Thanks Kyle. I get so depressed seeing all the crap young people and older idiots write/say these days that it's nice to know mine isn't the only voice in a wilderness of ignorance.
Bevin is a good Governor and he has done some great things and is trying to shore up our pension system BUT he has the same disease Trump has. He runs off at the mouth constantly. He called teachers ignorant and throwing a temper tantrum the other day. While the may be throwing temper tantrums and many may be ignorant, you can't alienate a huge voting block. Many teachers voted for Bevin. He will be hard pressed to get many of their votes back.
I voted for him and I still support him. I support him even though he is making changes to our pension that effects me directly (both my wife and I are both on similar state retirement pension). I support changes and we all know that pensions are normally not cost effective. His changes that were first proposed were drastic and were going to cost those who already have retired huge increases in health care costs. We all want reform but it is ridiculous to make one group of people responsible for bearing all of the cost of pension reform. Hazardous duty workers see absolutely no change in their benefits. Nothing. So all police and fire are exempt from shoring up retirement.
I agree Mint. It has already been put off too long. Making practical decisions across the board would be the best. Everyone should feel the pain a little. My employer is in complete limbo as they may possibly owe 1.9million annually to shore up the retirement. They have always done their part but will have to pay to make the system solvent. Politicians have crapped the money away and now others have to pay the piper. It is not fair but that is what elected officials do...especially Democrats.
I agree with what he is saying.... it is a cultural problem. I would like to see some research and comments on why it seems to be a cultural problem that is seemingly affecting caucasion kids.... It doesn't seem to be happening in predominantly black schools. Maybe I'm wrong but that is how it appears to me.
Pretty much the only people who have defined benefit plans anymore work for governments or unions. Private industry replaced them with defined contribution plans back the '80's and '90's because they were financially unsupportable.
Governments being governments and politicians being politicians rolled over and caved to union pressure not simply to maintain their defined benefit plans, but to sweeten them, making them even less affordable. That's why you see so many states in financial difficulty; because they cannot afford the sweet deals they offered.
So who's to blame? Politicians for caving, for sure. Politicians even more for even allowing for public employees to be unionized in the first place, because that gave unions yuge leverage over them.
But unions are also to blame as they are the ones who threatened and intimidated the politicians to give them financially unsupportable pensions in the first place. And they did it using money they extorted from taxpayers. This sort of thing is why even FDR was opposed to the unionization of public employees.
All state employees are non union. The vast majority of county workers in Kentucky are non union. Only teachers, fire and police are unionized. In a sense all unionized people on state pensions work for county and city governments.
The unions are not the problem in KY. It is a combination of a bad deal to start with and poor management. Mostly poor management from eons of Democrat rule. Governor Bevin is on the right track but his plan is to let teachers bear the brunt of the fix. Hazardous duty workers see no changes at all. Teachers and school board employees are the largest demographic on state pensions. No way Bevin survives due to the way he has handled this and the budget.
Good for Kentucky! But that's not the case in many states.
I was in Sacramento a couple of years ago at the Capitol building working on some wildlife issues. All I could see wherever I looked were state union employees wearing purple SEIU t-shirts. On the street were the dozens upon dozens of busses they'd used to get to the Capitol to, of course, lobby CA Assembly Members and Senators for MORE FREE $H!T!
This, of course was during the work-week and during work-hours.
BB, I think the statistical sampling is just so small it would be hard to come up with a definitive cause and effect. The one thing that does stand out is that Paranoid schizophrenia is involved in a lot of these shooting and that goes across the races. The Virginia Tech shooter was Asian and the Navy Yard shooter was black. Every time it seems someone is pushed on the subway tracks here we find out the person that did it is off their meds.
I agree Mint........... Though I think it's something that must be looked at......... The terrorist type assaults seem to be taking place mostly in predominantly middle class schools....... I don't recall those specific types of attacks occurring in inner city predominantly black schools.....
Might or might not be related but I don’t understand why we medicate hyperactive kids. When I was young we were all hyperactive and told to go play outside. Focus that energy instead of quashing it.
Just like Jack Russell Terriers that people take to shelters because they demand attention....
Middle class can afford the drugs to put their kids on so they don't have to babysit them. The drug companies make money while the drugs cause/enhance mental illness, its a vicious cycle. If children were disciplined and engaged rather than drugged we would have less of this crap.
I know here in the St. Louis area the inner city schools all have metal detectors and armed resource officers at the doors. Or at least that is what someone was saying on the radio the other day. They were installed years ago when they were having gang problems. In the suburbs none of the schools have metal detectors...probably the same for all these other schools where the shootings have occurred.
Gflight... I think you have a point. Middle class can also afford all the latest greatest (most violent) T.V. games...and unlimited internet access....... also to be used as a babysitter for the children......
It is too bad that Bevin will only serve one term. He and all of the Republicans will be voted out due to their botching of the pension crisis. I am a Bevin supporter too but he alienated every teacher in the state. He's done.
