Vice-President ISIS

From Noah at Down With Tyranny:

 

Or really just his interpretation of religious law.  His interpretation of religious law from the bloodiest parts of the Old Testament.

No Healthcare for Working People, But a Quarter-Million for Freakazoid Fraud

So Kentucky taxpayers are just tickled to death - literally - that their healthcare dollars are now going to ensure that only straight, white, christian, conservative, repug married couples get to adopt.

Next "reform": firing all child protective workers who are gay, muslim, atheist, darker than a paper bag or just too liberal.  I give this motherfucker six months to purge the department.

From the Herald:

Democratic lawmakers have vocally opposed Bevin’s hiring of Dumas, criticizing his qualifications and the amount he’s slated to earn when compared to salaries for child-protection workers in the state.

“I don’t think this particular individual was qualified for the job,” Carroll said after the meeting of the Government Contract Review Committee. “My personal opinion is that [Bevin] was playing for the religious vote. He constantly does and that’s his privilege.”

Bevin has defended his hiring of Dumas to overhaul Kentucky’s adoption and foster care systems, saying the criticism is unjustified.

SNIP

The number of substantiated child abuse and neglect findings in Kentucky increased 55 percent from 2012 to 2016. There are more than 8,000 children in Kentucky’s foster care system. An estimated 1,200 of those are available for adoption.

Despite the testimony lauding Dumas’ leadership qualifications, Carroll remained skeptical.

“I don’t see any justifiable reason to pay a minister who knows absolutely nothing about adoption, he knows nothing about the operation of state government,” Carroll said. “He’s had one adoption, so now he’s an expert at adoptions?”

Nope.  He's an expert at establishing and enforcing Dominionism.

No freedom for muslim students in Kentucky

Xian Dominion does not arrive like a lightning bolt.  It arrives one minor step at a time.  Like this one.

Zandar:

Meanwhile the bill most likely to go to court is the state's new "student religious freedom" law, which among other things allows students in public schools to openly participate in religious activities while on campus and would allow student religious organizations at publicly-funded schools and universities to openly discriminate against LGBTQ students for membership.

The law, Senate Bill 17, will allow students to engage in religious activities and to express religious views in public schools and in their assignments. It would also allow teachers to include lessons about the Bible in discussions of religion and history.

The legislation stems from a 2015 decision to remove references to Jesus Christ from a student production of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

But LGBT rights groups assailed the new law, which they say codifies legal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. One provision of the law allows student religious groups to set their own rules for membership, which LGBT rights groups say is a path to discrimination.

“No student should fear being excluded from a school club or participating in a school activity because they are LGBTQ,” said Sarah Warbelow, legal director at the Human Rights Campaign. “While of course private groups should have the freedom to express religious viewpoints, they should not be able to unfairly discriminate with taxpayer funds.”

The bill passed both the state Senate and state House with broad bipartisan support. Just three state senators and eight House members voted against the new law.

Bevin's not off the hook on this one even facing the veto-proof margin, he gladly signed it anyway.

But this is my state now, Bevin has signed dozens of new GOP laws and they'll take effect later this summer, and any hope that Kentucky wasn't totally the joke of the nation will disappear in a flash.  Anyone who isn't a Christian white male cop isn't wanted here, it seems.

By the way, the first time a public school kid in Kentucky decides they want to pray towards Mecca under this new law, I wonder how it will hold up.

The Road to Dominionism

Still doubt this is what's on the way?

Divine Irony:

David Barton Will Train Christians To Take Control Of Government And Transform America Into The 'Nation That God Wants It To Be' | Right Wing Watch

“Last month, we noted that right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton plans to launch a "School of Practical Government” at Andrew Wommack’s Charis Bible College in Colorado, which will be based heavily in Seven Mountains dominionism.

Seven Mountains theology teaches that conservative Christians are to take control of the seven primary institutions, or “mountains,” that shape and control our culture — (1) Business; (2) Government; (3) Media; (4) Arts and Entertainment; (5) Education; (6) Family; and (7) Religion — and use them to implement biblical standards and spread the Gospel.

In a promotional video from the new school, Barton again specifically linked it to Seven Mountains theology, saying that Christians are commanded to take control of the Seven Mountains but have failed to do so when it comes to government, which is why he is launching a school of “practical” government to train people on how to do just that…“

Christian Superiority

Divine Irony:



↵ Reblogged from cure-your-delusions

Free Pass for Freakazoids to Break Every Law With Impunity: Mississippi Follows Kentucky

Kentucky's law didn't get anywhere near the publicity, but trust me, it's just as bad.

