-By Warner Todd Huston

In one of the most disgusting displays of hubris and impropriety, a teachers union advocate used the murders at Sandy hook Elementary as an excuse to push teachers unions.

Diane Ravitch calls herself a “historian of education” and is a low level Research Professor of Education at New York University. On her blog for December 17 Ravitch heartlessly used the horrendous crime in Connecticut to push he union agenda.

After giving a list of what she appropriately calls the “hero teachers of Newtown,” Ravitch turns what might otherwise be a heartwarming post into a shilling for unions.

Ravitch says that, “every one of the teachers was a career educator,” but then goes on to dirty her post and her own name by saying,

Oh, and one other thing, all these dedicated teachers belonged to a union. The senior teachers had tenure, despite the fact that “reformers” (led by ConnCAN, StudentsFirst, and hedge fund managers) did their best last spring to diminish their tenure and to tie their evaluations to test scores. Governor Malloy said, memorably, to his shame, that teachers get tenure just for showing up. No one at Sandy Hook was just “showing up.”

What a disgusting display, eh?

One last thing on Ravitch. In her self-written bio, Ravitch notes that she has two grandchildren in “religious schools” in New York. I’ll bet she’s disowned her children for forcing her poor, poor grandchildren into such a hell. She must be so embarrassed over this terrible situation.

Oh, but it gets worse. Not only did this little known blogger “wave the bloody shirt” by using the murders of children to push her tax-sucking union agenda, the President of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) came to her aide when people began to correctly criticize Ravitch for her revolting behavior.

Lewis agreed with the putrid Ravitch that using crimes and tragedies for personal gain was perfectly OK because we have a “24/7 news cycle.”

On the other, the educrats who do not agree with her, read her posts, too so as to keep abreast of her thoughts and are ready to pounce if they see an opening. There might have been a time where “politicizing” tragic events, especially mass shootings was thought to be in poor taste. That has changed with the 24/7 news cycle that continues to focus far too much time and energy on the perpetrator of the massacre than that of our precious victims.

Lewis may want to get out from behind her computer and take a walk before she posts such idiocy again.

Wrong:

State labor officials say job losses from Superstorm Sandy cut into gains made this year in New York’s employment numbers.

They say 29,100 private sector jobs were lost in November because of the storm’s impact on the New York City area. That cut total job gains for the year to 83,500.

The labor department says telephone surveys showed the state’s unemployment rate in November dropping to 8.3 percent from from 8.7 in October, with the rate in the city dropping to 8.8 percent from 9.2. But it cautioned the survey was conducted within a week of the Oct. 29 storm and may not reflect the full effect it’s had on employment.

Giving is good:

The ranks of anonymous “layaway angels” — who pay balances on store accounts and make the holidays merrier for needy families — have swelled into a national phenomenon.

The trend began last year. This season, says Toys R Us spokeswoman Katie Reczek, about 600 layaway orders at its stores have been settled by mystery benefactors. The company donates $200 worth of toys to Toys for Tots for each act of kindness.

Sara Knapp of Stratford, Wis., got a call from a Walmart store last week telling her that the remaining $100 on her layaway had been paid. “I cried,” she says. Toys, cartoon DVDs and slippers for five children are wrapped for Christmas.

On Wednesday, a donor paid off 32 layaway accounts that totaled $2,700 at a Clovis, Calif., Kmart, says manager Michael Lee. In all, about $9,300 has been donated anonymously, he says.

“It would be funny, I say,
If it didn’t happen everyday…”

Brilliant idea:

A few Ohio teachers will be given free gun training, and at least one firearm instructor said arming select educators could work to deter violence if done by the right people with the right training.

The Buckeye Firearms Association on Thursday announced a pilot program to give firearms training to two dozen educators for free. The announcement came at a town hall sponsored by the state gun lobby at which participants debated gun control in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

“Teachers and school board members have been asking us for years about training to prepare for an incident like Sandy Hook,” Ken Hanson, BFA’s legal chairman, said in a statement. “Based on the response to this pilot program, we will roll out classes to other training facilities.”

The initial Armed Teacher Pilot Program will offer 24 teachers a three-day training class at the Tactical Defense Institute in West Union. All expenses, including tuition, ammunition and lodging, will be paid by the foundation and outside donations. It is expected to cost about $1,000 per teacher.

Maggie Thurber notes:

Though Ohio law prohibits “illegal conveyance or possession of deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance or of object indistinguishable from firearm in school safety zone,” Ohio Revised Code 2923.122 Section D(1)(a) does allow school boards to give written authorization to a person to possess a weapon in a school.

I’ve seen quite a few instances of this.

The NRA should adopt this idea and make it national.

