Reason Morning Links: Obama Signs Nukes Treaty, "Behavior Placement," Naked Coffee Guy Cleared

• China expected to allow greater fluctuation in the value of its currency.
• Obama, Medvedev sign nuclear arms reduction treaty.
• New Orleans police officer pleads guilty in shooting of unarmed men in the days after Katrina.
• The creepy trend of "behavior placement" in TV entertainment.
• Ryanair will soon charge for in-flight use of toilets.
• Naked coffee guy wins an acquittal.

Comments

[SugarFree]

Ryanair will soon charge for in-flight use of toilets.

Giant bladders FTW!

[BakedPenguin]

Or you could repurpose the Whizzinator.

[SugarFree]

Or the old car trip trick. But having to piss in 6 or 7 less than 3 oz. bottles of my wife's hair care products is not the best way to begin a vacation.

It's helpful tips like this that really start making sense to you 15 years or so into a relationship.

[Groovus Maximus]

I, for one, will just cath myself if I ever have to fly that airline.

[Pablo]

Do they charge extra if you wanna wear a Depend on board?

[Death Panelist]

If you're vacationing in a jellyfish-prone area, those full bottles count as a first aid kit.

[asdfgh]

BakedPenguin|11.19.09 @ 11:18AM|#
If Pennsylvania elects her, can we involuntarily secede it from the union? Between her and Murtha, we'd really need to get rid of it.

http://reason.com/blog/2009/11.....inally-qui

What if Jack Murtha died and nobody cared?

[asdfgh]

Hmm..not sure why this posted here, I was replying to Penguin..

[BakedPenguin]

Good memory, asdfgh. And I'm sure there's a few hundred people in Johnstown who were riding the Murtha gravy train who are plenty sad now.

BTW, I don't really hate PA - just its politicians. And Philly bodega-bustin' cops.

[asdfgh]

PA isn't bad, you have some postcard picture perfect countryside. The people I dealt with there were all on the level. And of course there was Vangie from Pittsburgh, damn fine woman, they don't make them like her very often.

You do use a little too much salt on the icy roads. The only complaint I can think of, so that's actually very good.

[Groovus Maximus]

"Whatcha got there, some the ole Grampa's cough syrup?"

[Ska]

+1

[Whizz Man]

Declare the pennies on your eyes.

[capitol l]

@ Mr. Penguin

Speaking of Whizzinator.

[Warty]

Is this Mary Beth Buchanan's doing? Fucking whore.

[capitol l]

Yes it is, there is a link at the bottom of the page with details.

[capitol l]

Oh, I forgot; fuck mary beth buchanan.

[BakedPenguin]

I agree - so long as you're speaking metaphorically. That is one person who deserves to die alone.

[JW]

Can't she die surrounded by her loved ones an angry and well armed mob?

[asdfgh]

If it helps any, I get the impression she is someone who hates enduring every minute of her life.

Long live Mary Beth Butt-Cannon!

[Groovus Maximus]

By charging for the toilets we are hoping to change passenger behaviour so that they use the bathroom before or after the flight... That will enable us to remove two out of three of the toilets and make way for at least six extra seats on board.

We may have judged the underwear bomber too harshly. It seems his form of protest was ahead of it's time.

[SugarFree]

Ryanair has planes big enough to have more than one toilet?

[Groovus Maximus]

He just wanted more leg room.

[kinnath]

Standard B737 configuration has one up front by the door/galley and two aft.

[BakedPenguin]

The scariest thing about this is that the typical RyanAir passanger is a British yob flying to somewhere in the Meditteranean to spend drunken week somewhere. And they typically get a head start on the drinking.

[asdfgh]

Considering the steep price of alcohol on the Emerald Isle they'd have to be well off financially to get much of a head start.

[Citizen Nothing]

So how much piss will have to accumulate in the aisles or on the seats before they change the policy?

[ed]

Ryanair. Irishmen. What could go wrong?

[dbcooper]

It's also a great opportunity for Cinco.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Agreed! Thanks, Cinco...

[Maverick]

Piss like a fighter pilot. It'd be ironic to read about a plane loaded with drunk Brits throwing used piss bags around. I have high hopes for drunk British air travelers--that they can show the error of this pay for the airplane toilet policy.

