You Haven’t Lived Until You’ve Heard John Kennedy Read Gay Sex Out Loud

I guess the Senate Republicans don’t want to be outdone by their brethren in the House in the performative a$$holery department. Because they certainly are doing a lot of it on their own. Book banning is the topic here. And Mike Lee and John Kennedy are shocked, we tell you shocked. It’s their uber seriousness and faux morality that makes this an utter farce.

A context-free look at the Senate’s book ban hearing today. pic.twitter.com/bEmotBwALs

— The Recount (@therecount) September 12, 2023

Yeah, you can’t have books around which talk about sex, especially gay sex, and heaven forbid that you discuss incest or orgies or anything like that. What’s that you say? Isn’t there a really old book that talks about all of that, and tells you you should heap coals on your enemies heads and then kill their children? Oh yeah, the Bible. Are they going to ban that one next?

Now, granted, the book that Kennedy is reading from does sound rather graphic. But did you know that you don’t need to even have sex in a book to get it banned, at least in Florida? No, you do not. Christian the Hugging Lion is now down off the shelves and shoved deep into the closet and he’s not gay nor are any of the other characters in the book. It’s all platonic, agape, brotherly love but hey, that’s the threshold to hanky panky, right? Raw Story:

A children’s book about a lion raised by two men has been banned in Florida because right-wing activists suspect the men might be gay – despite nothing in the book suggesting they have any romantic relationship, according to a report.

The Florida Department of Education released new information about books that were banned or temporarily removed pending investigation in various county school systems as part of the state’s new laws making it easier to challenge material in a school library, reported the Tallahassee Democrat. One of the books was “Christian, the Hugging Lion.”

According to the report, schools in Manatee County, a conservative community just south of Tampa, withdrew the book that’s based on the true story about a pair of men who raise a lion in their London apartment, then are lovingly remembered by the animal when they go to Africa to see him years later.

Nothing in the book indicates the two men are in a same-sex relationship — but activists speculated that they might be, which was enough for a complaint about the book.

As the report notes, “Christian, the Hugging Lion” was written by the same authors who wrote “And Tango Makes Three,” a book about a pair of male penguins who raise a family. That book is also restricted in some Florida schools, and the authors have filed a federal lawsuit against Florida and a county school board.

And you think that’s bad, now they’re after the Bard. And that does make a kind of sense. If you’re looking for sex and violence and you don’t get your fill from the Bible, my next suggestion to you would be try Shakespeare. They cut out tongues and cut off hands and bake children in pies, all kinds of stuff in his plays. But not no more. Not in the Sunshine State.

This is only the latest in a series of bans and restrictions on content in schools being pushed in Florida. Last month, state laws prompted a school system in Hillsborough County to heavily redact the works of William Shakespeare, teaching only excerpts of his plays.

The greatest dramatist in the English language and now we’re only going to teach excerpts from his plays. America is getting dumber and dumber. And a stupid, unthinking, docile population is a people ripe for fascist takeover. Fancy that.

And what geniuses are behind all this? Three guesses, first two don’t count. Here’s a hint: Casey DeSantis loves them. You got it. Moms For Liberty.

Many of the book challenges under the law have been spearheaded by Moms for Liberty, a far-right organization classified as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group has gone out of its way to honor DeSantis for an award. As part of their school censorship campaigns, some chapters of Moms for Liberty have been known to work closely with members of the Proud Boys, a group whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Wingnuttia thrives. Let’s see what the Senate does next. Book banning is the precursor to book burning. Ray Bradbury was a visionary indeed. He foresaw a culture where everybody was drugged out and watching a big TV screen and never reading anything beyond the instructions on a soup can. And God forbid learning how to think. Thinking is dangerous. Ask Ron DeSantis. He’ll do your thinking for you.