BTW, min wage laws hurt those who most need a wage. It is really hard to get a job as a used up drug addict. A church I used to be a part of as a Christian tried at length to get the homeless into decent jobs, but when you don't have the faculties anymore, it is hard to get a job where you are worth 7.50 an hour. And while we never ended up facing this issue, because we stopped trying because of legal reason, we tried to do this kind of subcontracting where we would hire ourselves to clean local businesses restrooms for real cheap, "hire out" some help being burned out street people, then pay them the full amount we contracted ourselves for. It was a legal nightmare because of the min wage laws preventing us from doing it. In the end, it was a job that could of been done for money, but in the end, we had to just give them money. In other words, there are many jobs that could be done by the neediest of people who don't have the mental gusto to be deserving of a full wage job. In the end, it ends up forcing a charity gap, where people that don't have skills merit a wage of whatever the min wage is to rely on charity of some sort.

In this, we make law breakers out of them. The man that offers to wash your window for a buck or whathaveyou isn't really complying with min wage laws exactly. That doesn't matter when it is just a car driver handing out money, but when a business can't hire some street folks to make regular cleaning of their outside patio area, then something has broken. Even if I could be convinced that we need a min wage, the way it is setup atm is to "help" middle/lower middle class people at the expense of the most poor. Implementation is very important, almost more important that the act itself. Any act that explicitly raises unemployment for the poorest of the poor is explicitly bad in my opinion.

As a side note, even when I was an unskilled worker...a high school student, I have always made a wage greater than min wage, even when working in fast food. Think about your own wage history, have you ever made the actual lowest wage? If not, then think about the skill set of a person that makes it, and then think of the person that exists below it. The person that exist below the min wage is the person that is most afflicted with the negative this life has to offer, and is also rejected from employment opportunities. I can not morally and rationally support min wage laws as they exist today, I have dealt to much with the pain of rebuilding a life of work and happiness that hedges against the laws. Any law that makes flat out charity the ONLY means of rebuilding your life is morally objectionable.

True story: in 2002, I purchased a pair of tiny clip-on condenser mics with a portable power supply for the purpose of capturing sound effects in NYC. I clipped these two mics to either side of a baseball cap I was wearing, making sure the distance from each other was the approx distance between my two ears (just like Empire said). So I walked from our hotel (the Millennium on 44th and B-way) all the way down to ground zero, recording all the while to a MiniDisc recorder. It was quite a haul.

On the way back, I walked through Washington Square Park, where I was approached by a drug dealer who could tell I didn't belong there. He said to me, "you buyin'?" I said, "no, not today. I'm working." Then he notices the mics clipped to my hat. They're small but they're not invisible. He gets this solemn look on his face and says, "You a cop?" I laughed and said "No, I'm recording sound effects." Then he gets genuinely worried, asking "You recording me right now?" I said simply, "I'm afraid so." He turned right around and walked away. Sprinted, more like.

Then I ducked into the nearby restroom to check to see if my MD was still going and, lo and behold...it had stopped: our encounter was not recorded. DAMN!

But I did get quite valuable street sounds: buses, cars, people shouting, talking, all the sounds you'd expect to hear in NYC. And it was all recorded using this method. The stereo playback sounds exactly as though you're there.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Amusing, but when the video ends, you still have a herd of homeless overunning a public park. There's a time and place, peeps, and there are plenty of places willing to feed the homeless. The real trolls are the feeders, trying to make a "statement" about how the city treats its homeless, but when it's people who refuse to help themselves, no city or charity can 'save' them.^{[citation needed]}
Do liberals know who the homeless are, besides useful tools for 'activism'? Forget Hollywood bullsh1t, these are not the down-on-luck, hat-in-hand, willing-to-work hopefuls of yesteryear. Discounting the mentally ill, many are belligerent bums who demand handouts (wonder where they got their sense of entitlement)?^{[citation needed]}
In one of the downtown cities here, these lovable tramps sleep on the steps of city hall and have taken to pissing anywhere they feel like. The stench is so bad, city trucks drive around each morning spraying the streets and alleys with restroom cherry or lemon deodorant.^{[citation needed]}
Maybe Clever Goofus should go to each small business in the area and explain why bums who drive away potential shoppers are good for the local economy as well as tax base.^{[citation needed]}


http://xkcd.com/285/
FTFY;

Amusing, but when the video ends, you still have a herd of homeless overunning a public park. There's a time and place, peeps, and there are plenty of places willing to feed the homeless. The real trolls are the feeders, trying to make a "statement" about how the city treats its homeless, but when it's people who refuse to help themselves, no city or charity can 'save' them.

