Kruse control? It's still theocratic bondage, so oppose Indiana SB 131.

The column's title is "Proposed Indiana Senate bill would force religion on schools."

It's from January of 2019, not 2020, but when it comes to chuckleheaded theocrat Dennis Kruse, every legislative session is the right time to meld church with state.

Another legislative cycle in Indiana, another brazen attempt at forcing Christianity into the public education system. No surprise there.

Indiana Senate Bill 373 was authored by state Sens. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, and Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond. Its provisions aim to bring a little more Christianity into Indiana’s public and charter schools.

The bill would allow school corporations to “require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science.”

The use of the term “creation science” signifies something important. The bill does not simply aim to make students aware that different religions tell various stories about the creation of life. It aims to teach about creationism as if it is science.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has issued an alert, because now it's a different year, with another legislative cycle ... and the very same repetitive shenanigans from Kruse, who I would refer to as a Tinpot Ayatollah if I thought he was capable of understanding either word.

Where does Hoosierland get these these bad actors, anyway?

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URGENT: Please resist “In God We Trust” in schools bill!

The Indiana Legislature is fast-tracking a bill that would require public schools in the state to display “In God We Trust” in every classroom and library. We need your help to ensure that young, impressionable students aren’t subject to religious proselytization.

SB 131 is part of the nationwide legislative push, Project Blitz. Project Blitz seeks to inject state legislatures with a whole host of religious bills, imposing the theocratic version of a powerful few on We The People. It is an unvarnished attack on American secularism and civil liberties — those things we cherish most about our democracy, and now must tirelessly defend.

While politicians claim that these laws are intended to showcase the national motto or inspire patriotism, it is clear that their true purpose is to peddle religiosity to a captive audience. These laws are about advancing the Big Lie that the United States was “founded on God” or Christianity, dismantling the wall of separation between religion and government. The motto “In God We Trust” is inaccurate, exclusionary and aimed at brainwashing American schoolchildren into believing that our nation is a theocracy.

Please use our automated system to contact members of the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development and ask that they stop this bill in its tracks.

TAKE ACTION

Neither Deaf Gahan nor Mike Hall are present as stellar rally in support of an Indiana hate crimes bill takes place at Caesartennial Park.

This Sunday: "Southern Indiana Residents Rally to 'Protect Hoosiers From Hate,' Support Comprehensive Bias Crimes Law."

After a one-week weather delay, we had a pleasant spring day. The rally was short, mostly bipartisan and straight to the point.

The pay-to-play hierarchy of the Floyd County Democratic Party didn't seem to be very interested in the proceedings, but we've some to expect very little from them apart from vapid posturing, so their absence wasn't a tremendous surprise.

Congrats to the organizers. It was a spirited but professionally planned event with ample substance and a communal spirit.

Southern Indiana community members to rally for hate crime law Sunday, by Rachael Krause (WAVE)

Community members in Southern Indiana will rally for hate crime law Sunday

Indiana is one of just five states without a hate crime law, it’s a statistic Hoosiers hear regularly.

Despite repeated calls for legislation to pass that would implement strong protections, lawmakers continue to show that one in five statistic is one that won’t be easily changed.

In February, the Indiana Senate approved a hate crime bill but the legislation had stripped away the list of included protections for people based on things like race, gender identity or religion. The bill has been criticized by many around the state who say without a list of protected people, the bill likely won’t be strong enough to protect victims of targeted crimes.

Joining the call to do better and propose stronger legislation is Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb ...

This Sunday: "Southern Indiana Residents Rally to 'Protect Hoosiers From Hate,' Support Comprehensive Bias Crimes Law."

Facebook event page.

(Because of expected winter weather, the rally has been rescheduled for Sunday, March 10th at Noon)

Here's the press release; see you there.

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Southern Indiana Residents Rally to “Protect Hoosiers From Hate,” Support Comprehensive Bias Crimes Law

WHAT: On Sunday, March 3rd at noon, Southern Indiana Pride along with the Indiana Forward campaign will host a rally at Bicentennial Park in New Albany (118 E. Spring Street) to call on Indiana Statehouse legislators to support a strong hate crime bill that includes a list of characteristics supported by Governor Eric Holcomb. The rally will be bipartisan in nature and will include Southern Indiana political and faith leaders, business owners, students, and activists.