[Mike Laursen]

Can't wait for everyone to go around saying, "Now, that there was a $1.40 crap!"

[MNG]

Art is almost always marred when it becomes politically preachy. Does anyone think Uncle Tom's Cabin or The Jungle is a page turner?

[Warty]

The Jungle is unreadable garbage. Boo hoo hoo, my family died of tuberculosis or some shit, now let's have 300 pages about Socialist Party meetings.

[Marshall Gill]

Absurd. My 8 year old son is reading it right now. He thinks it is "interesting". I wouldn't call it a "page turner" but not that bad.

It is pure socialist garbage, but it is always important to know your enemies.

[wylie]

Better watch him like a hawk. If he also takes up a taste for snappy uniforms you might have a problem.

[Warty]

You should beat him more often.

[Marshall Gill]

You should beat him more often.

Science, I am making the poor child read The Jungle! Mere physical torture is so over-rated.

[SugarFree]

Just don't over do it. Make sure not to follow it with Jack London or later H.G. Wells.

[Warty]

I liked Martin Eden well enough. The rest of Jack London's books are pretty much crap.

[SugarFree]

I started in on Burrough's Mars books at about 8. And Tarzan of course.

My parents took zero interest in what I read when I was a kid. Probably a very good thing in retrospect.

[T]

Mine signed me up for a library card and basically said "have at".

[Sarah Palin]

Your parents let you have books?

[I, Kahn O'Clast]

Preferred the less well known Venus series.

[I, Kahn O'Clast]

re Bourroughs

[Pope Jimbo]

Hah! I clearly remember the first "grown up book" I read (it qualified because it had no pictures.

It was Tarzan and the Forbidden City. It was a great read for a 3rd grader. I remember reading as many Tarzan books as I could get my hands on.

I should point out, though, that my dad gave me the book, so he definitely knew what was going on.

[Enough About Palin]

His short story about the guy and his dog freezing to death was pretty good.

[Enough About Palin]

Re: Jack London.

[ed]

To Build A Fire? That guy deserved to die. Sets up under a tree full of snow, and...oops. Spoiler Alert!

[Pope Jimbo]

My favorite London story was Lost Face.

The bad-assedness of the protagonist seemed pretty cool to me as a kid.

[Warty]

OK, that was pretty cool.

[franz kafka]

To Build a Fire. Excellent story.

[Chris]

John Barleycorn was London's best in my opinion. It's basically the story of how he became an alcoholic. The negative aspect of it is that he ends by supporting prohibition. Tool.

[asdfgh]

You didn't like Call of the Wild?

[Warty]

You didn't like Call of the Wild?

I remember it being pretty boring, except for the part where the dog kills the shit out of all those Indians. That was pretty cool.

[Marshall Gill]

Just don't over do it. Make sure not to follow it with Jack London or later H.G. Wells.

Look, I don't have much chance for fame. I am planning on Nickled and Dimed as the coup d'grace. I am giving him his first rifle when he turns 9.

I expect to be on the evening news in no less than 5 years, pleading up to the church tower, "Son, what ever you do don't shoot any innocent politicians. Especially that one that tried to screw your mother and is right over there in the blue pen stripe suit".

[SugarFree]

Ah. Your plan becomes clear now.

[Marshall Gill]

Perhaps not entirely. Notice the age and the timeline. I figure that if I can train him into a killing machine before he is 15 I can have him off whoever I wish, and he will be out on his 18th birthday.

How much do you love daddy? Enough to commit murder and do some time?

[Slut Bunwalla]

I figure that if I can train him into a killing machine before he is 15 I can have him off whoever I wish, and he will be out on his 18th birthday.

If you sic him on politicians, don't count on that happening. They'll try him as an adult and probably execute him.

[JW]

I like this plan. 100 quatloos on Marshall.

[Dagny T.]

The Jack London of Canada is Farley Mowat. Nothing I was forced to read in school made me want to pull off my own fingernails out of sheer boredom more than Never Cry Wolf. Except maybe A Separate Peace. Goddamn, 6th grade was a bad year for book reports.

