This is an actual conversation I had with my family.  The names have been removed to protect the innocent.

I want to chime in a little bit on the North Carolina HB2 ‘bathroom bill’ issue.  My take on this is a little different than the ones I’ve seen espoused on the media and  I wanted to get my feelings on this off my chest.

Here is my problem with the entire situation: THE. LAW.

See, both sides of the HB2 debate have made good and legitimate points.

Anti HB2:

1. There is no epidemic of transgenders using public bathrooms to harass women or molest children.
2. Right now, there are transgender people using public bathrooms that are for the gender they identify with (no born as) and nobody has noticed or had a problem with it.
3. Sending some transgenders into the public bathrooms for the gender they are by birth will be more awkward for them since they made their transition.

Pro HB2:

1. There are documented cases of men abusing gender identity bathroom laws or policies to be perverts and peep or take pictures/video.
2. These men may have dressed as women but there is no evidence that they ever really identified as trans.
3. There is an expectation of decorum in public bathrooms.  Privacy is not the right word.  It is the idea that you should not be ‘perved at’ when in a public facility.
4. Having a person who is obviously of the opposite gender (a man) in a gender specific public bathroom (ladies’ room) will make other patrons (women) uncomfortable.
5. Why should a large number of people be put in a position that may make them uncomfortable to appease the needs of 0.3% of the population.

So how do you address these very valid but contradictory points?  Well, a law like HB2 is probably the worst way to do it.  Why?  The law is not a scalpel.  It does not parse things finely.  The law is a sledgehammer.  It crushes everything indelicately.

Let’s be honest.  If you look like Laverne Cox, RuPaul, or even Chaz Bono and you use the bathroom of the gender you identify with, no one will care because no one will notice.  You are – and SJW’s hate this term – passing.  No harm, no foul.

If you look like a one of the GAP GIRLS, guess what, you are going to make some women in the bathroom feel uncomfortable and possibly even threatened.

So how do write a law that says “you can use the bathroom you identify with as long as you pass and/or don’t scare the other patrons.”  You can’t.  The law can’t be that fine.  It is an all or nothing proposition.  But it is that gray area in between the all or nothing that all the protests are about.  When you see the anti-trans/pro-HB2 supporters, what they fear isn’t a Laverne Cox – because they’d never notice her anyway – what they fear is the 250 pound man in a dress with stubble and lipstick.

The gray area is where social convention should rule, because the law does so poorly a job at that.

Want another example?

Gay weddings and bakeries.  Should religious bakeries deny gay couples wedding cakes?  No, probably not.  But let’s say that they do.  Some baker is so offended by the idea of a gay wedding he wants no part of it on religious principles.  What should the gay couple do?  Find another bakery.  This is the type of situation that SHOULD be solved by social convention and not law.  Social convention says that in a free market system, if you don’t want to take my money, the only person you are hurting is yourself.  I can always find somebody else to take my money.  Using the law and civil courts means that somebody’s toes are going to get stomped on by the government.  It’s just a matter of whose.

Think about the absurdity of that for just a moment.

“Take my money or I will have you arrested and fined.”  What!?!

“ But what about the gay couple discriminated against?”

I’ll answer with a question “if you know somebody disproves of your lifestyle, why would you want to give them your money?”

Here is another wide gray area of potentially hurt feelings that could be better solved by the free market and a couple of f*ck yous.  Instead, some legislators wrote a law that ignited a firestorm of controversy, and caused more harm than good, because the law is a blunt tool.

Update: Based upon one comment, I wanted to clarify a position.  Allowing the free market to solve these types of issues is something I do believe in, with one exception: jobs that require professional license – e.g. doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lawyers, etc.  Most other jobs, even some that require a license (like a hair dresser) are easily filled by the free market.  A job that requires professional licence to practice, which requires years of study, advanced degrees, and passing exams, is much harder for the free market to fix quickly, as a licence is a form of government sponsored monopoly.  Anybody with a camera can photograph a wedding.  Not anybody with a saw can be an orthopedic surgeon.  If the government gives you permission to practice to protect the safety of the public (if your hair dresser makes a mistake, you don’t die in the chair), you cannot discriminate.  If you cannot abide by that, find a different career path.

This is the problem with trying to legislate behavior and the minutia of life.  One size fits all doesn’t, just ask any fat guy who has ever won a free t-shirt at a public event.  The more one tries to fix social issues like these with laws, the more consternation they cause.  This is the ultimate lesson that people who fall back on demanding that state power intervene learn.  Liberals are usually the first to run off to big nanny government to “make things fair.”  In North Carolina it was the other side that legislated their desires into law first, and now the liberals are protesting.  And of course the NC law was written in response to liberal transgender bathroom laws passed in other states.

