Ah, poetic justice.
We still have our senses of humor, Ms. Carter. It’s just that you aren’t very funny.
Zogby poll says 72 percent of Americans want Obama to end the medical marijuana raids. Even before the poll, I didn’t buy the idea that this would be a politically risky move. It would be denounced by people who didn’t and would never vote for Obama, anyway.
I find this commercial hilarious. The Agitatrix, not so much. Wondering if it’s a man-woman thing. Commenters?
More (anecdotal) evidence of the D.C. wealth boom.
College loans: A bigger swindle than mortgage derivatives? The biggest problem with the loan boom (thanks to federal meddling, naturally) is that it has created a seller’s market for higher ed. Which means colleges can basically charge just a little over the ceiling for federally-subsidized loans. You now have an education market where just about anyone wanting a decent education and can’t get a scholarship has no choice but to take on a lot of debt.
Flashbang grenade set off during SWAT raid sets house on fire.
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on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 7:01 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
Maybe if Michael Phelps had been pictured snorting lines of coke the Kellogg co. would have kept him on.
From the NORML article,
The raids were all “smash and grab” operations, in which agents took medicine and cash, destroyed surveillance cameras, and grabbed computers, but did not arrest anyone.
Man, that’s ugly.
That commercial IS hilarious!!!
I just love the woman planning on babies.
“Trevino said the fire department was able to quickly extinguish the fire. ”
But then he says it looks like an almost total loss.
Good job, jackasses. You’d think if they were planning on using pyrotechnics, they could at least have some members of the fire department standing by.
Oh, and it seems that lawyers look for large payouts (in the first link) because of those huge student loan debts (sixth link).
Amirite?
Oh, and the simple answer to the question that Ms. Carter forwarded is that the 2 million were drawn from all over the USA and were financially capable of swinging it. The 200 thousand were smashed by a hurricane which did not care whether they could move out of the way or not.
I am white and would not have found the “joke” to be funny.
“It was not known if any traces of narcotics, which may or may not have been in the house, were left.”
Trust us, they were drug dealers. We’d be able to prove it, but we burned up all the evidence when we started their house on fire.
I hate the examples they choose in these articles. 12% interest is ridiculous, but I think two people with six figure incomes could figure out a way. The real problem is people who come out of undergrad with 50-100k in debt and really weak job prospects.
Radley, I don’t know if you are aware of this, but one of the main reasons why this area has so many wealthy contractors and government employees is that most of the federal government’s major IT projects were moved to metro DC during the Clinton area. They used to be spread around the country, but Clinton brought most of them to Maryland and Virginia so that the development teams would be closer to the agencies’ main headquarters.
The college loan calculus is even worse that the story makes it appear, because there’s a big difference between $25K/year for 40 years and $1M — the difference between the value of having them money today and the value of having it in the future, which is conveniently accounted for by the interest rate.
Assuming a 3% discount rate (interest on treasury bonds) this $1M is actually close to 0.5M of today’s dollars. Add to that the extra taxes you pay at higher brackets, and you see that the benefit is even smaller. Moreover, the interest on college loans is much higher than the “risk-free” discount rate I used here.
Stephen, you should post your response in the comments. Among everyone who’s offended by it, and everyone who finds it funny, none of them seem to get the fact that the damn joke doesn’t even make any sense. *That’s* why it isn’t funny.
As for the commercial, no. I didn’t find it funny. I wasn’t offended by it – is the Agitatrix? – but I didn’t laugh, either.
Hmm, can’t quite make up my mind about that ad.
It was funny because of the actors, but I’m not sure about the message. Is Nutragrain trying to sell us…constipation?
You know, I should just stick to reading the comments here and at Hit & Run. Every time I dive into the comments at these links, I wind up sick and depressed by the stupidity.
You, my friends, have turned me into an internet snob.
I love you anyway :-*
Regarding that silly 72% number on medical marijuana raids, the actual question asked was along the lines of, “do you think Barack Obama should keep his campaign promise and cease DEA raids on medical marijuana suppliers?”
