NANNY STATE, USA

Ah, the New York Times, you can always count on them. They have an editorial today that’s silly two-fold. They begin by making fun of the Republicans planning a 30-hour filibuster to protest the Democrats unconscionable filibuster on President Bush’s judicial nominees. The Times refers to these as, “extremist judicial appointees”, as if the Times would call Democratic appointees that have received sterling marks from the AMA as “extremist”.

They then call for the Republicans to instead extend unemployment benefits for 26 weeks. I feel for people who are unemployed, but you shouldn’t become a ward of the state because you lost your job. The Times doesn’t explicitly mention it, but these “emergency” benefits have been extended for so long , they are becoming an entitlement. The Times tries to pretend that these are really just kind of a one-time thing, but unable to forgo a chance to slam the Republicans, they give up their game by confessing:

“But out there in real life, federal emergency unemployment benefits are scheduled to expire on Dec. 31 with no sign of notice from the Republicans in Congress. A year ago, they blithely quit the Capitol and let the unemployed stew through the holidays before retroactively approving a benefit extension that was far too modest.”

A year ago? They were extended a year ago, which means these people have been collecting for almost a year and a half already. No wonder they’re not getting jobs, they don’t have to. I remember back to my summer of love, 1989, when I was collecting unemployment every two weeks and loving my time off.

Look, time to be a bit blunt. Having a job is not a right. You are not guaranteed a job. We’ve become such a country of whiners, that we expect a job doing something we like, making the money we want, where we want to live and when we don’t get it, we expect Big Government to take care of us.

Bull.

Sometimes we need to make choices – like doing something we don’t like, or having to room with Mom & Dad if we insist on staying in a certain place. Or, we get the job we want, but it requires us to move – sometimes thousands of miles away. Sitting in the bars in Gary, IN, waiting for US Steel to open back up is stupid. And expecting me, who did move a half-a-country away for jobs, to pay you to do it is insulting and not fair.