Bobby Franklin, I presume...

I presume that Bobby Franklin is an idiot. Bobby Franklin is a state representative in Georgia. He hails from Georgia's 43rd district, and goes by "Bobby" instead of Robert because he is, in fact, seven years old.

I apologize for the faults in the title paragraph. I have sacked myself, as I was responsible.

Anyway, continuing...

Bob Franklin:
Idiot devil.

Ah, yes, Bobby Franklin (the guy in the picture)^SPECIAL. This man is a Republican, and thus has introduced some bills that are typical of his party: More gun rights, outlawing abortion (defining it as "prenatal murder"), etc, etc. That stuff is all pretty par for the course. I wasn't shocked when I read any of those. But then, it happened...

I read Georgia's HB3. In HB3, Bobby Franklin proposes that the State of Georgia only utilize precious metals (bullets are excluded from this - damn!) to pay its debts, and only accept such things in payment of debts. So, if you owe some state taxes down there, you'd better toss your jewelry into an envelope and ship it off to the state house. Don't worry, as Mr. Franklin himself will be eagerly awaiting its arrival, and he will have a gold and silver smith on hand to determine the value of your pieces.^[1]

I didn't exactly stop there, though. Intrigued by HB3, I read on. I stopped again at HB7, because I just couldn't stop laughing. In HB7, Franklin informs the world that Americans have a right to travel, and thus driver's licenses are unconstitutional, just like vehicle registrations. People should just do what they want all of the time. I can't argue with the last part, but I mean, really? How can anybody ID anybody then? What if somebody dies? Who you gonna call?^[2]

This guy's like fucking Obi-Wan Kenobi and shit:

YOU DON'T NEED TO SEE HIS IDENTIFICATION!

In Franklin's world how can police track down hit and run suspects? Or the people responsible for a robbery? Or any other host of things... Oh, don't worry, the cops don't need to do that, because the police pretty much don't have to do their job at all. If you don't believe me, just check out HB9!

HB9:
A BILL to be entitled an Act to provide a short title; to make findings of fact; to amend Article 1 of Chapter 4 of Title 17 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions relative to the arrest of persons, so as to provide that the use of forced entry in the execution of a search warrant is prohibited; to amend Article 2 of Chapter 5 of Title 17 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to searches with warrants, so as to provide that the use of forced entry in the execution of a search warrant is prohibited; to provide for penalties; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes. ^[3]

So, basically, in Franklinland, cops knock on your door... And knock again. And again. AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN... Basically, the cops just keep knocking on your door until you answer. Meanwhile, you can hide all of the evidence of whatever it is you might've been doing. Or, fuck it, you can simply not answer until they get bored and go away - eventually the local municipality is going to get tired of paying them so much in overtime and call them off... Right?

*knock knock* Who's there? The police. *silence* (REPEAT AD NAUSEUM)

But, I digress... Enough about knocking.

Ah, and finally, the one thing that sparked my entire interest in Bobby Franklin to begin with, the not-yet-titled HB14:

To amend Titles 16 and 17 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to criminal law and criminal procedure, respectively, so as to change the term "victim" to the term "accuser" in the context of a number of statutes making reference to circumstances where there has not yet been a criminal conviction; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.^[4]

You can read that as a few times and get the idea in your head. It goes along with that whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing we have going, so it's a good one, right? Well, not so fast...

Check out statutes that it actually modifies:

• (a) The victim person making an accusation of stalking or aggravated stalking...
• (c) When evidence relating to an allegation of rape is collected in the course of a medical examination of the person who is the victim accuser of the alleged crime perpetrator...
• (b) A person 17 years of age or over commits the offense of obscene telephone contact with a child if that person has telephone contact with an individual whom that person knows or should have known is a child...
• (a) Whenever a law enforcement officer responds to an incident in which an act of family violence, as defined in Code Section 19-13-1, has been committed, the officer shall not base the decision of whether to arrest and charge a person on the specific consent of the victim accuser or on a request by the crime perpetrator...

So, as we can see, it only applies to rape, stalking, sexual harassment of a child, and domestic abuse. Is it no wonder this guy doesn't have a wife?

Oh, and in case you're wondering where he gets such crazy ideas, his page on the Georgia HoR website spells it out for you:

Representative Franklin has been called "the conscience of the Republican Caucus" because he believes that civil government should return to its biblically and constitutionally defined role.

1. I mean, it's bad enough that people want to go back to a gold standard... But this is just crazy. No, really, what is the point of a gold standard? People claim it's because dollars have nothing behind them. Well, what does gold have behind it? Shininess? Gold is only given a value if people think it has value - just like paper money. If you want to create a standard to back paper money, try oil or food - something we all need, for the most part.
2. The answer is only "Ghostbusters" if they die and keep hanging around.
3. HB 9
4. HB14
SPECIAL: His HoR site demanded I didn't use any pictures of him from it to insult or harass him - so I didn't. That's a cartoon of a devil or something. Right?

Of "Isms" and Over-Zealousness

There is a woman named Mrs. Q. Now, she's not related to Maggie Q, and Mrs. Q isn't even her real name. However, for now, we only know her as Mrs. Q.

Mrs. Q is a fellow Blogspot blogger. She is a school teacher who spent a year eating the kinda things that the government feeds to the poorer kids in schools. The food was awful. If you don't believe me, feel free to check it out for yourself.

