Fascists kill anti-bullying bill

A long-overdue bill in North Carolina that would have cracked down on school harassment read in part:

"Bullying or harassing behavior includes, but is not limited to, acts reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, socio-economic status, academic status, masculinity, femininity, physical appearance, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, developmental or sensory disability, or by association with a person who has or is perceived to have one or more of these characteristics."

So who would be against a bill like this? Bush conservatives, that's who.

And what's their excuse this time? Their excuse is their opposition to including one of the items listed in the paragraph of the bill printed above. Can you guess which one?

Well, which one do the rightists these days seem inordinately obsessed with?

You know, I hate to even dignify the Far Right's unexplained obsessions, but they're the ones who decided to rail against this bill.

Let's cut to the chase: The Bush cult is against the bill because they claim that including sexual orientation is a government endorsement of homosexuality. To give you an idea of what a flawed argument this is, that's like saying that including religion is an endorsement of a specific faith. That's like saying that including disability is an endorsement of being disabled.

The bill's opponents know their own argument is ridiculous, but it's a situation where the whole world looks like a nail so all they have is a hammer. Quite frankly, I believe school harassment on any basis is wrong. But it's the bill's opponents who keep obsessing about that one item. And if that item wasn't included, they'd obsess over some other horseshit issue.

The fact is, they support bullying. They'll come up with any excuse they can to oppose the bill. The serial bullies of your youth are the right-wing hired thugs of today.

To make a long story short, the right-wing activists who support school harassment flooded lawmakers with mail and phone calls demanding that they vote against the bill. And their efforts worked. They managed to kill the bill entirely.

Though lawmakers had planned to vote on some form of legislation to tackle school harassment after this version was killed, they appear to have dropped the ball again - forcing them to wait until next year's session.

Organizations that aroused their followers to flood lawmakers with demands to oppose the bill are hate groups. Period. And they're terrorist groups, because they support school harassment. They should be called out as such. The Christian Action League of North Carolina, for instance, is one such hate group. So is the North Carolina Family Policy Council.

Like I've said, school harassment is Public Enemy #1 of America's young people. It doesn't matter what the reason for the harassment is.

So if you live in North Carolina, and your kids are getting attacked at school, blame the Bushists when nothing gets done to remedy it. It's entirely the fault of right-wing extremists if the harassment continues. Entirely, completely, 100% the right-wingers' fault.

(Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1143029.html)