Sessions announces new "religious liberty task force"

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Well that information is somewhat comforting, but you'll understand me still being rather nervous.

[Karha of Honor]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/30/politics ... index.html

Well, as a member of a religious minority and a bisexual, I'm slightly more terrified than usual. How about ya'll?

Play stupid games with Nuns and Pizza places, win prizes.

Would you mind explaining just what the Hell Michigan you are talking about?

Forcing Nuns to pay for contraception and the Memories Pizza, the Walkerton, Indiana restaurant incident.

So, saying that catholic businesses still have to provide health care coverage with their employee healthcare, and boycotting or whatever the "No homo" pizza place provoked the creation of a big scary "Religious Liberties" task force?

Are you saying this is the consequence that all religious minorities and LGBTQ people get because some people wanted birth control and didn't like the homophobic pizza joint?

That and hardcore culture warring after victory did.

Either that was a "yes" or you need to elaborate on your meaning.

Yes + hardcore culture wars but yes based on my interpretation, not yours.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

So you think every single queer person and religious minority should suffer because a subset of conservatives feel threatened because they are hearing "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"? You don't seem very nice.

Suggesting that this is our just desserts for the "culture wars" when we just want to get married, adopt kids, not get fired or kicked out of public spaces for being gay or trans, etc., that seems...rather unkind to me.

[Steve]

Just what's this new task force supposed to do? I suppose they'll sue to let county clerks keep their jobs if they refuse to obey the law for religious reasons.

The task force isn't going to DO anything. It's the equivalent of Obama's Task Force on Reducing Gun Violence. Remember that bad boy? I'll forgive you if you don't. You don't have any reason to. It never did anything. It was never supposed to do anything. The creation of task forces like this isn't about some tangible result, it's about signalling to your base that yes, yes, you hear them already.

The President of the United States can do a lot of things, but there's a lot of things they can't do. Obama literally couldn't do anything about our gun issues...they stem from areas outside of his control. But his base was desperate for him to do something after Sandy Hook, so he did the only thing he could - he created a meaningless task force. Trump cannot actually do anything about changing cultural mores or a judicial ruling against a county clerk, but his base demands action - so he'll create a task force. The task force won't have any real authority or power, but it will no doubt meet a few times and draft some reports that nobody will ever read or care about. And that's fine, because the purpose of the task force was the announcement, not the end result.

Ah. The ol' "Lord Vetinari appoints a committee to investigate" gambit.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Please never ever EVER insult the Tyrant of Ankh-Morporkh by even the slightest connection to President Neelix.

[Karha of Honor]

So you think every single queer person and religious minority should suffer because a subset of conservatives feel threatened because they are hearing "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"? You don't seem very nice.

Suggesting that this is our just desserts for the "culture wars" when we just want to get married, adopt kids, not get fired or kicked out of public spaces for being gay or trans, etc., that seems...rather unkind to me.

You have the impression that the left's culture war conduct is kind?

[LittleRaven]

I would certainly agree that nobody associated with the culture war appears to list 'kindness' very high on their resume.

It's all about how many scalps you can collect.

[Karha of Honor]

I would certainly agree that nobody associated with the culture war appears to list 'kindness' very high on their resume.

It's all about how many scalps you can collect.

It's about turf but some people forget that.

[unknownsample]

So you think every single queer person and religious minority should suffer because a subset of conservatives feel threatened because they are hearing "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"? You don't seem very nice.

Suggesting that this is our just desserts for the "culture wars" when we just want to get married, adopt kids, not get fired or kicked out of public spaces for being gay or trans, etc., that seems...rather unkind to me.

Never underestimate the sense of victimhood the right has.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Slash Gallagher, can you honestly say you believe that this Religious Liberty Task Force will strive to uphold the religious liberties of all Americans?