It Depends on Which Minority You're Part Of

February 20, 2014

Those staunch defenders of the rights of the minority, the—Idaho Legislature? Wait, what’s wrong with this phrase?

The bill to force colleges and universities to allow students to carry guns on campus is once again under consideration. It passed the Idaho Senate and is now moving to the House, where it is expected to pass.

Very few non-legislators want this bill to be passed. Campus leaders and law-enforcement officials agree that it is a foolhardy proposition, and unlikely to make anyone safer. A BSU professor who was actually at Virginia Tech at the time of the mass shooting also says that there are much better ways to make a campus safer, and he detailed them.

So whose interests are the legislators defending? Not the majority’s, for sure.

Can we now hope that these minority-defending legislators will finally pass a gay-rights bill?

Useful Features

February 20, 2014

A friend mentioned on Facebook that she's getting her kitchen redone, and asked people what their favorite feature in the kitchen was.

Most people said, "Shelves that pull out of the cupboards."

I said, "A cook!"

Nothing Says Romance Like...

February 14, 2014

The Boise Army-Navy store is selling chocolate ammo for Valentine’s Day.

Another Statesman About-Face

February 14, 2014

In 2008 the Statesman gave Idaho’s First Lady Lori Otter a hard time because she (gasp!) wore the same dress to two different functions, one in Idaho and one in D.C.

I wonder if any of those involved noticed when the Statesman printed an AP article last November that noted that Jackie Kennedy wore her famous pink suit on at least 6 occasions. Good thing she didn’t have to get approval from the hawk-eyed Statesman staff!

Politics Really DOES Make Strange Bedfellows

February 14, 2014

Does anybody else think it’s funny that Statesman reporter Dan Popkey, who almost single-handedly hounded Sen. Larry Craig out of office after Larry’s indiscretion a few years ago, was quoting him this morning to bolster Popkey’s opinion on a matter? Popkey made it sound like ol’ Larry was just a fount of wisdom!

I don’t know how the former senator feels about Popkey’s chutzpah, but I know how I’d feel.

That’s right, Senator—it’s the middle finger...

It's OK If You Don't Get Caught

February 8, 2014

Idaho’s dairy industry wants to make it a crime for people to film operations and expose cruelty in their plants. One year in jail and a $5,000 fine is the proposed penalty.

Unanswered questions:

1.      What penalty does the industry propose to give the dairy guilty of the cruelty?

2.      Why don’t they just act right to start with?

The Fascinating Brains of Idaho Legislators

February 8, 2014

An Idaho legislator had his concealed weapons permit revoked because it was discovered that he had lied on his application about having had a withheld judgment for a felony case. He considered an appeal, because...

He says he doesn’t even remember the 1974 incident that he didn’t include on the application. He does, however, remember that the police lied about it.

He gets to keep carrying his concealed weapon, though, because Idaho legislators don’t need permits to carry concealed weapons.

Well, now there’s a bill in the state legislature to no longer allow legislators to carry concealed weapons without a permit. Opposing the bill: Not only Mark Patterson, the guy mentioned above, but  Rep. Lenore Barrett, who was stopped at airport security in 2001 because she didn’t think that she had her loaded .22 and 56 live rounds in her purse.

With this kind of mental acuity amongst our elected officials, their belief in their own superiority seems a bit off-base.  We also have legislators who can’t control their libido, a tax-dodging legislator, and legislators who can’t figure out their own expense sheets: One claimed mileage for traveling home during sessions at the same time that he was collecting the housing allowance (designed to pay for hotel expenses) while staying in town at his parents’ home; one stayed in his office and collected the housing allowance. So how is this crew so divinely fit to not get screened like the rest of us?

Thank you, Rep. Rick Youngblood, for sponsoring the bill to get rid of the exemption.