MsGuy

Remember when the ECB decided to copy the Fed and run stress tests on European banks? And then it came out that the stress senarios specifically assumed there would be no defaults on any sovereign debt? I recall thinking then that this was not going to end well. The feckless response to the Euro crisis by their pols is just beyond human belief. The last two years reads like it was lifted from one of those crazy gold bug end of the world as we know it tracts. ---- The ECB finally caves last month and starts buying Italian bonds to prevent a collapse of the market in their debt, so what does Berlusconi do the next week? Merely jerk the emergency bill making its way through parliament and remove all but the most cosmetic of budget measures (or postpone their start date past the expiration of his term ), which, of course, left the Germans even more convinced that Southern Europeans were perfidious spendthrifts. And meantime back in England the coalition government is fighting off a bill sponsered by its more nationalistic back benchers that would force the government to use the crisis to blackmail its European partners into rewriting the common market rules in favor of England.

Oh, I'm so chilly, Mr. Eeyor. You wanna sit by the fire and warm up a little?

Call me old fashioned but I do my best to boycott any establishment that puts up Xmas decorations before Thanksgiving.

wonderful!

Hmmm....Storing up blessings in heaven again, are we Mr. OZ?

Great story, gc.

Thanks for the fun, the entertainment and the (occasional) insight you've given me these past few years, Lucky. Congrats...now enjoy your trip to NY

Exhaustive search reveals not one single video on the net featuring naked Thai dancing boys working a crowd of lustful Catholic prelates , so I'm flat out of ideas. Anybody else got anything??

For such minor skills as I may have, I give full credit to my high school debate team.

When I was a kid in Mississippi (50's), union folks were usually labeled communist by factory owners. Why discuss substantive issues when you can short circuit the argument into whether your adversary is a minion of Satan? Same thing happened in the 60's when integration was the topic. So, to directly address your question, if you criticize Isreal's policies toward the Pals, you're likely to be attacked as anti-semitic (or a self-hating jew, apply as applicable). I doubt it's so much an active sense of vitimization as a useful way to stop the argument in its tracks. I agree, Lucky, playing the anti-semitism card on the occupiers does seem a bit of a stretch.

Fuck! Didn't we just do this year before last? (I hate change.)

hahahahahahahahaha... OZ, it's all right now, Ya learned your lesson well. You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself

It's hurtful, Hito, but try to let it go. Clearly the escort in question did not give the email much credence or he wouldn't have met with you.

Thanks for your post, Charlie. You clarified for me my own rather inchoate reaction to gc's original post. I couldn't get my thoughts to jell until I read your words.

Per longstanding rumors involving one of my area morticians, yes, it is possible; frowned upon by the authorities but possible.

LOL...in a word: yes!

Crazy Days and Night, a gossip blog, reports: "...It seems that our actor [Zack] is very insecure about his manhood. So much so that during the entire time he is having sex he keeps asking his partner,"what do you think of my d**k?" "Tell me you like it." The guy will not shut up about it. Needless to say, despite his resume and money he doesn't get many repeat partners." "Have some confidence. You are a movie star and television star and get pretty much your pick of partners. All you are doing by asking is making whatever you don't have, worse." Of course, everyone knows internet gossip blogs triple source all their blind items, so it appears the matter is settled.

Now you know why.

Brazil is one of those countries where embassy people assume that anyone requesting a tourist visa is attempting to jump the emmigration quay. Burdon of proof is on them to show they have good reason to return to Brazil when visa expires.

ahahahahaha

Neither does mine. I suspect something is being stuffed besides a few g-strings.

As usual, lookin says it best!

Lookin, Lucky, what can I say? Even as we post DHS web spiders are checking MER for threats to POTUS and the US generally. Probably my mentioning DHS and POTUS in the same sentence twice in a row will result in some algorithm handing off this thread to a clerk to manually evaluate a potential threat to the government. [Hi, Mr. G-6 , no harm intended, I promise. Have a nice day! ]

Sorry, but for me a little innocent ticket fixing (as a favor, not for cash) is a perk of the job. No point in demanding cops be of inhuman rectitude; that just causes more problems. I knew a sheriff who liked doing that. Truly a scary, dangerous brute. Only cop who ever managed to make me feel uneasy around him. And I've been around cops all my life, some of them real doosies. Lucky, I suspect most non-lawyers have no idea how dangerous the practice of planting/fabricating evidence can be. It completely circumvents the usual safeguards of the criminal justice system. Not to mention its corrosive effect on any PD that turns a blind eye to it.