“The country is run by extremists, because moderates have shit to do.”
–John Stewart, “The Daily Show”
Tag: current events Page 4 of 11
You know, every time I think I can no longer be utterly dumbfounded by the stupid things that politicians get up to, along comes a story like this one in Atlanta’s Creative Loafing:
Lawmakers want to punish bank for stiffing scouts
Bank of America quit donating to the Boy Scouts for its policy on gays
BY COLEY WARDThe Boy Scout motto is, “always be prepared.” And in an election year, one should be prepared for a flurry of grandstanding. So maybe we should have seen this one coming.
In April, Bank of America’s Charitable Foundation declined to give money to a local Boy Scouts council, citing the scouts’ national policy barring gays from serving as Boy Scout troop leaders.
Now, Sen. John Wiles, R-Kennesaw, and Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, say they will introduce a bill during the next legislative session that would punish Bank of America by allowing the state to refuse to do business with any company that “practices discrimination.”
Basically, what Wiles and Ehrhart are recommending is that the state be allowed to discriminate against a company that discriminates against a group that discriminates.
Wiles, who is a former scout and who has three sons in the Boy Scouts, says Bank of America has the right to donate to whomever the company wants.
“But we as a state,” he says, “we have the right not to do business with people who discriminate.”
Of course, the next legislative session is months away, and talk of a proposed bill at this point is a bit premature. But the announcement comes just in time — less than two months before the state’s primary elections — to send a message to the social conservatives in Ehrhart’s and Wiles’ districts.
Bank of America officials say the company is just trying to be consistent with its policy not to fund groups that discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex or sexual orientation. A letter from Bank of America to the Valdosta-based Alapaha council instructs the troop that if it were able to “depart from the current discriminatory practices of the national organization” the bank would consider donating to the Boy Scouts again.
Wiles says that’s not good enough. He calls Bank of America’s decision extortion.
“This is a new policy Bank of America’s taken on and they’re forcing local Boy Scout councils who rely on their money to change their policy,” Wiles says.
Lynne Hogue, a Georgia State University law professor, says it seems more like Wiles and Erhart are the ones trying to wrench money from Bank of America for the scouts.
“It sounds like an extortion plot,” Hogue says. “They’re saying, ‘If you want to do business with the state we’re going to stick a gun to your head, and you’ve got to give money to these groups that we want money given to.’ The mafia couldn’t do a better job.”
Hogue also says he believes it’s unlikely that Wiles’ and Ehrhart’s proposal would make it onto the House floor for a vote.
“I think this is just bluster and political pandering and not much else,” he says. “It’s hard to imagine that this is a serious legislative proposal.”
I don’t even know where to begin. Unbelievable. How do people like this manage to tie their own shoes?
Mike Peterson pointed this out over in rec.arts.comics.strips
Meanwhile, here’s an amusing little piece — this is an INS site that
helps immigrants prep for their citizenship tests. Click on the answer
button and see if you notice anything missing — do suppose they know
something the rest of us haven’t been told yet???http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/citizenship/flashcards/question_80.htm
Hmmmm.
EDIT (29 May 2006): Well, it looks like it’s been updated to include Freedom of the Press after all. I guess enough people were poitning out the lack.
Thanks to tigerbright for pointing it out:
All my life, I’ve felt that I was born on the wrong side of the ocean. This was underscored yesterday in the aftermath of the London transit bombings, as I watched the populace react to events with characteristic British understatement. Yes, this is how you deal with this sort of thing — exactly like that.
Honestly, anyone who knows anything about Londoners culture should have known the operation was doomed to failure, anyway. The whole point of terror bombing is to send a message, and everyone knows you don’t strike up conversations with strangers on the Tube. It’s just not done.
I was also pleased to see #filkhaven once again creating a central place for people in the filk community to get news, check up on their friends and chosen family, and generally *be a community* for people scattered by geography but bound together by spirit. I did comment sardonically to fleetfootmike that we needed to find a better method for promoting the use of the channel, though. 🙂
Well done, everyone! Carry on.
There are times I wish that a country such as the UK or Canada would offer asylum for “intellectual refugees”, who are seeking to escape the increasingly absurd morons proliferating around them.
I direct you first to a story in the Independent Florida Alligator, about a bill introduced into the state legislature that would set “a statewide standard that students cannot be punished for professing beliefs with which their professors disagree. Professors would also be advised to teach alternative ‘serious academic theories’ that may disagree with their personal views.”
Yesterday, CNN reported thatmany IMAX theatres, especially in the southeast were refusing to air a feature titled “Volcanoes of the Deep Sea” because it might offend certain religious people because of its references to evolution.
“We’ve got to pick a film that’s going to sell in our area. If it’s not going to sell, we’re not going to take it,” said Lisa Buzzelli, director of an IMAX theater in Charleston that is not showing the movie. “Many people here believe in creationism, not evolution.”
Good grief.
No matter how terrible current events get, they cannot take away my sense of humour.
(Requires QuickTime. Funny stuff. 🙂
folkmew asked, in a reply to smallship1:
If Bush is elected again how will I be able to say I’m an American to any of my friends overseas?
Because Bush isn’t America.
Good, hardworking, decent folk all over the country are America. Honest, plain-spoken, determined people, both Democrats and Republicans, dedicated to the principles of freedom and justice are America. Helpful, compassionate, community-oriented people, in cities and on farms, are America.
When a neighbor reaches out to a neighbor, there you find us. When people pitch in together for the good of their families, their neighborhoods, and their communities, there you find us. When people do the right thing for no reason other than its the right thing to do, there you find us. When the law protects the individual from the mob, there you find us.
Bush and his crowd are just a passing thing, in the great wash of history. There are many ways, too many to list, where they are bad for us, and bad for the world, but they too shall pass, and the ideal that is America shall remain.
Because America isn’t a man. It isn’t a political party. It isn’t an ideology.
America is a belief in a better future, in a rule of law, and in the idea that no matter how divided we become over matters of religion, race, or political ideology, we have the right and responsibility to peacefully work toward change.
Right now, the American Dream may be a bit tarnished. Sometimes its hard to see. Sometimes you can be so frustrated that you don’t know how to go on.
But we will go on. We will go on working to ensure that the principles that made America an ideal do not vanish, do not falter, do not perish from the earth.
There’s work to be done. And we will do it, no matter who sits in the halls of government. Because we are Americans. Even now. Even today.
I woke up at 5am to the call of nature, and wandered out to check the news before going back to bed.
Erg. This is precisely what I didn’t want this year.
Don’t get me wrong. I wanted Kerry to win, and there’s still that chance. But most of all, I wanted it to be decided, and decidedd decisively, so that we didn’t have the protracted bitter infighting of four years ago. And that’s precisely what we didn’t get.
So now, we wait, and watch, and hope.
Meanwhile, John Scalzi links us to the this absolutely gorgeous mp3 of the Yale Spizzwinks, a Yale University a capella group, performing the song Shenandoah. John called it “herbal tea for the soul”, and I agree. Having listened to it, I feel better already.
Total time at the polls, about 25 minutes. Of course, I took a late lunch to go at 2:30pm when I figured the line would be light.
I’ve been really encouraged by the reports of long lines at the polls. This is a participatory government, so its nice to see people participate.
If you haven’t voted yet, please take the time to do so. Even if you’ll vote for someone I don’t like. It’s important. It matters.
(Thanks to alymid for the icon, which i shamelessly stole. 🙂
Later: Some sort of OVFF report. 🙂