Which is fine for schools that make that choice, but not relevant to the legislation proposed, which will actually cost taxpayers more in the end. Vanderbilt isn't exactly hurting for funds.

Our state House just voted to make UN Agenda 21 illegal.

Gotta make sure those UN thugs don't take over Oklahoma. ;)

Personally I think UN Agenda 21 is unnecessary and borderline sketchy with some of the eminent domain issues but AFAIK it's never been formally adopted by the Federal government because it's not an official treaty.

So that being said, couldn't any state or local municipality just say, "fack it, we aint gonna do it"?

Pretty much. Our state wants to prevent municipalities from implementing it.

In other words, we actively don't want a cleaner environment, more walkable city, etc.

You have to wonder what "services" (besides ALEC) are behind these when several states introduce almost identical legislation within a few months of one another. For example, Virginia this year introduced anti-UN21 bills, which opposition stridently denounced as "unnecessary" because UN21 is decades old (and then opposition introduced a bill ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, dontcha know, 'cause that's so timely).

This is not a state legislative proposal per se, but it certainly is an indication of the brain trust we've elected here in Tennessee.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2...state-capitol/

Also, an indication that these people have never done much mopping in their lives.

As of today, we have finally in Virginia repealed the prohibition on unmarried persons cohabiting in a "lewd and lascivious" manner.

Wow. Well, we had a bill in Oklahoma die in committee which would have made it no longer a felony to commit blasphemy, to swear obscenely and to break the Sabbath.

http://www.oscn.net/applications/osc...OKST21&level=1

(see Ch. 36)

Welcome to Oklahoma, set your clock back 70 years...

To be fair, no one actually tries to enforce those laws. That said, a proposal to get rid of those laws died in committee this year.

I would like to be optimistic and say that they realized that their time was best served elsewhere, and not on worrying about trivial laws, however, that "time better spent" was probably golfing or other nonsense.

No, the issue was that they were afraid of challenges from the right stating that they had voted to further this mythical separation between church and state which the founders never intended to exist.

You know how every once in a while, you'll hear about some courthouse in the South erecting a monument to the 10 Commandments on their courthouse lawn?

Well, I had a case in Marshall County, Oklahoma (just about half an hour east of I-35 from near the Oklahoma-Texas border). I snapped a photograph of just such a monument on the courthouse lawn. It's apparently been there for some time and either no one in the county wants to challenge it or folks are afraid of what would happen to them if they did.

http://thenonist.com/images/uploads/mncdoaths6.jpg

I'm a conservative Christian, and these are the kind of people that make me ashamed to admit that. *Sigh*

Do well in school, little Timmy, or the government will force you and your family to starve in the cold. Well done, Tennessee. This proposed bill would deduct government assistance from needy families if their kids do poorly in school.

You mean the one at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jstephe...57623081962152
?

Note, actually stating what the laws are in that manner indicates what Religion or branch of Religion generally created it. For example if "Steal" is #8 and "no other gods" is #1 then you are looking at "Hellenistic Jews, Greek Orthodox and Protestants except Lutherans". The Jews combine the "No other gods" into #2 and have #1 as "I am the Lord your God". The Protestants and Lutherans shift everything by combining the Protestant #1 & #2 into #1 and splitting Coveting into #9 Wife vs. #10 House. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_commandments)

Given that this is in Oklahoma, it makes sense that the Catholics, Lutherans and Jews weren't involved in putting it up. :)

See http://www.kxii.com/home/headlines/6...html?site=full for the story of why it was erected in 2001.

That Stacey Campfield who sponsored this is a real asshole. He was involved with the whole don't say gay bill embarrassment. This is an effing outrage. Let's starve children and put them on the streets if they're not doing well in school

Hateful, hateful asshole. This just makes me sick.

Yes, that exact one. I had a trial out there last Summer and had noticed the thing the first time I was there. I truly tried to be as inconspicuous as possible while snapping a photo of that curiosity. Wouldn't want the locals to think a lawyer from "The City" was cooking anything up. It's a long way back to the highway and I wouldn't want anything to happen to me. It's pretty backwards out there.

Not too far away in Kingston, OK, my grandfather was killed in a bar fight. The Marshall County sheriff tried to pass it off as a natural death despite the cause of death very obviously being blunt force trauma--lots of it. They were unsuccessful in maintaining that position though.. my father happened to be an attorney and was able to get a full autopsy done. No one in Marshall County ever investigated the incident and no witnesses ever came out of the woodwork. It's a different sort of place.

It's kind of a given that the onus for that came from a person of the Southern Baptist persuasion. There aren't a lot of English speaking Catholics in that neck of the woods.

The unintended consequence of this bill (or at least one) will be a huge spike in the number of children requiring services from child protective services due to abuse/neglect.

Not to mention the fact that this could put teachers in literal mortal in some cases with angry students/parents.

The scary thing to me is that *anyone* would think of Oklahoma City as a Liberal place, but I guess relatively it is...

And are there any Jews in the county at all?

OKC has a few liberal enclaves. The RWers here are very dogmatic about their politics. It's very similar to the sort of rigid religious thinking you encounter in folks who can be led to believe the Earth is 6,000 years old and that Jesus Christ and dinosaurs coexisted (and if you can be led to believe that, you can be led to believe anything, right?). They surround themselves with an echo chamber whether they're meeting the OKC Tea Party folks at the H&H Gun Range or whether you're talking about the John Birch Society folks or OCPAC or whatever, when everyone else is talking about how UN Agenda 21 is a real threat to our political sovereignty and our state's rights under the 10th Amendment, a lot of hairbrained stuff might actually begin to sound reasonable.

That said, there are also a lot of reasonable folks out here and some legitimately cool places and plenty to do. Oklahoma has a pretty backwards redneck reputation, which is well deserved, but Oklahoma City and Tulsa are actually pretty decent places full of decent people and the rest of the state is nice to visit if you can simply live with the fact that just about everyone around you really and truly thinks the President is a Kenyan Muslim.

I don't believe this will pass, but I just don't understand what happened to reason, not just in Tennessee, but in all these red states.

In addition to what you've noted, I could see teachers having a moral dilemma giving students bad grades if they know students are on assistance.

ALEC.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand ALEC.

These types of laws remind me of tesserae from the Hunger Games. Why not just hold a big reaping so these poor souls can fight to the death? Then some politicians can feel satisfied in knowing that they did the public a good service. :rolleyes:

Why is it that people think that just because they pass a law, it will make the problem go away? In many cases all they'll do by passing the law is make things worse, and more expensive!

Wow! Never realized there were different 10 Commandments. I grew up Protestant (non denominational, though that's an oxymoron) and the one listed is the one I know. You learn something every day.

http://www.alec.org/

ALEC writes a lot of anti-poor/anti-environment/social conservative, etc. sort of model legislation. When you hear about multiple states proposing things like banning abortion after 6 weeks or various sorts of tort reform, those are often bills written by ALEC.

<head desk>
 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit this:

North Carolina May Declare Official State Religion Under New Bill

Ever since the last election, things in Raleigh have been getting increasingly painful.

Thanks!

This wins the thread.

One of the co-sponsors is the same douchebag who introduced that "Don't Say Gay" bill.

:o

Though I hear it's doubtful the bill will ever see the light of day. Anyone can file a bill on anything. Getting it through is another matter.

Not quite the brothel law ...
 

But Virginia just passed a law that cracks down on illegal boardinghouses (if they can ever enforce it ...).

It is illegal in Virginia for more than four unrelated people to share a house.

So much for the seniors getting together and renting a house.

And Greek Life housing?

What about a group renting a house at the beach in Virginia Beach?