South Carolina: Attempting to make swearing a felony.

[Solauren]

This strikes me as nothing more then someone pandering to the people that elected him/her.

"See! I tried to get cursing banned! But those horrible people who are not morally pure like us wouldn't allow it! Vote for me again, we are being re-pressed!"

[RedImperator]

Or it could just be some fucking idiot submitting one of the myriad of stupid laws that never make it out of committee. I know it's a stretch to imagine a dumb South Carolina state legislator, but try to expand your mind a little.

[Invictus ChiKen]

This could lead to some interesting issues, at the two Catholic Parishes I attend tend to be very liberal on four letter words, right down popping up in sermons now and again. Let me tell you I will never ever forget one of Deacon Jeff's Pro-Life sermons I'm given to understand this is a norm for The Diocese of Charleston.

Then you got the fact all the major cuss words appear in a good many of the classics required for reading in schools. Not to mention the bible itself has the word damn in it several times as does a lot of religious literature and I know enough of the workings of law to see a can of worms being upgraded to an IED of worms.

2) The sponsors are stupid. Also they are part of a movement to bring back the Blue Laws in their full ol' timey force. This movement does exist in SC but I don't know how strong or supported it is. It might just be a few nuts who make enough noise once in a while to get attention. Hard to say, but this is one of the few stupid things I actually did not experience in my shittastic (georgia) hometown.

The movement is very strong and spread all over cross religious lines and including atheists. There are many factors involved besides religion, for one it is for someone people the only day off they can count on as there work load can sometimes go for weeks with no break, others want it for family time. As for the Blue Laws applying to alcohol most have just gotten use to running into Wal-Mart at 11PM and stocking up for the following day.

Really the Blue Laws still enforced are seen more as a way to be sure you got a great chance of having Game day off than anything religious, fuck some churches set there schedules up so people can get in and out before the game and meet up at members houses for parties, if they haven't found loopholes to show it in the fellowship hall already.

Personal I got nothing to worry about as I never said one mother fucking cuss word in my god damned mother fucking life. Still these bitches and bastards trying to pass this can go fuck themselves the assholes...

[Darth Wong]

The movement is very strong and spread all over cross religious lines and including atheists.

I personally find it hard to believe that a large number of atheists support Sabbath Day laws. How do you know this to be true?

[Mayabird]

The movement is very strong and spread all over cross religious lines and including atheists.

I personally find it hard to believe that a large number of atheists support Sabbath Day laws. How do you know this to be true?

One of those rhetorical games stupid people play where someone who's not going to church = nonreligious = atheist, for purposes of claiming something isn't religiously-based because hey, there's an actual atheist here too!

Illustrative Storytime: I had a guy on a ferry try to tell me he wasn't religious while trying to convert me, trying to say, "See, believing in God is rational and not just a religious thing, and I know because I'm not religious and I believe in God!" His claims were rather weak, since he later talked about how he went to a very Christian church every Sunday and so on. I don't know if he was lying or just stupid.

[Invictus ChiKen]

I personally find it hard to believe that a large number of atheists support Sabbath Day laws. How do you know this to be true?

I can only offer antidoctal evidence from my own experience but the vast majority of self proclaimed Atheist I know loved the laws as it tended to mean less work on Sunday and depending on there industry meant they either had a good chance of having Sunday off to enjoy sports or where guaranteed it (Never underestimate the First Church of the Holy Gridiron!).

However as Mayabird pointed out a good many are probably closet Christians that only call themselves Atheist because they don't go to Church or are not living as they believe they should, even I have corrected a good many.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I actually have heard some secular arguments in favor of Sabbath Day laws, but those arguments can be applied to any day of the week, not necessarily Sunday. Sunday is just convenient because of aforesaid laws, so there is already a precedent.

[Darth Wong]

I actually have heard some secular arguments in favor of Sabbath Day laws, but those arguments can be applied to any day of the week, not necessarily Sunday. Sunday is just convenient because of aforesaid laws, so there is already a precedent.

Most of those secular arguments are only necessary in states where worker protection laws are almost nonexistent. If you have good worker protection laws you don't have to worry about your employer making you work 7 day weeks, because there are limits to the number of days in a row that the employer can ask you to come in.

