"Clarification" Won't Cut It

Numerous big businesses across the country are condemning Indiana's anti-gay, anti-civil rights "Religious Freedom Restoration Act."  So are various Chambers of Commerce.  The Republican mayor of Indianapolis says that his state's GOP lawmakers don't realize what they've done and are not dealing with reality.  The NCAA is considering pulling future events in the state.  Wilco has cancelled an upcoming performance.  The states of Connecticut and Washington, as well as the cities of Seattle and San Francisco, have banned official government travel to Indiana.  The headline in the Indianapolis Star:  "Fix This Now!"

Clueless Republicans in the Indiana legislature are "shocked" at the uproar.  They just can't understand why everyone is angry with them.  Gov. Pence says he'll "clarify" the law, but also says he has no interest in providing any specific protections to LGBT people in Indiana.

Two points for Pence and his pinheads:

1.  If your brand-new law needs instant clarification, that's a sure sign the law is a loser.
2.  People are upset with you because, regardless of what you claim, your RFRA is driven by homophobia and is designed to give broad legal cover to anti-gay discriminatory practices.

Indiana's RFRA was pushed by conservative Christian activists rallying to the "cause" of a bakery owner who refused to make rainbow cupcakes for a gay wedding.  ("I ain't puttin' no fag frosting on a queer cupcake!"  The baker didn't really say that, but he may as well have.)

Apologists point out that 19 other states have "similar" laws, but that's not entirely true.  All the others are narrowly limited to fairly benign proceedings involving a government entity.  (e.g. a Muslim or Amish prisoner may keep his beard; a church may feed the homeless in a city park.)  Indiana's law applies across the board -- "religious freedom" is a defense for individuals, corporations, religious "societies", for anything and everything.

And even if the laws in other states were identical to Indiana's, it wouldn't make it right.  Bad law is bad law, so "one more state on the bad law bandwagon" is an awfully flimsy defense.  Bad laws should be overturned, not rationalized with examples of more bad laws.

It's become a litmus test.  Should it be legal to discriminate against gay people?  Yes or no?  What do you say?  Mike Pence won't give a straight answer.  Neither will most of the 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls.  Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Bobby Jindal all piped up to defend Indiana's idiocy.  (Bobby Jindal -- why is he still a thing?)  Arkansas is ready to pass its own version of the Indiana law.

Poor Republicans.  Just when you thought they'd learned something, they go all troglodyte again.  They can't help themselves -- they're addicted to gay-bashing, and to all the rest of their favorite old fear-mongering, pandering tactics.

Forward is a direction with which they are unfamiliar.
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Everything Is Against My Religion!

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) has just signed the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act."  This euphemistic bullshit law does not say exactly where Indiana's religious freedom went, but now it's back, it's restored!  Big-time.

The law provides that any corporation or individual can cite "religious beliefs" as a legal defense against all manner of blatant prejudice, bias and discriminatory practices.

Indiana is bracing for a huge increase in population as bigots from all over flock to the Hoosier state, anxious to celebrate their rights more fully.  Early polling in the state shows the following are the most frequently mentioned things that are "against my religion": 

• Paying taxes
• Black people
• Mexicans
• Asians
• Jews
• Muslims
• People wearing funny clothes
• Gays
• Lesbians
• Feminists
• Barack Obama
• Vaccinations
• Math
• Imported beer 
• Broccoli

As you can see, this is going to be a very handy law indeed for Indiana residents.  They can now do anything they want to do, and chalk it all up to red-white-and-blue Religious Freedom!  This could be an even better excuse than the "Best Excuse Ever."  (Link below.)

http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/2011/04/best-excuse-ever.html

The Party Of "Limited" Government

It happens about once a year, and it just happened again.  The Ohio House of Representatives, led by a gang of Republican crazies, passed HB 69.  It's yet another of their draconian "heartbeat" bills prohibiting abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detectable, effectively banning most procedures.  The rule is ridiculously restrictive, clearly unconstitutional, won't pass the Ohio Senate, and will never stand a chance of ever actually being signed into law, even by Gov. Kay-suck.

But guaranteed failure doesn't bother the GOP's gyno-tician wing.  This is their one issue, the only thing they really care about, and so they keep bringing it up over and over again, despite the futility.  They're wasting everyone's time and resources, and they do not give a shit.  They are too busy being superior beings and evangelical crusaders, praying for the souls of the "unborn."  They disgust me.

I'm with Sarah Silverman, who said,

"I'm praying for the billions of teeny tiny Republicans that die every single year in hookers' assholes."

"Sure, some Democrats have butt sex with prostitutes, but they're not the one trying to take away my rights."