Like Kentucky's, Mississippi's law only pretends to protect anti-gay bigots.  It really starts with a pass to brutalize, assault and torture children and doesn't end until it exempts Xian freakazoids from literally every civil and criminal statute. The bibble, after all, justifies everything - theft, rape, assault, burglary, murder, even genocide - as long as your invisible sky wizard friend told you to do it.

From The Nation:

One of the more disconcerting sections of the law is that which discusses people who provide foster-care services. The government, we are told, will no longer be allowed to take action against any foster parent that “guides, instructs, or raises a child…in a manner consistent with a sincerely held religious belief.” If you want to know what that could mean, check out Focus on the Family’s “spare the rod” philosophy of child rearing. On its website, the religious-right advocacy group offers handy tips on “the Biblical Approach to Spanking.”

SNIP

The AFA and its allies on the religious right want to carve out a sphere in American public life where religion—their religion—trumps the law. It’s a breathtakingly radical ambition. And it upends the principles on which our constitutional democracy is based.

None other than the late Antonin Scalia put his finger on the problem. To make an individual’s obedience to the law “contingent upon the law’s coincidence with his religious beliefs” amounts to “permitting him, by virtue of his beliefs, ‘to become a law unto himself,’” he said. It “contradicts both constitutional tradition and common sense.” Scalia made these comments in his 1990 majority opinion in Employment Division v. Smith. In that case, the majority ruled that the state of Oregon could deny unemployment benefits to a pair of individuals who violated a state ban on the use of peyote, even though their use of the drug was part of a religious ritual. It was the overreaction to that verdict—on both the left and the right—that produced the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993. Though intended only to ensure that laws did not needlessly burden the religious liberty of individuals, the RFRA sparked a wave of unintended consequences. It effectively planted the demon seeds of the current crop of “religious liberty” bills.

SNIP

To speak frankly, the law was designed to advance the claims of conservative Christians, and it never would have become law otherwise.  If you think that every religion will find as much liberty in the laws of Mississippi, then I have as Satanic temple to sell you.

And yes, children, these laws are indeed the steep downhill path directly to Dominionism and theocratic control of the nation by people who think that even married, heterosexual, missionary-position, penis-in-vagina sex is a crime if it is in any way pleasurable (as former Senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum made crystal clear many times in public.)

Somebody ask Matt Bevin if he finds sex pleasurable.  If he answers yes, BURN HIM.

Matt Bevin Doesn't Know What the Fuck He's Doing, Part Five: Road to Haiti

Hey, he promised he would establish a lords-n-serfs economy in Kentucky and he's well on his way.

From the Courier:

In his first major policy action, Republican Gov. Matt Bevin issued a series of executive orders Tuesday that shield religious county clerks - like Kim Davis - from being named on marriage licenses and roll back efforts by the Beshear administration that would have restored voting rights to thousands of ex-felons.

Bevin, who campaigned on conservative platforms during this year's heated race for governor, said in a statement that he was upholding his commitments to voters.

Among the five orders filed Tuesday, he also implemented a hiring freeze in state government, repealed Beshear's order raising the minimum wage for state employees and abolished the governor's employee advisory council.Roavernor Bevin issued five Executive Orders pertaining to marriage licenses, minimum wage, hiring practices within the state government, the restoration of rights to felons and a superfluous state board.

In other, factual word, Bevin:

•  Took the first un-Constitutional steps toward establishing an xian theocracy, in which any slope-headed, mouth-breathing moron can break any law by pleading jeebus.
• Eliminated any hope of any workers in the Commonwealth getting a living wage.  You wanted to actually feed your family?  Get a fourth job, moocher.
• Began implementing the fiscal austerity that has ruined the economies of every European country that tried it. Because Haiti is a libertarian paradise.
• Proved that he lied when he said he was in favor of restoring felons' rights, and signaled that he will sign any voter-suppression bill the legislature sends him.  

He's exactly the AynRandian motherfucker you voted for, Kentucky: enjoy the coming hellscape.

Bevin's press release:

“Today, I took action to uphold several commitments I made during my campaign so that we can implement real solutions that will help the people of Kentucky,” said Governor Bevin.  “While I have been a vocal supporter of the restoration of rights, for example, it is an issue that must be addressed through the legislature and by the will of the people.  As we move into the New Year and upcoming session, I look forward to working with legislators and stakeholders to build consensus and drive policy that makes a meaningful impact on the lives of all Kentuckians”

The following Executive Orders are being filed today:

•   To ensure that the sincerely held religious beliefs of all Kentuckians are honored, Executive Order 2015-048 directs the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives to issue a revised marriage license form to the offices of all Kentucky County Clerks.  The name of the County Clerk is no longer required to appear on the form.

