(MI) Senate passes ‘license to bully’ legislation - Bill grants exception for religious views

[Bozita]

Source: Michigan Messenger

Senate passes ‘license to bully’ legislation
Bill grants exception for religious views
By Todd A. Heywood | 11.03.11 | 8:53 am


Advocates for a law to prohibit bullying and provide school districts with the tools to address the problem were dealt a stinging rebuke Wednesday morning in the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate.

The GOP pushed through an amended bill, SB 137, which does nothing advocates have pushed for — including reporting requirements and enumeration, or listing, of protected classes. In addition, the legislation provides an exception which allows bullying based on “moral convictions.”

The full language of the insert is: “This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil and parent or guardian.”

In a floor speech Minority Leader in the Senate Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) slammed the Republicans over the amended language.


Read more: http://michiganmessenger.com/53702/senate-passes-license-to-bully-legislation

[valerief]

1. disgusting

[yellowcanine]

2. the legislation provides an exception which allows bullying based on “moral convictions.”

Who would Jesus bully?

[ZombieHorde]

3. If there were any atheist bullies in Michigan, there won't be soon. nt

[democrat_patriot]

4. Which clears every bully, if the victim is gay. Or Muslim.

Can the Gov veto??

[pnwest]

11. hm. first time a muslim bullies a christian, that shit'll be repealed real quick

[Shadowflash]

18. Hah!!

Our repuke govornor won't veto this. It's right up his alley.

Gov. (p)Rick Snyder makes frothing at the mouth tea party morons look reasonable.

[Demeter]

36. this one wouldn't. He's a Libertarian and Knows Which Side of the Ballot is Buttered

[Maraya1969]

37. It also clears the bully if the victim is Christian and they feel like they

have a strong and moral conviction to stand up against the wraith and evil of this group especially when their victims are homosexuals.

[LiberalFighter]

5. So that means there can be all out war between different religous views.

Or when it is just simple bullying it is okay as long as some religious content is included?

They seem to forget that there is suppose to be separation of church and state.

Are they saying that it is okay for school employees to bully students or co-workers? I don't think so!

[barbtries]

6. jaw dropped when i read this

just when i think i can no longer be shocked. the bastards.

[pnwest]

9. same here...just gobsmacked. These people are looking

for every single opportunity to further their dominionism goals. Truly frightening.

[ixion]

7. to the religiously insane: please bully me. please.

because I would relish the opportunity to bully you right back, given that I have strong "moral convictions" about whacko fundie xians bullying people. :evilgrin:

[Zorra]

8. Well, I'm boycotting Michigan, and telling all my friends to do the same

This is shameful, and needs to be fixed.

[alp227]

32. I lived in Ann Arbor during the mid 90s when I was a little kid

and now that I'm in California all I can do is stop watching the Lions and Red Wings. I have not stepped back in that state since 1997 and probably will never until this law is thrown out.

[blkmusclmachine]

10. Religion as a cover for bigotry & violence:

Same as it's always been. Nice to see it finally enshrined into State "law." :puke:

[sarcasmo]

20. +1

[Uncle Joe]

12. The Republicans would give a free pass to the Salem Witch Trials

because they did it out of "moral conviction."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. Despite being generally known as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in a variety of towns across the province: Salem Village (now Danvers), Ipswich, Andover and Salem Town.

The best-known trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, with even more accused but not formally pursued by the authorities. All twenty-six who went to trial before this court were convicted. The four sessions of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1693, held in Salem Village, but also in Ipswich, Boston and Charlestown, produced only three convictions in the thirty-one witchcraft trials it conducted. The two courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital felony of witchcraft. Nineteen of the accused, fourteen women and five men, were executed by hanging. One man, Giles Corey, refused to enter a plea and was crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do so. At least five more of the accused died in prison.

The episode is one of the most famous cases of mass hysteria, and has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, lapses in due process, and local governmental intrusion on individual liberties.<1>

Thanks for the thread, Bozita.

[murray hill farm]

13. Freedom of speech, my ass!

Does that apply to moral belief that Christians are immoral when they bully with their words saying that those who believe other than they are immoral?

[Ship of Fools]

14. How stupid can you get? These jackasses don't care about their

credibility anymore, or they're so wealthy that getting voted out would mean nothing to them.

[Faux pas]

15. They are truly mentally ill.

[iamthebandfanman]

16. So... they passed a meaningless bill

with an exception in it that totally defeats its purpose?

yep, thats republicans for ya.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Wouldn't every bully claim they hold an objectivist 'moral conviction'

in which (non-physical) bullying is held to be the best thing an individual can do?

[sarcasmo]

19. The douche we have as governor is rolling Michigan back to the stone age.

[krabigirl]

21. Horrible, these bigots are. Idiots of the worst kind.

[pnwest]

22. I mean, what's next? "Fists Are Free Speech"?

[MsPithy]

23. How is this not "Establishing," a state religion?

These freaks are out of control. The Framers had no intention of something like this being acceptable, nor did Jesus.

[bongbong]

24. If I was a parent

This makes me see red. If I was a parent of a child who was bullied, and the bully used a religious excuse, I would do this:

Form an LLC of my own religion (it's cheap to do), put my kid in it and have all his buddies join it. Then have them find the bully, and pound him/her into mincemeat. And I mean near-death mincemeat.

[dbackjon]

25. Sickening.

So if I find religion morally repugnant, can I bully them?

[caseymoz]

26. Is this an admission that religion motivates bullying?

The word "bullying" is something we use for children, referring to acts they commit on other children, acts that would be considered crimes if both parties were adults. Things like extortion, assault and defamation.

So, they're saying that these acts are okay if committed for religious reasons, in fact, they're to be encouraged. (Presumably against gays, which is where the majority of religious "expression" is these days.)

Thanks GOP for admitting what atheists have been saying have been saying for years. I'll never have any more doubts now.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

27. They're insane.

Lots of Muslims in Michigan. A religious war is what they want.

[alp227]

28. Let's say a Michigan kid's dad is an angry, unemployed auto worker

and while generalizing all Latinos as illegal aliens, every night at dinner the dad rants about how Latinos take jobs away from Americans. So the kid goes to school and beats up a Hispanic kid (whose family is actually all US citizens). While Hispanic kid has to miss weeks of school due to injury, bully gets off scot free due to "moral conviction". This is Ron Paul's America right here. If Rick Snyder really signs this bill i'm sure that enough people in Michigan will raise an outcry that they'll realize that Republicans are really just power hungry narcissists who get paid taxpayer money to pass insane laws like this and who advance the Religious Right/Corporate agenda.

[Angry Dragon]

29. So all one has to do is claim a politician is part of Satan's army

because it offends ones' moral conviction one is free to bully a politician??

[Scuba]

30. So you can legally verbally abuse children of Republicans??

[saras]

31. This means that LBGTs have the right to FORCE tolerance on homophobes based on moral superiority

Let's go! This sounds utterly fabulous!

[Rainbowreflect]

33. Wouldn't "moral" and "bulling" be mutually exclusive?

[FiveGoodMen]

34. Not according to this nation's most prominent religious leaders

[Lorien]

35. Bullies for bullies

thing is, when you punch them back they tend to crumble and whimper.

[Little Tich]

38. This bill is specifically designed to protect school employees that are bigoted against the LGBT

community. I can't find any positive comments on this bill, nevertheless it passed in the senate along party lines. Who was behind this shameful amendment?