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pecuniumYou know what's in here. Snippet and stories of the recent past which interested, or more likely, irritated me.
Turn Tricks, or lose your unemployment There are things about this which bother me, the statement that prostitution was illegal in Germany until two years ago being the most notable (because it flies in the face of the red-light district in Frankfort being open, and regulated, a decade ago [and for pure amusement, wander around in a red-light district with an unmarried, Mormon, Capt. It was worth it just to see him goggling]).
Most people see are complaining about it as a problem with prostitution (it's being legal, or forced). Me, I see it as a problem with the, "force 'em off the dole" mentality. Were such a thing done here, Wal-mart would be happy. They'd have to take the jobs, and they'd still be on the dole.
Those people who are opposed to punitive damages, or awards of more than "x" for pain and suffering (like George Bush, who filed a suit which, on its face was more bogus than real. I've no problem with it, but he does). They need to think about this Fraud to avoid maintainence
Attorneys for Kerriana Johnson, now 7, said Dillard's managers knew the escalator was dangerous and set up a sham company to make it appear to regulators that the escalators were being maintained.
Kerriana, who was 5 at the time, lost her fingers as he tried to free her stuck shoe from the escalator during a shopping trip with her mother and two siblings. Jurors learned that more than 80 people had gotten shoes or clothing caught in the down escalator at the Tyrone Square Mall store since 1998.
Dillard's attorneys acknowledged some fault for the escalator, but argued the accident happened because the girl's mother was not supervising her properly.
Hallowe'en at VMI Now, I am generally open-minded about a lot of things which fall into the category of tasteless and crude, and on its face a bunch of guys dressing up like Nazis and sailors for hallowe'en isn't going to bother me much (I think Harry got more roasting then he deserved, at least from what I saw of that flap). But this bother me, not for the outifits, but the responses, "You have no idea what we go through here at VMI, and if the cadets and rats choose to have fun on Halloween, you should not have anything to say about it," a VMI cadet wrote. "Just remember, we are the future leaders of America, and we will be the ones defending your rights."
Given the attitude VMI has toward women, adding this, "We get to be rude, offensive and even bigoted, because we are going to defend you." attitide, well the only thing I can say is I don't want idiots like that in my Army.
Elections in Iraq are supposed to be the dawn of a new age. Kurdish referendum on independence This is from the NYT, which requires registration, so..."Irbil, Iraq — Of all the remarkable things that happened at the Iraqi polls on Sunday, perhaps the most striking was pulled off by the Kurdish independence movement. With almost no advance notice, hundreds of Kurds erected tents at official polling places in Iraq's Kurdish areas and asked those emerging from the ballot booths to take part in an informal referendum on whether Kurdistan should be independent or part of Iraq. From what I saw, almost everyone stopped to vote in the referendum, and the tally was running 11 to 1 in favor of independence....
United States officials have preferred to see Kurdistan through their own lenses. Last summer, I heard Condoleezza Rice speak at a meeting in Washington about how impressed she was with the Kurdish commitment to the building a new, unified Iraq. I know every Kurdish leader she met with, and I know that none of them would prefer to be an Iraqi if an independent Kurdistan were a realistic option.
Iraq's new Assembly will face the task of preparing a constitution for a country where a sizable part of the population almost unanimously does not want to be part of the whole. The representatives of the Kurdish areas will most likely be the second-largest bloc in the Parliament. They will not press for independence any time soon, but they will be mindful of the referendum vote. A second election is scheduled for the end of this year, and it is quite possible that the referendum movement will convert itself into a political party by then if it feels that the major Kurdish parties have made too many concessions....
For the people of Kurdistan, the issue is not simply a matter of keeping what they have. What drives the move for independence is not just the love of Kurdistan but also a widespread antipathy toward Iraq. The Iraqi flag is a hated symbol of a brutal regime, and it is still banned in areas controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (it does fly, along with the Kurdistan flag, on a few public buildings elsewhere in the region)."
The thing most people don't know (and this administration won't tell them) is that the Kurds are a problem. Not because they, inherently, are bad (in a lot of ways they are the group most like us... tolerant; in the main, pluralistic; in the main, and used [because we forced it on Iraq] to running their own state, basically), but rather because they are a sizable minority in four, contiguous, countries. Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria, all have Kurds living in adjacent areas. If any one of those four gets to be, truly, independent, the rest will want to carve off a piece of the country they live in, and join up.
Greece isn't exactly friendly to Kurds because when the radical Kurds want to flee from the Turks, they run to Greece. Greeks are ambivalent. They understand wanting to be free of Turkey, but don't like the fall-out of the present situation.
