Thanks to the power of public employee unions, the greed of politicians for campaign funds and their fear of being out of a job, the pension plans for public employees has gone completely off the rails. As it stands right now, you, the average taxpayer will be on the hook for the unrealistic pension plans on the books. In reality, for some pension plans there is no way to get their funding back to a realistic level and the unions are not willing to face the truth or the wrath of their members by making meaningful changes. Given the amount of school debt, lack of funding for Social Security and Medicare, plus these pensions, major problems are coming at us at a fast pace. The great shame is that the politicians who give into the unions in good times do not face any fiduciary liability for their mismanagement. Maybe it is time to take a step in that direction? This excellent article points our some of the hard realities and we got to this place. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/the-state-pension-crisis-goes-beyond-the-big-blue-states

I had great expectations for this book as the role of women in ancient Rome is sadly underrepresented or understood.  Unfortunately, this book did not quite come up to snuff; it was aimed more at the academic in that if you do not have a basic command of Latin, or a good Latin to English dictionary handy, or, if you do not have a basic understanding of Roman history and society, the book will fall short of your expectations.  In fact, it seems to me that the author was trying to burnish his academic credentials by writing this book.