Practical question: how do you plan to tip strippers? I don't think they appreciate coins in the hooch...

Dr. Sbaitso doesn't live onboard, though. You need a standalone sb card to tell him anything you want, anything at all...

I was around when they passed the seat belt laws. This is exactly what happened. Ditto for the daytime running lights and airbags. The premiums *never* went down.

I'm just going to re-quote this for emphasis:

The development of global finance rules under the guise of âtradeâ(TM) was the brainchild of senior executives of AIG, American Express, Citicorp and Merrill Lynch in the late 1970s. Their role, and subsequently a broader lobby called the Financial Leaders Group, is well documented. The former director of the WTOâ(TM)s services division himself acknowledged in 1997 that: âWithout the enormous pressure generated by the American financial services sector, particularly companies like American Express and Citicorp, there would have been no services agreementâ(TM).16

As the lobby evolved it was still led from Wall Street, but expanded to include the major insurance and banking institutions, investment banks and auxiliary financial services providers, from funds managers to credit-rating agencies and even the news agency Reuters. They were later joined by the e-finance and electronic payments industry, which includes credit, stored value and loyalty cards, ATM management, and payment systems operators like PayPal.

The industry lobbyists have also set the demands for financial services in TISA. The Chairman of the Board of the US Coalition of Service Industries is the Vice Chairman of the Institutional Clients Group at Citi. When the industryâ(TM)s demands, as expressed in the consultation on TISA conducted by the US Trade Representative in 2013, are matched against the leaked text it becomes clear that they stand to get most of what they asked for. Extracts from their submissions are listed at the end of this document.

Why is it OK for for private businesses to negotiate worldwide treaties, but not let citizens have any say in the treaty? They are both private entities, not the government. But somehow, the financial sector is given special privilege in this regard.

"

This thing is bad. It completely bypasses all the traditional controls of democracy. The people will have no say in it even tho its their money and lives. We need to keep the heat on this kind of thing just like SOPA only much, much more.... some good analysis and commentary over at Naked Capitalism these guys tell it like it is. Basically its looking like a global corporatocracy.

+3, Funny (because its true)

I think you mean "pedant"

In the early 1990s, I remember the mass layoffs in that recession being blamed on "the lazy US worker" compared to the stereotypical [1] Japanese worker who was touted as someone who would give his or her life for the firm he worked for.

[1]: Yes, stereotypical.

I remember hearing the same thing during the Carter administration. Its nothing new. What *is* new is that we now realize that maybe the Japanese didn't wreck the US economy all by themselves - instead our own 1%-ers did. The Japs were just a handy scapegoat to deflect the blame - "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" -style of distraction.

What broke things is called "Free Trade" IMHO. You know, NAFTA, GATT, the TPP... and the list goes on. The USA does not have import restrictions like most other countries, and now its worrkers are being forced to compete with rather low global wages. We do not have reciprocal agreements. Notice how manufacturing has been almost completely killed in this country? Its no accident, it was done on purpose by those who hate paying for labor. Who do you think paid for the lobbyists behind these free trade agreements? Who got rich off the situation? Hint, it wasn't mom-n-pop and Main Street.

And at that point you cross the line from science into ideology.

Maybe they should request the power to put a few bankers in jail, like they did in Enron. You know, and actually *do their job*

Missing option: Wookie christmas.

I strongly prefer the original, having seen it in theater in 1978. Everything after that has only ruined it.

A couple weeks ago, while taking my asian girlfriend shopping at the local mall, I had to take a piss. As I entered the john, Steve Jobs -- the messiah himself -- came out of one of the booths. I stood at the urinal looking at him out of the corner of my eye as he washed his hands. He didn't once look at me. He was busy and in any case I was sure the security guards wouldn't even let me shake his hand.

As soon as he left I darted into the booth he'd vacated, hoping there might be a lingering smell of shit and even a seat still warm from his sturdy ass. I found not only the smell but the shit itself. He'd forgotten to flush. And what a treasure he had left behind. Three or four beautiful specimens floated in the bowl. It apparently had been a fairly dry, constipated shit, for all were fat, stiff, and ruggedly textured. The real prize was a great feast of turd -- a nine inch gastrointestinal triumph as thick as his cock -- or at least as I imagined it!

I knelt before the bowl, inhaling the rich brown fragrance and wondered if I should obey the impulse building up inside me. I'd always been a liberal thinker and had been an Apple customer since 1984. Of course I'd had fantasies of meeting Jobs, sucking his cock and balls, not to mention sucking his asshole clean, but I never imagined I would have the chance. Now, here I was, confronted with the most beautiful five-pound turd I'd ever feasted my eyes on, a sausage fit to star in any fantasy and one I knew to have been hatched from the asshole of Steve Jobs, the chosen one.

Why not? I plucked it from the bowl, holding it with both hands to keep it from breaking. I lifted it to my nose. It smelled like rich, ripe limburger (horrid, but thrilling), yet had the consistency of cheddar. What is cheese anyway but milk turning to shit without the benefit of a digestive tract?

I gave it a lick and found that it tasted better then it smelled.

I hesitated no longer. I shoved the fucking thing as far into my mouth as I could get it and sucked on it like a big half nigger cock, beating my meat like a madman, and thrusting my pink iPod Shuffle into my ass. I wanted to completely engulf it and bit off a large chunk, flooding my mouth with the intense, bittersweet flavor. To my delight I found that while the water in the bowl had chilled the outside of the turd, it was still warm inside. As I chewed I discovered that it was filled with hard little bits of something I soon identified as peanuts. He hadn't chewed them carefully and they'd passed through his body virtually unchanged. I ate it greedily, sending lump after peanutty lump sliding scratchily down my throat. My only regret was that Steve Jobs wasn't there to see my loyalty and wash it down with his piss.

I soon reached a terrific climax. I caught my cum in the cupped palm of my hand and drank it down. Believe me, there is no more delightful combination of flavors than the hot sweetness of cum with the rich bitterness of shit. It's even better than reading an Apple press release!

Afterwards I was sorry that I hadn't made it last longer. But then I realized that I still had a lot of fun in store for me. There was still a clutch of virile turds left in the bowl. I tenderly fished them out, rolled them into my handkerchief, and stashed them in my briefcase. In the week to come I found all kinds of ways to eat the shit without bolting it right down. Once eaten it's gone forever unless you want to filch it third hand out of your own asshole. Not an unreasonable recourse in moments of desperation or simple boredom.

I stored the turds in the refrigerator when I was not using them but within a week they were all gone. The last one I held in my mouth without chewing, letting it slowly dissolve. I had liquid shit trickling down my throat for nearly four hours. I must have had six orgasms in the process.

I often think of Steve Jobs dropping solid gold out of his sweet, pink asshole every day, never knowing what joy it could, and at least once did, bring to a grateful Apple customer.