Thank you Tara Jacoby. I shall sleep easy tonight. You’re like Ambien, only itchier.

This is why court jesters were a great idea. A 'buffoon' permitted to speak truth to the king in a court full of yes men.

Completely unsurprising. Over at Thee Rant, a forum frequented by current and ex-law enforcement officers (NYPD in particular) these are typical responses to a female officer at the 75th precinct who was rewarded $100,000 after being repeatedly harassed by a senior officer:

Oh my!

I imagine at least some people in the UK would take offense if a German TV show planned to race around England in a car with 'V2 lol' plates.

The very deep did rot: O Christ,

I hear you. I'm 6ft 1, a veritable giant around these parts, and I've tried making eye contact with tiny abuelitas whose heads barely reach my belt to come to some accord, all to no avail. My mom came to visit and we were crossing Passeo de Gracia, a major thoroughfare in the heart of the tourist district, when a…

Actually there's been a considerable drop in the last couple of years, at least in Barcelona. The police have been slowly introducing, barrio by barrio, small teams of police dedicated to hunting down thieves. I believe there was some fear Barcelona's reputation for crime might impact visitor numbers.

I live in Barcelona and trapping people in the train doors to rob them is pretty common. They also have one guy drop a pack of cigarettes at the top of the escalator and while he's blocking you to retrieve it his companion is lifting your wallet.

I lived in the city for fifteen years and didn't encounter the hostility paper ghost is talking about either. Strange.

*shrug* I don't let strangers touch me, or even attempt to touch me.

And Barcelona. For a while it was the pickpocket capital of Europe. When you move here, as I have, everyone gets robbed once or twice in the first year then never again. I've had almost all of these scams tried on me, but now I nod to the thieves on the metro to let them know not to bother.

I guarantee you any amount of money you care to name ellenjane has not read the Handmaid's tale.

Reminds me of that film 'Spanking the Monkey'.

Almost but not quite.

Fox News has demonstrated that facts are infinitely malleable in the service of one's political agenda.

In 25 years they'll be saying it was the Democrats who thought dumping huge amounts of undocumented corporate money into the political arena via Citizen's United was a bright idea.

Are you really saying that NAFTA was a liberal, Democratic Party endeavour?

If you need an app to coordinate your outdoor activities with the weather you likely have other issues that are well beyond any help an app can provide.

Hi Katia,