Hoosiers from all over Indiana were let down by the State Senate’s refusal to pass a comprehensive hate crime bill. Senate Bill 12 is not a hate crime bill. The enumerated protections were stripped from the bill after legislators approved Sen. Freeman’s (R Indianapolis) amendment. The protections stripped from the bill included a list of personal characteristics supported by Governor Eric Holcomb that included race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The bill now goes to Indiana’s House of Representatives. Our hope is that Indianapolis will listen to Hoosiers and amend the bill so that it protects all Hoosiers from hate.

WHEN: Sunday, March 3, 2019 | 12 p.m.

WHERE: Bicentennial Park, 118 E. Spring Street, New Albany, IN 47150

WHO: Speakers at the rally will include:

Councilman Al Knable (R-New Albany)
Rep. Ed Clere (R-New Albany)
Rep. Rita Fleming (D-Jeffersonville)
Michael Leppert - Indiana Forward Campaign For Hate Crime Legislation
Jason Applegate (D-Candidate for New Albany City Council)
Miguel Hampton (D-Candidate for Jeffersonville City Council)
Pastor John E. Manzo (St. Marks UCC)
Cade Gibson (Jeffersonville HS)
Elijah Mahan (Roncalli HS Shelly’s Voice Leader)

WHY: Bias crimes are on the rise across the country, but Indiana remains one of just five states without a clear and specific bias crimes law. Gov. Eric Holcomb has repeatedly called for bias crimes legislation and has stated that reaching consensus on this issue is his top priority in 2019. More than 74% percent of Hoosiers support a bias crimes law, including a majority of Republicans, according to a January 2019 Indiana Chamber statewide poll. This support echoed by employers, who report that the state’s lack of a bias crimes law fuels a negative perception of the state that hinders their talent recruitment efforts and economic development opportunities.

Eric Holcomb, hate crime legislation and Mack Trucks.

The topic is hate crime, and as an aside, it's instructive to consider Governor Eric Holcomb's feat of juggling.

Holcomb was praised by the customarily milquetoast News and Tribune for his stand in favor of hate crime legislation, then opened for Donald Trump in Evansville and was almost completely ignored by statewide media.

Now, it just might be that so few states remain without hate crime legislation that there's no political capital to be expended by Holcomb in conceding the inevitable.

And, there is no way Holcomb would NOT warm up the crowd at an in-state rally for a president and senatorial candidate of his own party, with the latter poised to topple a Democratic incumbent.

Perhaps there are some tightropes to be walked, though in a state as red as this one, they're as wide as an Ohio River bridge. As always, the devil lurks in the semantics, but a hate crime law is overdue, and if the sitting governor supports it, let's get it done.

Following are two local chain newspaper articles on the topic, neither of them authored by Tom May. That fact alone is noteworthy.

OUR OPINION: Hate crime law overdue in Indiana, by the editorial team at the Tom and Maybune

 ... For too long Hoosier lawmakers have been content with giving only lip service to acts of hate. Their failure to act has left us self-righteous — we’re “shocked” and “saddened” at these “senseless” acts — but impotent.

No more, if Gov. Holcomb has his way. He responded to the hate vandalism with determined eloquence.

“No law can stop evil, but we should be clear that our state stands with the victims and their voices will not be silenced,” Holcomb said. “For that reason it is my intent that we get something done this next legislative session, so Indiana can be 1 of 46 states with hate crimes legislation—and not 1 of 5 states without it.”

The other four states void of hate crimes laws are Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and Wyoming.

Praiseworthy and in-depth coverage of the issue is here, so check it out.

In Southern Indiana, victims of hate say it's a crime in need of a law, by Aprile Rickert

WHAT IS A HATE CRIME?

The FBI defines a hate crime, for the purpose of collecting statistics, as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Although the Bureau recognizes that hate alone is not a crime, and free speech rights are protected.

Indiana's neighboring states of Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio already have hate crime legislation in place, although the language varies on who is specifically protected.

Fascist Indiana senator proposes "block traffic and you die bill," this idea being consistent with the broad principles of autocentrism, if not social justice.

