This morning Debby Witt posted this link about British beer laced with Viagra. In the same vein (kind of), here is an article about how the French police are threatening to strike over their right to drink wine or beer at lunch time.
France’s infamous riot police are threatening to strike over a new rule forbidding them from drinking wine with lunch, a cherished — and in many cases legally protected — French tradition. “Wine or beer for the CRS? C’est fini!” blared a recent headline on the TV channel France 2′s website. The riot police in turn have accused the Interior Ministry of “trying to make us priests, but without the sacramental wine.”
For those of you who understand French, I would highly recommend watching this segment from France 2 (one of the main public channels in France); in particular, listen to the union representative arguing that every worker has a right to their glass of wine or beer during their lunch break (around one minute into the video).
Thanks to Tate Watkins for the pointer. Speaking of Tate, he had a very interesting piece about Haiti in Real Clear Politics last year, making the case that Haiti doesn’t need foreign aid money, it needs a better development strategy. Here is a tidbit:
The developed world can and should promote growth by eliminating agricultural subsidies and tariffs so that poor farmers can exploit advantages in farming. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have taken the first, small steps to do that by advocating relaxed trade restrictions on Haitian goods. The international community must heed these recommendations.
Foreign investment – not international donations – is a worthy development strategy that aligns long-term incentives between lenders and borrowers. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank should encourage sovereign countries to seek financing on international markets rather than provide grants and loans below market terms.
These reforms foster opportunities for local entrepreneurs to increase exports and meet local needs, which ultimately lead to economic and humanitarian improvement.
And he wrote about Haiti again last week.