While it's fun and satisfying to rage at this kind of waste, it is a mere drop in the bucket. Even if we cut all of this kind of waste, it will do very little to reduce the federal deficit. The only good they do is to help create the culture of reducing government. The necessary cuts to have an impact are ones that terrify even the most serious budget cutters: social security and other entitlements, and the military. We may also need to cut entire government departments. These are cuts guaranteed to upset the right and left wing.

Unless this was a few years ago, it wasn't the same professor. The gentleman who taught the two history classes I took died about 12 or 13 years ago. (I was a Physics major, so I can't speak on the history department as a whole...but he did succeed in helping me discover how interesting history actually is.)

One of the greatest reasons for ignorance of history may be the way it is taught. As a series of dates and names, it is boring and forgettable. As an explanation for current events and as a study of parallels and lessons for the present day, it is a fascinating topic and the dates and names become meaningful and memorable. Sadly, the former method is more common because it is easier. I did not care about history at all until I had to take history in college. Needless to say my high school teachers took the "easy" route of teaching history. The college version was quite different. (And I did attend an extremely right-wing college: Grove City College.)

Anyone who has been a teacher knows that grades are, at best, an incomplete measure of ability. With the young, grades are one of the few indicators one may use since their lives are still more potential than accomplishment. When one is older, it is far more realistic to measure by actual accomplishment. I am far more interested in Rick Perry's accomplishment than I am his grades as a college student.

I wonder if the union workers were forced to pay into the pension plan that may now be cut by 50%. This is the real evil of pension plans: the worker has no choice, but suffers the consequences of poor management. Much better to give the worker the freedom to arrange his own retirement.

These pension plans are a disaster, but there is a moral dimension here as well. These employees were forced to pay into the pension plan. They might have invested that money in a better way, but were given no choice. I'm in that position, and I'm not even a union member. I want to invest the 20% of my income the state forces me to pay into it's pension plan, but I have no choice. Since I'm forced into this plan, I expect a return. Of course, I'm investing a lot of additional money because I don't trust the government and I want a fall-back when I retire. The long-term solution is for government to get out of the pension business. In the short term, there is no good answer. It made promises it couldn't keep.

These pension plans are a disaster, but there is a moral dimension here as well. These employees were forced to pay into the pension plan. They might have invested that money in a better way, but were given no choice. I'm in that position, and I'm not even a union member. I want to invest the 20% of my income the state forces me to pay into it's pension plan, but I have no choice. Since I'm forced into this plan, I expect a return. Of course, I'm investing a lot of additional money because I don't trust the government and I want a fall-back when I retire. The long-term solution is for government to get out of the pension business. In the short term, there is no good answer. It made promises it couldn't keep.

I don't like seeing government spend money, but even if these politicians get there way, it doesn't mean the end. The people can still exercise control by removing politicians. The trouble is that the voting public doesn't do the work of paying attention to its politicians. That's why they get away with everything they do. The defeat of this amendment means only that responsibility is returned to the voters to pay attention to what their elected politicians are doing...and to do something about it.

While I support what he did, I do wonder if he will be allowed to drop out of the union. I had to change states just to get out of the union and remain a teacher.

I certainly favor open competition between schools because it will drive improvement, but I think the focus on free choice misses the larger issue: Why are taxpayers funding awful schools like the one this mother tried to escape? All of the literature on this case focuses on choice, but I've read very little about the school she escaped from. Why do taxpayers accept substandard schools? I work in a public school and, frankly, we're a decent school, but not a great school. I find that the only people at school board meetings are teachers. The union sends at least one teacher and I am always there as a non-union member. No parents! The only thing that seems to bring in parents is sports. As much as I personally favor school choice, I...