Category Archives: News

News

Are public sector union employees paid too much?

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From the Competitive Enterprise Institute. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

The most recent BLS release on employee compensation (issued December 9, 2009) states that, during September 2009, “[p]rivate industry employer compensation costs averaged $27.49 per hour worked,” while, “[s]tate and local government compensation costs averaged $39.83 per hour worked” — a difference of over $12.00 an hour.

Moreover, a greater proportion of public employees get benefits, and they get greater employer contributions.

[,,,]And still that’s not all. As Don Bellante of the University of South Florida, David Denholm of the Public Service Research Foundation, and I note in our Cato Institute study on the topic, another benefit unionized government workers get is job security unlike any found in the private sector.

[…]Even worse, the greatest costs associated with public sector unions often do not become apparent for many years, in the form of pensions.

There’s a lot more here. It’s a nightmare. I try not to sound too upset about it, but it really is bad. Speaking as a private sector employee, I cannot afford ME and adult day care for government-employees who aren’t even accountable to their customers.

News

The American Library Association’s gay agenda

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Story from NewsBusters.

Excerpt:

“Authentic literature” is the term that has been adopted by the ALA to describe books with “literary merit.” It sounds harmless enough – just saying “authentic literature” evokes images of musty catalog cards and spinster librarians. In reality, however, it’s a manipulative term abused by the liberal ALA to promote books like “Skim,” written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by her cousin Jillian Tamaki.

“Skim” is a “graphic novel” (aka a comic book) about a depressed, gothic, homosexual, Wicca-worshipping high school girl and, according to the ALA, that’s good literature – it’s “authentic literature.”

The protagonist of the graphic novel, Kim Cameron – nicknamed “Skim” because she’s not slim – participates in séances, channels the spirits, swears judiciously, discusses porn and handjobs, and skips class to smoke. The major plot of the story revolves around Skim’s relationship with her flaky drama teacher, Ms. Archer. When Ms. Archer catches Skim skipping class and smoking a cigarette, she sits down for a drag herself, which eventually leads to a romantic relationship depicted in a double-page tableau of the two kissing in the woods.

Published in 2008, the ALA has already given “Skim” numerous awards, including a spot on the “2009 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults” and the “2009 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens.”

The ALA claims that “authentic literature” like “Skim” more accurately portrays the gritty, real American life, and therefore, has more literary merit. It’s a manipulative tactic that has effectively stocked library shelves across the nation with pro-homosexual books that inevitably fall into children’s hands.

They don’t respect the innocence of children.

News

How the British government funds radical Islam

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Story from National Review. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

The East London Mosque is one of the largest and most influential of Islamic institutions in Britain. It has a Muslim Centre, a meeting place which acts a bit like a college, offering lectures and sermons at which like-minded people may meet. One who gave lectures there was Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Islamist imam whose fingerprints have turned up in more than one place. He groomed Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood killer, and we now learn that the Detroit would-be bomber, Umar Abdulmutallab, while a student in London between 2005 and 2008 listened to a number of video-link lectures given by al-Awlaki at this mosque’s Muslim Centre. By then, al-Awlaki was communicating at long distance from Yemen where he had taken refuge, and become affiliated to al-Qaeda. And when Abdul Mutallab himself went to Yemen where he was trained and equipped as a suicide bomber, he had personal contact with al-Awlaki, evidently his mentor.

The authorities ought to have been able to pick this up. Far worse than their laxity, however, is the fact that in the past two years, according to the Sunday Telegraph, the Muslim Centre has received at least 60,000 pounds from a government initiative known as Preventing Violent Extremism. The intention is to fund moderates to oppose extremists, but the very opposite has happened. Violent extremism has been subsidized. In the last two years, al-Awlaki has addressed at least two gatherings at the Centre via video-link, including one last year called “The End of Time,” advertised with a poster showing the destruction of New York.

This is why you don’t elect secular leftists from the British Labour Party to run national security.