And wonder, “What the hell is wrong with this country?”

I happened to be tuned to a different (different as in, not the normal) radio station recently and heard Paul Harvey telling the story about Joe Maturo, Mayor of East Haven, Connecticut. This particular mayor, on this particular day, happened to notice that a storm drain cover had been dislodged. Thinking that this open storm drain posed a hazard to the good citizens of East Haven, the mayor spent about three minutes of his morning replacing the cover. One good deed, eh?

Well, it turns out that this scene was witnessed by a member of the local AFSCME union who then filed suit against the mayor. claiming that the mayor had violated the city’s labor contract by repositioning the storm drain. According to the union, this job — that took the mayor all of about three minutes — needs to be completed by four union employees: a driver, a laborer, a supervisor, and a dispatcher; each of which would be paid a minimum of four hours overtime.

Now, I think that unions played an important role in removing and preventing egregious conditions in the workplace and helped to even out the balance of power between employers and workers, but when the union pursues a suit such as this, haven’t they proved to be no longer viable?

If you can stomach any more, read the complete story.

This was sent to me by a friend and I immediately thought of all the blogs I enjoy reading:

James Bender, in his book “How To Talk Well“, relates the story of a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year the farmer entered his corn in the State Fair it won a blue ribbon.

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it.  The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering in competition with you each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “didn’t you know?  The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn.”

He is much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor’s corn also improves. So it is with our lives. Those who choose to live in peace must help their neighbors to live in peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of life is measured by the lives it touches.  And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all. So if you have something good, don’t keep it to your self. Share it. It is when we give that we receive… and much more.

If you’re going to be wrong about God, isn’t it better to live your life as if there is a God than live your life as if there isn’t?

[Ed. Note: This topic has obviously generated some thought. Please see this excellent description of Pascal’s Wager for more insight. I should also note that I didn’t intend to imply that I agreed with Pascal on the notion that a belief in God is a better “bet”. I simply think that for me, because I already believe what I believe, the alternatives just don’t make much sense.]

“President George W. Bush said he would press ahead with the war on terrorism and his goals for the U.S. economy such as changing the tax code during his second term,” Bloomberg News reports. In “Simplifying Federal Taxes: The Advantages of Consumption-Based Taxation,” Chris Edwards, Cato director of tax policy studies, writes: “Minor simplification reforms will not be enough. The tax system is caught in a spiral of continual change and nonstop growth in rules. Since the mid-1980s there have been 7,000 federal tax code changes and a 74 percent increase in the number of pages of tax rules. Complying with federal tax requirements wastes 6 billion hours each year as families and businesses fill out tax forms, keep records, and learn tax rules.”
[Read more about the Fair Tax Plan]