The EFCA Rodeo

If you've ever watched rodeo — I don't pretend to be a cowboy, but I've seen enough to get the general idea of things — then you've probably seen an event called calf roping. In this contest, a calf is let loose to run around the ring. A rider on horseback throws a lasso around the calf's neck, jumps off his horse and then ties up the calf's legs, rendering the animal immobile. Since the cowboy hardly ever fails to catch and tie up the animal, the competition centers on who can do it the fastest. Calf roping isn't quite as dangerous or exciting as bull riding, but it looks like it might be fun for the cowboy, if not so much fun for the calf.

Calf roping also serves as a pretty good analogy for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that labor unions have made their prime goal for this term of Congress. EFCA seeks to reduce workers to the role of helpless calves to be lassoed and tied up by union organizer cowboys.
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