South Carolina legislators kill domestic violence bill; instead, make cockfighting a felony

(Columbia) April 20, 2005 - The State House took up two pieces of legislation this week aimed at protecting two different groups. Up for debate was cracking down on gamecock fighting and protecting victims of domestic violence.

A bill protecting cocks passed through the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. John Graham Altman was in favor of the gamecock bill, "I was all for that. Cockfighting reminds me of the Roman circus, coliseum."

A bill advocates say would protect victims against batterers was tabled, killing it for the year. Rep. Altman is on the committee that looked at the domestic violence bill, "I think this bill is probably drafted out of an abundance of ignorance."

Both cockfighting and domestic violence are currently misdemeanor crimes, punishable by 30 days in jail. If the bill passes, cockfighting will become a felony, punishable by five years in jail. Domestic violence crimes will remain a misdemeanor.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter says of the two bills, "What we have said by the actions of the Judiciary Committee is we aren't going to create a felony if you beat your wife, partner, husband. But now, if you've got some cockfighting going on, whoa! Wait a minute."

Rep. Altman responds to the comparison, "People who compare the two are not very smart, and if you don't understand the difference between trying to ban the savage practice of watching chickens trying to kill each other and protecting people rights in CDV statutes, I'll never be able to explain it to you in a 100 years ma'am."

Rep. Cobb-Hunter says, "The reality is the law says domestic violence regardless, first, second or third offense is a misdemeanor, and what they passed yesterday says cockfighting is a felony."

Rep. Altman speaks about domestic violence, "There ought not to be a second offense. The woman ought to not be around the man. I mean you women want it one way and not another. Women want to punish the men, and I do not understand why women continue to go back around men who abuse them. And I've asked women that and they all tell me the same answer, John Graham you don't understand. And I say you're right, I don't understand."

Altman also states, "It's not the woman's fault, it's not blaming the victim, but tell me what self-respecting person is going back around some one who beats them"

Rep. Cobb-Hunter explains her bill, "The question that needs to be asked is this. Should a woman because she decides to go back for whatever the reason to return to an abusive relationship, does that mean it's ok to beat her, to kill her, for her to lose her life, for her children to witness the violence they witness?"

Rep. Altman, "I know you are after a story. And it's kind of a nice story, that we've tabled a CDV bill. Because then you can talk about the insensitive man, the insensitive legislator, but it's not the case. But I don't know why a woman, there would ever be a second offense."
-Kara Gormley, WIS10

AngryWoofDog writes:

Rep. Altman obviously has some things to learn about dependency, depression, and the economic status of women with children who do not work outside the home. Maybe we could get his wife to beat him up..? Knock his dumbassbitch head around a couple of times in a serious schooling lesson.

He says that he doesn't understand why there would be a second offense in a domestic violence situation. Maybe after his wife knocks him around for while, she will promise never to do it again and she'll be so sorry that she will even fucking cry and beg him to come back into her life because she just can't live without the children. And since his wife makes all of the money, he actually needs her around so that he can have food, clothing and shelter.

Oh wait... silly me... why would he go back to her... just because she has all of the power over his life and the laws that MEN have written have made it easier for her to keep him in line, just like the fucking BIBLE says?

FUCK YOU ALTMAN!!! WHY DON'T YOU TRY TO LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT DOMESTIC FUCKING VIOLENCE???

Thinking about the future

Hello all you folks in cyberspace. Today I will rant and roll about the current situation of life as we know it, and how it is starting to fall apart.

Do you realise that the toothbrushes you are using are a byproduct of oil? The creams that you put on your skin. The clothes that you are wearing. Think about everything that's manufactured- the machines that put those items together use oil. Guess what? We are running out of oil. Your life will be drastically different 15 years from now, when the suburbs are rotting.

Thank goddess, tho, really. The air will become so much cleaner, as will the rivers. Personally, I'm looking forward to the time when we have no more papermills that pollute streams with their poisons.

Monsanto. There's a company that you don't hear much about anymore. Makers of Agent Orange and DDT. Now think about how much those two products have fucked up the planet! Entire species and ecosystems have been eradicated, not to mention the soaring amounts of birth defects and death in our our species.

We are killing ourselves for the idea that money actually means something more than life itself. You drive your big SUV around and wear Nike shirts, blissfully unaware that the oil your machine consumes and the toxins it produces will give yourself and your children cancers of all kinds, and that the shirt you paid $75 for earned the maker of it 3¢.

Parallels can be drawn to many corporate institutions: the RIAA commodifies something that has been freely available and fun for thousands of years; in fact, they get it for free, then they package it up and sell it back to you, making money so that they can drive the SUV's and wear the Nike shirts. Oh boo fucking hoo.... recording 'artists' have to wait 2 months before they can get that backyard pool put in.

Don't you see that everything on this planet is inter-related? That every living ecosystem is in decline because we have become so blind for the past 150 or so years? There is no ultimate path of civilisation that we are moving toward. In fact, our blind greed is going to actually send us backward.

When there's no electricity, what do you think the internet will be like???

And usually, this is when I would say, 'Come on people, think about the repercussions of how we live today!' But the people that might be reading this blog aren't the ones in power, and they aren't the ones that I rally against. Those in power will never read this blog unless I say some stupid shit about radically killing off those in power, and even then, it will only be the goon squads coming to get me and quietly putting a bullet in my own head.

It's really fucking frustrating to be aware and alive right now. To know the basic necessities of life are bad for you.... air and water. And to think that corporate fucks want to commodify every single gluon and proton on this planet. (Did you know that certain companies OWN the genetic blueprints to orangutans and most other animals???)

Wake the fuck up and do *something*. Don't just write the dicks in congre$$. We've gotta get organised and get active; take it to the streets and take it back. It's your life and the entire planet's future that is at stake here.

And no one is more serious about it than me.