Brickbat: Picture Me Inside the Misery of Poverty

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds forced Jerry Foxhoven, director of the state's Department of Human Services, to resign after he sent an email to all of the agency's 4,000 employees encouraging them to observe the birthday of rapper Tupac Shakur by listening to one of his songs. In his two years as director of the agency, Foxhoven sent some 350 pages of emails to staffers containing the words "Tupac" or "2Pac." Foxhoven says he doesn't believe his Tupac obsession is the reason he was asked to step down, and spokesman for the governor says there were many factors Foxhoven was canned. But neither has specified what the non-Tupac reasons were, even though Iowa law requires they do so when a state employee resigns to prevent being terminated.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Everyone knows you're only supposed to suggest Biggie.
I Ain't Mad at Cha.
Tupac for president!
He would be the most libertarian president ever—far more even than Calvin Coolidge. He would not propose spending a single dime, nor a single new tax, piece of legislation, or war anywhere.
Tupac in 2020: guaranteed to leave you alone!
Yes, Tupac would make a dropped-dead GORGEOUS POTUS!
When I was HR me and my gov'ner had beef
Sixty-five years old kicked out on the streets
this is a bad news! ha ha ha...
Ha ha ha .... such interesting topics to camera man
2Pac has a brand new song coming out!
So are we brickbatting the governor for getting rid of somebody who happens to like 2Pac or are we brickbatting the guy who seems to think his taxpayer-financed job is promoting 2Pac? And if the guy himself is saying that he thinks his forced resignation is "just a coincidence" and has nothing to do with his being a big 2Pac fan, perhaps he knows something about his job performance that we don't?
"...even though Iowa law requires ..." (from the article).
So the brickbat, to me, is about the indisputable FACT that following the law is "only for the little people". This problem is so old, so prevalent, so universal... And I am so old, and my outrage glands so worn out... That I can't even be bothered to put on my cape and boots and spandex, as "Letter tot he Editor Man", and write a letter to the editor about it, anymore. It's a sad, sad day!
“Letter to the Editor Man”, I meant to say... Now I am so old that my pecker... I mean, my keyboard-pecker... Doesn't work anymore, either!
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta
Not 2Pac
Way to burry the lede!
Iowa has a law that requires State employees and employers to give non-Tupac reasons when an employee resigns to prevent being terminated?
That's oddly specific. And oddly Tupac-obsessed.
Yawn
Wait. A brickbat because someone in Iowa knew the name 2Pac?
No, the brickbat is probably because a white HR bossy-type person actually admired a black man, in any meaningful way, other than to mouth empty platitudes about respecting multi-culti diversity! Then got fired for it!
Well Shiites, the more I think about it, the more absurd it gets... Bossy boss-men and boss-women NEVER give the REAL reason that you are forced to resign! Military, politics, or business!
"SQRLSY One resigned to pursue other opportunities, and to spend more time with his-her family, goldfish, and sexbot".
"SQRLSY One resigned, because his-her commander suffered a loss of confidence in his-her ability to lead the troops."
It is NEVER-EVER...
"SQRLSY One resigned because his-her boss wanted to repace him-her with a good-looking blonde bimbo."
"SQRLSY One resigned because he was diddling the Commander's daughter."
"SQRLSY One resigned because his-her hairstyle doesn't fit in with our image."
"SQRLSY One was fired because his-her co-workers spread nasty rumors about him-her, so that SQRLSY One would get shitty job performance reviews, under "forced distribution rankings", so that SQRLSY One's potential raises could go to said co-workers instead."
Honesty, from bosses? HONEST POLITICIANS?!?!? What do you want next, real unicorns?
The salient point is there are 4000 employees in Iowas dept of human services. One dept in a small population state. Nothing to see there right.
how many HR people does it take to do any thing? Never enough!!!
what is a non-Tupac reason?...everything is Tupac related!
Never heard of these guys before.
Jay Z