[SugarFree]

A Separate Peace is pretty boring. We get it, kid. You're all broken up because you killed your not-so-secret gay crush.

Bridge To Terabitha broke my damn heart, though. It's why I'm the cynical, heartless asshole I am today.

Stupid rope swing.

[Dagny T.]

Aw. I liked that one too. They made a terrible looking movie of it a few years ago. Do not want.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Dagny,

Try Mowat's "The Dog who Wouldn't Be"if you like dogs. "Grey Seas Under" is a good sea story. Mowat has a strong vein of preachy environmentalism through his stuff... London would've kicked his ass.

"A Seperate Peace" nearly killed me.

[Dagny T.]

I mean, long descriptions of the majesty of the Canadian wilderness do not a good novel make. At least Jack London had, like, alcoholic Indians and stuff.

I view Farley Mowat's tripe as chick-lit for dudes. Throw in some shoes/dogs, weddings/wilderness adventures, and lots of contrived romance/bromance, and mix vigorously. The only difference is I never had to read Confessions of a Shopaholic in school. /bitter

[Robert]

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be was an excellent kiddie book for me...so good that I wound up reading another Mowat title or two shortly afterward.

[Groovus Maximus]

"When I grow up I'm going to Bovine Univeristy!"

[BakedPenguin]

I was going to read The Jungle, but fortunately, I confused Upton Sinclair with Sinclair Lewis, and wound up reading Babbitt instead.

[Valerie Jarrett]

Didn't George Babbitt work for an insurance company, though?
Similar themes...

[BakedPenguin]

He was a realtor. And Babbitt wasn't an anti-capitalist book, it was an anti-conformist book. Babbitt wasn't a shady guy who ripped people off (as he would have been with Upton Sinclair), he was a lemming who had no idea who he was unless he had a group to define him. Even when he decided to become "non-conformist", he needed a group of Bohemians to show him how to live.

I don't know for a fact, but I'm willing to bet Rand got a lot about the "second-handers" in The Fountainhead from Babbitt. (Although the books are very different in style and content).

[Robert]

Notice nobody cares much about the arms reduction now? Showing that it was never really about the weapons, regardless of what people said years ago.

[wylie]

''This isn't a case about being naked in your house. This is a case about intentional exposure,'' Birnbaum said.

Except for that whole acquittal thingy that says it wasn't. Nice quote to end on though.

[CaptainSmartass]

His argument was that any exposure was unintentional. The jury apparently agreed.

[wylie]

Maybe i read the quote in the wrong context. I guess the prosecutor could be agreeing with the ruling, since the jury decided it wasn't intentional. He's just pointing out that it was never about just "being naked in your house". That was kinda obvious the whole time though: it was about people SEEING you naked in your house. So i interpreted them finishing with that quote as some biased-against-the-ruling BS rather than just pointing out the obvious.

[TrickyVic]

""I guess the prosecutor could be agreeing with the ruling, since the jury decided it wasn't intentional. ""

Really doubt it. The prosecutor did believe it was intententional which is why charges were brought. How often do procecutors change their story after aquittal? The odds are the prosecutor still believes it was intentional.

[James Ard]

Since when does a prosecutor's belief have anything to do with a prosecution?

[MNG]

I think it was more about the enmity than the weapons, but either one without the other is less of a big deal.

[?]

Is there a coherent version of Naked Coffee Guy's story anywhere? Acquittals are so rare, I want to know what stories the jury heard, but the AP account is like a bad student bluffing an analysis of a Fatty Arbuckle movie he's never seen.

[asdfgh]

Good point.

[BakedPenguin]

Fatty was acquitted, too. Didn't help his career any, though.

[asdfgh]

I don't know about that, GWAR mentioned him in a song not long ago:

Suckle my bloated love knuckle
Just like Fatty Arbuckle I'm gay and I'm proud
That right...

Considering he isn't alive anymore his career seems to be doing very well.

[T]

He's mentioned in a GWAR song? That's a touchstone for cultural relevance, right there.

[virginia]

The prosecutor failed to show intent so the jury tossed it. They deliberated all of 20 minutes.

From an earlier story...

