Hm, yeah that changes the case for sure. But I think at its root there is the fact that Persky is a polarizing but perfect example of the fact that we give our judges a great deal of personal judgment and discretion, and that can have mixed results. It’s probably an inevitable cost of the system...we do want qualified…

Sending someone to prison in America will “rehabilitate” almost no one. The idea of “rehabilitation” is more like, make their sentence not as harsh so they still have a shot when they get out. When you see it from that perspective, Pesky’s sentences make more sense. And if that was a consistent way he sentenced…

That’s only one side of the coin. Criminal sentencing is a combination of rehabilitation and punishment. Some countries have systems more focused on rehabilitation. Others on punishment. The US system generally swings more to the punishment side. Brock Turner was sentenced with rehabilitation in mind, and people are…

I sort of agree that case seems weird, but I wonder if there was something we don’t know going on there. Like maybe the wife was fully economically dependent on the husband and the idea was that he would keep his job and be ordered to pay support as well as continue to cover her under the employer provided health…

Hah, I’m SO guilty of this. Culture taught us to be ashamed of pooping, I guess, and it’s a hard thing to get over. I remember the first time I realized it was okay to poop in a public bathroom, like the world wasn’t going to end and nobody was going to wait for me outside to point and laugh or something. I must have…

No it’s not. A lewd picture taken in the presence of a child, without more, is NOT child pornography. You made me go look up the federal definition to confirm what my common sense told me, something I really didn't want to do. Thanks a lot.

I’m not going to go looking up the legal standard for what constitutes child porn for many reasons, but as a thinking person with some degree of common sense I can say with a bit of confidence that no, I don’t buy it, sorry. Sick fucks, by the way, get off on all sorts of things that are not child porn.

But he wasn’t taking a pic next to his kid for some sexual fetish. As I read it, it’s more like his kid was asleep and asshole Weiner was like, “my boner looks really good right now, lemme take a pic!” Which is different... And keep in mind, for perspective, that throughout history (and probably even today) many a…

Seek criminal charges for what? Taking an erection pic while his toddler was asleep? It’s gross, but hardly raises to the level of criminality.

I thought brunch can only happen on the weekends.

Lucky! What’s it like out there in the non-grey world?

You’re just arguing past me, and making a point you already made and I disagreed with. I know why restaurants and clubs hire attractive people. I happen to think that’s bad policy because (a) it offends my sense of justice and (b) I don’t think patrons, especially in restaurants, care that much what their waiter looks…

First of all, an upscale club is not the same thing as an upscale restaurant (or any restaurant). People go to restaurants to eat, people go to clubs to party. The kind of “ambiance” that relies on the attractiveness of its staff is arguably relevant in a club in a way it’s just not in a restaurant. But even then,…

Yeah, seriously. I have not given a shit what my server looks like since probably the age of 14 when I was excited about a cute guy being our waiter in a Friendly’s. If I’m dropping $250 on a meal at a trendy restaurant with a famous chef, it’s for the food. It actually probably would turn me off if all the staff was…

Except that a successful malpractice insurance claim does affect a doctor’s career. If insurance policies refuse to cover that doctor going forward, they can basically become un-hireable.

But if her mother didn’t feel any guilt for the 23 years she abused her daughter, why would she feel any guilt now? She would just rationalize it the way she always did: her daughter was sick, she did everything she could to help and protect her, she’s really a misunderstood saint, yadda, yadda. I truly do think Gypsy…

That’s the crazy thing about it, because at the end of the article it actually seems that she is living a much more well adjusted life and is much more happy in prison than she ever was when she was living with her mother. Like, it’s nuts that a story about a woman ending up in prison for ten years sort of feels like…

Why should I care about your kneecaps, though? Because otherwise you’ll kick my seat in order to annoy/possibly hurt me? Because that’s called a battery, which is a misdemeanor in most states.

Yes, but there’s the issue that someone in front of them might have reclined their seat, in which case they have no personal space in their area so they can choose to recline theirs, and so on. I hate the seat reclining thing too, and I would be okay with that feature being eliminated, but if I’m stuck on a flight…

Except that the price of seats will reflect what the market can bear, so a significant increase in costs is not particularly likely. What airlines do today is make air travel so uncomfortable that they can collect a premium on shitty seats with slightly more leg room. Mind you, that’s just leg room. We all know there…