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Holman wrote:
Meanwhile, the day ends with the threat of Sharia law completely nonexistent, so I suppose they can claim victory?

Which I've never understood. We have plenty of laws that come about because Christians are the dominant religion in a particular area. If there is a high enough concentration of Muslims in a particular area to enact their own laws that don't conflict with Constitutional restraints, go at it. I'd vastly prefer that all laws come out of rational viewpoints, but that's too much to ask.

I would prefer religion not play any part of a region's laws.

hepcat wrote:I would prefer religion not play any part of a region's laws.

As I said, I'd prefer that too. Right now there are a crapton of laws that come directly out of Christianity, so if that's allowed how is it ok to tell other religious groups they can't enact laws, so long as they are constitutional?

gbasden wrote:

hepcat wrote:I would prefer religion not play any part of a region's laws.

As I said, I'd prefer that too. Right now there are a crapton of laws that come directly out of Christianity, so if that's allowed how is it ok to tell other religious groups they can't enact laws, so long as they are constitutional?

The laws you have are enacted by the State, not by any religious authority.

The inability to buy hard liquor in Texas on Sundays is derived from old blue laws, yet has survived modern legal challenges. There is no doubt as to their religious history, but since it's not enshrined in the law itself, it passes muster.

Isgrimnur wrote:The inability to buy hard liquor in Texas on Sundays is derived from old blue laws, yet has survived modern legal challenges. There is no doubt as to their religious history, but since it's not enshrined in the law itself, it passes muster.

Precisely. Same with laws against sodomy, teaching evolution and a host of other issues. Thankfully, many of those are getting struck down.

It's true that there is Sharia Law in officially Islamic states in the Middle East, but that's not what extremists in America are marching against. When they rally to "oppose Sharia law" in America, it's nothing but a thin cover for bigotry.

Imagine if there were marches and movements to "outlaw Halakha" in America on the claim that Jews wanted to outlaw shaving, non-Kosher food, working on the Sabbath, non-Jewish religion, etc. It would be ridiculous and terrifying, and it wouldn't be anything but antisemitism.

It's deplorable that several states now have laws on the books purporting to ban the implementation of Sharia law in their courts, which could never happen in the first place. The marches organized yesterday (which, thankfully, seem to have been far outnumbered by the counter-protests they inspired) were no better than 1920s KKK rallies.

I'm going downtown and start a march against the rise of mutant registration. It has the same reality as what these bozos are marching against.

At least the anti-sharia rallies were small, and were met with equal to greater numbers of opponents. In Boston there were about 75 people on each side. They traded insults ("Commie scum!" "Nazis!") and filmed one another for a few hours. At the end the police broke up a shoving match and everybody went home.

From early reports on the news yesterday, there were maybe a dozen idiots in downtown Chicago running around screaming about the imminent arrival of Sharia Law. Hopefully someone told them about the theory that deep dish pizzas were created by Allah and that they subsequently shut up because personal beliefs for them are less powerful than their desire for good pizza.

There was a small one in Southfield, MI this weekend. I guess they weren't committed enough to have it in Dearborn.

Losers. Low-energy protesting.

killbot737 wrote:There was a small one in Southfield, MI this weekend. I guess they weren't committed enough to have it in Dearborn.

Losers. Low-energy protesting.

i LLOLed

hepcat wrote:From early reports on the news yesterday, there were maybe a dozen idiots in downtown Chicago running around screaming about the imminent arrival of Sharia Law. Hopefully someone told them about the theory that deep dish pizzas were created by Allah and that they subsequently shut up because personal beliefs for them are less powerful than their desire for good pizza.

Depends on whether or not they understand that deep dish pizza /= pizza.

Holman wrote:Imagine if there were marches and movements to "outlaw Halakha" in America on the claim that Jews wanted to outlaw shaving, non-Kosher food, working on the Sabbath, non-Jewish religion, etc. It would be ridiculous and terrifying, and it wouldn't be anything but antisemitism.

The problem I have is that I can't recall (not that I'm a scholar in this) any time Jewish folks have put laws on he books to make people bend to their religious beliefs - let alone attack/discriminate/kill them for it. In the US and other countries, religions do seep into the legal system and become a corrosive agent working against freedom and progress.