•   Executive Order 2015-049 relieves executive branch agencies and vendors of the obligation to comply with the higher minimum wage established by Executive Order 2015-370, except as to classified employees with status who have already received increases as a result of the Executive Order.  Their remuneration will not be affected.

•   Executive Order 2015-050 prioritizes effective and efficient management of state government operations by implementing a new moratorium on hiring.  This order removes all oversight of the merit system hiring from the Governor’s Office. Unlike Governor Beshear’s Executive Order which had the Secretary of the Governor’s Executive Cabinet approve all personnel actions regarding merit employees, this Executive Order transfers that responsibility to the Personnel Secretary.  Approval of non-merit employees will remain the duty of the Secretary of the Governor’s Executive Cabinet.  Furthermore, effective immediately, all vacant positions in any agency will be reviewed to determine if they are necessary to the maintenance of essential government services.

•   Executive Order 2015-051 rescinds Governor Beshear’s Executive Order 2008-471 which established the Governor’s Employee Advisory Council (GEAC).  The GEAC was created to discuss issues pertaining to wages, hours, and terms of employment for merit employees, but is non-value added given that the Governor has no power to extend negotiation and collective bargaining rights to employees of the Commonwealth.  The merit system, along with the policies and procedures enacted through the Personnel Cabinet, provide sufficient protections and oversight of these issues and functions in a streamlined and efficient manner.

•   While Governor Bevin has been a strong advocate for the reinstatement of non-violent felony offenders’ voting and civil rights, Executive Order 2015-052 suspends the provisions of Executive Order 2015-871 as that order is contrary to the Kentucky Constitution and undermines the very right it seeks to restore by circumventing elected representatives in the state legislature and the voice of the people at the ballot box.  The Office of the Governor will continue to utilize the processes and procedures under current law in the same manner as the previous administration pending further study and consideration by the Kentucky General Assembly.  This Executive Order does not affect anyone whose rights have already been restored by the previous Executive Order.

"Religious Liberty" Really Is

As we brace for the onslaught of xian theocracy bills disguised as "religious liberty" bills in the Kentucky General Assembly, let's remember what we're really talking about.

Wonkette:

Of course, the legislature’s entire argument for the bill was “religious liberty,” which translates roughly to “whiny ass wingnut Christians shouldn’t have to follow laws they don’t like.”

American Less Religious, But More Subject to Xian Sharia

It's going to take more than a growing minority of the non-religious to stop the race to theocracy.

Is the American public becoming less religious? Yes, at least by some key measures of what it means to be a religious person. An extensive new survey of more than 35,000 U.S. adults finds that the percentages who say they believe in God, pray daily and regularly go to church or other religious services all have declined modestly in recent years.

But the Pew Research Center study also finds a great deal of stability in the U.S. religious landscape. The recent decrease in religious beliefs and behaviors is largely attributable to the “nones” – the growing minority of Americans, particularly in the Millennial generation, who say they do not belong to any organized faith. Among the roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults who do claim a religion, there has been no discernible drop in most measures of religious commitment. Indeed, by some conventional measures, religiously affiliated Americans are, on average, even more devout than they were a few years ago.

Which is exactly why the freakazoids are accelerating the xian sharia takeover of the American legal system, and why they are getting away with it.

Political Animal:

The New York Times’ series on the use of binding arbitration to “privatize” disputes usually resolved by the courts continues today with a piece (again by Michael Corkery and Jessica Silver-Greenberg) focusing on the use of arbitration requirements which substitute religious for secular law. A sample:

For generations, religious tribunals have been used in the United States to settle family disputes and spiritual debates. But through arbitration, religion is being used to sort out secular problems like claims of financial fraud and wrongful death.

Customers who buy bamboo floors from Higuera Hardwoods in Washington State must take any dispute before a Christian arbitrator, according to the company’s website. Carolina Cabin Rentals, which rents high-end vacation properties in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, tells its customers that disputes may be resolved according to biblical principles. The same goes for contestants in a fishing tournament in Hawaii.

Religious arbitration clauses…have often proved impervious to legal challenges.

Scientology forbids its followers from associating with former members who have been declared “suppressive persons,” according to people who have left the church. But this year, a federal judge in Florida upheld a religious arbitration clause requiring Luis Garcia, a declared suppressive, to take his claim that the church had defrauded him of tens of thousands of dollars before a panel of Scientologists, instead of going to court.

The piece also discusses at some length complaints against “Christian” counseling and rehab services—some of them mandated by actual courts—that try to “de-gay” people and exploit free labor and then defend themselves with arbitration clauses that subject all disputes to “scriptural” standards.