"...according to witness testimony, two separate women passers-by had called police to report a naked man standing very visibly in the doorway to his carport, one at about 6:40 a.m. and then another about two hours later. The second 'victim' had her seven-year-old with her, and is the wife of a Fairfax police officer, Williamson's lawyer said."

[asdfgh]

Wasn't aware there was a second woman.

Sounds like the first one called a friend and had her call it in and say she had a kid with her when the cops didn't show after her call.

It's a little unusual that anyone would stand in a doorway for 2 hours, naked or not.

[TrickyVic]

The article says cops did drive by the house after the first lady called and saw nothing.

[asdfgh]

Naked coffee guy got justice, good deal, that one pissed me off.

[capitol l]

He should get a contract with maxwell house, they could have those euro-type commercials where he's naked but there is always some clever cover.

Never mind;
"Good to the last drop."...ewwww

[asdfgh]

That's plain nasty!

Seriously, don't you run around your house naked?

That nosy bitch and her kid were using his yard as a shortcut, she had no business complaining, she shouldn't have been there.

[French Roast]

The best part of waking up....

(boing)

[Warty]

including an episode of the Bravo reality series "Millionaire Matchmaker" in which a 39-year-old tycoon with an eco-friendly clothing line goes into a rage after his blind date orders red meat.

Now that sounds like quality TV.

[wylie]

I guess he's not calling that guy for a 2nd date.

[.]

Bravo. The Gay Network?.

[LOGO]

Pardon me?

[A&E]

D'oh, we forgot to trademark that phrase.

[Enough About Palin]

I watched a gay film yesterday (NTTAWWT). It was called Urbania. It was on HBO. It was kind of interesting, but not great. I didn't know it was a gay film when I started watching it, but it became apparent early on.

"Urbania" is a film that deals with tough issues in a complex way. Directed by first-timer Jon Shear with amazing surehandedness, "Urbania" tells the story of recently-singled Charlie, who has seemingly become disillusioned from society. Shear's script, based on the play "Urban Folk Tales," is a sharp and occasionally hilarious look at a gay man's search for redemption and love. Obsessed with a man he's only seen on the street, Charlie wanders the streets, looking for love, and hoping to rekindle his past relationship. It's a simple story, dealing with some hard issues in a non-linear way.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182508/

[ed]

Jesus, that sounds excruciating.

[Warty]

I hope it got you laid, dude. Otherwise, that's a whole lot of agony for nothing.

[ed]

It's a simple story, dealing with some hard issues

I'll bet.

[Enough About Palin]

Given that I was alone and am not turned on by gay sex, I'm going to report no.

[Enough About Palin]

That was @ Warty (I hate nested threads).

[SugarFree]

Leftist millionaire? Sounds like someone's not doing his part.

But really, how awful for her. No one should have to go out on a date with a meatless douchebag who probably likes to fuck tempeh.

[Dagny T.]

Nope, the meatless douchebag was gay. That episode also featured an uppity South African bitch who took her date (a dude) on a "toxic tour" of LA.

...not that I watch Millionaire Matchmaker or anything.

[BakedPenguin]

Leftist millionaire? Sounds like someone's not doing his part.

But he's enlightened. So he gets to keep his money (which he probably inheirited).

[wylie]

Also, if eating red meat is such a goddamn crime, why the fuck go to a restaurent that serves meat? Seems like a tycoon has the option to eat anywhere he wants, and there are plenty of vegetarian options out there. Especially ones that cater to rich idiots.

[asdfgh]

Red meat is one of the few foods a person can survive on and be fairly healthy if it's their sole food item.

[wylie]

I'm not arguing the merits of any dietary choices. But if you have a problem with certain foods, MAYBE its a good idea to patronize places that don't serve those foods.

Of course, its not reality. The producers specifically designed that encounter to happen, if it wasn't just scripted in the 1st place.

"Ok, so what do we have to work with?"

"well, he's a rabid vegetarian."

"DRAMA GOLD! Let's set him up with a girl who loves BBQ."

