I brought the first stone

Sweet! In December Shreveport, Louisiana became the second city in that state with an LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance. There was on dissenting vote -- Councilman Ron Webb. This month Webb introduced a proposal to repeal the ordinance. Then he came face-to-face with Pamela Raintree, a transgender woman, who came to a City Council meeting. She held up a stone and said (video here):

Leviticus 20:13 states, 'If a man lie also with mankind as he lieth with a woman, they shall surely put him to death.' I brought the first stone Mr. Webb, in case that your Bible talk isn't just a smoke screen for personal prejudices.

Webb withdrew his proposal.



When same-sex marriage erupted in Utah last month the state asked the 10th Circuit Court for a fast-track ruling. The Court agreed and set dates for when the opening briefs needed to be filed. Now the state is saying, um, could we have an extension? Say, ten days? We, um, just hired our legal counsel yesterday. The 10th Circuit responded that requests for extensions "are very strongly discouraged, and will be considered only under extraordinary circumstances."

Plaintiffs said these circumstances are not extraordinary. You're only slowing down the case you said needed to be sped up.

Commenters asked what should take ten days? You don't have any more lame reasons for discrimination to add to your case.



New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, embroiled in the scandal of backing up traffic to the George Washington Bridge, famously said, "I'm not a bully." That prompted lots of people in NJ to say, oh yes you are!

Terrence Heath explores the case and explains why Christie was the darling of the GOP, if not the Tea Party, at least until now. Back in 2011 at a private GOP event Christie summed up the internal GOP philosophy: "We spend too much. We borrow too much. We tax too much. It is time to turn those three things around." And … "Now, pain will be inflicted when we change that."

Heath says "Pain will be inflicted" is the creed of the bully and fits quite well with the GOP created "bully economy." And, as we see with the GOP refusal to renew jobless benefits, a great deal of pain is still being inflicted.



Ireland's economy recovered? Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy was trashed when the economic mess started back in 2008, though not as bad as the economies of Greece and Spain. Ireland was forced to endure the austerity measures to satisfy its creditors and is working its way out. So has its economy recovered? Ask the lenders and international corporations who moved there for low taxes and the answer is yes. Ask the residents and you get a different answer.

Terrence Heath explores the economies of Ireland and Europe as a whole. Growth has been quite slow. That's because the economies of Europe are under the austerity policies of the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A big problem is that European citizens don't have a say in what these organizations do.