Those of who you read my previous post on the St. Louis grocery strike know that I'm not fawningly sympathetic to the union position.

But neither am I a patsy for the grocery chains. And when one of their representatives attempts to post misleading comments, I think it's worth exposing that too...

Minutes ago, someone with a high-speed cable modem connection in St. Louis posted a comment porporting to be from a father who, with his son, is now just blissfully happy to get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work at Schnucks for $9 an hour!

Of course, why they need regular employment so urgently and desparately, if they can already enjoy Charter digital cable plus a dedicated Internet connection (a luxury easily worth about $1200 per year), is one truly amazing mystery!

To whit:

I have not had a regular job for many months, and my son has not had any full-time job since he finished high school over a year ago. So we both are happy as larks that we have a wonderful employer at last!

Yeah, right: temporary labor at a grocery store making one "happy as larks" (omigosh, is this guy for real?) with their "wonderful new employer". "At last!"??? Oh please!

But wait: It's not paradise after all! Their evil, cruel employer isn't giving them any health insurance at all! What if Tiny Tim needs an operation? Cruel Dierbergs, Schnucks, and Shop 'n Save put out for their union employees, but they're apparently treating the current "scab" laborers like dirt!:

I have NO health insurance at all.

The faker who posted it strains credibility even further when he recommends union members donate 50% of their already-paltry salaries to charity, buffoonishly:

Where is the unions' concern for their fellow man...? Why not work 20 hours a week and give the other 20 hours to some unemployed folks, sharing all that pay with someone who has none?

Yeah, "all that pay", right: Right after you do. :-) Please, don't make us all hurt outselves laughing! I thought you were someone who just got a job... why are you suddenly moralizing against "the union"?

Sure, a lot of people pulling in $400 per week, pre-tax, have half left to donate to others. (Why don't you just cancel your cable service, use a regular dial-up connection, and donate that to the poor, Mr. Caring Grocery Store Management Faker?)

And of course this poster uses perfect grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, while quoting current employment statistics and striker compensation levels! Sure, there's a lot people with that level of ability and knowledge who are going to be "happy as larks" bagging groceries. Uh-huh.

With people like you out trying to "help" the grocery stores look good, the unions don't even have to walk the picket line to make their management look bad -- you do it quite well for them!

Hmmmm... maybe I should recommend people avoid shopping at Schnucks, Dierbergs, and Shop 'N Save? I'm sure some will draw that conclusion after reading this posting. Perhaps I'll start working to make sure others support the union in their efforts and avoid the stores right now...

Congratulations. I'm going to moralize at you. This seldom happens, and I apologize to the others who have to watch it. It's not pretty, but I think this is important...

Fake poster: What you are experiencing right now is called "blowback". It's what sometimes happens when you try to promote the "justice" of your cause through deception.

If you think a comment in my little pathetic blog could help you, a front-page expose of your deception will hurt you many times more. Which is to say, hardly at all -- nobody reads this silly thing.

But there's something much more important at stake here...

At this point you are presented with a choice. You've got to decide: What you did was wrong because (A) you didn't do it well enough and got caught, or (B) because it is inherantly wrong to try to use "evil" means, such as false testimony, to produce a "good" end.

I'm hoping you'll decide (B) and knock it off.

Obviously, I'm one of those pliestocine throwbacks who think we will have to give an accounting to God. And, in case you think I'm moralizing, I have a few doozies to account for myself. But I'm serious, friend: Look in the mirror. You obviously have kids. Do you really want to be the kind of guy who lied at strategic points in his career to make a few extra bucks?

How do you think you and others would feel if I could track you down (I have your IP address and connection point) and publicly exposed what you did? (I won't.) Would you be proud or ashamed?

And if you start here, doing this, where does it end?

Remember, we all gotta go someday. You're gonna be 82 and working to gasp that last breath. And what's this gonna mean to you then?

Think about it, friend.

You're certainly forgiven. By me, anyway. Just change, okay?