ATTENTION MY FELLOW LOUISIANIANS!

The next time your right-wing family member or former high school classmate posts a status update or tweet about how taxing the rich or increasing workers' wages kills jobs and makes businesses leave the state, I want you to send them this article.

The reason Gov. Dayton was able to radically transform Minnesota's economy into one of the best in the nation is simple arithmetic. Raising taxes on those who can afford to pay more will turn a deficit into a surplus. Raising the minimum wage will increase the median income. And in a state where education is a budget priority and economic growth is one of the highest in the nation, it only makes sense that more businesses would stay.

Here in Louisiana, we can only dream of such actions by the governor and legislature in our state. Our new Gov. John Bel Edwards is trying to lift the state out of the mire after 8 years of plunder by former Gov. Bobby Jindal and a compliant legislature, but he faces resistance from the legislature even in his attempts to fill the budget gap to keep the state functioning this fiscal year. No governor of Loulsiana would dare aim so high as Gov. Dayton, because we all know nothing like that will happen here any time soon.

Note that the headline at Huffington Post indicates Mark Dayton is a billionaire, who cares more about the people of Minnesota than about increasing his billions.

BRAVO, FR BOB!

An openly gay priest on Sunday urged Catholics to go against the Pope's wishes and vote "no" a November ballot measure that would enshrine Minnesota's same sex marriage ban in the state's Constitution.

 Father Bob Pierson argued that Paragraph 1782 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church allows Catholics to make their own decisions in cases where their conscience is not in agreement with the church's doctrine.

The priest recalled that a "young theologian" named Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope, used to teach that people should follow their own inner voice
.
"Our Holy Father taught in 1967 that we must obey our own conscience, even if it puts us at odds with the Pope," Pierson told the crowd of about 200 Catholics at an event in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina. "I doubt that he knew that he was going to be Pope when he said that."

And it's a lovely thing to rebut the argument of one's opponents using the words of their big boss.

Thanks to Paul (A.)