What's Happening To My Liberal State
If you thought Minnesota was a fortress of liberal ideas, you would be shocked if you were at the Minnesota State Capitol at anytime in the past week. First, republican representative Arlon Lindner managed to piss off just about every minority group in the state in a matter of about five paragraphs of speech. Lindner claims that stripping gays and lesbians of state human rights protections will save America from "becoming another African continent." Lindner also said on the floor of the state capitol that Nazi perescution of gays and lesbians is "a new idea spawned by a lot of rewriting of history." Governor Tim Pawlenty really went out on a limb to criticize his fellow republican by calling Lindner's statements "troubling." Way to take a stand Tim! The best quote in reaction to Lindner's statements came from house speaker Steve Sviggum: "Arlon is not a mean-spirited person at all. But it almost seems every time Arlon says something, it gets worse for him." The most humorus part of the story is that Lindner tried to back up his claims by saying they were rooted in a book called "The Pink Swastica." Lindner later admitted he had never read the book however.
In other political news out of Minnesota, republican legislators are trying to push an abstinance only sex education bill through the house and senate. Republicans like representative Sondra Erickson claim that schools are encouraging teenagers to engage in sexual intercourse by discussing contracpetives and several forms of birth control. What Ms. Erickson should realize is that schools have been telling kids to abstain from many activities for decades and kids still ignore the messages. Public schools have been pushing anti-smoking messages to kids for as long as I can remember, but kids still smoke. Schools consistently warn students of the dangers of alcohol consumpion, but kids still drink. So what makes republicans think that sex is going to be any different? If anything, abstinance-only legislation will INCREASE the number of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
If you thought Minnesota was a fortress of liberal ideas, you would be shocked if you were at the Minnesota State Capitol at anytime in the past week. First, republican representative Arlon Lindner managed to piss off just about every minority group in the state in a matter of about five paragraphs of speech. Lindner claims that stripping gays and lesbians of state human rights protections will save America from "becoming another African continent." Lindner also said on the floor of the state capitol that Nazi perescution of gays and lesbians is "a new idea spawned by a lot of rewriting of history." Governor Tim Pawlenty really went out on a limb to criticize his fellow republican by calling Lindner's statements "troubling." Way to take a stand Tim! The best quote in reaction to Lindner's statements came from house speaker Steve Sviggum: "Arlon is not a mean-spirited person at all. But it almost seems every time Arlon says something, it gets worse for him." The most humorus part of the story is that Lindner tried to back up his claims by saying they were rooted in a book called "The Pink Swastica." Lindner later admitted he had never read the book however.
In other political news out of Minnesota, republican legislators are trying to push an abstinance only sex education bill through the house and senate. Republicans like representative Sondra Erickson claim that schools are encouraging teenagers to engage in sexual intercourse by discussing contracpetives and several forms of birth control. What Ms. Erickson should realize is that schools have been telling kids to abstain from many activities for decades and kids still ignore the messages. Public schools have been pushing anti-smoking messages to kids for as long as I can remember, but kids still smoke. Schools consistently warn students of the dangers of alcohol consumpion, but kids still drink. So what makes republicans think that sex is going to be any different? If anything, abstinance-only legislation will INCREASE the number of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
posted by PulseofMN at 11:14 AM
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