Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Are Just Getting Weirder And Weirder

This idiot, Oklahoma State Senator A.J. Griffin, wanted to
pass a law requiring restaurants and public schools to
post anti-abortion propaganda at their expense. 

Some social conservatives are anxious to take away a woman's right to abortion.

Despite U.S. Supreme Court rulings, Republican legislatures enacted at least 60 new abortion restriction laws, says the Center for Reproductive Rights.

So far ten of those laws were ruled unconstitional by courts, but the efforts continue.  

With Roe Vs. Wade still the law of the land, at least for now, I have to admire the, um, creativity of some lawmakers to restrict abortions.  It's getting very, very weird.

In Texas, a proposal has been held up in the courts, at least for now. to require cremation or burial ceremonies for miscarried or aborted fetuses.

Nobody actually wants this law passed except the anti-abortion zealots in the Texas legislature. Even the funeral home and cremation industry, which would stand to gain from this, is icked out by it and is unenthusiastic about the idea.

Of course, some people who have had miscarriages want a cremation or interment, and that's their right.

However, creating this law might actually prevent people who want these ceremonies from actually having them.

Acccording to the Texas Tribune:

"For those in the funeral business, the increased demand for cremations could mean ending their practice of charitably cremating the tissue  from a miscarriage for parents who wished to have a funeral. 

'What had always been pretty much a charitable process is now going to become costing quite a bit of more,' (Texas Funeral Directors Association spokesma Michael) Land said. It's estimated that 10 to 20 percet of pregnacies end in miscarriage."

In other words, Texas lawmakers are so intent on making abortions so excruciating and difficult for women that they think it's worth it to make tragedies like miscarriages excruciating and difficult for parents, too.

Proves that the pro-life crowd is pro-life only until the baby is born. Then it's time to start making life hard.

It's even worse in Oklahoma. (Isn't that often the case?)

According to the Associated Press:

"Oklahoma plans to force hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and public schools to post signs inside public restrooms directing pregnant women where to receive services as part of an effort to reduce abortions in the state.

Te State Board of Health will consider regulations for the signs on Tuesday. Businesses and other organizations will have to pay an estimated $2.3 million to put up the signs because the Legislature didn't approve any money for them."

The Tuesday referenced in the AP story was last week. We've since learned the Board of Health has approved this ridiculousness. 

 They were probably pissed off because on the same day, the Oklahoma Supreme Court blocked a regulation that would  have required doctors who had admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

However, we have learned since that the Oklahoma State Senator who introduced the legislation, A. J. Griffin, has since recinded the idea.

Before she did that,  we has the legislature in Oklahoma,  making restaurants and such pay for anti-abortion propaganda that they don't want in their businesses.

I don't think this would have passed  the First Amendment test - the government telling people and businesses what to say or else - but hey, Constitution Smonstitutiion, if it enables you to pander to your most conservative base, right quote, unquote Oklahoma lawmakers?

It appears Griffin backtracked because of the backlash against the cost imposed on businesses by the bill. She now wants to make the anti-abortion propaganda a social media thing, and she theorized it would have a greater reach that way.

But would you want to read anything Griffin or her minions put out on social media?

Oklahoma Taking Roadside Asset Seizures To A New, Chilling Level

Republican Oklahoma State Senator Kyle Loveless
wisely distrusts asset forfeitures and new devices
that read prepaid gift cards to seize those, too.  

I've always hated the idea of asset seizures, the ability of police and prosecutors to seize money and other valuables from people without first determining through the justice system whether said people are guilty.  

Oklahoma is taking it to a whole new level.

They now have card readers that can take assets from pre-paid cards, you know, those gift credit cards or those things from Walgreens or whatever that you can use to buy stuff there.

So far, they can't read regular debit or credit cards, but I'm afraid that day will come soon, since the techology seems to be there.

According to Oklahoma's News9, the devices are called Electronic Recovery and Access Devices, or ERADS. These devices read prepaid cards and allows police to seize money from the cards without getting a warrant from a judge and without filing criminal charges.

The motivation behind using ERADS is fine: Apparently, drug runners use pre-paid cards to conduct their business and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol sees ERADS as a way to thwart this activity.

But you can see how a corrupt cop and just stop people randomly and get rich quick. Who would know?

Already, people are becoming wary of driving into Oklahoma because of these ERADS. For instance, News9 said a company called Peak Power Manufacturing of Lake Park, Florida sent a letter saying it's banning its employees from travelilng to or through Oklahoma because their employees use these cards for business travel.

