Scotland!

News at the end of a busy week…

Scotland's Parliament has approved a marriage equality bill! The vote was 105-18. Such a huge margin! The bill contains the usual stuff about religious institutions who refuse to participate in same-sex marriages are protected from lawsuits. The Parliament in London must approve it, but since same-sex marriage will be available in England and Wales on March 29, this should be only a formality.

A rainbow appeared over the Parliament building as final debate began on the bill. Sign of God's blessing? It seems the Fundie line of reasoning is the rainbow is there to either (1) announce the rains for the next flood in retaliation for accommodating the queers (which has the story of Noah backwards) or (2) God throwing a rainbow up there to remind himself that even though he's super pissed off at the Scots he had already promised he wouldn't destroy all of humanity again. Sheesh.



Elizabeth Warren has a great way of simplifying a debate. Her latest summary in favor of raising the minimum wage:

Full time work should not be rewarded with full time poverty.

That $10.10 that Obama has been touting as a good new minimum wage? It would actually need to be (I think I calculated this right) $11.33 to get a family of four above the federal poverty level. Obama's number comes with an encouragement to work hard. Aren't we doing that already? Why aren't corporations being criticized for overloading their employees with work rather than hiring a few more of the unemployed hordes so their profits can be higher?



Several Minnesota lawmakers put their careers on the line last year when they voted for marriage equality for their state. This year those same lawmakers are hauling in the campaign cash. Many are receiving double and triple what they pulled in back in 2011 and GOP Rep. Pat Garofalo pulled in four times his 2011 total. This year being pro-equality pays.