At left, French rioters try to wrestle a video camera from a journalist during a continuing national protest by students and unions, demanding that the French government scrap a contentious youth jobs law, during a demonstration in Paris on Tuesday.
In Britain, almost two million local government workers went on strike Tuesday, closing thousands of schools and disrupting travel. Eleven labor unions combined to stage the 24-hour protest which, they said, would be the biggest strike since 1926.
UK workers are demonstrating against a plan to force some public sector employees to work longer, or face a reduced pension if they retire at 60.
Though Bill Clinton says that Britain’s government, economy and social system is the envy of the United States, Britain’s state and private pensions system is straining from the rising cost of an aging workforce. The UK faces a 57 billion pound ($100 billion US) shortfall in retirement savings which is around five percent of the country’s entire Gross Domestic Product.
Here, protests are still occurring over the illegal immigration issue, though the Senate Judiciary Committee panel broke with the House’s “get-tough” approach to illegal immigration on Monday and sent to the floor a broad revision of the nation’s immigration laws that would provide lawful employment to millions of illegal workers while offering work visas to hundreds of thousands of new immigrants every year — ending up with a granting of citizenship if the immigrant does in fact have a job, can pass a criminal background check, learn English and pay fines and back taxes — essentially what President Bush has proposed.
Republicans are widely split on the issue. Only 4 of the 10 Republicans on the committee supported the bill. They were the committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Sam Brownback of Kansas. All eight Democrats on the committee voted in favor of the legislation.
In all, citizens of many western nations, the United States included, believe they are due certain inalienable rights, to include:
- The right to cross into any nation and become a lawful citizen by dint of feet on soil;
- The right to enjoy any and all benefits of that nation, as any other naturalized citizen;
- The right to proclaim no allegiance to the nation inhabited;
- The right to refuse to assimilate;
- The right to complete healthcare, a “living wage” equal to that of any middle class tenured employee;
- The right to obey only those laws one wishes, whenever one wishes;
- The right to be assured of a job and not be fired, even for cause;
- The right to be catered-to throughout one’s lifetime by government;
- The right to owe nothing to the government or surrounding taxpayers for largesse enjoyed;
- The right to change these rights at any time and, of course, to always demand more.
People, all I’m seeing is this:
Screeching masses demanding more. More. MORE.
And government having the temerity to actually consider not granting these demands.
Woe be to us all when governments cave, for this does nothing but imbue these governments with their primal fuel: power.
And then we will well and truly be lost and adrift.
BZ
(An aside: you think the Balkanization of the US, BTW, isn’t pondered? Go here.)
Maybe it’s time for the taxpayer to start demanding more.
• More of our money to stay in our own pockets.
• More responsible government for the movers, shakers and producers in this country.
• More tough love for the leaches on society.
• More requirements for people to be responsible for their own welfare.
• More security on our borders.
I always knew Clinton was a socialist, but for him to basically admit it shocks me.. Usually they cloak it. It is amazing how STUPID liberals are who believe that socialism and Communism can thrive if done right. There are to many great examples of how horrible the idea is, this being one of them.
Cause and effect are not thought of in our world as much as it needs to be. It is the here, the NOW instead of “If I do this, then this will happen, etc.. etc..”.. Most people don’t understand human nature, the way we were built and that is one thing AMerica understood a long time ago when our nation was founded. That is why we are free today and a capitalist society. It works!! I am with you and hope the government doesn’t cave in as time goes on or we are in deep doo-doo.
Folks: I added one final sentence just now, that you may not have caught. Check the article I linked and then see what you think.
BZ
Mr. Z – Group identity and group rights over that of individuals is the destruction of the very base of the US Constitution. And of course Moderate Muslims aren’t going to protest as they win no matter who loses! If the fanatics and destroyers win and Islam is over everything, the Moderates win. If the West wins, then they still have all of their human rights intact and the Moderates win.
This is Transnational Progressivism on the inside of the nation to destroy us along with the Transnational Terrorists on the outside chipping away to form a worldwide Islamic state with the elites being themselves.
So the Left works hand-in-hand with the barbarians to bring civilization down.
How cozy.
