Shutdown Time

Everyone in Minnesota is bracing themselves for the impending state shutdown.  If the Democratic governor and the Republican legislature can't come to an agreement on the budget my Friday, we'll all be SOL for the 4th of July weekend.

What I can't wrap my head around is how the average, everyday citizen who even pays minimal attention to the issue can't seem to see what's going on here.  Governor Dayton wants to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% of income earners in the state, and the Republicans want to just cut programs with no revenue increases.  So in the spirit of compromise, the governor said, "OK, I'll cut my plan down by half, now it's your turn," and then the Republicans come back with, "Nope."

I thought the point of governing was to compromise for the good of the people.  But here in MN, our conservative legislators are simply digging in their heels and refusing to compromise on their end.  Yet somehow, what with the brilliant messaging machine that the Republican party has become, all the blame seems to either get put on the governor or at least spread evenly between him and the legislators.

But this should not be an even sum blame-game.  One side is willing to greatly compromise, while the other is simply content to sit it out until the opposing party caves in.  That's not governing and it's not fair.

My Republican state senator had the nerve to send out an email to his constituents reminding them of all the programs that will get cut if there's a shutdown.  Yes, we know - and you're the one who won't do anything about it!!  The whole thing just makes me crazy!!

The Book of Mormon

I apologize in advance for those I will undoubtedly offend with this post.

I recently got a copy of the soundtrack for "The Book of Mormon - The Musical," the new Tony award winning musical on Broadway.  It's the perfect combination of my love of musical theater and atheism.  If you haven't listened to it yet, you must.  It's funny.

My favorite song is "I Believe" which chronicles some actual Mormon beliefs.  The lyrics are as follows (I cut out a few boring verses for the sake of length):

"A warlord who shoots people in the face.
What's so scary about that?
I must trust that my Lord is mightier
And always has my back.
Now I must be completely devout
I can't have even one shred of doubt...

I Believe; that the Lord, God, created the universe
I Believe; that He sent His only Son to die for my sins
And I Believe; that ancient Jews built boats and sailed to America
I am a Mormon
And a Mormon just believes

You cannot just believe part way,
You have to believe in it all.
The problem is doubting the Lord's will
Instead of standing tall

I Believe; that God has a plan for all of us
I Believe; that plan involves me getting my own planet
And I Believe; that the current President of The Church, Thomas Modson, speaks directly to God
I am A Mormon
And dang it! a Mormon just believes!

You ask the Lord in faith
He will always answer you
Just believe in Him
And have no fear!

I Believe; that Satan has a hold of you
I Believe; that the Lord, God, has sent me here
And I Believe; that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people!
You can be a Mormon
A Mormon who just believes!

The Scriptures say that if you ask anything
God Himself will know
But you must ask Him without any doubt
And let your spirit grow...

I Believe; that God lives on a planet called Kolob
I Believe; that Jesus has his own planet as well
And I Believe; that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri
You can be a Mormon: you'll feel it
And you'll know it's all true: you just... feel it
You'll be a Mormon
By gosh!
A Mormon just...
Believes!"

It's funny because of the crazy beliefs it points out, but when I read it, I also laugh at the "you must ask Him without any doubt" part.  It amazes me that if there is a god who supposedly created us as enormously curious beings, that he would just expect us to take things on faith alone, and blindly believe other people who claim they've spoken to god or have some sort of "inside knowledge" that no one else seems to have.

But is all of this really any more implausible than believing that a virgin gave birth, or that a snake talked someone into eating an apple, or that a man somehow fit two of every animal on Earth into one boat?  Is it any crazier than believing that a wafer and wine is the actual flesh and blood of Jesus? Many of us like to make fun of other people's crazy beliefs, but I think we do ourselves a disservice when we fail to critically look at our own as well.

And if you really want a laugh, Google the lyrics to "All American Prophet."