Don’t invite the government in to meddle in personal matters.  It never ends will.  Like George Washington said: “Government Is Like Fire, a Dangerous Servant and a Fearful Master.”  Now people are getting burned.

P.S.  A message to Target stores.  My gun in my waistband is like Laverne Cox’s d*ck in a dress; if you don’t know it’s there, than it shouldn’t bother you at all.  If she can deep conceal in the ladies room of a Target without upsetting people, than so can I in the grocery aisle.

Just heard the news. No details yet other than it was a heart attack.

Another great instructor gone.

Too many people butthurt, moaning and bitching and others dancing like monkeys on a string. That has made me realize that we have lost the way and forgot we are the ones who, at the end, have the final word, not those we chose to govern.

I guess that makes me an insurrectionist after all.

Then again, you touch that thing and all silence will be gone.

Their analysis, published in the BMJ on Tuesday, shows that “medical errors” in hospitals and other health care facilities are incredibly common and may now be the third leading cause of death in the United States — claiming 251,000 lives every year, more than respiratory disease, accidents, stroke and Alzheimer’s.

Martin Makary, a professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who led the research, said in an interview that the category includes everything from bad doctors to more systemic issues such as communication breakdowns when patients are handed off from one department to another.

Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t require reporting of errors in the data it collects about deaths through billing codes, making it hard to see what’s going on at the national level.

Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States – WaPo

But we are the troglodytes because we refuse any more wasteful “medical research” on “gun violence”, right? And we are putting people in danger when we say doctors shouldn’t be allowed to give advice on guns when they are not trained on firearms safety. But yet, they screw up what they are supposed to be trained on and are sending 251,000 people six feet under.

And tomorrow morning, there won’t be a horrified “Mom” in Zionsville , IN creating a “grassroots” Facebook page to  fight against this horror show. There won’t be a Gotham mayor putting up his billions to fight the evil Medical Lobby and reduce the deaths and form Mayors Against Medical Malpractice against the American Medical Association. No, this report will be ignored and we will be called terrorists and murderers once again.

Foxtrot Uniform.

This was found in The Idealist, a jobs website for mostly unpaid internship or as they say “Idealist is all about connecting idealists – people who want to do good – with opportunities for action and collaboration.”

Assist in administering Everytown’s suite of field, campaign, and contact tools including, but not limited to NGP-VAN, EveryAction, ActionKit, Salesforce, Hustle, Mobile Commons, and BlueHQ. This includes managing user and security settings, providing technical assistance, and monitoring use of the systems to ensure compliance with Everytown data practices;

So, I did a little bit of Google-Fu and came up with:

NGP-VAN is a privately owned American company specializing in helping progressive campaigns and organizations leverage technology to meet their goals. Nearly every major Democratic campaign in America is powered by NGP VAN, including the Obama campaign’s voter contact, volunteer, fundraising and compliance operations in all 50 states. The organizers, fundraisers, and strategists that use our tools work tirelessly to advance important causes and elect inspiring leaders, like President Barack Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren. From equality + reproductive rights to education + climate change, the passions of these leaders and organizations are shaping a brighter future – and we’re passionate about offering them the technology they need to bring their goals to life.

Next we have:

At EveryAction, we’ve walked in your shoes and get what you’re doing; our team of experts have held senior digital, fundraising, and organizing roles at nonprofits, and we helped pioneer online fundraising and advocacy. The insights we gained from this experience, combined with a top-notch in-house technology team, have allowed us to build best-in-class tools that have helped thousands of clients – both large and small – raise billions of dollars, send billions of emails, and recruit millions of new supporters.

And then we have:

ActionKit  is used by progressive organizations, large and small, around the world, to make a difference on issues from climate change to gun control to disaster relief to social justice and more.

Next on the list is

Mobile Commons by Upland is the leading mobile messaging platform offering mobile strategy to the most influential brands, government agencies, healthcare groups, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations in the world, including the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, DoSomething.org, Viacom, Bowling Green State University, the Human Rights Campaign, and more.

The list of clients is interesting.

Salesforce appears to be just a straight company with no political tendencies. They have a long list of clients including big commercial names. I guess they need a true capitalist to gather money and info. As for Hustle and BlueHQ, I could not find reliable info so I am leaving them out.

The alleged Grassroots Movement for “Gun Safety” appears to be long  staffed by Liberal Mercenaries. Make no mistake, the companies above are getting their pockets filled, there is no fight out of the goodness of their hearts. It is also interesting that at least three of them are fundraising engines with long political experience. We knew that monies from special donors were being spent and it is good to see where it is going.

And you know? I like that. It proves that the Opposition never had any real support from the common folk and they had to resort to use their cash or collect it to hire Hessians and fight us.

And they still cannot win. The uncouth plebe has not only resisted but is beating them.

And they will not win.

We are the Righteous.