Three on Social Security, and the plans to privatize it.
Born suckers, or why Private Accounts are a bad idea (and thanks to Cluefairy for reminding me of this).
How they put Social Security on the block George will was at least honest about it. He says they should kill SS, not because it's broken, but because, "we have the opportunity."
Krugman shows the Catch-22 of the privatizers Also NYT, thus...
They can rescue their happy vision for stock returns by claiming that the Social Security actuaries are vastly underestimating future economic growth. But in that case, we don't need to worry about Social Security's future: if the economy grows fast enough to generate a rate of return that makes privatization work, it will also yield a bonanza of payroll tax revenue that will keep the current system sound for generations to come.
Alternatively, privatizers can unhappily admit that future stock returns will be much lower than they have been claiming. But without those high returns, the arithmetic of their schemes collapses.
It really is that stark: any growth projection that would permit the stock returns the privatizers need to make their schemes work would put Social Security solidly in the black.
And I suspect that at least some privatizers know that. Mr. Baker has devised a test he calls "no economist left behind": he challenges economists to make a projection of economic growth, dividends and capital gains that will yield a 6.5 percent rate of return over 75 years. Not one economist who supports privatization has been willing to take the test.
Enjoy.
Turn Tricks, or lose your unemployment There are things about this which bother me, the statement that prostitution was illegal in Germany until two years ago being the most notable (because it flies in the face of the red-light district in Frankfort being open, and regulated, a decade ago [and for pure amusement, wander around in a red-light district with an unmarried, Mormon, Capt. It was worth it just to see him goggling]).
Most people see are complaining about it as a problem with prostitution (it's being legal, or forced). Me, I see it as a problem with the, "force 'em off the dole" mentality. Were such a thing done here, Wal-mart would be happy. They'd have to take the jobs, and they'd still be on the dole.
Those people who are opposed to punitive damages, or awards of more than "x" for pain and suffering (like George Bush, who filed a suit which, on its face was more bogus than real. I've no problem with it, but he does). They need to think about this Fraud to avoid maintainence
Attorneys for Kerriana Johnson, now 7, said Dillard's managers knew the escalator was dangerous and set up a sham company to make it appear to regulators that the escalators were being maintained.
Kerriana, who was 5 at the time, lost her fingers as he tried to free her stuck shoe from the escalator during a shopping trip with her mother and two siblings. Jurors learned that more than 80 people had gotten shoes or clothing caught in the down escalator at the Tyrone Square Mall store since 1998.
Dillard's attorneys acknowledged some fault for the escalator, but argued the accident happened because the girl's mother was not supervising her properly.
Hallowe'en at VMI Now, I am generally open-minded about a lot of things which fall into the category of tasteless and crude, and on its face a bunch of guys dressing up like Nazis and sailors for hallowe'en isn't going to bother me much (I think Harry got more roasting then he deserved, at least from what I saw of that flap). But this bother me, not for the outifits, but the responses, "You have no idea what we go through here at VMI, and if the cadets and rats choose to have fun on Halloween, you should not have anything to say about it," a VMI cadet wrote. "Just remember, we are the future leaders of America, and we will be the ones defending your rights."
Given the attitude VMI has toward women, adding this, "We get to be rude, offensive and even bigoted, because we are going to defend you." attitide, well the only thing I can say is I don't want idiots like that in my Army.
Elections in Iraq are supposed to be the dawn of a new age. Kurdish referendum on independence This is from the NYT, which requires registration, so..."Irbil, Iraq — Of all the remarkable things that happened at the Iraqi polls on Sunday, perhaps the most striking was pulled off by the Kurdish independence movement. With almost no advance notice, hundreds of Kurds erected tents at official polling places in Iraq's Kurdish areas and asked those emerging from the ballot booths to take part in an informal referendum on whether Kurdistan should be independent or part of Iraq. From what I saw, almost everyone stopped to vote in the referendum, and the tally was running 11 to 1 in favor of independence....
United States officials have preferred to see Kurdistan through their own lenses. Last summer, I heard Condoleezza Rice speak at a meeting in Washington about how impressed she was with the Kurdish commitment to the building a new, unified Iraq. I know every Kurdish leader she met with, and I know that none of them would prefer to be an Iraqi if an independent Kurdistan were a realistic option.
Iraq's new Assembly will face the task of preparing a constitution for a country where a sizable part of the population almost unanimously does not want to be part of the whole. The representatives of the Kurdish areas will most likely be the second-largest bloc in the Parliament. They will not press for independence any time soon, but they will be mindful of the referendum vote. A second election is scheduled for the end of this year, and it is quite possible that the referendum movement will convert itself into a political party by then if it feels that the major Kurdish parties have made too many concessions....
