It’s Friday and it’s open thread time. Let me congratulate BCS champion Alabama for kicking Texas’s freshman quarterback around. Alabama was probably the best team but who knows how they would have played against Boise State. If only there was a way of determining who was really the best team…
Let’s start with some good news. Portugal is on the road to becoming the sixth European country to allow same sex marriage (the other five are Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Norway).
Portugal’s Parliament passed a bill Friday allowing gay marriage in the mostly Roman Catholic country.
The Socialist government’s bill won the support of all left-of-center parties. Right-of-center parties opposed the change and sought a national referendum on the issue, but their proposal was rejected.
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If there is no presidential veto, the first gay marriage ceremonies could take place in April – a month before Pope Benedict XVI is due on an official visit to Portugal.
Now the bad news. The economy lost 85,000 jobs in December and unemployment stayed at 10%.
Nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-85,000) in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade, while temporary help services and health care added jobs.
I think this means a second stimulus is more likely.