The latest school-prayer proposal proposal before the Florida Legislature would let local school boards adopt prayer-enabling resolutions, letting students lead audiences in prayer at games or graduations or other non-compulsory events.
l'infame
Proposed Amendment to End Ban on Government Funding of Religion is Challenged
Proposed Amendment 7 on the 2012 ballot deletes a provision in the Florida constitution that bars government funding of religious institutions, replacing it with a prohibition against denying funds to anyone based on religious identity or belief.
The 99% Answer the 53%
In what has turned into one of the most virally circulated pieces of the year, Max Udargo explains the Occupy Wall Street movement to a conservative critic who calls himself part of the 53 percent.
Gov. Scott Proposes Corporate Tax Cuts Even As Florida Faces a Deficit of Up to $2 Billion
Gov. Rick Scott wants to double the corporate income tax exemption to $50,000 and eliminate the tangible tax for half of the state’s 300,000 businesses that now pay it. It’s part of his plan to eliminate all corporate taxes ins even years.
“The Laramie Project” at Palm Coast’s New Repertory Theatre: This Is Who We Are
Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre launches its inaugural season with “The Laramie Project,” a drama based on the torture and murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998, for being gay, and what the murder did to Laramie–and the nation.
Palestinian Statehood: Deserved, Overdue, Inevitable
The Obama administration’s attempts to block Palestinian statehood at the United Nations scorn American ideals and pander to Israel’s insistence on denying Palestinians’ right to exist. The outcome will be ruinous.
Obama’s Job Gig: Pin-Up to GOP Voodoo
What jobs program? Obama’s surrender to stimulus by tax cuts is another concession to bully superstitions. Obama has lost credibility. He’s lost respect. He’s losing the nation right along with him.
Lethal Edict: Florida Supremes Rule “Isolated Mishaps” Aren’t Enough to Stop Executions
Clearing the way for executions by lethal injection, a unanimous Florida Supreme Court ruled invalid death row inmate Manuel Valle’s objection to pentobarbital, one of the three drugs used to put inmates to sleep–and to euthanize animals.
Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin and Tea Parties: The Gipper’s NAACP Warning to Extremists
“You are the ones who are out of step with our society,” Ronald Reagan said of extremists in a 1981 speech to the NAACP, a speech that resonates in tea party America today, Zach Roberts argues.
Boehner-Obama Debt-Ceiling Follies: Your Hair-Pulling Guide on Stats and What Ifs
How dire could the consequences of not raising the debt ceiling be? What are the possible solutions? Here’s a reading list to help you keep up as the clock ticks to next week’s deadline.
The Greater Threat: Christian Extremism From Timothy McVeigh to Anders Breivik
Those two men—two right-wing reactionaries, terrorists, anti-government white supremacists, Christians—have plenty in common with the fundamentalist politicians and ideologues among us who pretend to have nothing to do with the demons they inspire.
Palm Coast’s Rabbi Shapiro and Education Trio Sue Over “Religious Freedom” Amendment
Florida’s so-called “Religious Freedom” amendment is misleading, the lawsuit argues, as it would reopen the way for religious, private school vouchers at public expense and turn the state into an arbiter of public dollars for religious organizations.
Dixie Check: Judge Orders Commandments Removed from County Courthouse Steps
A businessman had paid for the 6-ton monument, but a judge said its message was a clear government endorsement of religion, violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
President Concession: Obama’s Conviction Deficit
If Barack Obama fears alienating potential voters, argues Donald Kaul, he should consider this: People like leaders who aren’t walking around with whipped cream on their faces all the time.
Flagler Rep. Bill Proctor: Public University Tuition Should Go Up by More than 15% A Year
Bill proctor, the St. Augustine Republican and private-college president, says tuition increases at public universities should be greater than 15% so Florida’s tuition costs can reach the national average faster.
When Florida, Like New York State, Joins the Ranks of the Civilized on Gay Marriage
New York State is celebrating the legalization of gay marriage. We should celebrate along. Where can such baseless assertions as marriage being the “legal union of only one man and one woman” have so much as a throb of credibility other than in the harebrained fictions of scriptures?
Palm Coast Fence-Sitting Over Black and White Divide Around Ralph Carter Park
The mostly white neighbors complain of mostly black users of the park want a fence installed, at considerable cost to taxpayers. The city council is weighing its choices and delaying a decision.