Indiana GOP -- group photo.

This is no more than an extreme example of the usual doctrine of cars having all the rights to our streets, and other users none. Jim Tomes merely dispenses with the hypocrisy, because most governmental units in the state feel the same way about their daily pedestrians and bicyclists as Tomes does about protesters.

Am I the only person here who is desperately eager to see this bill advance so Ron Grooms will have to vote on it?

(thanks B)

Indiana bill would allow police to shut down protests 'by any means necessary', by Joanna Walters (The Guardian)

Opponents in Indianapolis argue the proposed law, simply labelled Senate Bill 285, or SB 285, would give police power ‘even to the point of costing lives’

A bill that would require public officials in Indiana to dispatch law enforcement swiftly to remove any protesters blocking traffic by “any means necessary” prompted uproar on Wednesday.

Opponents of the bill, introduced by a Republican state senator, rushed to the general assembly in Indianapolis on Wednesday afternoon to attend a hearing for the legislation, arguing that it could give a green light to the police to shut down protests harshly “even to the point of costing lives”.

Indiana's Republican legislative leadership: "The one thing, however, that has always stuck in my throat is the devotion of the Mandarins to Crony Capitalism."

Wait -- this is Democratic Party crony capitalism. Oops.

An interesting perspective, and I enjoy Huston's use of the term "mandarins," a noun that originates in China, but has been adapted for wider, more humorous use.

6. an influential or powerful government official or bureaucrat.
7. a member of an elite or powerful group or class, as in intellectual or cultural milieus: the mandarins of the art world.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a train to Indy ready for boarding. Except I don't.

HUSTON: The Statehouse Mandarins push transportation tax, by Tom Charles Huston (CNHI Indiana)

The members of the General Assembly have barely warmed their seats and the fury is already reaching pitched levels on social media. It is over the proposal by the new Republican governor (washed into office by the Trump landslide) and the Republican legislative leadership (known affectionately as the Mandarins) to hike gasoline taxes and impose a number of new fees designed to raise an additional $1.2 billion a year for highway and bridge construction and maintenance ...

 ... I don’t like the mix of taxes the Legislature has fashioned, which in my view impose a disproportionate burden on lower-income Hoosiers, and I have opposed the continuing shift of the tax burden from businesses to individuals. On the other hand, with property tax relief I think the overall tax burden on Hoosiers is not excessive and in some instances is less than what is reasonably required for state and local governments to do the things that need to be done. This is certainly a minority view among those who generally share my political dispositions, but government exists to perform certain vital functions and doing so requires revenue and, thus, taxes.

Everyone has a view of what the budget priorities ought to be and whether some programs are beyond the scope of what our state government is required to do and accordingly should be eliminated. People of good will are going to differ on these matters, and my inclination has always been to cut my fellow conservative some slack on the details. The one thing, however, that has always stuck in my throat is the devotion of the Mandarins to Crony Capitalism. They are incorrigible, and even such common-sense fiscal conservatives (Mike Pence) once in office fall victim to the lure of picking winners and paying off special interests. It is one thing to pay your fair share of taxes; it something else entirely to have those taxes transferred into the pockets of Mel Simon, Jim Irsay and every corporate supplicant that hires a wired lobbyist.

Let's keep the spotlight on the civil rights FAIL perpetuated by Mike Pence and Indiana's Republicans.

But that's life in a one-party state.

EDITORIAL: Legislature, governor fail test of courage, at the Evansville Courier & Press

... With five weeks remaining in the short, non-budgetary session, the 2016 Legislature, without great leadership from the governor's office, has accomplished little. We acknowledge that, usually, there is a great rush of bills through Indianapolis in the final week, but beginning with civil rights legislation, it's disheartening what Gov. Mike Pence and the Legislature chose to not push through.

Once again, the simple act of assuring equal rights for all escaped our elected leaders and became a debate that reached the national stage — though, thanks goodness, not as much as last year's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. In an effort to appease both those who support civil rights and those who fear their religious beliefs would be infringed upon, nothing moved forward — which you sense, in this election year, is exactly what Gov. Pence had hoped.

"Gov. Mike Pence and the General Assembly have failed Indiana and its residents, not just those from the LGBT community, but all of us."