In other words, greed and bigotry have joined hands via arbitration requirements.

The End Game of the "Religious Freedom" Fraud

Forcing everyone to be religious. At taxpayer expense. It's already happening today, and not just in New Mexico. 

In Kentucky and the rest of the South, it's virtually impossible to win a civil case against a church or someone who is ostentatiously church-going, especially if you are not a freakazoid yourself.  Failure to attend church is taken automatically as evidence of anti-social if not outright criminal behavior. Solitary, elderly women have literally lost their homes and freedom to freakazoid relatives for the "crime" of not belonging to a church.

Kaili Joy Gray at Wonkette:

There is a war on religious freedom and religious liberty (both kinds!) in US America right now, as we all know. American citizens are being persecuted and criminalized and jailed just for trying to exercise their First Amendment rights. It’s pretty bad out there these days, so here is a real effed-to-heck story about a single mom whose religious liberty was trampled on, kicked in the groin, decapitated, and left to rot in the hot New Mexico sun.

The family court in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a divorced couple to attend 10 counseling sessions, so they could learn how to be good parents to their 11-year-old twin sons, even while screaming “I NEVER LOVED YOU EITHER!” and splitting up their combined record collection. This is a thing family courts do to divorced parents who can sometimes forget to take care of their children because they’re too busy stalking their exes with their new fucktoys on the Facebook, or whatever.

But the counseling sessions Holly Salzman and her ex attended did not start with the basics of parenting, but rather, mandatory prayer:

“I walked into the session and the very first thing she said to me was, ‘I start my sessions by praying,’” Salzman said. “When I expressed my concerns that I didn’t pray she said, ‘well this is what I do’ and she proceeded to say a prayer out loud.” […]

There were handouts with quotes of Psalms and other religious quotes. Pepper also gave her homework titled “who is God to me?”

“Every session there was some sort of religion that was intertwined with the sessions,” Salzman said.

Now, a thinking person might wonder if the court (aka, The Government) can compel citizens to attend religious-based classes and participate in prayer, because of that whole First Amendment separation of church and state thing. And Holly Salzman was a thinking person, and she did wonder that. So she went to the court and said, “Um, yeah, I think this violates my constitutional rights, and you can’t make me do this.” But the court told her that yes uh-huh it can TOO make her go to this specific counselor to get proselytized, for the good of her children, OR ELSE. Or else what?

The single mother of two said she felt so “offended and disgusted” that she stopped going to the court-ordered sessions. The result was that the court took her kids away. […]

To get her kids back she had to finish the classes.

Court spokesman Tim Korte, while not commenting on this specific case, insisted that the court would never do such a thing:

The court does not refer parties to religious-based counseling. Some of the counseling organizations where individuals are referred may offer optional religious counseling, but the individual is not ordered by the court to participate in the religious counseling.

To be fair, the court-appointed counselor, Mary Pepper, MA, does not currently advertise her business as religious-based counseling. But she isn’t especially shy about being “a believer” and how she incorporates that into her counseling and thinks there’s no problem with her discussing religion in a court-ordered counseling session. Like so:

KRQE News 13 rolled undercover video and audio in the final three classes between Salzman and Pepper. There were several references of religion.\

“The meaning in my life is to know love and serve God,” Pepper told Salzman in one of the meetings. “If you want to explore how God was in your past,  how God was in your life and not in your life…  I know you don’t believe in God which is fine but I know at some points he was in your life in some way.”

Oh, it gets way worse - or better, depending on your view of freakazoids being hypocritcal law-breaking criminals.  Seems Pepper knows goddamn well that her taking tax dollars to proselytize is breaking the law, because for years she has been taking illegal cash under the table to hold her prayer-filled "parenting" sessions in secret.

Meanwhile, Salzman sucked it up and completed her What Does God Mean To Me? counseling with Pepper, and the court certified that she does indeed now know how to parent good and gets to have her kids back. While we’d suggest that the court undertake a more thorough vetting process of the classes it requires parents to attend, we certainly look forward to all the religious liberty activists descending on the courthouse in Albuquerque, with songs and signs and lots of outrage, to protest this blatant trashing of an American mother’s First Amendment freedoms.

 Not just mandatory prayer, but mandatory xian freakazoid only prayer.

Kim Davis = Sharia Law

Dead. On.

 

Rude Pundit

If you don't get it, let's make it clear: This is an attempt to enact fundamentalist Christianity as law. It is an attempt to make religious doctrine take the place of secular legal decisions. It is, in theory and operation, no different than the Shariah law that cowardly conservatives fear will overtake the nation, with Muslim Obama as chief mullah or some such shit. You can say you prefer your flavor, but it's still motherfuckin' ice cream. (Note: The Rude Pundit really wants some ice cream.)