Do liberals know who the homeless are, besides useful tools for 'activism'? Forget Hollywood bullsh1t, these are not the down-on-luck, hat-in-hand, willing-to-work hopefuls of yesteryear. Discounting the mentally ill, many are belligerent bums who demand handouts (wonder where they got their sense of entitlement)?

In one of the downtown cities here, these lovable tramps sleep on the steps of city hall and have taken to pissing anywhere they feel like. The stench is so bad, city trucks drive around each morning spraying the streets and alleys with restroom cherry or lemon deodorant.

Maybe Clever Goofus should go to each small business in the area and explain why bums who drive away potential shoppers are good for the local economy as well as tax base.

>> ^gwiz665:

Bukowski wrote that? Huh, guess I should reevaluate my position on him.


This is one of my favorite short stories of all time:

http://plagiarist.com/poetry/194/

Cass was the youngest and most beautiful of 5 sisters. Cass was the most beautiful girl in town. 1/2 Indian with a supple and strange body, a snake-like and fiery body with eyes to go with it. Cass was fluid moving fire. She was like a spirit stuck into a form that would not hold her. Her hair was black and long and silken and whirled about as did her body. Her spirit was either very high or very low. There was no in between for Cass. Some said she was crazy. The dull ones said that. The dull ones would never understand Cass. To the men she was simply a sex machine and they didn't care whether she was crazy or not. And Cass danced and flirted, kissed the men, but except for an instance or two, when it came time to make it with Cass, Cass had somehow slipped away, eluded the men.

Her sisters accused her of misusing her beauty, of not using her mind enough, but Cass had mind and spirit; she painted, she danced, she sang, she made things of clay, and when people were hurt either in the spirit or the flesh, Cass felt a deep grieving for them. Her mind was simply different; her mind was simply not practical. Her sisters were jealous of her because she attracted their men, and they were angry because they felt she didn't make the best use of them. She had a habit of being kind to the uglier ones; the so-called handsome men revolted her- "No guts," she said, "no zap. They are riding on their perfect little earlobes and well- shaped nostrils...all surface and no insides..." She had a temper that came close to insanity, she had a temper that some call insanity. Her father had died of alcohol and her mother had run off leaving the girls alone. The girls went to a relative who placed them in a convent. The convent had been an unhappy place, more for Cass than the sisters. The girls were jealous of Cass and Cass fought most of them. She had razor marks all along her left arm from defending herself in two fights. There was also a permanent scar along the left cheek but the scar rather than lessening her beauty only seemed to highlight it. I met her at the West End Bar several nights after her release from the convent. Being youngest, she was the last of the sisters to be released. She simply came in and sat next to me. I was probably the ugliest man in town and this might have had something to do with it.

"Drink?" I asked.

"Sure, why not?"

I don't suppose there was anything unusual in our conversation that night, it was simply in the feeling Cass gave. She had chosen me and it was as simple as that. No pressure. She liked her drinks and had a great number of them. She didn't seem quite of age but they served he anyhow. Perhaps she had forged i.d., I don't know. Anyhow, each time she came back from the restroom and sat down next to me, I did feel some pride. She was not only the most beautiful woman in town but also one of the most beautiful I had ever seen. I placed my arm about her waist and kissed her once.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked.

"Yes, of course, but there's something else... there's more than your looks..."

"People are always accusing me of being pretty. Do you really think I'm pretty?"

"Pretty isn't the word, it hardly does you fair."

