# I Pit the North Carolina General Assembly **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 13, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272 "2013-05-13T23:30:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/101 "2013-08-01T17:43:18Z")
Only if they don’t have any money! If they don’t have any money, they should have got some money! ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/102 "2013-08-01T20:59:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I’m kind of techtarded on this point – is there any way, without a subpoena or even with one, to find out **whose Twitter account** this is? Who is wncgop? Conventional wisdom has it that it’s the same guy running the Buncombe County GOP Twitter. He, of course, denies it and has retired to his fainting couch to recover from the shock that anyone would accuse him of any wrongdoing. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/103 "2013-08-02T13:24:09Z")
More on the Asheville abortion clinic closure: [This article has a list of the safety violations the clinic supposedly committed.](http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20130801/NEWS01/307310064/State-close-Asheville-abortion-clinic) According to the list, the place was held together with string and baling wire. According to people who’ve been there, it was just as clean and professional as any other reputable doctor’s office. :dubious:, indeed. And then there’s [this article from NPR](http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/08/02/208059824/could-north-carolina-lead-a-red-state-resurgence), which contains this gem: > [@](#): > > “My view is that North Carolina will be leading the red-state resurgence,” says Marc Rotterman, a GOP media strategist in the state. “ **I think McCrory is going to end up being one of the most popular governors in the country.** ” And maybe I’ll start farting unicorns. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/104 "2013-08-02T13:48:22Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > More on the Asheville abortion clinic closure: [This article has a list of the safety violations the clinic supposedly committed.](http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20130801/NEWS01/307310064/State-close-Asheville-abortion-clinic) According to the list, the place was held together with string and baling wire. According to people who’ve been there, it was just as clean and professional as any other reputable doctor’s office. :dubious:, indeed. > > And then there’s [this article from NPR](http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/08/02/208059824/could-north-carolina-lead-a-red-state-resurgence), which contains this gem: > > > [@](#): > > > > My view is that North Carolina will be leading the red-state resurgence," says Marc Rotterman, a GOP media strategist in the state. “I think McCrory is going to end up being one of the most popular governors in the country.” > > And maybe I’ll start farting unicorns. Yeah… [I don’t see that happening.](http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/07/mccrory-image-plummets-voters-want-abortion-bill-vetoed.html) ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/105 "2013-08-04T16:07:10Z")
Bill Maher on North Carolina and its problems with Art Pope hijacking the entire state. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/UbroWiPMR8g/hqdefault.jpg "Bill Maher New Rules - North Carolina is Going Ape Sh\*t") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbroWiPMR8g) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/106 "2013-08-19T16:17:11Z")
[Aaaaand it gets worse.](http://www.thenation.com/article/175760/perfect-storm-cuts-batter-north-carolinas-unemployed#axzz2cQqo3riA) > [@](#): > > On July 1, [Lester] Dixon, along with over 70,000 other North Carolinians, lost his unemployment benefits in an unprecedented cut to state aid for the jobless. By voting to slash its unemployment insurance program last February, the state violated federal guidelines, causing it to become the first state ineligible for federal jobless aid. Over the next few months, an additional 100,000 job seekers in the state, who would have otherwise qualified, will lose benefits. > > State Republicans argue that the cuts, designed and lobbied for by the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, will keep the state’s business taxes within reason while its government repays a massive debt owed to the federal government for its post-recession unemployment program. > > At 8.8 percent, North Carolina’s unemployment rate is the fifth highest in the nation, and some of its most extreme joblessness is focused in rural counties along its eastern and western flanks. Dixon’s town of Maxton, on the state’s southern edge, divides between Scotland and Robeson counties, which reported June unemployment rates of 16.2 percent and 13 percent respectively. Advocates worry that people and organizations in such areas could bear a particularly harsh impact of the benefit reduction. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/107 "2013-08-19T16:48:02Z")
I like beer cold, my TV loud, and my umemployed people staaaaaaarving. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/108 "2013-08-19T21:00:34Z")
Guess we’ll have to start making fun of NC along with TX. Glad I didn’t move there. (Although, the Republicans in Ohio aren’t exactly playing nicely. They slid some anit-abortion stuff through in the budget.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/109 "2013-08-21T00:47:07Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Did you really think they couldn’t sink any lower?](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/23/2340941/nc-voter-suppression/) Well, at least there’s [some fightback](http://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/league-women-voters-north-carolina-et-al-v-north-carolina). > [@](#): > > August 12, 2013 > > The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice today filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s voter suppression law signed by Gov. Pat McCrory. The suit specifically targets provisions of the law that eliminate a week of early voting, end same-day registration, and prohibit “out-of-precinct” voting. It seeks to stop North Carolina from enacting these provisions, arguing that they would unduly burden the right to vote and discriminate against African-American voters, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. > > The lawsuit was filed on behalf of several North Carolinians who will face substantial hardship under the law, and on behalf of the League of Women Voters of North Carolina, the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute, North Carolina Common Cause, and Unifour Onestop Collaborative, whose efforts to promote voter participation in future elections will be severely hampered if the measure takes effect. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/110 "2013-09-25T02:03:18Z")
