More state-sanctioned Godidiocy from Florida

I’ve always thought of the concept of “vanity” license plates sorta silly. If you’ve ever been to Florida, it’s at a ridiculous extreme down there, with over 100 variations on their license plates. A few years ago they made the bold and ridiculous move of allowing state-sanctioned anti-abortion “Choose Life” plates, and as far as I know, there wasn’t any “Pro-child/Pro-choice” plates available. Well, the idiocy continues, as they are now considering a blatant God plate:

Even though Florida now has more than 100 specialized license tags, the Republican-controlled Legislature may soon add one more: a colorful license plate that features the words ”I Believe” set among a resplendent sunrise and the image of a cross in front of stained-glass window…

”That’s that the option of every driver who owns a vehicle,” Fasano said. `They can decide if they want to have a license plate with a cross in front of a stained-glass window. It’s not different from choosing a Choose Life license plate or a manatee license pate or a Florida State University or University of Florida license plate.”

Problem is, they’re not giving anyone a “There is nothing” or a “All religions are fairy tales”, or even a “Shalom” or “Assalamu Alakum” plate. As I said, I think this whole concept is ridiculous, but to be so blatantly in favor of Christianity is downright offensive.

Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said the possibility of a state-sanctioned tag with a cross should prompt to Florida lawmakers to rethink the whole ”crazy” system of license plates.

‘Maybe at this point the Legislature should begin rethinking whether a message on a state-manufactured plate, whether `I support panthers’ or ‘I’m a Christian,’ might be better on a bumper sticker,” Simon said.

If you’ve been following the evolution/ID fiascos, you robably already know that anti-intellectualism has a pretty strong grip in Florida, so this shouldn’t be surprising. Still outrageous, any way you slice it. The crux of it is that the state should not be in the business of promoting a religious viewpoint… it’s really not rocket science here.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 10:24 amand is filed under conservatives, religious right. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “More state-sanctioned Godidiocy from Florida”

  • Mike Eldred Says:
    April 15th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    They could have a “I’m a racist” plate, too.  I mean, there are a lot of proud racists in Florida, too. 

  • Mister Guy Says:
    April 15th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    Wow, that FL plate is messed up! 

    The other day, I saw this old pickup truck driving around with a VT plate where the guy had snipped out the “Live Free or Die” part of a NH plate and bolted that over the VT plate where it says “Vermont”…one both front and rear plates!  I dunno what was going through that guy’s mind when he did that…