When I was a wee lad, being Republican was all about obeying the every desire of high-powered economic interests.

Now it's groveling to the prejudices of our Christian Taliban. It's hard to decide which aspect of the One Party State is worse.

Editorial: A legislative letdown over LGBT rights (Indy Star)

The General Assembly and Gov. Mike Pence’s refusal to extend the state’s civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender identity continues to tarnish Indiana’s image and jeopardize long-term economic prosperity.

Last spring, after a firestorm from passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act blew up in their faces, lawmakers pledged to address legal protections for LGBT citizens in the next legislative session.

But after meeting privately Tuesday, Senate Republican leaders decided to kill legislation that would have protected gay Hoosiers from discrimination. In doing so, they not only failed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers but also their families, friends, coworkers and anyone else in our state who values equality ...

Further notice: Southern Indiana Equality's next meeting is January 28 at the Roadhouse.

Here's a reminder that Southern Indiana Equality's next meeting is January 28 at the Roadhouse. That's Thursday.

Southern Indiana Equality will be holding their 1st quarter meeting at 7:00 pm on January 28th. It will be held in the upstairs room at The New Albany Roadhouse.

New Albany Roadhouse
1706 Graybrook Lane
New Albany, Indiana 47150

We are proud to welcome representatives from Freedom Indiana as well as Indiana Competes to discuss the new legislative session. This will be a full community meeting where questions can be answered and the future of Indiana equality will be discussed.

Food and drinks will be available for purchase.

Southern Indiana Equality is a good place to monitor Indiana's legislative foibles -- and there are many. Relevant links:

Southern Indiana Equality
Freedom Indiana
Indiana Competes

Will the institution of Happy Hour return to Hoosier shores?

I was in my early twenties when Indiana banned the promotional practice of happy hours (alcoholic beverage discounts predicated on time of day) and also favoritism in pricing (i.e., ladies night).

Since then, it's been "Happy Day or Bust." If an establishment is advertising dollar longnecks during the UFC bout, the same price must be charged for as long as the bar is open on that particular business day.

Might this be about to change?

Indiana bill would bring back happy hour, at the Indianapolis Star

Justin Mack and IndyStar beverage reporter Amy Haneline talk about pending legislation that would remove the state's ban on happy hour.

As I've pointed out on numerous occasions, the Republican Party in Indiana, while monolithic, has its bizarre familial quirks. Among them are differences in outlook, albeit generally muted for public consumption, between the party's Rand Paul wing of wide open libertarian deregulation, and purely theocratic elements which would happily remove all vestiges of secular government at the drop of a holy book.

These camps seem to take turns calling the tune, and yet it's hard for me to imagine the happy hour ban being reversed. Apart from the religious-based prohibitionists, there will be significant opposition on the opposite side of the aisle from the same tired health fascists -- plus, some semblance of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers still exists, and I remember all too well its clout when lobbying for the ban the first time around. MADD has descended into parody in recent years, though it remains feisty.

A base, happy hour doesn't strike me as sufficiently important to get tourism and economic development lobbies involved; besides, they're still busy trying to soften the impact of the RFRA fatwa.

Back when the happy hour ban first took effect, I immediately lost interest in Indiana University basketball. The Tumbleweed in New Albany had a game night promotion involving "dee-fense, dee-fense": If IU held the opposition to less than 60 points, there followed an hour of 2-for-1 well drinks after the final whistle. So much for that.

In hindsight, it's regrettable that food-based happy hours never really caught on. We used to go to the long defunct Chi Chi's in Clarksville for happy hour margaritas, and when the law changed, the restaurant had a cheap food buffet instead. The cost to the consumer worked out about the same, and as a trencherman, I like it, but evidently there was no traction.

Mapping the United States of Happy Hours, by Aarian Marshall (City Lab)

Some cities are straight-up bacchanalian. Others, not so much ... why are the laws so different in different cities? Many bans were implemented in the 1980s when citizen groups led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving presented state legislatures with some scary statistics.

Planned Parenthood, primary endorsements, Ayatollah Coffey, and Feeling the Bern.