Now, do 72% want the raids to stop, or do they not care about the raids and just want him to keep his promise? Definitely somewhere in the middle. That question sucks.
On the “new professionalism” front. Gotta love this one: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/new_orleans_cops_involved_in_k.html
If the allegations are even half true… well, let’s just say i wouldn’t really expect more out of the NOPD.
About the Carter article, I skimmed it and found this gem -”Curtis Stokes, president of the Hillsborough County NAACP and a prominent Republican…” I have the distinct feeling that Mr. Stokes is one of those individuals who needs to get punched in the head repeatedly before seeing that he isn’t among friends.
I’ve never gotten why people object to the lawyers getting deent fees for class action suits.
IMHO, the point of verdicts like this shouldn’t be that everyone whose information was put at risk got ten dollars. The point was that the clothing store had to pay out a whole fuckton of money and is likely to be a lot more careful in the future.
I’m sure the class action suit was expensive and difficult to put together and I’m guessing that if the people whose data was put at risk had suffered any real damages, they would have sued separately for a whole lot more.
CC
I didn’t think the commerical was funny, and I’m a female, for whatever that’s worth.
I was going to say something along the lines of what Hunter said regarding the NORML poll. That was a bad question if the goal was to see what people really think about the raids.
I didn’t really laugh at the commercial, either. I’m a male, or at least I was the last time I checked. Like Mike H (a fine, upstanding moniker, BTW), I was unable to figure out just what it was they were trying to get me to buy.
Than again, there are a lot of commercials that perplex me like that.
I have long said that student loans are a disaster. My uncle is a CPA, and no one hates student loans more than him.
Its a scam on a larger scale. Everyone has a bachelors degree now, so it’s worthless. Now you have to go to get masters degree and go into more debt to get that.
Bogus.
That commecial was hilarious. Who cares what they were peddling. Its like trying to find the meaning of life in Ren & Stimpy…somethings are just funny.
In re the commercial — put me down in the “funny” column. Maybe it’s a sex-based thing, or perhaps it’s just a matter of how one reacts to surrealistic humor — which, as they say, isn’t everybody’s cup of fur.
What wrung the laughs from me was the performance of the first guy, who seemed like some kind of Mad Scientist-created hybrid of John Stewart and Uncle Rico from “Napoleon Dynamite.”
All I know is that I would have LOVED seeing the reactions in the room when this ad idea was pitched….
That email was pretty dispicable and only to be outdone by her absolute horrid “apology.” (Seriously, that’s got to be in the top 10 worst apologies ever.)
I don’t find it funny at all. And amongst my friends where occassionally people will crack an offensive joke, this still would have gone over terribly. It’s not funny, because in addition to being blatantly racist it mocks people who suffered something awful, if not died.
It’s amusing how she thinks her email was just a joke, but then calls people not team players for forwarding it outside of the intended circle.
I thought that commercial was pretty funny but went on too long.
Regarding the Pot Poll: I’m not surprised by the outcome, but I agree with others who note that a poll that asks whether people want to see a politician keep his promise to do X is not a reliable indicator of whether or not people favor doing X. In the abstract, people want to see politicians keep their promises. On the other hand, the poll is a good argument in favor of Obama keeping this promise, especially since he can’t argue that the political cost is too high.
Regarding the NutriGrain commercial: Umm… I didn’t think it was funny. Not offensive, but too dumb for my tastes. Also, it falls into the category of commercials where I wonder why I would buy a product whose commercial message seems to be “Our customers are morons.”?
Regarding the Flashbang fire: 1) Is the department at least going to pay for the damages? 2) Is anyone going to be charged with destroying evidence?
BTW, the police justification for using flashbang grenades seems to be that they are a harmless way to render people temporarily helpless and that increases everyone’s safety. I wonder if someone who used them on off-duty police would not be charged with a crime? Because doing something that’s harmless can’t be assault, right? I know it’s a flippant question, but I have the feeling the benevolent characterizations that police use for these technologies (tasers, flashbangs, etc.) would change in a hurry if non-badge-wearing folk started making use of them…
I’m female and didn’t find the commerical funny. Not offensive – just not funny.
