The economic troubles in Europe are leading to public unrest, as EU governments try to pare back their bloated public sectors, in some cases trimming wages and benefits, in others by delaying access to them. In France, plans to save the national pension system by raising the retirement age from 60 (!) to just 62 has lead to a massive strike of over one million people:
French strikers disrupted trains and planes, hospitals and mail delivery Tuesday amid massive street protests over plans to raise the retirement age. Across the English Channel, London subway workers unhappy with staff cuts walked off the job.
The protests look like the prelude to a season of strikes in Europe, from Spain to the Czech Republic, as heavily indebted governments cut costs and chip away at some cherished but costly benefits that underpin the European good life — a scaling-back process that has gained urgency with Greece’s euro110 billion ($140 billion) bailout.
In France, where people poured into the streets in 220 cities, setting off flares and beating drums, a banner in the southern port city of Marseille called for Europe-wide solidarity: “Let’s Refuse Austerity Plans!” The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people demonstrated throughout France, while the CFDT union put the number at 2.5 million.
(…)
French protesters are angry about the government’s plan to do away with the near-sacred promise of retirement at 60, forcing people to work until 62 because they are living longer. The goal is to bring the money-draining pension system back into the black by 2018.
As debate on the subject opened in parliament, Labor Minister Eric Woerth said the plan was one “of courage and reason” and that it is the “duty of the state” to save the pension system. He has said the government won’t back down, no matter how big the protests.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon reminded the French that it could be worse: In nearly all European countries, the current debate is over raising the retirement age to 67 or 68, he said. Germany has decided to bump the retirement age from 65 to 67, for example, and the U.S. Social Security system is gradually raising the retirement age to 67.
That sense of perspective was missing from many of the French protests, where some slogans bordered on the hysterical. One sign in Paris showed a raised middle finger with the message: “Greetings from people who will die on the job.”
Nothing like Gallic hysterics, eh?
Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised at this: statist societies like France and much of the EU use ever-expanding government-provided benefits as bribes to buy social peace, making dependents out their citizens and, in effect, infantilizing them. It’s no wonder, then, that the public then throws a tantrum when the state is forced to cut back.
But before anyone indulges in some schadenfreude at French expense, bear in mind that President Obama and his progressive allies want to take us down this same statist, dependent, and infantilized social-democratic road. (And, to a lesser extent, big-government Republicans have been willing to accommodate them.) We’re already seeing that with the growth of public sector unions in the US and their outlandish benefits*.
While Europe seems to be in for a season of unrest, the problem isn’t yet so bad in the US and, importantly, many people agree that it is a problem in the first place. Hopefully we can make the necessary reforms before we have our own mass tantrums.
*(For the record, I’m a member of a quasi-public union, and apparently it’s one of the dumber ones; we’ve never received the over-the-top wages and benefits the other unions do. I tell ya, it ain’t fair…)
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)
There are a couple juicy Kate Gosselin stories in this week’s tabloids. It’s hard to believe that Kate still rates gossiping about, but there’s plenty of negative dirt on her so you can see the appeal. First off, The National Enquirer has a story that Kate doesn’t pay attention to her kids at all except when the cameras are around. She’s said to be obsessed with making money and marketing herself, to the point that she only plays with her children when they’re being filmed or photographed. Kate makes a whopping $250k an episode so she can probably afford to give it a rest and let loose with her kids. It’s too bad that the stick up her butt is pretty much permanent. Here’s part of the Enquirer’s story:
Kate Gosselin is so obsessed with making money that she’s suffering a major meltdown and her kids are turning against her, sources tell the Enquirer.
The overwhelmed single mom leaves her children mostly in the hands of nannies, and now they prefer to spend time with their dad Jon, insiders say…
“When she’s not with the kids, she’s hustling for work. She knows that she’s not spending enough time with them, but she needs to earn the money to support them all.
“She cries to friends, ‘What am I supposed to do? If I slow down, this could all go away, and we’ll be out on the street!”
Her ex-husband Jon currently does not have a job, and Kate can’t count on any financial help from him.
With Kate so focused on cash, the family’s estate in Wernersville, PA is more like a corporate office than a family home, added another source.
“Everything is for show. You’re not there unless you or someone is being paid…
“Kate always said the kids love filming, and they do - because it forces her to interact with them.”
Even worse, the children… are starting to feel as if Kate loves them only when cameras are around, said the source.
“Kate will take the kids out to play, but she stays only long enough for photographers to get pictures of her with them. Then she goes back to work in her home office and the nannies take over,” the insider revealed.