Scary tangent: grilling meat produces carcinogens. some of them become airborne. SECOND HAND MEAT! Veggos demand a ban on grilled meats in bars and restaurants because it's violating their right to not "ingest" meat. If that doesn't work, they can go the health and safety route like for cigarettes. And of course, grilling in parks would have to go too.

[Corduroy Rocks]

Scripted conflict. Just like the rest of these crappy shows.

At least with dramas, we get more attention to detail and somewhat more intelligent dialogue.

[wylie]

and i got scooped because of my nannyism tangent. dammit.

[gaijin]

I actually saw that episode (I know, shoot me). The guy was a douche. He actually told his man-boy date that he should order the chicken...he was completely superficial in his rationale for opposing red meat...if that's behavioral placement, then it sure wasn't flattering to the veggie/eco position. Then again, why let reality get in the way of anecdotal evidence.

[Rhywun]

he was completely superficial in his rationale for opposing red meat

What rationale is there for opposing just *red* meat that isn't superficial?

[Fluffy]

The best thing about Millionaire Matchmaker is that when I watch it - and I do watch it from time to time - it makes me feel good about hating Californians.

I sit there and say to myself, "These people are the soul of California. This is what living in California would be like."

[T]

All I need to hate Californians is the pictures I get from buddies of the bastard abomination a Cali-legal AR-15 is. That's usually good to keep me topped off between my once a decade trips out there.

[Kolohe]

Wait, the WSJ is only discovering Law and Order is preachy now? What are they going to discover next, those shirts that change colors when you put your hands on them?

[James Ard]

TV has been trying to model behavior my entire life. Fuckena, how many life lessons can you get out of the Brady Bunch?

[James Ard]

Sorry to those below that already made my point. Damn threaded comments.

[ed]

The creepy trend of "behavior placement" in TV entertainment

[T]he goal is that viewers won't really notice that Tina Fey is tossing a plastic bottle into the recycle bin, or that a minor character on "Law and Order: SVU" has switched to energy-saving light bulbs. "People don't want to be hit over the head with it," says NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker.

Jesus Christ. Zucker is that clueless. Any wonder his network is circling the drain?

[asdfgh]

Hit over the head? It was so obvious I just completely gave up TV close to 20 years ago. I never minded watching commercials to watch a show, but the shows themselves had become - political propaganda - commercials.

[Citizen Nothing]

Recyclops doesn't seem to help the recycling cause much.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

Yeah, I thought recyclops was lampooning the go green crusaders.

[ed]

He succeeded only in lampooning his own show.

[Citizen Nothing]

What, in the context of the character, can that possibly mean?

[ed]

Schrute's character stepped outside of himself to promote (clumsily) the network's green-themed week, thereby obliterating any credibility the show might have had. Or something.

[Citizen Nothing]

Apparently I've misunderstood Dwight all along.

[ed]

He's a riddle wrapped inside a beet root.

[Citizen Nothing]

I just want to avoid his B&B.

[Mike Laursen]

I dunno. Weren't classic moralistic TV shows like, say, Leave It To Beaver nothing but "behavior placement". I probably learned more about ethical behavior from hokey TV shows than any other source.

[Enough About Palin]

No. That's a myth.

[PapayaSF]

I think there's a difference between a show using a traditional and fairly timeless moral lesson ("respect your elders") and using a theme based on the politically-decreed lesson of the moment ("reduce your carbon footprint"). The more contemporary the message, the more it feels like propaganda. Another example: an Andy Hardy movie from the '30s with a message about how to be nice to girls might seem forced and dated, but doesn't seem like indoctrination the way many movies from WWII do with "support the troops" themes.

[Mike Laursen]

But, is "traditional and fairly timeless moral lesson" just another way of saying that you agreed with the morals taught by the older shows, and not the newer shows (me, too, by the way).

It wasn't that long ago that an old Andy Griffith Show episode was postered here that got a bunch of us all misty-eyed:

http://reason.com/blog/2007/01.....th-hate-am

[Mike Laursen]

Hmm, the YouTube video has been pulled. THEY didn't want us viewing this old episode where Andy teaches Opey about the limits of government power!

