Weakened Parental Leave Bill OK'd

That's "weakened" as in lacking strength, not "weekend" as in Saturday, Sunday. The Georgia House passed legislation yesterday to mandate diddly squat. The original proposal was to allow parents up to 8 hours each year to attend school functions for their children. Things like parent-teacher conferences, volunteer work, etc would have been covered. But in a move that would do Armin Meiwes proud the Senate emasculated it before passing it.

House members approved the bill 158-6, but first they approved an amendment to change the wording. Instead of telling employers they "shall" give the parental leave time, the bill says employers "may" give the leave time.

So legislation has been approved that legally allows businesses to let parents attend their childrens' school functions. Were businesses not allowed to do this before? Another pointless law with no teeth that serves no function except to further clutter up the books. What a joke.

Actually that's not the real joke. The real joke is that these fools don't see just how ridiculous the law is.

"It would be better to make it optional," said the amendment's author, Democratic Leader Jimmy Skipper of Americus. "If you're a small business with only two or three employees, you need some flexibility."

Optional laws. Interesting idea. I wouldn't mind "suggested" speed limits and "strong discouragement" against downloading MP3s so I guess I'm not totally against the concept.

The legislation now moves to the state Senate.

Now is the chance for the state Senate to show that they have some small amount of common sense and throw this gutted carcass on the trash heap.

(Hat tip to Lovely Wife)