"We simply cannot risk seizure of our employee's and our company's assets based upon the whims of an honorable, dedicated and well-intentioned Oklahoma State Patrol Officer," company officials wrote

Not all lawmakers in Oklahoma are on board with this idea, either. News9 said State Senator Kyle Loveless, R-Oklahoma City, wants to shelve these ERADS, at least temporarily.

"So we're going to be able to tell their balance, tell their records, tell those other things without a warrant, without charges, and without an arrest and without a conviction. That's un-American," Loveless said.

Asset forfeiture has become big business for police agencies. For example, in Oklahoma, law enforcement agencies can keep all of what they take. In the fourteen years ending in 2014, Oklahoma got almost $99 million from seizing cash or selling off seized property, ThinkProgress reports. 

Loveless, the Oklahoma state lawmaker, says he doesn't like asset forfeiture at all, whether its from prepaid cards or other sources.

"We've see single mom's stuff be taken, a cancer survivor his drugs taken, we saw a Christian band being taken.....We've seen innocent people's stuff being taken. We've seen where the money goes and how it's misspent."

It's true people can appeal to get their assets back. But its hard. Largely because the burden of proof is on the victim of the asset forfeiture to prove the stuff is theirs. Whcih is hard.

A lot of the people who have their assets seized are innocent. In five years ending in 2015, Oklahoma seized about $6 million from motorists along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma, and $4 million of that was taken from people who were never charged with a crime.

As I noted last year, in 2014 U.S. Attorneys sized $4.5 billion in assets, more than burglars reportedly took from victims that year.

Asset forfeiture reduces public confidence in law enforcement. It seems outside the rule of law, and it smells of corruption. As I also said last year, we don't need more mistrust in our instititions.

So let's make asset forfeiture harder, not easier, like with the ERADs Oklahoma is using.

Today's Overreaction: Man's Credit Card Declines At Hotel, Goes On Rampage

Police in Oklahoma say John Parsley, 62,
rammed his truck into a hotel because
the front desk declined his credit card.

According to police, John Edward Parsley, 62 of Gonzales, Texas tried to check into the Comfort Inn in Alva, Oklahoma, but his credit card declined.

He had to pay cash.

A situation like that might vaguely irritate you and me, but we'd get over it in, oh, I don't know, two seconds.

Not Parsley, oh, no. It was an OUTRAGE the hotel declined his credit card. So he did what any American would, or so he thought. He slammed his big pickup truck through the lobby and into the front desk.

He barely missing two receptionists who scrambled to get out of the way and succeeded, just barely.

You can view the surveillance camera video of the crash at the bottom of this post.

The Enid (OK) News & Eagle reported that apparently, Parsley had contacted Alva Police about the credit card decline.

The News and Eagle said the officer said he'd go inside and discuss the credit card issue with management. Office Wade Sutton's report said, "I observed Parsley reach up and place his vehicle in drive and accelerate rapidly, crashing into the hotel front entrance and into the lobby."

After the crash, he got out of the truck with his hands up to be greeted by Alva police, who were not amused.

He told police  he drove into the hotel because "they thought he was bluffing, and he proved he wasn't."

On the bright side, Parsley got some accommodations that night. Authorities charged him with assault and battery, and malicious destruction of property and held for lack of $1 million bond.

On the ugly side - there's lots of ugly here but this is the ugliest - racism might have been a factor here. Parsley said he kept having trouble with "Indian" hotel personnel.

Also, I'm laughing, but this could have been tragic. The two women behind the desk could have been killed!

Here's the video of this idiot crashing into the hotel:

The Binky Bandit Terrorizes Oklahoma

Surveillance photo shows the
"binky bandit" with his pacifier in Oklahoma.  

Police in Oklahoma are searching for the "Binky Bandit," an armed carjacker who committed the crime with a pacifier in his mouth.

According to television station KFOR, police seemed pretty incredulous:

"The unusual part about this case, as you can see from the photos, the suspect has a pacifier in his mout while committing thsi crime, said Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Jennifer Wardlow.

The victim cooperated with the pacifier sucking suspect by handing over his money and his car keys.

That allowed the suspect to speed away."

The binky is the most interesting part of this crime, but judging from the KFOR report, the whole incident is a total mess.

"When our crews came to the street where the victim lives, we discovered a blood trail in the driveway of the victim's home. The blood drops started two doors away."