[PapayaSF]

No, it's not whether I agree with it or not. It's that nearly all stories have always included moral lessons, so there's a certain baseline that we expect. What feels like propaganda is when it's a new, trendy moral lesson, whether I agree with it or not. I've been recycling since some of you whippersnappers were in diapers, but I still don't want it preached to me in a TV show.

[Coleman Mulkerin]

I'm fine with shows trying to convey a message such and Leave it to Beaver did. But mixing in eco-friendly actions into the script at the direction of Network executives seems a bit over the line. Of course you can boycott the network which I have been inadvertantly doing for several years now.

[Mike Laursen]

Guess my point is that, interference from the network executives or not, if they did a new Leave It To Beaver there would be episodes where the Beav learns all about how tossing that soda bottle into the trash can at the baseball field is destroying the earth. They might even get Al Gore in for a cameo.

Fashionable, but idiotic, ideas are always in the air. Even when the producer isn't pushing them top-down.

[SugarFree]

FBI arrests man for threatening Pelosi.

[asdfgh]

Saw that one last night, two were arrested for threatening dems one for a rep.

[Warty]

Another victim of Faux News.

[SugarFree]

She probably would have minded so much if he was better looking.

[SugarFree]

/wouldn't/

Fucking typing crap.

[Marshall Gill]

Don't feel bad, you haven't SF'ed a link in several days.

[SugarFree]

My old friend Preview, oh how I have missed you...

[ed]

According to ABC7 legal analyst Dean Johnson, there is a point at which free speech ends and a threat begins.

They need a legal analyst to tell them that?

[Mad Max]

You need a legal analyst to have the balls to *charge* for that sort of comment.

[some fed]

Perhaps you've never been interviewed.

You give the reporter a full, considered, nuanced explanation of some conundrum for which the reporter is requesting your expert advice. The reporter doesn't understand most of it and will instead takes the simplest catchy statement you gave--likely as a sort of mood-setting filler--and retains that as the sole citation of your expertise, an mere aphorism backed by a title or certification.

Thus comes into being a soundbite.

[Lady Liberty]

When are they going to arrest Pelosi for threatening me?

[J sub D]

Confiscating weapons from people in the aftermath of Katrina was the right thing to do. They just took them from the wrong folks.

[asdfgh]

But how could they shoot at the NG choppers trying to rescue them if the wrong folks had no firearms?

[Cabeza de Vaca]

No one was shooting at NG helicopters. That was a made up media story.

[Solanum]

Why would anyone want to shoot at NG helicopters anyway? LE or CE helicopters, on the other hand...

[Warty]

Good morning all; have some metal.

[Xeones]

FBI arrests man for threatening Pelosi.

I wonder if slashfic could count as "threatening." If so, you're in deep shit, dude.

[Warty]

I'm pretty sure it counts as assault against his readers, dude. That shit ain't cool.

[SugarFree]

At least I portray her as sexual desirable... even if that notion has been farcical for about 40 years at this point. The worst thing I've done is have far too much imagination.

[Groovus Maximus]

There's too much imagination and then there's DSM-IV quality imagination Saccharin Man. Keep it up and your have your own diagnotic criteria in the DSM-V.

Or is that your brass ring?

[SugarFree]

"Sugarfreetonia" has a nice ring to it.

[Groucho]

Hail Freetonia!

[SugarFree]

I was thinking more like catatonia brought on by pornographic revulsion.

[Groucho]

Yesterday I shot Valerie Jarrett in my pajamas...

[Nick]

Serves her right for wearing your pajamas.

[Groovus Maximus]

Well, the electorate's flaccid indifference to the collective violation of our individual liberty would qualify as a symptom.

[Mike M.]

Paul Volcker declares that a national Value Added Tax "isn't as toxic an idea as it once was."

The United States of Denmark, here we come.

[Warty]

What a statesman.

[ed]

Relax. After a while we won't even notice the $12 boxes of rotini.

[BakedPenguin]

Well Obama said anyone who makes less than $250,000 won't see a tax increase, so the VAT will somehow only effect rich people through the power of unicorn taxation magic!

[PapayaSF]

Beware: some VAT/national sales tax proposals include a "refund" whereby people below a certain income get checks to make things more "progressive." You don't think Obama would love a mechanism for buying Democrat votes like that?

