“Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide,” the parent wrote in their request. “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”
“Get this PORN out of our schools,” the parent wrote. “If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk.”
GOP lawmaker ‘very sad’ Utah parent used his law to request ‘sex-ridden’ Bible be removed from school https://t.co/olLY07ZzLS
— Raw Story (@RawStory) March 23, 2023
“Based on the new Utah law, something is indecent if it includes explicit sexual arousal, stimulation, masturbation, intercourse, sodomy or fondling,” The Tribune’s report stated. “According to state attorneys, material doesn’t have to be ‘taken as a whole’ in those situations or left on the shelf during a review. If there is a scene involving any of those acts, it should be immediately removed.”
In their request, the parent goes on to say: “I thank the Utah Legislature and Utah Parents United for making this bad faith process so much easier and way more efficient. Now we can all ban books and you don’t even need to read them or be accurate about it. Heck, you don’t even need to see the book!”
I want to see a copy of her appeal so I can do that in my state!
— My Body My Choice (@WaterMelanie10) March 24, 2023
From the long form tweet: …the parent, who has chosen to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, submitted an appeal on December 11th along with an eight-page list of Bible passages that they found objectionable and deemed worthy of review. The parent argued that the Bible contained topics such as incest, bestiality, genital mutilation, and infanticide, making it pornographic under the new definition set forth in Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227 and therefore without serious value for minors. A GOP lawmaker expressed sadness regarding the situation.
The full story can be found at The Salt Lake Tribune
Totally open thread
pacem appellant
He’s sad that his holy book is terrible? That’s on him, not the rest of us.
piratedan
ahhhh yes, the old… “how dare you hold us to the same standards that we hold you” gambit.
I really enjoy watching these guys find out that the same rules that they want to subject others to will also apply to themselves. It’s almost as if they believe that just because you make the rules that they somehow won’t apply to you.
Jackie
I saw this earlier today and spewed coffee from my nose laughing. The first book I look forward to being banned!😂😂
Dan B
Every day there is a youth pastor or priest arrested for child sex abuse or kiddie porn. How many drag queens: zero. So these hideous prudes want to remove all evidence that LGBTQ people exist to “protect” all children except for…. It’s the same for all minorities histories. They are horrified by their existence. So was every other dictator and mass murderer
They are the Christian Taliban.
Ken
Sounds a little like one of the Satanic Temple’s lawsuits, though from what I understand of their philosophy, probably not one they would have filed.
Urza
Need to use this to ban the Bible from any religious schools.
Delk
And the very same assholes are trying to ban online porn because, wait for it, businesses need to be regulated.
Jackie
Looking forward to seeing the bible banned in all the red states! 😁
Other MJS
“antics that drain school resources.”
They should know.
Mai Naem mobile
@Dan B: there’s somebody on Twitter who monitors this. Its like these child diddlers all know they can get away with this in these fundie religious institutions. Its disgusting.
Alison Rose
I mean…the fact that these assholes didn’t anticipate this possibility adds further proof to how stone cold dumb they are.
Alison Rose
@Jackie: Imagine that — they’d all have to come to our heathen commie blue states to read the Bible. LOLLLLLL
catothedog
@piratedan:
It’s not just a belief. It’s their core principle. Conservatism is the idea that power justifies its use.
It’s foolish for liberals to believe reason and logic will work with conservatives. This is why pointing out their hypocrisy or self-owns or illogic is a waste of time, and does nothing to convince them
Liberals believe in logic, reason and justice. So conservatism cooks up reasoning mainly to convince liberals. They don’t need reason to self-justify their use of power. As far as they are concerned, power can do whatever its want, and don’t need to provide any explanations to anyone.
Conservatism believes only in raw power. The only way liberals will convince conservatives is by the use of power.
eclare
I love it.
Frankensteinbeck
Screw it, I’ll copy from the Happy Things open thread. Who says I can’t be proud of myself?
I finished chapters 2 and 3 in my new WIP, the YA eldritch comedy Younger Things. So far the heroine has gotten to mutate a bunch of degenerate sea beasts into glitter-covered Pretty Sea Horses with hugs, and learned that alas, it’s not going to be quite that easy with every monster. Next, she must corrupt her first Outer God with her extradimensional sanity and love.
Starring Curiosity Little as Herself. Co-starring Dagon as Nerd Princess Kelp Goggles, and Cthulhu as the terrible Princess Tides.
NotMax
Cannot resist linkage.
FAFO is part of the Greater Good.
