I was doing some entertaining over the long holiday weekend, so I never got a chance to do a blow-by-blow on the protests in Wisconsin. Here’s a quick rundown:

First, an anecdote. Back in 1989, the National Education Association held its national convention during the summer in Washington, D.C. My father, a (comparatively) small-time teacher’s union boss (it almost sounds comical to write that because he certainly never had the kind of power or pull that you’d associate with what’s going on in Wisconsin today), took the family back so we could do sightseeing while he attended the conference. While I spent little time in the conference hall where the convention was taking place, I do remember that one of the state delegations was making money hand-over-fist selling T-shirts that said “Beer is food.” I believe the state selling those was Wisconsin (and while my dad doesn’t remember the T-shirts specifically, he believes that if there was one state selling those shirts, it was likely Wisconsin, home of Milwaukee). I also remember a resolution being offered to ban the sales of those shirts because some thought it would send the wrong message to children—the resolution was soundly defeated.

Second, every lie that they told about the Tea Party is true about what the left is doing in Wisconsin.

Third, Paul Krugman—ever a reliable hack—has weighed in calling for unions to ally against “big taxpayer.”

Look, this is rather simple. We can’t afford this any more. We can’t afford to pay government employees more money and better benefits than the private sector. Over the past couple of years, private sector employment has plummeted; public sector employment has risen.