Sad But True

I love when a "study" comes out that confirms what everybody with eyes can see in a heartbeat. Wealthy people have no ethics or scruples to match their greed. People who drive expensive cars are the most arrogant pricks on the road. Large sums of money give people feelings of greater entitlement. Earth shattering.

My favorite part is the end here, where it says they can't figure out if being wealthy brings this bad behavior to the fore, or if people become wealthy because they are miserable bastards without any regard for others to begin with. Kind of a "chicken or the egg" argument.

Conclusion? It seems like a vicious cycle.

No shit.

At last, an explanation for Wall Street's disgrace, Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and other high-society crimes and misdemeanors: A new study published in the Proceedings of that National Academy of Sciences found that wealthier people were more apt to behave unethically than those who had less money.

Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley analyzed a person's rank in society (measured by wealth, occupational prestige and education) and found that those who were richer were more likely to cheat, lie and break the law than those who were poorer.

"We found that it is much more prevalent for people in the higher ranks of society to see greed and self-interest … as good pursuits," said Paul Piff, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at Berkeley. "This resonates with a lot of current events these days."

In the first of two studies, researchers found that those who drove more expensive cars (an admittedly questionable indicator of economic worth) were more likely to cut off other cars and pedestrians at a busy San Francisco four-way intersection than those who drove older, less-expensive vehicles.

In other experiments, wealthier study participants were more likely to admit they would behave unethically in a variety of situations and lie during negotiations. In another, researchers found wealthier people were more likely to cheat in an online game to win a $50 prize.

Greed is a "robust" determinant of unethical behavior, according to the study.

"This has some pretty clear implications," said Piff. "Inequality is very much on Americans' minds, and the potential effects of severe inequality on individual levels of behavior are major."

Large sums of money may give people greater feelings of entitlement, causing those people to be the most averse to wealth distribution, Piff continued. Poorer people may be less likely to cheat, because they are more dependent on their community at large, he said. In other words, they don't want to rock the boat.

"People in power who are more inclined to behave unethically in the service of gains and self-interest can have great effects on society as a whole," said Piff.

And it's difficult to say whether richer people get to the top because of their unethical behavior or whether wealth causes people to become this way. "It seems like a vicious cycle," he said.

[ABC News]

Fun For The Whole Family

I often read about videos gone "viral" and this is one of the best ones I've ever seen. The headline of this article says "DERANGED MAN GETS SHOWERED WITH PEPPER SPRAY AT DISNEYLAND." Sometimes when people describe videos as "viral" I think that means people aren't really watching what is going on.

If you click the link at the bottom you can go to the page and watch the four minute video yourself. A few observations. At the beginning, the guy punches a security guard of some type so I can't criticize the initial hit of pepper spray. What is up with that white fedora-type hat? Is this what security guards wear? It looks odd to me, and maybe the "deranged" guy thought he was talking to a Disney character of some kind rather than a security guard.

Next you can see the guy is laying on the ground, helpless, and the guy in the white hat continues to pepper spray him anyway. He seems to really be enjoying it! Then the guy gets up and he's just wiping his eyes and otherwise recovering. The white hat guy is directing him to sit down and the guy is just standing there. Then the white hat guy pepper sprays him again! HE'S JUST STANDING THERE. What was that saying, "sticks and stones can break my bones...?" The guy was just TALKING and he gets another blast in the face. Seems excessive, and this sets the guy off all over again.

Finally when the white hat guy knocks him down, THEN the bystanders get courageous and join in pummeling the guy, no doubt anticipating some Disney driven reward for helping out. Even though this is happening at Disney World, there are no kids to be seen, only young slackers who can stand around goofing on the guy instead of having real jobs or doing anything useful with their lives. Despite the absence of children, you can hear a woman on there shrieking about children being around. SHE should've been pepper sprayed as well, just to shut her up.

All in all a powerful statement on where we are as a nation today. A drunken pepper sprayed mess, rolling around on the ground while being ridiculed by unemployed bystanders and screaming moms.

A 53-year-old man went berserk outside the Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim this past weekend and repeatedly got pepper-sprayed, temporarily providing an attraction called, "What Happens When You Get Drunk at Disneyland and Throw Punches at Security." The four-minute video shows a pretty pathetic scene that includes commentary from one guy who speculates on the man's drink of choice, and a loud woman who lays on some thick moral outrage. "There are kids here," she yells. "Does this guy not get that? You’re in Disneyland!" Surprisingly self-aware, Glenn Horlacher, the man who's been booked for assault and battery, shouts, "I know where I am at!"