:)
West of the Rockies
@Frankensteinbeck:
That sounds like a very fun read!
Alison Rose
Y’all.
I am destroyed.
Depeche Mode’s new album just dropped and I LITERALLY CANNOT. It’s so fucking good. Honestly, this might already become my favorite album of theirs.
Fuckin a
NobodySpecial
Well, of course that legislator is sad. He never read the damn thing to start with, probably had no idea any of that was in there.
MisterForkbeard
What’s nuts is how awful the bill’s author is:
You see, any book that has any kind of sex in it is clearly hyper-sexualization! Except for the Bible. Because reasons.
prostratedragon
The Bible after dark, in which tree-trimming is envisioned in a new light:
meander
I can imagine there are some groups of rebellious high schoolers starting “Song of Solomon” clubs to celebrate that rather lusty book in the Old Testament. Perhaps stage readings of the song, cos-playing their favorite parts, whatever, to show that the Bible isn’t quite so ‘wholesome’.
BigJimSlade
@Alison Rose: It will be fine as long as they’re not reading from the (very dirty) bible on the new album. They’ll have to keep their Personal Jesus, just that – personal!
;-)
oatler
“Sure was a lot of begettin’ in that Old Testament.”
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Frankensteinbeck:
GO, YOU!
If the commenting software permitted it, I would be typing this in that rainbow sparkly font, in honor of your heroine.
West of the Rockies
@Alison Rose:
You just can’t get enough?
Alison Rose
@West of the Rockies: LOL :) But honestly, I can’t. I’m nearly done with my second listen through and I need to go to bed but I want to keep playing it. It’s exquisite. The track organization, the songwriting, the music craft, Dave’s fucking voice.
Sorry y’all, I’m gonna be insufferable the next few days. (BUT WHAT ELSE IS NEW.) Next postcards and music thread, I’m just dropping links to every single audio track off this album on their YT channel.
Omnes Omnibus
@West of the Rockies: That’s a blasphemous rumour.
Alison Rose
ALL YOU POSERS WHO ONLY NAME DROP THEIR BIG SINGLES.
I kid.
I’m gonna go to sleep so I can wake up and play this album 20 times tomorrow.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: now that she’s gone to bed, I guess all that we can do is to simply enjoy the silence…..
Alison Rose
@piratedan: I SAW THAT.
Okay I’m really going now.
piratedan
@Alison Rose: hey, I saw the opportunity and seized it :-)
opiejeanne
@Frankensteinbeck: That sounds like a fun read. I wonder if my DIL would let her older daughter read it.
JustRuss
I’m not terribly familiar with the Book of Mormon, but I sure hope it isn’t in violation of this law too. T’would be a real shame, it would.
opiejeanne
@JustRuss: I tried to read the Book of Mormon, and it was dreadful, poorly written, and I don’t remember any hanky panky at all, which would have livened things up a whole lot.
HumboldtBlue
I posted this downstairs, but I just can’t stop laughing in 13-year-old boy.
eclare
@HumboldtBlue: ROFL
billcinsd
@catothedog: Why do you think the objective is to get conservatives to change their ways? They are mostly beyond reach. The centrists that sometimes vote for conservatives and give them protection are more likely the focus. Sure these people don’t really pay attention but some of this will hopefully soak in to the general ambiance.
Chetan Murthy
@billcinsd: I think “The only way liberals will convince conservatives is by the use of power” is catothedog’s way of saying “we’ll never convince them; all we can do is *smash them down*”. And frankly, I agree.
laura
@Alison Rose: I just saw them in Sacramento. It was a thing of wonder- the band, the set list, the crowd, the acoustics and if they come to your town you better party down! It was packed to the rafters.
Odie Hugh Manatee
This and the Wyoming legislature enshrining the right to health care without government interference because of Obamacare are examples of bad people writing laws that are so bad that they can be turned against themselves by the people that they hate. Calling them incompetent is a compliment at this point.
Better kitty news tonight! We got a callback today from the vet’s office to check on Chuckie. He is not doing better after his Tuesday visit and anti-inflammatory prescription. He was still not eating nor drinking, and he has been pretty much immobile for the last 36 hours. I took him back in and they ran another blood panel and exam on him. His fever was still high at 103.5, but lower than the 104.5 at his Tuesday visit. He also lost a bit over 1/3rd of a pound in two days and his urine test came back today with no culture. His panel came back changed from his first visit, indicating inflammation and/or infection but with no specific point of infection found.
