Professor Charli Carpenter Quits Lawyers, Guns and Money! — UPDATE!! Repsac = Racist = ASFL = Lying Asshat!!!

And I'm claiming credit for forcing her to abandon that demonic progressive stinkhole.

I noticed that Charli's name had been removed from the blog's masthead, and then new LGM blogger Erik Loomis introduced himself a few weeks ago, noting, "... how intimidating it is to be replacing someone as superb as Charli Carpenter. Those are some big shoes to fill. I know I’ll miss reading her posts."

Charli quit immediately following the publication of my essay, "Dr. Charli Carpenter and the Laws of War." I had long suggested to her that blogging at LGM was harmful to her academic reputation, and of course Charli's ambitious within the field of political science. She dismissed my advice and admonished me not to involve her in flame wars. But I offered legitimate criticism at "Dr. Charli Carpenter and the Laws of War," and she nevertheless ignored the post and then fled the scene of battle. Maybe it was the Serr8d Photoshop of Charli in a bikini, sporting what looks like to be a terrorist's bombing set-up. Feminists hate that stuff. (The bikinis, that is. The pro-Palestinian terrorism? Not so much.) And note how plugging "Charli Carpenter and International Law" or "Dr. Charli Carpenter" into Google pulls up my post at the #1 and #2 ranking. That's gotta hurt.

And that tells you something. Charli was listing Lawyers, Guns and Money at her biographical information on her Foreign Affairs articles, and she's still blogging at The Duck of Minerva, more than ever it seems. Charli likes blogging and wouldn't have quit LGM on a whim.

Frankly, it must have been damaging to be associated with a hate dump like Robert Farley's Lawyers, Guns and Money. And especially so now that LGM has emerged as a big outlet for progressive anti-Semitism in recent months, led by the idiot juvenile Scott Lemieux and his ill-considered blogging on Israel-bashing playwright Tony Kushner.

It's telling all around. Not only had blogging at LGM become a liability for Charli, but it goes to show that when challenged, progressives are cowardly when forced outside of their demonic cocoons.

I'm going to have lots more on the bloggers at Lawyers, Guns and Money. They've been attacking me and this blog for years, and recently those attacks took a very personal turn, which required me to retain an attorney. I'm still holding off on reporting on that, but it's going to be blockbuster when it comes out. One of the bloggers over there is going to be outed as evil once and for all. He'll be even more discredited than he already is, and while this has been costly, it's nothing that I initiated. Cheap kicks while it lasted it, but not anymore. Basically, don't fuck with me, assholes. You reap what you sow and it's very ugly. And you deserve the ignominy that's coming your way.

Stay tuned.

*****

UPDATE (2:25pm PST): I've been out taking my kid skateboarding, so a little late getting back to the blog. Not only that, I'm trying desperately to pull myself up after ROTFLMFAO, because REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL has responded to this post, and writes hilariously that Charli Carpenter is "paying little if any attention to Donald Douglas." Perhaps not, but stalker REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL sure the hell is!!

See: "Professor Donald Douglas is Envious of Professor Charli Carpenter."

And more lulz. Note how Charli Carpenter quit blogging precisely while coming under withering fire at this blog. Yep, perfect timing. The so-called "Grad Director" gig is a convenient out for pulling her name off the masthead at LGM, and totally transparent. God, that's pathetic, but expected, since she no doubt found she could no longer blog at a premier progressive anti-Semitic hate dump. It's pretty self-explanatory. And she's meanwhile blogging up a storm at Duck of Minerva. Yep, that "Grad Director" gig sure is taking up a lot of time, yuk yuk!!

And wrong, not envious in the least, RACIST REPSAC3 ASFL. I'm a tenured professor at a college without a grad program, so "Grad Director" is not something I'd be doing. And I have no need to publish, since community colleges are teaching institutions. But WE KNOW progressives like you hate teaching and denigrate those who do, cuz ur a typical asshat. And I'm raising two kids myself, not to be demonic left-wing terrorist wannabes, of course. Unlike you, freaking stalker.

