I read today in a few places that Michigan may be on the verge of passing an anti-bullying law that actually legalizes verbal bullying when it has a religious basis, as protected speech. This claim seemed so patently ridiculous that I decided to check the law out for myself. It’s only a few pages long, you can find the bill here, in it’s original and amended forms. The amended form was recently modified and passed by the Michigan Senate, and the Governor has promised to sign it when it crosses his desk.

So having read it myself, I can confidently state that the revised Senate version of the bill effectively does legalize anti-gay bullying in Michigan, as long as it is verbal. This is shocking to me, even for someone used to the sort of stupid legislation that the Republican dominated legislature passes around here instead of doing anything useful. Here is the relevant section of the revised bill: 

(8) … THIS SECTION DOES NOT PROHIBIT A STATEMENT OF A SINCERELY HELD RELIGIOUS BELIEF OR MORAL CONVICTION OF A SCHOOL EMPLOYEE, SCHOOL VOLUNTEER, PUPIL, OR A PUPIL’S PARENT OR GUARDIAN.

The all caps are in the bill, I am not shouting at you. And here is most of the section that defines bullying:

(B) “BULLYING” MEANS ANY WRITTEN, VERBAL, OR PHYSICAL ACT, OR ANY ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION, BY A PUPIL DIRECTED AT 1 OR MORE OTHER PUPILS THAT IS INTENDED OR THAT A REASONABLE PERSON WOULD KNOW IS LIKELY TO HARM 1 OR MORE PUPILS EITHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY BY DOING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:

(i) SUBSTANTIALLY INTERFERING WITH EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES, BENEFITS, OR PROGRAMS OF 1 OR MORE PUPILS.

(ii) SUBSTANTIALLY AND ADVERSELY AFFECTING THE ABILITY OF A PUPIL TO PARTICIPATE IN OR BENEFIT FROM THE SCHOOL DISTRICT’S OR PUBLIC SCHOOL’S EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OR ACTIVITIES BY PLACING THE PUPIL IN REASONABLE FEAR OF PHYSICAL HARM.

(iii) HAVING AN ACTUAL AND SUBSTANTIAL DETRIMENTAL EFFECT ON A PUPIL’S PHYSICAL OR MENTAL HEALTH OR CAUSING SUBSTANTIAL EMOTIONAL DISTRESS.

So, here is how a common form of student interaction might play out under this bill. A group of 8th graders greet a 7th grader at the school doors every day. This boy (Let’s call him James) is arty, and kind of shy. He may not be gay, really, but this group of students have decided that he is. So they greet him by shouting things like “God hates fags!” and “You are going to go to hell!” and “God hates you, you faggot!” The follow him around online and do the same, so that he is incapable of interacting with anyone on Facebook without someone chiming in and saying “You are going to hell.” or  “Here is a picture of what hell will be like, faggot!”

They would be free to do so. Their statements have a religious basis.

But let’s say that one day the abused boy has had enough and decides to tell them off. Let’s say that he says something like “Fuck off you assholes! If you want me to burn in hell then why don’t you go die in a fire!” The next day, a few of those kids come in and complain to the principal, that they were upset that James said these things, and they thought he might burn down their houses. Or perhaps they just had nightmares, and were sick to their stomach. Whatever.

At that point, James would be guilty under this statute of bullying, even though the other group was much larger. And forget about him hauling off and punching one of them. That would be clearly covered, and assault besides.

But it get’s even worse. I omitted one section of the definition of bullying that was added by Senate Republicans:

(iv) CAUSING SUBSTANTIAL DISRUPTION IN, OR SUBSTANTIAL INTERFERENCE WITH, THE ORDERLY OPERATION OF THE SCHOOL.

So, what could cause substantial disruption or interference with the orderly operation of the school? Perhaps a large number of students choosing not to speak for a day?