Oh, we'll have the usual parade of suspects, of craven politicians leaping to Davis's defense, of talk radio dogs woofing away to their anus-sniffing audience. You know, though, the Rude Pundit may not understand the desire to avoid the stink eye of God, but he knows where inspiration for such fuckery comes from.

The Republican Party is made up of fundamentalists of one type or another now. If your only stance on any issue is "My way or not at all," if you're going to threaten to shut down the working of the government because you don't like Planned Parenthood or you need answers on Benghazi or you need to represent for your state's dead president, then why wouldn't someone think it's fine to stop the gears of local government to please their angry gods.

Repug Judge Bunning to Criminal Clerk: Fuck Your Religion, Do Your Job

Yes, he did.  And the freakazoid bitch is still using taxpayer dollars to deny human rights to human beings.

Enough! Charge the dominionist piece of shit with domestic terrorism and ship her to Guantanamo. See if her invisible friend in the sky can protect her from rectal feeding.

Zack Ford at Think Progress:

According to District Judge David L. Bunning, Davis’ job of authorizing valid marriage licenses does not violate her religious liberty nor her freedom of speech. “Our form of government will not survive unless we, as a society, agree to respect the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions, regardless of our personal opinions,” he writes. “Davis is certainly free to disagree with the Court’s opinion, as many Americans likely do, but that does not excuse her from complying with it. To hold otherwise would set a dangerous precedent.”

Davis’ primary objection was Gov. Steve Beshear’s (D) directive ordering county clerks to comply with the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling. She has separately filed suit attempting to hold him responsible for any costs she might face from the same-sex couples’ suits. But Bunning found that the directive simply “serves the State’s interest in upholding the rule of law” and upholding Obergefell.

Davis claimed Beshear’s directive requires her to “authorize” same-sex marriage, which violates her religious beliefs. Bunning refutes this claim: “The form does not require the county clerk to condone or endorse same-sex marriage on religious or moral grounds. It simply asks the county clerk to certify that the information provided is accurate and that the couple is qualified to marry under Kentucky law. Davis’ religious convictions have no bearing on this purely legal inquiry.” It’s the government’s speech to authorize the marriage, not Davis’.

Bunning also addressed the claim that this job requirement creates a religious test for the office of County Clerk, a point also made in a satirical video posted this week by Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink. Because Davis’ job is simply to confirm that a couple has met the legal requirements to marry, “it is not a sign of moral or religious approval,” nor is Kentucky requiring her to “express a particular religious belief as a condition of public employment” or “forcing her to surrender her free exercise rights in order to perform her duties.” She is free to practice her religion however she wishes, but “her religious convictions cannot excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform as Rowan County Clerk.”

No, Your Religious Delusions Do Not Trump the Law, Science, Medicine, Other People's Rights or a Pair of Clubs

And everyone who doesn't understand that doesn't deserve any rights at all. When are we going to start restricting the massive illegality and criminal abuse committed by freakazoids?

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress:

Missouri state Rep. Paul Joseph Wieland (R) does not want his daughters’ health plan to cover birth control — even though two of those daughters are adults. So he and his wife sued the Obama administration. Though this lawsuit was rejected on jurisdictional grounds by a federal trial court, a panel of three appellate judges reinstated the suit on Monday. Should the Wielands ultimately prevail in their effort to deny birth control coverage to their daughters, the decision could have implications far beyond the Wieland family, potentially forcing insurance companies to maintain elaborate records to track many of their customers’ views on religion and sexual morality.

Wieland v. Department of Health and Human Services seeks to expand the Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which allowed many private businesses to ignore federal rules requiring them to include birth control in their employee’s health plans if the business’ owners object to contraception on religious grounds. The Wielands claim that a similar rule should apply in their case. Because they claim that they “cannot provide, fund or in any way be a participant in the provision of health care coverage” that includes birth control “without violating their sincerely-held religious beliefs,” they argue that they should be given a special health plan that does not include contraceptive care.

Are these adult daughters chained in their parents' basement that they cannot get jobs and apartments and buy their own contraception?  Because that's a crime and Wieland should be in prison.

But the daughters are just an excuse to make it impossible for anyone in the U.S. to get any kind of health care the Wielands and their freakazoid friends don't like.

The Wielands’ legal theory, moreover, could stretch far beyond families led by parents who object to contraception.