The night before a car slammed into a vacant home on the street where the suspect lives, the driver sped away, and two bloodied men casually walked down the street as if nothing happened.

We're not sure why all this transpired, but it is possible Binky Bandit was somehow involved. KFOR also says the victim in the carjacking has a lengthy criminal past as well, but there's no evidence the victim has a binky.

The suspect might have the pacifier, says News9 in Oklahoma, because people who take hallucinogenic drugs sometimes use binkies to keep from grinding their teeth.

Since there's no telling what a person on hallucinogenic drugs will do, here's my advice. If a guy sucking on a pacifier tries to rob you, just do what he says so he gets out of there as quickly as possible.

And I guess you should lock up your baby's pacifier so these kinds of creeps won't steal them. Or something.

Bizarre Weirdos Of The Day: Guys Sprayed Deer Urine On Walmart Merchandise Because It's Fun

Dody Hudson and Jon Ohlman are accused of
spraying deer urine on merchandise
in an Oklahoma Walmart.  

This week's bizarre weirdos of the week are Cody Hudson, 18 and Jon Ohlman, 24, of Oklahoma, who, for reasons unknown, sprayed doe urine on merchandise in an Owasso, Oklahoma Walmart.

Fox 23 and other Oklahoma media outlets don't have information on why the pair did this. But now they're in trouble. They're out on bail, but due back in court September 15.

I guess we can only speculate why they did this.

Maybe they were bored? If so, I have to hand it to them for creativity.

It's the first time I've ever heard of someone who is trying to liven up the day, slapping their palm against their forehead and saying: "I know! Let's spray doe urine on stuff at the Walmart! It will be so much fun!

Why did they have doe urine? It's normally used by deer hunters to camoflauge their own scent, but why was it important for Hudson and Ohlman to have it at Walmart?

Walmart isn't necessarily the most loved business in America. Did they target Walmart for a particular reason. Speaking of targets, I guess we're lucky they didn't go to a Target store, too.

We do know Hudson and Ohlman did about $2,800 in damage to the store. And Walmart had the good sense to pull the urine soaked items off the shelves, and are guaranteed never to try to sell them.

I do have advice for Hudson and Ohlman, whose parents must be SO proud of the nationwide media attention they're getting. Next time you're bored, maybe just go deer hunting with your doe urine.

Unique Oklahoma Politician Says He Was Defeated By Robot Or Body Double

Unsuccessful Oklahoma Congressional candidate
Tim Murray said his winning opponent is actually
a robot or body double, and is thus disqualified.  

U.S Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Oklahoma won the recent primary for his party's nomination to the House of Representatives. It looks like he's headed for an easy re-election.

But one of the defeated candidates isn't going to take this lying down. Candidate Tim Murray says Lucas is actually a body double or robot for someone who died in 2011

"It is widely known Rep. Frank D. Lucas is no longer alive and has been displayed by a look alike," Murray writes in a note to television station KFOR.

Murray claims Lucas is among several U.S. Congress members who were executed in Ukraine in 2011.

Hmm. I'm pretty up on the news and I would have seen in the papers and on TV and the Internet a few years ago word of the execution by The World Court of Lucas and other Congress members in Ukraine three years ago.

Murray said these executions by hanging were televised world wide and it's common knowledge that it happened.

Somehow, I don't recall it. You think it would be all over the news. Like Benghazi or something.

Maybe there was a coverup or something.

KFOR reports that Lucas is a bit shocked by the news he doesn't exist. "It does come as kind of a shock to read that you're not you," Lucas said.

Lucas says he has never been to Ukraine. That's what they all say.

By the way, you HAVE to check out Murray's campaign Web site, that's still up despite the fact that he lost to the robot that is pretending to be Lucas.

Here's one example of Murray's accomplishments, taken from his Web site:  "Requested and obtained removal, from humans, of an illegal de-human chip from persons abroad and in armed forces use. Helped block the 7th day Legislation in the '70s that would put the 666 de-human chip on every person on earth. In prevention of the fore-mentioned, it was sealed with The People, The U.S. President, and the U.S. Supreme Court at that time and since that time."

I hadn't heard about this. 666 de-human chip? 7th day legislation? Tim, Tim, you have to explain this more to us ignorant sheeple.

However, the conspiracy Web sites, which are oh, so accurate, are all over it, Thank Gawd!

On the ZPi Blog, "serving the paranoid since 1997" we have this laudatory report on Murray:

"Murray is not threatening to break the set of political theater by exposing the conspiracy at the heart of modern government: Most politicians are actually android replacements known as Simulacra."

