While states all across the country are looking for ways to save money, Michigan Republican State Senator Bruce Caswell made the news this weekend for saying foster children should only be allowed to purchase clothes at thrift stores. Foster families are given state money to buy clothes for their children and Caswell wants to make sure that’s what they’re really doing with the money. So Caswell wants to give the families “gift cards” that they’d only be able to use at Salvation Army or Goodwill stores.—-
Caswell’s heart goes out to foster children and he says that he understands their plight of not being able to shop at the Gap being with their real parents. "I never had anything new," Caswell says. "I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was — and quite frankly it's true — once you're out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you bought your clothes."
Two years ago, Texas became one of the final states to allow transgendered people to use proof of their sex change to obtain a marriage license. Republican lawmakers are now proposing legislation that would bar transgendered people from getting married and could potentially nullify the marriages already granted to transgendered people in the state.
One of the sponsors, Sen. Tommy Williams of Houston said, “The Texas Constitution clearly defines marriage between one man and one woman.” LGBT advocates argue that the legislation reeks of discrimination. "It appears the goal is to try to enshrine a really horrifying ruling and making it law in the state of Texas," said John Nechman, a Houston attorney whose law firm does work for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. But Williams affirms that he loves the LGBT: “It is an emotional issue. I can appreciate that.”
The Tennessee State Senate has green-lit a bill that, if passed, would ban elementary and middle teachers from discussing homosexuality at school. The legislation, called the “don’t say gay” bill, would mandate that before ninth grade, teachers are not to “provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.”
Nintendo has confirmed that a successor to the biggest piece of shit since the Apple Pippin very successful Wii, will be launched in 2012.
The Reds fell 3-0 to the Cardinals in St. Louis last night. Yadier Molina hit a three-run home run, his first home run of the year, in the sixth inning. The Reds are now 11-11 and will travel to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers.