Businesses in Washington state would get the right to refuse services to gay and lesbian customers if  “providing those goods or services” conflicts with the religious or philosophical beliefs of the business owner, under a bill introduced Thursday in the state Senate.

The bill, introduced by state Senator Sharon Brown and 11 other Republicans would legalize discrimination towards gay people. The legislation, Senate Bill 5927, is worded broadly, going beyond a religious objection in allowing discrimination against gays and lesbians.

It would permit businesses or individuals to refuse service on grounds of “sincerely held religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or matters of conscience.”  The legislation erects a barrier designed to prevent or limit the initiation of anti-discrimination action by the state.  It says:

“The right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief, philosophical belief, or matter of conscience may not be burdened, unless the government proves that it has a compelling governmental interest in infringing the specific act or refusal to act and has used the least restricting means to further that interest.”

The Washington state Senate bill is clearly targeted at gays and lesbians, one group which does not enjoy anti-discrimination protection under federal civil rights laws.

The legislation makes this clear, saying:  “This subsection does not apply to the denial of services to individuals recognized as a protected class under federal law applicable to the state as of the effective date of this section.”  (Seattle Post)

A rose by any other name.  Calling it “religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or matters of conscience” doesn’t make it right.  Discrimination is discrimination.  Lawmakers like Sharon Brown are putting up specious claims to discriminate and for that she is a butthead.  Just one day more...

KIVA

On the right side of this blog is a gadget for KIVA.

I first learned of this organization from fellow blogger Croft Randle.  It is a non-profit organization that facilitates loans around the globe to individuals who need a helping hand.

For as little as $25 you can make loans, which are returned to your account when repaid.  The money can then be loaned out again.  It is amazingly simple and rewarding.  Just one day more...

A TOUGH HAUL  (FOR SOME).

Income inequality surged during the first two years of the economic recovery, as the top 7 percent of American households was the only group to experience an increase in their net worth.  The top 7 percent of Americans saw their average net worth explode by 28 percent between 2009 and 2011, while the wealth of the remaining 93 percent of the population steadily declined during the same period.

From 2009 to 2011, the average net worth of 8 million wealthiest households surged from an estimated $2.7 million to $3.2 million.  For the 111 million households that make up the bottom 93 percent, average net worth plunged 4 percent, from $140,000 to an estimated $134,000.

Meanwhile, too-big-to-fail banks and other corporate entities that failed magnificently during the crisis, only to be rescued by a massive government bailout, continue to grow in size.  (Pew Research Center)

The effects of the recession continue and it is too bad someone can’t stimulate those who were bailed out by the stimulus to put some of that cash back into circulation.  It’s been a tough haul.  More for some than others.   Just one day more...

REMEMBERING RICHIE

RICHIE HAVENS  January 21, 1941 - April 22, 2013

Just one day more...

OKLAHOMA CITY — Debate over whether small businesses can compete with big box chains produced an embarrassing moment for Oklahoma House of Representatives Co-Majority Leader Dennis Johnson, (R), on Wednesday.  In debating in favor of a bill that would repeal a 70-year-old ban on “loss-leader” selling, Johnson, a small business owner, said service and not price are the key to success.  He then said some customers “try to Jew me down.”  Jew down,” a slang term for haggling, is considered ethnically derogatory.  Shortly after invoking the derogatory phrase, Johnson appeared to be notified by someone off camera that what he said was offensive.  I apologize to the Jews," Johnson said, drawing laughter from the chamber. "They're good small businessmen as well."(Tulsa World)

Another public official uses a slur and other members can be heard laughing.  It wasn’t until someone told him while he was still speaking that he made the slur that Johnson acknowledged it.  He then treated it as a comedic situation.  Representative Johnson is another example of a public official who is an insensitive boob and for that he is a butthead.  Just one day more... 

HARD TIME SPENDING ALL THE OIL MONEY

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Last week Dubai police unveiled a nearly $550,000 Lamborghini Aventador and are making preparations to have a nearly $250,000 Ferrari join an even pricier Lamborghini as the flagship flash of its fleet.

It must be a real pain having so much oil money that they can't find enough ways to spend it all.  Just one day more...

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona cities and counties would have to sell guns turned in at community buyback events instead of destroying them under a law passed by the Legislature.

The bill is designed to eliminate a loophole in last year's law that requires police agencies to sell seized guns. Cities, including Tucson, have continued to hold buyback events and destroy the weapons, arguing that because they were voluntarily surrendered, they aren't covered by the law.

The Senate passed House Bill 2455 Tuesday on an 18-12 party-line vote and it now goes to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer for action.

During testimony before a House committee in February, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox said buyback programs give people who no longer want guns in their homes a safe way to dispose of them. Some are worried the weapons could be stolen, and others want to prevent a family member from accessing them, she said.

