Tag: Tennessee

Tennessee House Bill 1406 – Seriously?

Tennessee Republican House Members Terri Lynn Weaver and Joey Hensley introduced this obnoxious bill on February 9, 2017 that seeks to delegitimize children born of artificial insemination.

Tennessee House Bill 1406

Introduced February 9, 2017

Children – As introduced, repeals statute that deems a child born to a married woman as a result of artificial insemination, with consent of the married woman’s husband, to be the legitimate child of the husband and wife. – Repeals TCA Section 68-3-306.

Why? It is all about gay marriage. In 2016, there was a case in Tennessee of two lesbian women who were divorcing and arguing in court over custody of the child. The child and been conceived by one of the women through artificial insemination.

Weaver, Hensley and other Republicans joined with the conservative Christian group The Family Action Council of Tennessee to file a motion in the cases. Part of the legal arguments centered around whether that Tennessee law that recognizes rights of a child born to a married husband and wife should be interpreted to cover any legal married arrangement. The FACT motion argued that it should only apply to marriages between a man and a woman.

This bill is apparently their way of hedging their bets in case a court ultimately holds that the existing law applies even if the married couple are two women.

Tennessee Lawmakers Consider Constitutional Amendment to Protect Hunting, Fishing

A number of Tennessee lawmakers are lending their support for a constitutional amendment that would protect hunting and fishing in the state.

A joint resolution introduced into the Tennessee State House proposes amending the Tennessee Constitution to read,

The people have a right to hunt, fish, and harvest game, subject to such regulations and restrictions as prescribed by this constitution and general law. When reviewing such restrictions, a state court shall utilize a rational basis standard, as such standard has been defined by the courts through case law.

State Sen. Doug Jackson is supporting the same wording in the state Senate. Jackson told the Associated Press that the amendment is needed to protect hunting and fishing from well-funded anti-hunting groups such as the Humane Society of the United States,

There are very organized, very well-funded efforts to take away the right of citizens to hunt, fish and trap. I think it’s time we place in our constitution a guarantee for the citizen that they will be able to continue in that heritage.

Tennessee’s Wildlife Resources Agency supports the amendment in principle. TWRA assistant director Allen Gebhardt told the Associated Press that the agency would have to examine the wording, but that “It sounds, from our standpoint, like a wonderful idea.”

The full text of the resolution proposing to amend Tennessee’s constitution to protect hunting and fishing can be read here.

Sources:

Tennessee joins states seeking ‘right to hunt’ legislation. WHNT-TV, February 2005.

Lawmakers want amendment shielding hunting rights. Matt Gouras, February 21, 2005.

Tennessee House Joint Resolution 35 – Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish

Filed for intro on 02/02/2005

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 35

By Casada

A RESOLUTION to propose an amendment to Article I of the Constitution of Tennessee relative to the right to hunt, fish, and harvest game.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE CONCURRING, That a majority of all the members of each house concurring, as shown by the yeas and nays entered on their journals, that it is proposed that Article I, of the Constitution of Tennessee be amended by adding the following language as a new, appropriately designated section:

The people have a right to hunt, fish, and harvest game, subject to such regulations and restrictions as prescribed by this constitution and general law. When reviewing such restrictions, a state court shall utilize a rational basis standard, as such standard has been defined by the courts through case law.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the foregoing amendment be referred to the One Hundred Fifth General Assembly and that this resolution proposing such amendment be published by the Secretary of State in accordance with Article XI, Section 3, of the Constitution of Tennessee.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Clerk of the House of Representatives is directed to deliver a copy of this resolution to the Secretary of State.

PETA Protests at Civil Rights Speech

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protested outside a speech given by Columbia University president Lee Bollinger to honor the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka that found segregation in schools unconstitutional.

PETA activists have been protesting Bollinger’s public appearance since October in an effort to get Columbia to drop primate research at the university. PETA’s Alka Chandna connected animal rights with civil rights, telling The Memphis Flyer (emphasis added),

There are terrible things happening to the primates at Columbia. In one experiment, a researcher cuts out the left eyes of baboons and then induces a stroke by inserting a clamp into the eye socket, closing three critical arteries . . . We understand from a veterinarian who was working at Columbia that the animals were not given sufficient pain relief during or after the experiments.

Lee Bollinger has an excellent track record as far as civil rights are concerned, but we’d like him to also see that primates are complex and intelligent being with a social structure similar to our own. They shouldn’t be deprived of basic rights either. That a person of his caliber cannot understand that is shocking to us.

Perhaps if Chandna and other PETA activists were of the same caliber as Bollinger, they might understand.

Source:

Fighting for their rights. Bianca Phillips, Memphis Flyer, February 12, 2004.

PETA Passes Out Chicken Trading Cards to Tennessee Children

Apparently People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals activists in Tennessee must have forgotten Ingrid Newkirk’s dictum that “everything we do is based at adults” rather than kids — contrary to Newkirk’s claim, PETA members showed up outside a Knox County school and handed out chicken trading cards while showing a video about the slaughter of chickens.

The stunt was part of PETA’s anti-KFC campaign. According to a page on PETA’s web site about the campaign,

Chickens should be friends, not food! Chickens are friendly, curious little birds who value their lives just as much as you value yours. Did you know that chicken moms talk to their chicks even while they’re still in the shell? When the chicks are born, their mom watches over them carefully, takes them under her wing to keep them safe, and teaches them all about life.

But chickens on factory farms never get to be loved by their moms. These birds’ lives are awful and scary even before they are killed and cut up for food.

Hmm…maybe when Newkirk told CNN that “everything we do is based at adults” she meant “everything we do is based at adults when I’m being asked about it on national television.”

Sources:

PETA Activists Target Knox. Co. Kids with Chicken Cards. Maggie Poteaux, WATE, January 28, 2004.

Chickens Are Friends, Not Food! People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Undated.

Dude Looks Like . . . Howard Lyman?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is back at it again with its billboards, this time with its “Dude Looks Like a Lady” billboard. A company in Knoxville, Tennessee ran this billboard for awhile along I-40 until it received too many complaints and was relocated.

The billboard features a neck-down picture of an overweight man wearing only underwear, with the text, “Dude Looks Like a Lady: Lose the Boobs—Go Vegetarian.” In a PETA press release, Bruce Friedrich said,

This should put to rest the myth that thereÂ’s anything macho about eating meat. If unspeakable animal suffering, environmental degradation, and dreaded diseases haven’t scared devout male carnivores, the prospect of growing an unwanted set of boobs might have them racing for the salad bar.

Oddly enough, the obese man bore a striking resemblance to well-known vegetarian Howard Lyman.

Sources:

PETA Billboard Being Relocated due to Complaints. Wate.Com, January 7, 2004.

Billboard Showing Man With Breasts Is Wake-Up Call For Knoxville Meat-Eaters. Press Release, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, January 5, 2004.