Well, just briefly, because I really have more work than any human being can do. So just a couple things.
1.) Watched Stuart Varney (also deserving of a belated valentine) on Neil Cavuto. He was talking about the stupid green manure that lards up the Comrade's "budget" proposal. He asked this congressman from California (of course), "Why don't we just drill here in the USA?"
Garamondi, or whatever, the guy from California, pointed out that it's "increasingly dangerous" for us to drill for oil in the USA, because the oil is located in "more and more remote places."
Yeah, like North Dakota.
Damn. Not so sure about North Dakota, but I was in South Dakota once and pulled over to a roadside exhibit. Some other people we leaving, and the Mom of that group offered me a handful of cracker crumbs as they headed to their SUV in the parking lot. Naturally, I was glad to have them. For whatever reason.
So anyway, I go beyond this weathered rail fence and, Oh! Prairie dogs. Hence the cracker crumbs. Now I get it. Little squirrel-like heads popping up from their tunnels. Cunning eyes sizing me up as they sniffed the wind.
And let me tell you, once those little dogies got a whiff of those crumbled Ritz crackers, I was almost over-run.
Yeah. You wouldn't want to face that kind of peril just to drill for oil. I'm lucky I got out with my shoes on.
2.) Then Varney also was talking about how Wisconsin Governor Walker is trying to change the rules for collective bargaining for government workers. Apparently the teachers in Wisconsin and whoever else they can enlist are marching on Madison.
Reminds me about 20 years ago now when I lived in Niles, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. It's a working class 'burb, built mostly right after WWII. Almost a Leavitt Town, all little boxes, but modified over the years, especially people building a "hyphen" room between house and garage. Some people added a second story. In the early 1990s, about 60% of the population were retirees. No kidding. The village was doing what they could to attract younger families to the area.
So, anyway, for decades the teachers at the Niles schools -- actually township, I believe, so the union included teachers from a couple neighboring suburbs -- anyway, for decades, they'd automatically gotten a 7% to 8% annual raise. Every year without fail. It came up as a regular item on somebody's agenda and passed without question or objection.
Until about 1990 or thereabouts, when some wise-acre noted that the population of school-age children was actually decreasing as the general population aged, with many of them living on fixed incomes. They might have trouble with rising property and other taxes. Niles' biggest industry apparently is shopping malls, so the sales tax was a percent or two higher than Chicago or most other nearby places. So someone suggested instead of a 7% increase, the teachers might do with a 4% increase. So the teachers went on strike.
These were the days when everyone went, "Oh, poor teachers. They're so dedicated to our kids and they don't make any money" and yada-yada-yada.
So one of the Chicago network TV stations sent a reporter out to talk to the teachers. The reporter, a woman, asked the local union leader, a high school teacher from Niles, how much money he made now, anyway.
He said with no hesitation, "$85,000.00."
Which was at least twice of what the aging population on a fixed income was pulling down. And he only works six hours a day, nine months a year. Not bad work if you can get it, no?
The reporter's eyes almost fell out her head. I expected her to ask, "Hey, are they hiring?" I mean, this was about 1990. The reporter was probably making $35,000 and happy to have it.
Anyway, the bloom faded from that particular rose. The teachers lost all sympathy. I'm not sure what the eventual results of the strike were. The TV news lost interest and never reported it. "Nothin' to see here, folks. Just go back to your homes." I eventually moved out of Niles.
And I gotta go.
Save the Republic.
No comments:
Post a Comment