"There are many, many reasons, but they would never fathom that the guns they turn in would be recirculated again," Wilcox said.

This is plain nuts.  Instead of taking guns off the streets, Arizona would return them back to the streets.  These are guns that have been turned in voluntarily by folks whose motives are to reduce the number of guns and believe they will be destroyed.  Instead, the state of Arizona proposes to double down on the idiotic law which requires that seized guns used in a crime be sold instead of destroyed and would require that guns turned in at buyback events be sold. This is plain nuts.  Just one day more...

DISGUSTING AND SHAMEFUL

The Senate dealt a major blow to new gun controls on Wednesday when senators voted to defeat the background check proposal that had become the center of the post-Newtown firearms debate.  The 54-46 vote left senators six shy of the 60 needed to approve the amendment, and it left gun control advocates struggling to pick up the pieces of a bill that many on both sides of the issue now say is fatally flawed.  (Washington Times)

Mandatory background checks for most gun purchasers are supported by 91 percent of U.S. voters, including 96 percent of Democrats, 88 percent of Republicans and 88 percent of gun- owning households, according to a Quinnipiac poll conducted March 27-April 1.  (Bloomberg)

VICTIMS

VICTIM

VICTIM

Shame on those senators who voted against the majority of the people.  

Just one day more...

(Salina, Kansas) Saline County Commissioner Jim Gile (R) is being heavily criticized after using the term “nigger-rigging” during a town council meeting last week.

In the meeting, Gile, 68, was discussing whether or not the town should hire an architect to repair a town bridge. When there was disagreement between council members, Giles said he would like to hire an architect to do the work rather than "nigger-rigging” it.  His remark reportedly elicited laughter from others in the room. When Giles was asked to clarify what he said, he replied “Afro-Americanized.”

Gile later said that he may have used the term because he grew up using it. Speaking to the Salina Journal, Gile insisted that he’s not racist.

Several Kansas officials are not happy with Gile’s remarks.  State representative J.R. Claeys (R) and Kansas Democratic Spokesman Dakota Loomis have released statements on Gile’s words.

"It's shocking in this day and age that he would use this type of language and find it to be such a non-issue," Loomis said. "He needs to take a real hard look at how he represents the people in Saline County. This demonstrates a complete and utter lack of awareness. It calls into question his fitness to serve."

Congressman Claeys, who represents Gile’s county in the House, echoed Loomis’ sentiments. “I think every citizen in our county should take a long, hard look at every individual in that room who allowed those comments to slide without immediately correcting and repudiating, not one, but multiple comments that are absolutely unacceptable in private, let alone a public meeting," he said. "This speaks to a systemic problem with the makeup and operation of county government that is already viewed as a good ol' boys club and needs to be dismantled by the people in such a way that it can no longer operate in this manner."

Although no actions have been taken at this time, many in Saline are calling for Gile’s resignation. (Salina Journal, KSDK, WIBW)

Congressman Claeys got it right.  There was laughter in the room and none of the other commissioners spoke up. The other commissioners who said nothing at the time should be ashamed.  Gile has given a halfhearted apology and his justification that he grew up using the term doesn’t excuse him.  Commissioner Gile is a poor example of a public official and is a butthead.  Just one day more...

NO LONGER CUTE

A Belorussian man was on a fishing trip with some friends Thursday when a beaver ravaged him to death. The man was at Lake Shestakov with two friends when they spotted the rodent on the side of the road. The man stopped to take a picture of the beaver, but as he got closer, it pounced on him, biting him in the thigh and severing a major artery. His friends tried to stop the flow of blood, but the man ended up bleeding to death.

Beaver attacks are rare, but not unheard of.  Last year, two girls were mauled by a beaver in a Virginia lake, suffering serious bites.  In September, a  beaver attacked 83-year-old Lillian Peterson of Falls Church, Va., a Washington suburb, as she swam in nearby Lake Barcroft. Her thumb almost was bitten off, and she was in and out of the hospital for treatment of bite marks that went up and down her legs. (Washington Times)

Who would of thought?!  Just one day more...

I SEE IT DIFFERENTLY

The 20-year-old student accused in a stabbing rampage at a Texas college campus told investigators he had fantasies of killing people and had planned the attack, sheriff's officials said late Tuesday.

Dylan Quick, 20, was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after the stabbings, said Donna Hawkins, an official with the Harris County Prosecutor's Office.

"According to the statement the suspect voluntarily gave investigators, he has had fantasies of stabbing people to death since he was in elementary school," a statement from the Harris County Sheriff's Office said. "He also indicated that he has been planning this incident for some time."