The doc told me that she has no idea what is happening with him but that she was starting him on antibiotics (shot + 7 days of pills), extending his anti-inflammatory for another three days and pumping 200 ml of saline into him to hydrate him. We brought him home after lots of needles and I put him on the waterbed (favorite place for the cats) at about 5 PM. I checked on him regularly and he seemed to becoming more alert every time I passed by him. At 9 PM I came into the house just as he was coming out of the bedroom, tail straight up in the air. I said hi to him and he murred back and rubbed the door frame. He’s back!
He’s slow and a bit unsteady but he insists on going around the house purring and rubbing against everything. His bud Stewie even came up to him and groomed his face a few times. He looks damned good compared to the last few days and we are thrilled to see it!
Now the funny. Today was the first visit I’ve taken Chuckie to where I stayed with him for the appointment. His first appointment was in March of last year when he was neutered, so it was a drop off/pick up. He was scheduled for his 1 year appointment next month but I took him in Tuesday for evaluation, which was also drop off/pick up. The vet assistant told me after his first visit that Chuckie was very upset, vocal and quite a handful for them. Tuesday they told me that while he didn’t fight them, he was very vocal and growled/hissed a lot.
Today he was flat out of it but the vets office brought him alert. The assistant told me that she was not going to be removing him from the cage as the doc was doing everything today. In fact, she said that a couple of times…lol! Chuckie growled once when the doc came into the room and I assured him that it was OK. I asked her if I could take him out of the cage for her and she agreed. After he was out she said that she was surprised that he was being so quiet and asked me to do the handling and assist here. No problemo!
The exam went quickly and Chuckie was quiet the whole time. I kept assuring him that it was OK and that he was being a good boy. Even through four needles, good boy all of the way. The doc said that they were noting his file to request I stay for his visits. I guess my little guy does trust me. 😎 So more pills and recovery if all goes well. We still have no idea what happened but today’s visit was a home run for us.
eclare
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Fingers and paws crossed here for Chuckie!
Amir Khalid
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Glad to know that Chuckie’s doing so much better.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Thanks folks! Chuckie finally ate a little kibble a few minutes ago, his first since Saturday. He’s walking around making dough with his paws wherever he stops. He’s really happy right now, as am I!
HumboldtBlue
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
We better see some biscuits.
Steve in the ATL
Yesterday I was at the intersection of Jesus Street and St. Mary Street (it sounds better in Spanish) and LITERALLY all of these things were going on there!
Baud
Nominated!
Balloon Juice: A Christian Blog.
Tony Jay
@piratedan:
Except, they won’t, will they? They’ll just use the fact that unholy liberals are using the Laws of Man to mock and degrade their Holy Book as an excuse to change (or at least campaign on changing) the rules to specifically wall-off ‘protected texts of proven value and probity’ from review. Hell, they’ll probably add a few sub-clauses to specify the legal punishments applicable to anyone who ‘outrages common-sense decency’ by wasting the time of public officials with ‘mischievous applications’ to the list of banned texts.
That’ll teach those egg-head liberal hypocrites for thinking they’re smarter than the Jeebus Folk, dagnabbit. Red States could end up with specific lists of acceptable and unacceptable texts and the narrative will be that ‘liberal over-reach’ forced the Godbotherers to do it in order to ensure that young minds maintain access to wholesome examples of filthy, dirty sexy-time.
Poe Larity
I’d have to start a Kickstarter for Depeche Mode tix, but I see KMFDM is on tour…
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: do you ever sleep? Baud! 20xx, and also Baud! 24/7
Quinerly
Trump has been up most of the night threatening Bragg. Looking for actual quotes but don’t want to go to Trump’s site. “Death and destruction.”
In my search, I found this from yesterday.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-revenge-plan-alvin-bragg-1234702976/
Quinerly
https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/03/24/trump-warns-of-death-and-destruction-if-he-is-charged-in-hush-money-probe/
Tony Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
The Baud is a collective of post-Seinfeldian collaborative algorithms that exist in a state of perpetual interconnectivity with the non-virtual world and live in a shared bedsit in Camberwell, London, above a Vegan bakery that they tolerate but do not frequent.
I mean, I think that’s this week’s story.
evodevo
Yep…I once bought what I thought was a bowdlerized-enough book of Bible stories for children to read to the kid when he was 8 or9…just to culturally acquaint him, since we are an atheist household. I sat there on his bed having to read passages and then make up stuff in between on the fly BECAUSE IT MADE NO SENSE morally or ethically. LOL Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Aesop’s Fables has more moral instruction than the Bible…
Steve in the ATL
@Tony Jay: well played!
lowtechcyclist
@piratedan:
The leopards won’t eat MY face!