[Corduroy Rocks]

Arrrggggghhhhhh......

[Mike M.]

I believe that this was their real plan all along. Jack up spending as high and fast as possible, then throw up their hands and say "sorry, we simply have no choice".

[ed]

Absolutely. But we will have a choice: pay up, or class warfare. Either way it means a dismal slide into second-rate global status. That's our future. On the bright side, maybe a nuclear attack followed by global financial-market crashes and the subsequent mass famines and violent anarchy will finish us off first.

[Invisible Finger]

Buy now or be taxed out forever.

[Chris]

Brainwashing rule #1:

Don't tell people you're brainwashing them.

[Maverick]

Here's Valerie Plame discussing her Global Zero philosophy at CNN. Methinks that she's exaggerating her role as a CIA officer, and her importance in that organization's counter-nuke program. Couldn't she drop the phony bitter act? If she was ever involved with something that classified, she willingly turned away from it when she married an ambassador. And it's not like her side of the story won't be told in the movie version.

[Deputy Director Shamus]

Hey Val, that coffee isn't going to make itself.

[PapayaSF]

Somebody green-lighted a movie version of that tempest in a teapot? It'll make less money than any of those anti-Iraq War movies that all bombed.

[Solanum]

True Fact: The use of the term "flake" to describe an eccentric individual was originally coined by a star baseball player on the 1950's.

[robc]

I didnt buy it, however, in looking up the original words to "Casey at the Bat", apparently "cake" was rhymed with "Blake", not "flake" as I remembered it. However, from googling around, almost all the parody versions have "flake" in that position and I remember seeing the "original" with "flake" as a kid. Obviously it wasnt the original, someone had mistranscribed it along the way.

So, maybe flake does come from the 50s.

Anyway, still doesnt answer why Casey was batting behind Flynn and Blake. The Mudville manager clearly had no clue in filling out a lineup card.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Power hitter with best BA in the 3 hole. Managing 101.

[robc]

But Cooney and Barrows were hitting before Flynn and Blake. So, strong hitters batting 1, 2 and then nobodies at 3, 4 and then Casey at 5?

Managing 101 has Casey batting after Cooney and Barrows.

[&]

Nope. Ain't gonna bite.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

I took a chance. Link to a link, but it's a legit LA Times story. Or is that an oxymoron?

[SugarFree]

The fascists at Slate come up with the worst idea ever.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Hey now! Be a good boy and "wrap that rascal".

[Abdul]

"behavior placement" in porn?

Porn's the last non-preachy form of entertainment.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Unless it's gay kiddie porn. Then, the main character is sure to be wearing a clerical collar. Just sayin'...

[Chris]

This puts the moneyshot in serious jeopardy. Write your senator.

[hurly buehrle]

China expected to allow greater fluctuation in the value of its currency.

The rejoicing in DC over this is just today's edition of "politicians are economically ignorant". Surely our economy will only grow if capital goods from China become more expensive.

[keynesian]

The problem with this economy wracked by debt, default, and bankruptcy is that people aren't spending enough.

[I, Kahn O'Clast]

So now that Naked Coffee Guy was just minding his own naked business and not exposing himself, won't anyone press charges against his accusers for being peeping toms?

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Not gonna happen. Remember the old joke?

Cop: Ma'am, I can't see a naked man across the street.

Woman: Well, you have to stand on that chair, and lean way over to the left...

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Not gonna happen. Remember the old joke..

Cop: I can't see a nude man, ma'am.

Woman: Well, you have to stand on that chair, and lean hard to the left.

[TrickyVic]

""Under Virginia law, indecent exposure occurs when a person intentionally makes an obscene display of his or her private parts. The law does not necessarily require the exposure to be in a public place -- it allows for prosecution when the exposure occurs in a ''place where others are present.'' ""

Does that mean threesomes are illegal in VA? VA does claim to be for lovers.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

The court documents filed Wednesday suggest prosecutors plan to charge some officers of violating the victims' civil rights through excessive use of force

They seem to have misspelled "murder".

I blame the public schools.

And whoever edited this piece missed the mistake with the preposition.

I blame the public schools for that, too.

[?????]

thanks