Common sense prevails in North Dakota tonight
After hard-fought (and heavily-funded) efforts to push a pair of Tea Party initiatives on today's primary ballot, North Dakota proved that, despite being a historically red state, it's people can still surprise us all with demonstrations of common sense and the capability of resistance to right-wing media hype.
Measure 2 was an effort to abolish property tax altogether. While most agree that property taxes in ND could be reasonably lower, they are set at the local level, and are used to fund municipal services, school and park districts, among other functionalities. While the idea of their elimination may be a wet dream for those of the Taxed Enough Already philosophy, the reality remains that doing so shifts the burden of funding to the state level, and creates a projected annual deficit of $80 million to which no proposal to offset was addressed.
Scarier, though, was the much-ballyhooed Measure 3, known as the Religious Liberty Referendum. This joint effort by the North Dakota Family Alliance, the Catholic Conference, and the New John Birch Society (no joke) was a knee-jerk reactionary right-wing response to the contraception "debate". It would amend the state Constitution as follows:
"Government may not burden a person’s or religious organization’s religious liberty. The right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief may not be burdened unless the government proves it has a compelling governmental interest in infringing the specific act or refusal to act and has used the least restrictive means to further that interest. A burden includes indirect burdens such as withholding benefits, assessing penalties, or an exclusion from programs or access to facilities."
To any rational-minded person, the implications of the vague, broad language of this proposal should be concerning. It would effectively allow Constitutional sanction of domestic violence, terrorism of women's health facilities, child marriage, among other religion-approved atrocities. Spending on promoting this measure exceeded $700,000, over seven times the average ballot measure campaign budget for the state.
Gratefully, the people of ND displayed not only the horse sense, but the motivation to vote down both of these attempts by the right wing to flaunt it's perceived influence. I like to believe it is a sign that the Midwest hasn't completely fallen prey to the domino effect the GOP is expecting in the wake of Wisconsin.
[link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/north-dakota-primary-2012-property-taxes-religious-freedom_n_1591957.html|
= new reply since forum marked as read
Federal law
Peyote ceremony tipi
As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), which, among other things, put the legal use of peyote by American Indians into uncertainty and potential legal jeopardy, Congress passed an amendment to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. § 1996), i.e., the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments of 1994 (42 U.S.C. § 1996a), pertinent excerpts of which are given below:
Use, possession, or transportation of peyote
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the use, possession, or transportation of peyote by an Indian for bona fide traditional ceremonial purposes in connection with the practice of a traditional Indian religion is lawful, and shall not be prohibited by the United States or any State. No Indian shall be penalized or discriminated against on the basis of such use, possession or transportation, including, but not limited to, denial of otherwise applicable benefits under public assistance programs.
—42 U.S.C. 1996A(b)(1).
Definitions
For purposes of this section— (1) the term “Indian” means a member of an Indian tribe; (2) the term “Indian tribe” means any tribe, band, nation, pueblo, or other organized group or community of Indians, including any Alaska Native village (as defined in, or established pursuant to, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq.)), which is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians; (3) the term “Indian religion” means any religion— (A) which is practiced by Indians, and
(B) the origin and interpretation of which is from within a traditional Indian culture or community; and (4) the term “State” means any State of the United States, and any political subdivision thereof.
—42 U.S.C. 1996A(c)
Protection of rights of Indians and Indian tribes
Nothing in this section shall be construed as abrogating, diminishing, or otherwise affecting— (1) the inherent rights of any Indian tribe; (2) the rights, express or implicit, of any Indian tribe which exist under treaties, Executive orders, and laws of the United States; (3) the inherent right of Indians to practice their religions; and
(4) the right of Indians to practice their religions under any Federal or State law.
—42 U.S.C. 1996A(d)
This page was last modified on 4 June 2012 at 02:03.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Church
Rastafarians should look into that one 
"The four westernmost states of the Midwest—the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas—were in the late 19th century very much part of the "Old West"."
This is the area that, when I was a kid, we called "the great plains." That term seems to have gone into disuse, but I don't know why. As far as weather goes, and therefore crop production, it is different from those other states.
I also don't count Missouri as the midwest, because it was a slave-state, which in my mind puts it in the South.
I think there are also some dialect maps that bear out the distinction I'm making:
