Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend:
Oh, to be a teacher in Wisconsin
“The showdown in Wisconsin over fringe benefits for public employees boils down to one number: 74.2. That’s how many cents the public pays Milwaukee public-school teachers and other employees for retirement and health benefits for every dollar they receive in salary. The corresponding rate for employees of private firms is 24.3 cents.”
“Every labor economist, right or left, will agree that higher “quit rates” are much more likely in sectors that are underpaid and lower levels are much more likely in sectors where compensation is generous. Not surprisingly, this data shows state and local bureaucrats are living on Easy Street.”
Meet the GOP’s Newst Rising Star
* NOTE THE LIBERAL SOURCE OF THIS PIECE *
“Barely a month after his inauguration, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker already has prospective presidential candidates stampeding to help him. In today’s turbocharged political climate, fueled by constant chatter on cable television and the Internet, can talk of a vice presidential bid be far behind for the man who two months ago was a little-known county executive?”
A Governor for President in 2012
“Governors make better Presidents. They have actually run big unwieldy bureaucracies and suffered the political impacts of tough decisions. OK—except Jimmy Carter.”
“My mother worked as a public employee when she was a teacher’s aide in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She was employed by the state for five years, from 1981-1986. However, she worked only part-time, so was never credited for a full year of employment by the state for each year she worked. Instead, she received only partial credit each year. Fortunately for her, Wisconsin and two other states (Minnesota and South Dakota) allow for full vesting for public teachers after only three years of employment. Using a deduction for her part-time status, Wisconsin determined her creditable service amounted to 3.07 years. Had she worked three weeks less during her last year, she would be entitled to nothing. As luck would have it, she fully vested, and is entitled to receive a monthly check from the state of Wisconsin for the rest of her life.”
The media on Wisconsin? A bad joke
“The battle in Madison, Wisconsin between new Gov. Scott Walker and the public-sector union hacks offers an amazing study in journalistic double standards. The same national media that have spent the last two years drawing devil’s horns and Klan hoods on the Tea Party protesters have switched sides with lightning speed. In the Wisconsin protesters, they find sweetness and light, ‘hope and change’.”
Wisconsin unions vs. the Tea Party
“A story-by-story analysis by the Media Research Center shows the Wisconsin protests are a perfect case study in the media’s longstanding double standard favoring left-wing causes while demonstrating much more hostility to the Tea Party and conservative protests.”
Results of idiotic choice of words by a Republican and Democrat
(This past week) “We had dueling idiocy from both Parties…”
President’s Day: Losing our heroes one day at a time
“Washington and Lincoln? That “and” takes on a life of its own. Remember that old Saturday Night Live routine advertising a product that was both “a floor wax and a dessert topping”? Part of what made that ad funny was its rich critique of the American tendency to combine things that shouldn’t be combined to achieve a short-sighted notion of convenience.”
Does winning an Oscar extend your life?
“It’s got to be one of the most cocktail-party-worthy scientific studies ever: a 2001 article in the Annals of Internal Medicine that showed actors and actresses who won Academy Awards lived four years longer than mere nominees…
But it may not be true.”
