The Narcoleptic Teacher

From the ‘You just can’t make this stuff up‘ department, comes an exchange on a forum for teachers.

The thread, Teacher Sleeping During Nap Time? that asked if it was appropriate for teacher of kindergarteners to sleep during nap time.

That’s right- a teacher, entrusted by parents to teach and look out for the safety and well being of students, wants to know if it’s OK to sleep while children are under their care and supervision.

What makes the thread interesting is are the responses of some of the teachers. Take a few minutes and go through some of the responses.

Adults are discussing and debating the question.

Somebody shoot somebody.

*UPDATE* The SC&A Idiot’s Guide To ‘The First One Hundred Hours’ Of The 110th Congress

This is the first installment of The SC&A Idiot’s Guide To ‘The First One Hundred Hours’ Of The 110th Congress. Pay attention for just a few minutes and we guarantee you’ll be the center of attention on the cocktail party circuit and held in high esteem by people who spend a lot more money on clothes and jewelery than you. You’ll better informed than just about anyone else, including those pompous asses referred to as ‘professors.’

Democrats, now in the majority in the 110th Congress and ed by Nancy Pelosi are bound and determined to legislate a federally mandated increase in the minimum wage. In fact, the proposed legislation is nothing more than a display of phony ‘we care’ politics of the worst kind- and the kind of politics that will do far more damage to our economy than good.

It is important to understand that no state is bound by federal minimum wage laws. Each state has the right to determine their own minimum wage laws, taking into account local economic conditions.

To better understand the impact of a raise in the minimum wage, see this map.

There are 15 states that where current federal minimum wage laws serve as state guidelines.

There is one state where the minimum wage is below federal guidelines.

There are 5 states with no minimum wage guidelines.

There are 29 states with minimum wage laws above federal guidelines.

There is no federal legislation that forces employers to pay minimum wage- in fact, almost 90% of all hourly workers are paid above either state or federal minimum wage.

Why then, is federal minimum wage legislation such a priority for the democrats?

The answer is simple: Union support and union votes.

Many union collective bargaining wage agreements are based on the federal minimum wage. In many industries, union wages are calculated as multiples of the federal minimum wage.

Suppose the minimum wage is $7.00 an hour. If the collective bargaining agreement calls for a 3 times minimum wage base, that means the union employee would be paid $21.00 an hour.

If the minimum wage is raised to $8.00 an hour, thae same union employee would see his or her wage raised to $24.00 per hour. The additional cost to the employer union would be $6,000 per year for each employee. There are many union employee contracts that call for wages at 5 and even 6 times federal minimum wage levels.

Lets do the math. At 5 times the minimum wage set at $7.00, the union negotiated hourly wage is $35.00 per hour. At 6 time the minimum wage, that negotiated wage is $42.00 per hour.

If the minimum wage is raised by $1.00, those hourly rates rise to $40.00 and $48.00, respectively.

(Some pertinent facts about Congressional pay can be found here. The current wage package paid to Congresspersonsis about 12 times that of the minimum wage.)

Even though almost 90% of all Americans earn in excess of the minimum wage, the cost of new minimum wage legislation is astronomical. Who do you think pays for all that ‘feel good’ legislation in the form of higher costs for goods?

It is the almost 90% of Americans that earn above the minimum wage that benefit most from new wage legislation- and union members with collective bargaining agreements stand to gain the most- and that is why unions support the Dems.

The Dem commitment to minimum wage legislation has never been about ‘helping’ or ‘compassion’ or even the poor. It has always been about money and votes.

*UPDATE* 

Dr Sanity has an outstanding post, For The Children, So They Will Never Have To Grow Up, in which she highlights the mindset of current Democrat ideology:

It occurs to me that what those parents did to Ashley is precisely what the political left, via the Democrats, want to do to the American public.

You see, they don’t want us to grow up either. Mature adults think and act independently, and that is a severe risk to the ideology that propels the left. The last thing in the world they want is for their social programs to be successful because that would mean their ideology and beliefs have become superfluous…

What is more important than any objective success in reality, however, is the carefully crafted rhetoric of concern and compassion. So we repeatedly hear how much they care about our welfare and our needs. How they champion the “little guy” and fight against oppression and injustice. They don’t want us to get hurt in any way imaginable, physically or emotionally–even our fragile little feelings are to be taken care of, protected by the whole leftist notion of “political correctness.”

And with every program they develop, they become more and more powerful and we become more and more dependent on them…

The Dem’s desire to ‘help,’ is really no more than an obsession with power. Even as they mouth high minded noble words and rhetoric of love an compassion, they are in fact fiddling as America devolves from a nation of independence and innovation to one dependence and intellectual stagnation.