It's completely absurd to declare a "day of rest" as a solution to unreasonable employers, when the most direct and practical solution is employment standards regulation.

Besides, we should be realistic about this: religious people have made careers out of manufacturing secular-sounding justifications for religious policies. You see it with marriage, with creationism, etc. They take a religious idea and they manufacture some completely bullshit secular justification for it: a justification they don't even seriously believe in themselves, but which they hope to use in order to get the Mindless Middle on-board. What do you want to bet that most of the people supporting these Sabbath Day laws actually oppose all forms of worker protection law whenever they come up?

[Invictus ChiKen]

What do you want to bet that most of the people supporting these Sabbath Day laws actually oppose all forms of worker protection law whenever they come up?

Well if it is for the Parishes I've been to I wouldn't bet a lot. There's a growing movement that is Economically Liberal and Socially Conservative. In Catholic Circles at least it is starting to rapidly gain momentum on the grass roots level.

So they'd want all kinds of worker protection in place.

[Samuel]

What do you want to bet that most of the people supporting these Sabbath Day laws actually oppose all forms of worker protection law whenever they come up?

Well if it is for the Parishes I've been to I wouldn't bet a lot. There's a growing movement that is Economically Liberal and Socially Conservative. In Catholic Circles at least it is starting to rapidly gain momentum on the grass roots level.

So they'd want all kinds of worker protection in place.

Ah. The populists are back. Nice to see they still oppose social freedoms.

[CaiusWickersham]

Why are we so certain that the first amendment protects public swearing? Isn't that up for interpretation? If the first amendment MUST be interpreted that way, then why haven't all the obscenity laws been stricken from the books?

It doesn't protect public swearing. Obscenity has been stated by the US Supreme Court to not be protected by the First Amendment (Miller v. California), along with public incitement, child pornography, true threats, and fighting words.
Public swearing is not an issue the Court hasn't addressed all that often; it has ruled the following:
[*]The government can't remove certain words from public discourse (Cohen v. California)
[*]Restrictions on public swearing is likely to be upheld where there is a captive audience (a number of cases including Reno v ACLU)
[*]Adult theatres and nude dancing can be restricted based on secondary effects (multiple cases including Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc)

[Stark]

Arguments in support of weekends/sabbath holidays all fall before experience; all kinds of places repeal these laws and none of the dire consequences predicted occur. Clearly there are no small retailers in NZ because shit is open on Sunday!

As Mike says, any country with actual legal protection for workers doesn't need to rely on such retarded horseshit.

[Patrick Degan]

I know it's a stretch to imagine a dumb South Carolina state legislator, but try to expand your mind a little.

Well fuck, is there any other kind?

[Prometheus Unbound]

The movement is very strong and spread all over cross religious lines and including atheists.

I personally find it hard to believe that a large number of atheists support Sabbath Day laws. How do you know this to be true?

A large number of atheists seem to like having Christmas Day off, Boxing Day (in the UK) and generally swapping pressies and "celebrating"...

[Darth Wong]

The movement is very strong and spread all over cross religious lines and including atheists.

I personally find it hard to believe that a large number of atheists support Sabbath Day laws. How do you know this to be true?

A large number of atheists seem to like having Christmas Day off, Boxing Day (in the UK) and generally swapping pressies and "celebrating"...

That doesn't mean they want to lose their fucking Sundays, especially since so many people nowadays work 6-day weeks and Sunday is their only shopping day.

The fact is that Blue Laws are a joke anyway. Even with Blue Laws in place, there is no such thing as a "day of rest" for power plants, fire departments, police, even restaurants, pharmacies, and variety stores. It's only a certain class of bperson who gets to declare this "day of rest" as a sacred right, and why should they get special treatment? It's a smokescreen; it's not about ensuring that everyone gets a day off work. It's about making sure that people don't do "un-Christian" things like shopping on Sunday.

[SAMAS]

I say: Good luck enforcing that shit.

[Marko Dash]

likely not serious, i've never even heard of it being mentioned locally.

[SAMAS]

Might be one of those stunts some politicians pull to try scoring points with the "Family Values" crowd.