Bunnell Puts Its Stamp on Day of Prayer While Another Group Marks “Day of Inclusivity”
The Bunnell city administration coordinates an event with distinctly Christian overtones on its city hall’s steps Thursday afternoon while church-state separation group celebrates Inclusivity Day at heroes Park Thursday evening.
THE END OF BIN LADEN,
The Endings Yet to Come
There is an inevitable, visceral, justifiable need to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. Let’s just not repeat the mistakes of 2011 and let the visceral dictate the next chapter of wars still looking for an ending.
Obama Releases Long-Form Birth Certificate; Trump Takes Credit
President Obama this morning released his long-form birth certificate, hoping to end conspiracy theories about his place of birth. The release is unlikely to put an end to birthers midwifing new theories.
Gun-Toting Bills, Supplanting Doctors and Local Governments, Poised to Become Law
One bill would penalize local governments with stricter gun restrictions than the state. Another would muzzle doctors’ abilities to ask their patients about gun ownership.
Stereotype This: “Lazy Mexicans” And Other Insolvent Myths of American Superiority
As it turns out Mexicans are not only harder workers than Americans. They are the hardest workers in the industrialized world, while smugness, selfishness and the pursuit of inequality are becoming American brands.
FPC Posts Video of Teacher’s Public Apology Over Gay Student Bullying
Shop teacher Floyd Binkley’s apology for telling an offensive gay joke appears in the last fifth of the nearly six-minute video as part of a public service announcement about bullying and harassment. The video skirts the details of the matter.
Gainesville’s Rogue Pastor And the Limits of Free Speech: A Dissent
First Amendment rights have their limits, argues Thomas Brown: Gainesville’s Pastor Jones should have been stopped from burning the Koran, which can be viewed as an act of terrorism expressly and imminently inciting violence.
Gainesville’s Terry Jones Did Not Murder 11 UN Workers and Afghans. Muslims Did.
There is no comparison between Terry Jones of Gainesville’s Dove World Outreach burning the Koran and Muslim fanatics murdering 11 people in retaliation. Jones is a fanatic. He’s no murderer. And he deserves First Amendment protection.
Rick Scott Orders State Employees Randomly Drug-Tested Often, Like Welfare Recipients
Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order requiring drug testing, and compared the testing of employees to the drug-testing of welfare recipients, a proposals lawmakers also approved unanimously in a Senate committee Tuesday.
Hijacking Home Rule: Stiff Fines if Local Gun Regulations Exceed the State’s
The Senate proposal adds financial penalties of between $5,000 and $100,000 on cities and counties with stricter gun regulations than the state, and removes a longstanding shield protecting elected and appointed officials from civil lawsuits relating to their job function.
Bullying of Gay Student at FPC Leads to Teacher’s Public Apology and Policy Change
FPC shop teacher Floyd Binkley made gay jokes in front of his students. A gay 9th grader in his class, who’d been repeatedly bullied by others outside of class, took the jokes as an offense directed at him.
Florida Abortion Public Funding Ban Would Extend to Reform’s Health Insurance Exchange
Measures that would bar public money from subsidizing abortion coverage in Florida in nearly all cases passed a Senate panel on Monday. The ban would extend to the health-insurance exchange that will be set up by 2014 as part of health care reform.
Peter King’s Muslim McCarthyism
U.S. Rep. Peter King’s homeland security hearings about Muslims and “radicalization” recall, beyond McCarthyism, a long American tradition of xenophobia and prejudice on the lunatic fringe. It’s not more broadly representative.
Despite 4 Million Uninsured, Florida Senate Approves Opt-Out Amendment on Health Law
Senators voted 29-10 to approve the proposed constitutional amendment, which would allow people to opt out of the “individual mandate” requirement that they buy health insurance or face financial penalties.
Ex-Neo-Nazi White Supremacist Recruiter Lectures on “Turning Away from Hate” At Stetson March 21
TJ Leyden is the author of Skinhead Confessions and an adviser and trainer to state and federal panels, the military and law enforcement. Jason Alexander, the Seinfeld star, wrote the Foreword to Leyden’s memoir.
In 8-1 Ruling, Supreme Court Upholds Rights Of Bigoted Protesters at Military Funerals
Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion is his court’s strongest endorsement of First Amendment rights to date. “Such speech cannot be restricted simply because it is upsetting or arouses contempt,” Roberts wrote.
Un-American Activities: US Rep. Peter King’s Coming Demonization of American Muslims
Ina column, Michael Keegan warns against U.S. Rep. Peter King’s misusing congressional hearings on preventing domestic terrorism to stoke fears about the alleged radicalization of U.S. Muslims.
