EXTRA EXTRA! Post all about it! (new news thread)

[Andrew_TSKS]

yeah, true.

i guess it's too much to ask that all the psychic vampires stop leeching off other people's hard-luck stories? probably is, huh?

[Lucy]

The latest weapon in Chicago's war on drugs may be banning the little plastic bags some drugs come in. No, really. Alderman Robert Fioretti wants to restrict the sale of "self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width."

Apparently only one alderman on the Health Committee found anything remotely strange about this ban. "I just want to make sure that we don’t — how do you say it — bite off your head in spite of your nose," said Alderman Walter Burnett.

Lots of stuff comes in those little bags. Jewelry, if we recall correctly the elastic bands that go on braces, buttons, small crafts, bathsalt sample packs, just to name a few. The law would fine vendors who sell baggies when "one reasonably should know" that the bags are being used for drug-selling purposes.

This is a proud day for Chicago politics indeed. Because we all know there's nothing
like a difficult-to-enforce, bullshit law that relies on things people "reasonably should know" to keep drugs off the streets. [S-T]

...from Chicagoist.

*headdesk*

[elpollodiablo]

In the past didn't powdered drugs just come in little like envelopes? Are they gonna ban like those little yellow key envelopes next? Or just any receptacle that's too small?

[Lucy]

beats me. and let's repeat:

"i just want to make sure that we don't -- how do you say it -- bite off your head in spite of your nose"

oh politics!

[jebreject]

In the past didn't powdered drugs just come in little like envelopes? Are they gonna ban like those little yellow key envelopes next? Or just any receptacle that's too small?

Yeah, I mean, in MKE, they'd have to ban bus transfers, torn-out magazine pages or newspaper, gum wrappers ...

[C of heartbreak]

What they really need to do is ban those dollar sign sacks all the robbers seem to use.

[jebreject]

Oh holy shit that was funny

[hannah]

heh heh

[Andrew_TSKS]

weather channel founder wants to sue al gore in order to "expose the fraud of global warming"

wow, i had no idea that the weather channel guy was such a fucking crackpot.

[coldforge]

so apparently someone tried to blow up new york, again

[elpollodiablo]

A recruiting center, huh?

[jebreject]

One of the few times you'll ever hear me say this, but it was probably anarchists.

[Andrew_TSKS]

kids see mum raped on youtube

this may be the most appalling thing i've ever read.

[Wally]

Please tell me that the video accompanying that story isn't the Youtube video the story is reporting.

[Maaik]

holy christ, that's horrible

[diesel_powered]

holy christ, that's horrible

[Greg Nog]

What they really need to do is ban those dollar sign sacks all the robbers seem to use.

We made one of those for a friend as a wedding present, stuffed full of one-dollar bills.

[Andrew_TSKS]

i didn't watch the accompanying video, dom, but i can't imagine.

for the record, i don't agree with the whole "more active patrolling of youtube content" stuff that's in that story--as one person in it says, the system they've got in place now is about the best they can do. that said, i sure do hope they were able to use youtube to track those kids down and put them in JAIL JAIL JAIL.

[Maaik]

The video is just the televised news report stating pretty much everything in the article.

I agree with Andrew.

[andronicus]

So we lost 63,000 jobs, and our unemployment rate went DOWN to 4.8%.  Why you might ask?  Well, partially because unemployment only counts those who are actively looking for work and can't find it; those who gave up and are, in the parlance, 'pursuing other options', don't make it in the numbers.  The bigger reason though is that the unemployment level is no longer a major indicator of the position of the economy, really.  It ultimately comes down to the fact that the great gear-teeth of our capitalist society don't need our active participation in order to keep chewing up everything good.  So we've learned to adjust our lives around this constant lack of need, and find other uses for ourselves: student, parent, etc.  Potentially liberational, but the fact remains that how the economy is doing is less and less concerned with whether we have jobs or not (jobless recovery, anyone?  That will be the kind we see when this current ill wind blows on out). 

Also, some large lending/capital groups (hilariously including Carlyle Capital, subsidiary of conspiracy theory bogeyman The Carlyle Group [!]) are facing margin calls that they haven't the liquidity to meet.

And honestly, there's no reason not to believe that several of the largest financial institutions in the nation are only meeting their reserve requirements by drastically over-valuing the book value of assets that they won't allow to go on the market because if they do everyone will find out the assets are worthless and that they are, indeed, not meeting their legal reserve requirements.

But no people, this is only about sub-prime.  The markets are fine.  Expected correction.  Go back to sleep, America.  Everything is fine.  Free Markets.  Go back to sleep...

[Andrew_TSKS]

i'm a bit confused by your reference to reserve requirements, as that's an area of the law i know nothing about, but other than that, yeah, fully agree with that post. and thanks for the link.

[Babar]

Everybody say hello to the new wealthiest person in the world, Mr. Warren Buffett.

[coldforge]

wARREN buffe T ROCKS

[slow west vultures]

maybe he'll shower some of it down to that beach bum cousin of his, jimmy. 

[Thermofusion]

AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water

A vast array of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

Media hysteria, sound concern, or a new way to get high?