Mon: Divided Between Those Who Have a Clue & Those Who Don't

Born on a Mountain Top in Tennesee

Abill that would classify as a drug certain foods with vaccine materials added to them was passed by the Tennessee Senate and now awaits Governor Bill Lee's signature into law amid concerns about research on putting immunity boosters into lettuce.

The proposed law, HB 1894, was passed in a 23-6 Senate vote last Thursday after getting the House's green light in a 73-22 vote in early March.

It would classify any food that "contains a vaccine or vaccine material" as a drug under Tennessee law, meaning the food would have to be labeled accordingly. The bill defines vaccine material as a substance intended to "stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against disease."

The legislation would not ban vaccine-imbued foods from being sold in the state but would require them to carry the same sort of medical labeling as injectable vaccines or medications.

While proponents of the measure cited ongoing research into this method of conveying vaccines and the need to give people the recommended dose of a vaccine, opponents questioned the bill's necessity and whether such foodstuffs would ever be sold alongside their unvaccinated counterparts at grocery stores.

During a debate on the bill before Thursday's vote, state Senator Heidi Campbell, a Democrat, asked for evidence of "any instances of there being food offered in the state of Tennessee that contains vaccines."

Speaking of the research, she said that "the idea that this would somehow correlate to some kind of a retail offering of vegetables, especially when that vegetable would cost many thousands of dollars, just seems to me [to be] messy to be passing legislation for that reason."

Senate advocates of the bill said that they did not know of any specific examples of vaccine-imbued foods being sold but that the bill was to ensure regulations are in place if such sales occur. They also noted the relative inexpensiveness of some vaccines and lettuce.

Raised in the Woods, So He Knew Every Tree

Only one major vote remains before a bill could require Tennessee school children in at least 78 counties to view a 3-minute fetal development video.

Senate Bill 2767 would mandate inclusion of a 3-minute computer-generated or high definition ultrasound video depicting fetal development in family life curricula across the state beginning in the 2024-25 school year. The bill cites as an example an animation developed by an anti-abortion activist group asserting that human life begins at conception.

“A family life curriculum that directly or indirectly addresses human growth, human development, human sexuality would be incomplete if it didn’t actually show the very beginning of that life, which is at conception,” bill sponsor Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, said during a committee hearing Wednesday.

The legislation specifically cites “Meet Baby Olivia,” a video produced by Live Action as an example of one that would fit the requirements. But that video has been criticized by Planned Parenthood leadership as “inaccurate and emotionally manipulative.” Tennessee Democrats, too, have questioned the video’s neutrality and medical accuracy, and called it an effort “to advance the idea that fetuses are people and that abortion care is wrong.”

Killed Him a B'ar When He Was Only Three

A Tennessee bill, introduced in the senate by Republican Steve Southerland, does not use the term “chemtrails”. The language in the bill, however – there is talk of the government “intentionally dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere” – directly evokes a decades-old conspiracy theory.

Proponents of the debunked chemtrails idea believe that the cloudy white lines created by airplane emissions are chemicals being released into the atmosphere. The idea is that the government, or shadowy private organizations, are pumping out toxic chemicals, with the aim being anything from modifying the weather to controlling a population’s minds.