 

Liberty, And Cruz For All

Tea-Bag Senator Ted Cruz  (R-Tex) announced earlier today that he's a candidate for President.  Good luck!  Cruz is offensive and unelectable.  As much as I'd love to to see the GOP nominate his crazy, wing-nut ass, even they are not that stupid.  But Teddy should provide months of amusement with his cartoonish arrogance, fear-mongering, obstruction and religious douchebaggery.

He made the announcement at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA.  Liberty U. was founded by the late evangelical charlatan and Moral Majority founder, Jerry Falwell.

I bring this up because the University's administration required -- required! -- that the student body attend Cruz's announcement speech.  Liberty has over 13,000 resident students, and evidently Ted Cruz 101 is mandatory coursework for every single one of them.  Unbelievable!

Colleges, universities and institutions of higher learning simply do not endorse political candidates, ever.  Until now.  Liberty's Christian conservatives are shameless tools.  What if Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders were to speak at Liberty?  Would the students be required to attend?  More likely, they'd be forbidden!

WWJVF?  Who would Jesus vote for?  Ted Cruz?  I seriously doubt it.

Basketball On My Mind

Seems like every year around this time, there's a nostalgic post about college hoops.  March Madness can do that to a guy.

Mike Gminski

Jim Spanarkel

This year, two of the better TV announcers working the early rounds of the NCAA tournament were Mike Gminski and Jim Spanarkel.  Both are ex-NBA players who now call NBA games as well as college games.

Gminski and Spanarkel didn't broadcast any games together, but 37 years ago they were All-American teammates on a great Duke team.  The 1977-78 Blue Devils were a thing to behold, back in the days before Coach K.  (Yes, there was once such a time.)  Although I have no real affinity for Duke or the ACC, this squad captured my attention.  Gminski played center and Spanarkel was the point guard, and they were the two top scorers.  They were ably assisted by a pair of slashing forwards, Gene Banks and Kenny Dennard.  Together, they were a fast, smart team that was fun to watch.  They made it to the NCAA championship game, losing a close, high-scoring final to Kentucky.  (Friggin' Kentucky!)

Spanarkel

Gminski

Dennard & Banks

The following season, they all came back and were the pre-season #1 team in America.  They were undefeated when they met Ohio State on December 29, 1978 in the ECAC Holiday Tournament in Madison Square Garden.  I remember because the game would be a real test for the unranked Buckeyes, who were pretty good themselves with Kelvin Ransey, Herb Williams, Jim Smith and Carter Scott.  I remember it also because, unbelievably, this big game was not televised.  I vividly recall sitting in the kitchen of my dinky apartment, listening on the AM radio.  In those pre-ESPN days, that's the way things went.  Anyway, I was thrilled when the Buckeyes pulled out an overtime win over big, bad, #1 Duke!

So, did Ohio State build on that important victory and have a kick-ass season?  No.  We finished the year 19-12 and unranked.  It was Magic Johnson's year.

Bill Foster

Who was Duke's coach way back then, the one who preceded Mike Krzyzewski?  Bill Foster.  He later coached South Carolina and Northwestern.

This concludes another trip down my hoops memory lane.


Who am I pulling for is this year's NCAA tourney?  Well, OSU beat VCU but bowed out against Arizona, so now I'm for ABK -- Anybody But Kentucky!!

Not Big Numbers

Taking a moment to toot my own horn . . .

Buster's Blog is approximately five years old, debuting in February 2010.  So far, I've barfed up 1561 posts and counting.  That's 312 per year on average, not quite one a day.

They've received just over 218,000 page-views, or 43,600 per year, 3600 per month.

In case you're thinking those are big numbers, they're not.  Websites like reddit.com and YouTube do that about every ten seconds.  Many personal blogs get far more traffic than this one.

Still, 218,000 hits ain't bad for a little ol' flyspeck like Buster's Blog, and it makes me wonder -- who are all those people?  I know it's essentially nothing, but it feels like a little bit of something to me.

For whatever they're worth, the two most popular posts (most page-views all-time) are Half Nelson, Full Nelson, Father Nelson (very short) and Buster Gammons' History of Religion (very long).

http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/2010/04/half-nelson-full-nelson-father-nelson.html
http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/2011/06/buster-gammons-history-of-religion.html


Anyway, thanks for reading, whoever you are.  You're welcome to share Buster's Blog on your Facebook page, emails, etc., either individual posts or the website link:

http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

Driving Conservatively

Not to be confused with driving defensively.

Here in Ohio, our state government is dominated by Republicans.  When not busying themselves with slashing revenue and services, trying to outlaw abortion, and fracking every square inch of the state, these stalwart conservatives spend the rest of their time speeding and running red lights.

They effectively banned remote traffic light cameras by requiring a uniformed police officer at each camera (kinda defeats the concept of remote, doesn't it?).  Now the state legislature's R's are now hot to trot for increasing the speed limit to 75 MPH on Ohio's highways.

The GOP may be hopelessly lost, but they're making great time and they won't stop for anything!