Bathrooms again?

Here is reason # 342 that WV should update its state motto from "Mountaineers are always free" to "You can't make this **** up": if and when Gov. Tomblin calls the legislature into special session to deal with flood-related issues, there's a pretty decent chance some Republican legislators will introduce a bathroom bill similar to the one that has brought so many blessings to North Carolina.

In fact, Republican senator  Robert Karnes sent around a form letter with a special session wish list, with flood relief coming in a distant fourth place. As Gazette-Mail reporter Eric Eyre noted,

Karnes’ letter devotes five sentences to the importance of passing school bathroom restrictions — and one sentence about flood response.

Now THAT'S what I call a priority.

I mean, it could work as a jobs bill if we hired a state trooper to stand outside every bathroom and match the sex specified on the birth certificate of those wishing to use the facility against what appears to be down there now, right?

In any case, I loved this editorial on the subject from the Beckley Register-Herald.

Dodging a bullet

I think it was mostly luck and an unforeseen and unforeseeable outbreak of rationality in the recent WV legislative session, but the Mountain State managed not to pass one of those controversial "religious freedom" bills that are a license to discriminate. Similar bills have been causing controversy--and costing money--in several states. It's nice that we managed not to embarrass ourselves, even if it was kind of an accident.

Meanwhile, this NY Times article on inequality, longevity and geography is worth a look. For some reason, we didn't look too bad in this one either.

NOTE: for some reason, the several  hundred odd (no disrespect intended) people who subscribed to this blog via email haven't been getting it for a while. I'm going to try something. Please let me know if it works if you happen to get this and read it. Thanks!

The quality of mercy

It's sad, but it looks like the Second Chance for Employment Act won't make it out of the WV House. It would have allowed nonviolent nonsexual offenders with one felony conviction to petition the courts to expunge their records after five years. On the other hand, things look better for a bill that would help people regain their drivers licenses.

We talked about those bills in addition to the "religious freedom" bill and mandatory minimums on a bonus Front Porch. If you listen, it was recorded on Friday so is a bit behind the times.

For those self-identified Christians who may not have got the whole mercy memo, here's a cheat sheet from Shakespeare:

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings.
It is an attribute to God himself.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

Wow

The WV legislative session has been...a cross between a zombie apocalypse and a roller coaster ride. And a root canal. But there have been surprises, not all of them bad. I was amazed to learn that the WV senate voted down a "religious freedom" bill that had turned into and attempt to legalize discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

I guess the action started last night, when some key Republican senators joined with Democrats to ensure the bill wouldn't harm nondiscrimination ordinances.It was a pretty touching story, in which some people got emotional and decided to follow their conscience.

 This evening, I'm amazed and pleased to say that the senate voted the whole thing down without debate. Here's the AP report.

It just goes to show you never know what is going to happen.

Human motivations being inherently ambiguous, some probably voted against the amended bill because it wasn't strong enough, while others took a strong anti-discrimination stand. In any case, kudos and thanks to the senate for this one.

Religious freedom, rabies, Uber and such

Karl Marx famously said that religion was the opiate of the people. At the WV legislature these days, I'd say it's more like the crystal meth. You can sample a little of the elevated level of discourse here.
And you can explore the farther reaches of homophobia here. Who knew that Uber was a gay plot to take over the world?

We tried to bring a little sanity to the discussion at this week's Front Porch podcast from WV Public Broadcasting.

Another day in hell

Starting on a positive note, kudos to WV Governor Earl Ray Tomblin for vetoing right to work for less legislation as well as the repeal of prevailing wage. He had this to say about that:

“Foremost, I dispute that West Virginia needs a right-to-work law. The issue of right to work has been discussed for a number of years, but I have never had a company cite right to work as a barrier to relocating to West Virginia. We do not lack prospects. Our issues are best addressed by improving our workforce and creating new development opportunities. Since becoming governor in 2010, West Virginia has welcomed more than $10 billion in new investments and expansion projects. I do not believe West Virginia needs a right-to-work law, a law that would lead to little if any economy growth and may lower the wages of West Virginia workers.” 

and

“Last year, I worked with the Legislature to create a compromise on prevailing wage to help local communities by exempting projects less than $500,000 and to improve our state’s prevailing wage calculation. These new rates have been in place for less than a year – we need to give this new methodology time to work. We don’t need to pass bills that lower the wages of West Virginia workers and do little, if anything, to stimulate our economy.”

Alas, the framers of WV's constitution screwed up and left things so that a simple majority is all that is needed to overturn a veto.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE BAD IDEA FACTORY, the WV House passed the misnamed Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It was nice to see this op-ed by WVU's David Fryson opposing this backlash of bigotry.

AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH, a coalition consisting of WV's ruling class and representative of the thriving pseudo-Christian Taliban are getting to work on gutting school science standards.

And why not--people have to be stupid to put up with this ****, right?

One good, one not so much

I'm not holding out a  lot of hope for good things to come out of this year's WV legislative session, but one that I'd really like to see cross the finish line is the Second Chance for Employment Act.
This would allow one time, nonviolent, nonsexual offenders to petition the courts after 5 years to have their records expunged. There's at least some bipartisan support for it in both chambers. I was glad to see that the conservative Charleston Daily Mail came out in support of it yesterday.

I can say much nice about another bill under consideration, to wit the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which many believe is a licence to discriminate. You can read what some legislators think about it here. A friend of mine who is a retired Episcopal priest had this to say about it.

What's next?

I'm thinking about starting a betting pool about what bills might gain traction in the WV legislature.  Upon considering things like this and this and this, I'm thinking about putting money on a bill that would not require teachers in WV's new charter schools to be literate provided they hated gay people enough.

More Orwellian language

The latest Front Porch podcast is about the misnamed Religious Freedom Restoration Act, now under consideration in the WV legislature. I thought this was going to be a good one, but it has been severely cut, with some of the best parts taken out. Editors...

Such a long day

If I had to come up with a title for a story about the WV legislature today, it would be something like "Beyond Whack."

Among the reasons for this was a public hearing on the Some PeopleReally Hate and are Scared of Gays Act Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is mostly about protecting the rights of people who hate gays to hate gays in the name of religion.

Before that was another public hearing on proposed right-to-work-for-less legislation at which I spoke against the legislation. It's always nice to hear from out of state billionaire-funded groups talk ****. It was clearly and "all hands on deck" command performance for the various representatives of WV's colonial overlords.

It would be hard to say whether screwing over workers or the politics of cultural jihad are the top priorities this session, but WV would be better off without either.

On the bright side, several hundred people of all ages attended Kids and Families Day at the capitol and tried to support a positive agenda.

I'd really like for all this to be a bad dream from which I will soon awaken.

Annals of Whack, continued

I'm kind of grateful to the state of Indiana for stepping up and not allowing West Virginia to grab all the Whack limelight. The Gentle Reader will no doubt be aware of the controversy that flared up after that state's governor signed a "Religious Freedom Restoration" bill widely viewed as a means to legally discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

Not to mention the whole pizza thing...

My favorite part so far is the reaction of Matt Staver of the Liberty Council, who compared people who support non-discrimination policies to demonic, Christianity-hating terrorists. If El Cabrero had not evolved far beyond the point of engaging in snark, I might be tempted to say something like "Maybe it takes one to know one." Of course, that would never happen and I would never say something like that even in private conversation, much less in a blog post.