Private sector nondiscrimination laws are brutal, un-American, and unconstitutional; they are the weapons of bullies

Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski thought they lived in a free country

deadpans Benny Huang.

Silly girls.

The two Arizona small business owners make custom artwork for hire. They are also devout Christians. After hearing about nondiscrimination laws in other locales being used as weapons against people of faith, they began to realize how vulnerable they are. Their city, Phoenix, has a private sector nondiscrimination law covering “sexual orientation,” which is coded language for sexual conduct. Seeing that it was only a matter of time before the LGBT community decided to ambush them in the same way it did Colorado baker Jack Phillips, they decided to file suit against the city. The Arizona Supreme Court will hear their case in January.

As crazy as it sounds, violations of this law are punishable by hard time. That’s right — not making custom artwork for sham same-sex weddings is a crime so heinous that it can result in actual confinement. Every day that a violator persists in her violation carries a penalty of six months in prison.

I can just imagine these two ladies in a rough prison block filled with beefy, tattooed lesbians, who I am sure will be kind to them for what they have done for the “LGBT community.” The conversations would be comical. “What are you in for?” “Not making wedding invitations.” “No, seriously. All joking aside, what are you in for?”

The law in question runs roughshod over at least three provisions of the U.S. Constitution — free speech, free exercise of religion, and the prohibition on involuntary servitude — not to mention Arizona’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Come January, it ought to be eviscerated. Time will tell.

Duka and Koski seem to be hanging their hats on a free speech argument. For some reason, courts seem more sympathetic to those pleas, despite free speech and free exercise of religion having apparent equal footing in the Constitution. The women claim that they serve all customers but won’t use their talents to make artwork for all events.

Not that it matters to me. Their argument is sound, but a broader argument against all private sector nondiscrimination would be equally sound. Such laws are brutal, un-American, and unconstitutional.

Private sector nondiscrimination laws have an ugly history. No, there was never a time when they were “needed,” not even in the 1960s. Such laws were unconstitutional then, are now, and will be until such time as the Left repeals the amendments that they fervently despise.

Examples abound. …
  
 … I’ve always wondered what the point of these laws is, besides aggressive thought reform. If a person doesn’t want to live with, say, a Lithuanian-American, why would a Lithuanian-American want to live with someone who hates him? I’ve never received a satisfactory answer to that question.

 … Even Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who won a Supreme Court case against homosexual bullies, isn’t immune from these kind of harassment lawsuits. Soon after his case was taken up, a transgender “woman” sued him for refusing to make a “gender transition” cake for his big revelation. In Phillips’s previous case, he was accused of discriminating because he willingly made wedding cakes for opposite-sex couples but not for same-sex couples. That’s blatant discrimination, right?

No. But even if it were, I wouldn’t care.

Phillips argued that he made cakes for all customers but not all occasions. But where is the parallel to transgenders? Was he willing to make cakes for “gender staying-the-same” parties but unwilling to make cakes for “gender transition parties?” This is insane.

 … Private sector nondiscrimination laws are anathema to our way of life. They do not enhance freedom in any sense of the word. They limit agency, property rights, and our constitutional protections. They are the weapons of bullies, and frankly, I don’t want bullies to have weapons. Tear them all down.

Joyeux Noël, mit einem Weihnachtsgeschenk — For a Christmas Gift for Conservatives, What Could Be Better than the Medienkritik Blog Back in Business?

Following the surprise tweet of America's Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, regarding the Claas Relotius scandal with, of all things, a David's Medienkritik collage, the sister blog of No Pasarán, which had lain dormant for years on end, announces that, after 10 years in der vilterness, it is back in business — and richly welcome its return is.

David's Medienkritik adds that in

a nutshell, the Relotius lies and fabrications reflected exactly the American boogeyman that has been sold to Germans for years now. We even put together a list of these stereotypes in 2008 - THIS IS NOTHING NEW - and they are still current today if you simply replace the word "Bush" with Trump".
Stereotypes most favored by Spiegel staff include:

• Americans are overbearing war-mongers bent on global domination who falsely claim they are spreading democracy when they are just spreading McDonalds and trying to control more oil fields
• Americans are heartless purveyors of capitalism, neglect the poor, and reject social safety nets
• Americans are trying to spread their superficial bubble gum, Disney, Hollywood culture worldwide to the detriment of all indigenous peoples - including even the Germans
• Americans are xenophobic racists 
• Americans are blindly patriotic, flag waving, USA-chanting, mind-numbed robots 
• Americans are militaristic gun nuts - everyone outside New York and Washington is packing machine guns
• Americans are obese fast-food gluttons
• Americans are hyper-religious Bible-thumping zealots who reject European humanism
• Americans don't care about the rest of the world or the environment (if only they could be environmental champions like the Germans!)
• Every current and recent military conflict involving the United States = Vietnam = quagmire = defeat
• The death penalty - did we mention the death penalty?
• Guantanamo - can we still talk about Guantanamo???

In fact, the reason that Mr. Relotius was not caught sooner is because his absurd contortion of reality was NOT absurd to his editors - it was a precise reflection of the "ugly America" that they have constructed and come to demand in an effort to maximize profit and keep readers supplied with their regular fix of resentment.  

And to offer all the evidence you might ever need, Medienkritk provides a link to its complete Spiegel archive… 

Anne Flora de Negroni: When I paint, I Become No More than the Paintbrush on the Canvas

Besides being a big dog lover, Anne Flora de Negroni is a Parisian artist in the 17ème arrondissement who has been painting since the age of 13:

la peinture a toujours été un refuge pour moi, j’aime ce moment où je peins, où je ne suis que le pinceau sur la toile, les yeux qui regardent avec attention.