Arizona is becoming ground zero for a battle to defend the US Bill of Rights–probably the only salvageable part of the US Constitution other than it’s preamble. Its politicians are among the creepiest & most repugnant in US politics–like senator John McCain & governor Jan Brewer. That judgement could be an overstatement; it may only be that Arizona politicians are just grandstanders whereas reactionary politicians in other states do their nefarious work in the shadows where they think they won’t be caught. Showcasing Arizona may be part of a right-wing strategy to destroy the Bill of Rights.

Bankrolled & advised by the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), a state senator named Steve Yarbrough (R) introduced SB 1062, anti-gay legislation which would violate several provisions in the Bill of Rights under the guise of religious freedom. The bill was just passed by the state legislature & governor Brewer has until Friday, the 28th, to sign it into law. She’s pulling the Yoweri Museveni (president of Uganda) stunt of pretending to ponder the issue before she brings down the weight of law against LGBTI people.

CAP is a shadowy right-wing group that won’t identify it’s board of directors but is guided by Charles Krauthammer, a media commentator whose canon of beliefs is as odious & reactionary as they come. His persona is so elitist, snide, & condescending one can see him filling any position in a fascist regime that doesn’t require competency.

SB 1062 would allow a “person” defined as “any individual, association, partnership, corporation, church, religious assembly or institution or other business organization” to refuse to hire or deny services to LGBTI people on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs & social hatred. We’re not talking a slippery slope here for the Bill of Rights; we’re talking a 600 foot cliff under the malignant guise of espousing religious freedom–it might be added, a religious freedom many reactionary politicians & racist schnooks like Krauthammer are attempting to deny Muslims.

The intentional vagueness of SB 1062 allows for active discrimination not only against LGBTI people but against unmarried women, Jews, Muslims, & others. And if your religious doctrine sincerely hates Mexicans & Blacks, can you deny them services too? That’s not a slippery slope for democratic rights. It’s a collision course with catastrophe.

There’s no report of objections to SB 1062 from Obama; McCain is too busy addressing & inciting fascists in Ukraine to do more than tweet “his hopes” that Brewer would veto the bill. Once again, there’s nothing like a good tweet to bring injustice to its knees.

Here’s contact information to lodge protests with governor Brewer & demand she veto SB 1062: http://azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp

(Photo of activists against SB 1062 rallying at state capitol in Phoenix, AZ on Feb 21st to demand Brewer veto bill; by AP)

Muhammed Muheisen, the photojournalist who does such powerful photos especially of Afghan refugee children in Pakistan, has done a poignant series on performing monkeys in Pakistan. The monkeys are captured as babies & trained (often using violence) to dance, salute, shake hands, & perform other tricks. This is not a criticism of Pakistanis or even the impoverished owners who reportedly only make about about 500 rupees (US $5.00) a day for the work. You can see the same kind of abuse in any US city with a zoo or where the circus is playing & they have elephants pirouetting on one foot.

This kind of crap is a vestige of such Platonic notions as the Great Chain of Being where life & matter are ranked in a hierarchy from God & angelic beings to royalty, lower to plebeians, then animals, & down to rocks. You can see how comfortably class stratification, white & male supremacy, abuse of animals fit in to such a repugnant schema–& how animals become objects only for labor & amusement.

Those who defend performing monkeys by claiming owners have a strong bond with the monkeys & love them as their own children have to explain why that loving relationship has to be maintained by a rope around the neck so the monkey won’t run off. Such barbaric practices will not stop from outpourings of moral outrage but from eliminating inequity & poverty because on the other end of that rope is the owner’s neck, trapped in social inequality. If the owner has to choose between respect for animals & feeding a family, the unhappy animals draw the short stick.

Just another compelling reason to change the world.

(Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP)