Carol Platt Liebau posted a piece on RealCleaPolitics.com that also clangs the warning bells over the unsustainable situation that the various states find themselves in between their public employees unions and the states’ fiscal obligations. She focuses on California, but nearly every state in the union is quickly approaching the mess California is in.
Liebau writes of the effort that the teachers union in California led to get kids as young as five-years-old out of school so that they could be bussed to the state capitol in Sacramento in order to protest school budget cuts. Me, I think she races by this outrage too quickly.
It is outright disgusting that these teacher thugs wanted to slight these kid’s day of education in order to use them as political pawns. It is infuriating that these people thought so little of these children that they’d do this to them. And did these union thugs tell the parents that this was going to happen? I don’t know, but likely they didn’t.
Fortunately, the school Superintendent decided that there would be a “safety issue” and nixed the union’s idea.
Still, Liebau did want to get to the more important matter and that is the undeserved riches that these union members are seeing. Liebau reports that California’s teachers make 145% more than other teachers in the nation yet they are still carping and whining about budget cuts.
… a California teacher’s salary is 145% that of an average worker in the state (who works 12 months per year!). What’s more, California teachers are the most highly paid in the entire nation, even as the state teeters on the brink of fiscal collapse. And yet, the prospect of any cuts to state government spending elicits nothing but a storm of protest.
Sadly, even as the state is drowning in red ink, the Democrats in power just keep voting for tax increases as if that is the answer.
Liebau sums up thusly…
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the system, as it exists, is unsustainable. The state’s fiscal crisis is reaching proportions that will require real and significant cuts to avoid an economic meltdown. Making the changes necessary to save the state will necessitate resisting the destructive influence of public sector unions. And that’s fine. It’s long past time that public sector unions start working to serve Californians, rather than demanding that Californians work ever harder to serve them.
And she could be talking of New Jersey, Illinois, or nearly any other state. Public employees unions need to be eliminated as they are destroying our country.
But when Mason Jammer, a kindergarten student at Jefferson Elementary in Ionia, curled his fist into the shape of a gun Wednesday and pointed it at another student, school officials said it was no laughing matter.
They suspended Mason until Friday, saying the behavior made other students uncomfortable, said Erin Jammer, Mason’s mother.
Whew! That made everyone safe, eh? Just because “He’s only six and he doesn’t understand any of this” is no reason to take action against this violent child, who is probably anti-IRS, too. And this wasn’t the first time he displayed this behavior! I bet he makes crayon posters comparing Obama to the Joker, as well!
A gunman described by police officials as well-dressed, well-educated and well-armed for his minute-long shootout with police on Thursday just outside the Pentagon has died from his wounds.
Law enforcement officials said they still had not determined a specific motive for the gunman, identified as John Patrick Bedell, 36, but officials said he “had issues” and that there were records of previous brushes he had had with law enforcement officials.
Seeking clues for what prompted the suspect to open fire at a Pentagon entrance, police and F.B.I. investigators were examining a series of Internet postings thought to have been his work.
Still looking, eh?
Messages posted on the Web under the username JPatrickBedell seemed to share some biographical details with the shooter and pointed to a distrust of the military and the government at large. “I am determined to see that justice is served in the death of Colonel James Sabow, as a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions,” the user wrote, referring to the suicide of an Army officer in 1991.
So, a Truther. Kudos to Charles Johnson for finding more about Bedell’s Trutherism, bad boy for going the normal route and attempting to insinuate that Bedell was a right winger by writing “Another anti-government loon?”, as well as writing that Bedell is “a devotee of libertarian icon Ludwig Von Mises.” His brain washed followers took the hint, and ran with it.
The Times provides more
A 2006 arrest report for a man identified as John Patrick Bedell, then 33 years old, appeared to connect to the user JPatrickBedell, who wrote: “My desire for justice led me to violate what I think is one of the most unjust laws, cannabis prohibition, by growing 16 cannabis plants on my balcony in Irvine, CA from March 2006 to June 2006.”
And a pot user. He was also an anti-Bush nutter (via Patterico). I wonder, how will the media attempt the LGF spin to paint him as someone on the right?
Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools.
My first thought when I caught the headline and first paragraph (above) on my iPhone news app (Fluent News) was “please, no. Do not combine anti-Darwinism with anti-AGW. Let the science or lack thereof stand on their own merits.” As I have written, and said, time and time again, one of the things I hate the most about what the climate alarmists have done is incorporating every real environmental issue with global warming. We forget the real reasons. Manatees (I’m a big donor) must be saved from climate change, not boats going too fast in areas that are restricted. Coral must be saved from AGW, not polluted waters. The Amazon must be saved from globull warming, not pollution and deforestation. So, the real issues are not addressed anymore.
That said, the reality
In Kentucky, a bill recently introduced in the Legislature would encourage teachers to discuss “the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories,” including “evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning.”
The bill, which has yet to be voted on, is patterned on even more aggressive efforts in other states to fuse such issues. In Louisiana, a law passed in 2008 says the state board of education may assist teachers in promoting “critical thinking” on all of those subjects.
Last year, the Texas Board of Education adopted language requiring that teachers present all sides of the evidence on evolution and global warming.
This is what Excitable Chucky Johnson call “stealth creationism,” and, in some small cases, he is correct, however, what exactly is wrong with teaching all sides of an issue? Not all those bills, or others, are telling or allowing teachers to teach religious tenets, or even Intelligent Design (funny how the same liberals had no problem with teaching Islam in schools, something that happened quite a bit after 9/11, as lefties tried to teach “tolerance” and “multiculturalism”). Should not kids be taught the good and bad of scientific theories? Should they not be provided with all the facts from all sides, to allow themselves to make a rational, intelligent decision on where they stand? Or, are our schools simply to be used as indoctrination centers, much as in North Korea and Hitler’s Germany?
