AdamSmith

Yes. Until the inevitable screed against the doings of "unelected judges."

No, no! She is simply -- the butler. That without which no household can call itself truly civilized. (Still waitin for mine.) So much that I almost wish you would stop it. But please don't.

Worth noting, too, that the Supreme Court repeatedly rebuffed the Bush Administration's suspensions of due process. Essence of the matter, from the Court's 2006 decision that Guantánamo detainees have the right to petition US courts challenging the legality of their open-ended detention: "Security depends upon a sophisticated intelligence apparatus and the ability of our Armed Forces to act and to interdict," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. "Security subsists, too, in fidelity to freedom's first principles." He added, "Chief among them are freedom from arbitrary and unlawful restraint...." http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0613/p01s05-usju.html

Well, call me a little bit Austrian school, a little bit Ken Galbraith (apologies to Marie O.) ... socially left, economically heterodox. That "reasonable amount of time" is where I differ with you most severely. Unless I am misreading all the public documentation, the information that ultimately served to convict Padilla, once he was transferred from military custody into the civilian criminal-justice system, was available to the prosecution from early on. How either security or justice was served by the 3-1/2-year suspension of due process before that happened is what your generalities fail to address. That is, I very much buy the Framers' warnings that a breach in anyone's civil liberties anywhere could eventually prove a threat to my own.

Small detail: Padilla is a US citizen. Yet for 3-1/2 years he was detained and denied habeas corpus, speedy trial, and other due-process rights.

Conway, are you deliberately confusing categories? The socialists among us (count me in) are not perturbed by his conviction and sentencing through due process, but by the three and a half years prior, during which the Constitution was, for him, suspended.

You're right. Please accept my apology.

Or to translate FourAces' post to something 2h2t might understand... Sure, a skunk can break up a garden party, and have a good time doing it. But he will never have the pleasure of understanding what the party was all about. P.S. Rico understood the party. Wonder if 2h2t will understand he has just been insulted?

Cause: As a small child, on washdays when rain stopped my mother from using the clothesline, I would go with her to the commercial laundry. She voiced the same observation as you. I formed the hypothesis that all clothes dryers in the world must be connected through a network of underground vents, through which some of one's own clothes -- socks especially -- are exchanged for those of strangers. Solution: (1) Never use commercial laundries. (2) Throw out all your existing socks. Buy 20 new pairs, all identical. (3) When they start to get visibly ragged, throw them all out and start over. (4) Better yet, engage one of the pairs pictured above to handle all this for you.

Great project! Have you come across (sorry!) the minor but fascinating figure of Aleister Crowley? ... Go into the Highways and Hedges, and compel them to come in Let my fond lips but drink thy golden wine, My bright-eyed Arab, only let me eat The rich brown globes of sacramental meat Steaming and firm, hot from their home divine, And let me linger with thy hands in mine, And lick the sweat from dainty dirty feet Fresh with the loose aroma of the street, And then anon I'll glue my mouth to thine. This is the height of joy, to lie and feel Thy spicéd spittle trickle down my throat; This is more pleasant than at dawn to steal Toward lawns and sunny brooklets, and to gloat Over earth's peace, and hear in ether float Song of soft spirits into rapture peal. http://rictornorton.co.uk/crowley.htm

Wisdom of the ages! When I finally fade out I expect to have lots of regrets. But spending too little of the mortal span on Idol will be way down the list.

Check this Yahoo Answers thread: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...28152834AAc3GSc

