Michelle Fields Interviews Glenn Reynolds

And they talk about the professor's recent book, The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself.



And at Instapundit, "THE LEARNING CURVE: In the Weekly Standard, Jonathan Marks reviews my The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself."

Australian Television Star Charlotte Dawson Commits Suicide After Years of Abortion-Related Depression

Sad.

At the Australian, "Celebrities and friends pay tribute to Charlotte Dawson, dead at 47":

News.com.au reported that Ms Dawson’s failure to attend a lunch appointment, and a 19-hour silence from her Twitter account, alerted a friend to contact the manager of Ms Dawson’s apartment building. A security guard discovered her body, the report said.

Ms Dawson gave an insight into her life — both her troubles and the highlights — in her autobiography, released late 2012.

In the book, Air Kiss and Tell, she revealed she had had an abortion with her former husband, Olympic swimmer Scott Miller, so that he would not have any distractions in the lead up to the Sydney Olympics.

She had been looking forward to having a baby but sensed “hesitation” in Miller.

”Everything Scott had done was leading up to this moment and nothing could stand in his way, so it was decided that we would terminate the child and try again later. Who needed a developing foetus when a gold medal was on offer, eh?”

Ms Dawson wrote that she was alone when she had the termination.

In he book she wrote that this was her first experience with depression — a battle she continued to fight for the next 14 years.

Of course, baby-killing leftists won't shed a tear for this woman, and any intimation that her death was abortion-related will bring out the left's murderous daggers. See, "Fred Nile under fire for Facebook post about Charlotte Dawson abortion."

Nothing will stand in the way of the totalitarian left. No contrarian thought. No deviation from the party line. I swear they'll kill you if they could. This woman's dead now from the guilt she suffered alone for over a decade. So much for leftist compassion.

Senator Kelly Ayotte: 'It's Time to Reset the Reset' Policy With Russia

Yeah, Obama needs to "up his game," big time.

At Politico, "Ayotte: Russia reset has failed."

Yahoo Aims to More Deftly Blend Ads With Content

I think we should start a Marissa Meyer termination countdown. I can't remember any good news about Yahoo since she took over as CEO.

In any case, at NYT:

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — To Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo, fashion magazines like Vogue and InStyle have achieved the holy grail of advertising.

“The ads in those magazines are as interesting as the photo shoots and the articles,” she said in an interview last week at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. “I miss the ads when they are not there. I feel less fulfilled.”

This year, her goal is to start making the ads on Yahoo just as compelling and just as integrated with the news and information people seek on her company’s websites and mobile applications.

One early example: Recipes from Knorr, the soup brand owned by Unilever, are sprinkled around regular articles from Yahoo writers, food magazines and blogs on Yahoo Food, the digital magazine the company started about six weeks ago.

Ms. Mayer, who oversaw Google’s signature search products for several years, also hopes to develop new search tools and ads geared to mobile users — the company’s first steps to innovate in its original business since 2010, when it began a 10-year deal to outsource search to Microsoft.

“We’re not sure that a list of links that people have to pick through is the right experience on the phone, and we’re going to start to play with context, applications, other ways to address those search needs,” she said.

Better, more useful ads would certainly make Yahoo’s 800 million monthly users and its legions of advertisers happier all around.

But for Yahoo, much more is at stake. New ad formats that go beyond the company’s traditional banner and search ads are its best hope of finding fresh sources of revenue, which it badly needs after years of decline.

Yeah, badly.

See AdAge, "Yahoo Slips Behind Google, Facebook and Even Microsoft In Online Ad Share."

Lying Scumbag Susan Rice Has No Regrets on Benghazi Statements

She's such a scumbag liar.

At LAT, "Susan Rice defends 2012 Benghazi comments, warns Russia on Ukraine."

Geopolitical Implications of Conflict in Ukraine

At Der Spiegel, "Chess in a Minefield: The Global Implications of the Ukraine Conflict":

The bloody conflict in Ukraine could trigger yet another confrontation between the West and Russia. Dominance in Europe is at stake on the geopolitical chess board. While Ukraine itself could descend into civil war.

