Pearl Jam cancels North Carolina show

Bless his heart!

 

AP Exclusive: 'Bathroom bill' to cost North Carolina $3.76B

 

A deal.

The Latest: NC lawmakers announce deal on HB2 standoff

 

"I know it's funny Duke lost, but what if a few years from now the Heels have to play VCU in Virginia Beach?"

"OK, fine. We'll make a deal "

 

Even if and when North Carolina revised its laws to be less overtly hostile, they shouldn't be guaranteed to host part of March Madness every single year. That has nothing to do with politics, but basic fairness. People are just as passionate about basketball in Kentucky, Indiana, etc. but they don't have a birthright guarantee of hosting each year.

 

I complain about it too, but deep down I have to give it to North Carolina for every decent sized city having a viable arena. If Frankfort, Owensboro and Evansville all built new 18,000-seat gyms, the NCAA might go there too.

 

It's not like Indiana and Kentucky are left out in the cold on hosting the NCAA tournament. Hardly more than a year goes by that Indiana doesn't have either opening weekend games at Bankers Life or regional/Final Four games at Lucas Oil. But each state only has two arenas that meet the NCAA's expectations and in Indiana both of those arenas are in Indianapolis. If Fort Wayne expanded the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum to seat 15,000 or so and Evansville or one of the cities up in the region did the same, I suspect Indiana would be competitive for first round games on a nearly annual basis the way North Carolina is. I'm not sure Kentucky's second-tier cities could realistically justify building big enough arenas.

As for the HB2 compromise - I hate that it took the threat of losing NCAA games through 2022 for the legislature to come to its senses, but I'm glad we're finally at a point where the worst parts of that hateful law are going away. I don't like the preemption provisions in the new bill because it still allows for discriminatory practices against transgender persons, but at least discrimination will no longer be state policy.

 

By forbidding new regulations at the local level until 2020, they are hoping to get an R back in the gubbernor's mansion and re-pass this law.... Hopefully, if that happens, the NCAA and others will call their bluff.

 

The left seems to be losing their minds today about this bill, but it's not as bad as people are making it out to be. The three-year moratorium on local ordinances is clearly built on a belief that the majority will gain more power after the 2020 elections, but I think that's a long shot on their part.

What's being under-reported, or unreported, is that the new law puts the existing municipal anti-discrimination ordinances back into effect. I think that's entirely by accident, but it's pretty clear that's what it does. So Greensboro's, Raleigh's, Durham's, Carrboro's, Asheville's, Fayetteville's anti-discrimination ordinances all return. Charlotte's returns but not entirely because they voluntarily repealed the transgender portion of it in December during a previous compromise negotiation.

 

The left would be losing their minds over any bill that didn't require North Carolina's governor to have sex with a transgender person in a bathroom in the state capitol building. Preferably a dirty bathroom or a port-a-potty.

 

You really shouldn't talk politics. You're not good at it.