Senate passes amendment withholding money
June 14, 2001 12:53 PM Subscribe
No, I don't think it is. The Boy Scouts are allowed to discriminate because they are a private organization and can write their own rules on entrance requirements. The schools, however, are supposed to be open to all. By allowing the Boy Scouts to use their facilities, they are violating their own policies. The Boy Scouts can go find a school that doesn't care about their twisted morality. Young gay boys and gay men who want to be scoutmasters can't go find an alternate Boy Scouts, because there isn't one.
posted by starvingartist at 1:02 PM on June 14, 2001
posted by zempf at 1:02 PM on June 14, 2001
posted by magellan at 1:03 PM on June 14, 2001
posted by starvingartist at 1:05 PM on June 14, 2001
Not all school functions are open to all people. The first grade, for example, typically discriminates on the basis of age. Exclusion is the essence of diversity. (Hums "you can't have one without the ... O-ther...")
posted by jfuller at 1:09 PM on June 14, 2001
posted by tolkhan at 1:37 PM on June 14, 2001
posted by holgate at 1:39 PM on June 14, 2001
posted by Ezrael at 1:40 PM on June 14, 2001
yeah! about time to! those uppity american gays are destroying our planet!
they... umm... uhh....
what *are* they doing that's damaging our country?
and who get's to deny the senate money for denying money to schools that deny time to organizations that deny stuff for homosexuals.
god. i feel like i'm in a dr. suess book.
posted by jcterminal at 1:50 PM on June 14, 2001
posted by raysmj at 2:02 PM on June 14, 2001
posted by solistrato at 2:11 PM on June 14, 2001
Look, it's this simple. If you're a senator who might have a tough re-election fight, who do you want to vote for, the Boy Scouts, or queers? The Republicans have used homosexuality as a wedge issue for years, with varying degrees of effectiveness.
Is it hypocritical? Sure. It may even be unconstitutional, and perhaps the Supremes will strike it down. But it's pretty good politics in terms of firming up his base.
posted by anapestic at 3:05 PM on June 14, 2001
(Jean Carnahan was the other "yea" from the Democrat side.)
posted by holgate at 3:07 PM on June 14, 2001
If a school allows after-school clubs, it's not allowed to discriminate based on the beliefs of those after-school clubs (within behavioral limits, of course, which is why you're not allowed to have the Lincoln High Doobie Smookers Club as an official activity). If there are Christian clubs operating on a recognized basis, they'd have to allow the Satanist Club on a similar basis. Schools in Utah have been known to ban all official student clubs lest Gay-Straight Alliances be started.
This isn't the same as the Boy Scout issue, which about a non-school organization using school facilities for meetings, but it's related.
posted by snarkout at 3:10 PM on June 14, 2001
"Oh no, it's Pride and I can't find anything to wear and my sock drawer is all jumbled up and my wardrobe's a mess!"
Sorry.
posted by Grangousier at 3:12 PM on June 14, 2001
You know what, jcterminal, I like you. You're not like the other people, here, on this weblog.
Oh, don't go get me wrong. They're fine people, they're good Americans. But they don't know what the queers are doing to the soil.
posted by webmutant at 3:39 PM on June 14, 2001
Then again, Strom Thurmond is still going at 90-something, right? Sometimes I wonder how long Southern Blowhards can last...
posted by salsamander at 3:47 PM on June 14, 2001
So where was this new liberal Senate we were supposed to get when Jeffords defected? I'm still waiting.
You got suckered in by false liberal media reports. The Senate does not operate under the same rules as the House. Each individual senator has the power to introduce, amend and filibuster legislation almost as much as s/he wants. The majority party has some power over regulating the calendar, they get the prestige of committee chairmanships and such, and of course they're required to actually appear to be proactive instead of reactive (good luck, Daschle! "No no no" won't cut it any more). But as we have just seen here, in the Senate it's the votes that count! If a senator can muster up the votes for something, he's going to get it passed. So you've got 49 Republicans, 1 wimpy "independent", and 50 Democrats, a number of whom are pretty conservative themselves. This means the Senate remains conservative.
("Sucking Big Tobacco's cock?" Truly a nadir in MeFi discussion history.)
posted by aaron at 8:59 PM on June 14, 2001
Reagan, who was president at the time, and a republican, was one of the people who allowed the 18 year drinking age lever to pass. So I guess the republicans have had there hands as dirtied by the tactic as the democrats.
posted by drezdn at 10:23 PM on June 14, 2001
Surprise, politics is complicated.
posted by aaron at 10:34 PM on June 14, 2001
Here we see who Jesse's top contributors have been between 1995 and 2000. Recognize anyone?
Here, Jesse takes it on the face for big tobacco. It's kind of graphic, so you may not want to look.
You want to talk to me about the nadir of MetaFilter discussion? The fact that any human being in the entire world would stand up and defend this censorious, bigoted, bloated whore for companies whose main product makes death happen, who need to recruit new bodies in order to make up for all the people they kill every single year, who deliberately addict people to a product they know is deadly...well, that, to me, is the nadir of any discourse.
Yes, I hate Jesse Helms. And I'm proud of it.
posted by Ezrael at 11:17 PM on June 14, 2001
BTW, Jesse Helms is an a-hole.
posted by owillis at 11:48 PM on June 14, 2001
The line item veto is a great idea, but it is obviously unconstitutional without an amendment. The Supreme Court was completely right on that one.
posted by ljromanoff at 12:01 AM on June 15, 2001
posted by owillis at 12:27 AM on June 15, 2001
And Jesse Helms isn't dead yet because he sold his soul to Philip Morris.
posted by holgate at 5:32 AM on June 15, 2001
Not only that, the line-item veto was only for specific financial bills. I was really excited about the line-item until I heard what little power it really had.
posted by starvingartist at 5:50 AM on June 15, 2001
Which part am I getting wrong.
Help me out here guys.
posted by fullerine at 7:00 AM on June 15, 2001
So having an opinion and stating that opinion is the "nadir of any discourse?" Wow, Ez, you really take the cake on that one. I guess you're still pretty angry and I'm sure glad you're not the one in charge around here.
posted by mikewas at 8:49 AM on June 15, 2001
That's like saying that since I am a private individual I have no right to attend a public school. The public is all of us private folk, collectively.
posted by kindall at 8:58 AM on June 15, 2001
Yeah, it's a good thing I'm not in charge. I'd lose what little equanimity the past few years have bestowed on me.
posted by Ezrael at 12:33 AM on June 16, 2001
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posted by jfuller at 12:55 PM on June 14, 2001