The quote printed in SPIEGEL 33 years ago was a noteworthy one, and still sounds remarkably topical: "We have to ensure that this Soviet empire, when it breaks apart due to its internal contradictions, does so with a whimper rather than a bang." The sentence was spoken by US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger during an interview conducted in September of 1981.

This week in Ukraine, one of the core regions of that former empire, it is looking very much like a "bang." Thursday in Kiev has seen bloody violence that has cost the lives of dozens amid gunfire and brutal clashes on Independence Square. Hundreds have been wounded, many seriously. The violence comes on the heels of similar battles on Tuesday -- and mark the beginning of what could become an extended and dramatic conflict over the country's future.

Some of those who have traveled to Kiev to view the situation first hand in recent weeks are fully aware of what a "bang" looks like -- US Senator John McCain, 77, for example, a veteran of Vietnam who was shot down in 1967 and spent over two years as a prisoner of war. In December, he stood on the Independence Square stage in Kiev and called out: "People of Ukraine, this is your moment! The free world is with you! America is with you!"
In other words, the Cold War has returned and Moscow is once again the adversary. The only difference is that the weapons have changed.

It is no longer just the association agreement with the European Union that is at stake. Nor is the future of President Viktor Yanukovych, a man surrounded by rumors of corruption, the focus anymore. Rather, geopolitics has taken center stage and the question as to which power centers in Europe and the Eurasia region will be dominant in the future has become paramount. Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski once compared the region to a chess board. The players, as always, include the US, Russia, the EU and NATO.

Moscow in Checkmate

It's a chess game in a minefield. Just how explosive the country called Ukraine really is became clear from a background interview given by former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar -- a liberal reformer and friendly to the West -- in 2008, one year before his death. Those wishing to make Ukraine a member of NATO, as was the intention of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, overlook the fact that it would put Russia in an untenable defensive position, he said. The effort, he added, should be abandoned.

Brzezinski would love to have put Moscow in checkmate. In his book "The Grand Chessboard," he writes that without Ukraine, Russia "would become predominantly an Asian imperial state" at risk of being drawn into conflicts in Central Asia. But if Moscow were able to gain control of Ukraine and its resources, Brzezinski wrote, the Russian Federation would be a "powerful imperial state." He saw danger in a potential "German-Russian collusion" and in the possibility of an agreement between Europe and Russia with the goal of pushing America out of the region.

Essentially, Brzezinski's point of view is one that guides American strategy to this day: The US wants to keep Russia as far away as possible. If the Europeans get involved in Ukraine and harm their relations with Moscow, that is fine with Washington.

Indeed, US Deputy Foreign Minister Victoria Nuland's infamous "Fuck the EU" gaffe, can hardly be seen as a mistake. Rather it is a logical, if somewhat vulgar, expression of America's geopolitical stance.

Continue reading.

U.S. Medal Haul Disappoints in #Sochi

At WSJ, "Medal Tally Lags Behind Winter Games High of 37 in 2010."

Man, these Sochi games were pretty much a downer all around. I didn't watch much after the first few days. Was busy with school, although I wasn't that pumped up to turn on NBC in the evenings. I wonder why?

Ralston College President Stephen Blackwood: Mom's Sandostatin Cancer Treatment Cancelled by #ObamaCare

Well, sadly, my prediction of the left's attack on Julie Boonstra turned out to be all-too-accurate.

So let's hope the vile leftists cut just a tiny bit of slack for Catherine Blackwood, who's been fighting carcinoid cancer since the summer of 2005.

See Stephen Blackwood, at the Wall Street Journal, "ObamaCare and My Mother's Cancer Medicine":

When my mother was diagnosed with carcinoid cancer in 2005, when she was 49, it came as a lightning shock. Her mother, at 76, had yet to go gray, and her mother's mother, at 95, was still playing bingo in her nursing home. My mother had always been, despite her diminutive frame, a titanic and irrepressible force of vitality and love. She had given birth to me and my nine younger siblings, and juggled kids, home and my father's medical practice with humor and grace for three decades. She swam three times a week in the early mornings, ate healthily and never smoked.

