Try the Crotch Bomber

In a fair trial, can anyone IMAGINE the crotch bomber NOT being convicted?

I mean, let's be serious for a minute (it won't take longer than that). As Juan Cole reports, there's a lot of silly talk running about the crotch bomber, chief of which is that something aweful will happen if he gets a fair trial.

I mean, c'mon. Can you IMAGINE being his defense lawyer? What are you gonna SAY?

Public Defender: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, although you have 100 or more passengers on the airplane identifying my client as having his pants on fire, and the FBI identifying the residue of his pants as being packed with explosives, the simple fact is there's been a terrible mistake. My client wasn't even there!"

Judge: "You say your client wasn't there? Well, that settles it. CASE DISMISSED!"

I mean, really folks. What's he gonna do: Say "Nuh-uh! it wasn't ME!"? Give him a fair trial; what are you afraid of?

iMscrewed - Your Most Important iPhone App

Unemployed Americans, and those soon to be unemployed, can now download an iPhone App to help them cope with having their jobs shipped overseas, their tax dollars given to the bankers running our economy and their very lives sold to billionaires in nice suits.

Based on Thom Hartmann's award-winning manual "SCREWED! The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class" "iMscrewed" uses GPS technology to locate:

• Where in the world your job went or is going;
• Which corporate jet, limosine or whorehouse was paid for with your tax money;
• Which highway overpasses currently have space available for you to sleep under.

Remember, protecting jobs in America is PROTECTIONISM, which could lead to economic problems that could cost you your job. But, while you are no doubt better off for having your job eliminated, you may want a little help coping with life as an underemployed warning to those few who still have a paycheck.

iMscrewed will enable you to

• Download picture of the vacations enjoyed by the people who eliminated your job
• Take a virtual tour of the Goldman, Sachs headquarters paid for with your tax dollars
• Chart the explosion in the derivatives market that is not only unregulated, but vastly larger than the entire economy of our planet: just like in 1929!

Has the American Dream collapsed for you? Are you feeling a little bit down, now that you will be unable to pass on to your children a living standard comparable to that which your parents gave to you? When you were young, one parent could earn enough to put kids through college, enjoy vacations and have a decent retirement; but now, you'll be living with your kids while holding down three minimum-wage jobs ... if you're lucky!

All this could get you feeling hopeless, but don't worry!  iMscrewed has a host of games to bring back your dreams.

• iHistory: This app furnishes frequent reminders that we've had it just as bad before and overcome them by working together to push our politicians. (Note: this application works very slowly; you may want to quit in dispair too soon)
• iBribe: This app provides the campaign money that every politician needs to get into office or stay in office. The best part of this app is that politicians who refuse to play along get swept out in the next election; the worst part is that you must have $1 million or more to use this app effectively.
• iMhuman: A new problem today is that our economy, and therefore our politics, are controlled by non-human corporations. Powerful servants but dangerous masters, this new form of life uses people to front amoral and reckless actions in service of a single purpose: their growth upon our blood. They must be brought under control: the humans must rise up!

Are you working harder and taking home less pay? Are your health insurance premiums rising faster than your rage and anxiety? Do you feel that the American Dream is slipping away?

Get help! Get iMscrewed!

Mass Market Paperbacks at MITS

2nd in a series on organizing books at the Mercer Island Thrift Store.

Mass Market Paperbacks (MMPB) are are about 110 mm x 170mm (about 4" x 7.0") in size. If they aren't really thick, they might fit into a pocket and thus, at MITS, we often call them "Pocket paperbacks". They have their own price point and provide inexpensive reading alternative to Trade Paperbacks and hardcovers.

In general we don't mix tMMPB with the hardcovers (or hardbacks - HB), which get the premium shelves, or with the paperbacks, because we would rather sell HB or Tradepaperback than a MMPB. Also, the shelves look a lot neater and are easier for a shopper to scan if the book sizes are similar.

We stock MMPB in several places, chiefly by genre:

• Our most common MMPBs are action/adventure/spy/crime and the like. If it's about something blowing up, it probably fits there.
• Romance novels usually come in MMPB. This is one of the few locations where we mix HB and MMPB since the entire category is a small number of shelves. While Romance does sell well, we tend to get more donations than sales, so it's a good idea to cull the slow sellers. Romance in particular seems to prefer newer titles instead of old ones, so if there's a shortage of room, cull anything that is older.
• Classics, like Romance, mix MMPBs and other formats. They tend to sell steadily.
• Science Fiction is similar to Romance, in that MMPBs and HB mix well and sell slowly. Cull anything that's a movie adaptation.
• Westerns also mix MMPB and HB but usually don't need to be culled; we have greater demand than supply so almost anything Western will sell.
• Children's MMPB don't sell much at all. We set them out but if there's a space shortage, cull them! We'll get more.
• General MMPBs. If there's no room in the proper category for a MMPB, put it in the catch-all shelf (the one that is unpainted wood, at the Housewares island endcap). These seem to sell well; some shoppers seem to enjoy looking through the "anything goes" mixture!

MMPBs don't make a lot of money per-unit, but they seem to sell steadily and make customers happy.

Welcome to MMX

In Roman Numerals, 2010 is MMX, which is way cool.

Kudos to the of the comic strip "Betty"
(or to the comic's writing/illustrating team Delainey and Rasmussen) for pointing this out! Betty chronicles a working-class family that deals with everyday life in a realistic way.

We may have our troubles, but we can face them with a laff!

---

Per wikipedia, MMX can also stand for some other pretty interesting things:

• MMX (instruction set), a single-instruction, multiple-data instruction set designed by Intel
• Michelson-Morley Experiment, the 1887 experiment attempting to find evidence of the luminiferous aether
• Mega Man X, a series of video games produced by Capcom and the eponymous main character
• Malmö Airport, an airport in Sweden (IATA airport code)

... but I'm still hoping it's the year that the monoliths let us settle Titan, so long as we stay well clear of Europa.