North Carolina's Controversial Bill

People who are fighting against the NC H2 Bill, do you even know how this all began?  Do you think Pat McCrory came up with this on his own?

Charlotte created a law allowing any man to be able to go into any woman's restroom and any woman can go into any man's restroom.  This was to "protect" transgender so they can use the restroom of their choice.  However, the law allowed non-transgender to go into any restroom they wanted as well.  It doesn't matter.  Were transgender being persecuted in Charlotte?  No.  They had been able to go into any restroom they were allowed at the discretion of the restroom owner.  Many transgender look like the gender they want to be rather than the gender they were born so no one would question them when they went into the restroom of their choice.

Look at all the places coming out in support of transgender in North Carolina.  If I can find this article I will link it.  There was an article where a transgender mapped out all the transgender friendly restrooms in North Carolina.  There were plenty on that list.  Why did Charlotte think a law had to be created to make sure these people got to use the restroom of their preferred gender?

One argument I see all the time is that we only use restroom for the toilet.  The toilet is a major function of the restroom, but that's not all it is used for.  If you need to fix your clothes you go to a restroom.  People use them as changing rooms or dressing rooms.  You may use it to change a baby's diaper or take medicine or fix your makeup or wash your hands…it doesn't matter.  My niece's dance school uses public restrooms to change into dance costumes before recitals.  Under Charlotte's law a man is allowed into the restroom while these girls are changing.  If we fight to get him out we could get in trouble, not him.

But, that's not going to happen, people say.  But, it has happened in Washington and Canada.  You want to create a law to prevent LGBT discrimination before it happens why not create a law to prevent rape and molestation before it happens?  It's not the LGBT that are going to be the ones raping and molesting or taking dirty pictures (or even just staring perversely at the opposite gender).  It's the non-LGBT pervs using the wording of the law to their own advantage.   The exact wording of a law is very important.  Charlotte's words should absolutely not be on the books.

The H2 Bill says something about using the restroom corresponding to the gender on your birth certificate. According to this link: http://www.transequality.org/documents/state/north-carolina transgender can get their gender changed to the gender they identify with on their birth certificate.  Are you going to ask to see someone's birth certificate before allowing them to use the restroom?  I think if you do that's some indication you might be a jerk.  You're going to look at how the person looks and like I said, most transgender look like the gender they want to identify with, of the restroom to which they want to use.

LGBT rights were never harmed in any way.  Charlotte had no reason to create a law because no one was being denied anything.   If they hadn't created the law, the governor's office would not have created their law, and transgender would still be able to use whatever restroom they wanted, the one of the gender they associate with rather than the gender they were born with. 

The NC H2 Bill didn't come out of the blue.  It was a response to Charlotte's bill that came out of the blue.  In my honest opinion this whole entire thing is one huge mess that's costing us money and time.

I'm not here to argue over anything LGBT.  This isn't about what rights transgenders should have or what my religion says about all this.  I'm here to say that no one's rights were denied, especially to the point that Charlotte had to come up with a law to protect transgender.  Transgender restrooms rights were not in jeopardy.  They did not need the protecting that started all this mess.  Of course, the only way I can know this is if it became news or passed through word-of-mouth.  I live in South Carolina.  We get North Carolina news here.  I also visit North Carolina frequently with family living there and my dad working in Charlotte.  No one talked about transgender being denied restroom privileges and it never made the news.  Yes, LGBT issues do make the news so you can't go with the idea they didn't want to cover it.  Oh no, that would have been hugely covered.  The only thing I can think is that it was not a problem, at least not at the scale that warranted this kind of action.  

To those boycotting North Carolina, do you know why you are boycotting the state?  Do you know what you are defending and who you are opposing?  Are you just doing it because this is the hip new PC thing to do?  I ask you to do your own research and truly understand the entire situation before making a decision.  What is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular.  Remember that.  Just because you are a liberal doesn't mean you just blindly follow the leading liberal cause of the day.  Same thing goes with conservatives.  No one should blindly follow anything.  I bet only a small percentage against the H2 bill knew gender could be changed on a birth certificate.  Do your research.

ETA: Boy Meets World had a co-ed bathroom in their college dorm.  It did sort of sound kind of cool until you got to the shower part.  Unless you wear your bathing suit or take a shower with clothes on you are naked in that shower.  You can't really keep your towel in the shower without it getting wet so you'll have to reach out of the stall for that towel.  Unless you get dressed in the shower stall, which is a possibility but not everyone does it, you will be walking around with a towel on or maybe even entertaining the idea of walking around naked.  I'm about as modest as it comes so I'm not okay with that in front of females, my own gender.  Men and women have the chance to see each other naked or in other compromising ways.  I would be Cory, afraid to use the shower because of the opposite gender, not so much they would do something to me, but what they would see of me and what I would see of them.  I'm not sexually repressed and I do love men, but that doesn't mean I want to see every guy's privates or have any see mine.

