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Hitler, Biscuits and Pistols
READ THIS BOOK WHILE YOU GARRY, AND EAT A GOOD BREAKFAST
By Pete McCommons editor@flagpole.com
rm% capitol i
on ‘Religious Liberty’
REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS’ EXAMPLES FOR DEAL
By Tom Crawford tcrawford@gareport.com
itler Explained
Sorry. I know this
column should be
more locally focused.
Peter Ross Range, who grew up in
Athens and went on to a career as an inter
national journalist (Time, U.S. News & World
Report) is coming back through here on a
tour promoting his new book, 1924: The
Year that Made Hitler Little, Brown). After
70 years, Hitler’s Mein Kampf is available in
Germany again, and that motivated Range
to produce this book, which comes with
exquisite timing as Americans are newly
wondering, “Could it happen here?”
Range, who is fluent in German and has
spent a lot of time in that country, takes
us through the political,
economic and social condi
tions in Germany leading
up to the pivotal 1924,
during which Hitler served
a cushy year in jail, writing
his book and firming up
the philosophy that would launch his politi
cal career, based on the promise to make
Germany great again.
Range will discuss 1924: The Year that
Made Hitler on Monday, Mar. 28 at 11:15
a.m. in the Special Collections Library audi
torium, 300 S. Hull St. on campus (park
ing in the Hull Street deck) and again on
Tuesday, Mar. 29 at 7 p.m. at Congregation
Children of Israel, 115 Dudley Dr. Both
appearances are free and open to the public.
Sausage & Egg Biscuits To Go
On an early run to the airport last week,
we stopped by Strickland’s (opens at 6 a.m.)
way out on the Atlanta Highway. A couple
of to-go coffees and fluffy biscuits crammed
with sausage and egg made the drive toward
Monroe a delightful dining experience. We
hear a lot
about
Strickland’s biscuits are fluffier than this one, and
their sausage is spicy but not greasy.
nouvelle Southern cuisine these days, but
this is the real thing where it all started. I’d
weigh twice what I do now if I ate it every
morning, but once in a while, it is a happy
experience to be reminded just how good a
sausage biscuit can be.
Strickland’s was a fixture downtown for
20 years where the French restaurant is,
and it has been out on the Atlanta Highway
for that long now, proving that people will
find good food no matter where it’s located.
Do As We Say, Not As We Do
Don’t get me wrong. Some of my best
friends are Republicans. I don’t mean to
make the mistake of lumping them all
together, as if they all believe the same way
on every issue. And careful readers of this
column will surely recognize that I myself
am some form of liberal, possibly even the
kneejerk kind, except of course for the fact
that I am also a small businessman, who
has to meet a payroll, pay
taxes, make ends meet and
keep the lights on.
But look: What is
the one, bedrock issue
that the Republican
Party is built on? The
Constitution, right? And the Constitution
requires the president to fill vacancies
on the U.S. Supreme Court as they occur,
and it requires the Senate to consider the
president’s nominees for those vacancies,
right? I mean, there’s no leeway there
for interpretation, like, say, the Second
Amendment. So, what the hell? This pres
ent charade is just the most transparent
evidence yet, after seven years of such, that
the Republican Party is based squarely on
a hypocrisy so blatant that it sinks to the
level of that king with no clothes on.
Sorry. I know this column should be
more locally focused. There are plenty of
people to decry the Republicans’ (white)
manhandling of the Constitution.
Let’s look closer to home and recall state
Republicans slicing and dicing Athens-
Clarke County to break up our Democratic
vote. Remember now state commissioner
for insurance companies Ralph Hudgens’
scheme to split Athens into two
halves, each grossly outvoted by
the surrounding rural areas?
The Republican argument
on that one was that it
would give the University
of Georgia two state sena
tors, instead of just one, to
look after its interests. Of
course, both of those sen
ators—who happen to be
Frank Ginn and Bill Cowsert
at present—are elected by
the country people who
dominate their districts. That
was painfully obvious when
both senators voted in favor of
allowing students with permits to
carry concealed weapons into their class
rooms. Our two senators representing the
interests of the University of Georgia voted
that way in spite of the overwhelming oppo
sition to campus carry among students,
faculty, administrators and the chancellor’s
office. That’s a textbook illustration of who
is always going to come first with Ginn and
Cowsert or anybody else who occupies those
gerrymandered, rural-dominated senate
seats. ©
As Gov. Nathan Deal ponders the
“religious liberty” bill that the General
Assembly has adopted, he can look to recent
examples of how two other Republican gov
ernors handled this particular issue.