[New York Magazine]

More Adventures In Idiocy

Saw this on Fox Sports. Kite surfing is a sport now? I put it up there with bungee jumping. I suppose real life lacks excitement for some people. It's funny to read something like this and think about whether the person would've been better off doing some binge drinking? Plus what if this idiot crashed through a window and hurt someone? How is this legal?

I'm sure the police were "complaining of pain" as well. As in "pain in the ass." Thank God the building wasn't hurt.

A kite surfer was hospitalized Sunday after losing control in the air and colliding with a building in Palm Beach, Fla.

The surfer, who has not been identified, was swept into the lakeside one-story building as strong winds gusting as high as 31 mph buffeted the area, The Palm Beach Post reported.

A West Palm Beach police spokeswoman said the surfer was taken to nearby St. Mary's Medical Center after complaining of pain.

There was no damage to the building, the spokeswoman added.

[foxsports.com]

Truth In Advertising

I usually stay away from stories involving actual illness and death, but this one was too good to let go. Usually the problem is that advertising is all about lying, misleading people, and creating fear. This advertising is none of the above. Says "Heart Attack Grill" and the guy had a frigging heart attack. This is actually brilliant - you can't even sue. They are flat out saying what they serve is bad for you. If you're dumb enough to eat it, you're dumb enough to keel over and die. Figures that in America this place would be a big success.

It really fits with Vegas because it's all about excess, but I've never associated Vegas with GLUTTONY or overeating. Who goes to Vegas to do this? I haven't been there in awhile but I thought Vegas was all about other forms of overindulgence. Time for me to change my thinking. Again. God I'm tired.

LAS VEGAS - Laughing tourists were either cynical or confused about whether a man was really suffering a medical episode amid the "doctor," "nurses" and health warnings at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, a restaurant owner said Wednesday.

"It was no joke," said Jon Basso, who promotes himself "Doctor Jon," his scantily-clad waitresses as nurses and customers as patients.

Basso said he could tell right away the man in his 40s eating a Triple Bypass burger was having trouble. He was sweating, shaking and could barely talk.

Paramedics were called Saturday night, fire spokesman Tim Szymanski said, and the man was hospitalized. His name and information about his condition weren't made public.

Giggles can be heard on the soundtrack of amateur video showing the man on a stretcher being wheeled out of the restaurant where patrons pass an antique ambulance at the door and a sign: "Caution! This establishment is bad for your health."

Eaters are given surgical gowns as they choose from a calorically extravagant menu offering "Bypass" burgers, "Flatliner" fries, buttermilk shakes and free meals to folks over 350 pounds.

Basso said he hopes the man is OK, and added that he felt bad for him because tourists treated his misfortune like a joke.

"We would never pull a stunt like that," he said.

[Associated Press]

Less Is More, Except On This One Particular Issue

The funny part is reading about Romney changing his mind on an issue that is usually in the forefront of political debate. I guess he's forgotten about that close family relative who died. Maybe they weren't that close after all?

The downer part is that we have a group of politicians clamoring for "less government." They want the government out of our lives and off the backs of business. But here, when it comes to abortion, they want the government to tell you what to do.

You can almost hear the gears grinding in Romney's head. Santorum...winning...he is...pro-life...so I...must be...pro-life. For all the talk of progress in the world let's imagine which one of these guys could hold a candle to any of the Founding Fathers, in terms of ideals and political eloquence, if there is such a thing? Even the bad ones?

WASHINGTON — From the moment he left business for politics, the issue of abortion has bedeviled Mitt Romney.

In 1994, as a Senate candidate, he invoked the story of a “close family relative” who had died after an illegal abortion and insisted that abortion should be “safe and legal,” though he was personally opposed. In 2002, while running for governor of Massachusetts, he sought the endorsement of abortion rights advocates, promising to be “a good voice” among Republicans, one advocate said.

In 2005, Governor Romney shocked constituents by writing an opinion article in The Boston Globe that declared: “I am pro-life.” Running for president two years later, he struggled to explain that turnabout. “I never said I was pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice,” Mr. Romney told George Stephanopoulos of ABC during a Republican debate. “I changed my position.”

