Ok, it seems they did use the restroom and were noticed and approached, not that they asked to use it and were denied, I misunderstood the tv report. From their online report....

"The employees told police the men came into the store, sat down and then used the bathroom, according to Ross.
"Starbucks said that according to their company policy, they do not allow non-paying...people of the public to come in and use the restroom," Ross said. "So they then asked these two males to leave. These two males refused to leave and the police were called."

"We would love to meet those two men and personally apologize," Camille Hymes, the Starbucks regional manager, told NBC10. "We take full responsibility."
We take full responsibility and....we put [the manager] in a position that did not allow her to be set up for success or those two men," Hymes said
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Protesters-Gather-Outside-Philadelphia-Starbucks-After-Two-Black-Men-Were-Arrested-There-479809353.html

So it seems this is corporate policy, or at least a regional policy, that may just not be enforced in most places, at least that's how I read that.
Full disclosure, I don't think I've ever been to a Starbucks.

Edit: now I've seen an interview with a customer who said you do have to ask for the restroom code at this location, so the original report is looking more correct.

Not even if you huff it. And The Fonz looks terrible!


>> ^kir_mokum:

there is not enough glue in the world to make that make sense.

Haven't seen her interviewed until now, but my guess is that she is just naturally frenetic. I have some friends like her. Gotta be patient . . .
>> ^Stormsinger:

Horrible interview and interviewee. She may well just feel she has so much to get across that she has to rush through it, but she'd do better to pare it down to something that fits in the time she has.

It would if you had grown up in the 60's. I have come to the conclusion that there are a majority of people across the entire political spectrum in such tremendous denial that they could never accept criticism of their own partisan stance. I said elsewhere regarding this video that Paglia would be made the problem for pointing out the problem. I'm certain that is true.

Since she speaks so rapidly, I think it good to get a nice cup of tea and slooow down and absorb what she it saying. This feminist, liberal, atheist, lesbian, author, teacher has an indictment on our culture worth hearing. >> ^kir_mokum:

there is not enough glue in the world to make that make sense.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'dance, classical, modern, cello, live, Spike Jonze, Dying Swan, Camille Saint Saens' to 'dance, classical, modern, cello, yo yo ma, lil buck, Spike Jonze, Swan, Saint Saens' - edited by Trancecoach

Often, the most inspiring and beautiful creations come about as the result of a juxtaposition between the classical and the modern, the old and the new. Such is the case in this video, which was filmed by director Spike Jonze, that captures Los Angeles street dancer Lil’ Buck as he performs an amazing interpretation of “The Swan” from Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with a live musical accompaniment by the award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'dance, classical, modern, cello, live' to 'dance, classical, modern, cello, live, Spike Jonze, Dying Swan, Camille Saint Saens' - edited by Trancecoach

Many thanks, geo! As usual, you have an eye for quality.

In reply to this comment by geo321:
*quality

>> ^geo321:

quality


Agreed. Still like the original more, but this is very nice.

The music is the same as the theme song from the Jonathan Creek TV series, which wikipedia informs me is Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre.

You can hear the Jonathan Creek theme here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q6FXOdDSP8&feature=related

Here's another brilliant piece by her: http://www.videosift.com/video/Camille-Au-Port-Music-Video

Also check out the live version linked in the comments.

>> ^deputydog:
A hint of Tori Amos. Lovin' the trumpets.


Not trumpets. Trombones.

Winstonfield, the scope of the damage and need WAS known ahead of time. By now everyone knows of the Aug. 28th National Weather Service bulletin with its dramatic wording:

...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...

.HURRICANE KATRINA...A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED
STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT
LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

Furthermore, Bush's emergency declaration did not include any of Louisiana's coastal parishes. The freaking coastal parishes. Jeez, you'd think they want to include those when a freaking hurricane strikes. FEMA chief Michael Brown ("Brownie") lied in his testimony to Congress when he said that Governor Blanco never included those parishes in her request for aid, when she had in fact requested aid for "all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area and the mid state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor that are accepting [evacuated citizens]." She made the request on Aug. 27th, two days before Katrina hit.

You yourself state that "No other FEMA effort in a long time needed even a tenth of what New Orleans needed." In other words, Katrina was a crisis of epic proportions. Yet you also claim that disaster relief is primarily a state and local function. So if Katrina was a monster even for the Feds, then how do you expect state and local resources to be able to respond to this epic disaster? That is why we have the federal response, because local resources are easily overwhelmed in crises such as these. And that's how FEMA under Bush failed, because of the shitty response by a shitty boss appointed by a shitty President.

Yes, there is blame to go around, but because of the magnitude of the event it was primarily the Feds' job to take care of things, and they didn't. You don't get to rewrite history like Michael Brown tried to do in order to protect the legacy of your neocon quack of a President.

From BoingBoing: Mauvais Rôle ("Bad Role"), a short animated film about a computer game character who gets fed up with playing the same lame villain roles all the time -- and takes matters into his own (clawed) hands.

His quest leads him to new and increasingly more ridiculous casting calls, each one weirder than the last. And they lead him somewhere he never thought he'd end up...

Mauvais Rôle was produced by a team of students at ESRA Sup' Infograph, in France. Authors: Alan Barbier, Camille Campion, Dorian Février, Frédéric Fourier, Frédéric Lafay, Min Ma, Jean Francois Macé, Emmanuel Repérant, Jérémie Rosseau and Olivier Sicot.
http://www.mauvais-role.com/