Yes, they're surly about this. People who don't have kids should get time off, too, they say. It's discrimination that only parents would get this opportunity for paid time off (naturally, the person actually trying to do something about this is a lawyer).
All I can say is - what a bunch of fucking whiners.
Now, I'm not actually a parent myself, but some things ought to be common sense to anyone with a functioning brain (which, admittedly, most people don't have). It's probably a mark of our debauched, pathetic, decadent culture that we whine whenever someone proposes to cut a little more slack to harried parents. We've got plenty of people where I work who regularly vanish to deal with some kid-related problem, and you know, none of us gripes about it. They get the work done, and that's that. If this law requiring extra time off for new parents passed, well, we still wouldn't gripe, except in a good-natured sort of way. We certainly, I hope, wouldn't whine that we deserved equal time.
What amazes me is the people who will whine about this, and then, in the same breath, complain about how bad children are these days. Hello? Hello, McFly? Could the fact that our so-called prosperous economy "encourages" both parents to go work their butts off all the time have something to do with it? Brains... we're the proles, and we need braaaains!
Anyway, on to more wackiness in the news.
Governor Jeb "Jeb!" Bush made an amusing boo-boo the other day while giving a speech. He was commenting on the growth debate that's going on all over Florida, with citizens groups battling it out with corporations and developers in a no-holds-barred cage match. "Well," he says, "It could be worse. We could live in a state like North Dakota, with no opportunity, no problems with land management, no hope... er, I'm sure they have SOME hope in North Dakota... uh..." Bad politician. No cookie. Oh, well. North Dakota only has three electoral votes, so I suppose they're safe to piss off.
In other news from the United Kingdom, a town has declared independance from the oppressive taxation of the British crown, claiming an exemption granted to them by King Ethelred in 979 from all taxation. This no doubt started as a prank, but has continued, by sheer momentum of people running with the idea, to the point where the township has set up border posts and such, and begun bandying about the idea of requiring passports. Yes, the People's Republic of Arhurst Wood Nation State are no longer prawns of the government, they are now free Prawns in their own right!
Really, you just can't make up stuff like this. Clearly, it's the Illuminati at work. Or maybe the British have finally watched one too many Monty Python skits.
Today's MP3 is Wolf Hoffmann, with a hard rock rendition of "In the Hall of the Mountain King". No, really. It amuses me. What can I say?
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