grist for the mill

Boing Boing: Arkansas salon requires thumbprint to get a tan: "WAYNE: 'Hi, do you require a thumbrpint scan to get a tan there?'
TANNING BIMBO: 'Yes, sir, we do.'
WAYNE: 'OK, let me see if I understand this correctly. Is there a state or local law that requires you do this?'
TANNING BIMBO: 'No, sir, it's for our computer systems'
WAYNE: 'So you want to breach people's right to privacy not because there is a state law that demands you take a thumbprint, but because it's a company policy?'
TANNING BIMBO: 'Yes, that's right.' "

Right Between Bukowski and Paglia; "Remembering Our Future" - Penhouse Ink

Cops say mom was stabbed 111 times: "'What motivated a 15-year-old, who was otherwise a well-behaved child, to butcher his mom? This investigation is far from complete. There has to be something in this boy's background for him to commit such an angry crime.'"

Techno fest fee, future in city's hands: "Behind the public glow of Detroit's annual techno festival, a cloud of money problems and mismanagement has grown uglier by the year -- and has pushed the city's biggest annual music event to the brink of collapse."

BRIAN DICKERSON: A justice's long, strange good-bye: "Weaver's fellow Republican justices may not relish the prospect of a Democratic appointment, but it seems unlikely they'll beg her to postpone her departure. First elected to the high court in 1994, Weaver is the only GOP justice who was not originally appointed to judicial office by Engler, and her estrangement from the four Engler appointees is profound."

Kilpatrick calls for 754 layoffs, pay cuts in city budget: "Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick presented a budget plan to City Council this morning calling for 754 layoffs, renegotiation of city worker health care plans, 10 percent pay cuts for city workers and elimination of bulk trash pickup for large household items from November through March."

BRITISH CONGER CLUB

Man is truly a visitor in the underwater environment

TOM WALSH: State at risk of economic devastation: "The aging baby boomer population that dominates public policy in our state demands, instead, expensive health care, ubiquitous prisons, homeland security, reduced tax burdens -- and to hell with the kids and the future.'"

NPR : Sounds of Old L.A. Jazz on 'Pachuco': "Pachuco Boogie"

Democratic Superiority, by the Numbers (washingtonpost.com): "Republicans do cut taxes. Or rather, tax revenue goes up under both parties but about half as fast under Republicans. It's the only test of Republican economics that the Republicans win.
That is, they win if you consider lower federal revenue to be a victory. Sometimes Republicans say that cutting taxes will raise government revenue by stimulating the economy. And sometimes they say that lower revenue is good because it will lead (by some mysterious process) to lower spending.
The numbers in the Economic Report of the President undermine both theories. Spending goes up faster under Republican presidents than under Democratic ones. And the economy grows faster under Democrats than Republicans. What grows faster under Republicans is debt. "