And the Verizon support person who got one more pesky customer off of their copper cables received a nice bonus. My experience was a bit different. Their local office got flooded during Sandy and two months later they still weren't able to restore my connection or provide me with a workaround (I suggested using their wireless phone capabilities; yes I know, they are "separate companies" that curiously enough share a single web site address). I moved to RCN and was very happy I did.

"Your call is very important to us. We have been experiencing unusually high call volumes lately. Your estimated wait time is 2 years, 37 minutes. Please stay on the line." music

I check the "missing persons" listings in the local free newspaper for the secret code that I share with those to whom I'll speak. If Eve and Elmer are looking for Chester then I enter the date of the post plus one week into my phone's calendar to remind me that a call will be coming the next day. Otherwise, good luck Charlie. It never ceases to amaze me to see people answering a ringing phone with "Hello". They must be insane.

LMOL because digital signatures are secure *eye roll* - you should be well aware that nothing digital is secure.

That's true. I read recently about a new attack method against ink on paper documents though. It's called "forgery".

You can't cure poverty by throwing money at the problem.

Oh, wait ..

And then there is the USA, that, almost uniquely in the world, taxes citizens after they leave.

I think that's true only if they intend to come back. Otherwise, don't let the screen door hit you on the ass when you go.

Yep. I missed that. Thank you. Her political popularity provides a beacon of hope for every idiot in the country.

I listened to your clip and, much as I cringe at anything Palin, she says "South Korean allies" at 0:45/0:46. Did I miss something there?

Your surgical procedure will continue in 60 seconds. Meanwhile please enjoy this brief in-stream advertisement.

Wha?! Where's the "Skip This Ad" button? Wha?!

The hospitals won't want to schedule just one surgery at a time, they have lots of operating theatres. So the link goes dead with a whole bunch of patients open on the tables. "One general doctor .. on call for one or more operating theatres"? Ha ha. That doctor is going to be called "Marathon Man" if he survives that scene, let alone the patients.

Sure they do. A fresh out of school resident who has been awake and running scut work for 48 hours. No point paying a surgeon big bucks to stand around when the money can go to the hospital's CEOs.

From The Fine Article's Summary (FTFAS): "Just weeks before the regulations were dropped there had been a barrage of lobbying from big European firms such as Dupont, Bayer and BASF over EDCs. The chemical industry association Cefic warned that the endocrines issue 'could become an issue that impairs the forthcoming EU-US trade negotiations.'"

So it was the European chemical corporations that lit the fuse to blow up the new regulations.

They said it was about EU-US trade relations but they may have had their own reasons for this too you know. After all, who do you think produces the crap that was about to get banned?

One other (probably the major) problem with your suggestions:

Scenario #1: The pimp won't show up to threaten the cop (playing a deadbeat john). What will happen is that the pimp will beat up or kill the prostitute for not bringing home the money.

Scenario #2: The same as in #1. The sucker who sells the cop the drugs and doesn't get paid will be tortured and/or murdered as payback for "stealing" the money.

While this sounds like a terrific idea, I don't think it will work.

Your first scenario is not permissible (the "Do it" part is proscribed); a cop can't have sex to make an arrest, nor could the department legally require officers to have sex as part of their job.

The second scenario is plausible except that you assume that the LEOs have as much or more "firepower" than the gangs. In fact some kinds of crime pay so well that law enforcement is way over their heads trying to fight back. Maybe not so bad as what's going on in Mexico but bad enough. For example, http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9770.html suggests that the combined spending on the four drugs {marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine} is about $100 billion USD per year; more than half that figure remains even if you remove marijuana from the list. Compare that to the total federal law enforcement budget of about $28 billion https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/justice.pdf which covers the whole gamut of criminality, not just drug sales. OK, stop the "war on drugs" and the cost will drop to zero. Organized crime (gangs) will just move on to a different lucrative area, whatever brings in the cash.

New York City's police budget, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Police_Department is $4.8 billion and it covers everything from jaywalking to terrorist bombers. Police Commissioner Bratton can't even get the mayor to hire an additional 1,000 cops because the money just isn't in the budget.

Furthermore, LEO has to "play by the rules" when going after criminals; the gangs don't have to play fair, so they don't have to waste their resources doing things that don't benefit their illegal activities.

It would make a cool movie though :-)