Video: What’s worse, an Al Qaeda nuclear attack or the teachers’ unions?
posted at 10:30 pm on February 19, 2007 by Allahpundit
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“Hey! You got your Al Qaeda in my teacher’s union.”
“No, you got your teacher’s union in my Al Qaeda!”
Savage on February 19, 2007 at 10:38 PM
Al Qaeda= Teachers Union looks sameo, sameo to me and thier tactics too.TRUTH is needed to set them FREE
bones47 on February 19, 2007 at 10:47 PM
Oy.
Greg Tinti on February 19, 2007 at 10:47 PM
I wonder what Bill Gates would have to say on the subject?
PinkyBigglesworth on February 19, 2007 at 10:49 PM
He’s right about teachers destroying generations of kids. Why destroy a good point with the rest of that nonsense? Oh yeah, ratings.
forged rite on February 19, 2007 at 10:50 PM
The teacher unions may be worse than al Qaeda, but are they worse than the Mexicans?
frankj on February 19, 2007 at 11:00 PM
That was an odd article you linked to Pinky. The liberal Steve Jobs denouncing teachers unions and the (somewhat) conservative Michael dell defending them. Weird.
forged rite on February 19, 2007 at 11:00 PM
I don’t agree with the analogy but I went to Chicago Public Schools through 8th grade and when I wasn’t dodging bullies with knives I did notice the politicization of my education and the cavalier attitude of some of the teachers.
I’d give him a break on the hyperbole. Isn’t it sweeps week?
Bill C on February 19, 2007 at 11:02 PM
In my opinion the Teacher’s Unions are more interested in promoting the political power of the Left than performing profesional duties they are paid for with taxpayer funds.
Members of the Teacher’s Unions actively engage in political indoctrination favorable to the Left at the taxpayers expense.
The biggest weakness this country has is the Left, of which the Teacher’s Unions are a major part. It is naive to expect members of the Teacher’s unions not to use their positions to influence young minds to the political doctrine of the Left. They will use every opportunity, at taxpayers expense, to promote everything from homosexuality, multiculturalism, and try dismantel any notions of nationalism or patriotism they can.
We will always have enemies such as Al Qaeda, but the real threat is the Teacher’s Unions that are actively indoctrinating the young of this country with the weakness and decay of the Left.
A nuclear attack is entirely predictable because of the influence of the Left. Sad, but after this attack their influence will diminish and the United States will be able to defend itself in an aggressive manner appropriate for the times.
One of the ways we can diminish the influence of our country’s biggest weakness, the Left, is to promote vouchers that allow people to choose for themselves – and not be forced to pay for the political indoctrination promoted by members of the Teacher’s Union.
omegaram on February 19, 2007 at 11:02 PM
Boortz has some great ideas. This seems to be a quick clip (intentional or not) without years of context from his radio show.
Check out his site.
He’s right about this in many ways. Although I still vote on international issues this time around.
middleroad on February 19, 2007 at 11:06 PM
Well, it takes good parenting to counter act the teachers. I don’t have kids but we always tell my niece and nephew, what ever they learn in school, not to trust and not to say some stuff in school. They understand how sensitive the school system is and been in trouble for it, because we are not like them at home.
I bet there are so many kids out there in detention for the dumbest things these days. It is up to the parent to support the kids and tell them it is ok, the teachers are moonbats.
StuLongIsland on February 19, 2007 at 11:11 PM
It has not been fun being a conservative while teaching. I think the unions are the worst thing to happen to education. Most of the teachers who teach Social Studies and Science are the biggest leftists in town. They’re training the students to be dem robots.
Catie96706 on February 19, 2007 at 11:12 PM
well, you have to ask yourself what’s worse: thousands of dead people or a generation of idiots not worth killing
Opinionnation on February 19, 2007 at 11:14 PM
I agree that teacher’s unions are damaging a generation of kids, but the analogy between their politics and a terrorist attack seems a bit cheesy. In reality, both are horribly bad, but in distinctly different ways. Better analogies to draw would be that teachers unions have a more devastating effect on our education system than even the pitiful salaries we pay our teachers. Or a premature withdrawal from Iraq would be worse – in the long run – than a nuclear attack by al-Qaeda. At least draw some plausible parallels. I think he’s trying to elevate – or lower – teachers unions to the status of terrorists and I’m not buying it.
thedecider on February 19, 2007 at 11:16 PM
Good question, want to know one possibe answer?
