Oh, Indiana:
A proposed law in Indiana would replace the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act with language that its advocates say is clearer in protecting religious liberty and certain other rights.
The measure, Bill 66, omits the amendment Indiana Gov. Mike Pence added to the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act last April after intense backlash from critics, who called it “anti-gay” and threatened to boycott the state.
The amended “fix” stated that the religious-freedom law would not permit discrimination for services, housing or employment based on sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Bill 66 does not include this stipulation, which some proponents of religious freedom believed to undermine the law’s purpose, leaving them vulnerable to legal attacks.
Like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the proposed new law would require “strict scrutiny” as the appropriate level of judicial review for legal challenges involving religious freedom. As a result, courts would evaluate cases based on certain strict criteria: Government may not place a substantial burden on free exercise of religion unless there is a compelling state interest for doing so and the least restrictive means are used.
In addition to religious freedom, the bill would also protect five other rights with a similar “strict scrutiny” standard of judicial review: the right to worship; the right to free exercise and conscience; the right to freedom of thought and speech; the right of assemblage and petition; and the right to bear arms.
The first portion is simply an attempt to enable bigotry with new language, the second portion accomplishes nothing because those rights are already covered in… THE FUCKING BILL OF RIGHTS.
Apparently these godbothering bigots don’t think the 60 million they lost last year was enough money.
BGinCHI
Pretty sure Pence’s poll numbers are in the shitter, too.
My IN political contact tells me he is toast.
Felonious Monk
@BGinCHI: Maybe Pence will then be in line to be Purdue’s next president.
gf120581
@BGinCHI: If Pence goes along with this, he really must want to lose.
Benw
Ha! This time Indiana’s ready for your pro-LGBT boycott shenanigans! They’re making a Gofundme page to replace lost state revenue.
BGinCHI
@Felonious Monk: Even Pence is too stupid for that job.
Though I’m sure Mike Berghoff is keeping all lines of communication open.
BGinCHI
@Benw: How is that not reparations?
I’m not even joking.
Face
IANAL, but this seems insanely vague and undefined. Am I really free to act my conscience, such that if I want to slap my wife, beat my child, or avoid paying taxes because the money goes to abortions*, I can? I cannot think of a less legally defined “right” than “conscience”. Pretty much anything anyone wants it to be with regards to anything, no?
Not to mention, “free exercise” taken literally means I no longer have to pay my gym dues.
* — we know if doesn’t, but they all seem to think it does
Dork
@Face: Taken literally, this one:
and the right to bear arms
Would imply that hunting regulations/permits, especially in regards to bears, are no longer enforceable.
indycat32
The bill is dead for this legislative session. Never made it out of committee. Hopefully this time next year we’ll have a new governor and it will be dead forever. I’ve seen a few “Pence must go” signs around town since the debacle last year, but I don’t know if they wanted Pence to go because he signed RFRA or because he “caved” and did the “fix”.
ETA: the Indy Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill and ran ads against it.
RSA
Speaking of state legislators with only a weak understanding of Constitutional and federal stuff, a Florida anti-abortion bill apparently made it out of committee, if I’m reading the news article correctly.
ThresherK
@indycat32: Is Indy short for Indianapolis or Indiana in this use?
It seems that Marion County, big enough for teams from two major leagues and one top-level minor league–sorry ECHL–would be a bit ahead of the curve compared to the rest of the state.
(Actually asking, no offense.)
Bobby Thomson
@BGinCHI: I heard the same thing about Brownback in 2014. Just sayin’.
Bobby Thomson
@ThresherK: don’t forget the Region. And the city of Bloomington is somewhat sane.
C.V. Danes
I’m waiting for them to bring back witch burnings.
Mnemosyne
I just said this at the bottom of the Trump thread but honestly you guys, I’m feeling weirdly … optimistic. Seriously. I really don’t think that the overall zeitgeist of the country is despairing or angry, or at least not in the direction the Republicans would need it to be. The Benghazi movie flopped hard. “Hamilton” is still playing to absolute sellout crowds, and the biggest applause line of the show is “Immigrants — we get the job done!” Disney’s animated Zootopia is coming out in early March, and it’s an adorable allegory about racism and bigotry. Tons of the stuff on the news — Flint, Malheur, even San Bernardino — is making Republican policies look like the shit they are.
The cultural tide is running against the conservatives. If we work our asses off to turn out voters both locally and nationally, I think we can win big. I really do.