In Chechnya, they've started rounding up gays and torturing them, killing them, or giving them one-way bus tickets out of the country. The country is 95% Muslim, and has been for 300 or so years. In the US, we still have a number of laws outlawing things based strictly on religion and sometimes people pop up and use them for vile ends. Thankfully, we have a system that mostly blocks that crap - but that system is malleable and can be changed.

We like to say "That would never happen here" - but I'm sure every horrible thing in history has taken place in an area where somewhere in the past, if you told them what would eventually happen, they'd say "That would never happen here"

I'm not even suggesting that we're in danger of it now - but "what if" 300 years from now, the US is a Muslim majority and laws start entering the books that push us closer and closer to something like Chechnya? "What if" another 100 years from then, the US legalizes killing gays? "What if" the bible belt gets enough traction to break off and create a hostile "Creationist" union? "What if" we managed to elect an orange moron with no political skill that destroys our credibility on the world stage and leaves us without strong alliances? I know these are things that we can never see happening, but, you know ... "What if" ... ?

I'd rather move to try and religion-proof the system as much as we can, but that still doesn't mean it can't be overturned.

I'm pretty sure "religion-proofing the system" is the opposite of what the anti-Sharia folks are after.

Maybe this will get a thread, maybe not. Either way, I'm pretty sure we need this to happen like I need another hole in my head:

WASHINGTON – Former South Carolina senator Jim DeMint, ousted last month as head of the Heritage Foundation think tank, is joining a fast-growing, conservative movement that is pushing states to seek a constitutional convention to rein in federal spending and power.

DeMint, a prominent figure among the Tea Party activists who helped Republicans seize control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, will serve as a senior adviser to the Convention of the States Project, providing a jolt to its efforts to marshal grassroots support for a state-led movement to amend the U.S. Constitution.

...

Proponent say their application limits of the scope of a convention to amendments that deal with federal term limits, fiscal restraints on the federal government and limits on Washington’s power.

Bu some legal experts question whether organizers can limit the topics at all. “When there’s a constitutional convention, in a sense, all bets are off,” said Michael Gerhardt, an expert on the Constitution and a law professor at the University of North Carolina. “I would think almost anything would be fair game.”

!! https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/874362327168167936

In today's Virginia GOP primary, the pro-Trump and unapologetically pro-Confederate candidate appears to have barely lost. It looks like he'll come in only about one percentage point behind the winner.

The brighter news is that even with such a close and contested race, only about 2/3 as many Virginians voted in the GOP's primary as in the Dems'.

Holman wrote:In today's Virginia GOP primary, the pro-Trump and unapologetically pro-Confederate candidate appears to have barely lost. It looks like he'll come in only about one percentage point behind the winner.

The brighter news is that even with such a close and contested race, only about 2/3 as many Virginians voted in the GOP's primary as in the Dems'.

I wouldn't count Gillespie out in November. He almost beat the hugely popular Mark Warner for Senate, in a race that Warner should have won handily.

Also, with primaries being open in Virginia, it's unfortunate more people didn't turn out to try to prevent Stewart from winning. Him being the governor of VA would be a scary proposition. And he wants it badly enough that he hasn't conceded yet and is asking for a recount even though the results are outside recount range.

pr0ner wrote:

Holman wrote:In today's Virginia GOP primary, the pro-Trump and unapologetically pro-Confederate candidate appears to have barely lost. It looks like he'll come in only about one percentage point behind the winner.

The brighter news is that even with such a close and contested race, only about 2/3 as many Virginians voted in the GOP's primary as in the Dems'.

I wouldn't count Gillespie out in November. He almost beat the hugely popular Mark Warner for Senate, in a race that Warner should have won handily.

Also, with primaries being open in Virginia, it's unfortunate more people didn't turn out to try to prevent Stewart from winning. Him being the governor of VA would be a scary proposition. And he wants it badly enough that he hasn't conceded yet and is asking for a recount even though the results are outside recount range.

