OT: But Starkville related.

[SpiritofSuttleHall]

Multiple purposes

What was the purpose of that resolution? Has it been a problem in Starkville?

Well, as discussed in the morning's SDN, the resolution brings the city in line with the same practices adopted by the University five years ago. It will also make Starkville more competitive for several federal grant programs. Wiseman did not put it forward, Alderman Perkins did, and it was passed unanimously. So a third purpose, albeit unplanned, was to demonstrate that the city can get together when civil rights are a concern.

 

[Old Fart Dawg]

Regardless of what the founders originally intended, it has been conclusively demonstrated that the Tea Party label and biblical social conservatism are one and the same nowadays. Just look at the membership of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress. All Bible thumpers and there's few if any Bible thumpers who aren't in it.

Perhaps those thumpers realize the fallacy of the progressive argument that the medicine of austerity is worse than the disease of profligacy.
The truth is, indeed, the opposite.

I thumped my Bible recently. It gave off a pleasing "Pompk", like a ripe melon. Reminded me of a fishing excursion at the Bar Pits, near Vidalia. I thumped some Big ol' channel cats, 3" whiskers. Damn fine eatin' son.

 

[johnson86-1]

and you sir cannot tell me that she wouldn't put the 10 commandments into the amendments if she could.

And you sir, cannot tell me that she is the whole of the Tea Party. The reality is that pretty much every political party is full of statists, with the exception I guess of the Libertarians, but there is a reason they're not particularly effective or large: most peole don't want to be active in politics if they don't have a sincere desire to be a dick and use the gov't to screw over other people. The Tea Party has its fair share of statists and their flavor of dickishness will tend to be pushing their religious beliefs with gov't, but it's still much less statist than the Republican Party in General and certainly less statist than the Democratic Party.

 

[NIC.sixpack]

Mississippi is one of the only states in America where someone can be fired for being gay.

Is this just anecdotal, or is this something you can support with a source? I'm honestly not trying to argue with you at all. I'm just curious as to why you think this.

 

[fishwater99]

JT speaks his mind and if you disagree with his opinion, you are automatically wrong.
Sounds like some people on SPS...

He is very misinformed and this and several other issues, including marijuana and it's effects.
I was listening last week and it's just laughable how misinformed he is about weed.
He has no idea there are two main kinds of marijuana(indica and sativa) and they effect people in different ways.

And since he is reading on the air.. Read this JT, and learn something new for a change...

Indicas are very effective for overall pain relief and is often used to treat insomnia for many people. Indica buds are most commonly smoked by medical marijuana patients in the late evening or even right before bed due to how sleepy and tired you become when high from an indica strain of marijuana, like Kush.

Benefits of Indica:
1. Relieves body pain
2. Relaxes muscles
3. Relieves spasms, reduces seizures
4. Relieves headaches and migraines
5. Relieves anxiety or stress


Sativa dominant marijuana strains tend to have a more grassy type odor to the buds providing an uplifting, energetic and “cerebral” high that is best suited for daytime smoking. A sativa high is one filled with creativity and energy as being high on sativa can spark new ideas and creations. Many artists take advantage of the creative powers of cannabis sativa (marijuana) to create paintings.

Benefits of Sativa:
1. Feelings of well-being and at-ease
2. Up-lifting and cerebral thoughts
3. Stimulates and energizes
4. Increases focus and creativity
5. Fights depression

 

[seshomoru]

As an at will state, you can be fired for any reason that is not discriminatory

As it stands, LGBT is not a protected class (for lack of a better word). You can't fire someone for being black, white, latino, hindu, muslim, christian, male, female.... but you can fire someone because they are gay or trans gender. That's why this resolution actually does have some teeth. At least in the public sector in Starkville, you now can't be let go for being LGBT. And it's actually not just a few states. 29 of them (MS included) don't offer protection from discrimination in the work place if you are LGBT.

 

[00Dawg]

I'm always disappointed to see something like this enshrined by any government

entity, but it won't have any effect on where I spend my money.

 

[FormerlyHighLifeRebel]

Starkville is going to get a lot more out of that resolution than MS will get out of changing the state seal. It's interesting that I 'm not hearing anybody get upset about the time, effort, energy, and money that will most likely be spent defending lawsuits due to changing the state seal.

Also, good on you Starkville, and good on you, Sixpack. I don't even want to read what is going on in the political board on ED, but this thread makes me proud of my State and the people in it. #reluctantclanga

 

[NIC.sixpack]

As it stands, LGBT is not a protected class (for lack of a better word). You can't fire someone for being black, white, latino, hindu, muslim, christian, male, female.... but you can fire someone because they are gay or trans gender. That's why this resolution actually does have some teeth. At least in the public sector in Starkville, you now can't be let go for being LGBT. And it's actually not just a few states. 29 of them (MS included) don't offer protection from discrimination in the work place if you are LGBT.

Thank you. I knew that Mississippi is an at-will-employment state, but I have never heard that it is permissible to discriminate based on sexual orientation. I actually worked for the state government at one time, and my bosses went to great lengths to avoid firing gay employees who performed very poorly. There's no doubt that other co-workers would have been fired had they performed at that level. But the higher-ups wanted to avoid any appearance of discrimination based on sexual orientation, so they allowed a couple of gay employees to continue to remain on the payroll (despite their undeniably poor performance) until they were eligible for retirement. So while an employer apparently could discriminate based on sexual orientation, in my (admittedly very limited) experience, employers have bent over backwards to avoid even creating the appearance of discrimination.