Mnemosyne
@RSA:
The Supreme Court just struck down the North Dakota (?) law that would have banned abortion after 6 weeks. Those Florida legislators should have played xBox all night instead — it would have been less of a waste of time.
Roger Moore
@RSA:
These idiots need to learn the difference between a fetus and a baby.
Adam L Silverman
@RSA: and biology too!
Benw
@BGinCHI: you raise an important point. When will America do what’s right and give back to white Christian Republicans all that’s been stolen from them in the last 7 years!?
WereBear
@Mnemosyne: I sure hope so. I think a lot of the wingnut angst we are seeing, as discussed from previous threads, are those Reaganites figuring out that the Morning in America was not the dawn of a new day, but a train which has since hit them.
RSA
@Mnemosyne: @Roger Moore: I know!
There’s so much fail in Van Zant’s summary, too. Citizenship as a condition of life being protected? Citizenship from conception? Huh.
scav
Wonder if we can haul the fetus up for murder when it kills its mother. Or, will we have to wait until there’s measurable brain waves to prove intent — before which the best the law couldmanage is man slaughter.
ETA. I mean, if they want to protect citizens, you’d think they’d care about both of them. Heh.
Original Lee
I’ve been re-reading Stranger in a Strange Land. (Don’t judge – makes a great bathroom book.) Anyway, the description of the Fosterites kind of made me wonder a little bit. The prophet Foster decides Americans have had too much anger in the culture, so pushing happiness is his grift of choice. Are we about at that point as a culture, where whoever figures out people would rather be happy than angry mops up?
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
It’s not logical at all, and I can’t point to poll numbers, only box office numbers. It’s just … a feeling. The larger culture is not with Trump and his brownshirts.
cgordon
And in other anti-discrimination news, Kansas is considering a bill to outlaw discrimination against gun dealers.
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article56364875.html
Iowa Old Lady
@Mnemosyne: I overheard two conversations while I was out today that fit with what you’re saying, at least among older white women in Iowa. One older woman was arguing with another that she should support Clinton. And a table of four middle-aged women talked about how Trump scared them and went on to call up Tina Fey’s SNL takedown of Palin on one phone so they all could watch it.
SiubhanDuinne
Did y’all realize (honestly, I didn’t) that Mike Huckabee is still in the GOP race? If anyone had asked me, I would have sworn he suspended his campaign weeks or months ago.
But no. He’s still a candidate, and to prove it, here is the worst campaign commercial ever made.
indycat32
@ThresherK: Yes, Indianapolis. Indy also has a non-discrimination law, which the just dead bill would have nullified (I think, not 100% sure on the nullification). I do know the city can’t pass stricter gun control laws because the state law won’t allow it.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
I think Trump is turning major voting demographics that merely leaned Democrat, like Latinos and Muslims, as monolithic Democrat as African Americans. Is that enough? I think he’ll have to get the nomination to make that permanent.
Roger Moore
@RSA:
Which incidentally goes against the 14th Amendment, which defines citizenship as starting at birth (or naturalization) and mentions that it applies to both the United States and the state wherein the person resides.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
So, of course I clicked through. I hate you. ;-)
gex
@Face: Cishet white Christian men have this right and for everyone else, the right is negotiable. That helps resolve some of the obvious conflicts you may see arising from such a law.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
There never were as many committed in toto as some made out. They were just louder and able at sucking up more of the media oxygen, belying the gross numbers of those for whom it is a life-defining stance as opposed to those who harbor a sort of free-floating discontent or resentment.
Would agree then that the number of hangers-on and nutball-curious seemingly have tapered off. Doesn’t necessarily imply those have changed their tune, but if not they are humming it to themselves rather than bleating in chorus.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Hell, Jim Gilmore is still officially running, fer Pete’s sake.
Cacti
@Roger Moore:
This
Citizens of the United States are either natural born or naturalized. Either one requires an existence outside the womb.
Dread
You guys just don’t understand that if I can’t discriminate against the gays, that my God of love is going to kill us all to teach us a lesson.
boatboy_srq
@Benw: Isn’t that merely Taxation Without Intention of Representation?
Tommy
As an Illinois resident I am starting to feel like the only blue state left in the region. With Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas I kind of feel like an island of blue in a sea of red.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
They should call it the No Cake For Fags law.
boatboy_srq
@C.V. Danes: No burnings. SHOOTINGS. And I think they’re already underway: many “witches” were midwives, and PP is the modern equivalent.
scav
@Benw: So Gofundme accepts transactions in salted dicks and dildos?