Before Christmas, as some new variety of Neanderthal right-wing offensive against Planned Parenthood seemed to be mounting (I tend to lose track of them), a friend announced that she'd match donations to PP up to a maximum amount.

We had skipped a year or two, and so I tithed ... freely and happily.

Then, as so often occurs, New Albany's city council offered black comic relief. With funding for Blessings in a Backback in the fanny pack, and her legislative "legacy" complete, departing at-large council person Shirley Baird seemed ready to insert a benign resolution into the agenda in support of PP.

Dan Coffey, at the time still clinging to a Vietnamese-rice-paper-thin allegiance to the Democratic Party, readied to unleash the legions of the pious.

The Ayatollah Coffey sharpens his knives for a Thursday evening orgy of ward-heeling religious ecstasy.

Courageous to the last inning, Baird promptly pulled the offensive resolution, perhaps having been told by Adam Disney that keeping Coffey happy would ensure many bountiful returns during the next cemetery registration drive.

Planned Parenthood resolution pulled from Thursday council agenda, so I guess the Coffey spontaneous combustion is off, too.

But there is no rest for progressives in this squalid town. No sooner than we had made our donation to PP, the organization goes and does this.

online-backlash-after-planned-parenthood-endorses-hillary-clinton/">Massive Online Backlash After Planned Parenthood Endorses Hillary Clinton

In a historic move yesterday, Planned Parenthood endorsed Hillary Clinton for President – its first endorsement in a presidential primary in the nonprofit’s 100-year existence.

(Slaps head) ... if we'd wanted to donate to Hillary, it would have been money handed directly to her campaign. This may or may not yet occur, depending on the autumn threat posed by the fascists, with the point being that PP offers this endorsement in the primary, not the general election.

Let there be no misunderstandings about Planned Parenthood. We support it, but the next donation of equal or greater amount is going to Bernie Sanders. As one compelled to suffer through the clownish cerebral decline of the local Democratic Party, I have no desire to finance the ethos of "Let's Out-Republican the GOP."

Fuck a bunch of Dickeyism. Rather, "Feel the Bern."

Meanwhile ... PP reminds us that in One Party Indiana, the spirit of Generalissimo Franco and the Inquisition live on. ‬

Just one week in to Indiana’s legislative session, anti-woman politicians have proposed five bills opposing access to safe, legal abortion – with more likely to follow. It’s time to speak out against extreme restrictions and gross misinformation.

• SB 144 (Sen. Banks)/HB 1122 (Rep. Nisly) would restrict a woman's access to safe, legal abortion on pregnancies as early as 6 weeks - long before most women even know they are pregnant. If enacted, these bills would result in an effective ban on abortion in Indiana.

• SB 374 (Sen. Waltz) more than doubles the waiting period between the time a woman receives counseling and the abortion procedure to 48 hours. It also increases penalties on abortion providers. If enacted, this bill could strain the resources of women who access abortion – many of whom already face significant barriers to high-quality health care.

• SB 313 (Sen. Holdman) distorts the lived experiences of women facing unexpected and difficult decisions during their pregnancy. If enacted, it would force doctors to speculate on a woman’s motives at a time when the urgent need is non-judgmental care and support.

• SB 314 (Sen. Brown) continues the dangerous rhetoric of anti-abortion extremists. In doing so, it contributes to a hostile climate for health care providers and patients.

These bills make clear that some of our legislators have no respect for Hoosier women and their families or privacy for health care decision-making.

Pledge to take action now to stop these dangerous measures in their tracks.

In solidarity,

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky

Southern Indiana Equality's next meeting is January 28 at the Roadhouse.

While thinking about posting the mailing received today from Freedom Indiana, Brad Bell served notice of the next meeting of Southern Indiana Equality:

Southern Indiana Equality will be holding their 1st quarter meeting at 7:00 pm on January 28th. It will be held in the upstairs room at The New Albany Roadhouse.

New Albany Roadhouse
1706 Graybrook Lane
New Albany, Indiana 47150

We are proud to welcome representatives from Freedom Indiana as well as Indiana Competes to discuss the new legislative session. This will be a full community meeting where questions can be answered and the future of Indiana equality will be discussed.

Food and drinks will be available for purchase.

