Will they also be allowing their seatmates to brutally assault them when they just can't take another moment being the captive audience to their inane yammerings?

Ivan Slack, co-owner of Napali Kayak, said his company relies solely on revenue from kayak tours and needs the state park to be open to operate. The company jumped in and donated resources because it knew that without the repairs, Napali Kayak would be in financial trouble.

"If the park is not open, it would be extreme for us, to say the least," he said. "Bankruptcy would be imminent. How many years can you be expected to continue operating, owning 15-passenger vans, $2 million in insurance and a staff? For us, it was crucial, and our survival was dependent on it. That park is the key to the sheer survival of the business."

So Slack, other business owners and residents made the decision not to sit on their hands and wait for state money that many expected would never come. Instead, they pulled together machinery and manpower and hit the ground running March 23.

And after only eight days, all of the repairs were done, Pleas said. It was a shockingly quick fix to a problem that may have taken much longer if they waited for state money to funnel in.

"We can wait around for the state or federal government to make this move, or we can go out and do our part," Slack said. "Just like everyone's sitting around waiting for a stimulus check, we were waiting for this but decided we couldn't wait anymore."

via @mpetrie98

Tax strip club patrons $10 each time they enter an exotic dancing establishment. Damn. Talk about your cover charge.

Assemblyman Das Williams of Oxnard plans to tax you like a gangster taxes drug dealers:

AB 2441, which is moving through the state Assembly as we speak, would levy a $10 fee on each and everyone of you good gentlemen (and the freaky dates who love them) who enter a "sexually oriented business."

...Roger Jon Diamond, an attorney representing SoCal strip clubs, laughed off the bill when we called him last night, saying it wouldn't be approved and that, if it did, it wouldn't pass muster with the courts.

You can't, he argued, tax a business based on content. Wouldn't be constitutional.

Amen.

Evan, Elizabeth, Rachel, Abigail and John all have something in common. They were born this spring at Fletcher Allen hospital in Burlington, Vt.

Around the same time, a group of babies named Paislee, Liberty, Rykan and Scottlynn were all born in and around North Platte, Neb.

Styles of baby names, it seems, are nearly as different in various parts of the country as voting habits. "There is an enormous red state and blue state divide on names," says Laura Wattenberg, founder of BabyNameWizard.com and author of The Baby Name Wizard, which claims to be "the expert guide to baby name style."

But this doesn't play out the way you might expect. More progressive communities, Wattenberg says, tend to favor more old-fashioned names. Parents in more conservative areas come up with names that are more creative or androgynous.

"Sometimes people have a naive expectation that people who are politically conservative on social issues would name their kids in traditional ways, and it doesn't always happen that way," says Andrew Gelman, a professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University and author of Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State.

The reason for more outlandish-sounding names cropping up in conservative quarters is simple, Wattenberg says. Women in red states tend to have their first children earlier than women in blue states. A 23-year-old mom is more likely to come up with something out of the ordinary than one who is 33.

We talked extensively about proper etiquette in the cyber world. So imagine my surprise when I see my bright, intelligent child smiling as she held up a bottle of Vodka with the caption 'Wish I could drink this Vodka.' Before you do-righters chastise me for her having the liquor, she got it out of my husband's bar to take the photo because she thought "it was cute." She knew better but did it anyway and "didn't see anything wrong" because she "wasn't drinking, just posing."

She had been warned against acting up on social media countless times but obviously, it wasn't getting through. So I took it to her level, implementing my motto of "Get tore out where you show out." I made her hold up a sign saying, "Since I want to take pics holding liquor, I am obviously NOT ready for social media and will be taking a hiatus until I learn what is and isn't appropriate to post. Bye-Bye " I made her post the picture to Instagram and I put it on my Facebook page as a warning to other parents to monitor their kids.

I never expected that photo or my choice of discipline to go viral. But with over 10,000 shares in just a few hours, that's just what happened. I heard from parents that, to my surprise, had never looked at their child's social media accounts, parents who were too afraid to publicly embarrass their kids, yet were at wit's end on what to do with them, and parents who had never even heard of Instagram, yet found out their child had an account. Ninety-seven percent of the feedback was positive. The other three percent did everything from call me a 'parental bully' to tell me my child would 'commit suicide' to telling me I 'sucked as a parent.' Usually, that kind of stuff bothers me.