I wouldn't count Gillespie out in November completely, but to describe the race as uphill for him would be a huge understatement. Yeah, he almost beat Warner before, but 2017 is a wildly different year - the national environment is way more positive for democrats, and Virginia keeps trending in a democratic direction, PLUS Stewart (as you note) is refusing any efforts at unity.

Gillespie *could* win, but it would be a huge upset at this point.

The GA-6 special election (Ossoff v. Handel) is next Tuesday (as is SC-5, but as far as I know that one's not supposed to be close). Polling right now seems to give Ossoff a slight edge on average, but within the margin of error, especially for a special election.

It's interesting, because really the race isn't *that* important - definitely not going to matter in terms of the balance of this Congress, and it's not going to decide whether Democrats can retake the House in 2016. And it's a pretty conservative district in general - that Ossoff is a slight favorite at this point is no small thing, and a positive sign in itself.

But the atmosphere of the race feels hugely important. If the democrats don't win this after spending so much time and energy on this race, it's going to be hugely demoralizing.

I kind of feel badly for the Toyota Prius drivers I see around here that all seem to love Bernie and grudgingly accepted Clinton as the nominee - just based on bumper stickers.

The salt in the wound for one today was sitting behind a Trump supporter. Driving around in his banged-up dingy white pickup, exhaust sounding like the muffler fell off, with two large (like 4' long) flags duct-taped to the back - one the US flag, the other a ratty TRUMP flag.

Google search "rolling coal".

The Meal wrote:Google search "rolling coal".

Ugh! No, nothing like that. The pickup looked like it had been abused for years and never cleaned.

Who on earth would want to deliberately do something like "rolling coal"? Jeebus.

The Schadenfreude of Trump.

Chris Christie is setting records in NJ:

The two-term governor hit another historic low, with 81 percent of New Jersey voters disapproving of the job he's doing -- including a majority, 58 percent, of Republicans, according to a new Quinnipiac University Poll.

Christie has officially polled lower than any governor in modern history.

It's also the worst approval rating for any governor in any state surveyed by Quinnipiac University in more than 20 years, according to Maurice Carroll, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

That's amazing.

Well, he's not in prison alongside his underlings. So he's got that going for him.

Turkish guards will be charged in embassy protests, officials say

D.C. authorities will announce criminal charges Thursday against 12 members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail and the police force who authorities say attacked protesters outside the ambassador’s residence last month, according to two officials familiar with the case.

Authorities have scheduled an 11:45 a.m. news conference with D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham. Police officials say arrest warrants have been issued and that the suspects, all believed to be in Turkey, are now wanted in the United States.

The charges come nearly a month after the clashes at Sheridan Circle along Massachusetts Avenue’s Embassy Row. Police and other officials say various members of Erdogan’s visiting security team, some of them armed, attacked a group protesting his regime as police struggled to restore order. Bystanders recorded the confrontation with cellphones.

Our state Treasurer, building an enemies list, after blocking about 20 local newspaper journalists:

Does this sound a little racist to any of you?
Screen cap before the inevitable deletion.

A) 'Official' is spelled wrong.
B) Florida only has 27 districts
C) Florida's House of Representatives may have 120 districts, but the 28th is represented by Jason Brodeur.
D) There is no one named Alejandro in either body

Isgrimnur wrote:A) 'Official' is spelled wrong.
B) Florida only has 27 districts
C) Florida's House of Representatives may have 120 districts, but the 28th is represented by Jason Brodeur.
D) There is no one named Alejandro in either body

How many people named "Roger" in the state of Florida?

Yeah, it's a fake account.

Approximately 32,804.

Over under on how long this lasts? A kinder, gentler Ted Nugent?

A white male drove a van into a crowd of worshippers leaving a mosque in London yesterday. He arrested and taken away while shouting about killing all Muslims.

At least in Britain something like this is accurately treated as a terror attack.

Where was he radicalized?

Holman wrote:Where was he radicalized?

Better yet, why hasn't Trump offered him a cabinet position?

Defiant wrote:GOP Data Firm Accidentally Leaks Personal Details of Nearly 200 Million American Voters

They don't get much bigger.