The Ugly Face of Union Labor

When I was growing up, boys were taught that gentlemen didn’t strike ladies or lay their hands on them in a rough manner, the assumption being that everyone desired, or should desire, to grow up to be a gentleman or a lady.

Back in the day, there were no exceptions that would have made breaking these gentlemanly strictures acceptable, and the only boys who would do so were the ones from the wrong side of the tracks; that sad group of families who were not just poor, but also impoverished, if you understand my meaning.

Fast forward to this guy – roughly my contemporary – and watch as he assaults my friend, Tabitha Hale, in public, in broad daylight.

I realize that teaching children to behave like gentlemen and ladies may be viewed as quaint and somewhat passé, but really, this guy is old enough to know better. Not only did he lay his hands on a woman, he doubled down on the ungentlemanly behavior by failing to accept responsibility for his own actions.

I’d often wondered what happened to some of those boys I grew up with…the ones who survived the drugs and the bar fights and the toll that fast living can take. Now I know; they became union thugs.

Read Tabitha’s first-hand account of her experience.

Update 1: Glenn Beck interviews Tabitha Hale.

Medical Ethics, Wisconsin-Style

From the American Medical Association’s Principle’s of Medical Ethics.

A physician shall uphold the standards of professionalism, be honest in all professional interactions, and strive to report physicians deficient in character or competence, or engaging in fraud or deception, to appropriate entities.

I think that bears repeating. A physician shall…be honest in all professional interactions. Furthermore, should a physician become aware that one of his colleagues is “engaging in fraud or deception,” it’s incumbent upon him to report that activity to the proper authorities.

Now it’s true that only about a third of all practicing physicians in the United States are members of the AMA and it may well be that the doctors handing out fraudulent work excuses in Wisconsin are not; however, the AMA “…encourages all practicing physicians in the US to consider our ethics policy as a useful source for guidance.”

Wisconsin physicians have a choice to make about what’s important; the trust of the public or protecting union workers who have illegally walked off their jobs. Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer doctors who adhere to the highest standards of professional ethics rather than doctors who feel that the end justifies the means.

Update 1: UW Health will launch an investigation to “identify which UW Health physicians were involved and whether their behavior constituted violations of medical ethics or University of Wisconsin and UW Health policies and work rules.”

CBS Displays A Terminal Lack Of Intellectual And Journalistic Curiosity

CBS reports that, while alcohol-related deaths due to liver disease have declined in many countries since the 1980s, deaths in Britain have risen…but it apparently doesn’t occur to them to wonder if their health care system might have anything do to with it.