Murphy's Fourth Law:
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong,
the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
Tweet of the Day
Libertarianism is an ideology of individual sovereignty, decentralized locus of control, exercise of free will, and consensual transactions.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) February 10, 2015
Eliminate Unnecessary Laws; Increase Accountability of Public PersonnelReal Skim Milk vs. Government "Skim Milk"
Education and Creative Destruction
Facebook Corner
(IPI). In 2013, the SEIU spent a total of $1.5 million on such things as hotels, air travel, rental cars, restaurants and catering.
Ever wonder what other ways unions spend their members' dues?
Ever notice how all the union whores are out in full force--never mind exposes on up to half or more of mandatory dues are used for purposes beyond collective bargaining.
I would like to see a breakdown in salaries and expenditures of Illinois Policy, Reboot Illinois, the IML, the Civic Group, IPI and all the other "non-profit" right wing groups
Speaking as a libertarian, I don't worry about how watchdog groups allocate their funds; they aren't government-privileged monopolies like the unions. Your evasion of how unions piss away mandatory dues out of the pockets of workers is truly touching.
(IPI). Since 2002, unions have handed out over $40 million to Illinois lawmakers.
David Giuliani, our Government Reform Analyst, joined Bishop On Air to discuss his investigation into union spending.
Who is investigating big corporate monies in elections. You can't have it both ways. Then again Republicans don't care!
Yeah, right... Tell me when exactly did the GOP control the Illinois state government, including the legislature? The Dems have over the past decade and have made the government all but insolvent. And how many times are retards going to talk about pension holidays? Note, by the way pension holidays also happened over the past decade (e.g., FY06, FY07) under Democrat governors. How many times have I had to repeat in IPI threads: you have a DISTRIBUTION problem. Even if you had not granted funding holidays, you don't have accrued funding and investment returns that can fund million-dollar retirements for thousands of workers, where the average payback of individual contributions is something like 20 months of retirement... Some retirees expect better than half-pay for decades of retirement.
(IPI). Working moms deserve better than to be used as pawns on a political chessboard.
Like the IPI is in favor of this program.
I agree that those of us who are more free-market do oppose the program in principle. The point is that the Democrats ALWAYS look for ways to justify ALL of government spending--and add to it--by looking for ways to argue they have to cut spending in ways that will make headlines or otherwise will be seen as "balancing the budget on the backs of the poor" or similar rubbish. In this case, the situation was politically manipulated by the Democrat-controlled government. Beneficiaries of the system made life decisions assuming funding that wasn't there. Democrats had bigger priorities for public funds like public union workers; they set the spending priorities. They want to have their cake and eat it, too. They're trying to make a case for fleecing the taxpayer even more. Now the REAL problem is the supply of day care in Illinois. Without knowing the specifics, I would bet a lot of the issue has to do with government regulation, occupational licensing, etc.
(Citizens Against Government Waste). Well, at least we know who is running the show up here in DC! Union thuggery in full display.
Head of the American Federation of Government Employees is gunning for anyone who even *thinks* about trying to shrink our bloated, inefficient federal workforce.
SHARE if you believe that taxpayers, not unions, should have the final say in how the money gets spent in Washington, DC!
[A pro-government worker shill expounded on how government workers were even better than those in the private sector; I had browser issues trying to clip his rant.]
What self-serving bullshit. I have worked on numerous federal gigs over the years as a contractor, and I can attest to the fact that most of the real work is done by contractors and most of the federal workers I met (other than than some military and the EPA chemists) were not employable outside of government and outright incompetent.
A couple of real-life examples; I realize that they are anecdotal in question and not necessarily representative of the whole government (and there are more serious examples I'm not at liberty to discuss). I was working in a cubicle of a federal agency off the north Beltway in the fall of 2004, when I heard some of the federal workers crowded in a nearby cubicle watching the latest JibJab video mocking George Bush; I overheard one of them mention how they were in a work slowdown until "President Kerry" was inaugurated in January.
In another case, I attended a meeting to discuss IT weekend maintenance activities when I saw a new federal technical professional ask questions of a contractor project manager not involving the federal application itself but basic COTS application software functionality.
In a more recent case, I sometimes had to use an outlying cubicle in an adjoining large room which had a huge screen in the front usually playing some cable TV news program or movie.
Thank your unions for 40 hour work week, overtime pay, benefits and safe working conditions. History is an interesting topic, perhaps some of you should read a bit.
You confuse union propaganda and outright lies with "history". The Ford Company not only set the voluntary standard for higher wages and benefits that you just described, but well before they ever signed their first labor pact in 1941. What you are also not pointing out is up to half of union dues, in many corrupt states mandatory for holding a job in a unionized facility, don't even go into collective bargaining but into self-serving political campaigns, travel and other expenses.
It's long overdue to repeal the Wagner Act and to ban government unions.
(Lawrence Reed). On libertarianism:
“Libertarianism is the philosophy which says that you can run your life better than the government can, and you have the right to be left alone in order to do it” – unknown author.
“There may be two libertarians in the world who agree on absolutely everything, but I am not one of them” – unknown author.
“Liberals want the government to be your Mommy. Conservatives want government to be your Daddy. Libertarians want it to treat you like an adult” – former Alaska legislator and presidential candidate Andre Marrou.
“Libertarianism offers an alternative to coercive government that should appeal to peaceful, productive people everywhere. No, a libertarian world isn't a perfect one. There will still be inequality, poverty, crime, corruption, man's inhumanity to man. But, unlike the theocratic visionaries, the pie-in-the-sky socialist utopians, or the starry-eyed Mr. Fixits of the New Deal and Great Society, libertarians don't promise you a rose garden. Karl Popper once said that attempts to create heaven on earth invariably produce hell. Libertarianism holds out, not the goal of a perfect society, but of a better and freer one. It promises a world in which more of the decisions will be made in the right way by the right person: you” – David Boaz, The Cato Institute.
“Libertarianism is, as the name implies, the belief in liberty. Libertarians believe that each person owns his own life and property, and has the right to make his own choices as to how he lives his life—as long as he simply respects the same right of others to do the same” – Sharon Harris, The Advocates for Self-Government.
Those are some childish quotes. Grow up. And find better quotes. Conservatives don't want the government to be "daddy". You made libertarianism sound like a spoiled trust fund baby dream.
I think the author is talking about "law-and-order conservatism"--the tough-on-crime, the-law-is-the-law, protect-the-homestead, no-nonsense, strict disciplinarian "just wait until your father gets home" conservatism.
Political Cartoon
 |
| Courtesy of Gary Varvel via Townhall |
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists
James Taylor, "Carolina in My Mind"
