When Chemists Attack

Living where I do in South Carolina – between the suburbs and the sticks – I don’t get many political canvassers. The ones that do show up at my door are almost always from the more rabid side of the Republican party. Since I’m usually not home when they come by, I just get a packet of scary literature left at my door.

A little while ago, I had a visit from a canvasser that surprised me. He was representing a Democratic candidate. For president, even. This in spite of the fact that South Carolina going Democratic in 2008 is about as likely as a collision with a giant Earth-obliterating asteroid. Maybe I exaggerate, but I remember how … depressing the Democratic booth at the State Fair was during the last presidential election cycle.

So, what Democrat is getting the word out to the “sticks” here in South Carolina?

Obama!

I like Obama. He realizes that the Iraq war was a bad idea, and he realizes that we’ve got a serious problem with our heathcare delivery system here in the USA. I don’t think he goes far enough to address our healthcare problems (his proposal isn’t a single-payer system and doesn’t get rid of bloodsucking for-profit insurance companies), but it’s a start. And a start is all we’re likely to be able to get in the short term.

About the only thing that bothers me about Obama is, well, “faith, faith, faith“! I realize that here in the Deep South, politicians have to pander to the pious, but … sheesh! Look at the Obama events in the link above. How about a “environment forum” or a “healthcare forum” instead of an endless stream of “faith forum”s?

Unlike some voters, I’m not really interested in what god Obama worships – as long as he understands the concept of separation of church and state. I do care about the policies he plans to put into action if elected. More works, less faith, please!

Here’s something South Carolina’s legislature recently passed: S484.

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 59-113-50, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE DEFINITION OF INDEPENDENT INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING FOR PURPOSES OF PROVIDING TUITION GRANTS, SO AS TO INCLUDE IN THE DEFINITION AN INDEPENDENT BACHELOR’S LEVEL INSTITUTION CHARTERED BEFORE 1962 WHOSE MAJOR CAMPUS AND HEADQUARTERS ARE LOCATED WITHIN SOUTH CAROLINA.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Definition revised

SECTION 1. Section 59-113-50 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

“Section 59-113-50. For the purposes of this chapter, an independent institution of higher learning means an:

(1) independent eleemosynary junior or senior college in South Carolina whose major campus and headquarters are located within South Carolina and which is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools; or

(2) independent bachelor’s level institution chartered before 1962 whose major campus and headquarters are located within South Carolina.”

Nothing much to see here, right? But this legislation was sponsored by Mike Fair, who is not known to be much of a friend to quality education. With that in mind, what does this legislation actually do? It …

approved $2.5 million to help low-income students attend Bob Jones University, a private school in Greenville.

… according to the Charleston Post and Courier. (It does this by adding the unaccredited-by-any-reputable-accreditation-board Bob Jones to the list of private schools eligible to receive grant money for students with financial need. Bob Jones is the only new school to qualify under this legislation!)

Rev. BigDumbChimp has more details on why you should be irritated at this legislation, especially if you prefer your tax dollars to be kept away from anti-science nutjobs.

Disclaimer: I teach science at a public college. Just so y’all know my bias.

On the subject of Republican Ted Pitts’ attempt to get rid of South Carolina’s antiquated “blue laws”, Eric (in the comments on my earlier post) had this to say

just add it to the list of sanford vetoes … and general assembly overides.

Have I got a surprise for you! Sanford vetoed the measure, but the legislature upheld the veto. So, we’re stuck with the blue laws.

Presumably, this veto and the support of it allows both the governor and members of the legislature to pick up some cheap fundie support at the expense of only the smaller counties in the state – since the richest counties can already ignore the blue laws. FromThe State:

“I don’t think it had to do with religion, but my mom raised me to go to church on Sunday,” said Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Richland. He said he voted against the Pitt’s proviso because, “There’s certain things we don’t need to be messing with.”

That’s an interesting statement from a legislator from a county whose stores can ignore the blue laws thanks to the accommodations tax exception. But I’m inclined to agree with what Bellentine is saying here. His vote probably had very little to do with his religion. It likely had more to do with his benefactors not wanting competition in neighboring counties opening up on Sunday morning!

The State had an article today about a proposal to exempt all counties from South Carolina’s ridiculous “blue laws”.

The House and Senate this week voted to exempt each of the state’s counties from the century-old law. Under the blue laws, apparel sales, for instance, cannot begin until 1:30 p.m. on Sundays.

For those of you who don’t live in South Carolina, we have laws that state that certain stores can’t be opened until an couple of hours after church services end on Sunday. Some stores open, but they’re restricted to what items they can sell until after church is over. The local Wal-Mart, for instance, opens at a normal time on Sunday, but ropes off the vast majority of the store – which contains the items you’re not allowed to buy until Sunday afternoon.

Some counties – the ones who collect enough taxes from tourism – are exempt from the blue laws.

Six counties now earn enough motel tax revenue to skip the blue law restrictions — Horry [the Myrtle Beach area], Charleston, Georgetown, Beaufort, Greenville and Richland.

The tourism exemption is comical. It’s as if South Carolina is trying to hide its bass-ackwardsness from the rest of the country.

the bad news about this new proposal to exempt all counties from the blue laws? It’s only for one year, because nobody in the Legislature appears to have the guts to get rid of these idiotic laws permanently. Heck, some of them don’t even want to scrap them for a year:

“My personal belief is I think we should respect Christianity more and during the hours when the church is open, let’s keep the shops closed,” said Rep. Bob Leach, R-Greer. “I didn’t know it was in there.”

Are the churches really frightened that people, if given the choice to attend church or go buy a new Wii game from the local Gamestop, will stop going to church? No, don’t answer that. 🙂