Iowa Old Lady
@Tommy: Except for 2004, Iowa has voted D for president since 1988.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@cgordon: Will never pass. Insurers will kill that fucking abomination of a legislative act dead. They have no desire whatsoever to be chained to some shady-assed firearms dealer selling guns to kids, and this law would force them to stay with their client and keep paying the claims.
Tommy
Do we really need a law that says people have a right to worship. My town has 5,500 people and 11 churches. My parents town is 12,500 and they have 17. As an atheist I would march in the street for the rights of other to worship. To each their own. Just like I hope those that feel different than myself would respect my beliefs. And they then somehow throw in the right to bear arms.
Tommy
@Iowa Old Lady: Sorry. Didn’t mean to dump on Iowa. I just get my local news from MO since St. Louis is the largest metro area near me. Lot of crazy coming out of there. Then I watch shows like The Young Turks and Democracy Now and it just seems everybody around me have gone bat shit crazy.
Iowa Old Lady
@Tommy: I know the feeling.
japa21
@Tommy: Wait until the Koch money inundates the state this year to turn the legislature red so Rauner can get all his goodies passed.
I would suggest every Dem running for the legislature send out fliers stating a vote for my opponent is a vote for Rauner. In some areas it wouldn’t matter, but Rauner’s popularity has taken a real hit.
Tommy
@Iowa Old Lady: I just grew up in this area and then moved away for almost 20 years. Maybe I was stupid and there wasn’t this thing called the Internet for me to look stuff up, but moving back things just seem “off” for lack of a better word. Illinois elected a Republican governor. My district for the first time in 70 years elected a Republican, far right tea party guy. Illinois which is pretty much known as a blue state is changing.
jl
@Iowa Old Lady: it is disconcerting that 10 to 20 percent of the county seems to have gone crazy, and have regressed to the emotional and mental state of a maladjusted toddler in the middle of a tantrum. And they are the ones getting all of the attention.
Also discouraging to see corporate media trying to influence the national debate by repeating very stale and mindless reactionary talking points, which now pass for conventional wisdom. Both HRC and Sanders get these repeatedly in the debates and forums, though Sanders got more in latest town hall.
The GOP debates if fun to ridicule if you take it as a hilariously bad reality show. But you think that a presidential nominee will come out of that, and it is scary.
Interesting to see Jeb rising in NH polls. Maybe it is true that the GOP voters will wake up and vote for a sensible centrist candidate in the primaries. But on the other hand, the sad excuses for sensible centrist candidates are Jeb (very sad) and Kasich (also sad, but not catastrophically so, merely disastrous).
I can see why sensible people are unnerved. I hope a lot of them come out to vote in November, for HRC or Sanders.
Tommy
@japa21: The last I heard his PAC has $30 plus million. Plans to funnel that to Republicans that will vote for his agenda and might be in purple districts. Somehow that is legal.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Tommy:
So your congressman is a Republican why? I know you said he’s the first in decades, but what’s that about?
ET
So rhetorical question – What happens with a business owned by a Jew, Muslim, Wiccan, Satanist, Buddist, FSMism, etc. tries to use this law to protect themselves?
Roger Moore
@Tommy:
Yes, we do. The wingnuts would happily ban Islam- and probably just about every other non-Christian religion- if they thought they could get away with it. In states where they control the legislature, they probably would have done so long ago. Fortunately, we already have freedom of religion written into the 1st Amendment, so we don’t need more laws to protect it.
jl
@ET: Probably locals in certain areas show great concern that the law is being ‘abused’.
Tommy
@Steeplejack (phone): First time in 70 years. Best I can tell is totally low voter turnout. But also a weak one-term candidate after a powerhouse that served for 25+ years. A really laid back former two star general that was appointed the head of the Illinois National Guard by a governor that shouldn’t be named. He was attacked in ads non-stop and did nothing to fight back. Also I’d say the ads were 5-1 against him.
This is the guy that won and there are many videos like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhbRcDZiJJc
The polls had Bost about 4-5 points down on election day. He won by 4. Nobody I know as a liberal thought this would happen. But it did.
Bartholomew
@C.V. Danes: “I’m waiting for them to bring back witch burnings.”
True! Puritans never did stop hanging witches, in fact they were expanding operations. They were stopped.
I wish liberals would NOT back away from religious discussion: the calvinist Right is a sham. They don’t read or follow the New Testament, just form gangs for power using scriptural snippets, fear and guilt … but a plain reading of the actual text supports liberal ideals.