Fourteen people were injured in the attack, officials said. Two of them remained hospitalized in critical condition late Tuesday, said Kathryn Klein, a spokeswoman for the Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute.  (CNN)

Yesterday I read a blog titled “See? Gun Free School Zones Work!”  The writer was obviously using satire in the heading to oppose gun regulations and asserted that, “It seems to me that crazy violent people are going to use whatever (expletive deleted) thing they can get their hands on to use as a weapon when the urge strikes them and no amount of legislation on earth is ever going to stop it.”

Those who oppose any kind of gun regulations will use this campus assault as an example of how a deranged person will cause harm notwithstanding regulations.  I see it differently.  In this case fourteen people were stabbed and are alive.  If Dylan Quick had an assault rifle  chances are fourteen people, and more, would be dead.  Nearly four months after Sandy Hook this seems to make the case for gun regulations.  Just one day more...

DEN OF RATTLESNAKES

Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was one of five Americans killed in a car bomb attack on Saturday in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday. 

Three of the dead were U.S. service members and the fifth a civilian employee of the Defense Department, Kerry said.  Smedinghoff, whose business card read "Assistant Information Officer," and the other Americans were traveling in a convoy to southern Afghanistan to deliver textbooks to children in Qalat, Kerry said.   (NBC News)

What people like Smedinghoff are doing is admirable, but you have to wonder if it is wise.  Going into Afghanistan, especially for civilians, is like going into a den of rattlesnakes.  You might survive unscathed, but it comes down to playing the odds.  It is a tragedy, but not unexpected.  Just one day more...

CANADA'S HUSBAND DAY CARE

Just as good as national health care ...

Just one day more...

As reported in USA TODAY, New Jersey’s Rutgers University fired basketball coach Mike Rice after video footage showed Rice physically abusing players.  Rice is caught on tape shoving, grabbing and throwing basketballs at the legs, chests and heads of his players and can also be heard verbally abusing the players with homosexual slurs.  Rice had been suspended for three games in December and fined $50,000 after athletic department officials saw video footage of abuse.  Athletic director Tim Pernetti, who has since resigned, said, "I am responsible for the decision to attempt a rehabilitation of Coach Rice.  Dismissal and corrective action were debated in December and I thought it was in the best interest of everyone to rehabilitate, but I was wrong.”

This week Rutgers President Robert Barchi indicated he first saw the video in recent days, not when Pernetti was making his decision in December to suspend Rice.  Asked repeatedly why he took so long to look at the videotape, Barchi said he regretted not looking at it last fall.   "I can't answer exactly why I didn't. The only thing I can say in retrospect is 'sure wish I had,'" Barchi said. "I was still trying to find my way between my house and Old Queens without getting lost. They were sending the police out for me, getting lost on campus at that point. It's not an excuse. I'm not making an excuse."

While the boorish behavior of Rice and complacency of Rutger’s officials are not as horrific as Penn State, it clearly points to a culture in college athletics of putting sports ahead of all else.  Offensive behavior at Rutger’s and destructive behavior at Penn State are bad enough, but the cover up that followed in each case is inexcusable.  And now Rutgers President Robert Barchi makes jokes about not viewing the tapes and not taking action sooner.  College presidents like Barchi have a duty to protect all students on campus, instead of protecting the money stream athletics brings to their schools.  Barchi failed in that duty and for that he is a butthead.  He should be fired.   Just one day more...   

ON THIS DATE 45 YEARS AGO

Just one day more...

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL PART TWO

Way back in October I did a post about a guy who fell asleep at a stoplight.  Well, he’s been sentenced and no doubt counting his blessings he didn’t get jail time.  

COLUMBUS -- A Platte County District Court judge tempered a 29-year-old former area man's chance at probation on drug and weapons charges with a stern warning.

District Court Judge Robert Steinke sentenced Brandon Frandsen to 30 months probation Friday on the charges stemming from an October episode in which he was found sleeping behind the wheel of his idling pickup at a downtown Columbus stoplight.

It's difficult to determine if the defendant is truly motivated to deal with his drug and alcohol problems or is just trying to lessen the severity of his sentence, Steinke told the man who now lives in Lake Andes, S.D.

Frandsen has been receiving outpatient drug and alcohol treatment and attending 12-step programs since relocating to South Dakota. He has a full-time job as a welder.

"The court will give you a chance to turn your life around," said Steinke after noting that this case marked Frandsen's first felony conviction. 

Last fall’s episode began with Frandsen being found sleeping behind the wheel of his pickup at a downtown stoplight at 8:15 on a Friday morning.  (Columbus, NE Telegram)

Yesterday I was reminded of this story when I fell asleep in the waiting room as I was having my daughter's car serviced.  When it came time to pay the bill I was zonked and others in the waiting room were rather amused when the attendant woke me up.  I simply told them it was time for my morning power nap.  I guess that’s one advantage of now being classified as a senior citizen.  Just one day more...