You think the Democats and the Unions have propoganda down, the Mexicans, like Al Jazerah, have it down to a science:
Don’t let the truth get in the way…
This is the tripe being taught in American schools, supplied by the Mexican Government, supported by the Teacher’s Unions.
When the “Infitada” starts, and you are too busy “hating Bush”, “who ya gonna call???”
PinkyBigglesworth on February 19, 2007 at 11:35 PM
Link
PinkyBigglesworth on February 19, 2007 at 11:38 PM
Thank you, Boortz!
VOTE SCHOOL VOUCHERS – VOTE SCHOOL CHOICE!!
http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/schoolchoice/index.html
locomotivebreath1901 on February 19, 2007 at 11:52 PM
I”m a career public school teacher of 25 years. I have said for a number of years that we should privatize the whole mess and be done with it. We are losing the best and the brightest while being obsessed with the worst and the dimmest.
Mojave Mark on February 19, 2007 at 11:58 PM
*snort*
spmat on February 20, 2007 at 12:02 AM
Really, is there a union anywhere that doesn’t lean to the left? I have a family member who works for the railrod. He get’s all sorts of propaganda (yes, I will use that word) from them telling him whom he should vote for, and political commentary – all leaning to the left and in support of democrat politicians. Unions fear conservatives in general, and conservative ideals on the whole. It isn’t difficult to break down the reason why. Unions unionize for the sake of keeping unions in power. They seldom provide any benefit to employees in today’s economy. Often, they place such a strangle-hold on business that union workers end up losing their jobs because the company can no longer afford to compete in the marketplace. In the end, what do unions do for employees in today’s world that is of any benefit to said employees? Well, you just pay your union dues and they’ll happily send you all the propaganda you can fill your head with.
thedecider on February 20, 2007 at 12:09 AM
Twenty five years? I applaud you, Mojave Mark! My sister is a public school teacher. I don’t know about you, but I know she works long hours for sub-standard pay. She loves her job. Her second job (needed to pay bills) – not so much.
thedecider on February 20, 2007 at 12:12 AM
Speaking of American education, here is a great piece by Steve Sailer:
Why “No Child Left Behind” Is Nuts
tommy1 on February 20, 2007 at 12:15 AM
The Teacher’s Union is more dangerous by far….In fact it is ahead of MTV in it’s threat to American Civilization….
Tim Burton on February 20, 2007 at 12:53 AM
What do you expect out of a document written by Ted “Drunk Off His Arse, Drunk and Drove Off a Bridge” Kenneday
Tim Burton on February 20, 2007 at 12:54 AM
Once I used to sort packages at UPS when I was in college. Had to join the Teamsters local to do so. First thing, $125 union dues came out of my first check. They had UPS concede to pay everyone on Thursday, so that the ususal suspects could call in sick on Friday. The smarter employees knew how to game the system, so they could take as many Fridays and Mondays off till thy got written up, then go crying to the union Steward and file a complaint.
Another experience I had: Back in the late ’70s, during the big Teamsters strike (when independent truckers were getting shot at up in NW Indiana), I worked for a tire company delivering tires in a stake bed truck. As I was driving up I-65 past the Lowell, IN exit I looked in my rearview mirror to see my load of expensive Michelin tires on fire! December 26, 1978. It tuned out I was a victim of a Molotov cocktail thrown from an overpass. I wasn’t even driving a tractor-trailer rig!
Not only are unions in business to protect unions, they are there to protect the scum with their rank-and-file that do their bidding.
geekrunner on February 20, 2007 at 1:23 AM
What is scary is that besides the power of the Teacher’s Union, most of the rest of our Government workers are also Union members. Bigger government means bigger, more powerful Unions.
Doug on February 20, 2007 at 1:42 AM
+1
He’s got a point. The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world, if I remember correctly.
Unions are past their prime as a means of protecting workers, IMO… The Auto blogs I read like TTAC and Jalopnik; union guys get skewered pretty quickly, and thats just the UAW….
liquidflorian on February 20, 2007 at 2:46 AM
Naw, that answer didn’t surprise me. Boortz may have supported the WOT, but he doesn’t believe in the all-important-seriousness of terrorism the way The Baby Jesus does.