As a disclaimer, I know their performance had nothing to do with their sexual orientation, and everything to do with the fact that they were approaching retirement.

 

[godlluB]

This could have an interesting possible side effect. The Mississippi Constitution says this:

"Article 14, Section 265: Denial of Supreme Being disqualification to hold office.
No person who denies the existence of a Supreme Being shall hold any office in this State."

The resolution says this:

"RESOLVED: The City of Starkville declares it the public policy of the City to respect the inherent worth of
every person, without regard to a person’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity and
expression, age, marital status, sexual orientation, familial status, veteran’s status, disability, or source
of income; and
RESOLVED: the City of Starkville further resolves that discrimination against a person on the basis of
race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity and expression, age, marital status, sexual
orientation, familial status, veteran’s status, disability, or source of income to be anathema to the public
policy of the City."


So, I know that this isn't actually a law, but it does seem to imply that atheists would no longer be barred for running from public office in the city.

Quick, somebody go tell Roy Perkins this and see if his head explodes.

 

[FormerlyHighLifeRebel]

They were most likely trying to avoid an age discrimination suit.

 

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

What resources did this waste?

it it is a waste because it was a stunt. It was a waste of time. No different than having employees filling out march madness brackets on the clock. Was anything in the resolution a problem? Was Starkville seen as intolerant? Did this solve or correct a damn thing?

The mayor and council took the time to draft this and pass it as a "look at me!" Moment prior to his rebuttal to the governor. It was a charade on the taxpayers dime.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

On another front, the unanimous approval probably disproves the theory that that city manager was fired a few months ago for being a lesbian.

Unless this resolution was a response to something related to that.

 

[seshomoru]

Can it be any supreme being?

The odds that someone who doesn't believe in God (as long it is the God that made Jesus and not the one that made Mohammed despite them both being the same) getting elected in Mississippi are somewhere around negative infinity percent. However, I suppose someone could attempt to enter an election and see if they get denied. That seems like a law ripe to get challenged by somebody.

 

[seshomoru]

That's what I was thinking...

And also... isn't it sort of a right of passage? You spend that long working for the government you sort of get your last few years on a downward slope? Shoot, when somebody has put in that long in at any company, they sort of deserve a few years of unwinding before completely shutting it down.

 

[NIC.sixpack]

They were most likely trying to avoid an age discrimination suit.

I see your point, but it's important to remember that someone can "retire" from state government work after a certain amount of years of employment. The employees I mentioned were eligible for retirement based on the number of years that they had worked (not all of those years were at the same place or in the same position), but they were not what I would call elderly. I don't think either of them were even 60 years old.

 

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

Well, as discussed in the morning's SDN, the resolution brings the city in line with the same practices adopted by the University five years ago. It will also make Starkville more competitive for several federal grant programs. Wiseman did not put it forward, Alderman Perkins did, and it was passed unanimously. So a third purpose, albeit unplanned, was to demonstrate that the city can get together when civil rights are a concern.

Were civil rights a concern? I don't live in Starkville so I don't know of any problems. Has it been an issue? Were outside sources raising concern about possible intolerance? Hell did anyone approach the city council and say it was a problem?

And if you have to pass a resolution like this to be more competitive for grants.. Well that is a glaring problem of what is wrong with some agencies. "Hey! Even though there is no problem... You have to pass this to be considered." The first time there is any proof of quid pro quo in government... The person at the front of it should be fired and barred from public employment ever again.

 

[Old Fart Dawg]

The odds that someone who doesn't believe in God (as long it is the God that made Jesus and not the one that made Mohammed despite them both being the same) getting elected in Mississippi are somewhere around negative infinity percent. However, I suppose someone could attempt to enter an election and see if they get denied. That seems like a law ripe to get challenged by somebody.

No, sir.
Anecdotally speaking, Mohammedans will kill homosexuals for no other reason than they are homosexuals.
Scripturally speaking, quran 3:54 makes it clearer still.

Please be careful with the moral equivalency arguments. If you are saying that God created all things, then yes, he created Jesus, as well as Mohammed, and the "greatest deceiver", Allah. But if you are equating God and Allah, then you are free to be wrong.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

No, sir.
Anecdotally speaking, Mohammedans will kill homosexuals for no other reason than they are homosexuals.
Scripturally speaking, quran 3:54 makes it clearer still.

Please be careful with the moral equivalency arguments. If you are saying that God created all things, then yes, he created Jesus, as well as Mohammed, and the "greatest deceiver", Allah. But if you are equating God and Allah, then you are free to be wrong.

Most Christians ignore the dumb parts of the Bible. Most Muslims ignore the dumb parts of the Qur'an. We aren't so different in that respect.

 

[FormerlyHighLifeRebel]

Like the old slavery portion of Miss. Constitution, the Atheist portion is per se unconstitutional and unenforceable. However, like you said, the political process pretty much enforces it without it being written.

 

[seshomoru]

The Bible says we're supposed to kill gay people, too.

So it's not just those crazy Muslims. (Or we can not take everything so damn literally.) The three major religions all trace their supreme deity back to being the God of Abraham. We all have the same prophets. One believes one of those prophets was God on earth, one believes the last one appeared around the year 600, one is really good with money.. Bazinga. No, the other believes the Messiah hasn't made it here yet. (Grossest generalizations of the three major religions ever). We have a heck of a lot in common, but we're really good at taking what is different and hating each other for it. A lot like what JT and people like him do when a town like Starkville marches itself up into the current century (to bring it back to the thread).