john locke foundation

Conservatives, especially the true believers that now populate the NC General Assembly, are fond of quoting Adam Smith, the 18th century Scottish moral philosopher and political economist. They love the quotes, but the content escapes them.

Smith wrote in "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations",
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." Smith went on to observe, "But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies, much less render them necessary."

Every time one of our Republican legislators goes to an ALEC seminar or meets behind closed doors with ALEC representatives to write laws, they are conspiring against the public ... and corporations are always the direct beneficiaries.

Auditioning for a top spot in Art Pope's Puppetshow

Koch Industries, the Kansas-based oil and chemical conglomerate whose owners Charles and David Koch have played a leading role in financing the fight against government regulation, is stepping up its investment in North Carolina politics at a critical moment for the state's energy future.

Art Pope spends a lot of money to complain about how much money the government is taking away from him. It would seem odd then that when the government is taking good care of his money and wants to give it back to him he doesn't seem to want it back.

In response to this "scary" Tweet:

JohnLockeNC 7:17am via HootSuite
John Hood ruins the day of anyone who thought N.C. had a fully funded state pension system. #ConsNC #ncga #ncpol ow.ly/cECOy

For the most part, John Hood is correct in this article. State pension funds across the country have been improperly estimating earnings based on pre-recession data, and there will be some stricter reporting coming soon. But there is no connection between this article and NC's Pension Fund, since not only has Janet Cowell been reporting conservative earnings estimates, the actual earnings have been huge:

John Hood addresses the recent controversy over racist homophobic Obama image:

I was horrified, outraged, and very sorry that I hadn’t seen it much earlier. The image was immediately taken down, but the damage was done. Whatever Tara’s intentions may have been, we simply don’t publish or condone that kind of thing.

I usually don't post direct links to JLF/Civitas articles, and if the author would like this removed from BlueNC, I will gladly comply. But I asked John (on another forum) to publish this on his main page, and I meant what I said about people needing to see this. But what I didn't expect (and am doubly pleased to see) was his stance on Amendment One:

From North Carolina's leading conservative intellectual

I think amending North Carolina’s constitution to forbid gay and lesbian couples from receiving any future legal recognition, including civil unions, is unwise and unfair. In my opinion the real threat to marriage is not the prospect of gay people getting hitched. It is the reality of straight people too quickly resorting to divorce, or never getting hitched in the first place.

It's time to put the weight of your leadership, and Art Pope's money, behind those words, Mr. Hood. BlueNC extremists like me have contributed many thousands of dollars to help stop Amendment One. We'd welcome your contributions too.

Lost in the midst of today's tempest in the John Locke Foundation teacup is a big question that has gone unanswered: Why aren't John Hood and his minions pulling out the stops to defeat Amendment One?

It's easy enough to evoke righteous indignation about something as offensive as the despicable Meck Deck post, but what about the underlying issue? In his criticism of Amendment One, President Obama took a stand that every freedom-loving American - and certainly any Libertarian - should take as a matter of principle. Amendment One is not only bad law and bad public policy, it also cuts to the heart of a cherished document that is supposed to protect individual liberties, not take them away.

The so-called Libertarians at the John Locke Foundation should be singing Mr. Obama's praises.

More to the point, why isn't John Hood using the power of his pulpit to spread the word that Amendment One should be defeated? He has unfettered access to the editorial pages of newspapers all across the state. Why isn't he using that access to encourage people to vote AGAINST Amendment One? I suspect that only two people have an answer to this question: Art Pope, and John Hood himself. And neither of them is lifting a finger to fight the wrong being perpetrated on North Carolina families.

Just to say it John, this is the stuff of deathbed drama. One of these days you'll be there. One of these days you may have to tell a gay grand child that you did nothing to stop your Republican allies from trampling over her right to create her own loving family.

“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.”

It is often said that one can judge the strength of a person's character by observing their behavior in the face of a moral dilemma. If that is indeed the case, the silence by Art Pope's minions at the John Locke Foundation says all we need to know about their political perversion. Kudos to Rob Schofield for calling them out.

In the final analysis, this kind of hypocrisy has emerged as the defining quality of the free-market right in North Carolina. Cowards one and all.