Discussion for article #234850
Sounds like a voice of reason to me. It will be very telling now depending on what the Indiana legislature and Governor actually do to move forward … or to double down and claim victimhood. Thank you, Indiana Star.
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The defense I have heard of this law amounts to: “It’s like the federal law that Bill Clinton signed.” I’m no lawyer, but many have said it is not. Regardless, the implication is that Bill Clinton is supposed to be an infallible god who never signed bad legislation like DOMA and Glass-Steagall repeal. Times and attitudes have changed in the past 20 years. Making a mistake in 1995 was bad; repeating the same error in 2015 is simply idiotic.
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**
REPEAL
THIS
NOW
**
is more like it.
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OK folks it’s all better now. Here is a draft of the clarification that was found in a septic tank in Gary last night;
"We the God loving elected officials of Indiana, along with our blessed and humble as pie Governor did not intend to encourage discrimination against anyone by passing our “go ahead and discriminate law”. To clarify, our intent was only to make it possible for businesses to deny service to people whose sexual orientation, faith, disability, skin color, age, political beliefs, choice of automobile or hair style conflicted with our religious dogma. While targeting those of the gay persuasion first we see this as an opening to eventually make it possible for any of the yahoos who live in our backwater state to conjure up any wacky claim to deny service to anyone they feel like and at the same time use the roads, sidewalks, police and fire services, and so on of a civil society. We hope this clarification will alleviate those weak sisters who somehow construe our claim for our God given rights to be somehow discriminatory.
Now would someone please tell those darkies mowing the lawn at our country club to be off the streets by sundown?
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It is “like” the federal law, “like” being the operative word. Indiana has broadened the scope of the federal law. The devil is in the details.
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Moreover, since everyone in Indiana is covered under federal law, if it were, in fact, the same, then the state just wasted a lot of time on the taxpayer’s dime. So, either it is NOT the same or the legislators are grandstanding fools (note: This is not an either/or proposition).
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pence signed off on this thinking it would gain him attention as he tries out the national stage and certainly endear him to the teatard wing of the gop… well, he’s got the attention – though the level of criticism he’s receiving and from what quarters – has been a surprise. he is more than happy to be a target of the lgbt crowd; but with the business/sports groups openly speaking against him, he just blew his chances for a vp slot.
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This, plus his utter ineptitude shown in his defense of the bill on Sunday: Saying that people are mischaracterizing the bill, yet refusing to say what it does or does not permit, doesn’t exactly demonstrate the ability to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear–something a VP candidate sometimes has to do.
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Just what we need, a VP who makes Quayle, W, and Louie Gohmert seem like Einstein/Turing in comparison.
OK, well, maybe not Louie Gohmert.
(But using Turing’s name in proximity to Pence’s was good fun.)
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I am so struck by the Governor’s surprise at the backlash. He and his GOP legislative leaders had that smug look of superiority last week, and now they have the deer in headlights countenance in utter disbelief that anyone could not see their true altruistic intention – which, of course, they cannot articulate any clearer than mud. If the law is just like the 1993 Federal law then this one is redundant and they could just repeal it, Just sayin’.
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Hello, ACLU? Isn’t it time to go to court over this?
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He doesn’t want to be VP, he has plans to be the president one day. May his God save us from such folly!!
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Nice gesture from a newspaper with a long history of rightwing Republican partisanship. The idea that Indaina has embraced diversity is hilarious. This is a state once rules by the Klan, which kept immigrants out of Indianapoklis for decades, and had numerous “sundown towns” until the Civil Rights era. This bill is well within the historical context of the Hoosier state and this newspaper.
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How about my religious freedom? Under this law would I - as a Christian - have the right to refuse service to racists, homophobes, Islamophobes, bigots,and legislators who oppress the poor while catering to the very wealthy? Homosexuality wouldn’t be an issue for me because Jesus had nothing to say about it, just as he was totally silent on the issue of abortion.
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Confirmed Captain. The Titanic is listing to port… Ladies and gentleman, we’ve reached the tipping point.
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It’s absurd to refer to this law as a religious freedom law. Doing so plays into the right’s framing of the discussion. Media should call this the right to discriminate law or the right to be bigots law. Playing their game on their court is a losing proposition.
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'Yer a bit late to complain about “clinging to ideology or personal preferences” while “Indiana is in a state of crisis…worse than you seem to understand.”
Where was the Indy Star in early January when this bill was first proposed?
Where was the Indy Star in February when it came out of committee.
Where was the Indy Star when it was referred to the House in late February?
Where was the Indy Star on the 24th of March when it was approved by both chambers and sent to the Governor?
Where was the Indy Star the next day when it was signed by the House Speaker and the Senate President?
Where was the Indy Star’s reporting on a bill laden with “ideology (and) personal preferences”?
Where was the Indy Star’s reporting on the coming “crisis…worse than (they) seem to understand”?
Where was the reporting by the Indy Star of their interviews with business leaders and their fears about this bill?
Where the hell were you?
The Indy Star is not concerned about the state’s shitty image. They only care now because of one thing - money. This is not a bill to be “fixed”; it is a bill that should be repealed.
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Who could possibly have foreseen that making a guy who was notoriously one of the dumbest motherfuckers ever to walk the halls of Congress governor would lead to the state blundering in to gigantic hot messes? It’s inconceivable!
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The wonderful irony here is that when the dust clears, LGBTs may end up with more, and defined rights in Indiana than they would have if the bigots had left well enough alone, and not passed this Bill.
It gives one hope.
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