Public-sector unions
accused of cronyism

Hard facts underpin the cronyism.

First, unions are simply “Big Money.” Of the top 10 sources of political contributions since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, five are unions.
Of the top 20 sources of 2010 campaign funds, 10 are unions. And the notion that Big Labor is cancelling out Big Business — well, that’s a Big Lie, too.
The 10 industries that contributed the most during the 2010 elections — from Wall Street to government unions — all gave more to Democrats than to Republicans.

The top donor to House and Senate campaigns in the 2010 elections — the Service Employees International Union — is otherwise known as “Obama’s Union.” The company that spent the most on lobbying in 2010 — General Electric — is also known as “the for-profit arm of the Obama Administration.”

Public-sector unions, however, are in a class by themselves: Union-funded lawmakers take money from taxpayers and give it to the government unions, who kick some of it back to union-funded lawmakers. It’s not too different from banks or defense contractors donating to politicians who bail them out or give them no-bid contracts.

Except that the union system of partisan welfare is especially costly in the long run, because the extras the politicians offer frequently take the form of lavish retirement benefits, to be paid on someone else’s watch.

That is why it is vital to eliminate “collective bargaining” for government employees. That is why they are shouting so loud and so hard.

JOHN S. WAGGLER
Asheville

A fix offered for America’s
broken public schools

The present U.S. education system does very little to prepare the students for the real world. At the end of 12th grade very few have any true skills to get a job. Plus many college degrees are useless as they are too general and the first two-years are usually a repeat of high school. Many students cannot get jobs that justify the cost of college.

I think the following would go along way to fix the system. First through sixth grade, the teachers must teach the students the BASICS like math, speaking, spelling, reading and writing. Teach math without calculators. Teach the student what type questions to ask themselves to reason out the answers for themselves. Teach U.S. history with solid knowledge of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, plus world history and geography are a must.

Starting in 7th grade, the courses change to three hours a day for courses to prepare the student for college. One hour a day for a course called LIFE. This course would teach the student EVERYTHING they need to know once they begin life after 12th grade.

Like cooking, washing the clothes, balance the checkbook, understanding the interest rates on loans, how to do a budget and stick to it, etc. Then four hours of vocation/trade skills. These courses would teach skills to be a plumber, carpenter, chef, landscaper, auto mechanic, dental tech, nursing, etc.

The courses would also include management, purchasing, accounting and all of the skills needed to run a business. At the end of the courses the instructors would or would not issue a certificate that guarantees the employer that the student can do the job without supervision and correctly.

The student could in many cases finish school with three to six skills. I am pretty sure the dropout rate would be much lower then it is now. And the students would be more prepared to start life on their own.

FREMONT V. BROWN III
Asheville

Equality resolution OK praised; mayor lambasted

Congratulations to Asheville City Council for adopting the Resolution in Support of Equal Rights for All Asheville Citizens; Mayor (Terry) Bellamy dissenting, of course.

And boo, double boo, to all of the other dangerous moralistic religionists who spoke in opposition during public comments in their ongoing effort to apply the coercive force of government to impose their peculiar religious views on all others.

I expect the good mayor will be shown the door in the due course of time. Good riddance.

TIM PECK
Asheville

DVD on Jesus’ ‘other
lifetime’ recommended

I recently received in the mail a DVD from my friend Suzanna Olsson in Florida titled “The Rozabal Shrine of Srinagar.”

To those of your readers not acquainted with the idea that Jesus Christ was known throughout the ancient world, even outside the Roman Empire of the First Century A.D., this DVD is on a novel, perhaps even “heretical,” subject.

But to Buddhists, Muslims and New-Age Westerners, the subject will be a familiar one — the story of  Jesus’ “other lifetime” outside the 3-1/2 years recorded in the four Gospels of the New Testament Bible.

Suzanna Ollson attends the Mills River Unity Center, while in town, and is the author of several books on the subject of “Jesus in India.”

This new DVD from her is unusual because it was made by the government of India in a studio in Mumbai and is so far as I know, the first significant indication that Hindu India is paying much attention to the considerable evidence that Jesus Christ spent many years, perhaps more than 40, living in Srinagar, Kashmir, being known part of the time as the prophet Yusu Asaph.

Chad O’Shea, pastor of the Unity Center, has agreed to a showing of this film.

Dr. Robert F. HOLT, M.D., MPH
Edneyville