[Meanwhile, down at the county level:](http://www.salon.com/2013/09/19/ralph_ellisons_race_classic_invisible_man_banned_in_north_carolina/) > [@](#): > > Students in Randolph County, North Carolina won’t have access to “Invisible Man.” > > That county’s board of education voted 5-2 this week to remove all copies of the Ralph Ellison novel from school libraries, following a parental complaint about the book’s content and language when it was assigned as summer reading in local Randleman High School. “It was a hard read,” said board chair Tommy McDonald, who voted in favor of the ban. > > Another board member said, “I didn’t find any literary value.” I’ve never read it – **is** it a hard read? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/111 "2013-09-25T02:19:20Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Meanwhile, down at the county level:](http://www.salon.com/2013/09/19/ralph_ellisons_race_classic_invisible_man_banned_in_north_carolina/) > > I’ve never read it – **is** it a hard read? Lovely book, but it does mention teh sexxors, and obviously that’d corrupt innocent teenagers. > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Can someone provide the GOP’s “rationale” for the nipple felony law? Speaking of which, the state public indecency law apparently doesn’t include female toplessness. Some municipalities have incorporated female toplessness into their own indecency statutes (I may be using the wrong words here, and if I am, I apologize), but Asheville hasn’t, and for the last two or three years, the Raelians (weird comet hippie cult) have had a topless rally in downtown Asheville. A handful of women take off their shirts, a few hundred men stand around and drool and snap pictures, street preachers faint–it’s all very classy. (Personally I figure they’re in the right, but protesting a law where the law doesn’t exist seems totally absurd to me). Anyway, some folks in Asheville asked the state to add nipples to the indecency law, and there you go. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/112 "2013-09-25T02:21:27Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Lovely book, but it does mention teh sexxors, and obviously that’d corrupt innocent teenagers. Then, of course, the Bible has been pulled from school libraries as well. “Nowhere is there a Protestant child who does not masturbate.” – Mark Twain, “Letters from the Earth” ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/113 "2013-09-25T10:39:49Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Speaking of which, the state public indecency law apparently doesn’t include female toplessness. Some municipalities have incorporated female toplessness into their own indecency statutes (I may be using the wrong words here, and if I am, I apologize), but Asheville hasn’t, and for the last two or three years, the Raelians (weird comet hippie cult) have had a topless rally in downtown Asheville. A handful of women take off their shirts, a few hundred men stand around and drool and snap pictures, street preachers faint–it’s all very classy. (Personally I figure they’re in the right, but protesting a law where the law doesn’t exist seems totally absurd to me). > > Anyway, some folks in Asheville asked the state to add nipples to the indecency law, and there you go. And this summer there were a few of them wandering around downtown when they weren’t having the “official” rally all topless. Coincidentally, this happened during the peak times for tourists to be downtown as well. :dubious: They’re just desperate for attention and doing anything they can to have people “LOOK AT MEEEEEEEEEEE!” If we stopped paying attention to them, they would go away. Unfortunately that isn’t going to happen. I wonder if the _Invisible Man_ ban came about because the county board was upset it wasn’t the H.G. Wells novel? “What? But this man is perfectly visible! This isn’t science fiction! Why is he in a room filled with light bulbs? I’m so confused!” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/114 "2013-09-25T12:53:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Meanwhile, down at the county level:](http://www.salon.com/2013/09/19/ralph_ellisons_race_classic_invisible_man_banned_in_north_carolina/) > > I’ve never read it – **is** it a hard read? It’s an easier read than the similarly-themed Notes From Underground, by the highly accessible Fydor Dostoevsky. (Admittedly, my problems with Dostoevsky may relate to translation and his prose may flow beautifully in the original Russian). But I’ll grant it’s at least not an easy read. So what, though? Surely the criteria for high school students’ reading material should not be how easy it is. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/115 "2013-09-25T13:10:32Z")
I read this book in HS. I don’t remember anything salacious. It did have pretty subtle themes and allusions, making it good classroom material. It also presented complex ideas about race. I could see how that’s a threat. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/116 "2013-09-25T16:04:47Z")
Fear of a Well-Read Planet? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/117 "2013-09-26T16:24:44Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > I read this book in HS. I don’t remember anything salacious. It did have pretty subtle themes and allusions, making it good classroom material. Huh. Now that I think about it, I might be misremembering a bit of highly ridiculous literary criticism, in which a Communist recruiter takes the protagonist to a cafe where he orders cheesecake, and my HS teacher claimed it was a symbolic offer of white women to the protagonist. I pretty much openly mocked her for that claim, because I was kind of a jerk to my teachers, and it was ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/118 "2013-09-26T16:40:18Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Huh. Now that I think about it, I might be misremembering a bit of highly ridiculous literary criticism, in which a Communist recruiter takes the protagonist to a cafe where he orders cheesecake, and my HS teacher claimed it was a symbolic offer of white women to the protagonist. I pretty much openly mocked her for that claim, because I was kind of a jerk to my teachers, and it was ridiculous. One of the central themes of the book is discussing race using different colored objects as metaphors. But cheesecake for white women seems like a stretch. Reading it again just now, I think the point of that scene is about how the Communist is enthusiastically scooping up the sugary gloop and the protagonist is more wary of this unknown substance–a metaphor about (white) ideology not miscegeny. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/119 "2013-09-26T21:52:15Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Huh. Now that I think about it, I might be misremembering a bit of highly ridiculous literary criticism, in which a Communist recruiter takes the protagonist to a cafe where he orders cheesecake, and my HS teacher claimed it was\*\* a symbolic offer of white women to the protagonist.\*\* I pretty much openly mocked her for that claim, because I was kind of a jerk to my teachers, and it was ridiculous. That doesn’t even make good nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272/120 "2013-09-26T22:07:43Z")
I recall a bit from the 1991 PBS documentary [_Making Sense of the Sixties_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318906/), where a Boomer recounts how one day the principal walked into his English class and demanded all students give him their copies of _Catcher in the Rye_ and forget they’d ever seen it; as result of which, they all went out and bought their own copies and actually read them – which, he said, they probably would not have if the book had not been banned but were just part of the assigned reading (that’s what Cliff’s Notes are for, after all). When are book-banners going to learn that banning a book just makes more kids interested in reading it? It’s similar to the [Streisand Effect](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Streisand_Effect), combined with forbidden-fruit appeal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-north-carolina-general-assembly/658272.md?page=7)