Who’s Afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood?
The biggest bogeyman in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood, whose influence extends across the Arab and Islamic world, and whose name sheds fear and misconception in the United States. Analyst Mohammed Khan dispels myths.
One Nation, As Good As It Gets, A Barbaric Cop, More Gainesville Follies: The Live Wire, Jan. 13
Obama’s speech and Wednesday’s memorial for the Tucson massacre victims, Sarah Palin’s “blood libel,” a barbaric cop in Florida, Terry Jones puts the Koran on trial, product placement fanaticism, and more.
There But For the Grace of Glock Goes Florida: Arizona’s Vigilante Gun Culture
Arizona’s gun laws are either the weakest or among the weakest in the nation. As with immigration law, Florida is looking to Arizona as a model for its own gun laws. An analysis of both states’ gun laws.
As Superintendent and School Board Now Urge Play’s Revival, Focus Shifts to Drama Teacher
Scripts of the Mockingbird controversy are being furiously re-written as the school district shifts to backing the play, but vague accusations and ugly slanders are now being directed at the Ed Koczergo, the drama teacher.
In Her Own Words, Please: A Friend of
Harper Lee’s Pleads the Case Against Censors
Jack Cowardin, the St. Augustine novelist, has been corresponding with Harper Lee for years. His take on the controversy over the staging of the play by FPC’s Drama Club: Let it go on unmolested by political correctness.
The National Coalition Against Censorship’s Letter to Janet Valentine
“We urge you to encourage student creativity and civic engagement, and to teach students the skills to discuss opposing views respectfully,” the NCAC writes. “We urge you to allow the students to perform the play.”
National Coalition Against Censorship Urges Valentine To Reverse Mockingbird Decision
The strongly-worded letter from a coalition representing 50 organizations of actors, writers, educators and clerics calls on Superintendent Valentine to enrich the conversation on race and culture, not restrict it.
Mockingbird Appeals Committee’s Challenge: Loyalty to “Protocol” vs. Free Expression
Interviews with appeals committee members reveal a divide between instinctive revulsion of censorship and hesitancy over second-guessing a principal’s decision even as the facts of the case continue to be muddled by unspecified generalities.
Shapiro: In the End, It’s the Profanity of Censorship Against the Sacredness of Learning
In a column on the Mockingbird controversy at FPC, Rabbi Merill Shapiro argues that whatever the merits of administrative issues, “the profanity of censorship,” in the end, “has no place in our community.”
Before School Censors: When Mockingbird‘s Harper Lee Spoke Proudly of Flagler County
In 2002, Harper Lee addressed Flagler County proudly when her book was the centerpiece of county-wide events. The school district’s censoring of the play this month contrasts sharply with that progressive history.
Citing Vague Fears, School District Suppresses Stage Production of To Kill a Mockingbird
Students and faculty had no issues with the production’s use of the word “nigger,” as in the book and the movie. A Palm Coast city councilman and other unnamed “community members” did, leading FPC Principal and Superintendent Janet Valentine to censor the play.
How Republicans Became America’s Arabs
That’s the strength behind the Republican No, as it is behind the Arab No, the Islamist No in particular: it appeals to some mythical, mass-marketable golden age. No proof necessary.
The Live Wire, Oct. 19: Florida Apartheid, Rick Scott’s Fuzziness and an Unsavory Duke List
Arizona’s war on undocumented immigrants migrates to Florida, in a whiter worse version, Rick Scott has memory problems under oath, the “Duke Screw List” surfaces, and more.
When Courts and the Justice Department Conceal, Deceive and Lie: A Gitmo Fabrication
A U.S. District Court opinion about an Al-Qaeda suspect held at Guantanamo Bay’s Gitmo prison was removed from circulation and rewritten, revealing critical alterations and insights into the Justice Department’s elaborate deceptions, which undermine the credibility of the court system.
The City of Palm Coast’s Problem With Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Not Regulation.
Lenny Grocki, a Palm Coast utilities employee, was told to go home and take off his pink steel-toed boots. When he switched to pink laces and pink socks, he was told he’d face disciplinary action for those, too.
The Live Wire, Oct. 7: Mario Vargas Llosa, “Christian” Homophobes, Soldiers and Privacy
The Nobel Prize goes to a great writer for once: Mario Vargas Llosa; plus the Supreme Court case on homophobes at soldiers’ funerals and more on privacy, obesity and hometown democracy.