AdamSmith

P.S. Why does that not give me great comfort?

That's the strategy! Agree wholeheartedly. Thank you.

Boehner suggests House will take its time on Internet sales tax By Bernie Becker and Mike Lillis - 05/07/13 12:10 PM ET http://thehill.com Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested Tuesday that the online sales tax legislation that easily cleared the Senate this week was not one of the House's top priorities. Boehner referred reporters at a news conference to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who has expressed concerns about the Senate bill. “I think they have jurisdiction over this. I've not talked to him about it,” Boehner said. “I don't know what his intent is, in terms of whether he's interested in moving it through his committee or not.” “I'm for regular order,” Boehner added, when pressed about whether he is personally interested in the bill. The Senate passed the bipartisan Marketplace Fairness Act by a 69 to 27 vote on Monday, with most Democrats — except for five who represent states without a sales tax — backing the bill. Senate Republicans split roughly down the middle — 21 for, and 22 against — on the proposal. The breakdown underscores that the measure likely faces a rockier path in the GOP-controlled House. But retail groups and state governments, which could gain more than $20 billion in new revenue each year under the bill, have made the sales tax measure a major priority. Because of that, Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other GOP leaders will find themselves under intense pressure to bring the bill to the floor, according to a leading House Democrat. “I think the overwhelming number of Democrats are for this bill, I think a large number of Republicans are for this bill,” Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters shortly after Boehner’s comments. “I think they're going to get a lot of pressure from retail people in their states who are having to compete with online sellers who don't pay tax.” Currently, states can only charge sales tax to retailers that are physically located there, a situation that brick-and-mortar retailers say gives some online shopping outlets an unfair advantage. The Marketplace Fairness Act would let states collect sales taxes from online U.S. retailers with at least $1 million in out-of-state sales, no matter where they’re located. “I think that this is a bill that Boehner's going to find — or Cantor — find difficult not bringing to the floor for a vote,” Hoyer said. “And I think that when it's brought to the floor for a vote, it'll pass — pass handily." Goodlatte said following Monday’s Senate vote that he still had major concerns about the bill, and the burden it would place on smaller retailers to collect sales taxes for so many jurisdictions. “While it attempts to make tax collection simpler, it still has a long way to go," Goodlatte said in a statement about the Senate bill. "There is still not uniformity on definitions and tax rates, so businesses would still be forced to wade through potentially hundreds of tax rates and a host of different tax codes and definitions." But Goodlatte has also said that he understands the concerns of brick-and-mortar retailers. Some leading groups on the right, like Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform and Heritage Action, have slammed the sales tax proposal, saying it should be viewed as a tax increase on consumers and that it would open businesses to more audits and higher compliance costs. http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/298211-boehner-talk-to-the-committee-about-online-sales-tax

His piety and patience are perhaps to be admired. Reminded me for no direct reason of R. Crumb's project. More at http://hoodedutilitarian.com/2010/07/creation-redux-robert-crumbs-the-book-of-genesis-illustrated/

Uh huh. Tell that to the owners of Eagle/NYC & Ramrod/Boston who are still laughing all the way to the bank.

hito, very happy to have you, and your shoes. But what prompted that? Did you mean me, or actually MsGuy? (I clean my bathroom at least spring and fall. )

Yes. Going in there ≈ having sex in there. As, per hitoall, the smells attest!

Or blend in. http://www.eaglenyc.com

Tell me about it. But alas, kaput. Closed some months ago. Was reported by passers-by as being under renovation, presumably into something more upscale, in keeping with its expensive neighbors there on 58th bet Madison & Park. Learned about this from a thread on the other forum, wherein we indulged in some suitable gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.

Good a thread for this as any...

