"Happy Mother's Day. Now shut your screaming brat up."
Things weren't so cheery in Toledo this pass Sunday when a brawl broke out in a restaurant.
The sergeant said witnesses told him Christine Lewandowski, 56, repeatedly asked Sylvia Harris, 24, of Toledo to quiet her 1-year-old child, who was sitting in a high chair and screaming.
When the infant continued to scream, Ms. Lewandowski shouted at the baby to "shut up," Sergeant Kikolski said.
That’s when Ms. Harris lunged at Ms. Lewandowski and began punching the woman, the sergeant said.
I don't know who is the worse individual. The lady who screamed "shut up" at a one year-old? or the baby's 24 year-old mother who responded by punching a 56 year-old woman?
Even before this incident, there is no greater hell than working a mother's day brunch in a restaurant. The crowds, the yapping children, the flowers, the syrup and mimosas and butter ramekins, it's endless. Especially after working late the night before, and drinking into the morning. There is no rougher day to be a sever in America.
If you're a waiter or a waitress and you survive mother's day brunch with a brutal hangover, without losing your temper once, you deserve some kind of reward. You deserve the box of chocolates.
This fight injects a whole new threat of violence into the brunch scene that I thought was limited to the surly servers mumbling stuff under their breath.
I never thought the mothers would start wil'ing on each other.
That's just crazy!
and the rockets red glare.
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Here in Los Angeles, the LAPD recently asked Phillip Morris to pony up the bucks to help fund a countereit cigarette investigation. They called it a $50,000 donation. The tobacco company said "sure" and forked over the cash.
Philip Morris USA has agreed to donate $50,000 to the Los Angeles Police Department to help pay for an investigation into counterfeiting of the company's cigarettes, according to a published report.
The funds, which were solicited by police Chief William Bratton, have drawn criticism from ethics watchdogs and others, who worry the deal opens the door for better services to go to crime victims who can afford to pay.
Fuck Phillip Morris. If the LAPD doesn't have the funds to go after counterfeit cigarettes then we won't. Who are they looking out for here? The cigarette smokers?
This is the future of fascism, folks.
Hyperbole?
Yes... and no.
Fascism: It's not all boot stomping and raucous speeches.
There's been a not-so-subtle corporate influence in American politics for quite some time now. On many fronts we've let the fox in the hen house. Almost every major lobby firm is stacked with politicians, and correspondingly, government agencies that are meant to watch over industries are run by representatives of those very same industries.
If you want proof of the axis of corporate America and government look no further than Mr. Dick Cheney, who was CEO of Haliburton (which one could argue was a higher position of power) before becoming vice president of this country.
That big business runs American politics, and thus our major laws and institutions, is no surprise to anyone.
This corporate connection, allied with the nationalism that's been thrust upon us with by freedom's over-zealous, sloppy friends at Fox News and the Republican Party, is an American form of fascism; instead of state-enforced, it's broadcasted for free by willing accomplices and used as a political tool by a party that's staked it's existence backing Elmer Fudd's quixotic hunt for terrorist-wabbits.
The LA Times has an interesting read about government being given away by those that didn't want it in the first place, those grand ideologues on the right.
How has this come to pass? As the old adage goes, when the gods want to punish you, they give you what you want. Conservatives talk a lot about government failure, but over the last few years, it's really we who have failed government, depriving it of the revenue, the conscientious management and the attention needed for it to succeed. Undercapitalize a pizza joint and your customers will taste the poor ingredients, become frustrated by the long waits and grow repulsed by the grimy environs. Staff it with your unmotivated drinking buddies and the service will falter, as will the quality of the product. It's no way to run a pizza place, and it's certainly no way to run a government.
We need to start funding our government again and start paying our own bills, we're worse than teenagers when it comes to managing our money.
This is not just about Phillip Morris paying the LAPD to chase off the competition. This is about America being sold off piece by piece.
Apparently there are about a dozen jails throughout California that offer pay-to-stay "upgrades." Inmates (or "clients," as they're known) who pay an extra $75 to $127 a day get a cell with a regular door, located at some distance from violent offenders, as well as the right, in some cases, to bring in an iPod, a cellphone or a laptop. The rich no longer need patronize the same jails as the rest of us.
We don't need private prisons in America. If there's not enough funds to house all our prisoners, there's either something wrong with the laws, our government, or us.
I would argue all three; but mostly it's the laws that are wrong (war on drugs), followed by the government (tax cuts amid endless war). If we solve those two, then maybe we can discuss if there's a reason why so many Americans are imprisoned, instead of asking the pertinent question: why does America lock up so many of its citizens?
How can we be the world's richest country and have a broke government? And always when we elect the guys that say government is a waste of time. The recent failings of government have nothing to do with the inability of government to perform, but everything to do with the Republicans' ineptness at running it.
How come the Roman Coliseum can exist for almost a thousand years and they never once had to sell the name and call it the Ferari Coliseum, or Vivendi Coliseum?
the bombs bursting in air
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Mexican coke tastes sweeter.
Actually, any soda in a bottle tastes better to me, especially if that bottle is beaded with moisture dripping down the outside.
Coke-Cola swears that there is no noticeable taste differences though.
According to Mart Martin, a spokesman for Coca-Cola's North American division in Atlanta. "We believe that the appeal of Mexican Coke is as much about nostalgia as it is about anything," says Martin. "It's like getting a piece of home in a bottle. You can't deny the fact that it's in a tall glass bottle, something you just can't find in most parts of the United States."
But it's the "same exact product," and Mexican bottlers are buying the ingredients straight from the company, says Martin. "It's not like they're stirring it up in some backyard," he adds. "Coke is Coke is Coke."
[...]
Instead, the company line all along has been that there is "no perceptible taste difference" between Mexican Coke and the American-made Classic Coke.
Coke is coke is coke. Something to ponder.
So, if it's the same product, why does it taste so different?
Is it the bottle? Is it all in your mind?
I didn't grow up in Mexico so I'm not sure what nostalgia would have to do with Mexican coke tasting better to me. I think it has to do with the magical word "perceptible". It's not that there is no difference, it's that we're not supposed to notice it. Legally, it's close enough to be called the same product; but those who have had both can testify: Mexican coke is sweeter.
You can't argue semantics with your taste buds.
gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there...
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More musings on the little things at ARTOFSTARVING.COM