That’s right, Michigan’s Senate Bill 0137 not only explicitly permits the verbal harassment of gay students as long as you include some religious tangent to the harassment, but it also outlaws the National Day of Silence, a major in-school protest of the harassment of gay people. And it does so by defining the protest against bullying, as bullying!

Really, the mind boggles. Anyone who could pen something so flagrantly evil and then label it a ‘policy prohibiting harassment and bullying at school’ is embracing Orwellian double speak to an alarming extreme. I’m really disturbed at the direction that the government of Michigan is going in.

Here are some photos from the 4th of July celebrations at Cascades park in Jackson, and at the last day of the 20 hoophouses in 20 days project that Selma’s Cafe has been running. Great couple of days!

In case you haven’t heard, John “Justice” Ashcroft is now working for Xe/Blackwater, as “Independent Director” in charge of ethics. Isn’t that a gas? Perhaps now he will get to work on dispensing justice for the mercenary group defrauding the taxpayers for years, coking and roiding up, running drugs and guns, and plain old murder?

Somehow, I doubt it. Justice has long left the building.

In commemoration of this seminal event in the long history of the revolving door between government and the military industrial complex, let’s let that eagle soar!

Hey Ashcroft; when the eagle cries a bit about what we’ve put her through, remember that the one that put her through this is you.

I made up this recipe from what I had on hand, and it was a smashing success! So, I thought I would share it with the world.

Ingredients
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped carrots
2 cups chopped celery
1 half bag Bob’s Red Mill Lentils and Split Pea Soup Mix
2 cups chicken stock OR 2 cups water and 2 bullion cubes
Fresh Thyme
2 cups milk
1 half pound of bacon
5 scallions
1 cup parsley
Sour Cream
2 cups chicken stock OR 2 cups water and 2 bullion cubes
Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1) Chop and fry the bacon in a stock pot until it is crispy. Pull and reserve. Pour off most of the fat.

2) Add onions, carrots, celery to the pot. Cook until tender and semi translucent on medium heat. This will take 5-10 minutes.

3) Add the well rinsed soup mix to the pot, along with 2 cups of chicken stock. Tie the thyme into a bundle and toss that in too. Boil for 20-30 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally, until the lentils and peas are tender. Add chopped parsley and stir in. Hold about a third in reserve. Cook another 2 minutes. Add more liquid if necessary, but it shouldn’t be runny at this point.

3) Blend with a blender, or with a stick blender, until semi-smooth. Add back to pot and slowly stir in 2 cups of milk. Turn on low, and cook, stirring often, until the soup is steaming once again. Stir in the chopped scallions and the remaining parsley, for texture. Salt and pepper to taste.

4) Serve in bowls, with a dollop of sour creme and the crumbled bacon.

Dear Middle Class,

There seems to have been a lot of discord in the struggling American middle class lately. Money and jobs are in short supply, and so we find ourselves increasingly fighting over the scraps, or moving on to unemployment and a place in the lower class. So, naturally, people want someone to blame for this decline. A lot of you seem to think that the Unions are the cause of our financial problems. This has come up repeatedly over the past few months as the state’s various financial crises have given rise to, or provided an excuse for, union busting. Given that this idea is a new twist on the crisis, I’m amazed at how fast people can turn their rage on whatever scapegoat they have been handed to pillory. Focus, people! A quick review of our recent history will demonstrate how this can’t be true.

