There seem to be 2 domestic news stories dominating coverage lately, the multi-state approach to cut state deficits by shrinking union negotiating abilities and Charlie Sheen taking a nose dive into insanity.
Some personal background on the first. My dad was a 30 year steelworker and I remember him vividly being on strike when I was in high school. They sat out for an entire year, lost all those wages--at that point he was making great money--and what did they get for it? Nothing. The local yokel union leaders were too interested in their own pride and their make believe higher ground and they lost big time. This is why I do not trust unions. Not that the idea of unions is bad, it's not. Workers anywhere should have someone making sure they're safe on the job and they are reasonably taken care of. But the people who tend to become union leaders are...about a step and a half away from used car salesman, especially in the face locally of all these steel plants shutting down and laying off and these dumbasses go on the news acting like we're going to be back to 1970 production levels any day now instead of saying the truth. The truth is in an area like I live in, those days are gone and the men who worked hard for years have little to fall back on as far as other skills and education so now they're stuck as 30-40-50 somethings with little economic hope.
Which brings me to Ohio's Senate Bill 5 and why I think it must be a good idea. I'm not going to argue the finer points or issues, because I haven't read the bill and I don't know them. What I do know is the Republicans are taking a huge risk, shortly after kicking ass in the 2010 election by going all-in so soon. Now you don't get to be successful in politics or anything else by being stupid. Kasich didn't get to where he is by leaping before he looks. If he is willing to take this heat and risk his governorship 2 months in, something about this bill must be important enough to risk all that. Now I know the bottom line workers who will be affected are not happy and in their shoes I wouldn't be either but as Obama said elections have consequences and the consequence of 2010 appears to be that the Union sweetheart deals of the past 40 years are over. At least Ohio's Dems didn't run away to a Best Western in Indiana or Kentucky like those pussies in Wisconsin.
Now we get to Charlie Sheen. At this point everyone knows the catch phrases and the crazy behavior. He's lost his kids, his job, and looks like he's teetering on the brink of Gary Busey land forever. But I think we haven't seen rock bottom just yet. I think we're only at the beginning of what will become a massive flameout. He's a master of using the web but at some point even his 'followers' will become bored and move on and then what? What will he do to get the world's attention again? Maybe it's too cliche to say he'll kill himself intentionally or accidentally but would I be surprised? No. It seems that in his mind it's about himself and his legacy. Once you're on a rooftop swinging a machete like Idi Amin and quoting MLK I don't know where you go from there.
No comments:
Post a Comment