Haslam Sell Off of TN Government on Fast Track ...More from the Buzz 9-1-15

Timeline Shows Massive Privatization on Potential Fast Track

The secret history of “Y’all”: The murky origins of a legendary Southern slang word

Democrats file ‘no guns at concerts’ bill

Supreme Court says Kentucky clerk can't deny same-sex marriage licenses

Lamar Alexander to oppose nuclear deal

Sen. Lamar Alexander said he’ll oppose the pending nuclear deal with Iran because it wouldn’t sufficiently restrict Iran’s nuclear program or its sponsorship of terrorism.
Alexander, R-Tenn., had been skeptical of the deal for weeks. He announced his opposition Friday in a statement.
“The agreement puts some limits on Iran’s nuclear program, but it also legitimatizes it, thereby encouraging a nuclear arms race in the most unstable area of the world,” Alexander said. “The agreement takes the pressure off Iran at a time when pressure is likely to succeed.”
Congress will vote within the next two weeks on a resolution disapproving of the deal negotiated between the U.S., Iran and five other world powers. The agreement would require Iran to scale back its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions. LINK

Democrats file ‘no guns at concerts’ bill

Legislation filed today by Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris and state Rep. John Ray Clemmons will exempt events held in public parks and major sports venues from the controversial “guns in parks” law passed this year.
“Allowing guns in areas with large crowds where alcohol is consumed is a recipe for disaster, and creates a grave danger for law enforcement officers, who might not be able to distinguish friendlies with a gun from criminals,” Sen. Harris said.
“Concert promoters made clear that they want the ability to ban weapons at their events, and rely exclusively on law enforcement and security to keep attendees safe. Concerts generate millions of dollars of economic activity in Tennessee each year, and we have to take their concerns very seriously.”
SB 1432 would add a new exemption to the guns in parks law, so that guns aren’t allowed at events at public parks that require a ticket. The exemption would end at the conclusion of such an event.
The law also makes clear that the guns in parks law does not apply to stadiums and complexes used by a professional sports team to play, practice or train. LINK

The secret history of “Y’all”: The murky origins of a legendary Southern slang word

An example of the word from in the New York Times captures some of these difficulties well. In an 1886 article titled “Odd Southernisms: A Few Examples of Quaint Sayings in South Carolina,” the writer first lists “you all” as a Southernism, then clarifies by writing “or, as it should be abbreviated, ‘y’all.’” (He continues that it is “one of the most ridiculous of all the Southernisms I can call to mind”). Such “correction” of the term in written accounts makes it difficult to find its first occurrence.

But if determining when the word was first used is difficult, determining its origins is even trickier.
In academic circles, many subscribe to Michael B. Montgomery’s suggestion that “y’all” descends from the Scots-Irish “ye aw” and not directly from “you all.” He cites a 1737 letter by a Scots-Irish immigrant in New York as an example: “Now I beg of ye aw to come our [over] here.”
Montgomery’s argument relies on two observations about “y’all’s” unique place among English contractions. First, contractions in English place stress the first word and contract the second, such as in the case of “they’re,” where “they” is stressed while “are” has been shortened. But “y’all” does not conform to this pattern. Instead, it stresses the second word, “all,” and contracts the first, “you.” Secondly, there are no other contractions that involve “all” in English, whereas we have lots of contractions involving “will,” “not,” and “are.” These irregularities suggest a more complex origin, such as a cognate word, like “ye aw.”
Others, though, follow John M. Lipski’s argument that it entered Southern English through early African-American vernaculars or an African-English creole (similar to Gullah) in the first part of the 19th century. Singleton’s quotation above, noting that “children learn from the slaves some odd phrases,” and the word’s pervasive presence in modern African-American dialects support Lipski’s line of thinking. An origin in a predominantly oral tradition, as most African-American varieties were in that period, might also explain why there are so few records of its early usage.
But these two theories aren’t mutually exclusive, as both scholars admit. Montgomery suggests that “ye aw” made its way to American shores with the tens of thousands of Scots-Irish who emigrated from Ulster to Appalachia over the 18th century; during that same time, more than a hundred thousand African slaves survived the Middle Passage and arrived in the South. Notably, Irish immigration and the Southern slave population both grew significantly in the early 19th century and peaked in the 1840s and 1850s, the very period the OED’s two quotations above come from.

