With what’s happening today in Wisconsin we’re hearing a lot about civil rights and workers rights and all those buzz words the Left uses to make something wicked sound noble. The idea that collective bargaining is some kind of right is beyond absurd. I’ve been in the workforce for going on 30 years now and have never had the right to collective bargain and up until the aristocratic public worker class rose up in my home state to hold onto their government-enforced aristocracy, I had no idea what collective bargaining was. Essentially, “collective bargaining” allows a union to have a say, not only in wages and benefits, but also in company policy, everything from how many hours an employee will work each week to, incredibly, the procedures necessary for termination.

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If you want to see first hand a heartbreaking and absolutely frightening look at the human toll of giving these corrupt teachers unions collective bargaining rights, I urge you again to see what is the most important film of last year, the unfairly Oscar-snubbed (for political reasons) ”Waiting for Superman.”  Written and directed by Davis Guggenheim, the proud, union-loving liberal who won an Oscar for his Global Warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” not only is this searing look at the devastation unions have brought down on our children an exceptionally well produced film, but it’s also a very personal work from a filmmaker who probably had a Road to Damascus moment. Guggenheim went in likely expecting to discover a public school system under assault by budget cuts and underpaid teachers. What he found was the complete opposite. That he told the truth, that he bucked the Leftist narrative and put what’s best for America’s children above his own preconceived notions and then picked a fight with one of the most ruthless unions in America, is to this Oscar winner’s eternal credit.

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The Pixar movies have always had a special place in the heart of conservatives and libertarians because they show a commitment to human excellence without apology. While the films are directed at children, they are anything but childish.  Each of the Pixar films deserves celebration in its own right, but here are a few of my favorites.

In Ratatouille, in the obscure French countryside, an aspiring chef, Remy, follows the televised culinary advice of his idol, Auguste Gusteau. Remy dreams of following him, but there’s just one problem: he’s a rat and rats don’t belong in the kitchen. Fate offers Remy an opportunity Separated from his family during a farmer’s raid, Remy falls into the sewage, traveling thousands of miles, until, at last he finds himself underneath Gusteau’s very Parisian restaurant!

 The choice of locale is deliberate, of course. Paris, long the home of big government and bien-pensant, is also the home of gourmands, haute cuisine, and critique, so Remy’s passion might yet find outlet. Alas, in France, the hopes of the entrepreneur are subordinated to the plans of others. The word for the French economic system, “dirigiste,” means to direct and the French love nothing more than to direct their citizenry, and that, of course, includes who is and who is not among the crème de la crème par excellence. While his keen sense of smell saves the family from rat poisoned garbage, Remy knows it still stinks to be a rat who loves food amongst those who couldn’t care less. He is his family’s bête noire. Quelle horreur! (more…)

Our government dare not promote a national religion that refers to a traditional notion of God. We are collectively trained to avoid pushing our values onto others largely because relativism claims that there are no transcendent moral truths. But where we empty our lives of one religion, we don’t embrace neutrality, we just put some other dogma on the throne and claim “the debate is over.”

The worship and love of materials is our nation’s religion. I’d say it was a new religion, but it’s actually the oldest religion in the world, Paganism.  Judeo-Christian values came from a pagan world with a radical new concept: the Creator, not the creation, should not be worshiped. (more…)