Who would expect it to be good, anyway? Most school lunches aren't very good! I can't imagine the ones fed to poorer kids would be better. All kids deserve better than the stuff that passes for "food" in most public schools. I think we all know that.

Mrs. Q knew that, too, and in case anybody else didn't, she chronicled it for us all in her blog. Unfortunately, some stupid people who are too obsessed with "isms" ran across her blog. These ugly, misinformed, stupid people went right to work, claiming Mrs. Q's blog to reek of "classism".

You see, because she insulted the food that the lower class ate, she was classist. Of course, that ignores the fact that the ENTIRE POINT OF HER BLOG was to DRAW ATTENTION TO THE FACT THAT THESE KIDS DESERVE BETTER FOOD. But hey, let's not get caught up in facts and stuff...

Me, personally? I'm a classist. I think McDonalds is awful, and I think it's pure shit. And I know that some people don't really have access to anything else, and thus they have to eat it. But that's neither here nor there... The food just sucks. Do they deserve better? Fuck yes, they do. But, who cares about that? The important thing here is the "ism". I'm practicing pure-bred classism here, because I actually want access to better things for poorer people!

Can't beat that logic!

Or can you?

Oh, you can. You certainly can!

It's such a shame that people get caught up in "isms" and ignore the facts and reasons behind things. It's much easier to be insulted on behalf of someone else (or be insulted yourself) instead of considering the facts and reasons behind something. Mrs. Q doesn't hate poor people, and she doesn't think she's better than poor people. In fact, she wishes poor people were as lucky as her, and didn't have to eat the crap she chose to feed herself to eat for a year... The stuff they are forced to eat on a daily basis. The stuff they have no choice about.

It's NOT classist to want to help people less-fortunate than yourself.

So to all those that think Mrs. Q is a classist and accuse her blog of being "like a Whole Foods shopper judging the convenience foods purchased by people with less money":

Fuck you.

You're the kinda person that likely shops at Whole Foods... You yuppie, too-stupid-to-think, political-correctness-obsessed nobheads.^[1]

1. Political correctness is great, if you don't ignore fact and reason in the name of it.
2. CNN Article about this.

Mel Gibson is the greatest actor to ever live.

They say that what makes an actor is the ability to stretch. Some actors (using the term to mean either gender here) can't stretch beyond playing something they are comfortable with - the thing that they are the most in real life. Mel Gibson, on the other hand encompasses, through his acting, everything that he is not.

So, let us take a look back at some of the major roles Gibson played through the years:

• Mad Max - In Mad Max, Gibson plays Max, a policeman and family man. He cares about his job, but not that much. In fact, he pretty much gives up on his job because it becomes to dangerous. He runs off on a vacation with his family in hopes of having a happy life. This does not work out, as the bad guys find him and kill his wife and child. He ends up mercilessly slaughtering all of them in a severe case of revengeitis.
• Lethal Weapon - In Lethal Weapon, Gibson plays Martin Riggs, a police officer whose wife was brutally murdered. Crushed by her death, he is suicidal. Having little left to live for makes him a loose canon and sometimes a better cop. In the second installment, Lethal Weapon 2, he meets another woman, sorta falls in love with her, only to have her be murdered by the man that killed his wife. In a fit of rage, he eventually brutally kills the man responsible (while in the line of duty, thankfully).
• Hamlet - He plays Hamlet. Do I really have to tell you what this one is about?
• Braveheart - In Braveheart, Gibson plays a fictionalized version of a real-life person who fought against English tyranny in Scotland. In the film, William Wallace's father and brother are killed by the English. William's uncle whisks him away to... All over Europe, educating him. Eventually, William becomes a man, moves back to the village of his youth, meets a woman and marries her. She is then killed by the English. In a fit of rage, Gibson kills just about everybody whose surname sounds even remotely English.
• Ransom - In Ransom, Mel Gibson plays Tom Mullen, a millionaire whose child is kidnapped. He refuses to pay the ransom on his son, and wants so badly to hurt the people responsible. In the end, he gets his wish and is able to brutally beat the hell out of one of them.
• The Patriot - Gibson portrays Benjamin Martin, a seemingly unassuming farmer just trying to take care of his kids in a world gone mad (The Revolutionary War in America). One of his sons is killed by British troops, and he decides to join the revolution and kill the shit out of anybody wearing red. Before the end of his movie, another of his sons, The Joker Gabriel Martin, is killed by the British commander. He seeks him out during on final battle, making sure to the kill the shit out of him and gloat about it.

So, there we have it - a good list of what were some of the biggest works of Gibson's career. As we can see, Gibson has spent his entire life playing men who are in love with their family and kill the shit out of anybody that fucks with them. He also has played a police officer several times.

On the other hand, in real life, Gibson was estranged from his father for years, left his wife (of many years) for a younger woman. He subsequently had a child with said woman and ended up leaving her. as well.. Only to yell ridiculously stupid and racist things at her over the phone. He's basically shitty to his family in real life; he doesn't seem to care about them at all. Oh, and let's not forget that he also semi-routinely finds himself in trouble with the authorities.

And why ignore the fact that in Lethal Weapon 2, he was fighting white supremacists from South Africa, when in real life, he most likely is one?

This man deserves an Oscar for being able to convincingly portray everything he isn't, time and time again.

At the very least, the guy should get a lifetime achievement award.