Mark Jaquith on February 20, 2007 at 4:28 AM
You’re worried about kids in school today? Have you talked to an adult lately? They’re a bunch of numbnuts.
Coronagold on February 20, 2007 at 6:42 AM
I miss Boortz now that I’m on the left coast. While I was stationed in VA he was a regular on my radio. He’s hilarious, sharp, and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. In fact, I’m amazed AP hasn’t linked him before now, they’re a perfect match. Libertarian, Christian-tweaking, etc. although I think Boortz might just be in the “nuke Mecca” crowd, so perhaps there’s a line that won’t be crossed.
My favorite announcement during his show matches this statement on his website:
In putting that concept to the test, Neil Boortz fanned the flames of the Dihydrogen Monoxide stir back in the mid-90’s.
I don’t believe Boortz’s comments on the clip are hyperbole or “over-the-top” at all. He’s right, more lives are being ruined by the “never your fault”, “government will handle it”, Godless school systems than all the terrorist attacks in history.
Freelancer on February 20, 2007 at 7:39 AM
He’s got a point.
From a long-term big-picture perspective, the teacher’s unions probably do more damage to the country. Nuclear terrorism would be a nightmare, but we’d probably emerge stronger for it.
Our education system, on the other hand, is a cancer, another “slow bleed,” this one draining us from within.
I spent 3 months working for the Michigan teacher’s union once; I saw it on the inside. Saw the spittle-flecked rage at the idea of vouchers or school choice. (Pro-choice? Huh?).
It was ugly. I’d prefer the bombs.
Professor Blather on February 20, 2007 at 7:55 AM
Living here in Georgia, I tend to be a regular listener of Boortz. I agree with him on a lot of things, but this privatization of education I have e-mailed him on dozens of times (never heard back from him). I agree, the Unions and the “liberalization” of the education system are problematic for us as a country. As a veterinarian, I am a product of the public (or government as Boortz said in this interview) school system and value my education above all else. I also have nothing but respect for the teachers that helped me to become who and what I am today. I also believe it was our “public” education system that allowed this country to become the powerhouse that it is today. My point is, it may be broke, so we should fix it. We don’t need to dismantle, privatize, and “rebuild” the entire system, we just need to repair what we’ve got. The starting point would be to find a way to dismantle or weaken the teachers unions. If a candidate were to use this as a platform for their election, they may be surprised at how many patriotic citizens realize it’s importance and vote for them on this issue alone. Teachers need to be allowed to teach (and discipline where necessary to teach) and student need to have their asses failed if they don’t pass these courses. I am mortified by the number of slacker, lazy students that are allowed to “slide” into the next grade just because the “system” says they have to or the parent throw a temper tantrum. Parents also need to be held accountable for the behavior and teaching of these children. If a parent is not living up to their responsibilities at home regarding their child education we need to have something in place that allows action to be taken against those parents. Having children should not be a right but a privelage with certain responsibilities. If one can’t live up to those responsibilities, then one shouldn’t be allowed to pro-create. This is the same spiel I give owners about pet ownership as well.
rayvet on February 20, 2007 at 8:08 AM
Mark Jaquith, I beg to differ with you. I listen to Boortz daily and his main peeve about the WOT is that we don’t call the enemy by what they truly are: Islamofascists. Instead, the media prefers to “youths,” “hooligans,” “freedom fighters,” etc. Neal is FERVENT about his seriousness in this war against Islamic jihad; he just says it’s not a “War on Terror” because we’re not fighting a tactic. We are, however, fighting a radical ideology.
MsUnderestimated on February 20, 2007 at 8:13 AM
He is correct.
Sadly so.
seejanemom on February 20, 2007 at 8:22 AM
Neal also would not vote his registered party line (Libertarian) because of their weak stance on national security and the war against Islamofacism.
rayvet on February 20, 2007 at 8:42 AM
I agree with many Conservative points on improving/reforming education choices in the United States. But honestly, here’s how this sounds to many folks who would here this:
Boortz and Hannity think the public school teachers in this country do more damage than a nuke going off in a metro area, killing hundreds of thousands. Think about that: the impact of that would last over a hundred years, debilitate the economy (what if it went off on Wall Street? Is that still o.k.?), cause massive ripples of civil unrest and panic and basically end our day to day lives as we know them.
