Catch Up -- Pay Attention

There's the effort by Georgia legislators to revive the confederate flag by placing them on license plates in honor of southern heritage. Or to celebrate slavery, insurrection, intolerance and treason. Yeah, those were the good ol' days in de land o' cotton. Watch out -- the South's gonna do it again!

Speaking of legalized 21st Century bigotry, Arizona lawmakers today passed legislation to legalize discrimination against homosexuals. CNN reports...

"Arizona's Legislature has passed a controversial bill that would allow business owners, as long as they assert their religious beliefs, to deny service to gay and lesbian customers.

"The bill, which the state House of Representatives passed by a 33-27 vote Thursday, now goes to Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican and onetime small business owner who vetoed similar legislation last year but has expressed the right of business owners to deny service.

"'I think anybody that owns a business can choose who they work with or who they don't work with,' Brewer told CNN in Washington on Friday. 'But I don't know that it needs to be statutory. In my life and in my businesses, if I don't want to do business or if I don't want to deal with a particular company or person or whatever, I'm not interested. That's America. That's freedom.'"

It's like the Civil Rights Movement never happened. Can you imagine passage of a bill denying service to patrons who are Jewish? Or refusing to serve people of color? Or trying to put a symbol of racism on a state license plate? er ... nevermind.

On the bright side, the Supreme Court has refused to review two cases brought by the NRA asking for the right to arm 18-year-olds with concealed weapons. According to Bloomberg...

"The U.S. Supreme Court today told the National Rifle Association something the NRA has always known: Under the U.S. Constitution, gun possession can be legally regulated.

"The court declined to review two lower court rulings restricting the rights of Americans under age 21 to own handguns.

"The decisions run counter to the ferocious liberalization of gun laws throughout the nation after the court's 2008 Heller decision, in which a polarized 5-4 majority blew past the Second Amendment language on a 'well regulated militia' and established an individual right to firearms."

Well, why the hell not? Cricket still sells baby-sized "my first rifle" in an assortment of kid-friendly colors and patterns, so why not hand over the regular-sized handguns to the teenagers? 

I'm surprised Arizona isn't doing this already, so they can shoot the gays that protest when the local bakery won't make their wedding cake.

Then they can visit the ATL and get a spankin' new Confederate flag license plate to display over their gun rack.

Only in America.