Criminal Bed Sheets and Bible Studies
Gina Miller
Over the weekend I stumbled on a story from last month that I thought had to be a joke. It was no joke. California lawmakers (who really need to stop making laws) have a pending piece of legislation that would make it a crime—a crime—for hotels to use flat sheets instead of fitted sheets as the bottom sheet on beds. I could not make something like this up, even if I tried.
The bill, which was introduced by a Democrat, of course, would also require that hotels provide long-handled equipment for maids, so that they would not have to stoop or kneel to clean bathroom floors and showers.
From the
text of the bill,
“THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 6714 is added to the Labor Code, to read:
6714. (a) The standards board shall, no later than September 1, 2012, adopt an occupational safety and health standard for lodging establishment housekeeping. The standard shall apply to all hotels, motels, and other lodging establishments in California. The standard shall require all of the following:
(1) The use of a fitted sheet, instead of a flat sheet, as the bottom sheet on all beds within the lodging establishment. For the purpose of this section, a ‘fitted sheet’ means a bed sheet containing elastic or similar material sewn into each of the four corners that allows the sheet to stay in place over the mattress.
(2) The use of long-handled tools such as mops or similar devices in order to eliminate the practice by housekeepers of working in a stooped, kneeling, or squatting position in order to clean bathroom floors, walls, tubs, toilets, and other bathroom surfaces.”
Not only is this proposed legislation nonsense, it is also extremely expensive nonsense. California, like most states in our nation, is suffering under the weight of this wretched economy, and businesses are already hurting. This legislation would cost hotels millions of dollars to implement.
As reported at the Blaze,
“California, the state trying to deal with a massive $26 BILLION dollar debt, is considering a law that some hospitality industry experts claim would add an estimated $15 to $30 million dollars in costs to an already hurting hotel industry. The low-end estimate of fifteen million is the projected cost to purchase new fitted sheets for the 550,000 hotel beds in the state. Of course the hospitality industry is claiming that these added costs will hurt their business and put jobs at risk.”
The Democrat who introduced this over-the-top, nanny state legislation was Kevin De Leon of Los Angeles, who claims this law is needed to protect maids from back injuries.
So, here we go again with the state trying to save us from ourselves! How did we ever get along without government laws heaped upon laws to dictate to us how we should live our lives in order that we don’t put an eye out? We are seeing more of this invasive legal garbage coming out of our local, state and federal governments every year, and I see no end in sight. We simply must get these legislators-gone-wild under control or out of office.
In covering this story, Patrick McGreevy writing for the Los Angeles Times reported,
“Business owners and others who have long complained that companies are overburdened by state regulations say a proposal now moving through the Legislature shows that lawmakers have lost all touch with reality: It would require that hotels use fitted sheets.
‘We are now going to make it a crime in California not to use a fitted sheet? Really?’ state Sen. Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) asked during a debate before the Senate passed the measure in June.
The bill, one of nearly 900 awaiting final action in the Legislature when it returns Monday from a monthlong recess, is intended to address back injuries sustained by hotel housekeepers. But it has revived a long-simmering debate over whether California has become a hyper-regulated ‘nanny state.’
In 2007, the Legislature was subject to national ridicule when it considered a bill to outlaw spanking of young children. Embarrassed lawmakers eventually shelved that proposal, but businesses have decried the Legislature’s subsequent ban on trans fats in restaurant cooking, requirement that calorie counts appear on menus, and prohibition on dairies docking cows’ tails.
This year, businesses are crying foul over proposals to ban restaurants from cooking shark fin soup and using Styrofoam food containers — and the sheets bill.”
The people of the United States must have been sleeping quite soundly to have allowed legislators to continue expanding their power to the point where they now dictate what a restaurant can serve.
It is not just businesses that are hurt by all this ridiculous over-regulation, but private citizens, as well. Another story reported on Friday by World Net Daily should give you angry chills. Again, this is out of California.
“Chuck and Stephanie Fromm already have been fined $300 for holding Bible studies for their friends at their home, and they face the potential for additional fines of $500 for each study held, according to a legal team taking their case to court.
The newest conflict over Bible studies in homes in America arose in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., where city officials say city code section 9-3.301 prohibits religious organizations in residential neighborhoods without a conditional-use permit, a sometimes very expensive procedure.
The code cites ‘churches, temples, synagogues, monasteries, religious retreats, and other places of religious worship and other fraternal and community service organizations.’
But a Bible study in a home?
‘Imposing a heavy-handed permit requirement on a home Bible study is outrageous,’ said Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, which is working on the case on behalf of the Fromms.
‘In a city so rich with religious history and tradition, this is particularly egregious. An informal gathering in a home cannot be treated with suspicion by the government, or worse than any other gathering of friends, just because it is religious. We cannot allow this to happen in America, and we will fight as long and as hard as it takes to restore this group’s religious freedom.’”
This outrage comes after similar “crackdowns” on home Bible studies occurred last year in Gilbert, Arizona and the year before in San Diego County. Thankfully, in both of those cases, the cities backed down from their Soviet-style regulations.
These two stories—the criminal bed sheets and “illegal” home Bible studies—although different, are completely related. They illustrate how far our nation has fallen into a communist-style police state, where the government is all-powerful. We are losing our freedoms daily, and too many Americans do not even realize it.
There is no way to stop the out-of-control politicians unless many more Americans wake up to the danger our freedoms are in. Lots of people around me, including friends and family, are oblivious to the creeping fascism in our local, state and federal governments. If people are unwilling to open their eyes and see the chains being placed on them by government, then we will not be able to stop the power mongers from continuing their onerous law fest.
It is not just business owners’ freedom to operate without overbearing government intrusion and freedom of religion rights of American citizens that are being stomped on, as in the home Bible study cases, but private property rights in general are also being abolished by America’s stupid cooperation with the United Nations Agenda 21 program with its “sustainable development” and “smart growth” rackets. You have likely seen your own community impose so-called “smart codes” on building and new construction regulations. Smart codes are just another part of the Agenda 21 scheme, which goes hand-in-hand with environmental wacko-ism.
Under the Obama administration, we have seen a trampling of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights that has never been as extreme in the history of our nation. And, it seems that along with the Obama administration’s hyper-speed shredding of our precious founding documents, an increase in the boldness of communist Democrat and RINO Republican legislation has occurred at the state level, as well.
The California legislature has broken out of the sane barrier and rushed into the lunatic wilderness, and unless the citizens of the state can overcome the dead, illegal and plainly ignorant voters and get these maniacs out of office,California is toast.
We will have to wait and see the outcome of these two stories. A trial is set for October 7th in the case of the home Bible study group, and with almost 900 (!) pieces of pending legislation in the California Congress, it may be a while before they get to the criminal sheets caper. In the meantime, we can pray for victory for the home Bible study Christians, and California residents can pound their state legislators with a heavy dose of sanity, not only about the criminal sheets bill, but any number of other communist bills that are on the agenda.
Gina Miller, a native of Texas, is a radio commentator. She also works with her husband installing and repairing residential irrigation systems and doing landscaping on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.