I am in a state of deep confusion and conflict. Now, the confusion part is not new ground for me but this whole thing is interesting and so typical of my (right now) home of Louisiana, I thought I would post this just for ##i## and grins. The Legislature of Louisiana is mad at the newspapers. Not a unique situation, the Lege is usually mad at someone or something but right now it is newspapers in general and the Baton Rouge and Lake Charles papers in particular. See, there is a bill pending to raise the pay for legislators from $16,800 to $70,000. Nice boost. Some cynics are saying with the new ethics laws in place they have to make up the loss somehow…but anyway the newspapers have been going ape over the proposed increase. The bloggers are also but they are an amorphous moving target and the papers are right there and fixed.

SOOOO, the latest bill introduced will require newspapers to print obituaries for free. Yep, gratis for nothing; all you have to do is die and get someone to call it in… it’s FREE. Now down here obits are a big deal. I looked at today’s American Mess..oops, American Press and obits averaged 8 to 10 column inches with 2 going 14 and this was a slow day. If you are really important or long winded you can eat up a quarter page easy.

It was an amendment, tacked on to another bill by Dan Martiny R-Kenner. Passed the Senate, gone to the house. Those same cynics are saying it is retaliation against the papers for all the whoop-de-do over the pay raise. If I were not a dedicated newsprint in hand sorta guy I would be laughing my big broad after-parts off over this, but I know the papers are in trouble and would hate to see another straw on their backs.

The other neat part is that, as noted above, the amendment was proposed by an R. Yep, a Reepublican Senate critter. Now here in swampland, party lines are not quite as clear as they are in Tennessee. Lots of back and forth movement for election/re-election purposes but this is a true R from a ‘burb of NOLA. What has happened to free enterprise? The free market system. The gold standard for those of the conservative persuasion? Core beliefs are important but this is “gettin back at” time so we will talk to him and the rest of the R’s later about conviction.

Anyway, if this goes through, I will let all and sundry know and you can phone your obit in and get your name in the paper free.