Steve Rattner, a key orchestrator of the U.S. auto industry bailout, writes in today's NYT what he thinks it will take to save the euro. May 10, 2013, 10:16 pm Europe’s Careless Dithering By STEVEN RATTNER EUROPE’S economic problems are growing steadily worse, with unemployment in parts of the Continent now above the level reached in the United States during the Great Depression. Meanwhile, policy makers dither over solutions. Last week, the European Central Bank cut interest rates by a meager quarter of a percentage point, akin to giving two aspirin to a patient with pneumonia. Meanwhile, pressure is growing to ease the emphasis on austerity and to allow larger budget deficits. If it were only that simple. Properly coupled with other new policies, fiscal stimulus can help, but on its own it is just an inadequate palliative. The problems of the euro zone are not some routine cyclical downturn that can be rectified by traditional macroeconomic policy; they are deep structural flaws in both the design of the common currency and the economic policies of many of its members. Most fundamentally, the design of the euro was ill conceived. A disparate group of 17 countries, ranging from the German powerhouse to weaklings like Greece, should never have been joined in a single currency without integrating their other economic policies. As a consequence, while Germany grew ever more efficient, many other members allowed the cheap borrowing rates that accompanied the euro to lull them into complacency. Budget deficits expanded, wages rose rapidly and speculation in real estate ran rampant. Meanwhile, excessive regulation of business and labor made needed restructuring nearly impossible. Take autos. The European automobiles industry resembles that of the United States, circa 2009: too many factories employing too many workers, able to make more cars than the market can absorb. And, doing it too inefficiently. A Fiat autoworker in Poland produces three times as many cars as a Fiat employee in Italy and is paid one-third as much. And yet, achieving an American-style restructuring in Europe is impossible. Closing a single plant, even in Germany, is an expensive and often unsuccessful effort. When Peugeot ran into liquidity problems last fall, the French government provided up to seven billion euros in loan guarantees, but only if Peugeot spared some of the 8,000 jobs on its cutting board. Saving unproductive jobs is not a recipe for economic prosperity. In contrast, there’s Spain, where a more flexible labor market has led to higher productivity and competitiveness and in turn, to expanded production by a raft of automakers, including Nissan, Ford, Renault and Volkswagen. Spain remains plagued by high unemployment and recession. But better competitiveness has led to rising exports and a workable base for future expansion. Ireland has done even better in improving its competitiveness, and as a result its exports have boomed, growth has resumed and its double-digit unemployment rate has begun to tick down. But two of the largest euro zone economies — Italy and France — seem paralyzed. For example, Italy, under the previous prime minister, Mario Monti, made modest reforms like higher retirement ages and more freedom for employers to shed workers. While the reforms did not go far enough, even Mr. Monti’s small steps were soon watered down. He lost the most recent election, and his successor has been conspicuously silent about the needed structural changes. Competitiveness is not the only problem. Banks, because of their own weak balance sheets and a fear of more losses, have been wary of lending to small and medium-size businesses, and when they do it’s at a high interest rate. In Italy, where 80 percent of workers are employed by small or medium-size firms, borrowing costs are around 6 percent, compared with 3.5 percent in Germany. Nothing significant has been done to address this problem. To be fair, the euro zone has been taking small steps toward the greater integration that is required. A banking union and single regulatory framework are under development. And discussions are under way over a deal in which the austerity regime would be relaxed for certain countries, including France, in return for structural reforms. But incrementalism is an insufficient response. Europe should pursue full economic integration, much like the United States did in 1789, after the failed Articles of Confederation experiment. That would involve harmonized regulatory policies and a shared central government budget that would provide extra funds to troubled countries, just as America does for weaker states. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/europes-careless-dithering/?hp