Anoniminous
These godbotherering whack jobs of a Roman Iron Age death cult based on a Middle Eastern Bronze Age mythology are beginning to get on my nerves.
Capri
@Face: The ” right to free exercise of conscience” is what the bill is really about and always has been. It’s a Hobby Lobby bill, a way for every business that calls itself religious to get out of paying for birth control. It’s why Pence blamed Obamacare for the bill when he was questioned on it. Pence and the guys who crafted the original bill were absolutely blindsided by all the shouting about the LGBT ramifications. This newest “fix” is an attempt to keep the Hobby Lobby no birth control part while softening the anti-LGBT.
There was a article in the local paper that the original bill has cost Indiana $6 million in convention revenue to date. And Pence is tied with his democratic opponent, which is remarkable in Indiana.
danielx
I posted this to FB last year, on the occasion of the last such bill in the lege….just as valid now as it was then.
Edit: Pence is a notorious dumb fuck, even by the standards of Indiana pols. Mitch Daniels was an insufferable corporate Republican, but he was smart enough to understand upon which side his political bread was buttered.
Iowa Old Lady
@Tommy: Sounds like my district, which in 2014 elected not only an R (Blum) to the House but a Freedom Caucus member. This district has been safely D forever, but the previous rep (Bruce Braley) was running for the US Senate and the 2014 election was a bloodbath. If Blum isn’t kicked out in November, I will be seriously concerned.
benw
@boatboy_srq:
But Gofundme donations are voluntary so that makes it okay? And gay people make some Christians feel super-squicky, so it’s cool?
benw
@scav: Yes, as long as they are delivered in bagged form. It’s in the Gofundme bylaws.
Tommy
@Bartholomew: Yes. I say this over and over again. I am an atheist. But I don’t belittle anybody others beliefs. I’ve read the Bible more than once. Also the Koran and many other holy books. In all of them they seem to hold liberal views. At the most base level don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, help your fellow human. I find it impossible to argue with that. But I wonder if the same religious freedom is offered somebody that is a Wiccan.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Steeplejack (phone): Can’t speak for Tommy’s district, but my brother lives there and tells me the whole state is going/gone red, and you can boil the blame for that down to two things:
1. The catastrophic deficit, which neither party is even making a token attempt to deal with;
2. Rahm’s complete and utter disastrous mismanagement of the city of Chicago.
Here in CA, we had just as bad a deficit, but benefitted from two extraordinary events:
1. The CA GOP lost enough seats to be reduced to “totally and likely permanently ineffective”. We need some legislative reform so that if/when they get enough to be competitive again, they can’t just sit on their hands and say “nothing passes”. That’s where we were.
2. The election of Jerry Brown, a (fairly) socially liberal and extremely fiscally conservative Democrat. He cut. A lot. There was a lot of yelling, especially from the state colleges. But they’d been milking the state for years at the expense of everyone else. The upshot – we got rid of our deficit a year before the end of his first term.
Illinois has neither of those two great developments, and in fact has a psychotic at the helm who is as anti-government/anti-society as it gets. It’s not going to end well.
schrodinger's cat
Speaking of religion, in India many women are questioning the age old taboos Hinduism has against menstruating women. In at least two famous temples in India (one is Maharashtra and other one is Kerala) where women of child bearing age are not allowed to offer prayers are agitating for the right to do so.
ETA: One reason I am an atheist/agnostic is that religion to me seems like an elaborate ploy to keep women in their place.
Tommy
@Iowa Old Lady: The DNC did nothing. Just have to say that.
What I find funny is Bost just send me a letter on his Congressional letterhead. Reading it you’d think he was a liberal. I think he knows and I see it with the ads I get from MO for hardcore Republicans that seem to make them sound liberal. It is not how they vote but what they say in ads.
Origuy
@Original Lee:
It’s been suggested that the Fosterites are a takeoff of Scientology. Although, the story about the bet between Heinlein and Hubbard about starting a religion is probably apocryphal.
boatboy_srq
@benw: Never assume “voluntary donation” equals “freely given without any social pressure”. And the “donations” are going to another state; can they square this when donations for things they don’t like come pouring in from elsewhere? IIRC they whinge mightily when other people’s money starts affecting their local politics.