So it is possible that “y’all” emerged from both of these origins, with the similarities in sound and function making the word a popular choice for both populations to use. There would have been much interaction between the two in the American South, and both Montgomery and Lipski point to Appalachia specifically as an area of close contact. Unlike the highly stratified culture of Southern plantation life, the more rural environment of Appalachia cultivated crossover between black and white communities. This hypothesis rests on how closely linked Southern and African-American vernacular dialects were in the early South, a question that scholars are still exploring.

Admittedly, “y’all” is less of a cultural liability now than it has been in the past, despite autocorrect’s tyranny against it. In general, we seem to be more interested (and thus, perhaps, more forgiving?) regarding regional dialects, particularly Southern English.
As The Atlantic noted, the New York Times’ most viewed article in 2013 was not an article at all but rather an app that tracks dialects. Its title, “How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk,” advertises the second-person plural as, again, the defining dialect feature. (Arguably, “y’all” is the most commonsensical of modern options, more logical than “youse” or “you guys”). As interest in “y’all” continues to grow, let us remember to look back to its complex and still puzzling roots. LINK

Timeline Shows Massive Privatization on Potential Fast Track

Gov. Bill Haslam says no decision has been made on whether to move forward with the outsourcing of a wide range of government facilities.
But a timetable obtained by WTVF-TV shows officials planned to take the next step within days of the Aug. 21 deadline for responses to a request for information from potential vendors.
According to the timetable, officials were to begin work on a request for qualifications on Aug. 25. That request is how the state would pick which companies could bid on the contracts, which would be signed Aug. 1, 2016.
Outsourcing could include colleges and universities, prisons, hospitals, armories and parks. LINK

Holt says he’s unfairly targeted by EPA

(Note: This is a response from Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden) to the Environmental Protection Agency proposing penalties totaling $177,000 for pollution by his hog farming operation in Weakley County. Previous post HERE.)
News release from Rep. Andy Holt/em>
DRESDEN, Tenn., August 31, 2015– Tennessee State Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) says he is the leading voice against the EPA in the State House. Because of his opposition, the EPA now has him and his family farm in their cross-hairs.
“It’s clear what’s going on here,” said Holt. “In an attempt to stand for Tennessee’s farmers and small businesses, I have sponsored multiple pieces of legislation and led many requests to the State Attorney General to fight back against President Obama’s EPA. We saw President Obama’s IRS being used to target conservative groups, and now the EPA is being used in the same manner. This is one of the main reasons why I wanted to come to Nashville and serve in the state legislature. I wanted to keep farm families in Tennessee from having to endure the financially & emotionally crushing experience of dealing with an out of control regulatory agency; little did I know that this fight would become so personal.”
At the center of the EPA’s complaint are two separate events where, during historic heavy rainfall events, Holt’s farm was forced to discharge wastewater from containment lagoons, which is stored to be used as fertilizer; a practice common amongst municipal sewage systems. LINK

Supreme Court says Kentucky clerk can't deny same-sex marriage licenses

 The Supreme Court refused Monday to let a Kentucky county clerk deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of what she said were her religious beliefs.
The ruling, made without comment or any apparent dissents, is an early indication that while some push-back against gay marriage on religious grounds may be upheld, the justices won't tolerate it from public officials.
In one of the first tests of the court's June 26 decision upholding the rights of gays and lesbians to marry, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis had argued that her Christian faithprevented her from recognizing such marriages.
Rather than deny only same-sex couples, which the high court had said would be unconstitutional, she chose to stop issuing marriage licenses altogether -- and was sued by same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
Davis argued that her refusal was not a major burden for the couples, since Kentucky has about 136 other marriage-licensing locations. But federal district and appeals court judges had refused to grant her wish, forcing Davis to seek the Supreme Court's intervention. Her petition was filed late last week by the conservative legal group Liberty Counsel. LINK


Crockett Policy Institute
http://www.crockettpolicy.org/