I honestly see where y’all are coming from, but this kind of rhetoric really does nothing to further the goal here IMHO.
SouthernDem on February 20, 2007 at 9:10 AM
Excellent point. Agree 100%
One problem, though. Even the private schools are fading. It’s getting to the point that American parents do not know what a good education looks like.
Boys are dropping out of schools like flies and not going to college. They are working trades, so they can be with real men. Girls are snapping up all the accolades and wussifying the universities. Result: grumbling men and over-flattered women. Bad combination. Try and marry that generation off to each other.
naliaka on February 20, 2007 at 9:30 AM
I disagree with Boortz’s comparison.
While the teachers unions are destructive of our freedoms and contribute mightily to the failure of our education system to teach our kids, the temporary delusion of a percentage of each young generation should not be compared with the violent deaths of 100,000 civilians.
And if Boortz is willing to follow his theory to its logical end, i.e., that he would trade one for the other, then he is truly nuts.
Jaibones on February 20, 2007 at 9:39 AM
The whole teacher system has to change. They have to be held to the same job performance standards as regular people and the unions have got to go!
Candy Slice on February 20, 2007 at 9:52 AM
Where Boortz and Hannity are wrong is the length of time. The leftists have controlled the school districts for decades and look what it has gotten us. There is not a single major city that has a conservative majority, they have provided poor education to the poor people. An uneducated society, is a leftist society.
right2bright on February 20, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Right you are R2B. I saw Dr. Strangelove for the first time in 1977 in a high school american history class. This was during the cold war while SAC was still flying deterrent from the air. The message – anti communism is paranoid militarism. How’s that for your post war commie consiracy?
Buck Turgidson on February 20, 2007 at 10:19 AM
or conspiracy.
Buck Turgidson on February 20, 2007 at 10:23 AM
A kid can go home and read counter-arguments to any drivel doled out in a government school and educate him or herself.
No one can rise from the dead after a nuclear al Qaeda attack and reconstitute their atoms.
Boortz’s metaphorical overkill eviscerates his point.
profitsbeard on February 20, 2007 at 10:54 AM
Boortz is right again. Socialism/Communism/Dhimnitude as indocrinated through our government schools has a more lethal history than nuclear weapons.
Valiant on February 20, 2007 at 10:57 AM
What a dick. Sorry, but “somebody’s gotta say it”.
honora on February 20, 2007 at 10:58 AM
Jailbones, I think you may miss the long-term implications of the comparison. Teachers are now a major part of the move to declare America to have always been an evil force in the world (racist, sexist, homophobic, genocidal oppressors of the the poor), and we need to become Europe. This will likely soon lead to what might be called the “Spanish model” of reaction to terrorism: Blow us up, we do what you want. I don’t think we’ve quite reached that tipping point, but it’s not far off.
eeyore on February 20, 2007 at 11:01 AM
He’s got a point. If new generations of Americans are raised on the mind-numbing poison of political correctness, we’ll have no one, and no will, to defend the country against coming attacks, and we’ll make even the French look brave.
Halley on February 20, 2007 at 11:47 AM
From what I have read, you are an expect in the dick dept.
Wade on February 20, 2007 at 11:50 AM
Honora, based on the other posts of yours I’ve read, I’d expect such a response. Typical knee jerk reaction with no explanation of the comment. Folks of you persuasion just can’t stand it when someone express their beliefs and states facts to support this belief. It just baffles the liberal mind (what little there is to baffle anyway).
rayvet on February 20, 2007 at 12:31 PM
Let’s separate the two concepts. First of all, there is no greater threat to western civilization than Islam, whether by subsets such as al-qaeda, Wahabism, Sunnism or any other flavor of terrorism.
However, none of these groups would pose any danger if not for leftists, so in this regard, Teachers Unions are like AIDS, it isn’t the disease that kills you but that it allows other opportunistic devils to attack your body undefended.
bernieg1 on February 20, 2007 at 12:37 PM
I agree with omegaram.
The education system begets liberalism and liberalism begets socialist education.
I feel the change has to begin at the hiring standards level.
An enforced balance of educator politics would go a long way towards recognizing that bias and subsequent influencing exists and move towards a more realistic balance through mandate.