ThresherK
@Tommy: You Bost is hoisting the time-honored mantle of “Steele Democrat”?
catclub
kind of gives the game away.
rikyrah
this sounds like a plot from Rocky and Bullwinkle
…………
A brilliant, insane desperation plan to stop Trump: help him win Iowa
Updated by Matthew Yglesias on January 26, 2016, 11:00 a.m. ET
………………..
The establishment ricochet
In a recent email, veteran Republican strategist Alex Castellanos laid out a vision of Marco Rubio’s path to victory that aligns with the boost-Trump-to-kill-Trump theory:
If Cruz underperforms in [Iowa] and Rubio finishes a strong third or better, New Hampshire may evolve into a race between Trump and Rubio, not Trump and Cruz. Unlike Bush/Christie/Kasich, Marco Rubio has a shot at being the only candidate palatable to the establishment who rides into NH with a little [Iowa] momentum. Rubio’s 3-2-1 strategy to finish 3rd in IA, 2nd in NH, and 1st [in South Carolina] could actually develop.
So why boost Trump? The key is that for any of this to work, Ted Cruz needs to lose in Iowa. If Cruz beats Trump, then Cruz heads into New Hampshire with positive press and could easily ride out a New Hampshire loss to Trump before heading to South Carolina and other evangelical-rich Southern states where he’s likely to do well.
WereBear
Most of the common ones sure are.
I’m cheered by the Christian liberalization trend among the many Protestant denominations, Catholic of course being top down and resistant to such. And there is the tremendous growth of Wicca, general Paganism, a personal Spiritual path, atheist/agnostic, and just plain Nones.
The more oppressive flavors are going to get the press, especially from our press. But they are a swiftly dwindling number; a case of empty barrels making the most noise.
Can’t be too soon for me! I left the Southern Baptists over their treatment of women… at a time when they were not opposed to abortion and birth control, allowed women to wear pants and have careers, and did not approve of forcing them to stay in abusive marriages.
catclub
@Roger Moore:
They probably DID so and were not called on it in the early 1800’s. I wonder what laws were passed related to get Mormons kicked out of various eastern states.
A Ghost To Most
@Tommy:
But they wouldn’t march in the street for your right to be an atheist. Funny how that works.
dogwood
@Mnemosyne:
I’m amazed at your ability to work Hamilton into almost every comment.
Mnemosyne
@Tommy:
The entire time I grew up in Illinois, there was a Republican governor, and most of our Lake County politicians were Republicans. It’s always been a pretty Republican state. The difference, I think, is that Illinois Republicans were traditionally Rockefeller Republican types, not Christianists and gun nuts. I think that’s the change you’re seeing, not party change per se.
catclub
@rikyrah: Another ricochet: Kasich hopes Clinton does well in Iowa so that crossover/independent voters will abandon Sanders and vote for him. Good luck with that.
schrodinger's cat
@WereBear: True and there are a lot of progressive traditions in Hinduism too and it is mistake to cede religion to the rightwingtards. But misogyny seems to be baked in the cake. The higher up you go in the caste hierarchy the greater the strictures on women are. Brahmin women in some ways were worse off than their lower caste sisters.
WereBear
Perhaps because there are other ways of oppressing lower class women? I’m reminded of how peasant women in China were allowed to keep their feet intact, while their upper-class sisters were tormented life-long with foot binding.
Though that wasn’t religion; it was the equally odious excuse of Tradition.
That word always reminds me of a plaque which appeared in some fireman movie, something like “150 years of tradition, and not one inch of progress.”
gex
I just don’t understand the point of this exercise. The boycotts weren’t about people’s freedom to practice their faith, they were protestations of the legalization of anti-LGBT discrimination. Since they have the same end goal with these laws they will receive the same exact reaction no matter how carefully they reword the law.
dr. luba
@Iowa Old Lady: I had a similar experience at Christmas dinner this year. My Virginia cousin has put her daughter in a private academy, and was complaining about the diversity in the public schools. My brother and several other cousins (including the VA cousin’s sister), none of them flaming liberals or even democratic voters, responded quite loudly to her. Their kids have grown up in diverse environments, have diverse friends, and they see it as a very good thing.
Mind you, we are children of immigrants, so you’d think she would be a bit more understanding….. She also went off about “political correctness,” and apparently I replied with something along the lines of how horrible it is that you can’t voice your racist views at work any more, or so my niece tells me. She also says all the kids were appalled by VA cousin.
None of them, VA cousin excepted, would ever consider voting for Trump. A few are swing voters, but most of my generation are old style Rs.
