Tennessee lawmaker says ‘lighten up’ after posting pressure cooker bomb joke 
 
 By David Edwards 
 
 Tuesday, April 23, 2013 15:04 EDT 
 
 A Tennessee lawmaker who posted a joke about the pressure cooker bombs used to murder three people last week in Boston now says that people need to “lighten up.” 
 
 In a post to his personal blog on Monday, state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) displayed a photo of an “Assault Pressure Cooker” with the title “Here comes Feinstein again.” 
 
 The photo described the pressure cooker as having a “folding stock,” being the “evil” color black and having a “large-capacity, can cook for hours without reloading.” 
 
 The joke is a reference to Sen. Diane Feinstein’s (D-CA) effort to ban military-style assault weapons, which gun proponents argue uses cosmetic features to decide which rifles will be outlawed. 
 
 WVLT asked Campfield if had been appropriate to joke about crock pot bombs less than a week after terrorists used the improvised explosive devices in Boston. 
 
 “People need to lighten up,” Campfield told the station. “I say it’s insensitive that people go after guns and Second Amendment rights after the Sandy Hook shooting.” 
 
 “I Just [sic] got a call from the media saying they had gotten a few calls (about a blog post I did) saying it was inappropriate after the Boston bombing,” the state senator wrote in a follow-up post. “If my post was inappropriate talking about ‘crock pot control’ then where is the outrage from the left when they push for gun control after the Sandy Hook shooting? Im [sic] sorry if I exposed your double standard…. Well, not really.” 
 
 On Tuesday, Campfield added, “How come no one ever says its liberals who are bitterly clinging to their gun control and secular humanism?” 
 
 Earlier this month, the Tennessee lawmaker dropped a bill linking a student’s academic performance to their family’s welfare benefits after an 8-year-old girl shamed him by following him around the state Capitol. He also recently threatened to cut funds for the University of Tennessee after he learned that the school was conducting a “Sex Week” to promote sex educcation. 
 
 In February, he told TMZ that he had proposed a law that prevented students from being taught about homosexuality because the “homosexual community gets AIDS at a 50 times higher rate than the heterosexual community.” 
 
 When asked why students shouldn’t be taught how to protect themselves from HIV, Campfield compared homosexuality to “shooting heroin.” 
 
 “We need to show them the best ways to shoot up. No, we don’t,” he said. “Why do we have to hypersexualize little children? Why can’t we just let little kids be little kids for a while?” ||||| KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) --- Senator Stacey Campfield has taken to his blog to post what he called a "joke" about pressure cookers being used as weapons one week after a pressure cooker was used to bomb the Boston Marathon. 
 
 The blog post, titled "Here comes Feinstein again" shows a pressure cooker with different parts labeled as weapons. 
 
 When asked if he thought the timing (one week after 3 people died in the Boston Marathon bombings) was insensitive Campfield responded by saying "People need to lighten up." 
 
 He elaborated by saying "I say it's insensitive that people go after guns and second amendment rights after the Sandy Hook shooting." 
 
 Click the link to read his blog. ||||| Humphrey on the Hill Tom Humphrey's blog on politics and legislative news in Tennessee 
 
 NASHVILLE - After some convoluted maneuvers, a Senate committee Wednesday approved a bill that will prohibit teachers from discussing homosexuality in kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms. 
 
 The measure (SB49) is sponsored by Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, who unsuccessfully pushed the same idea - nicknamed the "don't say gay" bill - for six years as a member of the state House before he was elected to the Senate. 
 
 As introduced, the bill would have put into law a declaration that it is illegal to discuss any sexual behavior other than heterosexuality prior to the ninth grade. 
 
 But when it came before the Senate Education Committee, Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville, contended current law already prohibits such instruction by deeming it a misdemeanor to teach any sex education that is not part of the "family life curriculum" adopted by the state Board of Education. 
 
 Tracy proposed an amendment to rewrite Campfield's bill to require the Board of Education to study the issue and determine whether any teaching about homosexuality is occurring and, if so, recommend what should be done about it. 
 
 Campfield contends homosexuality is being discussed in classrooms. Spokesmen for the Board of Education and the state Department of Education told the committee they are unaware of any such activity. 
 
 The Tracy amendment passed over Campfield's objections. 
 
 But then Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, proposed to change the Tracy amendment. The revision declares that, after its study to be completed by Feb. 1 of next year, the Board of Education "shall adopt" - as part of the family life curriculum - a ban on discussion of homosexuality in the same language used in Campfield's bill. 
 
 That amendment was adopted, too, and the revised bill was then approved 6-3 and sent to the Senate floor. All no votes came from Democrats. 
 
 -- 
 
 Campfield has been criticized on some blogs this week for seeking a $1,000 "retainer" fee to debate the "don't say gay" bill with Del Shores, a Texas-based movie producer and director who has made films on homosexuality. 
 
 State law includes prohibitions on a legislator taking compensation for work related to legislative duties except for his or her salary and expense payments due from the state. Another statute prohibits legislators from accepting an honorarium except for travel expenses. 
 
 Campfield said his request, which came in an exchange of messages with Shores, was simply for a deposit to guarantee that his travel expenses would be paid. 
 
 "I'm not going to pay air fare to Texas and a hotel, then have the guy stiff me," he said, adding the retainer request came when he understood the debate would be in Texas. 
 
 Drew Rawlins, executive director of the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, said he did not believe the ban on extra compensation for legislative duties would apply in this case because a debate in Texas is "probably not part of his legislative duties." 
 
 Rawlins said there was a "potential violation" of the honorarium ban in the situation as he understood it, but that someone would have to file a formal complaint to trigger a formal investigation into that question. 
 
 Tom Humphrey may be reached at 615-242-7782.
– Tennessee lawmaker Stacey Campfield is no stranger to controversy—you may recall his "don't say gay" bill, among other things—and now he's got a little bit more. On his blog, Campfield thought it would be a hoot to make a joke about the Boston bombers' weapon of choice, a pressure cooker. He posted a photo of "an assault pressure cooker" with the line, "Here comes Feinstein again," a reference to the senator's efforts on gun control. Asked about it by WVLT, Campfield said people need to "lighten up." “I say it’s insensitive that people go after guns and Second Amendment rights after the Sandy Hook shooting," he added. The state senator also made headlines earlier this month when he scrapped a measure to link welfare benefits to students' performance at school, notes Raw Story. He dropped the bill after being confronted in front of cameras by an 8-year-old girl, who he dismissed as a "prop". (The Tennessean had coverage on that.)