Unions should not be ALLOWED for public employees

It’s time to outlaw public employee unions. 

Hear me out. I’m not a knee-jerk anti-union schlub.  There is a time and a place for unions.  I watched “Matewan” many times, always cheering for the union and jeering the corporate goons. My grandfather was one of the original Sit-Down strikers at G.M. in Flint, Michigan in 1936-1937.  Unions are necessary to balance the power that employers use to exploit workers.

But unions are not necessary to balance the power that the public has.  By very definition, the public is not an evil employer.  Sorry, but we aren’t. The American people are the most reasonable, generous and wonderful people in the world.  We aren’t going to make government employees work in sweat shops. We aren’t going to make government employees work for peanuts that cause them to lose the family farm and put themselves in the poor house. 

Here is how it should work, and would, but for those government unions.  If the government does not pay enough, the government will not attract enough qualified people.  Government services will deteriorate, and the people will either put up with the poor service, or clamor for the government to increase the pay in order to attract qualified people.  And if the government employees don’t like it they can find jobs in the private sector. 

That’s how it was for years.  I remember when it was called “public service” and it was considered a sacrifice to serve the public good. Now, a government job is a cushy place to get ahead, a place to land a hefty retirement plan or two. Government employees have it too easy.  You know what “retirement plan” I have? Diddly-Squat.  If I do not squirrel it away, it will not be there for me and my family later.  Why should I, who  have no special retirement plan, pay taxes to support those who work for the government? Is that “fair”? Is that just? 

I’m not being bitter.  I just do not believe that government employees should be treated better than private employees, and that is certainly their lot at present.  And I blame the unions.  The employees do not like how the citizens treat them, let them find new jobs.  Enough of us being held hostage by unions.  Outlaw governmental employees’ unions, now.

John Doe

Iraq WAS “worth it”

David Harsanyi, whom I generally agree with (except that whole atheist thing) is wrong, dead wrong.  He basically looks at the small, short picture, instead of the big, long picture, and concludes that “nation building works” but it isn’t worth it.  

Several caveats first.  I don’t want to see one once of American blood spilled unless it is absolutely necessary.  I do not want to go around fighting wars in far away places that do not affect us.  No American national interest, let the fucking U.N. handle it.  Or let them kill each other and ruin their little piece of the earth.  Here’s where I am coming from.  I think America (and that little dictator Woodrow Wilson) was dead wrong to enter WWI.  I agree with Patton that we should have kept going and run the Russians out of Europe when we had the men and material to do it.  (I know, I know, the world did not have the stomach to do it, but it would have been the right thing to do).  Gen. MacArthur was right about the left allowing us to lose China.  And I was very much against the first gulf war–until we ran them back to Iraq in 48 hours.  But once we invaded, I wanted us to go in and finish the job back then.  

All that background said, “nation building” works. Sometimes you have countries, or dictators, that are like pimples on your ass. The only way to deal with them is to have them lanced.  Otherwise, they are going to fester and hang around and cause far greater problems than if you just ignore them. 

Hitler was one such boil that was ignored. Ohhh, John, now you’ve done it. You’ve compared Hitler and the German people to the Iraqis.  The Iraqis and Saddam were nothing like the Third Reich.   But imagine if Saddam was still in power, and getting all that money for oil.  Eventually, it would have gotten ugly.  Hell, I remember the fear that they did have WMD, and that our troops were possibly in for a blood-bath when we invaded.  Even Saddam’s generals did not know they did not possess WMD.

But okay, I’ll even grant you that Saddam had no WMD, that we could have gone years before Saddam ever did, and perhaps he may never have had any.  Still, it was worth it to re-instill the fear of God into those terrorists that populate the middle east and around the world.  A country has to have street cred and we did not after years of Bill Clinton lobbing cruise missiles and being afraid to shed American blood. 

Don’t blame me. I did not cut and run from fill in the blank ___ Vietnam, Lebanon, Mogadishu, wherever.  I did not sit back and allow our embassy to be over-run and hostages to be held for months.  I did not lob cruise missiles in response to bombing of our ship and our embassies.  The perception certainly existed that America had the greatest army in the world, but was afraid to use it.  You think that perception still exists?  Try finding bin Laden and asking him that question now, if he still exists.  Two bit dictators paid attention.  See, e.g., Mohammar Kadhafi. 

You cannot just look at it in a vacuum: Was it worth shedding American blood for no WMD? The question is how many American lives will never be shed because some of our troops, the best in the world, died and were maimed.  Granted, we will never know for sure how many Americans were saved from future acts of belligerence. But in life you have to make certain educated guesses.  In my mind there is no question that the world’s perception has been altered, the “paper tiger” phantom no longer exists in the minds of petty dictators and bearded cowards hiding in caves around the world. 

Sometimes you have to look at the big picture and the long run.  It is sort of like what George C. Scott said to the Gen. Bradley charactor, and I paraphrase: it’s time to question how many Americans would have been killed while we were bogged down on the road to Palermo.  How many Americans would have been killed in the past or the future if Saddam had not been taken out.  Japan and Germany learned the hard way not to mess with the U.S.A.  But those old lessons were questioned by the camel-humpers.  Hell, Osama bin Laden was acting rationally: it appeared that he was correct while Clinton was president.  Sorry, bub, but you were not dealing with Clinton on 9/11.  Lesson learned?

John Doe

Reason TV’s Nanny of the Month!

by Doug Hagin

Nanny Staters, picking off our liberties one at a time! This month it is a police chief setting up a sting to catch a man who offers drunks rides home because he accepts tips, thus violating thecitiy’s taxi ordinance! Via Theo Spark! For my part I award this tool the Marxist Moron Award! AND the Daley Douchebag Award too!

Dear Main Stream Media: In case you were wondering why America is so fed up with policians………

by Doug Hagin

It is NOT skin color. It is politicians that act like this when their constituents, who the politician is SUPPOSED to be SERVING, dares to question them!

P.S. If you, in the main stream media ever actually bothered to be actual journalists, rather than doing op/ed, you MIGHT figure it out for yourselves! Instead, you insist on blaming racism, while reality passes you by, yet again!