Friday Shakedown

Dan Bidondi, an Infowars "reporter," went to Massachusetts and didn't plan on running into opposition like this.  An unnamed resident engaged him on Infowars' crazy conspiracy theories.

(NSFW)

I wish more people would confront wackos like this in this way.  It's just like the Westboro Baptist Church.  They do not respond to reason, reason, or facts, and they contribute nothing to the debate.  Having an argument with them is not a good use of your time.  You will walk away from the encounter feeling more frustrated than you were at the start and they will walk away thinking they've won.  The only thing they respond to is ridicule.  

North Carolina is trying to make it harder for students to vote.  Shocking, I know.  The bill, which was sponsored by six Republican Senators, would force the parents of out-of-state students to pay higher taxes if they claim their child as a dependent and the student is registered to vote in their college district.  If you are a student, you should be able to vote for the district that directly represents you where you live.  When I was a student at Ohio State, I petitioned the congresswoman for Ohio District 15, which was where the school sat.  For the time I was attending and living there, I considered her my voice in Congress.  I should have been able to vote in that district if there had been an election while I was there.  Speaking of Ohio... They're trying to do a similar thing there.  This is just another example Republicans trying to suppress the vote and change the rules of the game.  Instead of having a message that appeals to a majority of the country, or people in their districts, they try to keep opponents from voting.  That isn't how democracy is supposed to work.

In other news, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, famous for being one of the most hated members of the Senate on both the Left and Right, floated the notion of a presidential run.  This move was promptly met with laughter all around.

The NRA has a new president and he's possibly more to the right than the last one.  At a speech in New York, he referred to the Civil War as the "War of Northern Aggression."  There is so much wrong with that, I don't even know where to start.  The historian in my head is speechless at the moment.  

Maybe more along the lines of the Civil War tomorrow...

Saturday Shakedown

I missed posting yesterday so here is a rare Saturday Shakedown!

North Carolina will not be establishing a religion thanks to the Speaker of the NC State Legislature, Thom Tillis (R).  He has announced that the measure will not be brought up for a vote.  This is a relief because we shouldn't be having a discussion like that in this day and age.  This is a settled issue with hundreds of years of precedent.

However, this discussion in North Carolina has prompted some polls to be taken with some frightening results.  

The new survey finds that 34 percent of adults would favor establishing Christianity as the official state religion in their own state, while 47 percent would oppose doing so. Thirty-two percent said that they would favor a constitutional amendment making Christianity the official religion of the United States, with 52 percent saying they were opposed.

 Tennessee is proposing a bill that would withhold welfare assistance to families whose children are not doing well in school.  There is already a revolving door when it comes to poverty and poor education, why make it worse with something like this?  Education is important and there are a lot of factors that contribute to poverty.  We cannot hurt kids by withholding food because they get a bad grade.  That is cruel and unusual.

North Carolina Republicans Failed Civics

I thought South Carolina was the crazy Carolina but it seems North Carolina wants to give them a run for their money.

North Carolina is trying to establish a state religion.  You read that right.  They don't care that this is obviously against the first amendment.

The First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The measure is supported by nine Republicans in the Legislature. They introduced this after a lawsuit took issue with Rowan county committee meetings opening with, way more often than not, an obviously Christian prayer.

They claim that they can pass this legislation because of that first word in the amendment: Congress.  And they are right in that the way the amendment is written, it would not be applied to North Carolina.  They also claim that the Tenth Amendment, which gives the states the rights to do things if the Constitution does not address it, does not stop them from establishing a religion.  The bill itself states that the Bill of Rights only applies to the federal government and does not stop states from passing any law that defies any part of the Constitution.

The Tenth Amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Ok, ok, let's say I'm on board with all that.  It does not really mention anything about the establishment clause.  If only there were something that would explicitly state that the first amendment... no, it needs to be more specific than that... the establishment clause itself...

Everson v. Board of Education, (1947) was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which applied the Establishment Clause in the country's Bill of Rights to State law.

WOW, look at that!  The issue has already been addressed!  I mean as long as it isn't before 1947...nope, I checked the calendar and we're good.  North Carolina can breathe a sigh of relief and not waste their time on a rehashing of previously decided case law.  But we all know they won't.

This follows a trend of Republican led legislatures in Red states of proposing, and sometimes passing, ridiculously illegal laws.  I have covered some of these laws in relation to gun control here on the blog. I really do not understand how they can continue with stuff like this.  Nullification, of which this is a cousin, cannot and will not stand.  

Maybe for fun the federal government should turn North Carolina loose, just as an example to the other states.  I really don't think they've thought it through.

North Carolina Moves Confederate Flag Display

Not many symbols in history make me as angry as the Confederate flag.  We see it everywhere even today.  Even in states that weren't even states at the time of the Civil War.  

Some say it is a symbol for a rebel spirit and independent thinking.  This thinking has spread to Canada where the flag is even depicted there.  Some say it represents the rights of the states to push back against Federal regulation.  I do not agree.

This flag represents the Confederate States of America.  Technically, it is the Battle Flag but it is the flag most associated with the Confederates.  Let's not get hung up on that.  This flag represents the reason that 750,000 or more Americans were killed.  The South fought for their rights to keep slaves and the North fought to hold the Union together.  Later there was a bit about freeing the slaves, but the initial goal of the North and President Lincoln was to keep the country together.  

Some would argue that the Civil War was fought over "state's rights."  Yeah, sure, I can agree with that, but can you tell me what specific right they wanted the states to have power over?  The right to own slaves.

U.S. History is not as comforting as you are led to believe from the nice survey history textbooks you read in grade school.  It is a harsh story with many players that have good and bad parts to their individual tales.  The Alamo, for example, was not this bastion of freedom that some people like to claim.  This battle was fought over the rights of the Texans to keep their slaves.  Texas was part of Mexico at the time and Mexico had just abolished slavery.  They fought for Texan freedom, yes, but not for all.  

So when I see this flag on trucks, barns, shirts, and hats all over the country I cannot help but think the owner/wearer is either ignorant to its meaning or is a racist.  I really don't think it's a stretch to think that since the KKK has used the flag and the KKK was founded by former Confederate officers after the Civil War.  “The [revival of the] flag is a sign that the south is trying to relive their glory days,” and  they are “holding onto a glorified identity that never existed.”

North Carolina decided to hang the flag in their Capitol building as part of an exhibit commemorating the Civil War.  The exhibit, with the flag, was set to remain until April 2015 to mark the 150th anniversary of Federal troops arriving in Raleigh.  Once it was known that the Governor was going to use that part of the Capitol as a work space, the exhibit was set to be moved. State Historic Sites Director Keith Hardison had said Thursday the flag should be viewed in what he called the proper historical context.

“Our goal is not to create issues.  Our goal is to help people understand issues of the past. … If you refuse to put something that someone might object to or have a concern with in the exhibit, then you are basically censoring history.”

North Carolina NAACP president Rev. William Barber did not share Hardison's thoughts on the matter.

“He is right that it has a historical context,” Barber said. “But what is that history? The history of racism. The history of lynchings. The history of death. The history of slavery. If you say that shouldn’t be offensive, then either you don’t know the history, or you are denying the history.”

The exhibit is remaining up, but across the street in another building.

I actually don't oppose the exhibit itself because of the historical context.  I do think that it was inappropriate to have it in a working part of the Capitol building.  I think it is a neat idea to have the flag flying in the proper context of representing the 150 year anniversary of the Civil War.  I think there should be some sort of ceremony in 2015 to represent Union troops entering Raleigh and bringing the flag down.  That could be very interesting but I don't know if they have something like that planned.