Comments on: Morning Links

By: Pacific island set to accept Gitmo’s Chinese Muslims | Politics News

Pacific island set to accept Gitmo’s Chinese Muslims | Politics News — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:09:29 +0000

[...] The Agitator remains skeptical, arguing that taxpayers are paying for government error: Just so I have this straight: Because the government wrongly detained the anti-Chinese government Uighurs, U.S. taxpayers have to shell out $200 million, and the Uighurs have to spend the rest of their lives exiled to Palau? [...]

By: Matt Moore

Matt Moore — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:23:09 +0000

“In fact, we have a no perfume policy in the Food & Wine department since we’re tasting wines or recipes on a daily basis. Unfortunately, restaurants can’t implement the same policy.”

Why can’t they? Is banning perfume from your property some sort of civil rights violation?

If you want to eat at a perfume free restaurant… then open one, jackass.

By: emerson

emerson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:07:05 +0000

“U.S. taxpayers have to shell out $200 million, and the Uighurs have to spend the rest of their lives exiled to Palau?”

Uhh, Radley. The GOVERNMENT is paying for it, not the taxpayers.

By: Dave Krueger

Dave Krueger — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:03:17 +0000

#27 | Aspasia
Most people don’t know how to apply perfumes/unguents and yes there IS a proper way.

Judging by the intensity of the fragrance, I’m pretty sure the guy down the hall from me completely submerges himself in it for an hour or so every day before coming to work.

By: Aspasia

Aspasia — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:56:17 +0000

Sorry, this: “For one, you spray it on after you’re dressed and right before you leave the house. ” is supposed to say, “For one, you DON’T…”

Typo, my bad.

By: Aspasia

Aspasia — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:49:55 +0000

Re: Perfumes. They were not just created during the Middle Ages and early Renaissance when bathing was considered anathema to Church teachings. And even then, you’re only restricting this to ‘proper’ upper-class Europe as poor people could not afford perfumes, but were just as funky. For those of you who defaulted on history class, for most of civilization and in most parts of the world, people have bathed AND used perfumes/unguents. I can’t believe P&T’s Bullshit continued to spread that idiotic belief.

The whole perfume controversy is yet another stupid one, but I guess some members of humanity aren’t happy unless they’re flexing their hypersensitive idiot muscles. I remember hearing a couple years ago that perfumes, body sprays and strong deodorants were banned on buses somewhere in Canada. I wonder if it is still in effect?

Most people don’t know how to apply perfumes/unguents and yes there IS a proper way. For one, you spray it on after you’re dressed and right before you leave the house. It sticks on the clothes (possibly ruining the fabric) and stays strong. You apply perfumes to the body when it is still damp.

By: KBCraig

KBCraig — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:13:53 +0000

#17, Zeb:

$200 mil is small change here nowadays, but is still probably a lot larger than the GDP of Palau.

Out of curiosity, I looked it up, and Palau’s estimated GDP for 2006 was $157.7 million.

Nice little boost to their economy!

By: Tim C

Tim C — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:05:54 +0000

Perfume – agreed with the point that people should be less rude about this (strong scents in public, for instance I’ve been made nearly sick on planes by perfume and I don’t normally get motion sickness), agreed that we don’t need a secondhand-perfume czar though.

Agreed on #3, how stupid is that. Strong soaps in nice restaurants, total wtf. And you rinse 3 times and you’re still smelling it.

The Worst: Patchoulli. We had a hippie executive at my previous job (I’m in SF) that wore that damn shit, you could smell where she’d been for half an hour.

By: Edmund Dantes

Edmund Dantes — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:05:05 +0000

Update on that 72 year old lady.

I wrote a post about the 72 year old grandmother who’d been tasered a few days ago. They’ve now released the dashcam video which shows that she was argumentative and rude to the police officer.

Here’s the thing. the man was dealing with an unarmed, cantankerous elderly woman who’[d been speeding. And instead of handling the situation as cops would have done forever — calming the person, talking her down, being reasonable (after all she wasn’t dangerous to him in the least) he escalated it with threats of violence and anger. And then he shot that woman with 50,000 volts, not because she was dangerous to herself or others, but because she was belligerant and he didn’t know how to handle it.

I know that there are people out there who believe she deserved it and that police don’t have any obligation to use skills other than brute force on anyone who doesn’t immediately comply with their requests. A police officer viewing the video in this news report matter-of-factly says that the problem was that “she made a very simple interaction with the police into a difficult task.” In America today that deserves electrocution.

This crap is un-American. We have made it so that citizens of this country are now subject to 50,000 volts for being belligerent to authorities. If you think that’s freedom, you’ll love living in China or Saudi Arabia.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/she-made-very-simple-interaction-with.html

By: Chance

Chance — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:53:07 +0000

“Unfortunately, a majority of my countrymen are spineless douchebags.”

You must be right, otherwise I really can’t understand the Uighur issue at all, and barely understand the NIMBY argument against moving detainees here to the US.

By: J sub D

J sub D — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:50:00 +0000

“To me it’s almost worse than secondhand smoke.” Where you know where that is headed.

We only want restaurants to have non-smoking sections. Is that too much to ask?

Let’s outlaw charcoal barbeques and fireplaces after we rid the world of the scourges of perfume and after shave. I mean you can smell them from a blocks away and that smoke can’t be good for you.

By: Guido

Guido — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:39:25 +0000

re Goths:
http://www.missouritrailertrash.com/

By: Chuchundra

Chuchundra — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:32:08 +0000

The decent thing to do would be to give each of the Uighurs an apology, a green card and a million dollars then wish them luck and be done with it.

Unfortunately, a majority of my countrymen are spineless douchebags.

By: Jozef

Jozef — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:31:23 +0000

Here’s a (not so novel) idea: Once a public servant (elected or not) takes office, his or her property will be placed in a trust fund. Upon leaving the office, the property will be adjusted by the amount of deficit or surplus their region has produced during their time in the office. So federal government members would be judged by changes in federal deficit, state government by changes in state deficit, etc… Of course, all their gains would be taxed by the average tax rate during their time in office. Maybe then our servants will understand that $200 million for housing a few poor chaps is a little overblown…

By: MacK

MacK — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:26:31 +0000

Jeff you are right they weren’t terrorists before we abused them for years.
They may have just a bit of resentment at the moment though.

By: Zeb

Zeb — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:21:01 +0000

$200 mil is small change here nowadays, but is still probably a lot larger than the GDP of Palau.

By: nicole

nicole — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:14:48 +0000

I think I had a realization when reading the perfume story and accompanying comments.

When I leave my house, my personal space where I am alone with people I care about and like, I *expect* that I will encounter people who are jerks. I expect that when I am among the public, the public will piss me off in some way or other. Home is a refuge from the constant annoyance of being out and about among the general public.

These other people, the perfume-haters and second-hand smoke-haters, they expect to be able to go anywhere and have nothing at all bother them. They expect every encounter with the public to be unoffensive. It’s mind-blowing to me, because I mean…have they ever met the average person off the street? People *are* annoying, you can’t get your way outside of your own personal space, face it!

By: pegr

pegr — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:56:16 +0000

Better link for tattoo-boy:

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/06/08/86241_gold-coast-top-story.html

The original link is “agitated”… (snicker)

By: perlhaqr

perlhaqr — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:53:59 +0000

For fuck’s sake, they can come stay at my house for just half that $200 Million. :D

By: Dave Krueger

Dave Krueger — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:47:13 +0000

#10 Whim

I’ll let the Uighurs stay at my house for only $100 million….

LOL! :)