Goofy Ridge – Looking Down At The Madhouse

So while surfing about the web there was a link posted (against the rules, of course) in the Chicago Sun Times blog section. Clicked it and learned from the nice public servants that the poor dears have to pay into their pension fund with every paycheck. Not all mind you, just some.  Apparently we shouldn’t begrudge them their obscene pensions because of their minimal contributions.

Of course, the rest of us (those of us that pay for most of the nice officers’ pension) has to pay Social Security and Medicare with every paycheck too and I’d bet that since most of us pay this for our whole working lives, as opposed to a couple decades, that we actually pay far more than the public servants that live off of our productivity.

We all pay into their retirement funds. Do public servants pay for our retirements?

Just an observation.

Here’s the link to the consumption side. And as expected, there’s instructions about how to contact and influence politicians to keep the gravy train chugging along.

Seems that the courts are a possible recourse for freedom of citizens of Massachusetts  and Illinois. Both states have laws making the recording of a police officer (and some other better-than-citizens types) even in public, doing public work, a felony punishable by years in prison.

Here’s what the First Circuit Court of Appeals had to say about a Massachusetts case:

Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting “the free discussion of governmental affairs.” Moreover, as the Court has noted, “[f]reedom of expression has particular significance with respect to government because ‘[i]t is here that the state has a special incentive to repress opposition and often wields a more effective power of suppression.’” This is particularly true of law enforcement officials, who are granted substantial discretion that may be misused to deprive individuals of their liberties. Ensuring the public’s right to gather information about their officials not only aids in the uncovering of abuses, but also may have a salutary effect on the functioning of government more generally.

Here in Illinois we just had a court case whereby the jury ruled in favor of a woman that recorded a cop trying to buffalo her to drop sexual harassment charges against another cop. She was facing 15 years in prison for turning on the recorder on her iPhone.

Here’s a reminder for those of us that lean left: the only states that still push such draconian Stalinesque laws are the two that are probably the most blue at the moment. Maybe the libertarians are right when they say both parties are the same and both are bums.

Click Here to Read the details here