You thought the election brought out the crazy? You ain't seen nuthin' yet!

Here I thought things were getting quiet, with not a lot to talk about.

Then I got this email from Barry Lynn, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State talking about a new bill being introduced by the North Carolina Legislature.

North Carolina’s House Joint Resolution 494 asserts that “each state is sovereign and may independently determine how the state may make laws respecting an establishment of religion.” It declares that “the North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.”

 Now I'll be the first to admit that I Am Not A Lawyer (IANAL), and a Constitutional Scholar I am not, either.  But I did take a Constitutional law course in college as part of my degree in Public Administration (yes, you can get a degree in that) and unless I am getting senile, I distinctly remember that the 14th Amendment specifically applies the protections of due process of law to the States as well as the Federal Government.  Given that Article VI specifically denotes the US Constitution as the supreme law of the land that supersedes the State constitutions, these nut bags don't have a leg to stand on.

This is, quite frankly, pre-Civil War nonsense.  Over a half million Americans died to prove their theories on States Rights wrong in that war, and I am of the opinion that to continue in this vein should be considered seditious.

The United States of America is ONE country.  We are past the times when people identify with one State, then as an American.  Millions of Americans were born in one State and now live in another, many having moved to and from multiple States in their lives.

State governments are subservient to the Federal government, period, end of story.  The idea of a uniting overarching Federal government was to solve the problems that were found to exist in a weak non-federal system where States Rights were paramount.  InterState Commerce of all types and kinds, and in fact that much hated term (by Republicans) "The General Welfare" are all Federal responsibilities, as are the resolution of interState conflicts and disagreements.  (By the Supreme Court, which these idiots say they are not subject to.)

All of this nonsense isn't just crazy stuff.  It is, in fact, trying to lay the groundwork for the Dominionist Movement, using a popular Southern meme - States Rights - to suck in the uneducated right wing nut bags in the South to back their cause, not realizing the disastrous consequences of overturning the Constitution.

Too bad the Democrats don't have the cojones to do anything about it.