As the Minnesota House debates legislation to extend the freedom to marry to gay people, I’ve been reflecting on my own journey on this issue. I suspect I’m not alone.
My first exposure to homosexuality was being called a “fag,” “queer,” “homo” or “mo” on the playground of my Catholic elementary school. Before I alarm people, this isn’t a confession, at least not the kind you may be thinking.
The debate at the State Capitol over increasing the tax on tobacco has played out the same way year after year. It goes like this:
Public Health Claims. Public health advocates point to price elasticity research showing that taxing cigarettes, and thereby increasing the cost of cigarettes, is the most effective way to motivate smokers to quit and prevent teens and young adults from starting down the path to addiction. Consequently, increasing the tax on tobacco is the single most effective way to reduce tobacco-related death and suffering, and the related costs. Continue reading
Statistically speaking, Chris Kluwe is the best punter in Minnesota Vikings history, according to KFAN Vikings analyst Paul Allen.
Yet this weekend, the Vikings used a high draft pick — high for a punter anyway, a fifth rounder — to potentially replace Kluwe. The Vikings say this move is strictly about Mr. Kluwe’s on-the-field performance, and has nothing to do with any off-the-field issues.
As noted, Kluwe’s punting career statistics just don’t warrant a firing. Moreover, Kluwe is not trending downward. He is coming off his best statistical year of his eight year NFL career, averaging a net 39.7 yards per punt.
I’m a huge higher education booster. Minnesota under-invests in education at all levels, including higher education. Higher education is an economic engine for our state, and it is also, in many ways, a quality-of-life engine.
But I’m also a parent who is one-third of the way into a grueling 12-year a college tuition march that will cost well into the six figures. I don’t want to get melodramatic, but higher education officials need to understand how difficult the tuition burden has become for many families. As we say in our household, “tuition is the new retirement.” It is a statement of fact, not a joke. Continue reading
Days after the bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line, Facebook, Twitter and the news media are still awash in borderline hysterical outcries. I understand the sentiment. The video of the acts is seared into our memories, and we feel the need to show support for our Bostonian neighbors. Those are good and natural instincts.
Still, some of it gets a little maudlin and over-the-top. It’s worth noting that the ultimate point of terrorism isn’t actually killing. It is terror. Terrorists want their killing and maiming to get blown out of proportion by the news media and our leaders, so that it dominates our psyches and disrupts our freedom and pursuit of happiness.
In other words, the only thing terrorists have to fear is the inability to promote fear itself. Continue reading
In neighboring South Dakota, a law has been enacted to authorize school teachers to arm themselves, as the NRA has been promoting. Readin’, writin’, ‘rithmatic and revolvers.
In Minnesota, Rep. Tony Cornish (R-Vernon Center) has been beating that drum as well:
You can’t afford to completely encase your schools with bulletproof windows and steel locked doors — but you can afford to share the cost of an officer with the city or county, as some districts are doing.
Sometimes schools use armed guards to protect students, rather than allowing the headmaster to wield a Bushmaster. Last week, a New York Times reporter looked into how that whole armed guard thing is going: Continue reading
When Governor Dayton proposed to charge a sales tax on clothing items costing more than $100, fashion-challenged Minnesotans like me shrugged. In fact, until the Governor made that proposal, I personally was not even aware that clothing items costing more than $100 existed.
But Senate DFLers are going a step further, and it’s a step too far. They’re proposing to charge a sales tax on clothing items under $100. I’m fine with their “soak the rich” income tax proposal, but this “soak the kitsch” tax is an outrage.
This would be a devastating blow to those of us who have found that one can build a kick ass wardrobe at Mennards and Fleet Farm, and never exceed a $20 per item threshold, much less a $100 per item threshhold. Truthfully, my Carhartt ensembles looks better than the pretentious crap the swells buy at Nordstrums and Nieman Mark-up. I swear, NO ONE can tell the difference.
In the blink of an eye, the Fairview-Sanford merger talks started and ended. In case you missed it, here is a fast-forward screenplay of how the Fairview-Sanford merger talks played out.
(Dark stage)
Fairview and Sanford CEOs: (Unintelligible whispers)
(Stage lights come on)
Minnesota Attorney General : Hey guys, I heard you’re talking about a merger that impacts lots of Minnesotans. What’s in it for them?
Sanford CEO: It’s our destiny to be big and go east.
Fairview CEO: Mumble, mumble, the talks are only in the early stages.
Minnesota Attorney General: But what’s in it for Minnesotans? They paid for that University Medical Center.
Sanford: We’re not feeling welcome. I declare these merger negotiations over.
(Curtain falls abruptly)
Okay, so it was a little more extensive than that, but not much. Take a look at how Sanford Health’s CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft was selling the merger: Continue reading
In politics, presidential candidates who win the support of over 60% of Americans are said to have won overwhelming “landslide” victories. Harding’s 60.3% in 1920. FDR’s 60.8% in 1936. Johnson’s 61.1% in 1964. and Nixon’s 60.7% in 1972. Landslides!
It is so difficult to get 60% of Americans to agree on politics, that such “landslide victories” are considered highly unusual indications of a historically overwhelming level of public sentiment.
In Minnesota right now, Minnesotans of all walks of life, including Republicans, Independents, gun owners and Greater Minnesota citizens, are giving a landslide victory to gun background checks: Continue reading
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is right to scrutinize the proposed merger of Fairview Health System and Sanford Health System. It could have a big impact on Minnesota taxpayers, and it shouldn’t only be discussed by Sanford and Fairview C-suiters. The discussion should be out in the open.
