I for One am Bored With Larry Craig

This is a scandal that profoundly affects a single Senator and his family and his constituents. Why then is it story number one for a week? I think that is because it gives the MSM and the TV and radio talkers a subject to bluster about. From the left this proves once and for all that Republicans are hypocrites. From the right it is no big deal, if you compare it to perjury by a President or the exploits of Barney Frank.


There is talk of him resigning. I think it is the right thing for him to do, but not because he may or may not have played footsie with an undercover cop. It is the right thing to do because he violated the trust of his constituents. He put his own job security above the reputation that his voters entrusted to him. He made himself a target of possible blackmail (although this is not charged) and extortion.


He also kept an important detail from his family and staff. This shows serious lack of judgement. All history shows that he was a good Senator and good to his constituents. That does not override the dishonesty he showed in this incident.


If he does not resign, should he be removed? I don't know about that. If we as a society held leaders to account then maybe. We have proven many times that we do not have any desire to hold public officials accountable for their actions. The voters return Ted Kennedy to office dutifully every six years. The voters returned Barney Frank after admitting to basically running a gay brothel out of his apartment. (The key offense being the virtual brothel not being gay). In Ohio we didn't require any accountability to Bob Taft for ethics violations. Washington D.C. elects Marion Barry every time he runs. He is a walking indictment. The list goes on and on. With precedent being what it is, he probably should not be removed. That does not mean he should ever hold office again.


As I write this I am reminded of what I have written many times in many forms, and that is, we get the leaders we deserve. If we don't hold them accountable, why should they be accountable?

Oh well lets move on.

Union Thugs with Mac Books

This is a piece I am somewhat tortured over. I know several teachers and professors and they are all very fine people. For reason of my personal experience, let me say I am very pro teacher, but very much anti-teacher union.

Labor unions exist in this country to force employers at the end of a rhetorical gun to pay above market wages. This cannot be denied. The beginning of organized unions had people slaving in mines for horrible wages. This also cannot be denied. They had the moral right to organize, that much is true again. The overall effect of the union movement though, is less than successful for society as whole. It flies in the face of all economic laws of supply and demand.

The unions I will focus on in this piece of course are the teacher unions. Unions always say they want the employer to bargain fairly. When I first heard this expression as a kid it sounded fair to me. Add to that the fact that my father was a union worker it seemed a no brainer. As an adult I learned about economics and learned to think beyond slogans. I have come to understand the bargain fairly means giving them whatever they ask for.

I was somewhat disgusted this summer because the school district my son attends was faced with a possible strike. Happily it has been settled prior to the school year. At least two times my sons teacher from the last school year sent us emails telling us the 'status' of the talks. The status was of course colored to the opinion that the teachers were being hosed as usual. Now I am no lover of school boards, but they did not have the luxury of sending me emails telling us of the status. This would have been bargaining fairly to me. In reality I didn't want to hear from either side. Both sides are professionals that we pay to do an important job, namely educating our most precious asset, our children. Taking sides with either of them to me is fruitless. To me they just need to get it done, without trashing each other in the media. I also have come to resent the local news crews going out to find a cute blond haired kid telling us how horrible it is that their beloved teacher doesn't get to make as much money as they would like.

The laws of supply and demand tell us that the higher the supply of something, the less you will be able to charge. This works with cans of soup, with gallons of gasoline, with professional baseball and football players, we but we are to believe it is unfair to have this apply to teachers. In northeast Ohio where I live there is an extreme glut of teachers. Many can't find jobs because the population of most communities are laying off teachers, due to lower populations. Still this being known more people keep going into the field, why is this? I believe a number of reasons, first and foremost I hope they enjoy teaching children. Remember I am not anti-teacher. Second there is the knowledge that once they get a job there is a good chance that they are going to have that job for as long as they want it. Tenure and the union rules make it nearly impossible to fire a bad teacher. Teachers in most markets also enjoy phenomenal benefits. This is true of most union jobs. When you factor the paid benefits into their salaries it can increase their overall compensation by tens of thousands of dollars. For K-12 teachers there is also the fact that they have summers off. This is great for teachers with families.

The thing that grates on my nerves is when I hear of people complaining they don't make enough money. Economics tells us that if the price is too low for a product suppliers will not come into the market. The fact that more and more young men and women come into the market tells me the overall compensation including enjoyment, pay, benefits etc. must be adequate. We all wish we could be paid more, but if we feel this enough, we can change careers. I did just that about fifteen years ago and am very glad I did. This doesn't seem to occur to union workers, and government workers. This is a shame. Maybe they could use a primer in economics.

When did Activism become Narcissim

I have been absent for a while. Partially from laziness, partially because nothing in the news has caught my eye. It is sort of the lazy time of the summer. My baseball team (the Indians) are not playing well, but are in first place. My fantasy team is about to be knocked out of any chance for the playoffs. Oh well you can't win every year.

So without compelling day to day subjects here is a general one that has been gnawing at me. It seems that conspiracy theories, both political and not, are prevalent. Extremism is so common in all beliefs. What used to activism in politics has been replaced by something else. I call it narcissism.

Throughout the history of our nation political disagreements have been normal. Some of these have been aggressive. The tales are endless. This is healthy. At the end of the day though, the founders and in every period save the Civil War period, we as a nation have been able to come together as one nation.

What is different today? We have important issues. Every period had important issues. The early years had our leaders trying to do something that had never been done before. Those are important issues. The post civil war years saw us trying to put our nation back together. That was difficult. The Progressive years of Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft saw a subtle shift in the role of government. These again were important issues. Most of the last century saw of battling and arguing over whether or not to go to war. Very important issues.

When I try to analyze what makes today different, I see a period like none before. That difference is narcissism. Never before have so many people not had a belief in something bigger than themselves. Call it secularism, call it atheism, call it what you want I call it narcissism. Now mind you I do not mean to imply that those of faith are not narcissistic. I put myself in that same category many times.

I believe in past days, we would fight over issues, we would vote and sometimes our side lost. In previous times, we would argue, fight and cajole. When it was said and done the losers would lick their wounds, and prepare to battle the next time. I see it a little different in modern society. When a side loses, be it political or non, we see bitter accusations of anti-American motives, accusations of conspiracy, or people calling each other evil, and other such hateful expressions.

Why is it different now. I of course do not know for sure, but my theory is that our narcissism will not allow us to believe that the mainstream of our country could possibly disagree with us. Since more than ever before we tend to see ourselves almost God like, we believe that every one else that disagrees with us cannot be right, they just can't. That belief in hand they see any actions to prove that as justified. It becomes an obsession. Look at Hollywood. Whatever it takes to make them happy is OK. Today seven years later, even with their blessed New York Times telling them otherwise, some Democrats believe George Bush stole the election of 2000. Today even though there is no evidence of it anywhere, a small active portion of the right is convinced George Bush is trying to create a North American Union similar to Europe. The examples of this go on and on. Let me stress again disagreement is American and healthy, obsessive belief in fairy tales is not. I have my own obsessions. I too fight my own narcissism. I try not to pass it on to my children.

My answers? Take it a little easy. If you are secular or atheist, consider that those of us who do believe are not three headed monsters, we just believe in a faith, whether it be Christian, Judiasm, Islam etc. If you are of faith, talk to an atheist, consider the same, they are not from outer space, we can believe ardently that the other side is wrong, but we must believe they are just as American as we are. Argue, argue passionately, just don't shut out reality. If an issue doesn't go right, try another plan, don't make up fairy tales and straw men to explain what went wrong. We will all benefit.