Bill Zeiser:
Thanks to the Cato Institute’s Walter Olson, a former colleague of mine, for highlighting public employee unions and their war against the public. Via his Facebook page, Olson gave his characteristically sharp take on an article about a recent train crash at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport:
Don’t you love unions? “The CTA’s contract with the Amalgamated Transit Union authorizes the agency to fire rail operators who have had *two* [emphasis added – W.O.] serious safety violations in a short period of time, and officials said the two incidents when Haywood dozed off qualify her for termination.” Falling asleep just once at the controls of a train wasn’t enough!
You can read the full story about the crash, which injured dozens, and the subsequent firing of the sleepy train operator who caused it, on CBS Chicago’s site. The tale is a dozy doozy. The train operator had been piloting trains only since January, had already caused a train to blow past a station in a previous instance because she had fallen asleep, and had been off for 18 hours prior to the accident. One would think that the correct allowable number of times to fall asleep while operating a train would be zero. But that’s why union members and progressives go hand-in-hand. They have no fear of progressively redefining common sense.
Of course this story might leave you with the impression that public sector unions aren’t always a friend to the public they supposedly serve. One of my favorite experts on this war against the public is Daniel DiSalvo, a political science professor at the City College of New York and Manhattan Institute fellow. (Disclosure: I once helped to promote a publication of DiSalvo’s called “Government Unions and the Bankrupting of America.”) DiSalvo frequently writes on how public employee unions are granted special access to the politicians who are supposed to negotiate against them, thus ensuring sweetheart contracts.
After the landslide in Washington state all the unionized workers in fire and rescue refused to even try to save lives.
It was all volunteers until a few union groups were shamed by those brave men and women into starting to dig, too.
That’s the hidden crime against the public: lack of actual public service when it counts.
Were it not for the public unions, city, state and federal, there would be no unions. They are their own worst enemy. Almost every move they make is shortening the time til they won’t exist any more. When they start to help companies make money instead of penalizing them, then they might make a comeback, but I suspect it’s too late and the die is cast. It’s a matter of when, not if.
Please allow me to highlight the political right’s rabid war against unions, whose members are part of the public.
@Nanny G, #1:
Have you got something to back up that slanderous statement about Washington state’s first responders?
@Nanny G, #1:
Have you got something to back up that slanderous statement about Washington state’s first responders?
If we want to think about blaming somebody, maybe we should consider the logging company that clearcut timber above the landslide area outside of the authorized harvest zone, the boundaries of which had been set specifically to reduce the risk of such an event.
@Greg:The unions are killing themselves, they don’t need any help.
In the Federal District (Washington, D.C.), union firefighters watched a man die across the street from their firehouse. They had received no emergency call (it appeared) and therefore considered that it was none of their business.
They work to the rule, you see, and they do not go unless dispatched.
These are your “civil servants” at work.
There is quite a bit of local outrage about this needless death.
But the union will survive.
The union acts for us, remember. And us does not include somebody dropping dead across the street.
Just remember that unions act for their unions, and nowhere else.
@Greg:
seems as if all the cutting was approved by the forestry service. maybe we should blame mother nature
Regarding #3 and #6:
Arguing from the specific to the general is one of the most popular logical fallacies around here, I’ve noticed.
@Greg:
Then leave with the assurance that you will not be missed with your OFA parroting.
WE ALL HEARD HORROR STORIES, LOOK AT THE MANY SCHOOL TEACHERS STORIES O TERRIBLE ACTIONS STILL WORKING AND PROPAGATE THE INDOCTRINATION, WHICH IS SCREWING THE YOUNG MINDS WHICH MANY ARE NOT SOLID ENOUGH TO ABSORB IT WITHOUT WITHOUT HAVING SCARS IN THEIR MIND FOR LIFE BECAUSE OF A SCREW UP TEACHER, ONE OF MORE,
WE SAW THEM IN WISCONSIN SOME TIME AGO WITH THEIR STUDENTS SHOWING THE UNION GETTING
THEIR PAGE SIGN FOR SICK LEAVES WHILE PROTESTING LIKE MAD DOGS, intimidating the citizens,
and breaking things around and trashing and spitting in the place and leaving it like so,
what a teaching journey for their students,
and they own the government
@Redteam: Aren’t the forest service employees union?
@Randy: I don’t know for sure, but they are federal employees, so very likely yes.
Highlight away. There’s plenty of reasons to wage war against unions. They’ve outgrown their usefulness and have become the corrupt juggernauts that they were originally designed to take on. Whether or not their members are part of the public is irrelevant. Whatever good they once performed has been negated by their role as a political tool and campaign money launderer.
Ahh, but remember our discussion regarding Carl Sagan’s Fine Art of Baloney Detection? From that conversation it’s fairly evident, that you don’t full understand what logical fallacies are, you’re only partially familiar with the jargon. It’s a kind of name-dropping that may fool other drones, but doesn’t impress thinking people. But as we’re both aware, this kind of nitpicking is merely a way for the Collective to avoid having to address unpleasantries.
Unless you could perhaps explain for us how inductive reasoning was used in the examples you cite?
GREG
YOU SAY FALLACIES,
I say fellow citizens, like fallo cie tiz en,