Guest Blogger

The following post was written by a guest blogger, Marcia, who is the head of our local DFL unit.  I was unable to attend the meeting she is going to discuss, so she kindly did a write-up for me to post here.  Thanks Marcia!

I attended a Town Hall Meeting last night in Crosby. Rep. John Ward (DFL) Senator Paul Gazelka (GOP SD 12 ) and Senator John Carlson (GOP SD 4). This was obviously 2:1 and I was proud of Rep. Ward for holding his own and defending the middle class.

The discussion revolved around the state’s budget and the potential shut down. Senator Carlson had some realistic points, but when a couple of Central Lakes College Student Senate students addressed Gazelka I heard him say that they should not ‘depend on government.’ He was not listening to them about how they were struggling to stay in school, needing work study and accumulating escalating school loans. The state used to pay 60% of tuition and now it pays 40%. Does MN value education anymore? The man lacks empathy, despite talking about several of his children being in college.

Mr. Gazelka better not go back to a special session and bring up Voter ID and funding a stadium! That will send me over the edge. It’s bad enough that he voted (and sponsored) putting discrimination on the ballot for 2012.

There was excellent testimony from teachers, nurses and blue collar citizens about the impact of ‘no new taxes’ on them the last 10 years.

If cutting taxes on the top tier was supposed to create more jobs and add stability, what has happened? Corporations are sitting on piles of cash and not hiring. Employees are working harder and some corporations are sending jobs overseas and hiding massive profits in overseas banks.

The GOP stance is that if the top 2% is asked to pay their fare share - they will leave the state. There have been tax cuts in MN the last few years, when times were good – the rich (and the rest of us) got tax cuts, so why when times are tough would we not want to make sure MN remains healthy? One woman said she does not want to compete with Mississippi. We’re MINNESOTA!!!

John Ward noted that Polaris (a MN based company) was closing its North Dakota plant. All the fear about companies moving to North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin that the GOP swears will happen if they are asked to contribute toward good education, good infrastructure and the things MN critically needs.

But the worst comment of the evening was Gazelka saying that welfare people were moving to MN because they can access more benefits and they can use their EBT cards for tobacco and alcohol. John Ward said he would like to offer some ‘facts’ – and that was that ‘welfare’ Gazelka was speaking of was 1% of the budget. 85% of the Health & Human Service budget goes to nursing homes. Now - Remember the GOP was adamantly opposed to “Death Panels.” In Wisconsin, seniors get end of life counseling and they make out Living Wills and Health Care Directives. Wisconsin has cut health care costs because the elderly have chosen not to remain hooked up to tubes and to a machine with no hope for a quality life. This makes sense, to have seniors (or anyone!) make these choices while they are alive and well. This is when health care costs escalate, in the last few months of life.

It gets so tiring listening to the knee-jerk comments of Mr. Gazelka. Upon leaving I was giving thanks for Rep. John Ward and his courage defending the middle class. We know there have to be cuts, but they should not come at the expense of the health and well being of our great state. Cutting people off from Minnesota Care will result in increased Emergency Room costs. That hurts our hospitals. Those if us that have insurance pay more to cover these costs. We do not have an HONEST BUDGET and we have not had one for YEARS.

We need to be looking at the big picture and quit playing the ‘shell game’ budget that Tim Pawlenty subjected us to for his terms in office. Let’s decide what is important to MN and focus on that! I urge everyone to listen to former (GOP) Arne Carlson’s comments on the current state of our state. It is an eye opener. Tim Pawlenty did not budge an inch with a DFL House and Senate. Now the GOP House and Senate majority expects DFL Governor Mark Dayton to cave in to all their requests and budget? Maybe Gov. Dayton should and let the people see the ‘all cuts’ budget and what will happen to Minnesota. It would ensure that the DFL would win in 2012. I just hate to see all the people hurt in the process.

Father's Day

Since it's Father's Day, I thought it would be a good time to give a little tribute to my dad.

