Bookworm Room

A few days ago, I warned people not to get sick starting on Thursday in Northern and Central California, because the California Nurses’ Association was staging a sympathy strike.  Sadly, one patient didn’t or couldn’t take my advice: A female patient at an Oakland hospital died early Saturday due to what the hospital described as [...]

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I’m surprised that there’s so little news about an upcoming nurses’ strike in Northern and Central California.  This story should be a big deal, in large part because the nurses who are going on strike in thirty-four Northern and Central California hospitals actually have no complaint.  Instead, they’re putting thousands of patients at risk because [...]

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With regard to my post about public sector unions, this story about a very generous retirement pension is a good follow-up. And with regard to my post about Obama screaming in hysteric anger after Netanyahu explained that Israel was not going to commit suicide at Obama’s behest, I realize that I forgot the pivotal sarcastic [...]

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This post tells the story of a case on which I worked.  It’s a true story. Picture this: It’s 2001.  You live in California and you own a small business that consists of you and maybe three to five at-will employees.  Your profits are decent. One morning, Jane, one of your employees, announces that she’s [...]

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A classic Seinfeld episode concerned George Costanza’s decision (at Kramer’s urging) to park in a handicapped zone.  This being George, things went drastically wrong.  What I remember from the episode, though, isn’t the cascading sequence of disasters; instead; it’s the opprobrium heaped upon George for parking in the blue.  His parking decision wasn’t treated as [...]

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One of my “crossing the Rubicon” moments came upon me about twenty years ago, when I went to the main branch of the old San Francisco public library (before it moved to its snazzy, very expensive new digs), and tried to check out a book.  I found myself standing in a line of about 60 [...]

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At about 4:30 PST, two headlines just came down the pike, following the Wisconsin Senate votes: Wisconsin anti-union measure must pass Assembly before it can go to Gov. Walker for signature More on Wisconsin anti-union vote: No Democratic senators were present – AP I’d like to rephrase them: Wisconsin pro-taxpayer measure must pass Assembly before [...]

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The core problem, which this video illustrates, is that the government forces public sector employees to pay dues to public sector unions, that then use those dues to buy elections, to place into power politicians who raise taxes to pay ever higher government salaries and pensions.  This has nothing to do with fairness, and everything [...]

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Paul Krugman has a bully pulpit in the New York Times.  Its numbers may be declining under Pinch’s overlordship, but it still remains “the paper of record” to a lot of people with their hands in or near the power trough.  Paul Krugman’s readers respect him because (a) he holds their elitist Left outlook and [...]

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We all learned in school about the Triangle factory fire in New York back in 1911.  The fire started and too many women died in significant part because of horrible working conditions the factory owners were able to impose on economically trapped women.  The fire was a PR disaster for management in America, and a [...]

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It’s a good video: Here’s the real point:  If you want to work for government (which can be a very honorable or practical or neutral thing to do), you are forced to pay union dues.  You know, when you pay those dues that they will be used to fund the Democrats.  This is true whether [...]

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Taranto is always good.  Sometimes, though, he’s great.  That’s the case for his column today, which discusses (a) the difference between public and private sector unions and (b) the difference between Tea Party and union protests.  He’s not saying anything you haven’t heard before or figured out for yourself; it’s just that he says it [...]

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Roger Simon, among others, has noted that the demonstrations in Madison demonstrate how old-fashioned the modern Left is, something that’s true despite the Left’s attempt to re-brand itself with the name “Progressive.”  It therefore seemed appropriate for me to run again an article I wrote for American Thinker back in September 2007.  My section on [...]

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In Roman times, purple was the Emperor’s color.  Today, it’s the color of the man who dreamed of being America’s Leftist king: Is anybody else as creeped out by that video as I am? And another question, which has nothing to do with unions — Do you get the feeling that Obama is hiding under [...]

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If you haven’t already sent emails expressing support to Wisconsin Gov. Walker and the Republican Senators, you must.  Here are the email addresses: govgeneral@wisconsin.gov Sen.Ellis@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Darling@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Cowles@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Fitzgerald@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Galloway@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Grothman@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Harsdorf@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Hopper@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Kapanke@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Kedzie@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Lasee@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Lazich@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Leibham@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Moulton@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Olsen@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Schultz@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Vukmir@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Wanggaard@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen.Zipperer@legis.wisconsin.gov Wisconsin has become the first battle in the true war between the [...]

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The average Wisconsin teacher has a better total compensation package than the average Wisconsin taxpayer.  After the proposed legislation goes through, the average Wisconsin teacher will still have a better total compensation package than the average Wisconsin taxpayer.  If this was 1789, events in Madison would be the equivalent of the French aristocrats taking to [...]

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As I understand it, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, faced with a $3.6 billion biennial budget deficit (for the years 2011-2013), had the choice of raising taxes in his financially beleaguered state or firing up to 6,000 state employees.  He chose a third route, proposing that Wisconsin’s public sector employees start carrying a small portion of [...]

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The point of a union is that it has political heft.  One of the ways in which we demonstrate political heft in this country is money.  Unions (just like corporations) can donate money directly to candidates and parties.  The result, as Ace pithily says, is “nothing but legal corruption: they are currently permitted to bribe [...]

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Apropos my apparent fascism, one neocon, an former Communist, and also an Italian Jew, suggests that supporting Israel may be enough to earn that appellation from the Left.  (H/t Soccer Dad) Speaking of Soccer Dad, at his blog we have another reminder that Ataturk‘s western nation is vanishing, to be replaced by a hardline Islamic [...]

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A deeply disappointed New York Times reports that the Democrats are not able to rely upon the union stalwarts in the upcoming election: Labor leaders, alarmed at a possible Republican takeover of one or both Houses of Congress, promise to devote a record amount of money and manpower to helping Democrats stave off disaster. But [...]

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I am crazy abut this politician: We have some spectacular young guns in the conservative party.  The problem is timing.  I don’t know if any will be ready by 2012, and it may be too late by 2016.

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I’m generally not a union fan, because I believe that unions have become inherently corrupt organizations that stifle business growth in America, something that harms the very people they’re supposed to represent.  At the government level, government unions have completely gained the upper hand, so much so that the government merely signs the checks, without [...]

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I’m all for reducing pollution, but we don’t need a trumped-up excuse like “climate change” in order to achieve a cleaner environment. Minimizing pollution is a legitimate goal which stands on its own merits; concocting hysterical disaster scenarios (such as those shown in An Inconvenient Truth) only serves to undermine any credibility the environmental and [...]

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Actually, there are only three reasons here why public sector employment is killing the economy.  I’m sure that, all of us working together, could think of many more reasons:

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