Couple of people here have inquired after review sites for female sex workers. Now, dubious goings-on reported at the leading one, www.theeroticreview.com. Notable for, if nothing else, mainstream media attention to such sites... Prostitution Site Cuts Ties With Founder After Charges In part because of David Elms, the business of prostitution is moving from street corners and hotel bars to the Internet. Mr. Elms founded The Erotic Review, a Web site where patrons of prostitutes go to rate their experiences. It’s a bit like Amazon ratings for prostitutes, except of course that paying for books isn’t illegal in most jurisdictions. But now The Erotic Review says it has severed its ties with Mr. Elms. Through its lawyer, the company issued a statement saying that it had “parted ways†with Mr. Elms because of his arrest in Phoenix last month and the charge he faces for conspiracy to commit aggravated assault. Mr. Elms was also charged with conspiracy to possess drugs, conspiracy to commit misconduct involving weapons, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Details of Mr. Elms’s arrest and the basis for the charges are sketchy, but the assault charge appears to be in connection with disputes that Mr. Elms has had with his critics and critics of The Erotic Review. Mr. Elms, who lives in Southern California, was arrested when he arrived in Phoenix shortly after midnight on Feb. 15, according to a statement from the Phoenix police department. The statement said investigators had received a tip that Mr. Elms was trying to hire someone to kill a woman, identified by the police only as a 32-year-old female. Investigators met with Mr. Elms upon his arrival, and after a 30-minute conversation determined that there was cause to arrest him on a murder charge and also for conspiring to hire someone to seriously injure a 62-year-old man. The county attorney ultimately dropped the murder charge. A spokesman for the attorney’s office declined to discuss the case. Mr. Elms could not be reached for comment. Police and county attorneys declined to say who they believed Mr. Elms’s targets were. But the operator of SexWork.com, a Web site based in Phoenix that focuses on the sex trade, says he was one of them. He requested that his name not be used because he does not want to compromise his offline career. Over the past year, SexWork.com has posted allegations that Mr. Elms has coerced prostitutes into having sex with him, and that he told women that if they did not accede to his demands he would ruin their reputations on The Erotic Review. Mr. Elms has said those accusations are untrue. The operator of SexWork.com said the Phoenix police told him that Mr. Elms wanted to hire someone to break his legs. The man said he believes that he was targeted because of his past criticism of Mr. Elms. The charges add to an already challenging legal environment for Mr. Elms, who is on probation for drug and gun charges. The Erotic Review, though, continues to operate. Prostitutes and their patrons alike say it has provided a considerable new twist to their business by allowing customers to rate their experiences on the Internet in the same way that consumers have grown accustomed to doing in many other industries. The result has been that some prostitutes have come to rely on the site as a source of business, seeking out good reviews and having their business hurt by bad ones. In the process, the site has provided a new kind of openness — or, rather, the veneer of openness — to a business that is usually conducted in the shadows. Some prostitutes complain that the power amassed by The Erotic Review has made them beholden not just to the site but to Mr. Elms himself. Mr. Elms previously told The New York Times that he had never coerced anyone into having sex with him. The operator of SexWork.com said he had been posting a letter on various regional Web sites and mailing lists that are popular among prostitutes and their customers, urging people to come forward if they had evidence of coercive behavior by Mr. Elms. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/p...-after-charges/