What was funny – 12,500 gift cards for the attorney fee.
Man: Look, honey, they gave us two shampoos!
Honey: Maybe they’re just trying to get you to give them a good review.
Man: *pouring both shampoos over his dry hair* It’s working, it’s working!
Announcer: Hotels.com, reviews from people just like you!
I’ll never in my life use Hotels.com just because of that ad. That moron is not just like me.
Ben,
But that ad is so funny. Though I will concede that I will probably nver use that service.
Also, one of the guys lines is: “They got me!”
That wasn’t a funny ad…….and I still have no desire to eat a Nutrigrain………….
Gee, I thought that commercial was hilarious.
In fact, I wrote my own commercial for Send Ex! (The package delivering company often used in CSI)…
.. Send Ex spokesman standing in front of a house.
“Hi! Here at Send Ex, we’re all about delivering packages to you in the fastest, safest manner possible! That’s why we’ve taken some lessons from the local Police Department on how to safely place packages inside your home as quickly as possible!”
… Send Ex van screeches to a halt, a Send Ex team wearing tactical gear and carrying a battering ram jump out the back, the final team member is wearing a normal Send Ex uniform and carrying a package. The team quickly breeches the door and tosses in a Flash Bang.
… The lead guy yells “Clear!” and the uniformed guy with the package runs up and tosses it into the now burning home.
.. Back to Send Ex spokesman:
“As you can see, this method is far faster and safer than fumbling with the doorbell! Send Ex employees have much fewer chances to have their feelings hurt because they delivered a package to the wrong address, and far more packages can be delivered in less time!”
“Be sure to select “Breech Delivery” on YOUR next package! If the cops don’t have to knock, why should we?”
The attorney fee thing really grates on me. (Disclosure: I’m a Cdn lawyer, but I’ve never worked on a contingency fee, nor would I.) If the judge felt that the settlement was inappropriate, he should have scotched it and said why.
Count me among those who think that it’s a judge taking a cheap shot at the attorney. It’s capricious. The lawyer was hired on the basis of a money retainer, period. I’m betting that the compensation and costs rules of the jurisdiction deal with cash. Not gift cards, not coupons for free oil changes, not magic beans: money. His licensing and insurance fees aren’t payable in coupons. His outlays and disbursements aren’t in gift cards. And if one of the clients sued him for negligence, they sure as hell wouldn’t settle for gift cards.
Look, there’s a certain type of judge who, once safely settled on the bench, gleefully pisses on lawyers every chance (s)he gets. It’s a petty, petty power trip over people who can’t hit back. Sometimes it’s self-regard (”my god, none of these guys is as ethical/skilled/professional as I was!”); sometimes it’s a classic kiss-up, kick-down personality; sometimes it’s pure indulgence of power; sometimes it’s payback for whatever slights they figured that they suffered while in practice, (picture somebody from your high school with a chip on his shoulder who is now a cop); sometimes it’s just person in a near-permanent bad humour.
One other thing: one of the most maddening things about being any service provider (lawyer, handyman, designer .. doesn’t matter) is people who are very happy with your services … until they get what they want, then have to pay. Then (it’s magic!) they have grievances. Given that most jurisdictions have some court-mandated control over fees ordinary lawyers (not wealthy ones) are subject to this sort of post-contract third-party revisionism. How would you like it if, say, after building a deck for a client, a deck that you both were satisfied with and he was about to pay you, some twerp wandered in, said, “yeah, I know what the contract says, but you’ve got to give him $2k of the money back because I think that the benches shoulda been wider.” Hardly free market.
Commercial, Not Funny. Not Even Remotely. By most accounts, I am a man, btw.
I think that commercial basically is what is wrong with television, which is why I refuse to watch it.
“Watch Television”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKq7Qrg_NFg&feature=PlayList&p=1012506A4EBD4996&playnext=1&index=25
NutriGrain = Fail
For a what I consider to be a funny racist joke, I offer the following:
Q: “How do you know when Asians move into your neighborhood?”