Southern Indiana Equality is a good place to monitor Indiana's legislative foibles -- and there are many. Relevant links:

Southern Indiana Equality
Freedom Indiana
Indiana Competes

Selected "Southern Indiana leaders talk LGBT protections bill."

Indiana is a lamentably lop-sided one-party state, but earlier this year when Governor Mike Pence's GOP triumphantly embraced the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, numerous sycophants from the usual corporate-weighted economic development cadre finally got the willies.

Now, for our entertainment, the same legislators who brought you the idiocy of RFRA will provide anti-discrimination laws to countermand it -- well, mostly. There'll have to be bigotry maintenance exceptions, you know.

Our local state representative broke ranks over RFRA, and accordingly, Ed Clere is quoted here.

State Senator Ron Grooms as yet touts the wonderfulness of RFRA, evidently as viewed from his residence on Fantasy Island, but fortunately, he is not interviewed here.

However, there is one paragraph in need of explanation.

(New Albany council person Greg) Phipps said he's happy to see New Albany's anti-discrimination ordinance working. Though the human right commission hasn't heard any cases, he said a couple of instances of alleged LGBT discrimination have been mentioned, but not acted upon.

It works, though it hasn't been used, and discrimination not brought before the HRC did't occur because there was no action.

In short, Gahanism in a nutshell: Fundamental change is imperative, so long as nothing fundamentally changes. 

Southern Indiana leaders talk LGBT protections bill, by Jerod Clapp (Clark County Today)

SOUTHERN INDIANA — A bill to include LGBT people in existing anti-discrimination laws is on the slate for the State Senate's upcoming legislative session.

The draft, written by Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, comes after the state's heavily criticized passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act from last spring. The new bill grants protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trangender people.

Though some local government and business leaders see the proposal as a step in the right direction, they expressed concern over religious exemptions.

But the implications of the bill don't stop at the rights of LGBT people, but also what it could ultimately mean for the state's business environment and economy are also concerns among leaders.

Ed Clere instrumental as "Bill adds smoke to high-end cigar bars in Indiana."

Both Tom Uhl (Office Cigar Lounge in Floyds Knobs) and Jeff Mouttet (Riverside Cigar Shop and Match Lounge in Jeffersonville) have had to deal with more than their share of niggling laws that don't correspond with reality as we know it today.

Jeff says it best:

“We sell an experience, we don’t just sell cigars. We’re like 21st century barbershop. We’re a gathering place.”

Precisely. A doff of the chapeau to Rep. Ed Clere for being receptive and diligent in this and other matters of legislative tweaking. An exception to the statewide smoking law already was in place, and it made no sense for a grandfather clause to tilt the competitive table.

Bill adds smoke to high-end cigar bars in Indiana, by Maureen Hayden (CNHI)

INDIANAPOLIS — Inside the cozy Office Cigar Lounge in Floyds Knobs, you can buy a rare $60 Arturo Fuentes Opus X cigar, lounge in leather chairs and watch sports on big-screen televisions.

But you can’t light up.

For that, you’ll have to step outside and move at least eight feet from the door. Outdoor heaters help ward off the chill. This past winter, smokers looking to come in from the cold could repair to a Winnebago in the parking lot.

It’s not the setup that owner Tom Uhl envisioned when he opened the cigar lounge two years ago in this affluent suburban community north of New Albany.

“It’s like opening a Wendy’s and being told your customers can’t eat their burgers inside,” he said.

That’s about to change. In the waning days of the legislative session, language slipped into an obscure tobacco bill clears the way for smokers to light up inside Uhl’s establishment. And it opens the door for other cigar bars, as well.

After all, it's the only rational response to theocratic fascism.

Credit our Rep. Ed Clere for voting no. Surprisingly, so did Steve Stemler, who finally spotted something Democratic in his party affiliation, but it's small consolation, and as K noted on Fb:

"Ed still votes to give tax dollars to religious schools through vouchers."

In 2008, Barack Obama won the state of Indiana. Since that moment, our state's white, Republican, theocratic fascists have maneuvered remorselessly to turn back the clock to antebellum times. More often than not, they've succeeded. But history is cyclical, and death rattles often are preceded by seemingly powerful, last-gasp emissions of bile and intemperance. Then, the hollow structure collapses in on itself.