Now, with the nation’s culture wars erupting anew, Mr. Romney has plunged headlong into abortion politics.

He tangled with President Obama last week over whether religiously affiliated hospitals should be required to provide free contraceptives — “abortive pills,” Mr. Romney called them. And when a breast cancer group pulled its financing from Planned Parenthood, Mr. Romney called on the federal government to follow suit, saying, “The idea that we’re subsidizing an institution that provides abortion, in my view, is wrong.”

The comments reflect Mr. Romney’s evolution from abortion rights advocate to abortion foe; gone was any trace of the candidate for governor who, 10 years ago, answered a Planned Parenthood questionnaire by saying he backed “state funding of abortion services” under Medicaid.

Today Mr. Romney is working hard to convince his party’s skeptical right wing that he is “adamantly pro-life,” especially in the wake of his embarrassing loss in three states last week to Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania and a stalwart of the anti-abortion movement. Yet the more Mr. Romney courts social conservatives, the more two of his Republican rivals, Mr. Santorum and Newt Gingrich, dredge up his past to attack him as a flip-flopper.

Meanwhile, Democrats and their allies are painting Republicans, including Mr. Romney, as “a radical bunch when it comes to women’s health” who are “going backward on birth control,” as Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in an interview last week. If that message sticks, it could hurt Mr. Romney with women and independents, a critical voting bloc in a general election.

[New York Times]

Litany Of Failure

I write these downers and this website is not that popular, which is a downer.

Donald Trump is talked to like he is a statesman, which is a downer, and he is still around on his own without Palin, which makes it double downer. Hilarious that Trump thinks his endorsement was the key factor in Romney's victory in Nevada, but somehow between Nevada and today the Trump magic wore off? Maybe someone should've asked Trump if it just took a little time for his endorsement to really hurt Romney? Listening to Trump talk about a role in the Romney administration is moving into new downer territory. That we live in a world where Trump talks this way without anyone slapping him and telling him to shut up. An epic vortex that will suck us all in.

Santorum won a few primaries. He believes climate change is a scheme concocted by the radical left to take over your life. In 2008 Santorum endorsed Romney. It's a downer, but for Santorum it's not that much of a downer even if he loses because he's making over a million dollars a year as a consultant for industry interest groups and corporate director fees. If he wins it's just gravy but probably a downer for the rest of us.

Romney lost but is still worth over $100 million. You can't really put "lost" and "worth over $100 million" in the same sentence now can you? If Romney is elected it may be a downer for the rest of us but you can't really call it a downer for Romney because he still has the $100 million. This is a super downer if you don't like Romney because he's impervious to your dislike. If he loses he's loaded and if he wins he's loaded and he gets to tell you what to do. If he lost he would probably be failing UP because he can make more money without anyone bugging him about ethics and taxes. Win win for Mitt and down down for me.

Before the results came in for Tuesday night’s sweeping victory for Rick Santorum, real estate mogul and reality television star Donald Trump did not give the former Pennsylvania senator much thought on his impact in the Republican field.

On Wednesday, Trump noted Santorum's last Senate race where he lost reelection by a wide margin, saying it was like failing a test and then applying to the Wharton School of Economics.

“I don’t get Rick Santorum,” Trump said on CNN’s Early Start. “I don’t get that whole thing.”

Before the Nevada primary, Trump came out in support of Mitt Romney, and has since taken credit for Romney’s showing in the Silver State. Although it is not as stunning as Herman Cain’s Department of Defense dreams, the Donald offered his own take on what role he would serve in a Romney administration.

“Maybe a position where I negotiate against some of these countries because they're really taking our lunch,” he said.

[National Journal]

We Are All Idiots And This Means You Too

Here are government officials, and every day they tell you about trimming the budget. Cutting costs. Laying people off. Ruining lives. But hey, wait a minute, the Giants won the Super Bowl! So now we have money for parades and all this crap. In addition to the Canyon of Heroes (and resulting overtime cleanup, which New Yorkers can afford, as long as they don't pay for schools) there will be ANOTHER party in New Jersey, and I'm sure Christie found room in the budget for it, all the while pontificating about fiscal responsibility.