Plus, I'm not "outing" anyone's identity, you idiot. I plan to report and document the moral degeneracy and evil of one of the bloggers at Lawyers, Guns and Murder. Still waiting for the go-ahead from the attorney, but you've got skills in this area, so it'll be interesting to demonstrate a past pattern of collaboration on your part. See: "DEFAMATION - DONALD STYLE --- Another year, another UPDATE: 2/17/2011." At the update, that's where hate sponsor RACIST = REPSAC = ASFL denies that he had anything to do with the campaign of workplace intimidation directed against me at my college, which of course is a lie, because RACIST = REPSAC = ASFL personally administers the blog and he personally recruited the progressives who published all of my workplace contact information, with the exhortation:

We know these behaviors all too well, and why some of you bother with this pinhead is beyond me. The Coward is not welcome at The Swash Zone; we delete his comments immediately. More disturbing are the comments and e-mails left by his followers: Profane, racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic … worthy of report to the FBI. What to do?

If the Coward or any of his followers harass you online you, contact President **** ****** at (562) ***-**** or Executive VP of Academic Affairs ****** **** at (562) ***-**** and describe the harassment. For serious online abuse or defamation, there is always this option (case file in progress).

This was published at REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL's blog, American Nihilist, Feb 12, 2009. (See here.) And REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL is fully implicated in this initial campaign of workplace intimidation, and he's now even doubled-down about how he thinks I should be fired for practicing my First Amendment rights to freedom of the expression, the right to be free in my private personal affairs. It's pretty bad, but this is what progressives do. And when I'm able to report fully on recent legal developments with my blog, REPSAC = RACIST = ASFL may well be implicated in the moral deviance, evil, and libelous activities that have been recently launched to destroy the moral clarity of myself and American Power.

Americans Involved in Too Many Foreign Conflicts, New Poll Finds

At The Hill, "The Hill Poll: Majority says military involved in too many places." (At Memeorandum.)

And pluralities don't think U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq has made us safer. Check the link. For the general public, it's war-weariness that explains this. But on the ideological fringes, the findings will give support to isolationist voices who deplore the forward exercise of American power.

What's interesting about about the survey is there's no mention of President Obama's deployment to Libya. Yesterday's Los Angeles Times had an outstanding piece on outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. He's been on record of late saying that the U.S. is a little tired of war, and that the military needs a break. And from the Times' piece:

Gates' concern for the troops is a key part of his legacy as he leaves office.

He has pushed the lumbering Pentagon bureaucracy to turn out new armored vehicles and other equipment to keep soldiers safer in combat and to get them treatment faster when they are wounded.

And he has become a voice of caution and even outright opposition to committing American forces to new wars. Gates publicly questioned the need to join the NATO air war in Libya, arguing that the military already was overstretched in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since then, he has sought to limit the U.S. role.

Gates emphasizes that he would not hesitate to support sending troops to another conflict if national security were threatened, and he favors only "modest" reductions in troop levels in Afghanistan in coming months. That puts him at odds with some in the Obama administration who want to bring U.S. troops out sooner.

But the longer he is in office, Gates said, the "heavier" the burden he bears when he is asked to make decisions that inevitably involve sending more American troops to their deaths.

"I've got a military that's exhausted," he said. "Let's just finish the wars we're in and keep focused on that instead of signing up for other wars of choice."

I think that's a fair statement, and it's especially noteworthy considering President Obama's amateurish and hypocritical rationale for military intervention.

Wal-Mart Wins Supreme Court Sex Discrimination Case

This is huge.

At New York Times, "Justices Rule for Wal-Mart in Bias Case."

And at Althouse, "'The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of women who work there'":

I hope the GOP candidates for President are smart and articulate enough to use this case in their argument against electing the Democratic President to a second term.

Word.

As Crystal Cathedral Fights to Survive Bankruptcy, Spanish-Language Ministry Comes of Age

I've been meaning to visit Crystal Cathedral all year. The famous mega-church is going through bankruptcy, and I wanted to take some pictures for a photo-essay. I drove over there yesterday, after reading the Sunday newspaper. See Los Angeles Times, "Crystal Cathedral's Tale of Two Ministries."

The two lines begin forming outside the Crystal Cathedral before 9 on Sunday mornings. It is a mostly immigrant crowd — Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, among others — and they stand patiently, unfurling umbrellas against the sun.

When the doors open for the 9:30 English-language service, the lines don't budge. It isn't for a lack of seats inside — so few people are there that cameramen have trouble finding crowd shots for the "Hour of Power" television program, which has been broadcast from the Garden Grove megachurch since 1970.

At 11, a second English service starts, also sparsely attended. The lines outside grow longer.