For the people of Kurdistan, the issue is not simply a matter of keeping what they have. What drives the move for independence is not just the love of Kurdistan but also a widespread antipathy toward Iraq. The Iraqi flag is a hated symbol of a brutal regime, and it is still banned in areas controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (it does fly, along with the Kurdistan flag, on a few public buildings elsewhere in the region)."
The thing most people don't know (and this administration won't tell them) is that the Kurds are a problem. Not because they, inherently, are bad (in a lot of ways they are the group most like us... tolerant; in the main, pluralistic; in the main, and used [because we forced it on Iraq] to running their own state, basically), but rather because they are a sizable minority in four, contiguous, countries. Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria, all have Kurds living in adjacent areas. If any one of those four gets to be, truly, independent, the rest will want to carve off a piece of the country they live in, and join up.
Greece isn't exactly friendly to Kurds because when the radical Kurds want to flee from the Turks, they run to Greece. Greeks are ambivalent. They understand wanting to be free of Turkey, but don't like the fall-out of the present situation.
Three on Social Security, and the plans to privatize it.
Born suckers, or why Private Accounts are a bad idea (and thanks to Cluefairy for reminding me of this).
How they put Social Security on the block George will was at least honest about it. He says they should kill SS, not because it's broken, but because, "we have the opportunity."
Krugman shows the Catch-22 of the privatizers Also NYT, thus...
They can rescue their happy vision for stock returns by claiming that the Social Security actuaries are vastly underestimating future economic growth. But in that case, we don't need to worry about Social Security's future: if the economy grows fast enough to generate a rate of return that makes privatization work, it will also yield a bonanza of payroll tax revenue that will keep the current system sound for generations to come.
Alternatively, privatizers can unhappily admit that future stock returns will be much lower than they have been claiming. But without those high returns, the arithmetic of their schemes collapses.
It really is that stark: any growth projection that would permit the stock returns the privatizers need to make their schemes work would put Social Security solidly in the black.
And I suspect that at least some privatizers know that. Mr. Baker has devised a test he calls "no economist left behind": he challenges economists to make a projection of economic growth, dividends and capital gains that will yield a 6.5 percent rate of return over 75 years. Not one economist who supports privatization has been willing to take the test.
Enjoy.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-02 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-02 11:14 pm (UTC)But I thought it made an intersting, and worthwhile point, about the abuses such a, "workfare," law makes possible.
TK
no subject
Date: 2005-02-03 02:06 pm (UTC)So, about two years ago, laws were changed and prostitution became a "job like any other", from a legal pov, meaning, workplace safety rules, health care, social security, and all that. (Before that, prostitutes had to pay taxes, but received no benefits.)
However, there was some debate on the wisdom of the new ruling, arguing that if prostitution was a job like any other, wouldn't that mean that women (and men?) who were out of work could be demanded to take it, or lose benefits? (As it happens, I wonder about the same thing re. some other jobs, like lion tamer...)
But since it's illegal to force someone into prostitution, my guess is that criminal law trumps civil law, and the official line on the topic seems to follow that argumentation.
I can imagine three possible roots of this story:
a) bureaucratic mess-up.
b) someone has misread "is there any reason why this can't happen?" as "this has happened".
c) the woman in question was offered a job as a cleaning woman, a cashier, a waitress or whatever in a brothel, and things got mixed up.
Since this story has gotten no coverage in Germany that I know of, I'd say a mix of b+c is most likely.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-03 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-03 07:25 pm (UTC)Will work on it.
TK
no subject
Date: 2005-02-03 07:49 pm (UTC)I'm truly ignorant about the situation.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 01:20 am (UTC)There are also some real problems, in the concrete, with Wilsonian self-determinism; how large does a group need to be before it gets to demand a state of its own, by right?
If Iraq, for example, were to give the Kurds a chunk of land and say, "It's yours, so long and thanks for all the fish." What can they say to the Marsh Arabs?
Heck, we keep Indians on reservations, and pretend they are soveriegn nations, so it isn't as though we have much moral high ground.
TK
no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 01:22 am (UTC)Which means they could be a de-stabilising force, should Iraq let them go their own way.
It's also the case that oil-rich nations tend to be less than wonderful places to live.
TK
no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-05 01:31 am (UTC)It's power.
TK
no subject
Date: 2005-02-06 11:29 pm (UTC)BTW, I'm linking that Born Suckers article to my next Junk...
Also, sorry for any forthcoming comment spam. I'm catching up in your LJ today....for the last few months.....
VMI Halloween - and Gays
Date: 2005-02-18 09:42 pm (UTC)