- Do Hungarian teachers not understand how strikes work? The
purpose of walking off the job is to exert leverage on your employer and make
them feel the pain of losing what you bring to the workplace - and make them
realize what will happen if you leave and don’t come back. It’s hard to
accomplish any of those aims when you notify your employer two weeks ahead of a
planned one-hour strike, which then becomes at best a wholly symbolic, feeble
gesture that’s going to do no good for anyone. That’s precisely what Hungarian
teachers are threatening to protest the government's education policies. The
teachers plan to hold their short-term walkout unless leaders apologize for
their intimidating treatment and initiate meaningful negotiations on education
reforms, taking what amounts to an extra-long lunch break on March 30. High
school principal Istvan Pukli laid out the case for the strikes and in perhaps
the only positive aspect of this scheduled waste of time, he told tens of
thousands of protesters outside parliament that the strikes would grow longer
until "this government understands that it cannot go against the
country." Pukli’s primary targets were Prime Minister Viktor Orban and
President Janos Ader, both of whom he called on to apologize by March 23 for
the government's actions over the past six years against those "who spoke
about Hungary's future or their own rights" and to hold negotiations on
education policy. Those apologies, of course, have less chance of succeeding
than a one-hour lunch break work stoppage………
- It’s
official. The second Indiana Jones movie that should never happen is going to
happen and in three short years, a beyond-aged-out Harrison Ford and his pal Steven Spielberg will lead the charge for a project that could be better
than its pile-of-monkey-crap successor and still suck so bad that refunding the
ticket price of everyone who goes to see it would still be a raw deal for
moviegoers. Disney confirmed the fifth installment in the series of what began
as a fun, exciting adventure franchise starring a ruggedly handsome,
thrill-seeking archaeologist who battled Nazis and cave-based cults fueled by
child zombie labor and came off the rails with an alien-riddled dumpster fire
in the form of “Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in 2008. The studio confirmed that Spielberg will
direct and Ford will star once
again, with the project set to drop in July 2019. “Indiana Jones is one of the
greatest heroes in cinematic history, and we can’t wait to bring him back to
the screen in 2019,” Disney chairman Alan Horn said. “It’s rare to have such a
perfect combination of director, producers, actor and role, and we couldn’t be
more excited to embark on this adventure with Harrison and Steven.” Wrong, Al.
Indy WAS a great action hero back when Ford wasn’t into his seventh decade here
on this planet. Even the idea that Disney will add in some young stars
alongside Ford is dubious because they tried that with Shia LeBouf in “Crystal
Skull” AND IT STILL SUCKED DONKEY BALLS. While Disney may have spent $4 billion
in 2012 to acquire LucasFilm and the Indiana Jones franchise with it, it’s
going to make more than enough on Star Wars to forget that Indiana Jones exists
and stop murdering what remains of a once-great franchise………
- The
rage is spreading in the American electoral process. This time, it’s not the
unholy amalgamation of a pumpkin, a dead skunk and a tanning booth accident on
steroids or his followers who are bringing the violence to the election, but
rather a gun-toting poll worker who decided that his contribution to voting day
in the Buckeye State would be pulling his piece on his fellow poll workers to
settle a dispute that cannot possibly have been worth losing his job and
possibly going to jail for. According to police, this balloting location badass
was arrested after threatening other workers at a Cleveland polling place
around noon, whipping out his gun after getting into an argument with other
workers at Louisa May Alcott School. Yes, not only did this rage-aholic use a
gun to threaten other adults, but he did it at a school that had the misfortune
of serving as a polling station. Police say the man revealed a .380 gun from
his backpack but in his only smart move of the day, he fled on foot and was
arrested a short time later at West 107th Street and Detroit Avenue. Believe it
or not, given his wholly rational and reasonable behavior on the day, the man
was found to have both the gun in question and marijuana in his backpack when
arrested. "We were assured by the Board of Elections and safety officials
that the incident posed no danger to occupants at our school. Polling locations
at schools are separate and cordoned off from areas occupied by staff and
students on election day," Cleveland Metropolitan Schools said in a
statement. The local board of elections took the somewhat perfunctory step of
firing the poll worker, with the word firing being ironically awesome in this
particular situation………
- Know
how you can tell your NFL team doesn’t see you as a key piece in the pursuit of
its fifth Super Bowl title? When they say it’s totally OK if you want to leave
the team for the whole summer to go train at the U.S. Olympic training facility
in California as a part of the U.S. rugby team headed to this summer's Olympics.
New England Patriots safety Nate Ebner is a rugby player first, having been an
All-America rugger at Ohio State before the Patriots selected him in the sixth
round of the 2012 draft, so maybe it makes sense that he’s taking a leave of
absence from the Patriots starting Tuesday to start his Olympic training. Agent
Sean Stellato confirmed that Ebner was given permission from the Patriots to
leave to begin training and is scheduled to rejoin the Patriots after the Aug.
6-11 Olympic rugby competition. "First and foremost, I want to thank the
Patriots from top to bottom for giving me the opportunity to come back and play
for a truly first-class organization," Ebner said. "I also want to
thank them and USA Rugby for giving me the opportunity to chase a dream I've
had since I was a boy in a sport in which I've always had a passion. I plan to
represent the Patriots and our country to the best of my ability. Thanks again
and Go Pats and go USA." The weird quirk in all of this is that the
Patriots re-signed Ebner, who was unrestricted free agent, on Tuesday, so they
clearly knew what his plans were when they inked him to a new deal and yet,
it’s hard to see him gaining much ground on the depth chart when he’ll be AWOL
until after the start of training camp while playing a completely different and
über-physical sport in which he won't have a helmet or shoulder pads to keep
him protected in the middle of the regular scrums that define what rugby is and
make it pretty awesome to watch all at the same time……..
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