By the time that service ends, each line stretches the equivalent of a city block — people of all ages dressed in their Sunday best. Just before 1, the doors reopen and, row by row, the cathedral is filled.

As the Crystal Cathedral fights to survive its descent into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, this is its untold success story: a Spanish-language service led by a dynamic Argentine pastor, Dante Gebel, who inspires comparisons to the church's founder, Robert H. Schuller.

Since Gebel arrived two years ago, the cathedral's Hispanic Ministry has grown from no more than 300 people to 3,000, far outstripping the traditional ministry led by Schuller's daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman. The brash, shaggy-haired Gebel is seen on television in some 70 countries; his Facebook page is "liked" by more than 800,000 people.

Yet even this may not be enough to save the architectural and religious landmark, long known for its lavish spending and now caught short by plummeting revenues. Crystal Cathedral Ministries recently filed a reorganization plan that calls for selling its 40-acre campus to a real estate developer and leasing back its core for $212,000 a month. In October, the church said it owed creditors more than $50 million.

The hard reality is that Gebel's popularity is unlikely to generate the money needed to rescue the Schuller empire. And Gebel — an independent contractor, not a church staff member — is quick to say that he has no great attachment to the Garden Grove church and could leave at any time.

"I haven't been called to save the Crystal Cathedral, so that isn't my goal," he said in an interview in his office on the cathedral grounds. He thinks about just one thing, he said: "Preaching to the Hispanic people."

He likens the cathedral, with its soaring, light-filled vault, to a borrowed tuxedo. "I would say the same thing here as in Bolivia or Argentina," he said, "but here, I have a better suit."

It is hard to imagine a contrast more striking than the one between the English and Spanish services at Crystal Cathedral.

More at the link above.

And some pictures:

A man prays in the prayer room at the base of the spires. His daughter peeked around playfully while I took a picture:

A young woman posed for pictures near the base of the tower:

I looked in the main church, and an organist was playing, perhaps tuning the organ:

The young woman poses next to the painted models of the Holy Family:

And the plaque at the base had this from Matthew 2:19-23:

... an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

And below this statute of Jesus with the lamb, Luke 15:4-6:

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!

Highlights of F-35 Flight Testing

At NAS Patuxent River, Md., NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, and Edwards AFB, Ca.

Via Theo Spark:

More Lovely Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Video Blogging

I skipped a big Rule 5 roundup earlier, so I'm playing catch-up.

See The Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: Do It Again." And Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – Father’s Day Edition," and Proof Positive, "Saturday Linkaround."

And a fabulous post at Bob Belvedere's, "Rule 5 Saturday: E V A W Y R W A L."

Plus, Theo Spark, "Bedtime Totty..."

Also: Astute Bloggers, Blazing Cat Fur, Bob Belvedere, CSPT, Dan Collins, Doug Ross, Gator Doug, Irish Cicero, Left Coast Rebel, Mind-Numbed Robot, Legal Insurrection, Lonely Conservative, PA Pundits International, PACNW Righty, Pirate's Cove, Proof Positive, Saberpoint, Snooper, WyBlog, The Western Experience, and Zion's Trumpet.

Plus, don't forget American Perspective, Maggie's Notebook and Zilla of the Resistance.

And my friends Marathon Pundit and Marooned in Marin.

Let me know if I missed your blog!

BONUS: From Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Karrisa Shannon."

Amy Winehouse Booed Off Stage in Serbia, Cancels Part of European Tour

I spent three years in L.A. going to concerts, nearly every weekend, and the only performer I can recall on stage this drunk was Darby Crash of The Germs. He could sing, no matter how wasted, but he died from a drug overdose in 1980, just a couple days after the last time I saw the band play. I've never seen Amy Winehouse, but this is just sad. It's all sad, the drugs, the lost promise, the death. At the Independent UK, "They know that she's no good... Amy Winehouse booed off stage in Serbia," and Los Angeles Times, "Amy Winehouse cancels part of European tour":

High-Tech Lynching: Progressives Attack Clarence Thomas Alleged Ethics Breach Because He's a Black Conservative

It's one of the greatest apostasies from progressivism. To be black and conservative is to reject everything about the politics of racial grievance and victimology. And for 20 years we've seen Clarence Thomas bear the brunt of the left's attack on black conservatism at the Supreme Court. I mentioned it today, the story at New York Times, "Friendship of Justice and Magnate Puts Focus on Ethics." And I linked Althouse, but folks need to go over there again, because she hammers the progressive hypocrisy: "The NYT goes after Clarence Thomas over 'an unusual, and ethically sensitive, friendship'."

