In response to CUT AND RUN from BigAl:
Please keep your tired rhetoric the hell out of the otherwise enjoyable, thought provoking, and relevant pages of my beloved local weekly. Blaming public employees for most, if not any, municipal budget deficit is shortsighted and entirely apropos of the stumbling army of mouth breathing, greedy dunces that have been conned into running our country and economy into the ground. The "happier times" you refer to when unions once "negotiated themselves healthy benefits packages"? If you look back, most of these pension programs were established in lieu of pay raises for the workers because, much like today, wealthy Americans weren't paying their fair share of taxes. It was a way to "kick the can down the road" for civic leaders. As a member of the "tax-paying public", BigAl, you should be more concerned with the increasing likeness to the Guilded Age of your socio-economic surroundings. Another suggestion: Ponder Portland's budget shortfall as you ride the tram from the deserted South Waterfront development to OHSU over and over again. Until then, please restrict your vacuous opinions to the comments posted on "Oregon Live" like all the other lonely Nazis living in the hills on the outskirts of the Willamette Valley.
Thanks,
Zorro

JG - My sincere apologies for coming off to you as attention or pity seeking for my wife's illness. The point of the original article was that kids will destroy your love life and my point being that kids aren't so bad, there are bigger challenges that many couples face related to health problems. I'm guessing you would rather have to deal with a crying baby at 2am than some of the things you must deal with having CD, IBS, etc. And no, I do not stay married because of a 'contractual obligation' but because of a vow we made and will continue to uphold in an age when so many people bail on each other when things change or get difficult. Love, for us, is caring for one another through all the challenges life brings us.

How is countering one stereotype with another "winning"? In addition, I agree with DamosA: contraceptor is a stupid meaningless word.

frankieb,
Your grammar is awesome! I will not even venture to guess what it is that you do “professionally”. What, I beg you, is wrong with having excellent health care, retirement benefits, and competitive wages? Is it just too Un-American in your opinion? Is it really a “blatant rip-off” to have well trained teachers and fire fighters at work in our state and communities? These union negotiated benefit packages only serve to encourage the private sector to offer competitive deals to improve their recruitment and ability to retain workers. Additionally, I did not “call Big Al a Nazi”. I called Big Al a lonely Nazi.
Good Luck,
Zorro

frankieb,
Your tea party derived, intellectually famished insinuation that the wages and benefits earned by the public sector in this country are more than those earned by the private sector is a startling testament to your own ear-ringing ignorance. Please try, to the best of your abilities, to read the following information from the National Institute on Retirement based on information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“These findings are contained in a new report, "Out of Balance? Comparing Public and Private Sector Compensation Over 20 Years" commissioned by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence (Center) and the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). The co-authors are Dr. Keith Bender, Associate Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Dr. John Heywood, Distinguished Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The study provides an original analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and finds that:

-Jobs in the public sector typically require more education than private sector positions. Thus, state and local employees are twice as likely to hold a college degree or higher as compared to private sector employees. Only 23% of private sector employees have completed college as compared to about 48% in the public sector.
-Wages and salaries of state and local employees are lower than those for private sector employees with comparable earnings determinants such as education and work experience. State workers typically earn 11% less and local workers 12% less.
-During the last 15 years, the pay gap has grown - earnings for state and local workers have generally declined relative to comparable private sector employees.
The pattern of declining relative earnings remains true in most of the large states examined in the study, although there does exist some state level variation.
-Benefits make up a slightly larger share of compensation for the state and local sector. But even after accounting for the value of retirement, healthcare, and other benefits, state and local employees earn less than private sector counterparts. On average, total compensation is 6.8% lower for state employees and 7.4% lower for local employees than for comparable private sector employees.”

Did you manage to read all that, frankieb? If so, give yourself a pat on the back and take a moment to look lustfully at the wallet-sized photo of Sarah Palin you carry on your person at all times. Why you and “BigAl” have the need to gloss yourself with mobster names and spew this terrible garbage into the fine literary institution that is the Portland Mercury still escapes me. I also have a growing suspicion that you live in Vancouver, but that is beside the point. The notion that taxpayers are bailing out the private sector is not only false, but the opposite is true. The Wall Street bailouts alone dwarf any single taxpayer liability for retirement benefits. As far as the necessary and historic competition between union negotiated benefits and the private sector’s benefits, I would start my exceedingly long list of examples with the 40-hour workweek, 8-hour days, something called the “weekend”, and the reason EVERYONE who uses a time clock isn’t earning the minimum wage!
-Zorro