The inscrutable East... Edible Excretions: Taiwan's Toilet Restaurant "There's poop everywhere! Y-u-c-k," says six-year old Jordan Lien, as he and his family dine at the Modern Toilet, a popular Taiwanese restaurant that's expanding into China and other parts of Asia. The boy was looking at the poop-shaped lights and dish covers, and the curry on toilet-shaped plates. Diarrhea for dinner? That's the point. "It's supposed to shock and confuse the senses," says Modern Toilet Manager Chen Min-kuang. But as Jennifer Finch, an American who was dining there described it, "They do it tastefully. It's all very clean." Every customer sits on a stylish acrylic toilet (lid down) designed with roses, seashells or renaissance paintings. Everyone dines at a glass table with a sink underneath. The servers bring your meal atop a mini-toilet bowl (quite convenient, as it brings the food closer to your mouth), you sip drinks from your own plastic urinal (a souvenir), and for dessert, soft swirl ice cream atop a dish shaped like a squat toilet. I went there on a Wednesday evening, and the place was packed with students and families who were having a jolly time eating out of the john. "It's very progressive and irreverent, like a practical joke," says junior high school teacher Chen Kin-hsiang who came because her students raved about it. "It's a little gross when you see other people eat," she said, "but when you're eating, you don't notice it 'cause you're hungry and the aroma is appetizing." Smell is one poop-like quality the chef does without. (See pictures of China on the wild side.) The reasonably priced food ranges from curries, pasta, fried chicken amd Mongolian hot pot, to elaborate shaved iced desserts with names like "diarrhea with dried droppings" (chocolate), "bloody poop" (strawberry), and "green dysentery" (kiwi). Despite the disturbing descriptions, the desserts were great. But after seeing curry drip down a mini-toilet, I may never have that sauce again. The Chinese can take this, Finch muses, because they are more nonchalant about bodily functions, such as burping, farting, or even going to the bathroom, an act performed squatting sans doors in some places in China. But many westerners enjoy the novelty of toilet dining too. Chris and Julia Harris took their visiting mother, who they say is obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness, to "freak her out," but she had a great time (though she refused to drink out of a urinal). The only people who have a hard time, says Chen, are the elderly who've exclaimed, "I will not eat on the toilet!" (folding chairs and normal dishware are available for the faint of heart). (Read "The Science of Appetite.) Toilet creations aren't new to China. The ancient Chinese may have been the first to use the throne — a flush toilet was found in a tomb of a Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to 24 A.D.) king — and they invented toilet paper in 6th century A.D. Modern Toilet owner Wang Zi-wei, 29, an ex-banker, got his idea from Japanese robot cartoon character Jichiwawa who loves to play with poop and swirl it on a stick. Inspired by that image, Wang began selling chocolate ice cream swirls on paper squat toilets. Customers loved it and wanted more edible excretion experiences, so he opened Modern Toilet in 2004. The theme restaurant now has seven outlets in Taiwan, one in Hong Kong, and opens in Shenzhen, China this week. Plans for Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and other cities in China are also underway. Dinner a la latrine, anyone? http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,85...00.html?cnn=yes

P.S. You misread StuCotts. He is not bitter. He simply sees things clearly. This has the salutary effect of making him, as it did W.C. Fields, a maestro of the poetics of outrage.

Sorry to come off that way. I will have to sign up for anger management classes. An appropriately lefty thing to do, no?

I think we rabid Commies here generally give Conway, for instance, a thoughtful hearing when he weighs in from the right. Of course he tends to post rational arguments for his views. If "Gas-guzzling is great, Pelosi is Satan" was the height of his wisdom, he might get a different reception.

Fridiculous! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC58K6s6DQk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QMigeQUFQ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_AtSpFQcDI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiTbQHy1Tx4

Yes! Great point -- the revenue potential could be what breaks the dam. This is exactly what convinced Bible Belt states to finally allow 'liquor by the drink' -- restaurant & bar sales of hard liquor, instead of having to BYOB. (North Carolina for example did not allow this until 1978. Before that, restaurants and bars could serve beer and wine, but hard liquor could only be purchased, bottled, from state-run ABC or Alcoholic Beverage Control board stores. Which somehow were always situated out in the middle of an empty field, where the community could keep an eye on exactly who drove up, parked, and went in to get their fix.)

Yr point about difference between Prohibition repeal and fixing drug laws is spot on. US society is open & accepting of its addiction to booze (so am I -- not a backhanded compliment at all!), but conflicted about its love of drugs (which I certainly am not. Can you say 'Valley of the Dolls'?!). (To say nothing of 'Return to the Valley of the Dolls' -- "You will drink the black sperm of my vengeance!" But I digress.) But as for Obama: strikes me that he could designate the Surgeon General to lead this fight. First, giving it to that person, backed up by HHS Sec, would frame it from the outset as at root a public health issue rather than a criminal enforcement problem. Then, second, there would be the role model of Everett Koop, who -- with no resources but personal credibility and the second-rate bully pulpit of his office -- transformed the nation's view of tobacco. Which before he did it seemed almost as unlikely as fixing the drug mess. Only problem is, I am far from sure that Gupta could ever become another Koop.

