Teacher Unions 24-Karat Hokum

[photo from the New York Times]

“First They Came for the Teachers… and I Didn’t Speak Up.”

Does it get any deeper?

Hell, if you went to public school, you probably can’t string together ten lines of coherent points on why teacher unions are not a pox on the school.

Here is a link to a 1996 Freeman article I wrote thumping teacher unions.

I’ve need to update my tribute…

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29 Responses to Teacher Unions 24-Karat Hokum

  1. Jerry March 3, 2011 at 5:48 pm #

    Um….are they sending the teachers to Concentration Camps?

  2. Jim March 3, 2011 at 6:21 pm #

    The signs did seem hyperbolic.

  3. mahakal March 4, 2011 at 3:56 am #

    It’s a trades union, Jim.

    They came for the trades unions.

    And you did what?

  4. Jim March 4, 2011 at 9:18 am #

    The teacher unions have consistently been on the side of Leviathan.

  5. Dirk Sabin March 4, 2011 at 10:43 am #

    Too bad nobody has found out a way to cart “unfunded liabilities” off to some Concentration Camp of no return.

  6. Tom Blanton March 4, 2011 at 7:46 pm #

    But I did speak up. I said, “Who gives a rat’s ass?”

    Jerry asked if they are sending teachers to concentration camps. The answer is yes – the teachers are running them.

  7. Jim March 4, 2011 at 8:56 pm #

    That’s a hoot!

    Teacher strikes have gone much smoother now that teachers can use spellchecking software to correct their picket signs.

  8. alpowolf March 5, 2011 at 9:12 pm #

    That’s hilarious, Jim! Yeah, teacher’s strikes tend to remind me of those ads for Chick-Fil-A, the ones where the cows hold signs that say “EAT MOR CHIKIN”.

  9. Jim March 5, 2011 at 10:55 pm #

    Great analogy!

  10. mahakal March 6, 2011 at 8:40 pm #

    “We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike.”

    Who said that?

  11. Jim March 6, 2011 at 9:45 pm #

    The grammar is too polished for the quote to come from either Huckabee or Gingrich.

  12. Jim March 6, 2011 at 9:56 pm #

    the 1996 article I linked to included the following quote: “Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein warned that allowing parents to choose between public and private schools would ‘end up with bigotry and ultimately with a fascist type of society.’” Del Weber of the California Teachers Association declared, “There are some proposals that are so evil that they should never even be presented to the voters.”

    How much hostility to freedom do teacher unions have to show before they lose their halo?

  13. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit March 7, 2011 at 12:44 pm #

    Let us ask this question:

    How much hostility to freedom do teacher unions have to show before they lose their halo?

    In light of this data point:

    The teacher unions have consistently been on the side of Leviathan.

    And conclude that you’ve answered your own question.

  14. Jim March 7, 2011 at 1:20 pm #

    Lawhobbit, sure, if folks were going to base decisions on the record.

    But if that happened, hell, there’d be all kinds of political disruptions in this country.

  15. mahakal March 7, 2011 at 3:48 pm #

    I’m sure it was just as polished in the original German.

  16. Jim March 7, 2011 at 3:49 pm #

    And that absolves American government worker unions in perpetuity?

  17. mahakal March 8, 2011 at 1:10 am #

    Absolves them of what? The right to organize and collectively bargain? And meantime the Kochs should get no-bid contracts to acquire state assets?

  18. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit March 8, 2011 at 10:26 am #

    Jim, I will bet that your current troll du jour, if asked, would swear to you that Microsoft was an evil thing, because it was a monopoly and Monopolies Are Bad. The troll “knows” that because his minders, who do his “thinking” for him, have told him so.

    And yet he blindly supports unions which are nothing more than a monopoly on labor.

    I see you’ve reactivated your “flypaper for freaks” on the site. Whoo-hoo! 😀

  19. Jim March 8, 2011 at 10:30 am #

    LawHobbit, if someone wants to kick hell out of Microsoft, I’m certainly not going to stand in their way. After the @#$@$@#$@#$ with the Windows 7 PC I bought,

    If Mahakal wants to discuss the origin of his views (or whether he is a teacher), that’s certainly welcome here…

  20. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit March 8, 2011 at 12:08 pm #

    Of course the views are welcome – you’re a very accepting and tolerant host, after all! And there is nothing wrong with dumping on M$ for their products if you can’t manage them – some of us have had no problems with W7, but I’m sure that’s luck, not inherent superior ability and skill with computer-based life forms. 😀

    That said, the underlying point is still, I believe, valid – that people who will (rightly) complain about the evils of monopoly are actually ignorant of what a monopoly truly is. As usual, I’m willing to revise my estimate based on replies that appear here. 🙂

  21. Jim March 8, 2011 at 12:40 pm #

    LawHobbit, it wasn’t my fault that the “Virtual PC” that Microsoft offered along with Windows 7 dismally failed to function with pre-Windows 7 software (like Wordperfect). The configuration Microsoft built into the computer was an utter piece of @#$@$@#

    Windows XP, on the other hand, continues to serve me well.

  22. mahakal March 8, 2011 at 12:54 pm #

    Microsoft sucks, I prefer Linux, but I’m not a teacher FWIW.

    So Jim, do you favor letting the Kochs buy state resources without bid?

  23. Jim March 8, 2011 at 1:02 pm #

    I don’t favor letting any company or individual snare no-bid sweetheart deals for any govt contract or asset.

  24. mahakal March 9, 2011 at 12:21 am #

    Why do you one-sidedly complain about the unions and not post against the no-bid sale of state assets under this “budget bill”?

  25. Jim March 9, 2011 at 9:52 am #

    Most of the comments are about teacher unions in general. The photo is from a rally in Rhode Island.

  26. mahakal March 9, 2011 at 9:55 pm #

    I see. You like other unions and have nothing good to say about corporate shenanigans, you just don’t care to post about that stuff, in favor of bashing teachers, and this shouldn’t be taken as support of the Wisconsin governor. Right?

  27. Jim March 9, 2011 at 10:09 pm #

    You might try a google search to see the array of articles I have written attacking business subsidies over the past 25 years. My first Wall St Journal piece in ’84 was an attack on corporate welfare. My thumpings of Archer Daniels Midland have been picked up fairly widely over the past 15 years.

  28. mahakal March 10, 2011 at 11:57 am #

    Have you written anything against the Kochs?

  29. mahakal March 11, 2011 at 12:03 am #

    Oh, I see that your work thumping ADM was funded by Koch Industries. Well done.