One of the things I like about protesting with Anonymous is the humor. Dancing, horrible puns, theme protests...Anonymous fought back against a deadly serious enemy, Scientology, Inc.
The organization has shown it's willing to spend millions to destroy its critics. They spent over a million dollars to get protester Keith Henson jailed in Riverside County. His trial is still able to invoke awe and disbelief amongst lawyers who happen across it.
Scientologists are, for the most part, utterly humorless when it comes to discussion of their chosen religion. In fact, "joking and degrading" are criminal acts within Scientology.They are not unlike members of the tea-flavored elephants of the GOP.
It seems that some brilliant Democrat strategist has taken a page out of the Anonymous' "Jokers and Degraders" playbook, resulting in tactics I can only cheer on and encourage lawmakers to do more of.
It first caught my attention in Indiana, when the Huffington Post featured an article about a Republican lawmaker who pulled his bill that would have forced welfare applicants to undergo drug testing.
Why? Because some jester in blue amended the bill to include legislators! When you think about it, this makes good sense. If airline pilots, bus drivers and passenger boat crew have to be tested because the lives of many are in their hands, what of people steering an entire nation? Their decisions impact the lives of millions. Why are they NOT being drug tested?
Following that story, Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) pulled her own epic troll by adding a requirement that men seeking help for erectile dysfunction undergo a rectal and cardiac exam first to ensure they're healthy enough to pursue sexual activity to a bill requiring women to undergo an ultrasound prior to undergoing an abortion. Curiously, the bill was pulled. Gentlemen, turn your heads and cough.
And the most recent bill, which unfortunately passed despite the addition of Scientology to a bill seeking to teach creationism in public schools in Indiana demonstrates how determined Christianists are to teach religion at the expense of education. Of course, the first time Scientology is introduced as a topic, you will hear a mighty baww arise from the right. Volcanos? Evil galactic overlords? Souls of murdered space aliens?
As long as you can get Adam and Eve riding on an Apatosaurus, it's all good, what?
The deadly serious jesters of the GOP aren't capable of dealing with humor of this magnitude. By attaching these amendments to absurd or abusive bills, the ridiculous and hypocritical antics of the religious right are righteously mocked.
Why shouldn't men have to be tested before taking Viagra?
Why shouldn't kids learn about the evil galactic overlord, Xenu?
Why shouldn't legislators be drug tested?
These apparently silly amendments are actually anything but. It's a brilliant tactic on many levels, one which raises valid questions, and one which feeds my inner troll.
