Lame

It looks like the news sources sent their reporters home for the weekend. I thought I might do a man on the street thing to, rather than pontificating on my own, find out why Buncombe voters went against the national trends. For example, who were they trusting when they voted as if teacher pay increases were cuts? I reconsidered, as it would be wrong to ask people to self-identify as morons.

So, I went over to politico.com and played statistical games. I wanted to see if third, fourth, etc. parties had anything to do with the sweeping Republican victories. If the small partiers ran their guys to the left, they could only be credited with three Senate seats, five House seats, and six governorships. A number of Democrat victories may also have been attributable to L’s, U’s, P’s, and whatever.

OK. Now I’ll try to do something useful.

Bonding Mythology

What’s a deficit? What’s debt? Who cares? The city is going to partner with the Asheville Area Arts Council for a National Endowment for the Arts grant to celebrate distinctive placemaking and blah, blah, blah. It’s enough to accessorize a little black dress and partake of wine and cheese. Then, you may scratch your chin and say, “Ah, yes. I feel the energy of the place this is making.”

Like Robinson Caruso

On Asheville City Council’s agenda for next Tuesday is a request to authorize the mayor to sign the following:

ENVIRONMENT AMERICA’S
GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTIONS
CAMPAIGN

• Global warming is hurting America. According to the National Climate Assessment; extreme drought and wildfires in the West; downpours and megastorms like Superstorm Sandy; and sea level rise and flooding on our coasts will get much worse for our children and future generations unless we rein in the carbon pollution fueling global warming.
• Global warming hurts public health. Heat is a key component of smog, and global warming is increasing the number of bad air days. On top of that, severe weather threatens public safety, and warming is increasing the spread of certain diseases.
• Power plants are the single largest source of carbon pollution. Nationally, the 50 dirtiest power plants emit more carbon each year than all but 6 other countries.
• The Clean Power Plan is America’s biggest step ever on climate. On June 2, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to cut carbon pollution from power plants 30 percent by 2030.
• For more than 40 years, the Clean Air Act has effectively reduced dangerous pollution. The Supreme Court has ruled that EPA is obligated to protect Americans from carbon pollution the same way it protects us from soot, smog, mercury, and more.
• Americans support limits on carbon pollution. More than 600 elected officials and 4 million Americans have voiced support for limits on carbon pollution from power plants. A recent Yale poll found that 64 percent of Americans support strict carbon limits on power plants.
• Clean energy is already reducing carbon pollution across the country. Clean energy policies, such as standards for renewable energy and energy efficiency, are leading to big reductions of carbon pollution. Clean energy policies have reduced U.S. carbon pollution by the equivalent of 34 million passenger vehicles.

An appendage lists North Carolina as already suffering from carbon-induced climate change with “rising sea levels that make damage from storm surges worse.”

I get it. People are destroying the planet. We need to embrace a 35-year lifespan and burn no fuel. If I were Duke Power, I would be tempted to play power worse than Tim Moffitt ever did. I would give the good people of Asheville one or two months to evacuate and then pull the plug on the power plant. Keeping people warm, clean, and dry and fueling industries is obviously not of value to the local psyche. Duke should pull out and go where they’re appreciated. We’ll be blue for a season, but come the spring, we’ll be ever so greeeeeeeeeeeeeen.

Votes So Nice They’re Counted Twice

According to Watauga County Elections Director Jane Ann Hodges, votes from the Cove Creek precinct were initially counted twice. The difference is enough to cause two contenders for commissioner to swap term lengths. Billy Kennedy will now get the four-year term initially believed to be David Blust’s. Blust will now only serve two years unless he wants to run again and win. Jay Fenwick, a candidate for school board, leap-frogged over Jason Cornett, but both will serve regardless.

Outlawing Poverty – That’ the Ticket

The Hendersonville Times-News tells more about Hendersonville City Council’s concerns about homeless people wrecking up the scene for New Urbanist revitalization of Seventh Avenue. With five missions in the future fount of economic energy, city fathers think it is time to impose a moratorium on outfits servicing the dispossessed and down and out there – at least long enough to make the establishment of any more illegal.

“There is the additional concern of panhandling and loitering on private property that often accompanies a transient population, in addition to concerns related to mental health issues that are more evident in transient populations. Minor crime issues such as public intoxication, drug use, and fighting occur on an occasional basis in this area,” the moratorium says.

Fraud

The headline reads, “NC to Miss $51 Billion in Federal Money.” The text below says the numbers are likely exaggerated. A more pragmatic calculation arrives closer to $18 billion over the next decade with the state providing a match of about $2 billion per year. Then, as usual, there is no guarantee the federal government will keep its word and pay as much as it says in its sales pitches. Governor Pat says he does not support spending more of the federal deficit on feel-good until waste, fraud, and abuse can be better managed.

Flying out the Window

What? Shall we say there is nothing so sacred as freedom of conscience? NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger thinks persons serving in public office at least deserve the dignity of answering to their own conscience. He is pursuing legislation to allow magistrates and registers of deeds to have an out if they do not wish to accept alternative definitions of marriage. His views, which I share, must take a back seat to popular views that the proper role of government consists in hipsters broadcasting their cool factors to the detriment of honest seekers trying to quietly wend their way through life’s complications.

What We Lost

Today, people are counting wins and losses in terms of parties, and well they should. Personally, I’m licking the wounds for the loss of something else. I do not pretend to thoroughly know anybody in the legislature, but I have enjoyed exchanges with some of those guys through the years. I list among my favorites John Szoka (R-Cumberland). Assigned to interview him for the CJ, I arrived at his house ready to take notes, but soon found myself lost in a lovely conversation with a mathematician. After a couple notes, the only time I used my pen again was to exchange web sites or to present concepts in graphical form. It was apparent we weren’t going to disagree on anything. Szoka won in an unchallenged race, and that’s just swell.

Another hero would be Tom Murry (R-Wake). For one thing, he is incredibly quick to answer inquiries. I had the sense he actively listened to his constituents and went about problem-solving effectively. For another, conversations with him are just plain nuts-and-bolts. His intellect is definitely superior to mine. He talks fluidly about anything and makes perfect sense. I so despise when politicians try to win souls with whiny rhetoric and emotional games. Murry, such a straight-talker, was the antithesis. I say “was” because he’s now a has-been. He was defeated by a woman who ignored over ten attempts by me to interview her for a CJ article. That was a sorry disappointment.

The third would be Tim Moffitt (R-Buncombe). Moffitt is the hometown villain. I’ve complained on occasion about an apparent tyrannical streak, but he had so many other good attributes, I could hope he would outgrow it. Like Murry, he spoke intelligently, with facts instead of prejudice, even when challenged. He had a funny sense of humor, too. A natural leader, he deserves a chunk of credit for recent changes for the better in the legislature. As they say, he also ran.

So, this morning, I’m a little uneasy about any new directions the legislature will take. Power shifted quite noticeably in response to the lies of the MMM movement. Surely, the newbies will rise to the occasion and grow with good advisors. But I have this unsettling feeling about what it all means to have as our victors people who, either through deceit or stupidity, want more money to fund teachers who can’t or won’t do basic math. As one of my neighbors put it this morning, intelligent candidates have to swindle to capture the vulgar/common/majority vote.

Find Your Own Sugar Daddy

Whatever nefarious rascality possesses talking heads to pontificate as if women are defined as that which votes single-issue in favor of candidates who support tax-funded abortion – smells like brimstone to me.

The Unsung Hero

Now that I can’t influence the elections, I’d like to give a shout-out to Sean Haugh, to whose mastery of the political process every bone in my Obamacare-hating body tips its hat. Nicely done.