States of the Union

It's business as usual in the VA General Assembly. Some clown wants to legalize castration for sex offenders:

The bill would apply to sexually violent predators. Hanger objects to an increase in the civil commitment program to $70 million over the next two years.

Of course, the bill would also cost millions in legal challenges after being challenged as cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

Turley's Blog

Meanwhile, in Giles County:

The Ten Commandments will hang in public schools, the Giles County School Board unanimously decided Thursday afternoon despite the school district attorney's recommendation and precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Education Week

Not to be outdone, Utah lawmakers have proposed making the Browning M1911 semiautomatic pistol the official state gun:

"Tragic events happen because of bad people in this world. But handguns, and firearms in general, do not kill people," Sandstrom said. "We need to stop demonizing firearms."

Associated Press


Last night Obama gave his State of the Union address. Afterwards came the GOP response from Rand-tard Paul Ryan:

Rand developed the objectivist philosophy, which values the self, capitalism and laissez-faire economics. Ryan, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, reportedly requires staffers and interns to read her opus, Atlas Shrugged, and gives out copies as gifts.

After that came the Tea Party rejoinder by historical revisionist Michelle Bachmann. I didn't watch any of it but she gave a daft speech in Iowa over the weekend:

Now, she didn't leave out the history of slavery; she just prettied it up: Slavery was a "scourge," she admitted, but "we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."

Salon (dotcom)

Thus the whitewash of American history was given a new coat last night.