Cass reached into her handbag. I thought she was reaching for her handkerchief. She came out with a long hatpin. Before I could stop her she had run this long hatpin through her nose, sideways, just above the nostrils. I felt disgust and horror. She looked at me and laughed, "Now do you think me pretty? What do you think now, man?" I pulled the hatpin out and held my handkerchief over the bleeding. Several people, including the bartender, had seen the act. The bartender came down:

"Look," he said to Cass, "you act up again and you're out. We don't need your dramatics here."

"Oh, fuck you, man!" she said.

"Better keep her straight," the bartender said to me.

"She'll be all right," I said.

"It's my nose, I can do what I want with my nose."

"No," I said, "it hurts me."

"You mean it hurts you when I stick a pin in my nose?"

"Yes, it does, I mean it."

"All right, I won't do it again. Cheer up."

She kissed me, rather grinning through the kiss and holding the handkerchief to her nose. We left for my place at closing time. I had some beer and we sat there talking. It was then that I got the perception of her as a person full of kindness and caring. She gave herself away without knowing it. At the same time she would leap back into areas of wildness and incoherence. Schitzi. A beautiful and spiritual schitzi. Perhaps some man, something, would ruin her forever. I hoped that it wouldn't be me. We went to bed and after I turned out the lights Cass asked me,

"When do you want it? Now or in the morning?"

"In the morning," I said and turned my back.

In the morning I got up and made a couple of coffees, brought her one in bed. She laughed.

"You're the first man who has turned it down at night."

"It's o.k.," I said, "we needn't do it at all."

"No, wait, I want to now. Let me freshen up a bit."

Cass went into the bathroom. She came out shortly, looking quite wonderful, her long black hair glistening, her eyes and lips glistening, her glistening... She displayed her body calmly, as a good thing. She got under the sheet.

"Come on, lover man."

I got in. She kissed with abandon but without haste. I let my hands run over her body, through her hair. I mounted. It was hot, and tight. I began to stroke slowly, wanting to make it last. Her eyes looked directly into mine.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"What the hell difference does it make?" she asked.

I laughed and went on ahead. Afterwards she dressed and I drove her back to the bar but she was difficult to forget. I wasn't working and I slept until 2 p.m. then got up and read the paper. I was in the bathtub when she came in with a large leaf- an elephant ear.

"I knew you'd be in the bathtub," she said, "so I brought you something to cover that thing with, nature boy."

She threw the elephant leaf down on me in the bathtub.

"How did you know I'd be in the tub?"

"I knew."

Almost every day Cass arrived when I was in the tub. The times were different but she seldom missed, and there was the elephant leaf. And then we'd make love. One or two nights she phoned and I had to bail her out of jail for drunkenness and fighting.

"These sons of bitches," she said, "just because they buy you a few drinks they think they can get into your pants."

"Once you accept a drink you create your own trouble."

"I thought they were interested in me, not just my body."

"I'm interested in you and your body. I doubt, though, that most men can see beyond your body."

I left town for 6 months, bummed around, came back. I had never forgotten Cass, but we'd had some type of argument and I felt like moving anyhow, and when I got back i figured she'd be gone, but I had been sitting in the West End Bar about 30 minutes when she walked in and sat down next to me.

"Well, bastard, I see you've come back."

I ordered her a drink. Then I looked at her. She had on a high- necked dress. I had never seen her in one of those. And under each eye, driven in, were 2 pins with glass heads. All you could see were the heads of the pins, but the pins were driven down into her face.

"God damn you, still trying to destroy your beauty, eh?"

"No, it's the fad, you fool."

"You're crazy."

"I've missed you," she said.

"Is there anybody else?"

"No there isn't anybody else. Just you. But I'm hustling. It costs ten bucks. But you get it free."

"Pull those pins out."

"No, it's the fad."

"It's making me very unhappy."

"Are you sure?"

"Hell yes, I'm sure."

Cass slowly pulled the pins out and put them back in her purse.

"Why do you haggle your beauty?" I asked. "Why don't you just live with it?"

"Because people think it's all I have. Beauty is nothing, beauty won't stay. You don't know how lucky you are to be ugly, because if people like you you know it's for something else."

"O.k.," I said, "I'm lucky."

"I don't mean you're ugly. People just think you're ugly. You have a fascinating face."

