We were with friends at a party last night and talk turned to the Casey Anthony trial (which I haven’t followed and have no intention of discussing).\u00a0 My daughter said something about bread and circuses and suggested we should be more concerned about the 23,000 laid-off state workers in Minnesota.\u00a0 It quickly emerged that some of our friends were delighted … and that is the precise word, delighted … those workers are suddenly income-free.\u00a0 They got was was coming to them. They needed to be taken down a notch.<\/p>\n
I remember two federal financial shutdowns during my military career.\u00a0 Both times, of course, we kept working … without pay, true, but the shutdowns were short and we got our back pay afterward.\u00a0 That’s what’s going on in Minnesota, and as soon as they resolve their budget issues everyone should be okay again.\u00a0 I hope.<\/p>\n
But our state worker-hating friends are hoping for something more lasting, something on the order of what happened to the members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization during the Reagan administration: permanent loss of jobs, benefits, and pensions.\u00a0 Not because these state workers went on strike or anything, but just because … just because they’re jealous of anyone who might still have a good job, I guess.<\/p>\n
The most vociferous of the lot was a retired military man who depends on his pension and free VA medical care.<\/p>\n
Anyone else see the problem here?<\/p>\n
First I saw what was going on and wanted to quote Niem\u00f6ller,
\nBut that’s reserved for really serious genocidal shit,
\nSo I didn’t.<\/p>\nThen suddenly things seemed a lot more serious,
\nBut I didn’t want people to accuse me of being a drama queen,
\nSo I did not speak out.<\/p>\nThey they fired all the teachers and took their pensions,
\nBut Godwin’s Law, you know,
\nSo I kept silent.<\/p>\nThen they passed a law against quoting Niem\u00f6ller — and it was too late.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
——————–<\/p>\n
Well, speaking of problems, my wife has contracted RSS: restless sleeper syndrome.\u00a0 She tosses and thumps and thrashes all night long.\u00a0 It’s getting to the point where I can’t get to sleep.\u00a0 Please tell me that after 45 years of sleeping together we’re not going to have to go all Ricky and Lucy!<\/p>\n
She’s flying to California tomorrow and will be gone for ten days, so at least I’ll get some rest in the short term.\u00a0 But it’s an issue we’re going to have to face soon.\u00a0 Maybe I’ll write a bedtime book for her and other adults with RSS.\u00a0 I already have a title in mind: Go the Fuck to Sleep … and Quit Twitching!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We were with friends at a party last night and talk turned to the Casey Anthony trial (which I haven’t followed and have no intention of discussing).\u00a0 My daughter said something about bread and circuses and suggested we should be more concerned about the 23,000 laid-off state workers in Minnesota.\u00a0 It quickly emerged that some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14,2,8,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-military","category-personal","category-politics","category-the-economy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6648"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6664,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions\/6664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}