[I]magine a plaintiff who doesn’t just object to their daughters having birth control — they object to anyone having birth control. The nature of health insurance is that all of an insurance plan’s participants pay into a pool of money than any other participants can draw money out of when they need medical care. So even if a particular plaintiff’s own insurance doesn’t cover contraception, they would still be paying into a pool of money that other people could draw upon to pay for coverage that the plaintiff might object to. Moreover, while the insurance company might try to solve this problem by “walling off” the plaintiff’s premiums so that they could not be spent on contraceptive care, this would impose additional administrative costs on the insurer, and money is fungible. The only truly reliable way to ensure that a given insurance customer’s premiums are not used in a way that helps some woman, somewhere in the country to obtain birth control is to forbid the insurance plan from offering contraceptive coverage to anyone.

That might be an acceptable outcome for Paul and Teresa Wieland, but it would be a truly extraordinary expansion of American religious liberty law. A law intended to give religious objectors personal exemptions to laws they oppose would instead permit those objectors to impose their beliefs on thousands — potentially even millions — of individuals who do not share those beliefs.

Wake Up! Pro-Abortion Forces Are Out-Numbered and Out-Maneuvered

One day very soon we're going to look around and see nothing but fucking Gilead. These motherfuckers have to be stopped now.

Molly Redden at Mother Jones:

Meanwhile, in the time it took for Oregon to abandon this bill, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, and West Virginia passed 10 new abortion and reproductive rights restrictions. What happened in Oregon shows just how much reproductive rights advocates are playing catch-up, even in states that appear friendly to their agenda.

Fascism in Defense of Jingoism

It's demoralizing to see how public displays of worship toward national symbols have displaced public service and loyal dissent as proof of patriotism.

People who truly hated this country, who truly want to see its democratic government torn down and replaced by plutocratic and Dominionist rule would protect themselves with the most blatant demonstrations of symbol-worship.

Those are the dangerous ones.

Digby:

Here's some of that tolerance on display:

"I attempted to get up to use the restroom, rather urgently, during the 7th inning stretch as God Bless America was beginning. As I attempted to walk down the aisle and exit my section into the tunnel, I was stopped by a police officer. He informed me that I had to wait until the song was over. I responded that I had to use the restroom and that I did not care about God Bless America.

"As soon as the latter came out of my mouth, my right arm was twisted violently behind my back and I was informed that I was being escorted out of the stadium. A second officer then joined in and twisted my left arm, also in an excessively forceful manner, behind my back. I informed them they were violating my First Amendment rights and that I had done nothing wrong, with no response from them.

"I was sitting in the Tier Level, and of course this is the highest level of the stadium and I was escorted in this painful manner down the entire length of the stadium. About halfway down, I informed them that they were hurting me, repeated that I had done nothing wrong, and that I was not resisting nor talking back to them. One of them said something to the effect that if I continued to speak, he would find a way to hurt me more.

"When we reached the exit of the stadium, they confiscated my ticket and the first officer shoved me through the turnstiles, saying 'Get the hell out of my country if you don't like it.'

I think we all know what happened to those Dixie Chicks when they dared say they were ashamed of the president.

So really, all this whining about liberal intolerance and Stalinist authoritarianism because a couple of cretinous bigots want to be able to refuse to serve gays is just a teensy bit over the top considering the furious reaction one gets for saying anything the right doesn't like about guns, God or the flag around these people.

No, christian "liberals": you don't get to criticize freakazoids. You created them and enable them.

The only thing worse than the freakazoids proudly waving their hate flag is the "liberal" christians bleating "no, that's not us."

Bullshit.

Brittney Cooper at Salon:

As a practicing Christian, I am deeply incensed by these calls for restoration and reclamation in the name of religious freedom. This kind of legislation is largely driven by conservative Christian men and women, who hold political views that are antagonistic to every single group of people who are not white, male, Christian, cisgender, straight and middle-class. Jesus, a brown, working-class, Jew, doesn’t even meet all the qualifications.

Nothing about the cultural and moral regime of the religious right in this country signals any kind of freedom. In fact, this kind of legislation is rooted in a politics that gives white people the authority to police and terrorize people of color, queer people and poor women. That means these people don’t represent any kind of Christianity that looks anything like the kind that I practice.

Oh, yes they do.  It is precisely the same christianity. They get their justifications from the same book you do, and they use your "moderate" religion as cover for their racism, homophobia, misogyny and general hatred for everyone not exactly like them.

Just the way al qaeda and ISIS get their justification from the same book the Saudis and Jordanians and every moderate Muslim get theirs.

No, not all christians are right-wing terrorists, just as not all muslims are islamic terrorists.

But the "moderates" of both religions give cover to and enable their terrorists.

Proud Christian Terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Scott Roeder and Eric Rudolph are all yours, Brittney.  You want to fight wingnut christianity?  Start with the person in the mirror.