[From The National Enquirer, print edition, September 6, 2010]
I don’t like this woman, but the story sounds straight from Jon. It even goes on to claim that the kids like him and his girlfriend better and call the girlfriend “mom.” If Kate had a 9-5 job she would be away from the house during that time. If she relies on nannies to watch the kids all the time and late into the night that’s one thing, but if she does it so she can work during the day I don’t see the problem. I don’t agree with her choice of career, namely putting her kids on television, but that’s different from bashing her for using nannies so she can work. However, she should be spending time with them when the cameras aren’t around, and if she’s not doing that then this criticism is dead on.
Star has another big story about Jon Gosselin’s “tell all” and how it’s going to expose Kate. We’ve already heard that he’s writing a book, but according to PopEater it’s going to be a parenting-type book that of course has no publishers yet interested.
Star claims that Jon will tell all, though, and that he’s going to reveal Kate’s secrets. According to Star, Kate was probably already sleeping with her married bodyguard back when she was living with Jon and they were not yet separated. I wouldn’t put it past Jon to rewrite history in an attempt to make himself look like the wronged party, but it could have happened this way. We know they’re boning now. Here are the highlights from Star. (These are paraphrased except where there are quotes.)
- Bodyguard Steve Nield was staying in the basement when Jon was still living in the house. “Although Kate had a habit of sleeping late, leaving Jon to wake and feed the kids, ‘She suddenly started going down there to ‘work out’ in the mornings.’” TLC staff eventually made Steve leave.
- Kate belittled Jon. “She’d scream at him and call him names in front of their family and friends… Kate is really aggressive… a few times he could tell she was about to get physical and he’d… walk away.”
- Kate begged Jon to take her back for the show. “He has tons of texts and voicemails from Kate telling him she loved him and they should stay together for the show. Even after all the women he’s been with, Jon believes he could have gone back to Kate as recently as this spring.”
Jon doesn’t have much that we don’t already know, and he’s trying to drum up interest in whatever book he can write that will sell. If he does paint Kate as a controlling meanie who doesn’t love her kids he’ll be able to earn a little money at least. It seems like these people’s 15 minutes are just about up, especially Jon’s. Maybe that’s why Kate is freaking out and trying so hard to get paid while she can.
Radar has new photos of Kate and Jon out with their kids - separately. These photos are from 4/22 and 3/4. Credit: Fame
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The economic troubles in Europe are leading to public unrest, as EU governments try to pare back their bloated public sectors, in some cases trimming wages and benefits, in others by delaying access to them. In France, plans to save the national pension system by raising the retirement age from 60 (!) to just 62 has lead to a massive strike of over one million people:
French strikers disrupted trains and planes, hospitals and mail delivery Tuesday amid massive street protests over plans to raise the retirement age. Across the English Channel, London subway workers unhappy with staff cuts walked off the job.
The protests look like the prelude to a season of strikes in Europe, from Spain to the Czech Republic, as heavily indebted governments cut costs and chip away at some cherished but costly benefits that underpin the European good life — a scaling-back process that has gained urgency with Greece’s euro110 billion ($140 billion) bailout.
In France, where people poured into the streets in 220 cities, setting off flares and beating drums, a banner in the southern port city of Marseille called for Europe-wide solidarity: “Let’s Refuse Austerity Plans!” The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people demonstrated throughout France, while the CFDT union put the number at 2.5 million.
(…)
French protesters are angry about the government’s plan to do away with the near-sacred promise of retirement at 60, forcing people to work until 62 because they are living longer. The goal is to bring the money-draining pension system back into the black by 2018.
As debate on the subject opened in parliament, Labor Minister Eric Woerth said the plan was one “of courage and reason” and that it is the “duty of the state” to save the pension system. He has said the government won’t back down, no matter how big the protests.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon reminded the French that it could be worse: In nearly all European countries, the current debate is over raising the retirement age to 67 or 68, he said. Germany has decided to bump the retirement age from 65 to 67, for example, and the U.S. Social Security system is gradually raising the retirement age to 67.
That sense of perspective was missing from many of the French protests, where some slogans bordered on the hysterical. One sign in Paris showed a raised middle finger with the message: “Greetings from people who will die on the job.”
Nothing like Gallic hysterics, eh?
Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised at this: statist societies like France and much of the EU use ever-expanding government-provided benefits as bribes to buy social peace, making dependents out their citizens and, in effect, infantilizing them. It’s no wonder, then, that the public then throws a tantrum when the state is forced to cut back.
But before anyone indulges in some schadenfreude at French expense, bear in mind that President Obama and his progressive allies want to take us down this same statist, dependent, and infantilized social-democratic road. (And, to a lesser extent, big-government Republicans have been willing to accommodate them.) We’re already seeing that with the growth of public sector unions in the US and their outlandish benefits*.