Speakup on February 20, 2007 at 1:44 PM
The question was the regarding long term threats to the United States. How dangerous are grown voters who don’t understand the idea of legislating from the bench? Who think this country is a democracy? Who don’t understand the dangers of democracy? Who don’t understand the importance of the Electoral College? Who don’t understand why it is not the place of Congress to wage war, or the dangerous implications of allowing them to?
One of Boortz favorite lines is to ask people if they would expect a school funded by Baptists to teach objectively about Baptists? How about a school funded by Catholics? Would you expect a school funded by Coca-Cola to have a curriculum unbiased regarding Coke and big business? Then why on earth do you think a government funded school would ever be critical of big government?
Terrorist attacks are like natural disastors, devasting in the short term but ultimately just a bad memory. A nation of big government loving idiots is doomed.
B Moe on February 20, 2007 at 1:59 PM
Not all of us, thank you very much.
Bob's Kid on February 20, 2007 at 3:01 PM
1. Yeah, I know. I was just throwing Jaquith a bone.
2. No, I don’t miss the long-term implications at all. I just don’t think you can use this kind of hyperbole to justify the very legitimate concern over even this hateful leftist cabal.
3. Ok, I just gotta ask. My screen name is J A I B O N E S, a weird nickname from childhood that doesn’t have anything to do with anything. But at least 10 of my bros here have written to me calling me “JailBones”. There must be a reason, I just don’t know what it is…
Can you help a brother out?
Jaibones on February 20, 2007 at 8:53 PM
Boortz has the conviction to stand behind his words, explain them, and justify them via his worldview. I certainly agree with him less than 100%, but he simply NEVER waffles on a subject.
That’s why he calls himself the high priest of the “church of the painful truth”. He doesn’t care what you or I think about him. He calls it like he sees it, using his BRAIN, not his EMOTION. Good for him.
Freelancer on February 20, 2007 at 9:44 PM
I am much afraid that schools will prove to be great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Script- ures, engraving them in the heart of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the word of God must become corrupt.
Martin Luther
====
…In the USSR, the church is separated from the state, and the school from the church.
Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R) Article 52
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The media, the intellectual community, government officials… those responsible for policy at every level–from the local school boards to the United States Supreme Court… seem determined to subvert and undermine the Christian principles and traditional family values that have upheld this society from its beginning.
Doctor Pat Robertson, From his book: The Secret Kingdom, page 133, (1992)
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I am convinced that the battle for humankinds’s future must be waged and won in the public school classrooms by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity…The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new… the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.
Humanist: John Dunphy — Humanist Magazine, 1983 Jan-Feb issue
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This country is in a moral free fall. For over two generations, the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum, expelling God from the school and from the government, replacing Him with evolution, where the strong kill the weak without moral consequences. And life has no inherent value.
Brian Rohrbough
Mr. Rohrbough’s son Dan was gunned down at
the Columbine High School shootings in 1999
Maxx on February 20, 2007 at 10:08 PM
Considering what Joseph Stalin said, Mr. Boortz is absolutely correct.
Maxx on February 20, 2007 at 10:57 PM
Maxx: great posts!
Professor Blather on February 20, 2007 at 11:37 PM
It’s an optical illusion. Our brain expects the L to be there. Since the back of the small b is small L-ish. We may not see it till you type it in caps, as you did. Have you met Jayhaw(k)?
Buck Turgidson on February 20, 2007 at 11:50 PM
I wondered. Too funny.
Jaibones on February 20, 2007 at 11:57 PM
I have a lot of respect for Boortz after listening to him for many years in Atlanta. Opposite is true for Sean Vanity.
Boortz can be a little over the top, but he never wavers in his convictions. He also is not even slightly crazy, mean-spirited, and maniacal like Savage is.
RW Wacko on February 21, 2007 at 11:25 AM
Wow… I have seen your handle here many times and have always read it as Jailbones. My mind just kept filling in the small L without me ever noticing that it wasn’t really there.
Watcher on February 21, 2007 at 1:48 PM
Bring it on, Boortz!
The teachers unions aren’t the only culprits’ in the degredation of education. The politically correct morons at the NCAA have forced the University of Illinois mascot “Chief Illiniwek” to perform his last time today because of “an offensive use of American Indian imagery”.
There are more important matters to be resolved and focus on, IMHO.
kevcad on February 21, 2007 at 4:08 PM
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