Tennessee Steps Backwards Yet Again - Move To Ban LGBT Anti-Discrimination Laws

Ah yes, the barefoot banjo pickers image for folks from the Volunteer State have just been further entrenched.  The state Senate passed a bill that would prohibit anti-discrimination laws that are stricter than the state's.  In other words this would void ordinances like the one in Nashville barring companies that discriminate against gays and lesbians from doing business with the city.   Since sexual-orientation and gender identity are not specifically enumerated in the state laws, if the bill becomes law, it will be open season on discriminating against LGBT people. 

Way to go Tennessee!  I have said this before and I will say it again, my grandfather, a blacksmith from Tennessee, would be appalled if he was still alive.  Though he was functionally illiterate, he was a liberal Democrat who used to tell me that if his finger touched the Republican lever in a voting machine, it would burn his skin.  So when I criticize Tennessee, I have at least a little skin in the game.

Coal Cares Campaign - Free Asthma Inhalers for Kids?

One of the best pranks on the soot industry ever.  Coalcares.org, a prank website with a real message.  Coal polution causes breathing problems for millions of American kids and adults.  But hey you can still get a groovy Miley Cyrus inhaler from them!  (This is ironic folks, but check out the site.  It's genius!)

Tennessee Descends Into The Dark Ages

In an unprecedented step backwards, the Tennessee legislature is crafting a bill to ban "Sharia Law" and to ban any organization that adheres to Sharia.  Beyond the fact that no legislation in the country is based on Sharia Law, making the bill just plain silly, this one goes into personal religious practices.

Here is the deal.  According to this version of the bill, it would be criminal to provide "material support or resources to a designated sharia organization."  By broad definition any two Muslims who gather together and observe Sharia practices would be banned.  

It's a big step into state regulating religion.  Imagine saying that any two Jews who practice Levitical Code would be considered illegal. or to the heart of the matter any two Christians who followed Paul's letters to the Church as law, would be banned.

Putting the shoe on the other foot makes this whole silly thing seem more like a scare tactic, and that's exactly what it is.  The bills prominent sponsor, Sen. Bill Ketron (R), is trying to scare people.  He knows fear works and he is working it for all it's worth. 

More crap like this from the Volunteer State and the image of a bunch of barefoot hillbillies drunk on moonshine running the state will be indelible.  As a guy whose maternal grandparents were from Tennessee, I can say with impunity, they would be appalled by these kinds of shenanigans.

University of Michigan Law Students Walk Out of Graduation in Protest

In a visible protest to the graduation speaker, anti-gay Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) over 100 students walked out of their own graduation ceremony.