Indiana caves

Sad. Pathetic. If you watched the press conference, you probably had to fight back the impulse to vomit as one "civic leader" after another paraded to the podium and groveled about how it was "time to heal" and so forth. I'm telling you, the Obama Apology Tour had nothing on this. You know it was over when Salesforce Marketing Cloud CEO Scott McCorkle triumphantly took the stage and declared victory.

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And when Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma actually apologized for the original law - probably satisfying a demand from McCorkle and others to keep them from pulling business out of the state - you just had to hand it to the mob. They're pretty much running the joint these days. And make no mistake: Christian bakers, florists, photographers . . . your rights are gone. Might as well order a bunch of those little plastic statues of two tuxedo-clad dudes holding hands. You vill bake ze cake, and you vill like it!

The compromise legislation specifies that the new religious freedom law cannot be used as a legal defense to discriminate against patrons based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The proposal goes much further than a "preamble" that was proposed earlier in the week, and, if it stands, would be the first time any protections against discrimination have been extended to gays and lesbians in state law. But it doesn't go as far as establishing gays and lesbians as a protected class of citizens statewide or repealing the law outright, both things that Republican leaders have said they could not support. A draft circulated early Wednesday said that the new "religious freedom" law does not authorize a provider — including businesses or individuals — to refuse to offer or provide its services, facilities, goods, or public accommodation to any member of the public based on sexual orientation or gender identity, in addition to race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, or military service.

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The real shame here is that the "clarification" didn't clarify anything. It flat out changed the law by obliterating the most important reason it was passed in the first place. It was never about kicking people out of restaurants, coffee shops or other accommodations just because they're gay. It was about not forcing Christian businesses to participate in something that violates their beliefs. And the "handful of business leaders" who participating in the rewriting of the bill obviously demanded that this be completely destroyed in order to accept the change and declare the capitulation acceptable. (By the way, were any Christian leaders involved in the "clarification" of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act? Sure doesn't sound like it.) Anyhoo . . . the mob pretty much runs America now. Pass something they don't like, and stand back as they freak out, lie about it, threaten you and cause all kinds of mayhem. You will back down. You will capitulate. They will not be displeased. This is what you can expect life to be like when the secular leftist mob gets a veto over everything. Mob rule is nothing if not predictable. By the way, when I say the mob, I'm not talking about the Mafia. I'd actually prefer to be ruled by them. At least they appreciate pizza.

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