And now, cancer? Anyone who's been there knows that a cancer diagnosis is terrifying....

Carcinoid, a form of neuroendocrine cancer, is a terminal disease but generally responds well to treatment by Sandostatin, a drug that slows tumor growth and reduces (but does not eliminate) the symptoms of fatigue, nausea and gastrointestinal dysfunction. My mother received a painful shot twice a month and often couldn't sit comfortably for days afterward.

As with most cancers, one thing led to another. There have been several more surgeries, metastases, bone deterioration, a terrible bout of thyroiditis (an inflammation of the thyroid gland), and much more. But my mother has kept fighting, determined to make the most of life, no matter what it brings. She has an indomitable will and is by far the toughest person I've ever met. But she wouldn't still be here without that semimonthly Sandostatin shot that slows the onslaught of her disease.

And then in November, along with millions of other Americans, she lost her health insurance. She'd had a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan for nearly 20 years. It was expensive, but given that it covered her very expensive treatment, it was a terrific plan. It gave her access to any specialist or surgeon, and to the Sandostatin and other medications that were keeping her alive.

And then, because our lawmakers and president thought they could do better, she had nothing. Her old plan, now considered illegal under the new health law, had been canceled.

Because the exchange website in her state (Virginia) was not working, she went directly to insurers' websites and telephoned them, one by one, over dozens of hours. As a medical-office manager, she had decades of experience navigating the enormous problems of even our pre-ObamaCare system. But nothing could have prepared her for the bureaucratic morass she now had to traverse.

The repeated and prolonged phone waits were Sisyphean, the competence and customer service abysmal. When finally she found a plan that looked like it would cover her Sandostatin and other cancer treatments, she called the insurer, Humana, HUM +0.57% to confirm that it would do so. The enrollment agent said that after she met her deductible, all treatments and medications—including those for her cancer—would be covered at 100%. Because, however, the enrollment agents did not—unbelievable though this may seem—have access to the "coverage formularies" for the plans they were selling, they said the only way to find out in detail what was in the plan was to buy the plan. (Does that remind you of anyone?)

With no other options, she bought the plan and was approved on Nov. 22. Because by January the plan was still not showing up on her online Humana account, however, she repeatedly called to confirm that it was active. The agents told her not to worry, she was definitely covered.

Then on Feb. 12, just before going into (yet another) surgery, she was informed by Humana that it would not, in fact, cover her Sandostatin, or other cancer-related medications. The cost of the Sandostatin alone, since Jan. 1, was $14,000, and the company was refusing to pay.

The news was dumbfounding. This is a woman who had an affordable health plan that covered her condition. Our lawmakers weren't happy with that because . . . they wanted plans that were affordable and covered her condition. So they gave her a new one. It doesn't cover her condition and it's completely unaffordable...

There's still more at the link.

I think we should all say a prayer for Mrs. Blackwood. It's hard enough fighting a deadly disease like this, but on top of that you've got leftist collectivists and Democrat Party statists who think they know what's best for you, and damned if they won't make your life hell proving it. As President Blackwood remarks at the essay:

Though I'm no expert on ObamaCare (at 10,000 pages, who could be?), I understand that the intention—or at least the rhetorical justification—of this legislation was to provide coverage for those who didn't have it. But there is something deeply and incontestably perverse about a law that so distorts and undermines the free activity of individuals that they can no longer buy and sell the goods and services that keep them alive. ObamaCare made my mother's old plan illegal, and it forced her to buy a new plan that would accelerate her disease and death. She awaits an appeal with her insurer.

Will this injustice be remedied, for her and for millions of others? Or is my mother to die because she can no longer afford the treatment that keeps her alive?

Democrats don't care if she dies. Indeed, the story told here will be waved away by regressive leftists, and President Blackwood and his mother will be demonized as liars and "privileged" sponges who should be paying for their own care (which is how depraved leftists attacked cancer survivor Edie Sundby when she dared speak out against the ObamaCare monstrosity).

