Too Venal for Words category archive

Here’s looking at you, kid.

Still fighting after all these years.

Meanwhile, PoliticalProf has the results of the traffic study.

Connie Schultz reminds us of a scummy fact:

. . . I learned a decade ago that sticking a tip into a jar does not necessarily mean the gratuity goes to the person who is serving you.

This is true where you live, too. I’ve learned that from experience, too. Regardless of what city I’m visiting, it’s a fair bet that I will find yet another story about yet another restaurant or banquet hall that skims — no, let’s call it what it is: steals — tips from servers, valets and bartenders. Most of them are hourly wage earners who depend on tips to make minimum wage.

Businesses get away with this egregious practice because most patrons never think to ask, especially when the jar on the counter says “tips.” Never trust that little sign, by the way. My first column on this issue, in 2004, was about a large jar marked “tips” at a coat check in Cleveland. After making small talk with the weary clerk behind the counter, I discovered that not a cent of the jar brimming with bills went to her or her co-workers.

Because, when push comes to shove, winning isn’t the only thing.

Winning is everything.

Twits of shameless commerce.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up (see the second letter).

You can’t make this stuff up, and, as John Romano points out, sometimes there’s more to it than you see at first glance.

The Tampa Bay Times reveals its list of the 50 worst charities in America, as well as details of how it made the determinations.

George Zimmerman, who shot Trayvon Martin, has lawyers who now plead poverty.

George Zimmerman’s defense team said on Wednesday that the defense is “out of money,” less than two weeks before jury selection is set to begin in his murder trial.

The defense’s trust account has less than $5,000, the Zimmerman lawyers said in a blog post, and more than $20,000 in liabilities.

One wonders how much money they invested in their scurrilous attempt to poison the minds of the jury pool.

This is not only dangerous; it’s also nuts.

If God didn’t believe in medicine, he wouldn’t have given us doctors.

Folks forget that the internet is a public place.

Shooting your mouth off with stupid threats in public is seldom a good idea.

Gilbert police detained a 14-year-old boy Tuesday and accused him of making threats on Facebook to shoot up Mesquite High School and Mesquite Junior High School.

(snip)

Police obtained a screen shot and traced it to a residence in Chandler, near McQueen and Warner roads. The (14-year-old–ed.) boy was detained Tuesday night after admitting he was responsible for the Facebook postings, Sanger said.

“It still has to be taken seriously,’’ Sanger said. “He was very apologetic.’’

From the “Party of Lincoln” to the “Party of Nathan Bedford Forrest.”

They aren’t even trying to hide the racism any more.

Chancey Devega comments (follow the link for the rest of his ascerbic, but quite trenchant comments):

Why does the Tea Party GOP consistently fail in its efforts to reform their racist habits and bad ways? The answer is not complicated. White racism and contemporary conservatism are intertwined in the Age of Obama and the post-civil rights era. Asking the Tea Party GOP to publicly disavow the white racists in its midst, and to sever all ties with racist conservatives (white, black, and Other), would be like amputating your foot with a spoon coated in wasabi and without either anesthesia or a tourniquet. It ain’t gonna happen. Such willpower is beyond the reach of most mortals.

More at Think Progress.

Via The Richmonder.

They aren’t even trying to hide the racism any more.

Rep. Kris Crawford, a Republican from Florence (South Carolina, home of my grandmother–ed.) and also an emergency room doctor, supports the (Medicaid–ed.) expansion but expects the Republican caucus to vote as a block against the Medicaid expansion.

“The politics are going to overwhelm the policy. It is good politics to oppose the black guy in the White House right now, especially for the Republican Party,” Crawford said.

Via ABL at Balloon Juice, who notes

If only the president would stop being black, poor people in South Carolina might be able to get some healthcare.