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Monday, June 1, 2009

Politics "An attmt form liberels to increase my taxes"

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 10:49 AM

Score one for religious freedom, Oregon. On Friday, the House passed the "Religious Freedom Act", which spells out workers' right to take time off for religious reasons.

"The goal of the bill is to make sure employers and employees understand that there is a right to celebrate and practice their religion and employers need to accommodate that as long as it doesn't hurt their business," explains Geoff Sugerman, of bill-sponsor Speaker Dave Hunt's office. Businesses do not have to build special prayer rooms or anything for their employees, but they do need to allow workers to wear religious clothing and take time off for religious holidays unless it would create "some type of burden or undue hardship" on the business. Whether that means praying once a year or once a day does not matter, both are protected by law.

Anything having to do with religious freedom is dicey public opinion territory, even if it's just a bill spelling out proper First Amendment workplace policies: 21 legislators voted against the bill. Religious freedom issues bring out the crazies and when the Portland Business Journal reported on the bill's passage, the wing nuts came out of the woodwork to leave marginally literate responses. Here are the comments on the PBJ's article, in all their typo-ridden glory:

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See - people like this are why we need strong laws spelling out civil liberties.

(p.s. is the first commenter joking? I would think so, but why go through the trouble of leaving a long tongue-in-cheek comment on a random Portland Business Journal article? And the replies are definitely serious...)

 

Comments (11) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
I labored for months under the assumption that the PDX area newspapers had some of the most brilliant trolls ever to exist.

Sadly, I no longer labor under that assumption. We just have REALLY stupid people posting things.

I may be a troll... but at least I'm not dumb. But I'm guessing that some of you out there will argue that point.
Posted by Graham on June 1, 2009 at 11:07 AM · Report
2
But just in time to refute myself; checking the comment history of that particular commenter (the first one)...

Yep, totally a troll. A good one at that. If they turned down the rhetoric just a little bit, they'd be 100% plausible.

http://networking.bizjournals.com/Steven11…
Posted by Graham on June 1, 2009 at 11:10 AM · Report
3
The "'Im not sharing' and 'Go Hanity go larz' signature are kind of a dead giveaway
Posted by D on June 1, 2009 at 11:18 AM · Report
4
You're a f--ing idiot if you thought for even a second that that comment was real. Way to caricature your political opponents - guess they just don't have anything reasonable to say at all, do they? You probably left the goddamn comment.
Posted by mr. voluptuous on June 1, 2009 at 11:24 AM · Report
5
http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Poe%27s_Law

So as Atheists, do we get every day off or no days off?
Posted by NIG GER on June 1, 2009 at 12:07 PM · Report
6
Sarah your first url in "Religious Freedom Act," needs to pull the closing quotes.
Posted by NIG GER on June 1, 2009 at 12:11 PM · Report
7
Is "Hangover" a holiday?
Posted by Blabby on June 1, 2009 at 3:10 PM · Report
8
Sarah, did you really entertain the thought that the first poster wasn't a troll? The overwhelming presence of very real idiots like you make me wonder why the better trolls around here even bother.

Also, fix that link.
Posted by A CAT, probably on June 1, 2009 at 3:56 PM · Report
9
Blabby: I think you'd have to schedule them in advance if you want to not get fired over it under this law.

However, "I can't get out of bed this morning" (because someone tied me to it,) is still a valid use of sick time.
Posted by Matthew D on June 1, 2009 at 5:04 PM · Report
10
The commenter's screen name is note-perfect. It sums up that attempted sarcasm mixed with actual inferiority issues that I've found in most right wing bloggers.

And yes, Mr. V: actual people writing on their personal blogs in places like Florida and Maryland do indeed express themselves in exactly this way, with equally trenchant reasoning. They make themselves into caricatures, with no help from anyone else.

But 'it's mine mine mine' was a dead giveaway.
Posted by rich bachelor on June 1, 2009 at 7:34 PM · Report
11
confidential to Sarah: the "definitely serious" replies are above MBSR's post.
Posted by A CAT, probably on June 1, 2009 at 8:43 PM · Report

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