Just Say No to the DH in the NL

It's MLB's offseason so of course there will be talk of this thing called the designated hitter.  Twitter is full of it.  MLB.com is full of it.  Bring the DH to the NL.  Stop staying in the past.  Offense is king.  All this all that.  Even commissioner Rob Manfred is in on it saying that the DH in the NL could come as soon as 2017.

Just say no to the DH in the NL.

Why?

These are my reasons.  They are in no particular order.

1. Pitchers like to hit.
There are pitchers who like to hit.  I remember a pitcher coming from either Japan or Korea who specifically asked to be signed by an NL team so he could hit.  John Smoltz relished every chance he got.  When he, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine were still together they liked to compete, see who would get the first ht, and so forth.  There are pitchers who like to hit.  Why deny them the chance to do that?

2. Pitchers can hit.
No, they're not David Ortiz.  No, they're not Barry Bonds.  No, they're not Alex Rodriguez.  No, they won't lead the league in homers or anything of that sort.  But, that doesn't mean they're all the world's worst hitters.  Tim Hudson was a great hitter when he was in college (some inferior school in Alabama).  Being a professional pitcher he wasn't going to maintain that, of course, but that doesn't mean he couldn't do it.  Remember Dontrelle Willis?  I believe there was a season when he was hitting better than many everyday players on the Marlins.
No, these guys won't be better than whoever could DH in their spot, but that's not the point.  They're not automatic outs. That is the point.  Proponents of adding the DH use this a reason to bring it to the NL.  Pitchers are automatic outs.  They are not.  Madison Bumgarner.  There I said it.

3. Strategy.
Having the pitcher in the lineup results in different strategy than when the DH is present.  The double switch.  When to bring in a reliever.  Should you bring in a pinch hitter?  How to pitch to the 8 spot.  Tactics on the basepath when the 9th spot is coming up.  Tactics on the basepath when the pitcher is running the bases.  Strategy.

4. But, the pitcher can get injured!
This is baseball not tiddlywinks.  Players will get hurt.  Pitchers get catastrophic injuries not hitting.  Jason Grilli tore his ACL running to first on a defensive play.  Tim Hudson broke his ankle by getting it stepped on making a defensive play at first base.  Pitchers get hurt all the time pitching.  You cannot prevent players from getting hurt by not putting them in the batter's box.
But, they tore a hamstring or a groin or an oblique while in the box.  If something like that happened I believe it was just a matter of time before it was bound to happen while doing something else.  It wasn't the hitting that hurt him.  The hitting was the last straw.  I'm no doctor, but that is what I believe.  And if it was the hitting that hurt him it's because he's doing it wildly wrong.  Teaching him to not to swing like a madman when he's at bat isn't going to take away from all the pitching instruction he gets.
And don't forget the pitching injuries.  Tommy John surgery is at an all-time high.  You don't want pitchers to get injured?  Don't let them pitch.
Let's not wussify baseball.  They changed homeplate rules to protect catchers because their beloved Buster Posey got hurt.  Players are going to get hurt.  Deal with it.

5. Separation of the NL and the AL.
There was a time when the National League and the American League were completely separate.  They had their own offices, their own presidents, and their own umpires.  The only time they faced each other was in the All-Star Game and the World Series.
Presidents? Gone.
Umpires?  Ump both leagues now.
Interleague?  All season.
I like the separation between the leagues.  It makes it a real fight to get to the World Series.  It's not just two teams facing each other in the end.  It's the best of the NL and the best of the AL.  They haven't faced each  other in the regular season.  This is their chance to duke it out.
There is a real division in baseball between the leagues.  AL teams are AL teams and NL teams are NL teams.  It's not like this in other sports.  It makes baseball different.

6. The game itself is different between the two leagues.
Having the DH changes the tone of the game.  It does become more offensive driven.  Scoring a lot of runs, that's fun, but offensive isn't the only thing about the game.  There's defense.  There's strategy.  There's a different way to play that offense.
Watch a National League game and watch an American League game.  They're just different.  I'm not sure I can really explain it. The American League is homeruns and the National League has a small ball feel.

7. Why should the pitcher be the one replaced in the lineup?
Maybe he's not the worst hitter.  I bring up Dontrelle Willis again.  Who would you rather replace with the DH? Willis or Jason Wood?  With the DH the Marlins wouldn't get the benefit of his bat every five days and they'd still have to deal with Wood.  Jason Wood only had 10 more hits than Willis in 2007 despite playing 60 more games and having 54 more at bats.

8. Tradition.
All you pro-DHers don't want to hear this.  I know.  But, I have to put it.  I was born after the DH was implemented in the AL so not having it there meant nothing to me.  I grew up without the DH in the NL.  So, yes, it is tradition to me.  It's a small part of why I want to keep it, but it's still important.

Just say no to the DH in the NL.  You want the designated hitter?  Go to the American League.