My dad and I have never been your typical father/daughter duo.  We never went to Father/Daughter dances, we don't hug each other and he doesn't have some cutesy pet name for me.  My dad was a teen father and thus was thrown into fatherhood early, only to figure it out for himself. 

The most important thing that my dad has really taught me is that when you have an opinion on something, your opinion better be able to hold up under scrutiny.  As you might imagine, my opinionated beliefs began early in life.  And whenever I would spout off my latest opinion on something, my dad was there to challenge it.  Not in a mean, confrontational way, just in a "Oh ya, well what about this" way.

I remember when I was thirteen and the first gulf war was happening, I told my dad I thought it was horrible that we were sending all those soldiers over there to die.  He said, "Really?  Then what should we do? Let the people in Kuwait die instead?"  He actually made me stop and think about the consequences of what I was saying. 

No matter what opinion I had, my dad always played the Devil's Advocate.  Most of the time, I could tell that he might not really believe what he was saying, but he wanted to make sure that I really believed what I was saying.

I don't think my dad had some master plan for teaching his children how to think; I'm sure it just came naturally to him to question things, as it now comes naturally to my brother and I.  We are better thinkers and better people because of him.  Although we grew up in Minnesota, he was not a hunter or golfer or fisherman.  He taught us through his example to respect animals and other people and respect ourselves.  And although I've never seen him set foot inside of a church, he taught us to be good to people and do what you can for others. 

Now, as an adult, I work for my dad at our family-run company, and he continues to challenge me everyday.  Usually it's just to be funny or in an attempt to annoy me, but he still makes me consider my opinions and then hold strong on them.  And I make it my personal mission in life to liberalize him and repent against his Republican ways.

He's simply a good person who's made me a better person and better parent by his example.

Best and Brightest

I was listening to MPR the other day and former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson was being interviewed.  For those who don't know, Arne Carlson was our Governor in the 90's (pre - Jesse "the Body") and he was one of those old-school Republicans who actually seemed to believe in limited government, fiscal responsibility and, god-forbid, compromise with Democrats.  During the interview he was expressing some disappointment with the current field of Republicans (or Republi"can'ts" as I'm going to start calling them). 

He said that the idea of government used to be "putting up your best and brightest to run for public office."  These days as we all know, stupidity has become an ever-increasing virtue when it comes to being a viable candidate for public office, at least where the Republican'ts are concerned.

Take for example Mike LeMieur.  He was the Republican candidate running for the state House in my neighboring town of Little Falls.  I watched this man speak in a tea-party sponsored debate last year, and I swear to god he was dumb as a box of rocks.  He was asked many fairly simple questions to which he responded, "I don't know, I'm just a plumber."  When asked whether Shariah Law was a threat to the US, he actually answered by saying "I don't know what that is."  And this guy won!!  He was anti-choice and anti-gay and that was enough for the voters apparently.

In that same debate, the Democratic candidate running for the state Senate seat in my district was Taylor Stevenson.  He's in his early twenties and just graduated from Dartmouth with a political science degree.  He's young, sure, but he's a brilliant guy!  You can speak to him on basically any topic and have a very intelligent conversation with him.  He knows his shit, so to speak.  But of course, he lost to anti-choice, anti-gay Paul Gazelka, who went to Oral Roberts University.

I really can't understand why people are so eager to send idiots into public office.  I like to think I'm somewhat intelligent, but I want someone much, much smarter than me running the government.  When did that go out of fashion?

Letter to the Editor

My latest letter to the Editor appeared in our local paper this week. Rather than just calling them "Letters to the Editor" like every other newspaper in America, our paper calls this section the "Open Forum." Anyway, here's my letter:

"I’ve read a lot of letters in this column recently from people who are happy about gay marriage being put on the 2012 ballot. Even some of my own friends think this is a sensible idea — just let the voters decide. What’s wrong with that?

So for anyone out there who doesn’t understand; here’s what’s wrong with that.