"Thanks."

We had another drink.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Nothing. I can't get on to anything. No interest."

"Me neither. If you were a woman you could hustle."

"I don't think I could ever make contact with that many strangers, it's wearing."

"You're right, it's wearing, everything is wearing."

We left together. People still stared at Cass on the streets. She was a beautiful woman, perhaps more beautiful than ever. We made it to my place and I opened a bottle of wine and we talked. With Cass and I, it always came easy. She talked a while and I would listen and then i would talk. Our conversation simply went along without strain. We seemed to discover secrets together. When we discovered a good one Cass would laugh that laugh- only the way she could. It was like joy out of fire. Through the talking we kissed and moved closer together. We became quite heated and decided to go to bed. It was then that Cass took off her high -necked dress and I saw it- the ugly jagged scar across her throat. It was large and thick.

"God damn you, woman," I said from the bed, "god damn you, what have you done?

"I tried it with a broken bottle one night. Don't you like me any more? Am I still beautiful?"

I pulled her down on the bed and kissed her. She pushed away and laughed, "Some men pay me ten and I undress and they don't want to do it. I keep the ten. It's very funny."

"Yes," I said, "I can't stop laughing... Cass, bitch, I love you...stop destroying yourself; you're the most alive woman I've ever met."

We kissed again. Cass was crying without sound. I could feel the tears. The long black hair lay beside me like a flag of death. We enjoined and made slow and somber and wonderful love. In the morning Cass was up making breakfast. She seemed quite calm and happy. She was singing. I stayed in bed and enjoyed her happiness. Finally she came over and shook me,

"Up, bastard! Throw some cold water on your face and pecker and come enjoy the feast!"

I drove her to the beach that day. It was a weekday and not yet summer so things were splendidly deserted. Beach bums in rags slept on the lawns above the sand. Others sat on stone benches sharing a lone bottle. The gulls whirled about, mindless yet distracted. Old ladies in their 70's and 80's sat on the benches and discussed selling real estate left behind by husbands long ago killed by the pace and stupidity of survival. For it all, there was peace in the air and we walked about and stretched on the lawns and didn't say much. It simply felt good being together. I bought a couple of sandwiches, some chips and drinks and we sat on the sand eating. Then I held Cass and we slept together about an hour. It was somehow better than lovemaking. There was flowing together without tension. When we awakened we drove back to my place and I cooked a dinner. After dinner I suggested to Cass that we shack together. She waited a long time, looking at me, then she slowly said, "No." I drove her back to the bar, bought her a drink and walked out. I found a job as a parker in a factory the next day and the rest of the week went to working. I was too tired to get about much but that Friday night I did get to the West End Bar. I sat and waited for Cass. Hours went by . After I was fairly drunk the bartender said to me, "I'm sorry about your girlfriend."

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, didn't you know?"

"No."

"Suicide. She was buried yesterday."

"Buried?" I asked. It seemed as though she would walk through the doorway at any moment. How could she be gone?

"Her sisters buried her."

"A suicide? Mind telling me how?"

"She cut her throat."

"I see. Give me another drink."

I drank until closing time. Cass was the most beautiful of 5 sisters, the most beautiful in town. I managed to drive to my place and I kept thinking, I should have insisted she stay with me instead of accepting that "no." Everything about her had indicated that she had cared. I simply had been too offhand about it, lazy, too unconcerned. I deserved my death and hers. I was a dog. No, why blame the dogs? I got up and found a bottle of wine and drank from it heavily. Cass the most beautiful girl in town was dead at 20. Outside somebody honked their automobile horn. They were very loud and persistent. I sat the bottle down and screamed out: "GOD DAMN YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH ,SHUT UP!" The night kept coming and there was nothing I could do.

That warehouse must have been empty by the time they were done. I mean they took all the stuff from the women's restroom, from the rec room, from the supply closet, from the waiting area, they even stopped by the surplus store across the street. Hell, the only thing they didn't shred was the shredder.

It's not cheating unless they're rubbing legs with another man in a public restroom stall.

If they just traffic one side of the highway and only target out of state vehicles......