What a douche this guy is, he has to be in with Joe Six Pack on the Super Bowl, while he is not making any payments into the State Pension, which is in arrears for billions. So you workers who are going to retire and discover a big fat zero in your account, eff off, you socialist! Clean up that ticker tape. You're LUCKY TO HAVE A JOB (this is the mantra of America today).

Christie is going to be down with the GIANTS. And you, New Jersey citizen, you can pay for it, because I said so. In your face, common decency!

Like the Empire State Building or Central Park, a Super Bowl ticker-tape Giants parade is meant only for Manhattan, a poll released Friday says.

The survey of nearly 1,000 New Yorkers found 75% believed a Big Blue bash belonged in the Big Apple, compared with just 14% who supported a romp in the swamps of New Jersey.

“With apologies to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ... New Yorkers want Mayor Bloomberg to host a ticker-tape parade if our New York Giants win the Super Bowl,” said Maurice Carroll, direction of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

“Of course, Mayor Mike can always invite Gov. Christie to join us — if he pays his toll.”

The support crossed all age, gender and borough lines, with widespread backing for a Canyon of Heroes repeat of the 2008 celebration that greeted the champion Giants.

Christie had loudly lobbied for a Garden State parade to honor Big Blue if they can defeat the Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl showdown

.[Daily News]

Don't Get Sick Unless You Have Money

Personally I can't afford to get sick. But this is too much. People pay for iPads because they want them, not because they are going to die if they don't get one. And where does $900 equal $1,000,000?

The article points out that Santorum is the father of a child with a genetic disorder, but it SHOULD say Santorum is a guy with MONEY who is the father of a child with a rare genetic disorder. That's a different ballgame than what this lady and her kid are dealing with.

My question is...does this help Santorum's candidacy? That he can look a sick kid in the eye and tell him to get lost? Or does it hurt him? If I'm his campaign manager I would lock him in a closet and tell everyone he was sick, but I don't know how long that would work. And then what? You'd have to let him out someday. Or would you? Hmmmm.

GOP contender Rick Santorum had a heated exchange with a mother and her sick young son Wednesday, arguing that drug companies were entitled to charge whatever the market demanded for life-saving therapies.

Santorum, himself the father of a child with a rare genetic disorder, compared buying drugs to buying an iPad, and said demand would determine the cost of medical therapies.

"People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad," Santorum said, "but paying $900 for a drug they have a problem with - it keeps you alive. Why? Because you've been conditioned to think health care is something you can get without having to pay for it."

The mother said the boy was on the drug Abilify, used to treat schizophrenia, and that, on paper, its costs would exceed $1 million each year.

[ABC News]

Saint Rose of Lima - MTM

Radical idea - women have their own lives. Nothing to do with men. Discuss.

In recent months the name Mary Tyler Moore has been bandied about with unexpected regularity bordering on reckless abandon. This is not just because she recently made her first TV appearance in many moons on pal Betty White's show "Hot in Cleveland" or because she proved at last month's televised fete for White's 90th birthday that she can still rock a white pantsuit or even because she is receiving this year's Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award on Sunday.

Instead, Moore's name keeps coming up because 42 years after she helped create the single-gal comedy genre, a slew of female-centric shows hit the networks, raising hopes that a new version of the classic and still-resonant "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" would emerge. (It hasn't.)

By midseason, critics were blatantly holding up the new to the old. "No Mary Richards" was how several chose to characterize the fictionalized version of comedian Chelsea Handler in her new show, "Are You There, Chelsea?" Well, no, obviously not, since Mary was a well-dressed, carefully coiffed professional woman trying to balance a career and a meaningful personal life and Chelsea's show is centered on a bartender/drunken skank.

If anyone involved hopes Moore herself is watching, I'm here to tell you that's she's not. "Oh, I don't watch any of them," she said recently from her office in New York. "Why would I? That story has been done, and I think we did it pretty well. I don't need to watch another version."

Perhaps to see the new gals break a few taboos?

"Taboos?" she asks with a laugh, "there aren't any taboos anymore."

It's difficult to argue with her when "2 Broke Girls'" Max (Kat Dennings), the character who may come closest to Mary Richards (she is hard-working, talented and yet insecure), insists on saying "vagina" so often one assumes there is a special bell that rings in the writers room every time she does. And who wants to argue with Mary Tyler Moore, who at 75 has broken more ground than Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso?

