You poor Floridians...

[kenandkids]

...I truly and deeply pity you. Just when I think things like:

"Well, at least they've become as backward as possible..."
or
"Well, you can't get much lower..."
or
"Well, at least they have very few rights left to lose..."

I hear or read something like this:

The Sun Sentinel reports that one Florida Republican is commendably trying to repeal these irrelevant laws , only to be met with mass opposition from his fellow Republicans including Gov. Rick Scott (R). These social conservatives won't support his effort to finally legalize a common practice and would prefer that official condemnation of couples "living in sin" stay enshrined in state law:
Now, Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, is on a mission to repeal the statutes penalizing adultery and cohabitation, as well as other laws he finds outdated, like a requirement that all bicycle riders keep one hand on the handle bars. [...]
Nobody else much wants to talk about it either.
Asked how Gov. Rick Scott felt about the measure, spokeswoman Amy Graham replied simply, "This isn't an issue the governor is focused on."
The bill has no Senate counterpart. And given the almost-certain opposition of social conservatives who lobby hard on "family values" issues, it'll face tough sledding in an election year.
Consider the response of state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who previously headed the Florida chapter of the Christian Coalition: "I'm not ready to give up on monogamy and a cultural statement that marriage still matters," he said.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/09/01/309647/florida-republicans-fight-to-keep-cohabitation-of-unmarried-couples-illegal/

In Florida's news headlines next week:

"Gay activists imprisoned along side their evil and morally deviant friends."
and
"Salt and Pepper marriage? Not here, no way!"

 

[ImprobableJoe]

... at least we can move! I'm not from here, I'm not staying here.

 

[kenandkids]

... at least we can move! I'm not from here, I'm not staying here.

Good call my friend... good call...

 

[ImprobableJoe]

... at least we can move! I'm not from here, I'm not staying here.

Good call my friend... good call...

Yeah, this place is a hole. My wife lived here when we met because her parents were letting her live rent-free in their summer home. I moved here because she's got a nursing licence here. We've been here long enough, and we're headed north. Just Virginia, which isn't special, but isn't especially bad either.

 

[kenandkids]

What do teapublicans do when they step out of your bedroom? Party in a strip club! After all, those "decency" laws apply to you, not them!

TAMPA, Fla. -- Following an extensive remodel, the Penthouse Club in Tampa, Fla., is finally ready for next summer's Republican National Convention. Club operator DeWayne Levesque has installed two secluded VIP sections, which he hopes will help his club attract a bigger share of the 50,000 visitors expected to descend upon the city on Aug. 27 for four days of conservative politics and liberal partying. In addition to the club's new carpets and furniture, the private rooms are designed to provide cover so that camera-shy donors, politicians and aides can enjoy the strippers without fear of getting caught, he said.

A few blocks from the Penthouse Club, another strip club owner, Joe Redner, said he has high hopes for what the convention means for business at his all-nude club, Mons Venus. "I'm guessing we'll make five times as much in a night as we usually do," Redner told HuffPost. "Republicans got plenty of money. They take it all from poor people," he said.

Redner said he thinks many convention visitors will be in the market for a lap dance, but newly-released academic research suggests that some will be interested in the darker elements of Tampa's adult scene, too -- sex for sale. HuffPost teamed up with Tampa-based reporter Shawn Alff, of the Creating Loafing media group, to examine the potential impact of the RNC on two major pillars of the city's X-rated economy: prostitution and strip clubs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/01/adult-industry-2012-gop-convention_n_943906.html

 

[televator]

It's only a matter of time before the Christian Taliban starts implementing it's own "sharia" laws more openly on a national level... things were already heading that way under Bush, and christian dominionist groups are still trying to push for theocracy. Rick perry and Michelle Bachman are backed by them. Here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/14/dominionism-michele-bachmann-and-rick-perry-s-dangerous-religious-bond.html

Also, why did it take a republican to decide to remove these laws? Are Dems not in the position to challenge these laws there or do they also show signs of cowardice that plagues almost all Dems around the nation? Now, with Obama plowing through his former leftist base (while somehow still expecting to be re-elected) and showing -- in vain -- what a good republican he can be, I'm sure we can all expect the arrival of the new heavenly kingdom. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[kenandkids]

Also, why did it take a republican to decide to remove these laws? Are Dems not in the position to challenge these laws there or do they also show signs of cowardice that plagues almost all Dems around the nation? Now, with Obama plowing through his former leftist base (while somehow still expecting to be re-elected) and showing -- in vain -- what a good republican he can be, I'm sure we can all expect the arrival of the new heavenly kingdom. Hope I'm wrong.