This is our world in America today, a grim totalitarian world of Democrat Party repression and inhuman leftist indifference and demonization. God willing the people will rise up against the Obama tyranny soon enough, at the ballot box in November, and by the bullet if that's what it takes in the end. A free people will not long tolerate the jackboot of dictatorship. Americans proved that to the world once over 200 years ago. Perhaps will see the Spirit of '76 rekindled here again soon, not unlike the protesters in Venezuela and Ukraine are doing at this very moment.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Deja vu."

Alice Herz-Sommer, World's Oldest Holocaust Survivor, Dead at 110

An amazing life, living to 110 years. That's something else.

At the Chicago Tribune, "World's oldest Holocaust survivor, Alice Herz-Sommer, dies in UK."

And at London's Daily Mail, "World's oldest known holocaust survivor dies aged 110: Alice, who played piano in concentration camp, appeared in Oscar-nominated short film about her life."

Britain's Leftist Apologists for Pedophilia

On Twitter just now:

DAILY MAIL FRONT PAGE: How much longer can paedophilia apologists stay silent? #skypapers pic.twitter.com/F2k5LRxPJF

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 23, 2014

And at London's Daily Mail, "The truth about Labour's apologists for paedophilia: Police probe child sex campaign group linked to three top party officials in wake of Savile scandal," and "Apologists for paedophilia: As the Mail exposes more links between senior Labour figures and a vile paedophile group, one man who was abused as a child asks them: why won't you admit you were wrong?"

Another day, another report of criminal leftist depravity. I'll update when Daily Mail has more.

BuzzFeed Alleges Breitbart/Pajamas Media Payola on Ukraine Politics

Naturally, deranged lizard blogger Charles Johnson would pick this up, via Memeorandum.

But let's go right to Rosie Gray at BuzzFeed, "Exclusive: How Ukraine Wooed Conservative Websites":

WASHINGTON — Several conservative bloggers repeated talking points given to them by a proxy group for the Ukrainian government — and at least one writer was paid by a representative of the Ukrainian group, according to documents and emails obtained by BuzzFeed.

The Ukrainian campaign began in the run-up to high-stakes Ukrainian parliamentary elections last year, and sought to convince skeptical American conservatives that the pro-Russian Party of Regions, led by President Viktor Yanukovych, deserved American support. During that period, articles echoing Ukrainian government talking points appeared on leading conservative online outlets, including RedState, Breitbart, and Pajamas Media.

The emails and documents, which include prepackaged quotes from election officials and talking points that some writers copied nearly word-for-word, offer a glimpse into how foreign governments dodge tight Justice Department regulations on foreign propaganda to covertly lobby in the United States: The payments were routed through a front group in Belgium to an American consultant, who has urged writers not to cooperate with a reporter investigating the campaign.

The model resembles a recent stealth campaign in which bloggers were paid by the Malaysian government to write favorable stories, though the Ukraine campaign appears to have involved smaller sums of money.

One of the writers who participated in the campaign, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and because of lingering qualms about the arrangement, they said, described being offered $500 for a blog post praising Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions. The payment was arranged by George Scoville, a libertarian media strategist, and Scoville’s name was on the check, the source said.

An email from October 26, 2012 shows Scoville inviting writers to join a conference with Mikhail Okhendovskyy of Ukraine’s Central Election Commission. The call was organized by the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a Brussels-based group headed by Leonid Khazara, a former senior member of parliament from the pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. According to its website, it is a “a unique ‘Modern Ukraine’ organisation based in Brussels and operating internationally as an advocate for enhancing EU-Ukraine relations.”

In practical terms, the ECFMU exists to promote Yanukovych and the party — but its nominal independence means that its representatives in Washington do not need to register as foreign agents and make the extensive disclosures required under that program. Instead, the only evidence of its activity comes in the far more relaxed domestic lobbying disclosure law, which shows that the Brussels-based group employs two well-connected Washington lobbying firms, The Podesta Group and Mercury/Clark and Weinstock.

