Affordable Care Act — and it’s unaffordable. And when your income-tax return is docked because you couldn’t afford affordable care, it’s not a fine, it’s a “shared responsibility tax.”

How about the word “settled”? Settled science is in fact religion, and any researcher who dares dissent from the various cults’ orthodoxies will lose his research grant and any chance for tenure, and eventually may even be prosecuted. (Ask Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.)

The article reminds us that settled law is anything the Democrats decide it is. The Second Amendment, which goes back to the origins of America, is not settled law, yet abortion is. Five minutes after the concept of marriage was redefined by our government, the new definition became settled law. Settled law is obviously in the eye of the beholder.

The article continues:

Higher taxes are an “investment in the future” — their future, not yours. A teachable moment — an opportunity to lecture you on your shortcomings. Dialogue — see teachable moment. Affirmative action — racial discrimination on behalf of Democrats.

Drunkards and drug addicts now have substance-abuse disorders. They are chemically dependent.

Illegal aliens are undocumented workers, even though most of them don’t work. They live in the shadows, except for when they’re going to the State House on weekdays during business hours to issue non-negotiable demands for more handouts.

An earned income tax credit is a welfare payment for someone who doesn’t pay taxes, and thus cannot receive a “credit.” A subsidy is likewise a handout if it goes to any industry that actually produces something, in which case it’s “crony capitalism.” But if the subsidy goes to Democratic bundlers running bust-out “green” energy companies that produce no energy — that’s a “smart” investment.

The article also points out the differences between the way things Democrats do and things Republicans do are reported. Republicans lie; Democrats misspeak. When a Republican changes his mind, he ‘flip-flops.’ When a Democrat changes his mind, he is ‘evolving.’

Please follow the link above to read the entire article–there are some amazing examples of misuse of the English language in it.

Marijuana Is Not Really Harmless

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The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article today about the long-term impact of consistently smoking marijuana.

The article reports:

International research has revealed that the more cannabis you smoke, the more likely you are to be lower paid and have relationship difficulties.

The study followed children from birth up to the age of 38 and found people who smoked cannabis four or more days a week over many years ended up in a lower social class than their parents.

It also found that regular and persistent users ended up with lower-paying, less skilled and less prestigious jobs than those who were not regular cannabis smokers.

Financial, work-related and relationship difficulties were further experienced by those taking the drug, which worsened as the number of years of regular cannabis use progressed.

The study, conducted by a team of researchers led by Magdalena Cerda at the University of California and Avshalom Caspi and Terrie Moffitt at Duke University, appeared in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

‘Our research does not support arguments for or against cannabis legalization,’ said Cerda. ‘But it does show that cannabis was not safe for the long-term users tracked in our study.

One of the things that amazes me is the move to legalize marijuana in America while stigmatizing smoking tobacco. Both are damaging to the lungs, both ingest various toxins into the body, but smoking tobacco does not generally impact your social or financial success. Marijuana is not a harmless drug, and it is not a good idea to legalize the use of recreational marijuana until there is more study of its long-term effects. It is also very naive to believe that saying that recreational marijuana, legal in some states for people over twenty-one, will not be used by those under twenty-one. Teenagers using marijuana on a regular basis will not be of benefit to our society.

The Cost Of Inaction

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NBC News is reporting today that President Obama stopped the CIA from executing a plan to remove Syrian President Bashar Assad from power in 2012. The President’s reluctance to do anything to end the Syrian Revolution had serious consequences–the rise of ISIS.

The article reports:

It’s long been known that then-CIA Director David Petraeus recommended a program to secretly arm and train moderate Syrian rebels in 2012 to pressure Assad. But a book to be published Tuesday by a former CIA operative goes further, revealing that senior CIA officials were pushing a multi-tiered plan to engineer the dictator’s ouster. Former American officials involved in the discussions confirmed that to NBC News.

In an exclusive television interview with NBC News, the former officer, Doug Laux, describes spending a year in the Middle East meeting with Syrian rebels and intelligence officers from various partner countries. Laux, who spoke some Arabic, was the eyes and ears on the ground for the CIA’s Syria task force, he says.

The article noted that the President, who must approve all covert operations, never approved the action.

The article further reports:

Petraeus and others who supported the plan believe it could have prevented the rise of ISIS, Assad’s use of chemical weapons, the European refugee crisis and the tens of thousands of civilian deaths that have happened since, the former officials say. President Obama and many other analysts strongly disagree.

Elements under discussion at the time included not only bolstering Syrian rebels, but pressuring and paying senior members of Assad’s regime to push him out, the former officials said. The idea was that the Syrian civil war could then have been peacefully resolved–a huge uncertainty.

Laux ultimately resigned in frustration — over that and other issues — after it became clear the Obama administration would not move forward.