Frankensteinbeck
@gex:
The point is that they want to be able to discriminate against LGBTs, and the government stopping them from doing so interferes with their bigoted religious beliefs. Protests are irrelevant to the folks pushing this.
Roger Moore
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I think you left an important one out: the willingness of voters to vote for tax increases. Brown got it on the ballot, but it took a 2/3 majority to pass. It really puts a lie to the idea that voters hate all tax increases. Voters are naturally skeptical of tax increases, but they can be convinced. It just requires that they be convinced the taxes are going to a good cause and that they’ll actually be spent the way they’re promised.
Frankensteinbeck
@WereBear:
I speculate that being absolutely sure they fathered their heir was more important to men who had a lot to inherit, and they had the power to enforce draconian controls over their women and make that tradition.
schrodinger's cat
@WereBear: Upper caste widows couldn’t remarry for example. Brahmin widows would shave their heads too. Those strictures have changed thank, ceiling cat.
However not everything was bleak. I have been reading about the Maratha History and it has some heartening examples of female empowerment. There are many examples of influential queens who took over after their husband’s death. One of the famous leaders of First War of Indian Independence was Lakshmibai of Jhansi. Then there was Ahilyabai Holkar who ruled wisely and well in late 18 th century India. Then there was Tarabai who kept the flame alive when the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb managed to killed both her husband and his brother.
These women rode horses, went to war and held court too like any male ruler would have.
*Marathas were the dominant power in India before the British takeover in the early 19th century.
kc
Heckuva job with the site redo.
Lawrence
Execute Order 66!
schrodinger's cat
@Frankensteinbeck:The strictures on Brahmin women were the most stringent, who did not necessarily have a lot to inherit. Many times it was about inheritance but not always.
Ahilyabai Holkar also made it easier for women to inherit property and enacted many liberal laws during her reign.
gelfling545
@Mnemosyne: and Trump got pelted with tomatoes today in Iowa. Another reason for hope.
Peale
@Roger Moore: Yeah. There’s a lot of wishful thinking books and speakers out there promoting the idea that not only didn’t the founders mean Islam when they said religion, but that Islam doesn’t count as a religion as it is a political organization more like a cult and therefore can be banned.
Frankensteinbeck
@Peale:
Fox says flat-out that Islam is a political movement, not a true religion, and they say it often.
satby
@Mnemosyne:
True. The Republicans running for governor tended to be less anti-choice than the Dems, who were mostly Catholics. Ryan, though a corrupt governor, also ended the death penalty in the state.
Roger Moore
@Peale:
The people who don’t think the founding fathers intended Islam to be treated as a religion need to be informed about Charles Pinckney. He was the one who proposed the “no religious test” rule in Article VI, and he was asked during the ratification debate in South Carolina if that meant that a Muslim could hold office. His response was “Yes, it does, and I hope to live to see it happen.” So there was at least one founding father who ardently desired to see Muslims elected to federal office.
Mnemosyne
@dogwood:
And you may be missing the bonus lyrical references I sneak in between the direct ones.
;-)
Mnemosyne
@dogwood:
More seriously, though, I do think that the play is marking an important cultural moment that is being supported by other movements within our culture.
I know there are people here who have somehow convinced themselves that we’re turning into Weimar Germany, but I’m pretty familiar with that period (as an amateur) and there really are almost no parallels. We are not in the right cultural place for a fascist takeover, no matter how enthusiastic Trump’s fans are.
RSA
@rikyrah: I’ve heard more plausible reasoning from guys looking at their college football pool choices.
oklahomo
@Anoniminous: I always ask myself, “What would Bronze Age desert nomads do?”
Gretchen
@boatboy_srq: I never thought of the midwife-witch-planned parenthood connection but you have a point.
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne:
Well, no. The Eighth Circuit struck down. The Supreme Court left the Eighth Circuit decision in place.
Cole should be along any time now with a profanity-laced version of “not to decide is to decide.”
burnspbesq
Twice in recent weeks–the North Dakota case and a similar case from Arkansas–at least six Supreme Court justices have sent a very clear “get your weak shit outta here” message to the anti-woman forces. Anyone think that message is being understood?
Naah, me neither.
toschek
As a result, courts would evaluate cases based on certain strict criteria: Government may not place a substantial burden on free exercise of religion unless there is a compelling state interest for doing so and the least restrictive means are used.
And I imagine that the state of Indiana appearing to sanction small-minded bigotry is in its best interest? They must really not want anyone that isn’t a hater spending any of their time or money there.