To be entirely honest, these laws, and others like sodomy laws and sneezing in public laws, were technically removed from being enforceable by a previous Supreme Court ruling (come to think of it, it might have only been a District Court...). This republican, and I give him full credit for being decent despite being economically misguided, wanted the stain of the law removed from the law books. Sadly, it caused an upswelling of support for similar laws to be enacted by the teathugs. Welcome to the Tealiban Nation!

 

[ImprobableJoe]

What do teapublicans do when they step out of your bedroom?

They go on Craigslist and troll for gay sex with male prostitutes.

 

[Aught3]

Yeah, but at the same time it's an unenforced law. Is it really worth the time to go through and remove it from the books?

 

[kenandkids]

Yeah, but at the same time it's an unenforced law. Is it really worth the time to go through and remove it from the books?

Yes. As per the article:

The same penalty applies to adultery, which one Florida woman tried to have enforced for her cheating husband in 2006.

So long as it is on the books, someone will try to use it. Better to clear the mess out.

 

[Anachronous Rex]

... at least we can move! I'm not from here, I'm not staying here.

Same and same.

Santa Fe looks nice...

 

[ImprobableJoe]

... at least we can move! I'm not from here, I'm not staying here.

Same and same.

Santa Fe looks nice...

My wife used to live there, she tells me it is beautiful, and the people are very nice. Sort of Mexican-Indian culture, which is cool if you can embrace it because then the people embrace you.

 

[Gunboat Diplomat]

To be entirely honest, these laws, and others like sodomy laws and sneezing in public laws, were technically removed from being enforceable by a previous Supreme Court ruling (come to think of it, it might have only been a District Court...). This republican, and I give him full credit for being decent despite being economically misguided, wanted the stain of the law removed from the law books. Sadly, it caused an upswelling of support for similar laws to be enacted by the teathugs. Welcome to the Tealiban Nation!

Do you have any documentation that the Tea Party support the enactment of similar laws?

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

Alabama's Constitution has so many useless and worthless laws that never get enforced at all -
It's still illegal in my hometown to have an interracial marriage, to spit on the sidewalk, and to drive without shoes.

The only time old laws really get brought up in general is when they are being used as a justification for drunken stupidity.
For example, I had a shortcut from a friend's house that went down a one-way road that shaved 10 minutes of driving off. So, what I did was I bough a lantern and hung it off the front of my car and drove down the street.
When I got pulled over a few weeks later, and passing a breathalizer, I pulled out my cellphone and looked up the article in the Alabama Constitution - which stated simply that a person could drive the opposite way of a one-way street as long as there was a lantern posted to the front of their car.
:lol: He let me off, laughing :lol:

The South is it's own little section of Earth which is not bound by the same logic that the rest of the world goes by.
Not a single person cares is a law is a law, or if it's legal or illegal. Common sense often prevails in cases of idiocy and retardation. You won't get any sympathy from a jury playing word games or fiddling around with technicalities.

In some cases, this is a bad thing. But in practical cases it's wonderful.

 

[Thomas Doubting]

Wait.. did you just say a law is often only valid as long as the police and judges think common sense is applicable?
But that is where the problem starts.. if common sense and logic had been used the laws wouldn't have been accepted to start with, and then we have people who have their own version of "common sense" etc..
I think they should rather rewrite their books every once in a while.

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

Wait.. did you just say a law is often only valid as long as the police and judges think common sense is applicable?
But that is where the problem starts.. if common sense and logic had been used the laws wouldn't have been accepted to start with, and then we have people who have their own version of "common sense" etc..
I think they should rather rewrite their books every once in a while.

That's the kind of nonsense that would get laughed at.
It's not for active laws, but laws that are enforced and practical. Like, for example, the interracial marriage law in my hometown.
It may seem like a foreign concept to you - but that's how it is. For example, if you tried to arrest someone for having an interracial marriage in my home town, no matter what the law is the common-sense ruling kicks in for things.
The only time you can probably pull a technicality is for some Lulz and you know that the officer wouldn't want to do the paperwork on it (for example, who the fuck would want to write up that I was following the law and that I was driving the wrong way down a street because I had a lantern on the front of my car?) and that, well, basically applies anywhere in any part of your life.

It's not the fact that the law is unjest, it's just that the people in the area are lazy and, well, why rewrite the entire set of Jim Crow laws when it all basically got voided and ignored anyways?