Why No Hate for Kentucky's Hate Bill? Boycott Us!

If the NCAA sacks up this week and pulls the tournament from hoosierville because Indiana passed a right-for-freakazoids-to-discriminate bill two years AFTER Kentucky passed its own version, the only reason they wouldn't bring it to Rupp Arena in Lexington is because it's the home of the UK Wildcats, current favorites to take the championship.

Because nobody seems to notice Kentucky's only-god-botherers-can-discriminate bill passed in 2013.

Maybe because it passed over Governor Steve Beshear's veto and therefore there is no repug hate-figure like Steve Pence?

Or because the corporations who think gay-bashing discrimination is stupid and anti-business don't do business in Kentucky?

Or is it because big corporations headquartered in Kentucky are perfectly happy with their employees and customers being treated like shit by the freakazoid motherfuckers who run this state?

Hey, Humana: Why do you hate your gay employees and customers?

Hey Brown and Williamson:  You just sponsored the ACLU of Kentucky's annual Fairness Dinner - open bar and four-course meal shindigs for 400 don't come cheap.  Are you trying to cover up for the fact you're not holding the General Assembly accountable for this abomination?

Why all the hate for Indiana and none for Kentucky, national business leaders?  Boycott us, too!  And make sure no repug state legislators get national corporate campaign cash.

Taking away their money is the only thing likely to get through to them.

Not Just Religion in Schools; Actual Churches in Schools

That this does not bring the full wrath of the U.S. Justice Department down on these schools is a terrible sign that the Dominionists are winning the battle with the Constitution, and all of us are doomed.

From the Nation, a long one that is well worth your time:

Far from an isolated incident on the border of church and state, Venue Church’s involvement in Florida’s public schools is part of a national trend. In the evangelical world, the past twenty years have seen the rise of a franchise organizational model, in which a single national or international entity works with local “religious entrepreneurs” to install churches in public-school buildings, or in other relatively affordable facilities like movie theaters, rather than fund its own buildings.

Venue Church appears to be independent, but other churches in public schools are more closely allied with broad evangelical networks. Thirteen miles away, the Celebration Orlando Church, located in Howard Middle School, is part of the Association of Related Churches, a Birmingham,
Alabama–based network that works with “church planters” to assist them in launching and expanding new churches. In 2006, ARC planted nine; in 2009, it was averaging around fifty new church plants per year. Today, with a more developed structure, ARC is training and coaching hundreds of church planters annually.

Evangelical networks that have planted churches in public schools across the United States include Redeemer, Vineyard, the Evangelical Covenant Church, Sovereign Grace, Victory Outreach, Morningstar and many dozens of others. Acts29, a Seattle-based evangelical coalition that has started 350 churches across the nation in the past five years, estimates that some 16 percent of its church plants meet in public-school spaces.

A 2007 national survey by LifeWay, a Christian research agency, found that 12 percent of newly established Protestant churches met in public schools. Today, that number is surely higher. In many cities, just about every public-school auditorium is rented to a church plant on Sunday morning.
In some places, houses of worship have operated inside public schools for years without paying any rent at all—a situation that, in New York City at least, has led to an ongoing battle in the courts. Even when rent is paid, the arrangement is a boon for churches, which are able to obtain safe and comfortable facilities, as well as furniture, heating and air-conditioning, and other benefits, for a fraction of the cost of financing their own facilities.

In recent years, the movement to plant churches has had a particular focus on cities. In October 2014, Movement Day—a conference at the Marriott Marquis in New York City—convened more than 1,000 pastors and other church members to focus on providing social services and bringing the Gospel to the urban “unchurched.” Movement Day speakers advocated “church/school partnerships.” One panel on education brought together Pastor Chip Sweney; Dorothy Parker-Jarrett, the principal of Summerour Middle School in Norcross, Georgia; and Terri Hoye, who champions church volunteers mentoring in public schools. As Hoye commented, “Once [the door to the public schools] is open, it is wide open!”

This phenomenon has given rise to organizations such as Kids Hope USA, which “equips [churches] to mobilize into the schools.” Kids Hope USA has made possible over 1,000 partnerships between churches and public schools. The program it facilitates consists of tutoring and mentoring. Participants in such partnerships are supposed to abide by a strict separation of church and state and refrain from proselytizing.

But the leaders of some of the religious entities involved in these types of partnerships are clear in their view that the separation of church and state is a “myth.” In Texas, for example, where the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship has established “church-school partnerships” between evangelical entities and over sixty Dallas-area schools, senior pastor Tony Evans has a clear message for those who think that public education and sectarian religion need to be kept separate: “God never intended that such a separation exist in His world.”