One email from October 29, the day after the election, shows Scoville sending out documents full of exit poll results and prepackaged statements from election observers.

“I just wanted to share the attached documents with you in case you were interested,” Scoville writes. “You’re under no obligation to write anything, but I wanted you to have this info in case you were feeling nostalgic and/or entrepreneurial :)”.

“But in all seriousness, if you could spend a few minutes today tweeting about the results using #ukrainevotes and promoting some of the pieces you wrote, that would be very helpful to us,” Scoville writes.

So far it's just the crazed lizard dolt at Memeorandum, although Boing Boing had the story a couple of days ago, so it's not like the idiot Johnson "broke" the story or anything, the f-king moron.

And hey, I'll believe this story when BuzzFeed posts all the email evidence and the name of the so-called anonymous "writer" making the allegations.

Libel-Free Adolescent Bill Schmalfeldt: 'CEASE AND DESIST'!

You gotta read this post over at the Other McCain, "Bill Schmalfeldt: ‘CEASE and DESIST’!"

The epic loser troll Schmalfeldt posted an open letter demanding that he not be libeled by WJJ Hoge or any of his commenters at Hogewash, to which I responded on Twitter, with apologies to X-Ray Spex, lol.

.@RSMcCain, Lol, Schmalfeldt's a "libel free" adolescent. http://t.co/OjjiQfKJEp

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 23, 2014

Professor Lisa Duggan and the Academic Boycott of Israel

I'm getting a kick out of this posting at Israel Matzav, "American Studies Association President-elect holding 'secret' anti-Israel conference at NYU." And following the links takes us to Elder of Ziyon, "ASA's president-elect hosting SECRET anti-Israel conference at NYU (Zionists not welcome)."

Again, it's pretty hilarious. It turns out that Lisa Duggan, who is a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU's Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (which means its a department of whatever the f-k its professors want to drone on about), has advertised an NYU American Studies Program titled "Circuits of Influence: U.S., Israel, & Palestine." (Clicking around we find Professor Duggan's also affiliated with NYU's Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, which "encourages students to question the meanings of 'male' and 'female,' as well as of sexual norms, in both Western and non-Western societies." Lulz.)

In any case, there's an Eventbrite page where you can buy tickets for the conference, although Professor Duggan's trying to keep the conference on the down low, as can be seen from her Facebook posting:



As noted at Edler of Ziyon:

The conference will have the usual obscene Israel-bashing that one would expect from the ASA,with speakers from Adalah-NY, Students for Justice in Palestine, and "Jewish Voice for Peace."

Indeed, the entire conference seems to be made up to justify the unjustifiable boycott of Israel voted on by the ASA and condemned by hundreds of colleges and universities.

Yeah, well. The same old story, blah blah.

More at Algemeiner, "NYU Prof to Head ASA, Supports Israel Boycott; NY Lawmakers Threaten to Withdraw State Aid," and "Forbes Investigative Journalist Rips NYU President Over ‘Vanilla’ Response to ASA Boycott." No surprise, but it turns out Professor Duggan's a terror-coddler. (And go right to the piece at Forbes, from NYU alumnus and Forbes Contributing Editor Richard Behar, "Open Letter to NYU's President: Why The American Studies Assn.'s Israel Boycott Makes Me Ashamed to Be An Alumnus."

Plus, at Cathy Young argued in November at Newsday:

The boycott’s agenda is to make Israel a pariah state. There has been much debate on whether the blatant double standard of such ostracism is rooted in anti-Jewish bias. The bias here is anti-Western: the Israel-hating left sees Israel as an outpost of Western and American imperialism oppressing a Third World people. However, anti-Israel animus often does overlap with anti-Semitism, as the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights recently noted.

Whatever its motive, the anti-Israel boycott is an affront to the true spirit of both political and intellectual liberalism. This movement should be opposed not only by Israel’s supporters, but also by anyone concerned with the state of the American academy.