She may have been surprised with the Life Achievement Award — when SAG President Ken Howard called, she says, "I thought he was going to ask if I would present something to someone" — but it's difficult to imagine anyone else was. Between "The Dick Van Dyke Show's" Laura Petrie and Mary Richards, Moore helped create two of televisions most influential and indelible roles — there's a statue depicting the famous Mary hat toss in downtown Minneapolis. How many other television characters have their own statue?

[LATimes.com]

Another Fallen Idol

Megadowner on so many levels. You have faith in a few things? These guys are crocked doing this show? I have to give them high marks for being functional alcoholics. Maybe this is okay, but maybe not. What about people who were FANS of this show, reading this now. How do THEY feel? Duped? Or maybe they are thinking "damn I knew they were high."

Plus what if this affected the actual game? A bad call? Wrong letter turned? TV shows are edited pretty heavily, are there OUTTAKES from this period? There must be a few gems, even if they are in black and white, like this photo.

Ultimate downer is Pat Sajak hanging out with Vanna White. Why would she be with this talkshow looking douche? And not only with him on the air, where she is getting paid, but drinking with the guy and having a good time? Holy crap.

Can we buy a vowel ... err a shot of vodka?

Longtime Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak says he used to host the popular game show drunk. "When I first started and was much younger and could tolerate those things," Sajak tells Dan Le Batard of "Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable." "We had a different show then."

The 65-year-old, who has hosted Wheel of Fortune since 1981, says he and right-hand woman Vanna White used to go to a local Mexican restaurant in Burbank during their two-and-a-half hour dinner breaks. That break gave the duo more than enough time to knock a couple margaritas back before the night tapings. "Vanna and I would go across and have two or three or six and then come and do the last shows and have trouble recognizing the alphabet. They're really great tapes to get a hold of," Sajak said. "I had a great time. I have no idea if the shows were any good, but no one said anything, so I guess I did OK."

[tvguide.com]

Send In This Clown

Is there a better businessman in the world? Runs a Foundation and donates nothing to it? But it still has money in it from wrestling? Trump appeared in a WWE skit and got paid, and that's all the money in the thing, and he figured out how to give his SON a donation. How does he appear in public? He's listened to? More than me! If you walked up to the average American they would say what the hell is Daily Downers? They have no clue. But D. Trump? The DONALD! Come on. Hanging on his every word.

Has Trump had a bad time of it over the last few years? Is it possible he really isn't worth $7 billion? It's hard to put a dollar value on a man like Trump. If I were Donald Trump I would put every dime into building a fortress skyscraper in Manhattan to ride out the zombie attack in style. Or at least do something with my hair.

In a way that's too easy, making fun of Trump's hair, but fuck it, I'm doing it. The totality of Trump, the hair, the effortless blend of ignorance and arrogance - AS A COUNTRY WE LOST when he dropped out of the race for President. If he had a rubber nose he's be the perfect clown. He doesn't even need the rest of the makeup with the hair doing that. Please Lord let him do a third party run and draft Palin. Note to self - Call Vince McMahon.

Confirming that Donald Trump is the world’s most miserly billionaire, the latest tax return filed by the real estate developer’s private foundation shows that he again failed to donate a penny to his eponymous charitable group.

The 65-year-old businessman--who recently reported his net worth as $7 billion--is president of The Donald J. Trump Foundation, which filed its 2010 return with the Internal Revenue Service three months ago. The return shows that, for the second straight year, Trump donated nothing to his foundation, which was formed in 1987.

In large part, the Trump charity has been funded in recent years by $5 million in donations from World Wrestling Entertainment. The foundation received the seven figures in return for Trump’s involvement in a couple of WWE story lines, which included promotion of a pay-per-view WrestleMania event.

IRS records show that, over the past five years, Trump--who describes himself as an "ardent philanthropist"--has donated just $675,000 to his foundation. As TSG has previously reported, this level of philanthropy is dwarfed by Trump’s billionaire peers like Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, George Soros, and the Koch brothers.

When compared to Bloomberg--another New York City billionaire with a household name--Trump’s stinginess is staggering. In 2010, Bloomberg (pictured below) donated more than $350 million to his foundation, which during the year made donations totaling about $105 million. At year’s end, the Bloomberg foundation had assets of $2.734 billion. Trump’s foundation had $2.255 million (largely thanks to Vince McMahon).

