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" (Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post) WASHINGTON DC -- Welcome back to our weekly survey of what&amp;#039;s goin&amp;#039; down in the several states where, as you know, the real work of governmentin&amp;#039; gets done and where the authorities, they stand around and boast. This will be an abbreviated version because there&amp;#039;s just too damn much fun to be had downstairs in the convention center to stay cooped up in the room. (You ever seen Mitch McConnell brandishing a musket? And that was before breakfast!) Anyway, let&amp;#039;s begin in Texas, where a LaRouchie is in the runoff to select the Democrat who will lose to John Cornyn this fall. And, hoo, boy howdy, do you ever get what you vote for. &amp;quot;The opposition leaders and there is very documented evidence and proof that the opposition leaders in Ukraine are directly related and hold direct ties to the Nazi interest and what was done by sending in people like ... John Kerry, and others to dictate who would be in charge and control is against national sovereignty and interests of Ukraine,&amp;quot; Rogers said. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s what the Obama administration has done.&amp;quot;  If I understand Ms. Rogers correctly, and I&amp;#039;m not sure I&amp;#039;m fluent enough in this dialect to do so, is that she might be a supporter of the Ukrainian regime that was overthrown. Of course, she also may be ordering lunch. It&amp;#039;s hard to be sure. Moving along to Virginia, where the new Democratic administration is just humming along, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. After years of unsuccessful attempts to repeal the law, in 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court&amp;#039;sLawrence v. Texas ruling held that states may not ban private non-commercial sex between consenting adults. Virginia&amp;#039;s Crimes Against Nature statute, which made oral sex (even between consenting married couples) a felony, was clearly the sort of legislation the Court was referencing. But a year later the Republican-controlled state legislature killed a bill to update the law and remove the statute&amp;#039;s consensual sodomy provisions. Virginia&amp;#039;s leading anti-LGBT forces opposed the update. Last year, the federal courts overturned the conviction of a man charged, under Virginia&amp;#039;s Crimes Against Nature law, of soliciting a 17-year-old female for oral sex - a felony under the statute. Because that law - first enacted in 1950 to prohibit oral and anal sex, as well as bestiality - had not been updated, the court ruled it was unenforceable, putting the convictions of other sexual offenders and child predators at risk. Sometimes, I wish I&amp;#039;d been reporting back when these laws were passed. The debates in the legislature must have been amazing. Let&amp;#039;s move on down to Kentucky, where a local church apparently has dispensed with bake sales and car washes and moved right along to more freedom-oriented forms of fundraising. The goal is to &amp;quot;point people to Christ,&amp;quot; the church says in a flier. Chuck McAlister, an ex-pastor, master storyteller and former Outdoor Channel hunting show host who presides at the events as the Kentucky Baptist Convention&amp;#039;s team leader for evangelism, said 1,678 men made &amp;quot;professions of faith&amp;quot; at about 50 such events last year, most of them in Kentucky.  First of all, that&amp;#039;s an awesome description of the ex-pastor.Second, you must always make sure at events like this that, if you&amp;#039;re pointing people towards Christ, that they keep the safety on. The poor guy had enough trouble the last time around. To the east, we go, into the newly insane state of North Carolina, where a local sheriff&amp;#039;s department apparently slept through diversity training. &amp;quot;Captain Mario Wiley emailed several other ACSO employees a link to a game premised on shooting stereotypical Mexican figures, including pregnant women and children, as they attempt to cross the U.S. border,&amp;quot; the motion says. &amp;quot;Blood splatters on the screen as the figures are shot, and the final screen of the game shows how many &amp;#039;wetbacks&amp;#039; one has killed.&amp;quot; Other deputies, including supervisors and the agency&amp;#039;s designated media spokesman, traded messages that included racist jokes. &amp;quot;Sergeant Darryl Myers and Lieutenant Wesley Anderson each forwarded an email joking that when Davey Crockett saw &amp;#039;hordes of Mexicans&amp;#039; approaching the Alamo, he asked &amp;#039;are we having landscaping done today?&amp;#039;&amp;quot; according to the court filing. I again despair of the rebranding. And we conclude, as usual, in Oklahoma, where Blog Special Sagebrush Topiary Inspector Friedman of the Plains informs us that a local politician is ready to march to Lexington and Concord, or perhaps Chancellorsville. In either case, that&amp;#039;s a helluva ways to go. Brogdon was among conservative members of the state Legislature and tea party leaders who previously said creating a new volunteer militia could help defend against what they believe are improper federal infringements on state sovereignty. That didn&amp;#039;t work out very well the last time. All&amp;#039;s I&amp;#039;m sayin&amp;#039; This is your democracy, America. Cherish it. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a20455/laboratories-of-democracy-030614/>