http://langlitztokyo.blogspot.jp/

Incredible stuff from Langlitz Japan

Guess who's back

Hello!  Just figured out how to sign in again.  Will update more often!

Whatever Judt’s initial ideological commitments, he later concerned himself with a stark and important question: “how so many smart people could have told themselves such stories with all the terrible consequences that ensued.” The story was that of Communism, which perpetrated “the intellectual sin of the century: passing judgment on the fate of others in the name of their future as you see it, . . . concerning which you claim exclusive and perfect information.”

Russell Banks

Birnbaum: I would like to think that people who read are keeping alive a certain sense of humanity. But then what about e-readers (laughs)?

Banks: That’s OK. It’s still story. Stories are what connect us to each other, face-to-face. When you read a novel, whether you hear it on an audio tape or see it on a Kindle, you are seeing the world through the eyes of someone other than yourself. You are inhabiting another human being. It’s a deeply personal encounter. It gives meaning to someone else’s subjective experience, a single person’s experience. That’s a different kind of experience than a movie allows. A movie—you don’t interact with it, you just accept it. It takes you over like a very powerful drug. Story is a different thing and there are many delivery systems for story.

http://whatsonstevebuscemisstoop.tumblr.com/page/5

Lefties Love Insurance Companies
Gov. Scott Walker's labor reforms finally took effect last Wednesday. Literally the next day, Byron York of the Washington Examiner had a report showing why they are a boon to Wisconsin's taxpayers:


***** QUOTE *****
The Kaukauna School District, in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin near Appleton, has about 4,200 students and about 400 employees. It has struggled in recent times and this year faced a deficit of $400,000. But after the law went into effect, at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, school officials put in place new policies they estimate will turn that $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. And it's all because of the very provisions that union leaders predicted would be disastrous. . . .

Some of the most important improvements in Kaukauna's outlook are because of the new limits on collective bargaining.

In the past, Kaukauna's agreement with the teachers union required the school district to purchase health insurance coverage from something called WEA Trust--a company created by the Wisconsin teachers union. "It was in the collective bargaining agreement that we could only negotiate with them," says Arnoldussen. "Well, you know what happens when you can only negotiate with one vendor." This year, WEA Trust told Kaukauna that it would face a significant increase in premiums.

Now, the collective bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. "With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,' " says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes. At least for the moment, Kaukauna is staying with WEA Trust, but saving substantial amounts of money.
***** END QUOTE *****

Free of work rules that limited teacher hours, Kaukauna is also able to reduce class sizes.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, meanwhile, reports that the WEA Trust "is refusing to release hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal money to school districts that recently dropped the company in favor of less expensive providers."

These stories show how so-called collective bargaining in the public sector is actually a conspiracy to rip off the taxpayers. But if you've been reading this column, you already knew that. What even we didn't realize until now is that the lefties claiming to champion "worker rights" were actually defending insurance companies!