Florida goes completely fruitcake.

The Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida has filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that the state's sales tax exemption for Bibles and other religious publications is unconstitutional. The basis for the suit is that Christian bookstores are routinely granted waivers from the state, but New Age bookstores and specifically LeVay's The Satanic Bible have never received similar exemptions.

Religious Right organizations have filed various amicus curiae with the court because, naturally, they want to reserve special rights to their religion and grant it priveleges not granted others. As the head of the state's Christian Coalition put it, "I don't see any comparison between scripture and some metaphysical nonsense."

Even more alarming is the president of the Liberty Council, who warned the Wiccans not to take their case to the Supreme Court: "In case the Wiccans haven't realized it, if they haven't been watching the news, the court has changed. We have a new day, and certainly this Supreme Court is not going to look with enthusiasm when it comes to taxing religion."

But this isn't about taxing religion: this is about treating all religious organizations equally, about not one being granted a special privilege denied to others.

It's pure tribal politics, and it needs to be shoved into their faces: No Special Rights For Christians. If they want to scream that fair housing and employment for gays and lesbians is a "special right," then they should be made as uncomfortable as possible when they beg for exemptions from the law.

Hat tip to the ever-observant Ed Brayton. You might also wince at the original Liberty Council article.

Subgenii ruled unfit parents, probably "severely mentally ill."

PASWO #2 (with caveat regarding slack; see below):

February 3, 2006, Judge Punch heard testimony in the case. [The father] entered into evidence 16 exhibits taken from the Internet, 12 of which are photographs of the SubGenius event, X-Day. Kohl has never attended X-Day and is not in any of the pictures. Rachel Bevilacqua is depicted in many of these photos, often wearing skimpy costumes or completely nude, while participating in X-Day and Detroit Devival events.

The judge, allegedly a very strict Catholic, became outraged at the photos of the X-Day parody of Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ -- especially the photo where Jesus [Steve Bevilacqua] is wearing clown makeup and carrying a crucifix with a pool-noodle dollar sign on it while being beaten by a crowd of SubGenii, including a topless woman with a "dildo".

Judge Punch lost his temper completely, and began to shout abuse at Ms. Bevilacqua, calling her a "pervert," "mentally ill," "lying," and a participant in "sex orgies." The judge ordered that Rachel is to have absolutely no contact with her son, not even in writing, because he felt the pictures of X-Day performance art were evidence enough to suspect "severe mental illness..."

I have mixed feelings about this because, so far, nobody has been forthcoming about how much of this the child was exposed to, if there was any third-party assessment by the court of whether or not the child was in any danger, possibly subject either to violent peer sanction or self-injury, and so forth.

It is entirely possible that Ms. Bevilacqua was diligent about firewalling off her activities that are the province and privilege of adulthood. If that's the case then the ruling is entirely out of line, especially without third-party verification. In either case, his behavior from the bench is completely unprofessional and inappropriate.

Source material here. Note that a search through Google news shows nothing, which may indicate that this is another publicity stunt by Reverend Stang. I'd wait a few days and check to see if this pans out as legit.

(no subject)

As if life couldn't get any uglier today, James P. Hogan, the science fiction author who I enjoyed most as a teenager, announced today that he supports Holocaust Revionism. Not just David Irving's right to speak (Irving was recently sentenced to three years in prison for his Holocaust Revisionist historical writings), but support for the actual "research program" that questions whether or not the Holocaust ever happened and purports to refute the claim that the actual death toll was in "the millions."

Not even the German soldiers on trial at Nuremburg tried to claim that.

Ideas I Can't Use (Yet)

This afternoon as I was walking home, I looked down at a patch of grass and saw something. "Oh," I thought. "An undeveloped desireline." And then I thought that that phrase, Undeveloped Desireline, was a great title for a story.

Now I just have to figure out what story.

It'll probably end up in the Graveyard of Great Titles, right next to The Princess Warehouse, another title for which I have no clue what to write next.