Nicely supports & mirrors the research from several years ago that found "family values" are strongest in the so-called liberal states, whereas "conservative" states have the highest rates of divorce, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, etc. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/weekinreview/14pamb.html

Townie, thank you! Ordering it today.

I agree with epigonos too. Comment on your Point 1: Actually we have gone after users with something of a vengeance. Mandatory minimum sentencing for users and smalltime dealers has given us prisons clogged with minor drug offenders, but no real dent in the problem. Your Point 2: This is to advocate rational, that is reason- and fact-based, social policy, which has never been a strong suit in the U.S. Certainly not around hot-button issues such as drugs or commercial sex work. Obama has said in several ways that he wants to move government decision-making to a more rational basis. Drug policy, if he decides to touch it, will be a big test of the principle.

Latest edition of Buffett's always elucidative annual letter to shareholders: To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: Our decrease in net worth during 2008 was $11.5 billion, which reduced the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 9.6%. Over the last 44 years (that is, since present management took over) book value has grown from $19 to $70,530, a rate of 20.3% compounded annually. The table on the preceding page, recording both the 44-year performance of Berkshire’s book value and the S&P 500 index, shows that 2008 was the worst year for each. The period was devastating as well for corporate and municipal bonds, real estate and commodities. By yearend, investors of all stripes were bloodied and confused, much as if they were small birds that had strayed into a badminton game. As the year progressed, a series of life-threatening problems within many of the world’s great financial institutions was unveiled. This led to a dysfunctional credit market that in important respects soon turned non-functional. The watchword throughout the country became the creed I saw on restaurant walls when I was young: “In God we trust; all others pay cash.†By the fourth quarter, the credit crisis, coupled with tumbling home and stock prices, had produced a paralyzing fear that engulfed the country. A freefall in business activity ensued, accelerating at a pace that I have never before witnessed. The U.S. – and much of the world – became trapped in a vicious negative-feedback cycle. Fear led to business contraction, and that in turn led to even greater fear. This debilitating spiral has spurred our government to take massive action. In poker terms, the Treasury and the Fed have gone “all in.†Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once-unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome aftereffects. Their precise nature is anyone’s guess, though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation. Moreover, major industries have become dependent on Federal assistance, and they will be followed by cities and states bearing mind-boggling requests. Weaning these entities from the public teat will be a political challenge. They won’t leave willingly. Whatever the downsides may be, strong and immediate action by government was essential last year if the financial system was to avoid a total breakdown. Had that occurred, the consequences for every area of our economy would have been cataclysmic. Like it or not, the inhabitants of Wall Street, Main Street and the various Side Streets of America were all in the same boat. Amid this bad news, however, never forget that our country has faced far worse travails in the past. In the 20th Century alone, we dealt with two great wars (one of which we initially appeared to be losing); a dozen or so panics and recessions; virulent inflation that led to a 21 1℠2% prime rate in 1980; and the Great Depression of the 1930s, when unemployment ranged between 15% and 25% for many years. America has had no shortage of challenges. Without fail, however, we’ve overcome them. In the face of those obstacles – and many others – the real standard of living for Americans improved nearly seven-fold during the 1900s, while the Dow Jones Industrials rose from 66 to 11,497. Compare the record of this period with the dozens of centuries during which humans secured only tiny gains, if any, in how they lived. Though the path has not been smooth, our economic system has worked extraordinarily well over time. It has unleashed human potential as no other system has, and it will continue to do so. America’s best days lie ahead. Take a look again at the 44-year table on page 2. In 75% of those years, the S&P stocks recorded a gain. I would guess that a roughly similar percentage of years will be positive in the next 44. But neither Charlie Munger, my partner in running Berkshire, nor I can predict the winning and losing years in advance. (In our usual opinionated view, we don’t think anyone else can either.) We’re certain, for example, that the economy will be in shambles throughout 2009 – and, for that matter, probably well beyond – but that conclusion does not tell us whether the stock market will rise or fall... Whole thing: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2...nterstitialskip

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