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GOP lawmaker ‘very sad’ Utah parent used his law to request ‘sex-ridden’ Bible be removed from school
March 23, 2023
Responding to a new law allowing for "pornographic" books to be removed from school libraries, a Utah parent has moved to have "one of the most sex-ridden books around" removed as well, namely, the Bible.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the parent, who remains unidentified for privacy reasons, submitted their challenge on Dec. 11 along with an eight-page list of passages from the Bible that they found to be offensive and worth reviewing.
“Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide,” the parent wrote in their request. “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”
“Get this PORN out of our schools,” the parent wrote. “If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk.”
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The parent's move was in response to the conservative group Utah Parents United, which has challenge books in state schools for being inappropriate -- primarily focusing on books dealing with racial and LGBTQ subject matter.
"Based on the new Utah law, something is indecent if it includes explicit sexual arousal, stimulation, masturbation, intercourse, sodomy or fondling," The Tribune's report stated. "According to state attorneys, material doesn’t have to be 'taken as a whole' in those situations or left on the shelf during a review. If there is a scene involving any of those acts, it should be immediately removed."
In their request, the parent goes on to say: “I thank the Utah Legislature and Utah Parents United for making this bad faith process so much easier and way more efficient. Now we can all ban books and you don’t even need to read them or be accurate about it. Heck, you don’t even need to see the book!”
Utah Parents United responded, telling The Tribune: “We believe in following the law. That’s all we’re asking schools to do.”
Rep. Ken Ivory (R-West Jordan), the chief sponsor of the bill, called the parent's request another example of “antics that drain school resources.”
“There was a purpose to the bill and this kind of stuff, it’s very unfortunate,” he said. “There are any number of studies that directly link sexualization and hyper-sexualization with sexual exploitation and abuse. Certainly, those are things we don’t want in schools.”
“For people to minimize that and to make a mockery of it is very sad,” Ivory added.
Read the full report over at The Salt Lake Tribune.
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A California judge on Thursday rejected a 15-year plea deal in a case involving three homicides, The Berkeley Scanner reports.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Mark McCannon said he wants a jury to decide the fate of 31-year-old Delonzo Logwood in connection with the fatal 2008 shootings.
Logwood was facing a potential sentence of 75 years to life on murder charges, according to the report.
Newly elected Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price offered Logwood the 15-year deal last month.
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According to a San Francisco Chronicle report: “The negotiated terms were so unusual that Alameda County Superior Court Judge Mark McCannon said he needed more time to consider whether he would sign off on the drastically reduced sentence, an attorney representing the defendant said.”
The case made headlines across the globe after what was perceived by many as too lenient. A Daily Mail headline referred to Price as “Oakland’s woke new DA.”
"I can't accept a plea to voluntary manslaughter for 15 years for an offense that involves the loss of three lives," McCannon said Thursday, The Scanner reports.
"I am not here to do what is popular, but what I believe is right and supported by the law."
Logwood was 18 at the time of the 2008 shootings, but wasn’t charged until 2015, when he was already in custody in connection with other allegations, the report said.
McCannon said that had he accepted the deal, Logwood would have likely spent just two more years in prison.
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The Russian music and performance collective Pussy Riot will receive this year's Woody Guthrie prize honoring art for social change, award organizers announced Thursday.
Past recipients of the prize named for the US folk revolutionary Guthrie include Bruce Springsteen, Chuck D, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and John Mellencamp.
"It feels fitting to be awarded in the spirit of Woody, I think he would love Pussy Riot's anti-fascist message," said collective creator Nadya Tolokonnikova, in a statement sent to AFP by the artist's publicist.
"Usually, when Pussy Riot gets added to lists, it's not always a good thing, but we are honored to be on this one," she continued. "We don't really do folk, but we don't really do punk either, we simply scream and protest as loud as we can, and hope we can show others they can do the same."
Tolokonnikova along with Maria "Masha" Alyokhina will accept the prize on behalf of the group on May 6, organizers said, during a three-day weekend celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Following the ceremony Pussy Riot is slated to perform.
"As artists who, like Woody Guthrie, have the courage of their convictions, there are no contemporary artists more worthy of this recognition than Pussy Riot," said Cady Shaw, director of the Woody Guthrie Center, in a statement.
"They have paid a very personal price for speaking their minds on the most serious issues of our time, yet they continue to fight for justice and freedom."
Pussy Riot has gained international fame for its politically charged performances that see members don balaclavas and skewer everything from the Russian church to persecution of the country's gay community.
Tolokonnikova, 33, is one of three members of Pussy Riot who were sentenced to two years in prison after they sang a "Punk Prayer" denouncing the Russian Orthodox Church's close ties with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's central Church of Christ the Saviour in February 2012.
In late 2021 Russia labeled members including Tolokonnikova "foreign agents" as part of a broader crackdown on dissent.
The feminist collective last year went on a European tour in support of Ukraine, warning against "totalitarianism" under Putin.
"Oh and a quick reminder to Vladimir Putin and anyone who supports his Z regime ... All you fascists are bound to lose," Tolokonnikova wrote in her Guthrie Prize statement.
Among American folk music's most towering figures, Guthrie penned iconic anti-fascist songs including the socialist-leaning "This Land Is Your Land."
He had major influence on the work of stars including Springsteen, Baez and Seeger as well as Johnny Cash, Jerry Garcia and, of course, Bob Dylan.
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