The Trump Foundation’s 2010 return shows that the group made 53 donations totaling $1.037 million. Contributions ranged from $110,650 (American Heart Association) to $300 (National Multiple Sclerosis Society).

The charity’s third-largest donation--$100,000--went to the Eric Trump Foundation, which is run by the billionaire’s 28-year-old son Eric. Other contributions went to foundations affiliated with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher ($10,000); Larry King ($2500); NASCAR ($2500); the New York Jets ($10,000); and the late Princess Grace of Monaco ($5000).

[thesmokinggun.com]

What's Worse? You Decide!

Next up in our "What's Worse?" series. Guy has pneumonia, comes home and gets a $44 million bill from the hospital. But at least he got cured, right? They made a clerical error, it's not their fault the guy almost dropped dead. Plus what is an "almost asthma attack?" Is it news if I'm almost scared? Maybe it is. What if he got home and just got a regular bill, and nobody ever heard about it? At least this guy had his moment of fame? Isn't that what this is all about? Who gives a shit about pneumonia or whatever.

What if the pneumonia got really bad and he got home and got a really big bill for thousands of dollars, and the bill was real? Would that have been worse than getting totally cured, getting the scary letter, and really owing $300? I would say so. It's all about perspective man. Either way, in the grand scheme of things, this is a downer, but now we all know it could have been worse, and no one would have known.

A Bronx man says he nearly had an asthma attack after opening his mail to find a $44 million medical bill from a local hospital.

Unemployed doorman Alexis Rodriguez, 28, received the astronomical bill after receiving successful treatment for pneumonia at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital last week, The New York Daily News reports.

"I almost had an asthma attack," said Rodriguez, who apparently is not the only patient to receive an outsized bill. The firm responsible for the botched billing, PHY Services, was reportedly inundated with complaints and has since apologized.

"If you are calling with respect the billing statement for services provided at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, please disregard the statement," said a recording for concerned callers, "you will be receiving a new statement shortly."

PHY is blaming the mistake on a "system error" that resulted in the bill's invoice number being mistakenly placed in the "amount due" field.

As for Rodriguez, he owes no more than $300 for outpatient services.

[ABC News]

Yo Ho Ho

Usually I comment more, but this stands on its own. This is the society we are trapped in, an epic bummer where even a sea captain, ostensibly A MAN OF AUTHORITY, is trolling along with his own soup and crackers while all around him women and children drown? This goes beyond William F. Burroughs. The hippos WERE BOILED IN THEIR TANKS my good friend. Just awful beyond belief. We could make tea of it and sell it for pennies on the dollar. I CAN'T EVEN MAKE UP ANYTHING THIS BAD. God save us all.

Coast Guard: Listen, Schettino. There are people trapped on board. Now, you go with your lifeboat. Under the bow of the ship, on the right side, there is a ladder. You climb on that ladder and go on board the ship. Go on board the ship and get back to me and tell me how many people are there. Is that clear. I am recording this conversation, Captain Schettino.

(Captain tries to speak but Coast Guard can't hear him clearly. Voices in the Coast Guard room.)

Coast Guard: Speak up! (captain tries to speak) Captain, put your hand over the microphone and speak in a louder voice!

Captain: At this moment the ship is listing.

Coast Guard: There are people who are coming down the ladder on the bow. Go back in the opposite direction, get back on the ship, and tell me how many people there are and what they have on board. Tell me if there are children, women and what type of help they need. And you tell me the number of each of these categories. Is that clear?

Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Dammit, go back on board!

(Noise can be heard in the background. Apparently other Coast Guard officers are shouting to each other in the same room about "the ship, the ship")

Captain: Please ...

Coast Guard: There is no 'please' about it. Get back on board. Assure me you are going back on board!

Captain: I'm in a lifeboat, I am under here. I am not going anywhere. I am here.

Coast Guard: What are you doing, captain?

Captain: I am here to coordinate the rescue...

Coast Guard (interrupting): What are you coordinating there! Get on board! Coordinate the rescue from on board! Are you refusing?

Captain: No, I am not refusing.

Coast Guard: Are you refusing to go aboard, captain? Tell me the reason why you are not going back on board.

Captain: (inaudible)... there is a another lifeboat...

