Separation of church and state
Religion belongs in church and in your heart -- if you want it there.
It does not belong in government. Or in the city park. Or the corner bakery if its being there means people wearing pink or red-headed children or black-skinned men or same-sex couples can't be served there.
Indiana's Gov. Mike Pence finally has acknowledged that his state's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act was poorly crafted and needs to be changed -- hopefully by week's end.
"I've come to the conclusion that it would be helpful to move legislation this week that makes it clear that this law does not give businesses the right to discriminate against anyone," Pence, a Republican, said Tuesday in Indianapolis.
In the same news conference, however, Pence continued to reject claims that the law would allow businesses to deny services to gays and lesbians, though he also acknowledged that the law has become a threat to the state's reputation and economy.
Thus the change of heart: Pence had taken one too many phone calls from business, sports and entertainment leaders around the country signaling that they would avoid Indiana because of the law.
"We want to make it clear that Indiana's open for business," the governor said.
The law lit a firestorm. Both critics and some supporters have said it allows businesses to deny service to lesbian and gay customers if doing so would offend their religious beliefs.
Though Indiana's measure was said to be patterned after a 1993 federal law of the same name passed with bipartisan support and signed by President Bill Clinton, it has differences that have driven this controversy. One difference is a provision explicitly stating that this law applies to the exercise of religious beliefs by businesses as well as individuals and religious groups. (The idea that a for-profit business has religious rights, and can cite them in contesting government action, was not widely considered until recently. But last year, the conservative-heavy Supreme Court upheld that principle in the case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.)
Another provision says businesses can use religious freedom as a defense against lawsuits brought by individuals.
Thus the contention that Indiana's law spells permission for business owners to discriminate against gays and lesbians based on religious beliefs. Other states with similar laws have also specifically prohibited sexual orientation discrimination, but Pence said Tuesday that's "not on my agenda" for fixing the Indiana morass. "I think it's a completely separate question," he said.
Huh?
Bad cop sting sends pitiful message
You would think that when the feds go after bad cops, they would really want to make examples of the corrupt officers they nab, right?
Apparently not. A federal judge on Monday sentenced a retired Tennessee Valley Authority police officer to home detention -- two whole months of it -- and three years probation for his role in providing police protection for what he knew was an illegal $1 million poker game that turned out to be part of an FBI sting to catch dishonest law enforcers.
The officer was working for TVA when he signed onto the illegal job in 2009. He later retired from the TVA police force with 30 years of service.
Seriously -- two months house arrest? With deterrence like this, why did the feds bother?
Tennessee lawmaker follies
The same Tennessee lawmakers who can't seem to find the heart to help poor and middle-class Tennesseans use our own federal tax dollars to pay for Gov. Haslam's version of the Affordable Care Act with Insure Tennessee have been able to find it in their hearts to let us all bring guns to parks, public playgrounds and ballfields -- even if it means overriding local rule.
In other words, the same folks who decry the ACA (also known as Obamacare) because states know better for their people than the federal government are the same people who are overreaching our local governments because, apparently, the state also knows better than our city and county elected officials.
Actually it's far more sinister than that.
State legislators aren't really listening either to local people or Tennesseans. They are bowing to the lobby money of outsiders on both Insure Tennessee and the guns-in-parks legislation -- which passed the House 65-21 on Monday and is headed to the Senate floor today.
The anti-Insure Tennessee "outside agitators" include the Koch brothers' group, Americans for Prosperity. The gun push and money comes, of course, from the National Rifle Association -- which these days is funded largely by gun and ammunition makers, rather than hunters and gun hobbyists.