Today's vote fuels my contempt for them even more, and it just makes me want to fight back harder. Of all the commentaries I read on this topic, John Krull said it best.

Unholy arguments and religious freedom (NUVO)

 ... We need to understand exactly how steep the slope is we’re standing on with this bill. The premise behind it is that our laws will be subordinate to an individual’s conscience. We only have to follow the laws with which we agree. The burden shifts to the state to prove it has a reason for asking us to follow the law.

Once we start rolling down that hill, who knows where we’ll stop. If following the law becomes a matter of personal choice based on one’s religious beliefs, then the idea of law itself is compromised.

Maddeningly true. But I'll live to see the bastards choke on it ... and I will laugh, long and loud.

Theocratic Fascism Restoration Act: "Ignoring Resistance by Corporations, Indiana Set to Pass Religious Discrimination Bill."

Even the state's major corporate business interests, who customarily enjoy having their boots delicately licked by the likes of a fawning Ron Grooms, view this reincarnation of the Nuremberg Laws to be a very bad idea.

Ignoring Resistance by Corporations, Indiana Set to Pass Religious Discrimination Bill (Human Rights Campaign)

However, such is the importance of assuaging the primal fear of white (and mostly Protestant) Indiana right-wingers that Grooms -- who voted just as enthusiastically for this abomination as he voted against marriage equality, at least gaining points for dull-witted consistency in discriminatory intent -- joins with the fraternity of the Pencenuts in rendering Indiana a laughing stock.

An open letter to the Indiana House of Representatives (NUVO)

Ironic, isn't it? Surely the majority of "Christians" backing such legislation belong to churches that enjoy tax exempt status. But they still avail themselves of the nation's infrastructure, don't they?

So do businesses large and small, most of which are subject to taxation (of course, evasion occurs), and while there'll always be differing opinions as to the what a fair rate of taxation truly is, it remains that most of us remain tethered to this grid of infrastructure for daily use: Streets, roads, sidewalks, electricity, sewers, water ... in short, the collective gathering of resources necessary and beneficial to all, subsidized in ways both great and small by and for us all.

I'm a business owner, and my business depends on this collective infrastructure to operate. Unless my business is prepared to opt out from the collective infrastructure, it cannot opt out of the collective social contract that builds and maintains it -- and how does one opt out from the collective infrastructure? As long as a publicly maintained path leads to one's door, it is scarcely possible.

The gist of American history in my reading is to reserve matters of individual conscience, like religious expression, to the individual: Believe as you please and be as you are, so long as it does not hurt others. For a business to argue that it must be free to discriminate on the basis of "religion" (and whatever that is cannot be agreed upon by Christians themselves) mocks this notion of civilization's advancement.

It's absolutely chilling that so many Hoosiers seem to think these rights exist in a vacuum, unconnected with anything at all apart from their own self-identified sectarian preferences, and that there is no ultimate benefit to giving a little (rigid cultural exclusivity) to gain a lot (expanded enrichment in terms of personal finance and spirituality) of multiculturalism.

I also understand that so much of it is fear. The fear isn't rational, but unfortunately, religion rushes in where the human mind fears to tread. That's a scenario for education, not legislation. I'm told that Rep. Ed Clere (R-72) opposes this example of odious lawmaking. That's good.

Will Steve "Seriously, I'm a Democrat, Every Now and Then" Stemler sit this vote out, too?

Conservatives Admit The Truth On Indiana ‘Religious Liberty’ Bill (Think Progress)

Krull: "What they know for sure that isn't so."

If Mark Twain really said the words reprinted on this meme, then "imbeciles who really mean it" works quite well, too.

Krull: What they know for sure that isn't so, by John Krull (TheStatehouseFile.com via the C-J)

INDIANAPOLIS – Long ago in an almost forgotten presidential primary debate, U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-South Carolina, delivered a classic line about Ronald Reagan.

It wasn't the things that the Gipper didn't know that created trouble, Hollings said

Rather, Hollings continued, it was the stuff that Reagan "knew for sure that just wasn't so" that was the problem.

I've thought about Hollings' jest as we approach the 2015 session of the Indiana General Assembly.

