Multiple news reports say  North Carolina business recruitment is in steep decline — a direct result, apparently, of the infamous HB2 bill. You’re encouraged to believe the allegation that HB2 has so inflamed business leaders everywhere, that they have and will continue to  shun and blacklist the Tar Heel State until the law is repealed. Funny. Not funny, ha ha; funny, puzzling. Puzzling because just weeks ago the Business Journal reported N.C. had the nation’s fastest growing large economy by GDP. Several months back, Forbes wrote, “North Carolina moves up one spot to rank second in our Best States study. . . the only (State) to appear in (our) top five every year.” Meanwhile, as the bathroom drama plays out, NC population has zoomed beyond 10 million — now ranked as America’s ninth largest. Ninth out of fifty, only 100,000+ less bodies than 8th place Georgia. Evidently, NC special interests, politicians, community leaders and Media must discount this NC popularity — that it will all come crashing down. They claim  lucrative business will flee, that the tax base will shrink and that the persistent convoy of new residents will sputter and die because HB2  is defiling the toilet. If these dire predictions come to pass, you’re left to ponder the stunning consequences. Population growth almost certainly would suffer, removing any hope that North Carolina could one day overtake the population  of Pennsylvania, Ohio and even New York — a dreadful blow to the potential quality of life. In fact, the population would likely regress as thousands of transplants, primarily from the North and Midwest, choose to move elsewhere in protest, and future thousands would take the State off their lists as a possible destination for jobs, education or tourism. Further, the loss of these progressives would deprive you of their superior intellect and ability. And the flight of these exceptional people more than likely would include droves of LGBT members who would take their talents elsewhere. This mass exodus would leave a woeful vacuum, abandoning the State to the ordinary hands of ordinary NC natives, unworldly, unlearned, uncultivated, average and essentially intolerant. However, you can’t rule out a reverse scenario. Because North Carolina has a uniform bathroom privacy law, it’s possible thousands of bigoted puritans, primarily from the North and Midwest, may prefer to put this State first on their lists as a possible destination for jobs, education or tourism. Conceivably, those fleeing the scene of the crime might pass their replacements in equal number heading south and east on Interstate highways, bound for the Tar heel State. Business owners who are interested in why NC ranks among America’s top business performers, might also appreciate that HB2 frees them to manage their own bathroom policies. Fancy having that freedom. The outcries over HB2 — the passions, the peevishness, the petulance — must mean there is rampant hysteria among the grass roots. True enough. There is hysteria and it’s all too real. But the grass roots has nothing to do with it.  It is pervasive Media, not the people, who are wetting their collective pants. The Media, the civic leaders in power, the special interest lobbies, the legal eagles and social activists all have something to say about an intensely personal issue that affects millions of people. Only nobody cares what these millions think or want. The millions don’t count. They have no say. Not a syllable. The Media would prefer to cite third party surveys to represent what these millions think or want. Here’s a one word tip, Matilda — Referendum. Put HB2 on the November ballot. Time to flush this mess and move on.