The example cited most often in media
accounts is Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana.
Last year, the Indiana legislature passed a
Religious Freedom Restoration Act that was
similar to what Georgia’s lawmakers have
adopted this year. Critics said it would lead
to widespread discrimination against the
LGBT community and damage Indiana’s
business image, but Pence signed it.
Reaction to the new law was immedi
ate, widespread, and intense. Several
organizations withdrew events from the
state, Angie’s List
canceled a $40 mil
lion expansion of its
headquarters, and
business boycotts
were threatened. The
state was pilloried
in the national media, with the Indianapolis
Star running a front page editorial under
the headline “Fix This Now,” demanding
that the new law be amended.
Indiana lawmakers quickly passed a sep
arate bill to provide protections for LGBT
customers, employees and tenants, and
Pence signed the legislation one week after
he signed the original bill.
Deal can also consider the example of
Jan Brewer, the Republican governor of
Arizona from 2009-2015. While she served
as governor of Arizona, she signed the
state’s controversial immigration law, called
“Papers, please,” that served as a model for
the 2011 anti-immigration bill Deal signed.
In 2014, the Arizona legislature passed
a religious freedom bill called Senate Bill
1062 that was similar in its provisions to
the bill Pence would sign a year later in
Indiana. Senate Bill 1062 went to Brewer’s
desk for her signature but, unlike Pence,
Brewer vetoed it.
Brewer said she worried that the bill, if
it became law, “could divide Arizona in ways
we cannot even imagine and no one would
ever want. Let’s turn the ugliness of the
debate over Senate Bill 1062 into a renewed
search for greater respect and understand
ing among all Arizonans and Americans.”
Brewer’s veto of the bill enabled Arizona
to avoid the political quagmire that Pence
would step into a year later in Indiana.
There were no economic boycotts and busi
nesses did not flee the state.
Here’s the situ
ation for Georgia
now that the religion
bill is in a position
to become law. The
National Football
League has already
warned that enactment of the law could
take Atlanta out of consideration as a
future site for the Super Bowl. The city
could also lose NCAA basketball tourna
ments and other events that would be held
in the domed stadium that is being built
for Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank.
Atlanta has already committed $400 mil
lion in tax funds to build and maintain that
stadium. The state is spending another $40
million in public money on a parking deck
for the facility. Will all that tax money go
down the drain because some legislators
don’t like gays?
Deal can follow the example of Brewer
or he can do what Pence did when he takes
final action on the “religious liberty” bill.
The choice is his. ©
Will all that tax money go
down the drain because
some legislators don’t like gays?
THIS MSBIKM WSIkB
AMAZING SUPER-CLASSY COMICS
TRUMP THINK
MEXICANS ARE
RAPISTS AND
DRUG SMUGGLERS,
and some,
TRUMP ASSUME,
ARE GOOD PEOPLE,
WOMAN WITH BLOOD
COMING OUT OF HER
WHEREVER MAKE
TRUMP ANGRY! YOU
WON'T LIKE TRUMP
WHEN HE'S ANGRY!
TRUMP WANT
TO PUNCH PRO
TESTERS IN
FACE—LIKE IN
GOOD OLD DATS
WHEN AMERICA
WAS GREAT!
A hardworking businessman ex
amines AN EXPERIMENTAL PROTOTYPE...
MY INVENTION CONVERTS HUMAN
EMOTIONS—SPECIFICALLY, THE ANGER
AND RESENTMENT OF THE WHITE
WORKING CLASS—
--INTO A
VIABLE SOURCE
OF ENERGY
WHICH CAN
POWER ENTIRE
BUILDINGS!
by TOM TOMORROW
BUT SOMETHING GOES TERRIBLY
WRONG!
THE PARTY ESTABLISHMENT TRIES
TO TAKE HIM DOWN.
You CAN'T VOTE For HIM.' HE'S
OPENLY RACIST AND XENOPHOBIC!
REAL REPUB
LICANS USE
CODED DOG
WHISTLES!
HA HA! your
PUNY ATTACKS 1
CANNOT STOP I:
TRUMP!
BUT—CAN HE TRIUMPH IN THE
GENERAL ELECTION?
HE MAY BE AN UNTHINKING, RAGE-
FILLED MONSTER—
—BUT AT LEAST HE'S Not I
A CAREER POLITICIAN! I
4 FLAGP0LE.C0M • MARCH 23, 2016
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