Louisiana Voice

It was just on September 5 that LouisianaVoice published a story about the Livingston Parish School Board filing a lawsuit against social media giants Meta, Instagram and TikTok, as well as cable television providers Charter Communications and Cox Communications for poisoning children’s minds and otherwise inflicting permanent damage to their psyche, their grades, and…well, their futures by making the social media platforms addictive.

If you will recall, LouisianaVoice made the not-to-difficult prediction that this would be the next big class-action litigation to rival the tobacco and opioids legal battles and to a lesser extent, the BP litigation. The prognostication was made then that other states and other school districts would become co-plaintiffs in the effort to take down the evil predators.

Well, today, the  STORY broke that 41 states have filed suit against Meta, claiming the tech giant has built “addictive features into Instagram and Facebook. For the time being, at least, TikTok has not be named a defendant but just wait, it likely will be added.

Anyway, it’s playing out pretty much as predicted and Louisiana, with our litigious attorney general soon-to-be governor is, of course, one of the 41 states listed as a plaintiff.

The one thing that is difficult – no, impossible – to comprehend is why there is so much redaction on the copy of the LAWSUIT that The Washington Post linked to in its article and to which we’ve attempting to link. Hope you can open it.

There should be no redactions in any public document like a lawsuit. Copies of lawsuits are supposed to be fully accessible to anyone who wants to go to the trouble of pulling them up and reading them.

Something smells here.

But it does cite a study by the AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION entitled Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence, published last May which supported the claims of the lawsuit.

Here are the states that have signed on thus far:

Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, George, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The states of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Hawai’i, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey. New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia each listed its respective attorney as representing his or her state.

Just can’t figure out how Jeff Landry, who adores seeing his name in the media, managed to let that opportunity slip by.

Be that as it may, this is playing out just as we predicted less than two months ago. Look for a pretty big payout when the dust has settled.

All five Republican members of Louisiana’s House delegation voted for Gym Jordan for Speaker and Troy Carter joined the other 211 Democrats to vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The good news is no one as yet has voted for Clay Higgins as Speaker.

Here’s the BREAKDOWN for the entire House Vote.

“It’s time to take the sharp knives away from the children.”

–Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), on the dysfunction gripping the House of Representatives over the ousting of one speaker and its inability to choose a successor.

By John Rigol

Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

                                                                                     Jeremiah 31:12-13

Jeremiah 31 is a beautiful vision represented at a distant period. And as part of that beautiful vision, God, Himself, endorsed dancing. Nowhere, absolutely nowhere, in that chapter—and others too— does God mandate that dancing should be limited to praising Him.

Is the Republic being headlonged propelled into a parallel radical Islamic State? The Walker high School atrocity surely makes it looks that way. And I, for one, am nauseated…and afraid.

It was not within Mr. Si. Pierre’s scope of office to proselytize to Miss. Timonet. And worse, to do so in a two-hour, closed-door, bullying environment without one or both of her parents present.

And even if Mr. St. Pierre were functioning within his scope of office, why would he strip the young lady of her earned prerequisites and then have the temerity to condemn her to hell…for two hours, no less! It sounds like a modified form of waterboarding.

The “honorable” Christians (you know them, the fanatical righteous hypocrites, especially the Evangelicals), are probably glorifying Messieurs Jason St. Piere and Kelly Becnel. And when they are fired and hopefully criminally charged with child abuse (as they should be), the ‘honorable” Christians will proclaim them to be “martyrs for Christ.”

In the course of time, will there be heretical executions? Don’t laugh. Although the Roman Catholics hold the blue ribbon for those inhumanities, the Protestants can proudly lay claim to a vast number of them too. One night recall the Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Some Christians have said they’re in a war—a war for the redemption of souls—when in reality, it is an act of aggression against free thinking. And unless others stand up against the takeover, the rabid proselytizers will eventually rob the “non-believers” (i.e., those who do not think the way do) of their essences.

The First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” which is the basis for the doctrine of separation of Church and State. Mr. St. Pierre and his assistant have not allowed that trivial impediment stand in the way of their twisted morality.

(Editor’s note: To view the video of Kaylee Timonet’s dance that so upset Principal St. Pierre – and to compare it with a school-sponsored pep rally dance routine, go HERE.)

Jason St. Pierre and Kelly Becnel might want to brush up on their Scripture instead of cherry-picking verses to use against a straight-A student next time.

St. Pierre, the principal at Walker High School in Livingston Parish seems to have taken it upon himself to act as the morality police – even for events that take place away from the school campus.

Granted, a school cannot be a democracy. Chaos would ensue if students were allowed to make administrative and instructional decisions. But neither can a school be a theocracy. It says so right there in our Constitution – that part about the separation of church and state.

And when a school principal is allowed to discipline a teenager over a dance at an event away from the school, that principal has overstepped his authority by a lot.

Seventeen-year-old Kaylee Timonet was enjoying herself, along with several friends to a deejay during a party following the Walker High School homecoming recently. The deejay videotaped Kaylee dancing and laughing and posted it online.

St. Pierre called Kaylee into his office three days later to inform her that he was revoking her title as student government president and that he no longer would follow through on his promised assistance in obtaining her college scholarships. Additionally, she was being ruled ineligible for student of the year honors.

All because, in St. Pierre’s judgment, she wasn’t “living in the Lord’s way.”

Problem is, a lot of people claim to know the “Lord’s way” but in truth, have no concept of true Christianity or compassion. It reminds me of a line uttered by George Burns in the movie Oh God! Way back in the dark ages of the 1970s when he said preachers had long since quit preaching His word.

St. Pierre had the audacity to print out Bible verses, highlighting certain ones for Kaylee. In other words, attempting to force-feed religion to the student.

Where I come from, that’s called grooming, something the evangelicals are supposedly so vehemently opposed to. I suppose that, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

So, though I am a layman in the truest sense of the word, I want to take this opportunity to suggest a few Bible verses for St. Pierre to read and digest:

I will begin with the obvious one that comes to mind:

• Matthew 7:1 and Luke 6:37. “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
• John 8:7. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone.”
• Matthew 7:3. “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?”

For that matter, I wonder if St. Pierre likes bacon? Does he mix the fabrics of his clothing? Does they like catfish, blackened alligator? Cut his hair? Ever sold any land or worked on the Sabbath? Mistreated foreigners?

All sinful, according to the Good Book.

Just a few things he might want to consider before getting all up in a student’s personal life.