Amendment One: Leftist snobbery on display

 

 

 

Steve Bouser, the opinion editor at our Nobel Prize-nominated thrice weekly local paper here in Moore County, is at it again.  He’ll tell you he worked for Goldwater in 1964, did a stint in the Army, is close friends with Liddy Dole, and sings in the choir at the Episcopal Church — but turns right around and produces these hard-left unsigned editorials that sound like they’re ripped from the teleprompter at MSNBC.

(FYI:  Hillary Clinton worked for Goldwater, too.  Lee Harvey Oswald did a stint in The Marines.)

Never mind that we are one of the most reliably Republican counties in the state.  (*Talk about giving your customers what they want *… )

Steve’s latest unsigned snark targets “fundamentalist Christians” on the Moore County Board of Commissioners:

The state DOT could decide to bulldoze hundreds of acres in Horse Country for a bypass. The energy industry wants to “drill, baby, drill” in our backyard. We’ve got budget issues and water issues and jail issues.

Yet Moore County Commissioners Nick Picerno and Larry Caddell are wasting their time and ours worrying about gay marriage?

In the first place, same-sex marriage is already against North Carolina law. But Amendment One is being pushed by opportunists from the ideological fringe who are eager to (1) make the matter a political issue in this red-hot election year, and (2) see to it that their wishes in this regard are written in constitutional concrete so they will prevail even into future decades, when attitudes on the issue will have moderated.

Really, Steve? Your paper already reported that the county board approved a resolution opposing a U.S. 1 bypass through horse country. What more would you have them do?  Dealing with DOT is more in the jurisdiction of Rep. Boles and Senator Blake.  (I guess THAT resolution — on a topic outside of the board’s jurisdiction — was OK. )

What jail issues are you talking about, Steve?  The project is under construction.  You DO have some know-nothings trying to score political points by disseminating disinformation and gossip about the project.  What would you have the board do about the uninformed gossip, Steve?

What’s the problem with the energy industry wanting to mine energy in North Carolina?  Radical environmentalists are spewing scare tactics via the mainstream media about fracking. Yet, there is not a single bit of credible science supporting the line being pushed by Steve and his comrades in the media and environmental movement.  Fracking is bringing an economic boom to EVERY location where it is currently being performed.

What budget issues are you referring to, Steve?  The county budget is balanced, without any tax increases.  The school system whines about being short on money, but REFUSES to cut several clear instances of wasteful spending.

It’s interesting that Steve is calling out Picerno like this.  I am *SURE* it has nothing to do with the fact that Steve’s friend AND  Pilot columnist Ellen Marcus has filed to run against Picerno.

It gets *better.* Read on:

In Wake County, a Republican majority on the Board of Commissioners recently approved a resolution endorsing Amendment One. And now Picerno wants to see the same thing happen in Moore County at April’s board meeting. Interestingly, the rest of us might not have known that if Picerno hadn’t bragged about it in a Facebook response to another posting on the general subject.

(This comes on the heels of the board’s totally meaningless vote to oppose “Amendment 21,” which is supposedly a tool by the U.N. to condemn us all to a nightmarish collectivist future through environmental legislation or something. This is a bogus right-wing cause that the county also should steer clear of.)

Even if you accept that it is proper to inject religion into board deliberations, the next question is: Which religion, or lack thereof? We live in an increasingly pluralistic society that includes not only Christians of every kind, but also Jews and Muslims and Hindus and nonbelievers, who vote and have a right to expect that their local government will represent them without discrimination.

Straying From Their Knitting

Picerno and Caddell happen to be fundamentalist, evangelical Christians — which is fine. What’s not so fine is trying to impose those particular views on the rest of us. The Bible may specify that marriage is between a man and a woman, but it also specifies a great many other things that rational modern humans all ignore. How do we decide which of these dogmas local governments should wade into, especially in a society that is supposed to keep church and state apart?

For that matter, what if a Muslim should happen to get elected as a commissioner? How would his colleagues react if he started preaching that the state should invoke the tenet of his religion which holds that women should cover themselves from head to foot in burqas? Suppose a Jewish commissioner wanted to impose Hanukkah celebrations on the schools?

Surely such lofty subjects as marriage and U.N. resolutions are above the pay grade of county commissioners, who have enough to keep them busy worrying about tax rates, zoning, solid waste and fracking. Let them stick to their knitting.

In case you didn’t know, leftist snobs like Steve use “fundamentalist” as a synonym for “lunatic.”   (You know, like those guys who fly planes into buildings and blow themselves up.)  And the knitting imagery is meant to tie Caddell and Picerno to images of busybody old ladies — in case you aren’t as enlightened as Steve, and didn’t catch that.

And these mainstream media types CAN’T understand why their circulation figures are dropping like rocks.