What does partnership look like for Oak Cliff? Church representatives implement a “Kingdom Agenda Strategy” by acting as student mentors, participating in academic tutoring and character-education classes. The latter include abstinence-until-marriage teachings and promote a narrow, religion-driven idea of what constitutes an acceptable moral life.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, Crossroads Fellowship produced a slick video promoting its own Adopt-a-School initiative. “One hour a week of your time could be a future and eternity in Christ for a kid,” a woman in the video explains. “All of us are called to be a missionary in our own backyard,” a middle-age man adds. “We just want to show the love of Christ,” says another. “Adopt-a-School is going to ‘ping’ on that in a powerful way.”

While many of the church groups in public schools market themselves as “nondenominational,” evangelicals of a generally conservative type overwhelmingly dominate this new field. The leading groups are committed to the inerrancy of the Bible. Some, such as Morningstar, draw heavily on Dominionism—the idea that Christians should seek to dominate all aspects of secular politics and society until the return of Jesus Christ. Mark Driscoll, a controversial founder of Acts29 who left the organization after scandals involving allegations of plagiarism and psychological abuse, is known for his unapologetic commitment to male-centered authoritarianism. “We live in a completely pussified nation,” he has said.

The new interest of these groups in public schools reflects a significant shift in missionary strategy. It is now accepted wisdom that the most fruitful targets of their efforts are young children, who are thought to be more susceptible to conversion. The focus on schools stems in part from the realization that students, especially in the younger grades, invest a lot of authority in their school, and typically can’t distinguish between what is taught in the school and what is taught by the school.
SNIP

The legal theory that these groups promote, which makes possible the rise of church-school partnerships, hinges on several key arguments. The first seeks to collapse claims about the freedom of religious exercise into claims about the freedom of speech. The second argument makes a strict distinction between private speech and publicly sponsored or official speech. The third drastically minimizes the weight of peer pressure or social coercion. And the fourth conceives a lack of religion as just another religious view among many, and therefore not to be favored over other religions.

When you put these premises together, you end up with the conclusion that including religious groups in school does not involve an establishment of religion in any meaningful sense, whereas excluding them does involve the violation of their free-speech rights and thus represents discrimination against religion. Justice Clarence Thomas ably sums up this line of argument in a key 2001 Supreme Court decision, Good News Club v. Milford Central School. On the one hand, he dismisses the idea that kindergartners might falsely perceive the private speech of religious groups operating in the school as coming from the school; on the other, he asserts that banning these religious groups from school might be perceived by the community at large as discrimination against religion in favor of secularism.

Why Should Any Freakazoid Have to Obey Any Secular Laws At All?

Because that's the real goal of lawsuits like Hobby Lobby.

It's Gilead, bitches. 

Digby:

In fact, it's worse than that. It's not about religious employers. It's about any employers being mandated to offer this coverage --- to offer any coverage. It's just one incremental step in a long term strategy to create a legal structure for corporations and other organizations to "opt out" of participating in government mandated programs on the basis of "conscience." SNIP I'm going to guess that this will end up like the Hyde Amendment. It also made no sense when it was enacted, and Democrats tried for years to stop its yearly re-authorization --- until they finally gave up and we had President Obama proclaiming that it was a "tradition" to make sure poor women did not have insurance coverage for abortion and negotiated the possibility away permanently in the ACA.

The social conservatives never give up until they get their way on these women's issues. It's fundamental to their cause. The fight has now expanded from abortion to birth control which is now a subject of controversy despite the fact that nearly 100% of women in the nation have used it (which makes nearly 100% of women "sluts" according to right wing haters.) And if there's one thing the history of the past few decades of legislative battles has taught us it's that when push comes to shove, the Democrats will use "controversial" women's rights as a bargaining chip and tell the ladies they'll have to take one for the team.

It's pretty to think that these latest polling numbers which show Republicans suffering electorally because of their inability to appeal to women will make the Democrats stiffen their spines and recognize that they have to dig in their heels on this. And I suspect they will --- as long as it doesn't mean they have to compromise on something else they care about. Women's issues are always on the table.

Kentucky House Speaker Defies Freakazoids

Holy crap. Greg Stumbo is either launching his gubernatorial campaign or announcing his retirement from politics.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

House Speaker Greg Stumbo said Wednesday that it's not appropriate for the state to provide tax incentives for a Noah's Ark theme park in Grant County.

He said he expects that the practice will be challenged in court and that the state will lose because it violates the U.S. Constitution's mandate for separation of church and state.

Is this the same Greg Stumbo who shepherded the Freakazoids Don't Have to Obey the Law "religious freedom" law through the House?

Somebody check his basement for pods.