And here comes the Soros-funded Think Progresss, "Justices Have Been Forced To Resign For Doing What Clarence Thomas Has Done":

Justice Clarence Thomas is an ethics problem in a black robe.

And he's being subjected to a high-tech attack in a white robe.

Despicable, but it's the progressive left we're talking about, so there you go. Just terrible people.

Via Memeorandum.

Kate Upton Esquire Woman of Summer 2011

And there's an interview with the Sports Illustrated model.

She's lovely.

"Kate Upton is the Woman of Summer 2011."

The Latest Evolution of the New York Times' 'Week in Review'

I'm moved to write about this, since it's Father's Day.

My dad was a New Yorker by way of St. Louis. He went to NYU for his BA and MA, taught in New York Public Schools, and married my mom in New York City in 1959. My dad took a job in Europe as a civilian officer in the U.S. Army, but we moved to California when I was 4 years-old. I remember, when I was old enough to notice, that my dad received the Sunday New York Times in the mail each week. He'd spread the newspaper out on his bed and read each section carefully, from the front page down to the style and social sections. If he didn't finish a newspaper, he'd leave it at the side of the bed to finish, before moving on to the next week's paper. That was his tradition, so the New York Times always had a special place in our house, and in my memory.

When I was in college and graduate school, the New York Times was always the most prestigious source for writing term papers. I also like the Los Angeles Times, which is why readers will note that most of my news reporting from mainstream sources cites those two papers. As much media bias as there is, and both papers are very left-wing in their editorial writing, I still rely on them for the bulk of my news. I don't expect that to stop anytime soon, and frankly I only wish the best for the newspapers as far as their financial health. We need a mainstream press. We need that press as we've always needed independent journalism in the democracy. The difference today, of course, is the Internet and the spread of citizens' journalism. But bloggers and videographers aren't going to replace the big newspapers. What's happening is that the big papers are becoming more Internet-friendly, more like bloggers, not the least from the need to simply survive.

So, well, I'm both critical of the New York Times, like today's hit piece against Clarence Thomas (discussed at Althouse), and also thankful for it. I continue to admire the newspaper's styling and its website is the best newspaper website online. I also assign it to my students so they'll learn how to read a newspaper, which in itself is a disappearing skill.

Anyway, one of the things I enjoyed in the old days, when I used to buy the Sunday Times before it was $6.00 a pop, was the "Week in Review" section. Sometimes I'd pull out "Week in Review" first off. It seemed so cool and sophisticated. I loved reading all the background analysis. Now it seeems dated. I rarely read it anymore, and I don't buy the Sunday paper anymore just to go find it, which I once did. So, things have changed. I guess Bill Keller knows this, he knows how the cachet of the "Week in Review" has collapsed in the hyper-news era of today. So he's moved to spiff it up. See, "Coming Next Sunday: The Latest Evolution of the Review." There's going to be a name-shortening, and more:

Next Sunday, the Week in Review will make another evolutionary leap. The name will be shortened yet again to Sunday Review, the last vestiges of a weekly summing up replaced by a more general timeliness, and that dividing wall breached, so that argument (which will be labeled Opinion) can appear alongside explanation (which will be labeled News Analysis.)

It is not the end of the world as we know it, or even, really, the most dramatic turn in the long history of the section. In the 1990s the Review was very nearly killed off, on the ground that it no longer did anything the rest of the paper wasn’t doing.

Check the rest of it. Interesting development.

Pew Research Center: Fathers and the Modern American Family

See: "A Tale of Two Fathers: More Are Active, but More Are Absent."

If readers can remember back to 2008, one of things I'd hoped about Barack Obama, if he were elected, is that he'd help restore stable family values to the black community. He has not. While President Obama is a model family man, he's rarely spoken out in any direct, sustained way that would bring his moral authority to bear on the cultural pathologies of the race. He needs to be out speaking like this, often, and sincerely, like Father's Day comes more than once a year.

According to Pew, "... more than one-in-four fathers with children 18 or younger now live apart from their children ..."