The Guardian weighs in with a shrewdly dyspeptic take on this and another upcoming SF flick... Gravity likely to be less weighed down than Ender's GameWhile the anti-gay views of creator Orson Scott Card will do little to help Ender's Game, space adventure Gravity will be aided by cinemagoers' admiration for director Alfonso Cuarón The received thinking in Hollywood is that science fiction is a risky area of film-making. Nevertheless, studios continue to dip their fingers bravely into the danger zone like poor, doomed Peter Duncan in Flash Gordon. Perhaps it's the success of films such as Avatar, or the eternal popularity of Star Wars and Star Trek, but there seem to be more space-oriented movies around at the moment than there have been since the glory days of the 1970s. Two teaser trailers hit the internet this week for two very different films, both with a futuristic bent but hailing from as far apart in the sci-fi galaxy as it is possible to travel. Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in the tale of two astronauts facing disaster after a spacewalk goes horribly wrong, has been on the radar since at least 2011. Gavin Hood's Ender's Game arrives weighed down with plenty of baggage thanks to the repugnant views of its creator Orson Scott Card, who wrote the original novel. But it nevertheless gives us the chance to see Harrison Ford in a space uniform as well as the opportunity to check on the continuing development of Hugo's excellent Asa Butterfield. Gravity was supposed to be with us in November last year, but will now arrive in October 2013. The movie has managed to avoid any World War Z-style public meltdown, so there's no way of telling what's taken it so long. From the trailer, one could easily imagine this one morphing – once the initial action has dissipated – into an existential, enigmatic and claustrophobic 70s-style space drama such as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey or Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris (the presence of Clooney, who starred in the 2002 Hollywood remake, lends something to that reading). Of course, Cuarón may have a less fanciful disaster movie in mind, but something about the trailer's mesmerising slo-mo depiction of catastrophe in space hints at a cerebral subtext. It reminds one of the wonderful stereoscopic turmoil at sea of Ang Lee's Life of Pi, and it's no surprise to note that the film will be released in 3D. It's also worth noting that this is being officially pitched as a science fiction movie, suggesting that something out of the ordinary lies in wait. So what happens next to our poor beleaguered space floaters? Production cost a reputed $80m, for which we can presumably expect a little more for our dollar than Clooney and Bullock discussing how much oxygen is left for the rest of the movie. Go on Alfonso, chuck in an alien or two to liven things up. At least Cuarón, whose diverse back catalogue includes such gems as Y Tu Mamá También and Children of Men, has built up a repository of goodwill from cinemagoers. The same cannot necessarily be said for the makers of Ender's Game, which has been hamstrung by Card's determined anti-gay marriage stance. One might have hoped for a movie that transcended its roots (Card's depiction of the genius brute child warrior Ender has been compared to Adolf Hitler) just as the much-missed Paul Verhoeven's superb Starship Troopers subverted the right-leaning subtexts of Robert Heinlein's source novel in 1997. However, one would probably be disappointed, since Card himself is on board as a hands-on producer. Ender's Game, which also stars Ben Kingsley, Abigail Breslin and Hailee Steinfeld, does arrive with a screenplay officially attributed to director Hood, rather than one of two versions Card is said to have worked on over the years. For those who have not read it, the original 1985 novel is the story of a young boy plucked from obscurity to be trained in war games aimed at discovering a human commander to fight the extra-terrestrial threat of the insectoid "Buggers". This bright-eyed little murder machine is picked for the elite after killing two other small boys in scraps. The US military has for some time now included the book as suggested reading for its marine corps, which really tells you everything you need to know. Hood is best known for the Oscar-winning South African film Tsotsi, but rather marked his card with the poorly-received comic book sequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009. We can only hope that the movie version of Ender's Game flags up the sinister nature of scary military types recruiting rosy-cheeked cherubs for genocidal space war rather better than the trailer (though I have to admit Kingsley's tattooed Mazer Rackham does look suitably horrid). Hood had this to say about Wolverine a few years back: "Any movie that is simply about good versus evil … is in my view putting out into the world and certainly into a mass audience and young audience's mind a rather dangerous philosophy, which is that there is good and evil in the simplistic and easily defined way … I think that for the last eight years, we've had that philosophy very much prevalent in the Bush administration that if you're on the side of good, at least as you perceive it, then you can do no evil." That's the kind of philosophy that surely needs to cut through the film version of Ender's Game if the movie is to avoid descending into really quite repulsive gung-ho territory. Summit Entertainment, the studio that made the Twilight films, is apparently eyeing the movie as the first in yet another teen-oriented sci-fi saga, but it seems rather unusual material to say the least. Perhaps the sequel could see an older Ender caught in a love triangle with a Bugger and one of his fellow pubescent angels of death – though one cannot quite imagine Card agreeing to it. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2013/may/10/gravity-enders-game-orson-scott-card

The Web held too many odors for any one in particular to stand out. Or at least be traced to its source!

Ach! Born too late.

Tediously to illustrate (not entirely gender-appropriate, but in any event), note how readily the dancer's panty-back and the patron's fly can be maneuvered out of the way, with onlookers none the wiser. Or at least waiting their proper turn!

Yeah, after a fashion. Sitting on one of the metal folding chairs scattered around the edge of the downstairs dance floor at the late, lamented Web/NYC. A favorite dancer would sit on my lap, with his back to me, in what to appearances was a normal lap dance. Ah, the joys of what a little discreet positioning can hide, right out in plain view.

If you are going to be his Scarlett, and be in character, you will of course be expected to fuck him from time to time.

Well, you know, I reported it all here as it happened. For the first time I met someone who was an (1) aggressive (2) affectionate top who (3) wanted to fuck me. I (4) fell in love, and found I (5) really wanted it from him. So after a couple of attempts that didn't quite work, occurred to me to make some preparations the third time. I ate some hash, then used poppers (butyl nitrite) during. That let me relax enough to take him. Once I succeeded in doing it that first time, and discovered it could be pleasure not pain, it was easy thereafter. Very much a psychological together with physiological thing of learning how to let it happen. An important aspect, much noted in some discussions of all this, was feeling entirely trustful of my top. Also that as a top, he knew what he was doing -- how to go slow enough at first for it to work, then how to push my boundaries just enough to make it an erotic transaction I wanted more of, then more of again, and again.

Learning from Andre how to bottom. Enough said?

The studied reasonableness in the elocution of your response would seem impervious to refutation. (A parlor game: Spot the Escape Clauses. )

You have to be careful of that hito, I tell you. In your absence we have had several threads tut-tutting the Feds' unfettered electronic snooping. To all of them His Hi-ness has replied, in effect, Let many wiretaps bloom!

The American language! Please. "...two countries divided by..."

Indeed. Had this been a New Yorker cartoon, the cartoon editor doubtless would have changed "is" to "turns out to be."

On the other hand, these spontaneous offers you get seem like valuable opportunities to try out the experience of escorting, with no upfront investment in advertising, and get some firsthand idea of whether you like it and can do it.