How's a smart drug smuggler going to handle that? He's going to use an in-state tagged vehicle until he gets through the state. Or buy something he can resell in another state for clean cash.

As for carrying large sums of money, it's common knowledge in my area that farmers do a significant amount of dealings in cash. They'll buy big ticket items or equipment, like 100 grand items entirely or divide it up between a big lump of cash and the rest on credit. They cross state lines to go to auctions, etc and carry sizable cash on them the day of. Admittedly other people do cash dealings, but farmers are guys who consistently do cash deals. Sometimes they even buy new stuff from the manufacturers for big discounts because they pay entirely in cash.

Also other reasons for cash: Semi drivers doing pickups on goods will sometimes deal in cash. This is why you see a lot of them parked on the side of the highway instead of at rest stops when they sleep for the day, because people will bust into their cab and rob em due to there being a good chance of them carrying cash. Let alone emptying their trucks while they sleep. Got an uncle who used to do interstate driving, he said when he woke up in the morning after sleeping at a truck stop...the experienced guys would never get out of the truck to use the restroom or whatever. They'd start their truck and drive a good distance down the highway then get out and inspect their truck for vandalism, tampering, or other issues. Just so they don't get cracked in the head while they are bent over checking tires.

So, basically these cops are straight up robbing people who have entirely non-drug related reasons to carry a lot of cash on them. It'll just end up that people will start routing around Tennessee if they are out of state and going to another state to avoid the hassle. Which means they won't get their fuel taxes (basically trucks are required to buy as much fuel as they use in each state and they check them periodically for receipts and proof), won't get the business of people stopping in the state, and might end up with people entirely avoiding delivering to TN at all...only dropping off near it and letting a local guy in TN come out of state to pick it up and bring it in. Which is another thing...in CA and other Southwestern states, if they need to ship something into Canada they use to take it down into Mexico and drop it off. Then let the Mexican trucks hook up to the load and take it back through the US and up into Canada...it ended up being cheaper and faster. Don't know if they've revised laws and what not to stop that, but a lot of truckers were pissed when their 100-200+ mile round trip ended up being a half day into mexico and back.

I say we reinvigorate the economy by building thousands of gay restroom facilities across the nation.

Most establishments have video surveillance in use signs up. And it's common sense that you "watch where you are going", but perhaps they need a sign up for that too.

But let's do a little common practices and expectations when it comes to workplace conduct. Most businesses don't mind if you use your phone sparingly, but they will be pissed if you text while driving or handling machinery or putting yourself in dangerous situations by doing so. So they probably have a clause that says no cell phone use while on their time or unless it's company related.

I mean this is along the lines of thinking for activities such as driving without your prescription glasses, doing possibly dangerous or strenuous activities when you just started taking a new medication, carrying something that obstructs your vision on uneven or uncleared terrain, etc, etc. Things you can get away with sometimes doing, but you know you shouldn't be doing it. It's just more convenient to risk it than it is to take the time to do it in a safer way. And when things go wrong and it doesn't work out for you, the fault falls on you.

If she had been doing that and walked into traffic and got drilled by a car and the video caught her doing this.....I'd be thanking my lucky stars if I was the driver of that car. Because it was clearly her fault for not heeding right of way/jaywalking/whatever. Just like it would have been my fault if I was texting and driving and drilled her with my vehicle while she was legally crossing at a crosswalk.

The biggest crime here is that she hasn't learned that she bears responsibility for the consequences of her actions. If she had realized this and stepped to the side to quickly type her message and move on, there would be no video to be shown. People SHOPPING at malls would be shocked if they weren't being filmed nearly their whole time on the premises, so I highly doubt an employee could expect otherwise.

And that she claims she's humiliated by this video, but comes forward to identify herself....give multiple interviews and hint at lawsuits. Rape victims have more difficulty doing this due to humiliation and public scrutiny and they are victims of an actual CRIME. This lady is a victim of her own stupidity.

I view the guards who filmed and released this video as an entirely different subject than what this woman's problem is. Their punishment should not be based on the content of the video but if they violated any policies, laws, or agreements made to not release video unless authorized. The content of the video could be an empty hallway or someone doing donuts in their vehicles in the parking lots, and it should be judged in the same manner.