And especially:

Fathers’ living arrangements are strongly correlated with race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status as measured by educational attainment. Black fathers are more than twice as likely as white fathers to live apart from their children (44% vs. 21%), while Hispanic fathers fall in the middle (35%). Among fathers who never completed high school, 40% live apart from their children. This compares with only 7% of fathers who graduated from college.

This is not to dismiss other ethnic groupings, for example, the Hispanic population, but I once taught Black Politics, and I continue to see the poorest academic and social performance of young black men than any other other demographic. I used to be sympathetic, if not a little sad about it. Now I just get mad, and if I can, I'll get in your face if you're not performing up to standards. Of course, I'm only a professor, so my role is limited, but if I can model some achievement or direction, that will count for a bit. It's not just a problem on television or in the movies. I see it up close. I personally grieve. Perhaps I can do more later, when I have some changes in my own family. Time. Time to give back.

Now, closer to home, I'm not teaching this summer, and so I'll have the next two months to spend with my family, for some quality time and recreation. No big trips are planned. My youngest son will be the challenge while school's out, though. He needs to be active and needs a lot of direction. Just last week I was taking him skateboarding two times a day, but we'll need to read and study as well. My older son is going on 10th grade and he's very independent. He's got a young lady friend (kinda girlfriend) who he spends most of his time with, and he doesn't like me tagging along too much. But I need to get on him to do more chores around the house, and hopefully I can get him to do some reading instead of downloading music all the time.

At the Pew study it notes that 63 percent of dad's today say that being a father is harder now than it was a generation ago. And, "Only about one-in-four adults say fathers today are doing a better job as parents than their own fathers did." Yeah. Okay. But what's the measurement? If it's economically, things have been pretty spotty these last few years, and we'd have to go back two or three generations to find a time when there was less economic dynamism (and dislocation). But culturally, the dads of today are way more hands-on than when I was a kid, and that's good. My dad was perhaps more involved than some other fathers in my neighborhood growing up, but he was just as emotionally distant as any I can think of. I never wanted to be a father like that, and thank goodness. Sure, there's more we can do, as men and fathers, and no one measures up perfectly to their own expectations and those of their children. But keeping it all together is the primary responsibility, and giving equal support to the spouse so everyone can grow and be happy. In that way men have a greater responsibility as parents than in earlier generations. I think when we have a booming economy again, some of the load will ease, and successful fatherhood might increase (increased togetherness, less family breakdown).

Anyway, at top, I'm taking a break from cleaning house yesterday morning. We have a realtor. He showed the house at 10:00am and my wife and I were both up detailing everything. My youngest boy slept until about 9:00am, and my oldest is out of town until later today. I might shave. I've just been chillin' since school got out at the end of May.

More later.

Have a good Father's Day everyone.

Saudi Women Defy Ban on Driving

At Los Angeles Times, "Saudi women get in the driver's seat to defy ban."

It's gender apartheid, but of course, the global progressive left seeks Israel's delegitimization and destruction. The world is upside down.

Also at The Lede, "Saudi Women Defy Driving Ban." And Sydney Morning Herald, "At the wheel of progress."

Markos Moulitsas: No Comment on Breitbart Attack at Netroots Nation

At Founding Bloggers, " Kos Refuses to Comment On Breitbart Appearance at Netroots Nation 2011":

We tried to ask him about what went down when Breitbart crashed Kos’s convention. Kos didn’t feel like commenting ...

Breitbart was accused of being a coward for not answering the Kos crowd’s questions to their satisfaction. We do not think Kos is a coward for doing the same.

I don't know.

The dude's a prick. Sometimes the polite response just seems inadequate, for a brat like that.

Wall Street Journal Weekend Interview: David McCullough, 'Don't Know Much About History'

I think the culture's changed so much. I'm not sure the same measures of education should be applied to today's younger generations. Yeah, I wish kids read more, and took interest in engagement. Especially kids of diverse or disadvantaged backgrounds. Overall though, it is indeed blank stares in the classroom when checking for just basic historical knowledge. It can be real drag sometimes.

Check it out, at the link:

Boston

'We're raising young people who are, by and large, historically illiterate," David McCullough tells me on a recent afternoon in a quiet meeting room at the Boston Public Library. Having lectured at more than 100 colleges and universities over the past 25 years, he says, "I know how much these young people—even at the most esteemed institutions of higher learning—don't know." Slowly, he shakes his head in dismay. "It's shocking."

