Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/21/2011

Federal policymakers are working on plans that will allow the states to declare bankruptcy, and thus escape their unmanageable load of debt — including unfunded government pensions. The difficulty is the U.S. Constitution, which grants the states sovereignty, and therefore allows no mechanism for their declaring bankruptcy. Unlike the federal government, they cannot simply print money to get themselves out of trouble. However, the Constitution is generally no longer a problem, so presumably the feds will iron out the wrinkles. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Meanwhile, in Portugal, a 10% pay cut in the salaries of civil servants has come into effect, as a part of the country’s austerity program.

In other news, soldiers and politicians led a major protest in Copenhagen against Hizb ut-Tahrir, which held a debate on the premises of the Royal Library today.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to 4symbols, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, DF, Diana West, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Mary Abdelmassih, Salome, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.