Coast Guard (interrupting, yelling): You get back on board! That is an order! There is nothing else for you to consider. You have sounded the "Abandon Ship." Now I am giving the orders. Get back on board. Is that clear? Don't you hear me?

Captain: I am going aboard.

Coast Guard: Go! Call me immediately when you are on board. My rescue people are in front of the bow.

Captain: Where is your rescue craft?

Coast Guard: My rescue craft is at the bow. Go! There are already bodies, Schettino. Go!

Captain: How many bodies are there?

Coast Guard: I don't know! ... Christ, you should be the one telling me that!

Captain: Do you realize that it is dark and we can't see anything?

Coast Guard: So, what do you want to do, to go home, Schettino?! It's dark and you want to go home? Go to the bow of the ship where the ladder is and tell me what needs to be done, how many people there are, and what they need! Now!

Captain: My second in command is here with me.

Coast Guard: Then both of you go! Both of you! What is the name of your second in command?

Captain: His name is Dmitri (static)"

Coast Guard: What is the rest of his name? (static) You and your second in command get on board now! Is that clear?

Captain: Look, chief, I want to go aboard but the other lifeboat here has stopped and is drifting. I have called ...

Coast Guard (interrupting): You have been telling me this for an hour! Now, go aboard! Get on board, and tell me immediately how many people there are!

Captain: OK, chief.

Coast Guard: Go! Immediately!

[Reuters]

Killing Yourself To Live

I have had some bad jobs, but this takes the cake. If I was unhappy I don't know if I can imagine a scenario where I would climb up on the roof and threaten to jump off. You would either have to jump off or come down and get fired. That's how things work in America.

I wonder how the Xbox aficionados would feel about this? Actually they have no idea. If it's not on their GameBoy console they don't know. GameBoy is a really good name, because if you are using one it describes you. You are a BOY and not a MAN. Men get out and do things. BOYS play video games. Case closed. You're welcome.

Dozens of workers assembling Xbox video game consoles climbed to a factory dormitory roof, and some threatened to jump to their deaths, in a dispute over job transfers that was defused but highlights growing labor unrest as China's economy slows.

The dispute was set off after contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group announced it would close the assembly line for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 models at its plant in the central city of Wuhan and transfer the workers to other jobs, workers and Foxconn said Thursday.

Workers reached by telephone said Foxconn initially offered severance pay for those who wanted to leave rather than be transferred, but then reneged, angering the workers; Foxconn, in a statement, disputed that account, saying only transfers were offered, not severance.

The workers climbed to the top of the six-story dormitory on Jan. 3 and threatened to jump before Wuhan city officials persuaded them to desist and return to work, according to the workers and accounts online. The workers gave varying estimates of the numbers involved in the strike, from 80 to 200, and photos posted online showed dozens of people crowding the roof of the boxy concrete building.

"Actually none of them were going to jump. They were there for the compensation. But the government and the company officials were just as afraid, because if even one of them jumped, the consequences would be hard to imagine," said Wang Jungang, an equipment engineer in the Xbox production line, who left the plant earlier this month.

[Associated Press]

To The Victor Goes The Spoils

I can't condone this at all, so don't take it the wrong way. Desecrating a corpse is bad. But this is interesting to me, because if you're going to KILL someone, where does it lie on the scale of injustice to PISS on them afterwards? It's definitely adding insult to injury, but if you're going to kill someone I don't know exactly how much relevance the act of pissing has.

I would say I would rather be PISSED ON than KILLED, so that's one thing for sure right there. If you pissed on me first and THEN killed me I think that would be worse than killing me and then pissing on me. Getting pissed on first would really be the worst of both worlds.

I wonder if this will be considered if it gets to court? If it does I would like to read the transcript and see what they come up with. Maybe they will just go with condemning and not dissecting it, but I would say you have to consider these questions if you are going to arrive at real justice on a philosophical level here.

The Marine Corps took a first, formal step on Friday toward possible charges against four troops who, in a video widely circulated on television and the Internet, appear to be urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters.

The Corps named a lead investigating officer whose job would include deciding what charges, if any, would be brought against the four men - all of whom have been identified, a Corps official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

None of the suspects have been detained, the official said. At least two are still part of the same unit involved in the video - the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, based out of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, a second official told Reuters.<

[Reuters]