…But former senior U.S. officials point out that the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, had not yet begun fighting in Syria in significant numbers in 2012. Many players in the region, they say, were waiting to see what the United States would do.

Interfering in civil wars in foreign countries is risky. Libya did not turn out well, and initially Egypt did not turn out well. However, in the case of Syria, not getting involved probably created more problems than it solved.

Part of the problem here is the cultural differences between western culture and the Middle East. The Middle Eastern culture has very little respect for anything but force. President Obama’s lack of action was seen as weakness and viewed as something to be taken advantage of. Unless America elects a leader who is viewed as strong by our enemies, we can expect the problem of ISIS and Hezbollah to grow. We shouldn’t be sending our troops overseas at every moment, but we need to project enough strength to prevent nations and groups that are less than friendly to us from taking advantage of perceived weakness.

Weird, Just Weird

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Yesterday CBS Local in Boston reported that incendiary devices were found attached to National Grid power lines in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts.

The article reports:

Firefighters were called to wooded area off 60 Locust Avenue Wednesday afternoon for a small brush fire under some high-tension lines. After it was put out, they noticed something unusual hanging from the wires.

“Crews that responded to the scene noticed items that didn’t appear to be part of the transmission system and alerted National Grid. National Grid assessed the situation and alerted law enforcement,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Harold Shaw said in a statement Thursday.

State Police and FBI bomb technicians found “multiple incendiary devices similar in structure to pipe bombs in the area.”

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Peter Kowenhoven said the devices were cylindrical metal objects and that they needed to be “manually activated,” but would not say how many authorities found.

“There was some pre-planning in this,” said Kowenhoven of the FBI. “These devices were home-made.”

The article reports that there is no evidence of this incident being related to terrorism. Well, this is simply further proof that America has enough crazies here already. There is no need to import more.

There Is No Resemblance Between The Hype And The Truth

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The North Carolina legislation passed a bill on March 23 called HB2. The media has gone totally bonkers every since–yelling discrimination, bigotry, and all the other things they traditionally yell. I haven’t heard much in the media about the danger bathrooms open to whatever sex you choose to assume on a given day pose to women and children. I need to mention here that the danger does not come from transgendered people–it comes from nefarious people posing as transgenders. The media also overlooked the fact that the spokesmen for the group sponsoring the legislation that HB2 overturned was a registered sex offender. I am sure that is simply an incredible coincidence. The spokesman was removed after his criminal record was exposed.

On Wednesday, World Net Daily posted an article that clarifies the issues involved.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

Widely known now as House Bill 2, or HB 2, the legislation was approved 82-26 in the North Carolina General Assembly. State senators approved it 32-0, although 11 Democrats decided not to vote and another six lawmakers were absent. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed the bill on March 25.

Lt. Gov. Forest said the city of Charlotte left lawmakers no choice but to act.

“This isn’t something the General Assembly brought up. The city council in Charlotte brought this up, against legal counsel’s advice and against the advice of a lot of folks. They went beyond their constitutional authority and tried to create a public accommodation law in the city of Charlotte,” Forest told WND and Radio America.

He continued, “That is expressly a responsibility of the state. The city of Charlotte and municipalities don’t have the legal authority, based on our constitution, to establish public accommodation law.”

In addition to overstepping its legal authority, Forest said the Charlotte council pursued a very troubling policy.

“The Charlotte ordinance said that the business community had to to comply with this ordinance,” Forest explained. “They said it was sex discrimination to have men’s room and women’s room labels on your doors.”

When state officials started hearing from sexual assault victims, the effort to reverse the Charlotte ordinance picked up far more steam.

The article further explains:

Forest said the ordinance only required the person to identify as a member of a particular gender, and to have completed or be in the process of gender reassignment.

He said, despite the protests, HB 2 does a few very simple things, starting with determining who can use which bathrooms.

“What HB 2 did was say that men have to use men’s rooms and women have to use women’s rooms in the state of North Carolina,” Forest said.

At the same time, he said people identifying as transgender benefit, too.

“What this bill did is it created accommodation for people that are transgender, for people that view their gender differently than other folks,” Forest said. “It also provides the opportunity for single-stall unisex bathrooms. Anywhere that you want to place them.”

Forest said, unlike Charlotte, the HB 2 only applies to government buildings and schools. Business owners are free to make their own decisions.

If you own a business in North Carolina, you are free to designate bathrooms in any way you see fit. The article notes that Lt. Gov. Forrest mentioned the possible NBA boycott of North Carolina because of the law. He stated that he found the possible boycott odd because the WNBA  does not allow men to play in their league or enter the locker rooms and the NBA does not open its league or its locker rooms to women.

Common sense needs to prevail here. Note that when the original ordinance was passed in Charlotte, state officials started hearing from sexual assault victims. That statement really tells you all you need to know. Our laws need to protect women and children.