It’s cold.
Miserable.
And the polar vortex is from the devil. Nuff said. With schools shut down, sporting events on hold and cancelled and kids being tortured by Zoom lessons, let’s head to Jackson and check on the Mississippi Legislature.
Everybody’s been elected, sworn in and celebrated and now it’s time to get to work. Creating bills, on Capitol Hill and sending them to all sorts of committees to be chopped up and rewritten and porked out and back to the good men and women who were voted into office to pass into a law – or not.
The first two out of the gate that caught my eye are from Senator Chuck Younger of
District 17. These two are pretty good, in my opinion. The first one, SB2005 has been referred to the Agriculture, Division A.
This bill would give farmers the right to repair their own agricultural equipment. With so many computers running things on tractors, combines and cotton pickers, I’m not sure how this will pan out unless Bill Gates is sitting on his own tractor when it breaks down. He owns 248,000 acres across the US. I wonder what his hourly mechanic rate is?
The other bill Senator Younger is on top of is a good one as well. It’s all about the Benjamins – literally. The “Respect the Cash Act” would prohibit a person selling or offering good for sale or retail services from refusing to accept cash as a form of payment. And if the retailer won’t take your folding money, they can get hit with criminal penalties. Elvis was King and so is Cotton and Cash and always will be.
Senator John Horhn from District 26 wants to increase the penalties for illegally dumping solid waste material. I’m all for it. I’m sure the Citizens Arrests for this will increase as well. There’s too much garbage illegally dumped and a stiffer fine which currently starts at $100 bucks. The legislature website doesn’t say how much Senator Horhn wants to raise it but whoever does, will be fine to pay it in cash if Senator Younger has his way.
And I like what Senator Angela Burks Hill of District 40 has in mind. She wants to prohibit countries who are hostile to the United States from owning land in the Magnolia State.
Amen.
She also wants to make folks have car insurance and prove it before they buy a car. And Senator Hill would like to amend section 55-15-81, Mississippi Code of 1972, to clarify the “provisions of the statutory prohibition against the alteration of historical monuments and memorials located on public property; to prohibit the renaming or rededication of certain statues, monuments, schools, streets, parks or similar structures named in honor of certain military units, figures or events; to provide criminal sanctions for violation of this statute; to provide that this section shall be known as the "Mississippi Heritage Protection Act"; and for related purposes. I guess I’m on the fence with this one. I’m for it and against it. This would be situational depending on the historical person. We’ll have to revisit this one down the road. I’d like my Colonel Rebel mascot back on the field and in the stadium as well.
There’s plenty more cooking at the capital and lots of bills yet to be written and submitted this year for the folks to dicker about. Spend your hard earned George Washingtons, get car insurance, pick up your trash and fix your own cotton picker. Keep it going, Mr. and Mrs. Legislature!