James D. Marston, director of the Texas regional office of the Environmental Defense Fund, said he worried that, given Texas’ size and centralized approval process, its decision on textbooks could have an outsize influence on how publishers prepare science content for the national market.
“If a textbook does not give enough deference to critics of climate change — or does not say that there is real scientific debate, when in fact there is little to none — they will have a basis for turning it down,” Mr. Marston said of the Texas board. “And that is scary for what our children will learn everywhere.”
A perfect example of which side is actually anti-science. It is “scary” that children be presented with all sides of a scientific argument.
After Climategate hit the airwaves and Copenhagen was a cold and snowy disaster, Al Gore, Jr. disappeared from the public scene. As this extremely cold and snowy chugged on (there is a chance of snow Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in D.C. again!), Al Gore laid low. As even more problems with the science of the UN IPCC and other leading climate alarmists were exposed, Al Gore hid away in his massive carbon footprint and electricity hog home. But, now, he returns in pure, first stage of grief mode, completely denying that his science money tree has collapsed:
He’s right. Mother Nature will do as Mother Nature wants, no matter what we say or do. But, of course, that isn’t what he means. And he wants to keep the money train rollin’.
It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.
No scare-mongering there. Funny how human civilization prospered the best during the current warm period and the Medieval Warm Period.
Of course, we would still need to deal with the national security risks of our growing dependence on a global oil market dominated by dwindling reserves in the most unstable region of the world, and the economic risks of sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas in return for that oil. And we would still trail China in the race to develop smart grids, fast trains, solar power, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources of energy — the most important sources of new jobs in the 21st century.
Which is a separate issue that most, including myself, would agree with. We do need to do those things, as we import entirely too much oil from radical Islamist countries. We do need to look towards renewable sources as our economy progresses (though, the fast trains thing just doesn’t work too well in the USA.) However, that has nothing to do with Gore’s fake science, which he cannot even call “global warming” anymore.
But what a burden would be lifted! We would no longer have to worry that our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands. We could instead celebrate the naysayers who had doggedly persisted in proving that every major National Academy of Sciences report on climate change had simply made a huge mistake.
Is Gore talking about globull warming in that second sentence, or the Stimulus legislation and other spending by Obama and the Democrats? As for the 3rd sentence, isn’t that the way science is done? I didn’t realize that we were supposed to simply take alarmist reports at face value, and never respond. Perhaps we hurt their wittle feewings when say examine the reports and find that they are full of mule fritters.
Anyhow, I could keep going on and on, picking apart Gore’s fanciful and mega-alarmist, not too mention scare-mongering, op-ed, but, that would make for a really, really big post. So, let’s end with this cute one down near the bottom of page one
Here is what scientists have found is happening to our climate: man-made global-warming pollution traps heat from the sun and increases atmospheric temperatures. These pollutants — especially carbon dioxide — have been increasing rapidly with the growth in the burning of coal, oil, natural gas and forests, and temperatures have increased over the same period. (note: the rest of the paragraph is a recitation of many recent “we’re all going to die!!!!!!” news reports about AGW)
Yet, despite the continued increase in CO2 levels, and what the computer models say, there have been several downturns in the global temperature. One of the main climate alarmists even told us there has been no statistical increase in the global temperature over the last 15 years, as well as stating that the Medieval Warm Period being warmer than the current warming period. Let us jump over to the OC Register and a story by Mark Landsbaum called “Arguing global warming with Arnold”
Tiny carbon footprints – All greenhouse gases worldwide make up 2 percent of the atmosphere. Only 3.6 percent of that 2 percent is carbon dioxide. Only 3.4 percent of that 3.6 percent is man-made. If California shut down every man-made CO2-emitting source the result would be atmospherically unnoticeable. In fact, even using their favorite government and U.N. computer calculations, warmists admit that if every nation on Earth had rolled back CO2 emissions to the economy-killing extent called for in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, there would have been no noticeable change in global temperatures.
It’s a bit early on a Sunday morning to work the math, but, damn! that is a tiny percent, isn’t it? But, it was never about saving Gaia: it’s always been about money, prestige, and power. And if Gore’s pet rock, er, theory, dies, he loses all three.
BTW, anyone think he will testify before Congress, as Jim Inhofe wants him to do?
Lila Rose has done it again, exposing yet another Planned Parenthood clinic breaking the law. This is the tenth clinic exposed in the Mona Lisa Project with Live Action Films (you can see the great work she’s done in the past here), where she’s shown how Planned Parenthood clinics cover up the sexual abuse of a child and tell young girls how to avoid parental notification.
This video comes from Milwaukee, WI:
This debuts at a good time, considering the release of Barack Obama’s new health care plan. It was revealed yesterday that $7 billion is going towards community health centers, hidden in a provision. How much of that money will be going to Planned Parenthood clinics across the country? How much of it will be going to other abortion clinics?
At a time when it’s being shown that Planned Parenthood flagrantly refuses to follow the law, Obama is setting up his new health care plan to enable more abortion funding. What does that say about how extremist Obama is in his pro-abortion views? Pro-life or pro-abortion, what happens in these clinics should make you sick. Any rational person who had even the slightest hint of morals wouldn’t allow the actions of Planned Parenthood to continue unpunished — yet that is exactly what has happened in state after state after state.
And worst of all (though unsurprising), far from condemning this activity, Obama is gearing up to funnel even more money to this illegal organization.
At least there is someone out there who will keep working to expose Planned Parenthood as the evil organization that it truly is.
Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary or follow her on Twitter!
