Fresh Loaf

During the legislative session, Rep. Bobby Franklin, R-Marietta, blogged for The American View, a conservative Christian web site whose organizers aim to create “Christian America, and a Christian world, a Christian galaxy and a Christian universe.”

But since there is no area of life outside of the Lordship of King Jesus, all votes cast are religious in nature and must be based on what the Bible says is the proper function of the civil government.

— Franklin, on Jan 31, explaining how he decides his legislative votes.

By a vote of 154-1 the House approved HB 1088, a bill to provide state central planning of “agricultural tourism.” The last time I checked, I could not find any Biblical role of the civil government in the function of tourism, agricultural or otherwise.

— Franklin, on Feb. 18.

HB 1043 amended an already bad law, the “Childhood Lead Exposure Control Act” by allowing the state to enter your property if some state agent thinks that your kid has been exposed to lead. Whatever happened to the Supreme Court’s “Roe” and “Casey” right to privacy?

— Franklin rails against a bill aimed at protecting children from lead-contaminated structures.

You are a person while in the test tube. But the state then can deny your personhood the moment you are implanted in a uterus. With so called right to life organizations promoting this type of abomination, no wonder roughly 40,000 babies are still being slaughtered in their mother’s womb’s each year in Georgia.

— Franklin criticizes a bill proposed by Georgia Right to Life that would designate embryos in test tubes as “people.”

While Georgia is throwing the book at people that use alcohol vaporizing devices, the butchering of the unborn continues[.]

— Franklin writes about a House bill that would ban alcohol-vaporizers.

This bill allows the commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources (why there is such a department is another story) to prohibit all commercial and recreational fishing for blue crabs.

— Franklin questions the importance of an agency charged with protecting the environment.

Why is the Georgia House of Representatives concerning itself with any sport when tens of thousands of babies are slaughtered in the womb each year here in Georgia?

— Franklin expresses disgust with a bill that would urge the NCAA use a playoff system to determine a national college football champion.

First, individuals do not have any natural rights — which transitions to the second point: rights are given by God and are not privileges handed out by the state. It is very dangerous when those elected to office begin to believe and govern as if the State is God.

— Franklin states his views on basic rights.

Does it surprise you that the question never lets the voter know that if the Governor so chooses that not a dime of the tax could go toward transportation? Republicans - gotta love’um [--] NOT!

— Franklin channels Wayne’s World in his final post of the legislative session.

Rep. Franklin then said that the folks that wanted to end slavery were called “crazy” and “radical”, but they were doing “what was right”, so he didn’t mind being called crazy because he’s doing what’s right.

— Andre Walker in a Jan. 2007 GeorgiaPoliticsUnfiltered blog post after he asked Rep. Franklin about pro-choice groups labeling him as “crazy.”

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As this item is being posted – around 4 p.m. Monday – a public hearing is unfolding in a legislative committee room across from the Capitol that will showcase what are likely the two nuttiest, most extremist hot-potato bills of this General Assembly.

The first is another in a long series of absurdist anti-abortion proposals from state Rep. Bobby Franklin, R-East Cobb, the king of file-it-and-forget-about-it legislation. His bill would make it a capital offense to perform an abortion in Georgia.

The second item, introduced by fellow loon Rep. Martin Scott, R-Rossville, has already gained notoriety in other states as the “Human Life Amendment.” The proposal, HR 536, would define newly fertilized embryos as “persons” – a distinction that confers a “right to life,” according to the measure.

Pro-choice activists had expected to face Scott’s resolution this year; lobbying from conservative Christian groups was too fierce for it to stay bottled up. Hell, the measure even has its own website. But they didn’t anticipate having to deal with Franklin’s HB1, which (I just enjoy saying this) calls for doctors who perform abortions to be put to death.

As a result, such groups as the Feminist Women’s Health Center held a press conference this morning to decry what they see as a twin threat of poison legislation.

Granted, we don’t usually see Franklin bills make it as far as a committee hearing, but how seriously should we take this portent? And why would Rep. Ed Lindsey, the level-headed, moderate Atlanta Republican who chairs the subcommittee in question, decide to hear these two bills?

Basically, we asked Lindsey, WTF? The answer was enlightening.

He explained that he paired the bills because one would affect the other if passed. There will be six hours of scheduled hearings spread over two days. In addition to the various interest groups on both sides of the issue, Lindsey has asked professors, doctors and health experts to explain the potential impact of the bills – including the foreseeable consequences of declaring a zygote a person with legal rights.

In other words, Lindsey wants fellow lawmakers to understand what would happen if the concept of personhood is stretched to its illogical conclusion.

He puts it more diplomatically: “I want to give both of these measures a full and fair hearing and, if we do, I have a feeling how it’s going to turn out.”

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