S. Dakota, Kentucky Legislatures Contend for “World’s Worst” Title

As several readers have reminded me, Indiana’s legislature–while admittedly embarrassing–has lots of competition for the title of “worst.” South Dakota lawmakers recently passed not one, not two, but three (inconsistent) measures to forbid abortions. One of those bills, which defines a fertilized egg as a “person,”  would also outlaw most birth control. (Keep those women barefoot and pregnant!)

Lest you assume that South Dakota has wrapped up the competition, Kentucky’s legislature has also proved that it’s a contender!

Although residents of Kentucky, like the rest of us, already have religious liberty under the First Amendment, conservatives in the state legislature decided to craft a new “religious liberty” law. It will allow Kentuckians with “sincerely held” religious beliefs to disregard state laws and regulations. In Kentucky now, if a law conflicts with the tenets of your faith as you interpret them, your conscience will trump your obligation to follow the law.

Suspect that one of your employees been sleeping around? Fire the tramp. A gay couple wants to rent in one of your apartment buildings? Refuse the sinners. Disapprove of birth control? Eliminate coverage under your company’s health insurance.

Kentucky’s Governor had the good sense to veto the bill, but the legislature overruled his veto. So at least until litigation settles the matter, anyone fond of  his or her civil rights might want to avoid Kentucky.

It’s hard to believe, but South Dakota and Kentucky actually make Indiana lawmakers look rational by comparison.

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Logic–Fox News Style

My husband was doing the “guy thing,” clicking the remote through a series of channels. He paused for a roundtable discussion on Fox; we were both somewhat startled because the participants were praising a report aired by NPR. Evidently, NPR had been criticized by Media Matters, and they were engaging in the time-honored tactic of “the enemy of my enemy is suddenly my friend.” Those participating in the roundtable used the attack to launch into a group chorus to the effect that “the liberal media” are all hopelessly biased.

With the exception of a kind word for NPR, it was a pretty predictable Fox rant. But then….(drumroll, please)…the discussion turned to CNN and its purported  liberal bias. One of the talking heads dismissed the insistence of a CNN executive to the effect that the network was neither Right nor Left– that its mission is simply to report the news. Her “evidence” that CNN was a “liberal” outlet was that they often reported the same news as MSNBC.

It evidently never occurred to her that two descriptions of newsworthy objective reality might turn out to be similar. Or that real journalists report on events even when those events tend to cast doubt on their preferred view of reality.

Or that sometimes, reality itself has a “liberal bias.”

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Born That Way

There is a relatively recent internet site called “Upworthy,” that culls videos from around the web that the site’s managers deem worthy of a wider audience (they’r “UpWorthy”) and promotes them. This morning, I saw one of them–a clip from comedian Wanda Sykes in which she explains why it is more difficult to be gay than to be black (she’s both). After all, she didn’t have to “come out” as black. I encourage you to click through and watch this 2 minute performance; Sykes is a gifted comic, and it is pretty funny.

The bit reminded me of an epiphany of sorts. When I was Director of the Indiana ACLU, I hosted a small fundraising dinner at my home for our Project for Equal Rights. We used that euphemism for Gay Rights, because it was the mid-1990s, and this is Indiana. At any rate, the guest of honor was the then-head of the ACLU’s national gay rights project, Bill Rubenstein. Something he said during that dinner  has remained with me ever since.

Gay kids have no role models.

Virtually every minority group teaches its children how to “be” what they are; Jewish parents model “Jewishness,” Hispanic parents are a bridge to the cultures from which they came, etc. But gay children are born to heterosexual parents–and most often, to parents who have no experience with gays or gay life. Each child who grows to realize that he or she is “different” has to figure out how to understand that difference, and how to live a rewarding and authentic life–without the help of a parental role model, and often despite parental rejection of that difference.

That’s a heavy burden. The least we can do as a society is not add to it.

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The Legislative Process

Yesterday, the Indianapolis Star ran the second part of Matt Tully’s series on ethics at the Indiana General Assembly, or how a bill really becomes a law.

What struck me most was the irony–the amounts of money spent by vocal proponents of free enterprise and the market economy in pursuit of legislation privileging their positions in that market and/or protecting them against competition. Sunday liquor sales, gaming operations, banking rules, collective bargaining…for a state that  celebrates capitalism, our lawmakers spend an inordinate amount of time picking winners and losers.

Want an example?

Also appearing in yesterday’s paper was a report on a hearing held by the House Utility Committee on the boondoggle known as the Rockport Coal-Gasification plant.

As readers of this blog will recall from previous posts, then-Governor Mitch Daniels entered into a thirty-year deal with Leucadia National Corporation, represented in Indiana by long-time Republican operative and Daniels friend, Mark Lubbers. (If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Mark Lubbers’ wife Teresa was appointed by Daniels to head up the state’s Commission on Higher Education.) The terms of the deal obligated the state to buy the company’s synthetic gas and resell it on the open market. Indiana ratepayers would get discounts or increases on their bills, depending upon whether the synthetic gas was more or less expensive than gas available on the open market. Seventeen percent of ratepayers’ bills would be tied to the Rockport plant’s rate.

State Senator Doug Eckerty, who opposes the deal, has sponsored a bill that would send the agreement back to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for a full review.

In the committee hearing, Eckerty pointed out that gas prices have plummeted since the plant was first proposed, and that the manufacture of synthetic gas is no longer economically feasible. Coal gasification projects in other states have been abandoned. As he noted, if private sources will not finance these projects, why should taxpayers?

When natural gas prices were high, there was at least a thin justification for a deal that used Indiana ratepayers to guarantee the profits of a private company. Now even that pretense of a public purpose is gone. Mark Lubbers testified that gas prices are volatile, so the plant would protect ratepayers if and when the prices spiked again.

The problem is, whether gas prices rise again is irrelevant. The state should not be picking private-sector winners and losers. I hate to use a sports analogy, but government’s role in the economy is best compared to that of the umpire or referee in a game. When government abandons that role–when it suits up and plays with one of the teams–it is improper. It violates the rules, undermines the sport, and makes cynics of the onlookers.

It’s no different when the game is the free market.

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