caeron

Ah. Well I tend to agree that soliciting rough sex from a total stranger isn't something I'd do. Maybe from an escort I'd seen before. Craigslist doesn't particularly scare me, but I've had rotten luck with it finding anything other than flakes.

I'm pretty tired of egomaniacs of all stripes pretending to be journalists. I think they do a great disservice to us by turning reasoned debate into moral outrage. It may feel good, but it leads nowhere productive.

If you've followed Michael at all, you know he is a big attention whore. I'm sure he staged the whole thing for the drama of it.

We often hear about the nasty CEOs who get outrageous compensation packages. It seems to really stoke a populist outrage. But I think the interesting flipside is, what do everyday people think should happen with that money? Perhaps they think the companies should pay everyone more. But I rather suspect that if CEOs and other executive compensation comes down, then it will be the anonymous shareholder who will benefit. I suspect that people would be completely ok with the anonymous shareholder making more, but people with 'faces' making it upset them. I had a friend in college who thought it was sort of criminal for people to make a large salary. He couldn't see how it could be justified. At the time, I didn't much care, but thought he had a bit of a point. 20+ years later, I know why. Because people may be created equal, but they don't stay that way. I'm not a CEO (and wouldn't want to be), but I'm good at what I do, and am well paid. It's not that I'm worth 3 or 4 regular workers. That's a false comparison. I'm worth this much because 20 of them couldn't do what I do. Of course, then there is the argument how much that uniqueness is worth, but I think that's probably another thread....

Maybe I'm missing something, but I see nothing in the article about soliciting rough sex, or that he knew the kid was a minor. He may well have done both, but I'm not reading it. I think this kind of thing is just the reality of attempting to be intimate with a stranger. Some of them are crazy and fucked up and will kill you. There's nothing unique to craigslist about that. It's part of the human condition.

On the subject of the shamwow hawker, he apparently has a thing for female hookers and had a rather ugly incident that got him arrested. Don't follow the link if you're very squeamish http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years...27092sham1.html

I'm not very active myself on it, but I enjoy reading the updates from my friends about what they're up to. Given that they're a pretty geographically scattered bunch, it helps me stay in touch.

Gov said yesterday he'd veto it. NY Times article speculated they probably had enough votes for an override. What a change a few years brings. I don't think 10 years ago I would have thought we'd get to here.

Interesting resignation letter from one of the folks getting a big bonus. Apparently, he was working for an annual salary of $1 and the bonus. He reiterates the point that the people getting these bonuses had nothing to do with screwing the company up in the first place. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?em

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...ER&v=glance I saw him on The Daily Show. Not sure if I can pick this up though. I'm not sure I can take 300 pages of being outraged.

My father in law died of a brain thing. woke up in the night, had a head ache, keeled over, and died. Only good thing was that he could be an organ donor. Death sucks pretty much any time and any way.

I haven't gotten high in many a year. Come on California, make it easy for me :-)

At my company no. No bonus this year, and extremely unlikely next year either. But if we hit the numbers, the company doesn't get to say "oh, changed our minds, not paying you after all."

Last I heard there was suspicions that the wife knew, but not the sons. But they'll all lose everything, as well they should.

MsGuy, Just ignore 2hard2tame. He's clearly interested in starting threads about himself and gets upset when not enough people pay attention to him. The online equivalent of dancing on the table with a lampshade on your head.

Conway has it exactly right. In fact, I asked for one of those posts to be reviewed... and I'm generally considered a lefty. I believe the moderators don't have any desire for spitting matches. I hope not. But if you engage with integrity, you'll have an interesting conversation. I'm socially very left wing, economically right wing, and middle of the road on foreign diplomacy. I want to hear from all sides, but in a reasoned, and rational way. The way you might disagree at a friend's dinner party. You might express a strong opinion, but you wouldn't start insulting the other guests. Well, unless you were drunk and an ass. Which is how it comes off here.

Most of the companies that took money didn't go bankrupt. and wouldn't have. But because uncle sam is on the scene, they're supposed to not give up their pay to the corporation?

Then they should be clear that they're instituting pay cuts and why. Bonus is just part of the negotiated pay structure. If you hit the numbers, you get the kicker. For all I know, it may not be legal not to pay it. That's a retroactive pay cut. I think paying the bank's employees is a different issue than punishing the folks that got the banks screwed up on the first place.

I read a report about this company somewhere. Apparently, once you give them your credit card, they just keep billing you. They apparently think most guys won't want to admit to the nice lady at the credit card company that they're being taken by a company that sells dick enlargement pills.

People are hung up on the name. That's why many companies try to talk about it as variable compensation. It's part of my pay, it's not 'bonus'. If we hit certain financial targets, it's mine, end of story. It's not "if I've been a good boy" money.

It's politics. Talking out of both sides of your mouth is a job requirement. consistency of your position isn't. It's hardly unique to Steele or the republicans, though I'll grant that this is a pretty amusing bit of inconsistency.

Yeah, isn't that always the way? I had a scheduled appointment in southern cal one time. Guy blew me off on the phone, decided he didn't want to drive over to see me. whatever. But then a couple of months later he sent me several emails trying to hook up. I was kinda WTF. The area code of my cell I gave him wasn't local. But then I figured it was probably just as well he blew me off. That kinda stupid might be contagious.

I think they believe in the total abolishment of age of consent laws. I don't remember. I think that's clearly dangerous and appalling. But like adamsmith said, the government gives me not comfort in their turning teenage picadillos into legal horror shows.

I find that equipping my bedside table with a cum towel reduces the lost sock process

Yes, I've come to the opinion that our society, as a whole, just is too hung up about ideas of childhood and sexuality to have this debate in any kind of productive way. Interesting link. I think the changing definition of childhood is probably warranted in our much more complex industrial society, but biological sexuality hasn't changed just because society has creating a gap that we don't address. So we have people trapped in the liminal state between adulthood and childhood where they are sexual, but aren't supposed to be. But, as you say, we're not going to address it any time soon. It's hardly the most pressing social issue, but I'm saddened by the human cost. There was a guy in Maine who got convicted of statutory rape. I forget the exact details but it was with his girlfriend and she was 16 and he was 18, or there about. He had to register as a sex offender. Some vigilante decided that he was going to "protect his community" and murdered the man. Sadly, that's hardly an isolated case.