Negative Railroad A Collection of Breaks in the Line

Government is not the only democracy in the USA. Labor unions, for example, are structured around the concept of majority rule.

All democracies are at risk of becoming tyrannies. Either by force of majority ignoring minority interests, or by insiders and operatives who work the system to their advantage over the interests of those they’re supposed to represent.

Workers at a Boeing factory in South Carolina decided that their union was no longer working for them. By secret ballot, laborers fired the union:

I read many excellent commentaries regarding September 11th, eight years after. Over at Daily Excuse, the chief procrastinator set aside excuses and called us to action:

Time flies and life goes on but we must always remember what happened that day. No longer did America remain safe from terrorism. Freedom is wonderful and precious but can be very expensive. So while we are out there wondering how we can retain our "natural beauty" or chose what church or movie theater or restaurant we want to go to remember that we here are very lucky and we need to protect and cherish that freedom. And we need to honor all those people who have died for the cause of freedom here and elsewhere.

Con men understand that their job is not to use facts to convince skeptics but to use words to help the gullible to believe what they want to believe.

Quoted from: Thomas Sowell

Earlier this year, the City councilmember for the 55418 proposed a few changes to the Minneapolis City Charter. Among the ideas for consideration was folding the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board into the City Council. The claimed benefits would be cost savings from eliminating duplicate administrations, and greater accountability due to the concentration fo authority in the Council. Opponnents claimed the cost would be lesser accountability, as the MPRB would no longer be an independent body focused on the City’s highly-acclaimed parks.

The initial proposal was not to eliminate the Park Board outright, but to put the question on the ballot, allowing voters to decide if a semi-independent Park Board was still the best arrangement for Minneapolis.

A Bank of America customer fires the first shot in a debtors’ revolt:

Drinks that don't taste of alcohol were developed for coeds and the saps who try to get them drunk.

Quoted from: The Weekly Standard

H/T: Maggie’s Farm

Thinking up this introduction, I was amazed to find that PBS is not on the list of Stuff White People Like. Public Radio, however, is #44.

Now, on to the point. Art Carden starts from common ground and has a suggestion to shave a wisp off the Federal budget:

Those fascist crazies are at it again. The intertubes are buzzing with claims that the current President is going to deliver a speech to every schoolkid country. The wackos say the speech is part of a coordinated effort to shape young minds.

There’s evidence posted claiming the address will be preceded by planned activities to help prepare the kiddies to receive Barry’s vision for them:

Teachers can ask students to imagine being the President delivering a speech to all of the students in the United States.

Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time.

Quoted from: Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty

Roger Simon (founder of righty Pajamas Media) discovers why I offer Al-Jazeera in the NRR news rack:

Legislators make laws, but seem fond of disregarding laws of nature. I mock their hubristic disregard by calling such silliness Anti-Gravity Legislation. Imagine how many unicorns we could have if gravity were cut by 20%. Let’s propose a law!

Sheldon Richman takes the proposers to task:

The chattering lefties are invoking Ted Kennedy’s legacy as a justification for Obamacare. So, respect for the family is out the window. In listening to clips from the wall-to-wall broadcast hagiography, I wonder, did Ted ever address the Senate with his “inside voice”? All I’ve heard is the fat man bellowing like a walrus. As if vocal volume was a substitute for sound arguments.

Cobb’s right. The powerful iconography of the Obama campaign has been turned.

If you are not saved by Grace, you will be judged by Law.

Quoted from: Dr. Walter Martin

Two comments from Neoneocon’s graceful post on the death of Ted Kennedy:

Oblio Says:
Did Edward Kennedy mean anything in himself, or was he mainly a vessel for projections, dreams, sorrow, and regrets?

Much like Michael Jackson, this event is meaningful because it confronts people with the fact that they did not “change the world” and their youth and optimism will never be regained.

City Council candidate Mark Fox throws his voice into the lefty echo chamber known as the Minneapolis Issues Forum:

I’ll start where Becker and I agree. There ain’t no free lunch. Lower taxes mean reduced services. There are no solutions, only trade-offs.

But this leaves a more fundamental question unexplored. Which services are essential? What can the public do for itself without the nannying hand of government applying gentle and expensive “corrections”?

Government employees are pretty much all lefty, and mostly union. Teachers, AFSCME, SEIU, cops, firefighters, [add to the list APWU] are all organized and active in maximizing their share of everyone else’s income. And they’re darn good at it:

In 2008, the average wage for 1.9 million federal civilian workers was $79,197, which compared to an average $49,935 for the nation’s 108 million private sector workers (measured in full-time equivalents).

Canada is forging ahead in the race to build a new green sustainable economy. And they’re paying for it:

Hydro One is seeking permission from the Ontario Energy Board to raise the delivery portion of hydro bills in Ontario by 9.5% in 2010 and 13.3% in 2011, in an attempt to raise over 250 million dollars to cover increased distribution costs. Much of that cost is tied to its Green Energy Plan for 2010-2014.