The only caveat to this video existing is if someone took this video in a place where there was a reasonable expectation of privacy. In her house, in her yard surrounded by privacy fence, even a public restroom. But the corridors of a mall are in no way private and someone could have captured her stupidity on any recording device and released it.

If she's being harassed at work over this, that's yet another subject......but it probably doesn't fall any under illegal form...since I don't think your incompetence or stupidity is legally protected. She could quit, and if I were her employer I would hope she did...because she's a "work injury" claim waiting to happen.

My guess would be cloudy liquid could be used to hide something in the center of a container....if it was full enough.

Although when they had her dump it into smaller containers, the "threat" should have been over then and there. Especially if they had done any kind of screen of it at all, but they didn't. They just wanted to fuck with her so she'll learn her lesson and not make them work.


I found the whole "glass room" with one door in the middle of everything to be pretty telling of the whole TSA business. It has one door and an open side.....so it's not there to keep them in...the door is there as a "suggestion". There is no chair, and when it looked like someone was trying to bring her a chair, they took it back. It looked like later in the video (after she'd been standing in that place for 30 some minutes) that someone was pushing a chair toward her in the background.

I know the video is trying to play on our sympathies for a "young mother", but hell I'd have been sympathetic with almost anyone after they put them in a glass cage as a spectacle for other people for 40 minutes and did shit all to deal with them during that period. It pisses me off to no end to see one person at a business clearly wasting time while people are waiting to get dealt with, whether it's to pay the cashier, see a customer service rep, or get someone to follow their own policies and get me processed or kick me off the premises.

Sure a young mother is a more sympathetic victim, but 40 minutes standing in a glass cage with no one coming to update you regularly, giving you a chair, and then at the end of it not even having you processed one way or the other is complete and utter bullshit no matter who is there unless they are guilty as hell of something. I wonder if they would have let someone use the restroom once they've been put in the "special holding area" (the "look at the bad guy booth").

Welcome to the big time, brother. Ask dag for your key to the executive restroom, and your first whore is on the house (after that you get reduced rates).

I find it difficult to disagree or agree with him, not on the historical context he gives which I don't know much about but on the principle. I would presume in the vast majority of regions in the US, institutional racism simply doesn't exist any more. Sure, there's the crackpot here and there who's openly racist, there's the few here and there that harbor racist thoughts but on the whole it's simply not there.


Study after study have proven this is not true, both in the private and public domains. I'm speaking about overt and institutional racism. Heck, they just codified a racial profiling and banned ethnic studies in Arizona.


I think the Civil Rights Act as it was, applying to both public and private entities served a purpose. It made people come together and realize that much of the animosity was more fear of the unknown and a lack of intercommunication between two cultures that had simply grown apart. Heck, there's a whole litany of (terrible) black/white buddy cop movies that symbolize bridging this gap.

In the South, there had always been interpersonal communications and relationships between individuals of different races. The problem was the discrimination,i.e., forced to give up your seat for whites, not being able to use the restroom in certain parts of the city, being banned from attending most Universities, etc.

So I don't think that it was really the legislation that changed the state of society but the effect that forcing two cultures to become accustomed to each other had on perceptions.

The civil rights act didn't just magically change the country when it was passed. It took years of enforcement and civil agitation to bring the spirit of the law into reality. The legislation was a crucial step, though.

As it is now, I think in the vast majority of regions he is right, businesses who if given the chance would exclude black people, would be shooting themselves in the foot.

May I assume you have the luxury of not having to take that risk?

Not to mention, ultimately given that most people today aren't racist, as a minority would you want to inadvertently end up working under someone who is racist?

In a world where one both has to eat, and is a minority, what is desired is not to change the hearts of the whole country, but to be hired. I think that a significant amount of people in the US are racist, you think they aren't, but ultimately, it all about ensuring behavior (e.g., hiring, service) fits the law, not someone's thoughts.

An internet classic, but it's already on the sift: http://www.videosift.com/video/Male-Restroom-Etiquette-956

Oh the fun he could have in public restrooms...