So now that Attorney General Swanson has moved the Fairview-Sanford merger issue into the sunshine, what questions should Minnesotans be asking about it? So far, some of the questions have been excellent, and some have been silly. Continue reading
The following was submitted to Wry Wing Politics via an April 6, 2013 email written by Peter E. Waldron, the former National Faith Outreach Director for the 2012 Michele Bachmann for President campaign organization. Dr. Waldron’s post-election allegations that Bachmann violated election finance laws are currently being investigated by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) in Washington, DC. He also says that Bachmann has asked him to sign a confidentiality agreement that he says would bar him from discussing the Bachmann campaign’s “unethical, illegal, or immoral activity.”
Dr. Waldron, who has an interesting personal history, was responding to a January 16, 2013 Wry Wing Politics post. Continue reading
“Clear,” “concise,” “simple” and “depoliticized” are not words you ever hear associated with the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare” as both friends and foes have come to call the national health reform bill passed in 2010.
But the Minnesota Council of Health Plans (MCHP), with an assist from the Children’s Defense Fund and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, managed to build a web-based tool that provides customized health reform basics in just a couple of minutes.
Albert Einstein said “anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” In the wake of reports that new e-gambling revenue is proving to be insufficient to fund the new Vikings stadium, Governor Mark Dayton and other stadium proponents recently have been heard mumbling similar sentiments.
With any mistake, and this one was a doozy, the important thing is to learn the correct lesson to carry into the future. This is how that debate currently is playing out in Minnesota: Continue reading
Two of the nation’s wealthiest suburbs, Wayzata and Edina, have become almost entirely vacated ghost towns in recent days, as Minnesota’s rich and famous have fled their homes to avoid paying a penny more in taxes to make Minnesota’s tax system more fair.
Psst, it’s April 1. Get it. It’s a joke. You know, like all of the tall tales being told at the Minnesota State Capitol about rampant tax flight occuring every time a state raises taxes on rich people.
This well-researched New York Times article lets us in on the joke: Continue reading
Taxing millionaires. Surcharging millionaires. Raising the minimum wage.
For the casual observer who hasn’t done their homework, I can see how this might be confused with “class warfare” waged by mean DFLers intent on punishing rich people.
But here’s the thing about warfare. You can’t take a quick glance at a battlefield and identify the aggressors. For instance, an observer flying over Normandy Beach on June 6, 1944 couldn’t reasonably conclude “those mean Americans storming that beach down there are obviously wreckless war mongers.”
After all, what about the blitzkreig and Pearl Harbor, right? You have to know at least a bit about the prelude to an event to be able to make informed conclusions about the event. Continue reading
I’ve been weighing whether to require use of names when commenting, and not posting the comments when it looks as if a false name is used. Here’s how I broke it down:
CONS of Requiring Names
PROS of Requiring Names
There are arguments on both sides, to be sure. It’s not an easy call. I especially hate to lose valued anonymous commenters who are thoughtful and respectful. And I hate to see fewer comments, which will happen. But in the end, I’ve decided to err on the side of disclosure and personal responsibility, and live with the consequences.
New Identity Disclosure Rule. First and last names are now required for commenting. If it looks like a fake name, it won’t be approved until the commenter can show it is a real name. The burden of proof is on the commenter. If the identify disclosure rule prevents you from commenting, I understand, and hope you will still come by for a read.
We all remember those times on the playground when kids’ names would be twisted into teasing word play. Private parts and mental health were common themes, as I recall. Woe be unto the unfortunate child born with a name like “Seymour Butz.”
During childhood, the motives behind the name-oriented word play varied from benign to bullying. But whatever the motive, it was rarely welcomed by the recipient, and was, above all else, childish.
So surely adults have left all that infantile behavior behind, right?
Well, take a look at recent blog posts on leading Minnesota conservative blog aggregator “True North:” Continue reading
Former St. Paul Mayor and U.S. Senator Norm Coleman is nothing if not flexible.
When leftist radicals were de rigueur in the 1960s, Norm 1.0 was a leftist radical.Then in 2012, the going got tough for Senator Coleman and Tea Partiers, so the tough got a poll. In a St. Paul Pioneer Press commentary this week, Coleman advises Minnesotans that he is in possession of scientific evidence indicating that “Minnesotans are not anti-government.” Continue reading
Earlier today, I posted a column critical of House leaders for, as the Star Tribune originally reported, shutting off the sound system in reaction to anti-gay remarks made by Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe).
House Speaker Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis) noted in our comment section that this never happened. I indicated at that time that I would retract the post if I learned that the sound was not turned off. The Star Tribune has subsequently clarified its earlier account:
According to Thissen spokesman Michael Howard, although there was audio silence in the recording of the floor session immediately following Gruenhagen’s statement, the House sound was not actively turned off. Instead, the silence occurred because no microphones were activated at that time.
As soon as I learned this, I immediately removed the critical post, since the action I was criticizing apparently never happened. I apologize.
– Loveland
Not so long ago, one Norman Bertram Coleman was, well, kind of a big deal. You may remember him:
But yesterday, when Senator Coleman announced to his followers via Twitter that he has decided not to run for Governor in 2014, his political obituary got the political equivalent of crickets in the Star Tribune — three column inches on the very back page of the Local section, imbedded in the weather coverage. Continue reading