But not this time.

When it comes to my kids, I don't play. This is a new age. We have to meet kids where they are. Punish her by taking away her phone? Did that last week. Make her write an essay? She loves writing so that would be a thrill. Ban TV? She loves to read so that's no big deal. Talking? Sure, but my talking obviously wasn't sticking. So, since she showed out on line, she was punished on line. My daughter actually begged for a spanking instead, which she would've taken, gotten over in no time, and not realized the seriousness of her actions. Now, if and when she ever gets back on social media, she'll think long and hard before posting anything crazy.

We didn't do much wrong as kids because my tyrants (uh, parents) let us know that there would be consequences for acting inconsiderately. They didn't let us know by telling us. We just knew. So we were quiet in restaurants, didn't kick the seat backs in a movie or on a plane, and were pretty considerate kids.

In his January 2011 inaugural address, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared it a "time to honestly assess our financial condition and make the tough choices." Plainly the choices weren't tough enough: Mr. Brown has just announced that he faces a state budget deficit of $16 billion--nearly twice the $9.2 billion he predicted in January. In Sacramento Monday, he coupled a new round of spending cuts with a call for some hefty new tax hikes.

In his own inaugural address back in January 2010, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also spoke of making tough choices for the people of his state. For his first full budget, Mr. Christie faced a deficit of $10.7 billion--one-third of projected revenues. Not only did Mr. Christie close that deficit without raising taxes, he is now plumping for a 10% across-the-board tax cut.

It's not just looks that make Mr. Brown Laurel to Mr. Christie's Hardy. It's also their political choices.

When the Obama administration's Transportation Department called on California to cough up billions for a high-speed bullet train or lose federal dollars, Mr. Brown went along. In sharp contrast, when the feds delivered a similar ultimatum to Mr. Christie over a proposed commuter rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey, he nixed the project, saying his state just couldn't afford it.

I'd happily vote for Christie for President, and I bet a lot of other people would, too. Why the hell isn't he running?

(Oh, and Dr. Michael Eades has agreed to do an intervention on Christie's weight and health. Well, truth be told, only I have asked him, but he did say yes.)

Here, the vid as AllAmericanBlogger.com's Duane Lester stands up to a copyright thief:



Lester's blog item about this here:

I have been asked why I'm writing this article. Some think it might be an "IN YOUR FACE!" kind of article.

It isn't.

It's to demonstrate the importance of standing up for yourself and your rights, regardless. It's to show how to protect your work from those who would steal it.

It's not hard when you are right.

Consult with others, get your ducks in a row and demand respect for your work.

If you don't, who will?

via @palafo

Shopping through this link or through Amy's Mall helps support this site (and keeps me eating). Going through any Amazon link I post (or clicking the "powered by Amazon" search on the top left of Amy's Mall) gives me a 6 to 7 percent kickback from your purchases, which I truly appreciate!

And I'd especially appreciate if you'd buy a copy of my book, I SEE RUDE PEOPLE: One woman's battle to beat some manners into impolite society -- only about $12 with Amazon's discount. Buying it new helps me earn back my advance -- and keep eating. Also, I worked hard on it and people tell me they like it.

Of course, the truth is probably that many are in these "security" jobs because they failed high school government class -- among others. (Who the fuck doesn't recognize Henry Kissinger?!)

Well, the TSA dipshits at LaGuardia just gave Kissinger the big grope-down, reports CBS/DC:

Kissinger, who was in a wheelchair, was told by a TSA agent that he needed to be searched.

"He stood with his suit jacket off, and he was wearing suspenders," freelance reporter Matthew Cole told the Post. "They gave him the full pat-down. None of the agents seemed to know who he was." Cole added that Kissinger was given "the full Monty" search.

Kissinger negotiated the Paris Peace Accords which helped bring an end to the Vietnam War.

via @DebWilker

That's what the numbnuts in Jersey City think -- adding to the illegalization of everything, as if that's a way to improve anything more than the state of the city's coffer's. They've banned texting while walking, and you'll get an $85 ticket if a cop has to ignore actual crime to punish you for it.