Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signs Bill restricting Sex Offenders from Public Libraries

This is a bizarre, must-read more-than-once bill that does more than just bar sex offenders from libraries.

Inexplicably, it also bars sex offenders from "obtaining sexual offender treatment or attending a sexual offender treatment program."

I'm not sure what their line of reasoning is with that restriction but I'm sure that, in their twisted little minds, it somehow makes sense.

Here's the whole thing:

"This bill makes it a Class E felony offense for a registered sexual offender to do any of the following:

If the offender’s victim was a minor, establish a primary or secondary residence or any other living accommodation, knowingly obtain sexual offender treatment or attend a sexual offender treatment program or knowingly accept employment within 1,000 feet of the property line of any public library;

Be upon or remain on the premises of any building or grounds of any public library when the offender has reason to believe children under 18 years of age are present, unless the offender is attending a conference with public library officials as a parent or legal guardian of a child who is a participant at the public library and has received written permission or a request from the facility’s administrator; or

Stand, sit idly, whether or not the offender is in a vehicle, or remain within 1,000 feet of the property line of any building owned or operated by any public library when children under 18 years of age are present, while not having a reason or relationship involving custody of or responsibility for a child or any other specific or legitimate reason for being there."

It is tempting to dismiss this latest injustice as unremarkable given that it is coming from a state that once gave us the Scopes Monkey Trial and prevented blacks and whites from intermarrying. But, in all honesty, they are probably just keeping up with the other 49 States.

It used to be that the backwardness of the South, with its Angry-God fundamentalism and contempt for separation of church and state, created a distinct cultural dividing line within the country. But now the entire nation has fallen under a cloud of ignorance and superstition where sex offenders are the new "niggers".

All of America has now become a small-minded provincial who spys on her neighbors and makes a great public show about who she will not eat with at the lunch counter. In this environment, organizing a lynch mob must seem like a reasonable approach to solving life's problems.