I will be the first to admit this, having a national discussion about a piece of clothing is ridiculous.

Except when it is taken as justification for targeting a kid for death.

And that is the problem. Wearing a hoodie doesn’t make you a gangbanger.

Women going out on the town in a short skirt aren’t looking, much less asking to be raped as many conservatives argue.

Wearing a head scarf doesn’t make you a terrorist. And sorry to the Juan Williams of the world, traditional Arab garb shouldn’t automatically make you suspicious of someone.

I made the argument the other day that if every oppressed African-American teenage boy joined the Fruit of Islam and marched around in impeccable suits with equally impeccable manners, I *guarantee* that would make the Geraldo Rivera’s of the world feel a LOT less safe.

So, no, it isn’t the clothes, it is all about the cretin making a judgement based on the clothes. Or, more to the point, often projecting their own bias more easily because they think they can blame a piece of fabric.

Let’s turn it around. Every cop who beat Rodney King was wearing a uniform and a badge and was white. Should that have resulted in open season on white LA cops? No, that would have been wrong.

Every Supreme Court justice who denied Florida their votes in 2000 was a white guy. Should every white federal judge been thrown against the wall and shot for treason? No. That, too, would have been a false judgement against a lot of innocent people.

So why is rape justified over a hemline or dipping bodice? Why is a guy who killed a kid packing Skittles allowed to be both free and still carry the murder weapon?

This keeps happening, and the response continues to be muted. Outraged, yes, but we try to trust the system to make it right.

However, if it keeps occurring, someone is finally going to decide to hell with the system and use the same flawed logic that gets kids like Trayvon Martin killed. I don’t welcome it, I hope it does not ever happen, but people will not let this continue to happen to their communities.

Right now you’ve got the young wearing Guy Fawkes masks in parody, and some of the same folks wearing hoodied in solidarity.

Right now they are just symbols. Let us hope they stay that way.

One of the truly annoying things about Minnesota Public Radio is that they will publish anything, even when they KNOW the folks they are quoting are lying to them.

Happens damn near every day on their new mid-morning show, but they slap each other on the back for being open-minded even as listeners – and donors – plead with them to be journalists first and foremost.

Such is the case with this story about the outfit known as ALEC, who go out of their way to write laws that conservatives pass, almost always without altering the “proposal” they are handed. Hell, I’m not even convinced they read more than the talking points.

Currently, ALEC is pushing “Voter ID”, which here in Minnesota is going to a ballot initiative because our governor is smart enough not to disenfranchise the elderly, poor, disabled, and college students to “solve” a problem that (I think) only affected .00002% of the last election. I may be plus or minus a zero there, but basically the solution will affect about 40% of disabled Minnesotans and stop a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of potential illegal votes.

Who is on the side of democracy here?

ALEC and the NRA and other odious cretins are also behind the “kill anyone you please” laws in the news of late. In Florida it is the original “Stand Your Ground” law, that allows folks to get out of their car, walk up to a teenage kid whose color you don’t care for, and kill him because you feel threatened by a bag of Skittles.

Here in Minnesota it is called the “Castle Law”, which allows you to declare a pup tent an extension of your house and to shoot anyone who comes near it. No, I’m actually not making that up.

This, too, is up for election here in Minnesota this fall. If it isn’t in your state, it probably will be soon.

For those keeping score at home, a current-to-today list of Romney gaffes.

I am sure there is more to come.

I really hope they post the video to this commentary but it is still worth a read.

How hateful do you have to be to slander the Girl Scouts? I mean, I have my problems with the leadership of the Boy Scouts being bigots but haven’t heard about the Girl Scouts denying rights to people.

And that is all this is, conservatives using a Bible to justify pure hatred of others who want to be inclusive. In this case it is a transgendered seven year old kid. Or some ties to Planned Parenthood. Or just the fact they hate women of all ages.

It does not matter. Using your church because you’re too chicken to say you hate and fear anyone or anything different than you just makes you a coward.

And cowards lose the fight. Always.