On Point: Let's begin with a sop to the unions

Published January 23, 2007 at midnight

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So, the first step in the Democrats' economic development agenda for Colorado turns out, incredibly, to be a gift to unions seeking an easier way to force nonmembers in the workplace to pay dues. That's the gist of House Bill 1072, which is racing down the General Assembly's fast track and passed the House on Monday.

How many of those who voted for this bill, do you suppose, have ever been forced to support an organization they deliberately chose not to join?

This isn't economic development, of course. It's union development.

Even so, maybe someone should consider its long-term impact on Colorado's economy, which, for the time being, happens to be in pretty good shape. Bill Ray, communications director for the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, highlighted several eye-catching signs of our relative economic health in a recent e-mail exchange.

For example, he noted, Colorado ranks first among states in high-tech employment per 100,000 employees; fourth in venture capital investments; fifth in new company formation; eighth in the number of patents granted, and eighth in personal income.

Could Colorado's lack of straitjacket labor laws have anything to do with those statistics? You'd think so.

We're also 17th in job growth, Ray reports, which is good but could be better.

But how is promoting "all-union" shops the way to boost that ranking? You'd have to be the reincarnation of Walter Reuther to buy that possibility - or, more likely, just incredibly naive.

RESURRECTING THE VENOM

Would it surprise you to learn that the founder of a viciously abusive Web site is a part-time instructor in CU's ethnic studies department? I didn't think so.

Suffice it to say that Benjamin Whitmer, like the academic hero he defends and apes (you know who I mean), has a weakness for fantasized violence. Here, for example, is a post on his site from last year, targeting, as it happens, me: "F--- him with every ghastly medieval torture device known to humankind. . . . Had we our way, we'd stake his lower intestine to the ground and make the motherf----- take a half-mile walk."

Whitmer shut down the site (whose name I won't give him the satisfaction of printing) when Ward Churchill critic Grant Crowell exposed his identity in December. But after expunging the offensive content under the excuse of protecting the identities of other contributors, Whitmer resurrected his creation this month.

"We were a satire site," is how he explains the ugly content he pulled down, proving that his honesty may rival that of his idol.

Oddballs with violent imaginations and an inability to engage in serious debate may be a dime a dozen, but most of us like to assume they will not be rewarded with jobs lecturing at public universities. But then most of us never imagined the sort of intellectual slum that CU's Ethnic Studies Department turned out to be, either.

HAVING IT BOTH WAYS

"Do you know how inspiring it is to have a governor say the budget should be viewed as a moral document?"

- House Majority Leader Alice Madden

Aren't liberal Democrats like Madden usually the first to complain when social conservatives try to "impose" their morality on society? Apparently it's just fine, however, for lawmakers to impose a moral outlook on their fellow citizens so long as it involves using public money to lard more subsidies into renewable energy, for example, or to pay for preschool.

Then it's not only permissible to impose a particular moral vision on others, it's downright "inspiring."

Madden is actually right to suggest that legislation and budgetary priorities often reflect the moral priorities of those who write them. What's strange is how often this obvious truth is denied by her political allies when they are intent on branding conservatives as intolerant moralists.

Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes On Point several times a week. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainews.com.

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