While Europe seems to be in for a season of unrest, the problem isn’t yet so bad in the US and, importantly, many people agree that it is a problem in the first place. Hopefully we can make the necessary reforms before we have our own mass tantrums.
*(For the record, I’m a member of a quasi-public union, and apparently it’s one of the dumber ones; we’ve never received the over-the-top wages and benefits the other unions do. I tell ya, it ain’t fair…)
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)
There are a couple juicy Kate Gosselin stories in this week’s tabloids. It’s hard to believe that Kate still rates gossiping about, but there’s plenty of negative dirt on her so you can see the appeal. First off, The National Enquirer has a story that Kate doesn’t pay attention to her kids at all except when the cameras are around. She’s said to be obsessed with making money and marketing herself, to the point that she only plays with her children when they’re being filmed or photographed. Kate makes a whopping $250k an episode so she can probably afford to give it a rest and let loose with her kids. It’s too bad that the stick up her butt is pretty much permanent. Here’s part of the Enquirer’s story:
Kate Gosselin is so obsessed with making money that she’s suffering a major meltdown and her kids are turning against her, sources tell the Enquirer.
The overwhelmed single mom leaves her children mostly in the hands of nannies, and now they prefer to spend time with their dad Jon, insiders say…
“When she’s not with the kids, she’s hustling for work. She knows that she’s not spending enough time with them, but she needs to earn the money to support them all.
“She cries to friends, ‘What am I supposed to do? If I slow down, this could all go away, and we’ll be out on the street!”
Her ex-husband Jon currently does not have a job, and Kate can’t count on any financial help from him.
With Kate so focused on cash, the family’s estate in Wernersville, PA is more like a corporate office than a family home, added another source.
“Everything is for show. You’re not there unless you or someone is being paid…
“Kate always said the kids love filming, and they do - because it forces her to interact with them.”
Even worse, the children… are starting to feel as if Kate loves them only when cameras are around, said the source.
“Kate will take the kids out to play, but she stays only long enough for photographers to get pictures of her with them. Then she goes back to work in her home office and the nannies take over,” the insider revealed.
[From The National Enquirer, print edition, September 6, 2010]
I don’t like this woman, but the story sounds straight from Jon. It even goes on to claim that the kids like him and his girlfriend better and call the girlfriend “mom.” If Kate had a 9-5 job she would be away from the house during that time. If she relies on nannies to watch the kids all the time and late into the night that’s one thing, but if she does it so she can work during the day I don’t see the problem. I don’t agree with her choice of career, namely putting her kids on television, but that’s different from bashing her for using nannies so she can work. However, she should be spending time with them when the cameras aren’t around, and if she’s not doing that then this criticism is dead on.
Star has another big story about Jon Gosselin’s “tell all” and how it’s going to expose Kate. We’ve already heard that he’s writing a book, but according to PopEater it’s going to be a parenting-type book that of course has no publishers yet interested.
Star claims that Jon will tell all, though, and that he’s going to reveal Kate’s secrets. According to Star, Kate was probably already sleeping with her married bodyguard back when she was living with Jon and they were not yet separated. I wouldn’t put it past Jon to rewrite history in an attempt to make himself look like the wronged party, but it could have happened this way. We know they’re boning now. Here are the highlights from Star. (These are paraphrased except where there are quotes.)
- Bodyguard Steve Nield was staying in the basement when Jon was still living in the house. “Although Kate had a habit of sleeping late, leaving Jon to wake and feed the kids, ‘She suddenly started going down there to ‘work out’ in the mornings.’” TLC staff eventually made Steve leave.
- Kate belittled Jon. “She’d scream at him and call him names in front of their family and friends… Kate is really aggressive… a few times he could tell she was about to get physical and he’d… walk away.”
- Kate begged Jon to take her back for the show. “He has tons of texts and voicemails from Kate telling him she loved him and they should stay together for the show. Even after all the women he’s been with, Jon believes he could have gone back to Kate as recently as this spring.”
Jon doesn’t have much that we don’t already know, and he’s trying to drum up interest in whatever book he can write that will sell. If he does paint Kate as a controlling meanie who doesn’t love her kids he’ll be able to earn a little money at least. It seems like these people’s 15 minutes are just about up, especially Jon’s. Maybe that’s why Kate is freaking out and trying so hard to get paid while she can.
Radar has new photos of Kate and Jon out with their kids - separately. These photos are from 4/22 and 3/4. Credit: Fame
robert shumake
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Cave Story DS on the way? DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
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