It is completely un-American to put the rights of a minority up for public vote by the majority. If you approach rights this way, then the majority will always keep rights from the minority because they’re voting only based on their personal opinion. If we had put interracial marriage up for public voting in the 50’s, it surely would have been outlawed. Why? Because the majority thought it was wrong and went against the Bible, and they had the majority, therefore winning the argument.

For all the bad press “activist judges” seem to get these days, there’s a point to having a judiciary, and that is to protect the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Judges are supposed to make unpopular decisions, because their job is not to reflect the will of the people, but the will of the law and the constitution.

I have no dog in this fight. I’m not gay, and I’m already married. Gay marriage would not affect me one way or another. However, I know that it will affect many Minnesota families in a very poignant way, and it will affect many children already living in caring, two-parent, same-sex households instead of foster care.

Even if you somehow illogically think that sexuality is a “choice,” shouldn’t that choice be protected anyway? After all, nothing is more of a choice than religion, and we seem to protect that right pretty fiercely."

After the letter, there is the obligatory "comment" section where everyone and anyone can comment on your letter anonymously. These comments tend to be pretty vile, but I was surprised that with this letter, the first few comments were very eloquent, thoughtful, and flattering. However, we'll skip those comments because they're boring.

Here is the exchange between me and some of the righties in the comments section. I should explain that when I say "them" I don't mean one person - just whatever person happened to respond:

Them:  "And, the liberal courts won't be able to make gay marriage legal as easily as they could have before the Constitutional Amendment. That explains the reason for it. I also think that Republicans are enjoying the liberal screeching that this is causing."

Me: "Liberal courts" just means courts you don't agree with. It doesn't mean they're wrong."

Them: "Too many courts are trying to pass policy. They are in it for the glory and the press. But you are right Amy, we should never put anything to a vote, because some minority will cry foul. Oh hell, we cannot even agree on who can vote and who cannot. Let us just all go liberal and everyone do anything and everything that you want."

Them: "so if there is a conservative court/judge does that mean its not wrong it just means you dont agree with it."

Me: "As long as they're making their decisions based on the law and not the so-called "will of the people."

Them: "So, you're saying that the sodomy laws should be enforced?"

Me: "No, I think they should be repealed."

Them: "Sounds like somebody is a big fan of sodomy! You should make some campaign signs! We need a catchy slogan for the bumper stickers!"

Classy.

Faces of Abortion

I have my DVD set to record anything that has "abortion" in the description. I'm always hoping this will snag me some good documentaries on the issue, but at least once a week I end up with a recording of a show called "Faces of Abortion" that runs on one of the 2 million religious channels Dish Network seems to carry.

I generally just delete these without even watching them, but since it's summer now and all my shows are on hiatus, I decided to put on "Faces" while I was getting ready for work the other morning.

What I noticed right off the bat was the two portly elderly white gentleman sitting in what must have been the peanut gallery, judging quietly from the side of the stage. I guess they were deacons or something? Then the scowly lady host started to introduce the woman whose story we were about to hear. The lady host had one of those Botoxed faces with a permanent false friendly-ish expression that you can see right through to the eyes that are judging you.

The woman whose story was presented had apparently been coerced into an abortion at age 19 by her boyfriend. Predictably, she regretted the abortion immediately (probably because she didn't really want to have it in the first place). After a downward spiral, she found Jesus several years later, which REALLY made her regret the abortion.

The second story presented was about an old guy who had helped his girlfriend have an illegal abortion back in the day and didn't regret it until. . . wait for it . . . he found Jesus.

After the 2 stories there was a lengthy discussion by the old guys and another hip young Christian guy who worked in the Development (aka-send us money) Department, about how they as men needed to "protect women" from being hurt by abortion. So basically, us silly-headed women aren't smart or moral enough to make decisions for ourselves, so we need our big, strong knights in shining armor to protect us from ourselves.

I think I'll just go ahead and delete it again next time.