Of course this all started with the great ‘sympathy’ to illegals and forming up City States dedicated to trafficking in humans. And one of the great things about the Left is that when they start a revolution, it usually follows the early trends and then stultifies into whatever power structure finally takes control. So the Left starts it with groups, of which some only deserve servitude, and end it with Islamists that will see everyone in service to them.
Such great ideas from the 1960’s and 1970’s! Revolution! Imagine No Borders! Imagine One People!
Imagine Global Tyrrany.
Time to push the States for an Armed and Accountable Citizenry. If we can’t fund the law properly, then let the armed Citizenry deal with lawlessness first. And when a Mexican Federal Army helicopter or Federal Police Vehicle crosses over the border? Sounds like an invasion to me…
One of my favourite long-gone bumper stickers: “Imagine Whirled Peas.”
This shall take some time to process your comment, AJ, and to hit the links, which I shall.
BZ
Mr. Z – Just building a bit on previous work… but the more I look at how things are going, the more I realize the Zero Party State is upon us.
A Republic.
IF we can keep it.
03 29 06
Hey Blo Zep:
This is a very important concept; balkanization. What many people fail to realize is that a lot of ethnic enclaves exist because the immigrants weren’t welcome anywhere else. From ‘Colored Only’ to ‘Irish Need Not Apply.’ In many ways, we had legally forced enclaves. And sure there are religious groups who voluntarily segregate themselves, but for the most part they are able to do so peacefully.
What really bothers me is when in thsi day and age, after legal segregation people still want to live separate from everyone else. How can one live in America and not interact with their neighbors or participate in the greater community?
The next issue has to do with Clinton. Each day I find things that he has said that really hurt. I cannot believe that anyone would say that Britain has an enviable healthcare system. But then I realize that only a few years ago, it was touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Only time has been able to prove that socialist/commie type programmes DON’T WORK?! Canada has also had similar problems. One hospital in Montreal was considered “too efficient” so they ordered it not to perform any more surgeries until the next year. So obviously socialized medicine is a joke!
Good post BZ.
03 29 06
BTW: A. Jacksonian, you sure are clever, and like BZ I take a while to digest your comments;)
Mahndisa – Thank you!
I will have to ask you about starting quantum states for electrons across a Josephson Junction and with superconductivity. I would think that there should be an energy consideration there, especially in dissimmilar starting states of those electrons if coming from non-similar shells from different atoms… but I have not had the time nor wit to do so. I would think they would have to be at a nearly identical energy state, but am probably wrong on that as it is not an area of my expertise.
If you need help with my thoughts, let me know… I can either get you thoroughly lost, in which case any direction for starting is good… or on a few interesting trains of thought that connect with other areas through similarity of structure.
03 30 06
Hey A. Jacksonian:
Ask me the question on my post, so we don’t take up too much space here. But your question is EXCELLENT. First off, in a Josephson junction, the supercurrent that forms is a result of Cooper pairing and tunnelling across the thin insulating layer of the junction. In Cooper pairing, electrons in opposite spin states couple due to phonon energy exchange between the atoms in a material with lattice structure. However, the electrons are nearly equal in energy and in fact are part of a degenerate energy spectrum. And I am saying this a bit cautiously because it is slightly more complicated than that, but essentially at low enough temperatures, there are enough electrons right below the Fermi level and they want to benefit from the phonon electron lattice energy exchange. See the Eisberg and Resnick pages on the post🙂 The energy values are only off by a little bit, and essentially are looked at as the same, less some minor corrections. They key consideration is that the electrons are in OPPOSITE SPIN STATES,so that the exclusion principle isn’t violated and their position is such that the Coulomb repulsion is overcome. The Coulomb repulsion is proportional to 1/rsquared, where r is the distance from the charge to the field point in question. What happens is that the phonon lattice interchange causes affects the motion of the electrons in the lattice and… Anything else, just email or comment on the blog. Thanks for asking!
Mahndisa – My thanks! And will do so… it is an area I have had some interest in since the 1980’s and enjoyed listening to talks given on superconductive states by various visiting profs… But will not take up any more of the good host’s space on that!
And thank you, all for putting up with a minor diversion!