This session promises us proposals that will protect the "rights" of Christians to celebrate Christmas in public schools and on courthouse lawns and to refuse service to gay people because doing so will violate their religious principles.

Doubtless, we also will see Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, continue his efforts with other state legislators from around the country to rewrite the U.S. Constitution.

Driving these initiatives is the unshakable conviction that something is wrong with the moral workings of the universe and the law if social conservatives aren't allowed to use the power of government — to borrow former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's revealing phrase — "to inflict" their "views on others."

Brewers of Indiana Guild legislation, today in Indianapolis.

President Clay Robinson of the Brewers of Indiana Guild provides this overview of legislative action this morning. I plan on being there, after which we'll have a regular Guild meeting. At 4:30 p.m., there'll be the Guild's annual legislative reception. Unfortunately, it would appear that the previously golden farmers market provision may be targeted for removal from the bill by lobbyists from a hostile industry, which would be a real shame. Let's hope it doesn't happen. If artisanal wineries can do it ... well, you know.

I'll be back later to report.

Two of our BIG bills are being heard in the House Public Policy Committee. The hearing is at 9:00 a.m., in House Committee Room 156B (in the State House basement). Please join us if you can. These are Senate bills that passed through the Senate and now must pass through the House in order to become law.
 
The committee will hear testimony and consider the bills but will hold the vote until next week. The two bills are SB 16which has several provisions that will be helpful to craft breweries, including the ability to sell carryout (cans, bottles or pre-filled growlers) at farmers markets. 
 
Our second bill being heard in committee tomorrow is “beer at the state fair” SB 339. There is broad support for this bill, most notably by the State Fair Commission.

"This is bad law-making," but still, Rhonda Rhoads lends her name to HJR infamy.

Photo cribbed from a Pence for President web site. Seriously.

Corydon must be so very proud today.

Indiana lawmakers pick up fight over same-sex marriage ban, by Barb Berggoetz and Tony Cook (Indy Star)

The fiery debate over a state constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage is headed for a hearing Monday, but an effort by Republican lawmakers to quell some concerns about the measure could further muddy the issue.

After months of laying low on the proposal, House Republicans filed a resolution Thursday that would send the amendment to voters in November.

But they also introduced a wildcard: A companion measure, House Bill 1153, that seeks to clarify the amendment's intent ...

 ... Indiana's proposed amendment, now called House Joint Resolution 3, is being sponsored by Republican Reps. Eric Turner of Cicero; Tim Wesco, Osceola; Wes Culver, Goshen and Rhonda Rhoads, Corydon ...

 ... "You're admitting there's a problem with the amendment," said Megan Robertson, campaign manager for Freedom Indiana, a coalition fighting the proposal. "They are playing political games with the state constitution."

Legal experts echoed some of those concerns.

Drobac, the IU law professor, questioned why lawmakers in support of the ban needed to tack on an extra bill if their previous claims that the amendment would not affect issues like domestic partner benefits were true.

"This is bad law-making. These lawmakers should know what they're doing," she said. "We need legislation that is clear and comports with law-making procedure. Proponents will profess what it does, but it will have to be litigated."

What a novel idea, basing it on actual evidence, as opposed to blackmail.

Social drinkers/drivers with a lower blood alcohol count aren't the ones inflicting mayhem on the streets and roads. Never have been. Chronic violators are the problem, and a .05 BAC standard does nothing to bring them into compliance. Measures like this are thinly veiled prohibitionism in a nation that chronically undervalues public transportation because its libido fixates on the presumed "freedom" of the automobile.

Pfui.

Tighter Indiana drunken driving law seems unlikely (Associated Press)

INDIANAPOLIS — Some key Indiana legislators don’t expect the state to adopt a federal safety board’s recommendation that the threshold for drunken driving be cut nearly in half.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in its proposal last week that drunken-driving deaths could be reduced if states lowered the current 0.08 blood-alcohol level for driving to 0.05 percent ...

... “I think before we go running off and introducing law, because somebody suggested we should be blackmailed, let’s look at the data and see what’s most effective and with what do we get the most reduction in alcohol-related injuries,” (House transportation committee Chairman Ed) Soliday said. “Some of that may not need a law passed.”