Toure is an abhorrent troll:

Even as we say that these moments appear be bad for the NRA, and they sort of run and hide as if they know that these moments appear bad, but NRA membership booms in these moments. Gun sales boom in these moments. Bushmaster [rifle] sales are booming. In the wake of the Gabby Giffords shooting, Glocks boomed. So in a perverse way — they would never admit it this publicly — but in a perverse way, these moments are actually good for them. So then, how do we expect them to really not want these moments?

Let’s use his logic. Wouldn’t that mean liberals love it when abortion doctors are gunned down? After all, it garners support for the abortion industry and makes the pro-choice movement look bad.

I admit, this news makes me a little bit sad.

Here’s one political rumor that isn’t happening.  Former Gov. Michael Dukakis says he will not be a candidate for appointment as interim senator should Sen. John Kerry resign to accept appointment as secretary of state.

Dukakis was interviewed by WBZ News in Boston: “I’m headed for the West to teach,” alluding to his annual spring-semester teaching duties at UCLA. “That’s a no,” said Dukakis in reference to a possible appointment by Gov. Deval Patrick to fill the seat until a special election can be held.

Can you imagine the fun we’d have painting shiny new 79-year old Senator Michael Dukakis, whose last political hurrah was as the big loser of a Presidential election held almost 25 years ago, as a representative of the youth-centric, hip, minority-friendly Democratic Party? Man, that would have been fun!

Come on, Governor Patrick. There’s still time to talk him into it. Give us bloggers a most wonderful Christmas gift, would you?

Congratulations to Jake Tapper, who will take his considerable experience from ABC to CNN where he’ll get a regular gig as a show host.

CNN said on Thursday that it had hired Jake Tapper, the senior White House correspondent for ABC News, as new programming for the cable news channel was announced.

Mr. Tapper, widely seen as one of the most aggressive reporters in the nation’s capital, will be the anchor of an afternoon program for the channel and will be its chief Washington correspondent. The new program will start sometime next year.

We conservatives tend to like Tapper, who despite his deep Democratic political roots, manages to vex Democrats more often than any random hand full of non-Fox News reporters in the White House briefing room. He’ll likely end up with an hour-long show at 4 PM, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the network moved him to a better time slot as soon as he starts beating down the prime-time hosts in the ratings battle. Piers Morgan, whose show is the news what a hamburger found underneath the stove two days after you started searching for it is to fine cuisine, ought to be a bit nervous right now.

Speaker Boehner had a plan to solve the so-called fiscal cliff debate so clever you could have pinned a tail on it and called it a weasel. Unfortunately, he apparently failed to share the cleverness with the rest of the Republicans in the House and several of them — enough of them to kill the plan — saw it as less a clever political maneuver and more an unnecessary and foolish tax hike.

And now “Plan B” is no more.

…in a move that signaled turmoil in the Republican caucus, the House was called into recess right before the scheduled vote on Boehner’s other bill — to prevent tax hikes on all but those making more than $1 million. Republican leaders called an emergency meeting and it was apparently clear within minutes Boehner did not have enough support, with some Republicans still opposed to raising rates on anybody.

Boehner lost 21 Republicans on the spending cuts bill, and lawmakers later claimed at least 40 Republicans came out against the tax plan — enough to scuttle the bill absent Democratic backing.

And of course there will never be Democratic backing on any bill proposed by House Republicans, even if it demands the penury of every person in the United States who makes $250,000.01. Democrats don’t want a deal. If they did, there’s be a deal right now. The GOP leadership has compromised in every way the President could have wanted: a tax hike on “the rich”, no entitlement reform, and spending cuts that don’t actually cut spending. The Speaker of the House has abased himself publicly and privately to the White House and endured leaks from private negotiations designed to make him look a fool. The President could have had virtually any deal he wanted right now, but he hasn’t pressed nor has he given GOP leaders a specific legislative proposal they could then take to the floor for an immediate vote.

I wonder why that is…

Look at the carnage:

One after another, at a recent emergency meeting in Wenatchee called by the Governor’s Office, fruit growers talked about how hard it’s been to find workers as the harvest hits its sweet spot.

One orchardist recalled how, of the 149 people referred to him earlier in the season by the state’s unemployment office, half showed up on the first day, a quarter on the second day.

Now, only five remain.

Why work hard when you can sit at home and collect a check, maybe for more as much as the job pays.

Another example:

Listen to this remarkable call from Paul, an unemployed man who turned down a job because he didn’t want to start at 8am.

Paul has been unemployed for seven years and revealed that he was recently offered a job, but he thought it was unfair that he would have had to start that early.

This is not news.

Milton Friedman taught us this years ago: