When I violated Taft-Hartley

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Hi, it's me. Tim.

Remember me? Well, it's time I confront something that can no longer be ignored: I violated the Taft-Hartley Act.

It's as violated as a bird!

I violated it just last night, in fact. Did anyone else notice? Here's a hint: It was in my entry about Joe the Plumber's idiocy.

The Taft-Hartley Act is a giant Allowed Cloud that has long hamstrung the American worker. In addition to forcing union employees to subsidize antiunion activity, this law also has other methods of keeping workers down. For instance, it broadly expanded presidential strike-breaking powers (which Reagan later abused).

I live to violate unreasonable Allowed Clouds. (I'm just fine with reasonable Allowed Clouds.) I started doing this because somebody needed to stand up against personal conduct being tightly regimented - or the problem would just get worse.

Last year, for instance, I violated an Allowed Cloud by smuggling Pepsi into Riverfest.

Anystink, the Taft-Hartley Act outlaws political strikes. In other words, it bans work stoppages designed to achieve political goals. These strikes used to be legal, and still are in most of the world. But not under Taft-Hartley.

Last night, I suggested a general strike might be necessary to force EFCA to pass.

I knew this would violate Taft-Hartley. But what else was I supposed to do? Are we supposed to tolerate a Congress that won't pass EFCA but lets the Patriot Act and the '96 Telecommunications Act stand unchallenged? We have a right to expect better from a Democratic-led Congress.

When a law is unconstitutional, can you really blame one for violating it? Make no mistake: The Taft-Hartley provision against political strikes is unconstitutional. End of story.

Funny thing is, I probably won't get in trouble for violating the Allowed Cloud against political strikes. Do you really think prosecutors want to make a martyr out of me? They've got a toothless law, and I'm rubbing their faces in it.

And I may defy this Allowed Cloud again if the need arises.

You love it when I'm defiant like this. This blog spent last year being defiant, and everyone ate it up. Most of you probably agreed with each act of defiance, but the rest of you were probably indifferent and just wanted the amusement of seeing how I'd react if I got arrested. Well, I haven't been arrested since the NKU showdown 14 years ago, and I don't think the authorities want to embarrass themselves again.