Indiana versus Bandwagonaggedon

Hey!  Guess what!  There's a state called Indiana!  Have you heard of it?

If the answer is "yes" then you've been paying attention to things, which is good, but you've probably been lied to, and that's bad.  There's been a big stink about the state passing a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).  Some folks think it opens the door to discrimination towards gays.  That's completely false, but the people making the claims are really loud, so despite facts and stuff they must be right.  Right?

Well, no.  If you have any questions about the RFRA, HERE is a great article breaking the whole thing down.

Now, if you're wondering why this law got passed to begin with and doesn't the First Amendment of the Constitution already cover that, good for you!  Here's the skinny, around 1990 the Supreme Court made a ruling that really took the guts out of the First Amendment.  It set things up so the if Compelling State Interests came into conflict with Religious freedom, the scales were tipped way to heavily towards the State.  There are times when a State's Interests should trump Religious freedom.  

Example: if your religion calls for human sacrifice the State can stop you because of that whole murder being against the law thing.

But the 1990 case created a problem and everyone got together to fix it.  Religious groups, the ACLU, and many secular groups got together to create the Federal RFRA which Bill Clinton signed in 1993 as one of his first acts as President.  Balance was restored and everything was great.

Then it was interpreted that the Federal RFRA only applied to Federal Laws and not State laws in 1997.  Since then 20 States have passed their own RFRAs including Illinois which Barack Obama supported when he was State Senator, and Virginia which current Governor McAuliffe must not be aware of since he's been taking a couple of jabs at Indiana.  Also note that the link provided about the State RFRAs does reference the current situation in Indiana but also states that these laws have NEVER been used successfully to discriminate against homosexuals.

So, why is there a problem with Indiana?  Its been a perfect storm if ridiculousness.  I wrote before about White Knights who run about the internet typing away for their causes.   It seems the Tinfoil Hat Brigade merged with the Magenta Lantern Corp and seeing the law only through the prism of one issue created a whole conspiracy theory around it.  I do wonder if the Governor that passed it had been a Democrat if there'd be the same fuss.  I doubt it.  The false narrative is set that Republicans are bigots.  Then along come the Latter Day Atheists banging their drum that religion equals bigotry.  So we had one target that all three groups of nutters could focus on.  Then a bunch of other people jump on board because it fits with their person narrative of how the world is despite facts to the contrary.

Of course the irony here is that all their screaming just shows who is really prejudiced.  (Hint: they're the ones doing the screaming.)

And now the Indiana Governor has to react because he has people running around upset because they've bought into a lie.  This could have been avoided if people would have read the bill and done a little research instead of just giving into knee-jerk emotionalism.

Moral of the story: do your homework.

Hope its over

The George Zimmerman trial has concluded.  The not guilty verdict is in.  If you have no clue what I'm talking about then I look forward to hearing your tales of life under a rock.  I'm so glad its over.  I don't care about the verdict.  I'm just hoping this blows over without riots or any more violence and hopefully the dimwits shouting how "the system" is racist, and there's no justice will eventually settle down.

This whole thing breaks down to two guys who made a bunch of bad choices.  Unfortunately one of them ended up dead.  Tons of public outrage.  Obama spouting bullshit about "if I had a son, he's probably look like Treyvon Martin."  All this pressure to put Zimmerman away.  Ridiculous amounts of news coverage.

The prosecuting attornies should have gone for a manslaughter charge, but think about how that would have played out.  "How can they not go for a murder charge!" would be the battle cry from all the people who had already made up their minds about what happened despite not having seen all the evidence.  This of course has much to do with media spewing forth every little factoid (regardless of accuracy) and opinion that someone has to offer.

This was such a circus.  A big stupid circus.  The media hyped it up for ratings.  People got their outrage on and fed the media beast.  It spiraled out of control.  Everyone who disagreed with someone else was somehow a racist, and then there were the actual full on bigots that popped up to either call for the lynching of Zimmerman or say disgusting things about a dead teenager.  If everyone had just shut their yeps and let this play out and let the police, and investigators, and the attornies do their jobs then Zimmerman would probably be in jail over a manslaughter charge.

Keep that in mind.

Sounds Legit!

We were working for a couple down at their beach house today.  Its no secret that the guy I work for has MS.  So, small talk entails, the Big Guy's health issues are inquired about.  Nothing unusual.  So the lady says, "Hey, I know this faith healer.  You should go see him.  He's really gifted."  She went on to tell him about a guy she knew who had MS and the faith healer got that MS virus right out of him.

Now, if you are about to jump shit over that last little bit, hang on, it gets better.

So she keeps talking about the faith healer guy with glowing praise, and finally she laid out that trump card.  The glorious personal anecdote that completely cemented her claim.

"I had herpes for years, and he cleared it right up!"

...

I do wonder what her husband thinks about this.

I wonder if he knows about this.