Strange But True
link To Protest Hiring of Nonunion Help, Union Hires Nonunion Pickets – WSJ.com.
An Onion piece? No. A Seinfeild skit? Again no. In a free country, there are no real laws against public displays evidencing stupidity or assaults on common sense. The articulate as well as the addled are free to express their world views to any who would listen. One would think though, that in a country where education is ubiquitously available, is nominally free to a certain point and where information is widely accessible, that the moronic actions of the addled few would be mostly ignored. One would be wrong.
Under the scrutiny and analysis by a free press, such inane activity as the one referenced in the linked article should be printed in bold headlines with plenty of derisive tone rather than the dry, bemused presentation by the Wall Street Journal. Stories like this however should get much wider attention. While the incident itself is perhaps a local curiosity, the ramifications are not. The pretzel logic conveyed by the union representatives in their justification for this action goes thusly:
“Low Pay! Go away!” and “That Rat Gotta Go!” the union stand-ins chanted as other workers banged cow-bells and beat on a trio of empty plastic buckets. Eric Williams, a 70-year-old retiree who said he needs extra cash to buy groceries, wore a sign saying that Can-Am Contractors, a nonunion Maryland drywall and ceiling concern, “does not pay area standard wages & benefits.”
so therefore,
“…The union’s Mr. Garcia sees no conflict in a union that insists on union labor hiring nonunion people to protest the hiring of nonunion labor. He says the pickets are not only about “union issues” but also about fair wages and benefits for American workers. By hiring the unemployed, “we are also giving back to the community a bit,” he says…” As if.
So who cares if a small union doesn’t understand irony? Everyone should care because it is this kind of up is down and down is up logic that creates much of the mess that faces American society. The Arizona immigration debate is one of the hottest issues being contested now, ostensibly by learned people on both sides of the argument. In the most boiled down essence, the issue is, should non citizens of a country be allowed to come, go, or stay as long as they want? If someone visited Canada, enjoyed the view and the food and decided to stay, would they be allowed to? If there is no enforcement of immigration laws for a few, why have them for the many? In fact, why even have an immigration department? Why not just save the money or have the always pleasant and smiling workers hand out lollipops and water to people as they cross the borders? The INS department can all be re-branded as tour guides.
In the case of airport security, if only a specific and predictible profile is responsible for inflicting grief, the logical response up to now has been to harass everyone; just in case. Oddly, this protocol is exactly the opposite of the Arizona edict. Whereas there is a push to grant leniency to illegal citizens by opponents of the proposed Arizona law, legal citizens at airports are routinely treated as criminals. Nobody thinks this is strange?
As expressed earlier, idiots are free to do what they want. What makes idiocy dangerous is when it shapes public policy and the formation of laws that affect the lives of sane people. The influence of a small vocal minority are creating non sensical and in some cases, dangerous policies which can adversely affect the lives of normal people. The more insane people that manage to get voted into office, the more mainstream their policies appear. This can’t happen without an abetting press. Who would have thought that in today’s modern times, headlines and stories in the National Enquirer are as valid as anything offered by the New York Times or CBS? Suddently, Martians in Congress and talking dogs don’t sound so ridiculous. Down is up.