This year's FLUB and BILE winners

Carrie: Hey, it’s my favorite time of year!

Jerry: Why’s that?

Carrie: Two reasons. First, the 2016 Idaho Legislature has adjourned. You’ll recall Mark Twain’s wisdom that “no man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”

Jerry: And the second?

Carrie: It’s time to present our 4th annual “FLUB” and “BILE” awards.

Jerry: “FLUB,” of course, stands for “Foolish Legislative Utterances and Blunders.”

Carrie: The envelope please! In the “Pseudo Science” category, our first FLUB award goes to Rep. Dell Raybould (R-Rexburg) for telling us to “listen to Rush Limbaugh once in a while…He’ll tell you that this (climate change) is just a bunch of nonsense.”

Jerry: Not the famous climate scientist Rush Limbaugh? Perhaps that explains why the Legislature rejected the state education department’s proposed new science standards this year?

Carrie: Next, in the “Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious” category, the FLUB award goes to Gov. Otter for reminding us that people with health insurance also die.

Jerry: Of course they do…but you’ll likely die quicker without it.

Carrie: Finally, this year’s “Best in Show” FLUB winner is Rep. Pete Nielsen (R-Mountain Home) for two outrageous utterances.

Jerry: That’s right….he’s the legislator who proclaimed his righteous opposition to Medicaid expansion for the working poor by quoting President Grover Cleveland who said “the people support the government; the government should not support the people.”

Carrie: Meanwhile, he has accepted more than $131,000 in federal farm subsidies since 1995.

Jerry: He’s also the genius who claimed that rape is less likely to lead to pregnancy because of the trauma involved.

Carrie: Yup….but he changed his position after getting beat up in the press.

Jerry: Enough FLUBS….let’s move on to our BILE awards.

Carrie: Oh, you mean “Bad Idaho Legislative Efforts,” the worst bills of the session.

Jerry: In the “OMG” category, the Bile Award is a “tie” between North Idaho Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll’s “Bible In Schools” bill” and North Idaho Rep. Eric Redman “Anti-Sharia Law” bill.

Carrie: Sen. Nuxoll’s bill would “expressly” allow the Bible to be used in schools even though the Idaho Constitution specifically forbids it. That’s why the governor vetoed it. We taxpayers are already paying for a bunch of lawsuits, thanks to our legislators, without adding this one to the list.

Jerry: Her North Idaho colleague Rep. Redman’s bill proposed that no foreign law, especially Sharia law, would supersede the U.S. or Idaho constitution in any Idaho court. Yet another blinding glimpse of the obvious! The bill was introduced but it didn’t go anywhere.

Carrie: Why do they introduce nutty bills like that but fail to introduce bills addressing important issues such as protecting gays from discrimination or raising the minimum wage?

Jerry: Beats me. Finally, in the “Where’s My Check From the NRA” category, we have another tie for the BILE award. The “Constitutional Carry” bill allowing folks to carry concealed weapons in cities without a permit sails through the Legislature and is signed into law.

Carrie: But the Idaho Sheriff’s Association bill to eliminate gun privileges for convicted terrorists, human traffickers and hijackers can’t even pass the Senate. You’ll be relieved to know, however, that convicted cannibals are not currently allowed to carry guns.

Jerry: Shouldn’t we take away their knives and forks instead?

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Jerry is a retired farmer/rancher and native Idahoan. Carrie is a retired nonprofit administrator. They live in Idaho Falls.