A: “The Mexicans buy car insurance.”
Does dinging two races in the same joke help?
For anyone offended by racist jokes, I offer you “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist,” from the musical Avenue Q:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9CSnlb-ymA
“… Class actions exist in order to make sure that businesses can’t get away with nickel-and-dime ripoffs that may not hurt any one particular consumer enough to justify the burden of seeking legal redress, but in the aggregate allow the business to make a lot of illegal money. They’re a good thing. They’re also something libertarians should love, and here’s why: They put the cost of enforcing consumer-protection laws in the private sector, since the other option is enforcing the laws through public sector prosecutions that are paid for by taxpayers as a whole. The class action mechanism allows the attorney who takes them on to act, in essence, as a private attorney general who will be paid for his or her efforts by the at-fault party, rather than by the public at large.”
The commercial was very funny. Take that from a woman who’s always been told that she thinks like a man, though.
RE: Zogby poll on DEA raids…
Yeah, this should definitely not be politically risky. Stopping these absurd, offensive raids is also the moral thing to do. The Drug Policy Alliance (to which I contribute occasionally) is asking people to call the White House to support action on this. The other day, I sent an e-mail. Keep up the pressure on this. It is very incremental change, but we are starting to move in the right direction.
The commercial that has me chortling every time it comes on, is the Castrol Edge “Think with your dipstick!” ad.
Re: Zogby poll on DEA raids
Of course it’s a sucky question. Poll questions aren’t meant to get the truth, they’re meant to get statistics that you can use to support your position. I would imagine they asked all kinds of questions, and this is the question that got the most positive responses, hence, its publication.
The ordeal of my divorce has possibly made me a bit sexist. Maybe that is why I like the commercial. Actually it is a surprise to me now that I think of it. Racist jokes don’t work for me but somehow the sexist stuff seems like fair payback somehow. I can’t point at some black people and say “they hurt me” in quite the same way I can point at a certain woman and her lawyer.
The irony of Carter’s joke is that it practically invites one to respond with something along the lines of “because George Bush wasn’t in charge of the inauguration.”
Sorry – I thought the Carter joke was pretty funny. Racist, perhaps, but funny nonetheless. From a Polish girl who loves Polak jokes. Let’s all please embrace our sense of humor and relax a bit.
I am a woman and I find that Nutri Grain bar commercial FRIGGIN HILARIOUS!!! And I think the woman is the funniest character.
That commercial is funny. . . if you’re a 9 or thereabouts.
Sorry Radley, didn’t care for the commercial.
I’ll laugh at a racist joke like nearly everyone else in the world (with a sense of humor)… provided it’s funny- this one was definitely not funny- too close to reality. To me a racist joke has to have a bit of truth but be so over the top that it’s absurd. Nothing humorously absurd about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina.
A flash bang started a fire? seems I remember being told (after the koresh mess in texas) that flash bangs couldn’t possibly start a fire?
I’m female and thought the commercial was hilarious. The woman stuffing papers into her shirt put it over the top.
“A flash bang started a fire? seems I remember being told (after the koresh mess in texas) that flash bangs couldn’t possibly start a fire?”
That is correct, a Flash Bang Grenade, when properly detonated in a concrete pillbox, will not start a fire.
However, if you irresponsibly chuck one into someone’s home, which is filled with flammable materials, it certainly can.
But Ooo! Lookit! A newer, safer one is coming along!
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2002/04/51760
Note how the SWAT thug justifies the device:
” The last time Zografos used a flash-bang — as they are known in the trade — was in a follow-up to a warrant out on what he called “some very bad people.”
“They were supposed to be in control of some weapons, and we didn’t want them to be able to use them against us,” Zografos said. “We wanted to divert their attention so we would have the advantage when we entered the property.”
That mission was successful, Zografos said, with no casualties.”
Notice how his words are… completely non committal. He doesn’t say “They had illegal weapons” he says “They were supposed to be in control of some weapons”