Now I'm even more confused. Simulacra? I've never even heard that word. And why hasn't anybody embedded a 666 chip in me? Or did they?

Maybe Murray will win his appeal of the election which Lucas, or his body double, won. Then we can learn more about this insidious plot.

Or at the very least, be entertained by this, um unique candidate.

Weather Forecaster Feels Earth Move Under Her Feet

Television weather forecasters and meteorologists in Oklahoma often busy themselves warning the public or describing tornadoes, droughts, floods, giant hail and other disasters.  

This KOKO-TV meteorologist was trying to forecast
baking hot weather in Oklahoma Monday, but
got earthquake shaken instead.  

At least they can predict those.

What do you do about an earthquake while you're on-camera, though?

Oklahoma has been hit by an escalating series of earthquakes in recent years, especially this year. There've been at least 200 this year.

Many people blame fracking, the practice of trying to extract oil from bedrock by shooting high pressure water and chemicals into the rocks, fracturing them and releasing the oil and gas.

For whatever the reason, these quakes are definitely unnerving in a state that's definitely not California.

This TV weather presenter on WOKO found out on camera how startling a 4.3 earthquake can be. Still, she managed to hold it together pretty well on live TV, better than supposedly earthquake savvy Los Angeles newscasters have been

Watch the WOKO reaction:

World's Worst Restauranteur Hates "Freaks and F***gots" And Almost Everyone Else

If the top item on your life's bucket list is to enjoy a restaurant meal at Gary's Chicaros in Enid, Oklahoma, you'd better hurry up, big time.

Gary James, owner of Gary's Chicaros in
Enid, Oklahoma, might soon be facing
some legal issues over alleged discrimination.  

The place has been in business for 44 years, but I predict it will close soon.

Why? Because it seems the owner of the place, Gary James, appears to hate almost everybody, according to television station KFOR in Oklahoma City. 

It now seems inevitable that someone will file a discrimination complaint against the restaurant and you will no longer have the chance to sit down to some grub and listen to Gary James um, compelling thoughts on gays, blacks, lazy people, people with disabilities and a host of other n'er do wells he hates.

This whole thing started recently when a customer named Matt Gard, who said he'd been stopping by Gary's Chicaros for years, was turned away because he now has a disability.  Though James said something about Gard's friends being loud, but who knows?

Gard told KFOR that James doesn't like to serve people with disabilities, minorities, gay people and others. It's really quite a list.

For his part, James pretty much admited to KFOR he doesn't like people with disabilities.

"Well, if you work, you own a business, pay your taxes, you're more than welcome here. If you're on welfare, stay at home and spend my money there."

Um, if they're spending your money, Gary James, wouldn't you want them to spend it in your restaurant, so you get some of it back?

In 2009, he told News9 in Oklahoma that he is not homophobic or racist, he just doesn't want gay people in his restaurant. 

He also said at the time that anyone who wears a hat inside a building is gay. Um, I know plenty of people who I've seen wearing hats inside buildings, and I never thought they were gay. Neither did they.

Maybe they have different rules and signals in Oklahoma. The closest I've been to Oklahoma is South Dakota, which is pretty much as Midwestern as the Sooner State. I've eaten in restaurants in South Dakota where plenty of guys were wearing hats and few, if any, seemed gay to me.

And I thought I had a pretty good gaydar. But not as good as Gary James' apparently.

There was a flurry of attention toward James and his attitudes toward all kinds of people Different From Him back in 2009 when he was running for Enid City Council, but that attention died with a wimper.

This time, however, that pesky Internet is flaring up big time with the latest stuff that's going on with Gary James' attitudes. What started as a good local story from KFOR has now swept across the Internet. Popular aggragate sites like Gawker and Wonkette have seized on it, and it will be minutes before the main stream media catches up with it.

So there will be an outcry. Someone will file a discrimination lawsuit and Gary's Chicaros will probably be no more. (Already, KFOR posted a helpful link on their Gary Chicaros story to the Oklahoma Attorney General's office)

Gary James will become a hero to the allegedly oppressed far right wing and the rest of us will forget about him.

But some of us will have fun with him first.  Already it's started.  For instance, the Gary's Chicanos Facebook page has been hacked.

It is now listed on Facebook as a gay bar and fake "reviews" are pouring in with (definitely untrue but sarcastic and hilarious) stories about how Gary James likes having, um, intimate contact with certain male customers.

