The Old Eighteen

So you think you had a bad day at work?

Well, at least you weren't pulled into a wood chipper.  This has apparently happened at least 31 other times since 1992.  Moral of this story?  Don't mess with Mother Nature.

Olympic torchbearer gets manhandled by Chinese security & American police, kicked out of relay for waving a Tibetan flag

And here I was thinking that we had freedom of expression in this country.  The New York Times has an article about the incident, and here's video of the incident from the local ABC affiliate (sorry, no embed).  Also included below are a couple of videos that have been posted on YouTube:

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(via bollucks at Daily Kos)

So you think you're having a bad day?

Like most men who are about to propose marriage, London resident Lefkos Hajji wanted the occasion to be as romantic as possible.  Unlike most men who are about to propose marriage, he reached the conclusion that it would be a really good idea to take the $12,000 engagement ring he had just bought and conceal it inside a helium-filled balloon, with the idea that his girlfriend "would pop the balloon as he popped the question."  Yeah, I think you know where this is going:

"I couldn't believe it," he told The Sun newspaper.  "I just watched as it went further and further into the air.

"I felt like such a plonker. It cost a fortune and I knew my girlfriend would kill me."

Hajji spent two hours in his car trying to chase and find the balloon, without success.

Now, most men who had done something this colossally stupid would have at least tried to redeem themselves by swallowing the loss and keeping their mouth shut about the whole thing.  But most men wouldn't be Lefkos Hajji, who decided to tell not only his girlfriend, but the media:

"But I had to tell her the story -- she went absolutely mad. Now she is refusing to speak to me until I get her a new ring."

And here's the punchline:

He is hoping the ring will still turn up. "It would be amazing if someone found it," he added.

No, what would really be amazing would be if someone found a $12,000 ring lying around and the first thought that pops into their mind is anything besides, "Where is the nearest pawn shop?"

Spitzer? I hardly knew her!

I think that our media have succeeded in thoroughly beating the Spitzer story to death, and that they should move on to more important things.  But since we're going to be hearing about it anyway, it's nice to see that at least some people are using the scandal as an excuse to start a needed dialogue on the question of whether or not prostitution should be legalized.

Like Matt Yglesias, I think that the status quo does nothing but hurt the people that the laws against prostitution are supposed to protect.  If we can find a way to legalize prostitution that doesn't lead to the creation of an unregulated black market, I would support it wholeheartedly.  Whether the way that Nevada currently does it is the way to go or not, I can't say with any certainty, because I'm not familiar enough with the situation there to speak with any authority.  But just about anything's bound to be better than what we're doing right now.  Legalizing prostitution will open the market up to regulation, making it much safer for both johns and prostitutes, and will make it easier for women who have been forced into prostitution to seek help getting out.  But I don't see it happening any time soon down here in Texas.