As readers know, the public outrage and pushback over the ASA's academic boycott of Israel is ongoing, although this attempt to hold a secret "Circuits of Influence" conference is a new, troubling development. So, folks can go to NYU's page for Leadership and University Administration and follow the page links for the college president and other administrators. I'm going to send them an email in the morning and I'm encouraging readers to do so as well. Let's see if we can shine a spotlight on this secret conference the university is hosting, obviously in violation of the public trust, if not New York state law.

Added: Don't miss William Jacobson, at Legal Insurrection, "Vicious and Deceptive anti-Israel Propaganda Hate Week starts."

Hustler Magazine v. Falwell Turns 26

From Kathy Shaidle, at Pajamas:

When it comes to even the most basic conceptions of free speech and robust public debate, 1988 might as well be 260 years ago, never mind twenty-six.

Kathy's talking about Mark Steyn's ridiculous defense against the morally (and financially) bankrupt climate hoax-ster Michael Mann. Her comparison is to Hustler Magazine's Larry Flint, who prevailed in court over the obviously hapless Jerry Falwell, and she writes:

A lot has changed since 1988.

Before Mark Steyn’s first brushes with the speech-chillers in 2008, I’d naively presumed — having come of age in the seventies and eighties created by Flynt and his fellow liberals (and seen the movie version of his case win great acclaim) — that every smart, right-thinking individual still felt that way.

Instead, I heard an endless stream of idiots — some of them in positions of authority, God help us — drag out today’s cliche of choice, that “you can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”

I had the pleasure of watching Steyn using his rapier wit and knowledge of American history to crush a Toronto politico who foolishly employed that tired “argument.”

Yet what struck me was how unaffected this moron was by Steyn’s evisceration; he just droned on brainlessly for another minute or so.

(Amusingly, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who coined that idiotic “crowded theater” line, also famously wrote in a pro-eugenics argument that “three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Having watched David Zimmer sputter impotently and ignorantly while he questioned Steyn, I’m reluctantly inclined to agree that there really are altogether too many morons cluttering up the joint…)

Now, back to the Mann situation: one is supposedly guaranteed a jury of one’s peers, which in Steyn’s case is cause enough for pessimism.

But bear in mind that Steyn’s first judge was so stupid that she got the defendants mixed up.

In 1988, Flynt was the “liberal”/good guy and Falwell the “conservative” bad guy.

Today, in brain-dead, conformist, politically correct America, I fear Steyn will be viewed as the “Falwell” of the case even though he’s (technically) the “Flynt.”

Plus it was easy for Larry Flynt to play the outrageous, courageous “free speech” hero, and not just because he was, temperamentally, a daredevil and a brat.

In the first place, he was a millionaire many times over.

More at the link.

F-king leftist morons.

Cuba Sends Troops to Venezuela to Crush Democratic Uprising

This is fascinating, from Ezra Levant on Twitter.

While the world watches the Olympics, Cuba sends troops to put down #Venezuelan democracy uprising: https://t.co/LndgctzADI

— Ezra Levant (@ezralevant) February 23, 2014

And also at Babalú, "Turmoil in Venezuela: Violent repression continues as Cuban troops arrive to aid dictatorship."

Arribo de 4 aviones a terminal auxiliar de Maiquetía procedentes de Cuba. Imagen confiable hoy pic.twitter.com/sDHUqw3cak

— DeivisRamírezMiranda (@deivisramirez) February 22, 2014

And following the links, see Caracas Chronicles, "Gocho Uprising Update."

The Regnerus New Family Structures Study Goes to Court

Folks might remember Professor Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas. A couple of years back he was in the news with his large-N research study finding that children of homosexuals parents did less well socially and educationally than children raised by their parents in intact biological families (IBFs). The left's reaction to this wasn't just to dispute the findings. Monstrous far-left academics and their associations (professional and media) sought to utterly destroy him with professional and criminal penalties. It was a vicious spectacle. See, "Progressives Attack Professor Mark Regnerus Over Same-Sex Parenting Research."

