Rivers of tears...

Remember the New York City plow crews who, it appears, were discouraged by their supervisors from doing their job? Remember the plow guys who destroyed the parked car?  Thanks to citizen reporters pounding the beat on the streets of New York, there is evidence that plow crews did indeed find other things to do during the storm, including drinking beer in their trucks and spending the night drinking coffee in diners.




And then there were the guys who just plain didn't show up for work at all, double the usual number of no-shows.

And public employees wonder why they get picked on by taxpayers. This morning the New York Time ran an article about the abuse being heaped upon public employees including the teacher in New Jersey, infamous for arguing with Governor Christie during some public forum, who is called "horrible names [by strangers]...The mantra is that the problem is the unions, the unions, the unions.”

Yup. In 2000, according to the Times article, New Jersey legislators cut five years off of the retirement age for police and firefighters," and in 2001, a 9 percent increase in pension benefits for state employees was passed by NJ legislature. Yet another perfect example of politicians-money-votes, politicians-money-votes...it's not exactly rocket science.

Even the reliably liberal Times points out that spending huge amounts of someone else's money can buy a lot of votes, and cites an excellent article, well worth reading, from the the Manhattan Institute (via The Weekly Standard) which discusses the history of buying votes from public workers (JFK realized how politically powerful public workers would be if organized, and initiated the required legislation two years after his own very close election) and explains perfectly how the politicians-money-votes system works.

...unlike private sector unions, those in the public sector can achieve influence on both sides of the bargaining table by making campaign contributions and organizing get-out-the-vote drives to elect politicians who then control the negotiations over their pay, benefits, and work rules. The result is a nefarious cycle: Politicians agree to generous government worker contracts; those workers then pay higher union dues a portion of which are funneled back into those same politicians’ campaign war chests. It is a cycle that has driven California and New York to the edge of bankruptcy.

But public pensions and benefits aren't breaking budgets in just California and New York, it's happening all over the country on both the state and local levels.





Well, to use a tired cliche, the frigging chickens have COME HOME TO ROOST.

All that whining from people who have jobs-for-life, and benefits we can only imagine, is just about to get a whole lot worse, or better, depending on how you feel about budget-breaking public employee pensions. Some politicians, at both the city and the state levels, are taking on the unions.

The newly elected Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, plans to ask state workers to contribute 5% of their salaries towards their pension and double the 6% they now pay towards their health premiums. Other governors, mainly Republicans such as John Kasich of Ohio and Mich Daniels of Indiana, are likely to take on the cost of public employees as well.

If Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) gets his way, the federal government will be banned from bailing out any of the budget-busted state and local governments, forcing them to accept reality and, if it's not too much to ask, show a little respect for the people who fund their paychecks ~ us.

If any of this comes to pass, we're likely to see this or worse on the news.





These are workers in France protesting the increase of the retirement age from 60 to 62. Just think if the French government had increased the retirement age to 65. Can you imagine?

The Reason Foundation has an interesting paper about the California's broken pension system ~ how it reached the crisis point and what steps can be taken to fix it.

Uproar over government-sanctioned T&A continues...

This is a reasonable search (and seizure, literally)?

Or these?

Full grope search of screaming three year old girl...after taking away her teddy bear.

Cancer survivor has to remove prosthetic breast during search.

Female business traveler says TSA search felt like sexual assault, included hands inside underwear.

Cancer survivor humiliated and covered in urine.

Who in the upper echelon of the TSA assumed people would put up with this? There are alternatives that make a lot more sense, first by taking a look at how Israel handles airport security:




Robert Poole, of the Reason Foundation, weighs in as well in The Daily Beast. Seems pretty rational. My pull quote:

Rep. John Mica (R-FL) was the Aviation Subcommittee chairman back in 2001 and voted to create the TSA, like nearly every other member of Congress not named Ron Paul. But Mica also wisely created a provision that allowed airports to opt-out of the TSA and use private screeners instead. He is strongly encouraging airports to opt-out of the TSA now.

Well worth reading the whole article.

I'll pass on planes until this is fixed.