Yeah, people need to do this in every state that’s setting standards like these for what prurient materials can’t be in their schools. Because there’s plenty of prurience in the Bible. Get it banned in each of these states!
And if they write an exception into the law for the Bible, wouldn’t that constitute ‘establishment of religion’? I bet even the Bogus Scotus would have a hard time disagreeing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Frankensteinbeck: Cripes, you have a vivid imagination!
kalakal
@Alison Rose: Sounds like you have to get the balance right.
Wilson Heath
Don’t forget to remove the Fountainhead while you’re at it.
Matt McIrvin
@MisterForkbeard: With an extra double standard, too: depictions of approved, cishet sexual orientations and gender roles are not “sexual” at all, unless they’re very explicit–they’re just normal people behaving normally. But depict a same-sex relationship or a trans person with the same level of discretion and it’s treated as pornography.
TaMara
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Oh, I’m so glad I stopped by to read the comments this morning. This is great news and hoping for a full recovery. Purrrr, purrrrr….
BigJimSlade
@Alison Rose: I only went for their early singles, I was always more of a New Order and Echo & the Bunnymen type of guy. (Ok, U2 and REM, too.)
JustRuss
@Alison Rose: Saw them many years ago, 1990 maybe. Best seats I’ve ever had, 6th or 7th row. Great show.
Jess
@Alison Rose: You’ve inspired me to check it out–so far, so great!
Jess
@Wilson Heath: Oh yeah–that rape scene f’ed me up as a teen. Is that what love looks like???
kalakal
@Odie Hugh Manatee: So happy to hear that. ,👍👍👍👍
Jess
@Wilson Heath: double post–sorry
leeleeFL
@HumboldtBlue: Just remembering a girl from my HS days, last name Sexhauer. Guys in class had a field day with Subs asking if we had a Sex Hour here! Something about short, 15 minutes orgies in the closets! Still chuckling!
Ms. D. Ranged In AZ
This makes me SOOOO Happy! I have a couple of evangelical siblings. One of them asked me, after discussing the Twilight series, if I monitored what my teenagers read and forbid them from reading anything, because I think he wouldn’t let his two teenage girls read the Twilight series (because vampires are bad and it has teenage sex, etc, etc). I said I’m aware of what they read but I’ve never told them to not read something. It’s always been age appropriate (actually they read several grades ahead but I made sure that what they reading was okay for their maturity level, which varies from child to child). He countered that books and movies like Twilight are not age appropriate. I then asked him what he does let his daughters read (knowing he was going to say the Bible). And then I listed all the horrible things that are in the Bible. I told him I’d read through it the first time at 10 and again at 12 (Southern Baptist raised) and it was NOT in any way, shape or form appropriate for tweens or teenagers because of all sexual and non-sexual violence, sexual deviance, etc. I scolded him for not forbidding his girls from reading those passages, at a minimum. Why not curate the Old Testament or let them only read the New Testament (sans Revelations) until they’re older and more mature? Then I asked him did he at least talk about those horrible things after they had read them to bring context, greater understanding, or address any fears or problems that might have arisen as the result? I was really traumatized as a child….Revelations gave me nightmares into my 20’s even after I’d stopped being a “Christian”. He said no. I told him he was failing his kids then. That shut him up right quick. I can count on one hand the number Christians who are anywhere near to being “Christ-like” in my 53 years on this Earth. I say we weaponize these stupid laws against them and see how they like it. Makes me want to go to law school and start a second career.
Ms. D. Ranged In AZ
@leeleeFL: Meanwhile the girl was traumatized by all the teasing. When you’re a kid and your last name is “funny” and you have no control over what that last name is, it sucks. I know it’s just kids but…..it’s kind of mean. Just saying.
Ms. D. Ranged In AZ
@Ken: I’ve never read the Satanic Bible but I bet it has less sexual and violent deviance than the Christian Bible. LOL
Has anyone here read the Satanic Bible and know?
Ms. D. Ranged In AZ
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I’m glad that Chuckie is improving! I have a dog going through something similar but she is not improving. I’m very worried because we don’t know what the infection is that is causing the autoimmune response and the medications she is on aren’t improving her, just maintaining her, but I don’t think she can be on these meds forever. So like I said, I’m getting really worried.
Paul in KY
@HumboldtBlue: Whoever got him to do that, bravo!!
Paul in KY
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Yay, Chuckie & your family!
brantl
This was Karmic Judo of the first order.