In any case, the Regnerus study is having its day in court. See the New York Times, "Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage Take Bad-for-Children Argument to Court."

Remember, the left's response to criticism, facts, and logic is to destroy any and all opposition. They are vile, vindictive people. You're lucky if you don't have to spend time around them.

Scott Walker's Right-to-Work Legislation Has Had 'Devastating Effect' on Wisconsin's Public-Sector Unions

This is why the left seethes with burning hatred for Governor Walker.

At the New York Times, "Wisconsin’s Legacy for Unions":

Three years ago, a labor leader named Marty Beil was one of the loudest opponents of Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair bill,” a proposal that brought tens of thousands of protesters out to the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison in frigid February weather. A gruff-voiced grizzly of a man, Mr. Beil warned that the bill was rigged with booby traps that would cripple the state’s public-sector unions.

He gets no satisfaction from being right. Since the law was passed, membership in his union, which represents state employees, has fallen 60 percent; its annual budget has plunged to $2 million from $6 million.

Mr. Walker’s landmark law — called Act 10 — severely restricted the power of public-employee unions to bargain collectively, and that provision, among others, has given social workers, prison guards, nurses and other public employees little reason to pay dues to a union that can no longer do much for them. Members of Mr. Beil’s group, the Wisconsin State Employees’ Union, complain that their take-home pay has fallen more than 10 percent in recent years, a sign of the union’s greatly diminished power.

“It’s had a devastating effect on our union,” Mr. Beil, its executive director, said of Act 10. He was sitting in his Madison office, inside the headquarters that his union, hard up for cash, may be forced to sell. The building is underused anyway, as staff reductions have left many offices empty.

Wisconsin was the first state to grant public-sector unions the right to negotiate contracts. Before Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed that law in 1959, only unionized workers in private companies had a government-protected right to bargain collectively. But the Wisconsin idea soon spread around the country. Act 10 is an about-face, and Mr. Walker and his Republican supporters see it as a tough-minded strategy that other states can follow. History repeating itself, if in reverse.

Many labor leaders and union members are still fuming about the law. It bars public-sector unions from bargaining over pensions, health coverage, safety, hours, sick leave or vacations. All they can negotiate is base pay, and even that is limited: any raises they win cannot exceed inflation.

“I speak to union officials in other states, and I tell them, ‘Don’t be misled,’ ” Mr. Beil said. “We thought this could never happen here. But it did. You have to stay vigilant.”

Mr. Walker, who is widely viewed as a Republican presidential contender in 2016, has already emboldened other Republican-controlled states to enact measures that weaken unions and cut benefits. Tennessee and Idaho passed laws that cut back bargaining rights for public schoolteachers, while Ohio curbed collective bargaining for all state employees — though that law was repealed in a 2011 referendum. Even longtime union strongholds like Michigan and Indiana have enacted right-to-work laws that undercut private-sector unions by banning any requirements that workers pay union dues or fees. (A state judge’s decision that declared the Indiana law unconstitutional is being appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.)

Mr. Walker’s tough stance toward public-employee unions has steeled governors and mayors grappling with large unfunded pension obligations. And his criticisms of pensions have been reinforced by the turmoil in Detroit, where the often-generous and sometimes scandal-ridden pension system played a substantial role in the city’s bankruptcy.

“You’re seeing more politicians willing to stand up to public-sector unions,” said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University. “Fairly or unfairly, public-sector unions are increasingly being seen as part of the problem.”

Photo Credit: Althouse (on Flickr).

OMG Bizarro Homofascist Leftists!

I'm incredulous this is even real, but see Robert Stacy McCain, "LGBT Activist Declares: ‘We Need to Start Making Their Lives a Living Hell’."

Homofascist gaystapo hatred.

But RTWT at the Other McCain.

Hockey Stick Warming Conman Michael Mann Facing Bankruptcy

Maybe the f-ker will wind up behind bars.

At iOWNTHEWORLD, "MICHAEL MANN FACES BANKRUPTCY AS HIS COURTROOM CLIMATE CAPERS COLLAPSE."