I’ve been trying to use the links included in this post all damn week, but haven’t found a way to include them with the respect they deserve. Today, I think I have it.
The tunage for this week is as follows:
Your misson, if you choose to accept it, will be to do the following: Download and save the above tunage, fire up your chosen media player, making sure to select the “Repeat” function, hit the “play” button and follw me below the fold (otherwise, the constant restarting of the music may take away from the “Interactive” blog experience).
Are you ready? Here we go…
And today’s topic is: Stupid bills in front of the Washington State legslature
This bill would be totally unnecessary except for the fact the State hasn’t seen fit to already allow this.
Of course, if you’re a leftist idiot, you think this means people can shoot deer from their SUV.
SB-5153: Encouraging employers to be infant-friendly.
Because giving the state Dept. of Health $55,000 of my tax dollars to promote giving single mothers more time off and/or flexible schedules and/or letting them bring the rugrats to work is important.
SB-5106: Requiring emergency preparedness planning for service animals and household pets.
If you read the bill, you will of course notice that it does not require the actual owners of the pets to prepare for disasters, it requires the government and their rescue agencies to do so.
Another reason to not rely on your gov’t for help. While they’re getting crazy Ms. Wilson and her 26 cats to safety, you’ll be drowning in floodwaters.
SB-5067: Requiring the use of headlights when windshield wipers are used.
We’ve already covered this one here. It now looks as though they are trying to put something similar in place in Montana as well.
SB-5063: Removing gender references.
A very selective removal of references. It basically calls for the words “Firemen” and “Policeman” to be replaced by “gender-neutral” words and phrases.
Waste of my elected representative’s time (was that “gender-neutral” enough?).
That’s enough for the Senate, let us move onto the state House:
HB-1069: Designating the Pacific chorus frog as the state amphibian.
Again, just as with SB-5063; Why? Do the frogs really care?
HB-1116: Creating a plan to increase the homeownership rate to seventy-five percent by 2020.
Sounds like a good idea until you look at the past ways state governments have used to “increase home ownership”. Namely, by turning the state into a bank, which is not the state’s function or responsibility as outlined in the Washington State Constitution.
No Mandate, No Go.
HB-1119: Achieving economic security through income sufficient to meet basic needs.
Basically ties the minimum wage into the inflation index. I thought we had already done this, but apparently I was wrong. We already have the nation’s highest minimum wage in Washington, though it seems that the “Living Wage” warriors are not happy with that.
If the socialists who had written this bit of bad legislation trully wanted to people making the minimum wage to “achieve economic security”, they wouldn’t encourage them to keep earning a minimum wage by raising it every year and would instead encourage them to get some higher education and/or job skills; the true ticket to economic security.
But then again, socialists failed their economics courses, so what can you expect.
AKA: The “Keep the Incumbants in Power Until They Really Screw Things Up” Resolution
Which falls right in line with the request for a 16% pay increase for Washington State Legislators, never minding that the rest of the employees for the state have barely seen a 4% pay increase over the last seven years.
It also fits nicely together with state Senators asking for an amendment to the state Constitution that would classify their jobs as “full-time”. She who is in the back-pocket of the anti-gun lobbyists in Washington claims that she sometimes spends five or six hours a day answering email from her constituents. Maybe if she would quit trying to take away their human rights, she wouldn’t have so many people writing her.
And then there is the most egregious bill this side of the anti-gun bills we’ve spoken of here:
SB-5150: Providing ficsal reformÂ
AKA The attempt to make Washington State citizens pay an income tax.
First of all, there would be no repeal of the 8.9% sales tax, so this progressive income tax would be on top of that.
Next, I’m sure you recognized my inclusion of the word “progressive” when describing this tax. Don’t worry, it gets worse:
Married couples, filing jointly:
Income less than $49,900 – 2.2%
Between $49,900 and $120,650 – Initial payment of $1,089 + 3.5%
Over $120,650 – Initial payment of $3,574 + 6%
It gets worse from there with the “Single” and “Head of Household” structures.
You can read these structures in the bill here
Can you say “Redistribution of Wealth”? I knew you could.
Thus concludes your mission.
While I generally don’t like the gov telling me what I have to do, especially when it comes to my own personal safety… I do think that they should tell the pack of morons out there driving around that they have to take basic safety precautions. One of those is turning your stinkin’ lights on when it’s raining. They need to take it one step further (if they already haven’t- many states have done this) make it illegal to drive with just your parking lights on. They’re called “parking” lights for a reason. When you see a car with just the little yellow buggers on, you’re supposed to be able to assume that it’s parked.
It’s like driving with your blinker on and never turning. People get the wrong idea about what you’re doing and that causes a hazard.
Driving in the rain without your lights on causes a hazard. I don’t think anyone would claim that driving at night without lights should be legal. Why not? Because you’re putting someone else at risk, not just yourself. Drive without seat belts or a helmet or whatever else that would protect you as far as I’m concerned. Just don’t make it hard for me to see you so that I end up getting in an accident.
Sure, my family can sue you for being an idiot, but if I’m at room temperature it doesn’t do me a whole lot of good.
Lurker here, found you after the windstorm “survivalist” posts. Thanks for keeping tabs on my local government, I’ll definately be buzzing my reps!
GunGeek, as I said in the previous post on that subject; in my opinion, it is good common sense, but bad legislation.
And John, buzzing your reps is all I can ask.
Perhaps, My Friend, it’s time for you to pack and leave Washington while you still have the time….Florida, Idaho, come to mind….still fairly free states.
Hey! Hey! The most cats Mrs. Wilson ever had was eighteen.
Phil, I think you are onto something. Reading a blog post while listening to a certain musical selection really rocks!