>>>>>>>>>>>SNIP
>>>>>>>>>>>>easy getting benefit, as soon as you're unemployed, but it's no fortune - c £60 per week. And, as in my case, and thanks to Bill Clinton's initiatives, the "job-seekers' allowance" only runs for 6 months. Social security payments, say for unemployed families, esp. with kids, can run indefinitely (like your Americans "on welfare").
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>What did Bill Clinton have to do with England's policies?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Didn't he introduce welfare benefits that stopped after 6 months, thus forcing people into work? Maybe I recall incorrectly.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Not in England.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Well DUH-UH! Of course not. But our govt. copied his initiative. I wish they'd copy the "3 strikes and out" policy too.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>It sounds appealing but has at times been an illustration of the law of unintended consequences. It needs to be tweaked so the third strike specifies serious crimes, not relatively minor ones like stealing videos (as happened in one notorious case).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Though you do have wonder about the impulse control of somebody with 2 strikes when they stole the videos. Maybe taking someone that stupid or ungoverned off the street permanently isn't such a bad idea.
>>>>>
>>>>>Certainly a very expensive idea though Charles. What the per capita per annum cost of imprisonment.
>>>>
>>>>Absolutely, but my views on capital punishment scare people, so I was trying to sound kinder and gentler ...
>>>
>>>come out of your bunker. the soviets are long gone.
>>
>>For institutions interested in their own self-perpetuation, there is always a bogeyman to be found.
>
>uh - ok - but since we were talking about domestic criminal law with no implications regarding the cold war or ...
>
>I guess when you feel the ideological fires burning you just have to set fire to that strawman <s> So good for you. You are a modern, progressive, liberal, right-thinking person who was never brainwashed by the old meanies that were so rightly driven away in our recent national rebirth.

I knew I shouldn't have said anything about the CIA the other day ;-( Sensitive subject, evidently.

If you think my views are that stereotypical, well, good for you, too.

Definitely time for "Seinfeld." I have been in the pleasant habit lately of watching a rerun around this time of day. It makes a nice transition between the workday and the evening.