Let’s focus on where the money has really gone. Over 12 trillion dollars has either been disbursed to banks, used to buy crappy securities off the hands of said banks, or just plain gone missing into the banks and investment firms with no accountability. The FED refuses to even say where it went, and claims that they don’t have to. Much of these trillions was loaned to them at the ‘commercial’ or ‘discount’ window at the lowest possible interest rates (near to 0%); much of that was invested in US bonds at 4+ percent interest, or perhaps more cozy arrangements at higher rates of return. Many of the recipients of this largess were not even American banks! This amounted to a further giveaway of tens to hundreds of billions of dollars in pure profit. No wonder they all reported record profits immediately after tanking the world economy. Plus there is another 10-12 trillion dollars floating about in the form of ‘goodwill’ assets and other fraudulent accounting tricks that the large corporations employ, and they get to collect interest and make loans based off of those phantom “assets”. Don’t forget that the next time you are refused an operating loan for your small business. And remember how the DOD ‘lost’ 2.3+ trillion before 2001 (watch a video of Rumsfeld admitting the loss at the second link there.) and much more thereafter? Add in the fact that the most profitable corporations in world history, like Exxon and GE, pay no tax in this country, due to massive tax breaks and giveaways, and the gleeful use of foreign tax havens to shield profits, and you have your financial crisis right there. Any one of those pots of money could pay off every private loan in the US, including your loans, and fix every state budget. Or, if we decided that jubilee was not the right course, what else could we have built? Well, the assessed land value of Manhattan was 169 billion dollars in 2004 so we could conservatively buy 50 manhattans or so. I’m sure we could have rebuilt New Orleans at least once. Or, if we wanted to do something adventurous, we might have decided to build a city the size of Milwaukee. On the moon. Seriously, use your imagination, that’s a lot of money. 

You are being robbed blind, America. Don’t believe the thieves, their pitchmen, and their demagogues when they point the finger at you and say “It’s your fault! Please, go attack each other while we hide our loot.” Don’t be a fool. Just in the Wisconsin example, the unions capitulated on all of the financial requests, even though they are paying for their pensions through wages that are below their educational level along with paycheck deductions, and the pensions are only short because they were invested on Wall Street. Walker doesn’t care. The shortfall is 137 million this year, and in the next budget year the deficit caused by Walker’s new tax cuts for corps will total 117 million to 140 million plus, depending upon the source. Even Forbes bloggers think these reckless tax cuts during a financial crisis are the real problem. And this is not just a problem in Wisconsin, but rather a coordinated push throughout our country to destroy the last fragments of the middle class, using the crisis that their masters engineered as an excuse.

These are the facts of the situation, and yet I still see a lot of people who seem very confused about where the money has gone. This quote, from the comment section of this article about the Michigan governor’s radical plan to curtail collective bargaining, raise taxes on the poor, lower them on the rich and their corporations, hire corporations to fire our elected officials and privatize the municipalities of the state by force, is typical:

“Take all the necessary taxes to fix our economy out of the public sector union leaders and employees. They’ve had carte blanche on benefits and raises that us lowly private sector workers/tax payers can only dream of.”

This is exactly what I am talking about; your wages have been going backward for decades while your bosses get richer and richer. And yet, who are you pissed at? Not the boss, who is exploiting your increased productivity while giving you less and less, and slashing your benefits. Not the people who appear to have outright stolen the money that could have been used to balance every ledger in the land. No, you attack your neighbors who are better organized, and have managed to keep the benefits that used to be ubiquitous before this epidemic of greed, and who have wages that have paced inflation better than yours (though they are still behind the curve.) Shouldn’t you be working with your better organized neighbors to get some of those record setting corporate profits into your pocket, instead of attacking them because they are not drowning like you are?

Don’t be deceived. The thieves are on Wall Street and in the halls of power, not your neighbors that have health care and a pension. They are trying to remove collective bargaining nationwide so that they can sack the last big pile of cash they haven’t stolen, the pension funds!

If you don’t believe me, look through this article and click on some of the links; you’ll quickly see that basic lawlessness at the top is the real reason our economic fortunes are at risk. We need to find the loot and get our economy back on the road soon, and the first step is getting informed and not attacking your allies. If we work together we can find and punish the thieves, hopefully recover that money and use it to rebuild our nation and resuscitate the middle class, and push back against the people who are trying to use this crisis to centralize all the remaining money and authority in their hands. Please, share this article with your friends! I’ve spent days finding the best links to accompany this piece, and I hope the info helps fight this growing epidemic of scapegoating.