He's right. This week, the Department of Education released the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which found that only 12% of high-school seniors have a firm grasp of our nation's history. And consider: Just 2% of those students understand the significance of Brown v. Board of Education.

Mr. McCullough began worrying about the history gap some 20 years ago, when a college sophomore approached him after an appearance at "a very good university in the Midwest." She thanked him for coming and admitted, "Until I heard your talk this morning, I never realized the original 13 colonies were all on the East Coast." Remembering the incident, Mr. McCullough's snow-white eyebrows curl in pain. "I thought, 'What have we been doing so wrong that this obviously bright young woman could get this far and not know that?'"

Answer: We've been teaching history poorly. And Mr. McCullough wants us to amend our ways ...

RTWT.

Islamic Mob Swarms Free Speech Protesters in Dearborn

At Zilla of the Resistance, with all kinds of links: "Standing Up Against Islamonazism."

And at Pamela's, "CHRISTIAN GROUPS PHYSICALLY ATTACKED IN DEARBORN, MICHIGAN."

Plus, at Detroit Free Press, "Pastor Terry Jones thwarted in Dearborn."

The guy's a freak, if I recall. But let him march, sheesh.

Back to Teaching at California State Universities

From Naomi Schaefer Riley, at Los Angeles Times, "Cal State system: It's time to get back to teaching."

There's no quick quote to capture the essence here. Full-time faculty don't do much teaching, it turns out, or at least not "the bulk" of it. Mostly adjuncts nowadays. It's weird, though, because I had the best professors at Fresno State. I think I had one grad student TA, in math. And the professor referred all questions to him, and while the TA was a good guy, proficient, etc., that's probably not the best example of cutting-edge teaching. The Political Science Department was great though. So much better than the University of California, in terms of access to the professors. I mentioned previously that the more hands on attention professors provide, the more they'll help their students. That's what happening in my classes, and I still can't do enough to overcome the skills deficits kids bring to college. So yeah, focus on teaching at Cal State. (And check that link: Schaefer Riley notes that Cal State's at risk of closing ten campuses and turning away 100,000 students --- seems unreal.)

Tommy Christopher's F-Bomb Attack on Lee Stranahan

On Twitter. During the height of the Weiner controversy online. Tommy Christopher's an idiot, but what's killer is folks were calling him out at the time. See Lee Stranahan at Patterico's, "About Mediaite’s Explanation of Their Fiasco." Also, "About Mediaite’s Explanation Of Their Fiasco."

Full story at New York Times, "Fake Identities Were Used on Twitter in Effort to Get Information on Weiner." (At Memeorandum.)

RELATED: At Riehl World View, "Tommy Christopher's Ignorance In Online Reporting."

Job-Killing ATM Machines

This is good.

From Dan Joseph, at the Media Research Center, "Petition to Ban Job Killing ATM Machines":

Also at Weasel Zippers.

Karen Alloy Bacon Lover

She's funny.

I decided to go with this online dating clip instead of "Boner Killer!", which was a little over the top (unless you're Scott Eric Kaufman, then it's f**king great):

More Parents Buying Apartments for Their Children

This is an amazing story, a testament to Americans' financial resilience amid the Obama Depression.

At New York Times, "The Gift Apartment From Mom and Dad":

FOR some parents, an engraved pen set just won’t cut it as a graduation present. It seems so insubstantial, so unoriginal. Anyway, the kid will just lose it. So how about a New York apartment?

Real estate brokers say that in the last year, they have seen more parents shopping for apartments for their grown children, hoping to take advantage of low mortgage rates and apartment prices that are still about 20 percent down from the market’s peak.

“I got a digital watch for graduation,” said Barry Silverman, an executive vice president of Halstead Property, “but I’ve worked with families where the children are getting an apartment.”

These congratulatory apartments are often studios or small one-bedrooms, but on occasion they are bigger-ticket items, he said, because “the parents see it as a long-term investment and a good place to park their money.”

In many cases, brokers say, the parents do not live in the New York area and view the apartment as a potential pied-à-terre for themselves when the child decides to move on. Some buy it as a straight-out gift, a gesture of profound affection sweetened by the current generous tax exclusion. Others buy it as an investment and retain ownership, and still others acquire it through a family trust for joint ownership.

These purchases raise a number of financial and estate planning questions, and lawyers and building managers advise parents to structure the arrangement carefully.

That's for sure. Check that link at top for the rest.