What's the latest in people's lives?

[Mark]

An upside to a bad back.....who'd of thought?

[Angharrad]

Guess I should take the spoiler out of my signature.

Maybe


Someday



Soon


Nah

[Nickswitz]

Well, right now the Fios guys are here and installing the Fios cables. It will take a few hours for them to finish up, but will be well worth it in the end. Once they do I get to set up all the stuff for the internet on the home computer of ours, but it shouldn't be too bad, at least our neighbors have wifi I can steal...

[Sionnach Glic]

There may be another strike on Thursday, depending on how well talks go. Huzzah for standing around in the freezing cold!

[Mark]

If you'd like, I can send you some pics from Hawaii to help keep you warm Just kidding, strikes are a bitch. Nothing useful gets accomplished, especially if the folks at the table are stubborn. A strike at the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas lasted YEARS....until they finally closed the casino down, IIRC.

[Sionnach Glic]

Yeah, these strikes are going to acomplish jack shit. It's all in an attempt to prevent the government slashing the budget for public services into tiny pieces, but with Fianna Failure in charge, there's no chance of anything intelligent being done.

[Mark]

Well, while on strike your not getting paid at all right? Maybe that's the plan? Keep you on strike until they save enough money to bring you back.

In another mind blowing bend, my wife (who works at a commercial bakery that is having financial trouble) and I were having lunch with my inlaws on Sunday. Just out of the blue, my mother in law offers to BUY the damned business for my wife (it's funny how rich they are). She says "I'll think about it."

[sunnyside]

Yeah, these strikes are going to acomplish jack s**t. It's all in an attempt to prevent the government slashing the budget for public services into tiny pieces, but with Fianna Failure in charge, there's no chance of anything intelligent being done.

Does your government even have a choice? My understanding is that they really don't. With the low rating on Irish debt and various EU debt/GDP requirements I don't think they can even jack up the deficit if they want to.

Or is there more money around than I think there is?

Either way I hope you keep your job! And that you and the kids spend a minimum of time out in the cold.

[Tyyr]

The problem with striking is that what you get is rarely enough to make up for what you lost during the strike.

[Aaron]

The problem with striking is that what you get is rarely enough to make up for what you lost during the strike.

True but sometimes it's more of a matter of principle the cash, in the case that your getting royally fucked around by the company/government.


As for whats new with me; I got a letter from VAC today, with a form to nominate relatives in case I die of a service related injury for the Memorial Cross. The catch? You have to be injured in a Special Duty Area (ie: overseas). Seriously, does no on screen these things before they mail them?

[Sionnach Glic]

Okay, a warning to you all: meandering and vaguely aimless ranting ahead. Don't say you weren't warned.

Does your government even have a choice? My understanding is that they really don't. With the low rating on Irish debt and various EU debt/GDP requirements I don't think they can even jack up the deficit if they want to.

Or is there more money around than I think there is?

Oh, there's plenty of money in the country alright. Mostly in the pockets of those in charge, who are pretty much ensuring that everyone but them is feeling the recession.

The problem is that the government is going about dealing with the crisis and the budget in a completely arse from elbow way. The government needs to cut 4 billion from the budget. They're planning to cut 1.3 billion from the public sector (education, healthcare, libraries, local authorities, etc) by cutting funding and salaries, increasing work hours, etc. Needless to say, the prospect of working longer hours for less money roused the entire public sector into furious anger.

Of course, this is just utterly typical of how Fianna Faíl, the party that's currently in charge, has gone about dealing with the crisis. Last year they tried to take away pensioners' access to free healthcare. This resulted in a spectacular protest in Dublin City as several thousand pensioners from across the country travelled to the capital for a mass protest. Needless to say, the government decided to reverse that decision rather than risk an angry mob of old folks storming the Daíl.

No sign of the politicians cutting their own ridiculously high salaries, of course. Fun fact - our Taoiseach gets paid more than any other world leader, including your own president! And that's far from unusual; Irish politicians and government higher-ups are paid some of the highest salaries in Europe, when we've always been one of the weaker economicaly. Is it any f***ing wonder the country is in such a state of economic chaos?

Particularly infuriating is how the government led us blindly into the recession through the mindless and moronic wasting of billions of euros on utterly pointless s**t (anyone seen that big spike they put in the middle of Dublin? Idiocy like that is just what I'm talking about) and not understanding the shocking fact that money eventually runs out if you keep spending. The crash of the housing market, which people had been predicting for years before it happened, only further increased the severity of the economic crisis in Ireland. Also, while at this point it seems to be just jumping on the bandwagon to blame the banks, they really do share quite a bit of blame in the spectacular f****p that is our economy, and the government has done damn all to penalise them.

Of course, it's unfair to tar all politicians with the same brush. Some excellent examples of politicians I may actually be willing to vote for have agreed to not take any pay for one or two years due to their ridiculous salaries and the current crisis.

So, to sum it up a bit, yes, the government is in dire need of money. The problem is that they're attempting to screw over those who have already been screwed over plenty of times before (the government already used to public sector to save 1.6 billion this year) and not even considering touching their own far from meagre pay.

Either way I hope you keep your job! And that you and the kids spend a minimum of time out in the cold.

I'm fairly sure I'll be okay. I'm working at a privately run college, so we're unlikely to get hit too heavily when the government takes a machete to the public sector's funding.

Well, while on strike your not getting paid at all right? Maybe that's the plan? Keep you on strike until they save enough money to bring you back.

I remember reading something that suggested the government saved 50 million due to Thursday's strike. I seriously doubt they're planning to keep the country in a state of barely contained fury towards them, but they're not exactly getting hurt by it. It's been a foregone conclusion that the morons in power are going to get booted out in the next election since last year, so they don't particularly care at this point.

True but sometimes it's more of a matter of principle the cash, in the case that your getting royally f***ed around by the company/government.

That's pretty much what this is - just the equivelant of giving the middle finger to the people in charge.

[Deepcrush]

I was so far out of it. I was worried about falling asleep at work. Lucky me, two students made a grab at me. Nothing like two kids charging you to wake you up.

[Mark]

Is assault and battery like a daily occurance???

[Deepcrush]

Is assault and battery like a daily occurance???

Yes.

[Mark]

Dude...........you gotta get a safer job. Ever considered the bomb squad?