The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
This category is used when the post relates to actions by the Florida Legislature.
This week’s crazy has been especially over the top, especially with Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore trying to stand in the courthouse doorway, and more Christians believing that only they can defend God (shhh, apparently he can’t take care of himself).
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It will come no surprise that members of the Georgia legislature have introduced model legislation similar to that introduced in other legislature where marriage equality has either passed or been instituted by judicial action. This one of those “Religious Freedoms” bills designed to allow “christians” to discriminate against anyone they don’t like…because, you know…who would Jesus hate. In this instance, a group of religious leaders in Georgia have banded together and issued a letter denouncing the bill, and explaining that no one, besides certain Republican members of the legislature has actually asked for the bill. I was heartened to see that a number of United Methodist pastors from Georgia had signed the letter. But as usual, the Methodist Episcopacy was missing in action.
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For the life of me, I can’t understand this complete aversion to science that is so de rigueur with Republicans, but they sure are riding it for all it’s worth. Most recently we have Kentucky State Senator Brandon Smith denying global warming by claiming that the Earth and Mars have the same temperature. It will come as no surprise when you learn that the good Senator owns a coal company.
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Kentucky bill just passed by the House would bar government sanctions when individuals, groups and businesses cite religious beliefs in refusing to recognize a marriage or civil union, or to provide goods, services, accommodations or employment benefits to a couple. Anti-discrimination lawsuits also would be barred.
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I couldn’t let the George Zimmerman case go by without commenting. I think the main issues in the case are being overrun by our desire to make the main issue one of race. The case certainly has two points of race running through it, but the primary issues here are Florida’s draconian self-defense laws, and our concealed-carry law. Let’s get the racial issues out of the way first. I certainly believe race played a role in this case. Zimmerman clearly, based on the 911 call, profiled Trayvon Martin because he was a young black man, but that’s not the primary cause of this situation. Florida’s insane Republican Legislators have blood on their hands as well.
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Bob Kellogg, a reported for the SPLC designated hate group, American Family Association, has published an article about Laurie Higgins campaign against GLSEN’s anti-bullying campaign. Every expert says that to have an impact, these initiatives have to name the kinds bullying one wants to stop, but God’s gentle person, Laurie, doesn’t want LGBT students mentioned as targets. I can only assume that means, since she has no training or expertise in the topic, that she wants to reserve the right to bully LGBT students.
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We start today’s edition with Louie Gohmert managing to tie gun control to same sex marriage to beastiality. Gohmert contends that if you restrict the size of gun magazines, then gay people can marry and that leads to beastiality. Topping today’s list though is the North Carolina legislature which sought to establish Christianity as the official state religion. No clarification on which version of Christianity would be the official one.
Read moreIt’s not hard to cast Kentucky as a backassword state when they do things like pass a “religious freedoms” law which has no intent other than to allow people to discriminate against LGBT people in cities where non-discrimination regulations have been passed. In order for the bill to be more palatable, the legislators involved in this little scheme made it clear they were targeting gay rights. This was to make the people of Kentucky take their eye off the underlying scope of this bill.
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Finally, the Republican craziness rears its ugly head somewhere besides Florida and Virginia. This time, it is Washington State Representative, Ed Orcutt (Republican), who’s firing the next shot in the Republican war on science. Orcutt recently argued that bicycling is equally bad for the environment as driving cars, because when we bike, we breathe out CO2. Wow! The craziness is strong in this one.
Read moreApparently, some Republicans didn’t get the memo from Gov. Bobby Jindal about not being the “stupid party.” Because if you live in Montana, you can thank state Rep. Steve Lavin (R) for taking the Supreme Court’s misguided notion that “corporations are people” to new heights of stoopid. Lavin introduced a bill to allow corporations to vote in local elections. Under Lavin’s bill, under the proposal, “if a firm, partnership, company, or corporation owns real property within the municipality, the president, vice president, secretary, or other designee of the entity is eligible to vote.”
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As a proud southerner, I know things move slower in the south, but sometimes it’s just a bit too slow. According to the Washington Times, Mississippi is only now getting around to ratifying the 13th Amendment banning slavery in the U.S. As a friend of mine said, “Best not to rush to judgement on these things. Let cooler heads prevail and all that.” According to state Sen. Hillma Frazier, the Democrat who introduced the ratification resolution in 1995, “We’re very deliberate in our state.”
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