Unions, in general, mystify us. One of us has been a card-carrying member (against his will, no less) of a newspaper-representing organization (term used loosely) and both of us have worked in environs where “the union rule” oftentimes prevented work from being done in an orderly fashion. We understand unions ostensibly exist to negotiate for employee rights, but some of the antics that have resulted in pure ugliness are, we believe, not what the founders of organized labor intended. But up through the years the sleaze factor has redlined, and these days it encompasses challenges of multiple laws. Could it be the left is so crafty as to get liberal judges elected to help organized labor achieve on its goals? Well, yes, although as conservatives we don’t like to recognize such genius (Did we really just use that word?). In general, we believe some voters are too uninformed to fully understand the ramifications of electing liberals to the bench. And so the announcement earlier this month that the Indiana Supreme Court rejected a United Steelworkers Union challenge to our state’s Right to Work law, was met with no small amount of excitement across our metro region. The USW actually argued that unions have a right to force workers to pay for their unwanted organizational services. It just doesn’t make sense. Workers have been forced to pay union dues just to keep their jobs, despite the fact that they do not belong to the union nor sought the union’s representation. We’re glad the Supreme Court justices saw the forest for the trees on this one.

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Local government floods our inboxes with a lot of information, and even some of it actually is important. We won’t isolate the guilty parties, but recent missives have warned us that if we’re going to be partying on New Year’s Eve we should consume high-protein foods to help sideline the effects of booze. We also learned that local police will drive by your home if you’re on vacation. It’s your tax dollars hard at work, folks. Happy New Year!