So, next time you're in Enid, Oklahoma, it looks as if you'll need to find another place for food and cocktails, because Gary Chicaros days seem to be numbered.

Oklahoma Lawmaker Says He Found Way To Stop Gay Marriage: Just Ban All Marriages

Some people just hate the idea of same sex marriage, and are getting more and more alarmed as more states and more countries make these unions legal.

Mike Turner, an Oklahoma state legislator,
said he'd like to ban all marriages as a way
to prevent gay marriages.  

One of the people who doesn't like gay marriage is Mike Turner, a state legislator in Oklahoma.

As courts and legislatures and voters approve gay marriage in other states, Turner says he's found a way to prevent any gay marriages from taking place in Oklahoma.

Turner says he'd just ban all marriages. 

Turner, and other Oklahoma opponents of same sex marriage are in a bit of a tizzy because a federal judge recently invalidated Oklahoma's constitutional amendment banning such marriages.

The judge cited the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision that held the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

DOMA was basically a federal ban on same sex marriages. The decision on the Oklahoma marriage situation is under appeal.

The gay marriage ban in Oklahoma remains in place while the court case is under appeal.

Of course, if you thought the nation's current mishmash of laws either approving of or banning same sex marriage makes for confusing case law, imagine what Turners' ban on all marriages would do.

Like everywhere, Oklahoma has a huge number of married couples. Do they all have to get a divorce?  Would one spouse have to move out of the house? Where would they go? That would surely create a boom in new housing construction!

Or if the overall marriage ban went into effect, would couples just have to live together, in SIN?!!? After all, if they're not married, they're cohabitating. I don't know how well that would go in conservative, religious Oklahoma.

And here's a problem common to both mixed gender and same sex marriages. If someone gets married in a state where marriage is legal, then moves to Oklahoma, what happens to the marriage? Nullified? What?

Of course, people could still get married in Oklahoma under Turner's insane idea, but it wouldn't be state sanctioned.  So is that a real marriage or not?

Maybe Turner and his ilk should just calm down. In states where same sex marriage is legal, the sky didn't fall and it won't in Oklahoma (At least not more than usual, given all the tornadoes and storms they get in Oklahama)

It also seems same sex marriage hasn't ruined all other marriages despite the hysteria I've heard for years from opponents. If Turner doesn't like gay marriage, then he shouldn't get gay married.

If he doesn't like gay marriage, he's free to say so.  He sounds like he's a church kind of guy. So let's wait until Judgement Day to decide who's right.

Crickets Bury Oklahoma! At Least They're Not Locusts

This time of year in the evening, the sound of crickets fills the Vermont air where I live. I really kind of like it.

They make sort of a concert, with a quiet "chirp, chirp, chirp" from some, others are louder and faster, and some varieties interject a loud Zizzizz-ZIT!! into the equation.

There can always be too much of a good thing, however.

Which takes us to Oklahoma, where the right combination of drought, heat, then rain brought on more crickets than anyone can handle, as you can tell by the photos in this post.

They've gotten into everyone's house, businesses, and dead ones pile up everywhere, making the atmosphere stink of rotting bugs. Lovely.

So, I'll hope the crickets here don't get too numerous. It's bad enough I'll be shoveling snow in a few months. I don't want to shovel dead crickets off my deck now.

Aerial View of Storm That Caused Ugly, Deadly Tornado is Beautiful

Tom Magnuson, who works at the National Weather Service office in Pueblo, Colorado, said he took this photo from an airplane of the thunderstorms that would unleash the huge tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma last week.

Click on the image to make it bigger and easier to see the details.

He said the tornado was just getting ready to form, he thinks, when he took this picture. The tornado turned out to be one of the strongest on record, and also the widest on record, reaching 2.6 miles across at one point

The storm was of course incredibly violent, but from the air it looks peaceful.  At least at first glance.

Magnuson says the top of the anvil,  that big cloud that points to the right on the top of the thunderstorm,  is bumpy on top, because the updrafts were so extreme ---100 mph --- that it made the top of the storm look bubbly as the wind roared upward. Usually the tops of thunderstorms are pretty smooth.

And a close look at the clouds beneath that anvil silently testify to the roiling winds in the storm that would soon release the deadly tornado.

Still, from the air, with the soothing blue and white hues, and the soft features of the clouds, you'd think you're looking at somebody's dream. Instead, you're looking at Oklahoma's nightmare.