The WSJ reports:

Men who didn't confront colleagues or bosses who treated them unfairly doubled their risk of heart attack, according to a study in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

*WASHINGTON POST JOKE.*

[Pacquiao for Congress!]

Strike One: First, they jumped a Liberian immigrant and beat him with a metal pipe. He did not get the chance to educate them on the distinction between "African" and "African-American."

Strike Two: They "demanded that a Hispanic man tell them how he had voted."

Strike Three: They got in the car and ran down Ronald Forte—a white guy wearing a hoodie. They thought he looked black.

Now all four of them have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to nine years.

Race-blind racists. MLK's dream is here.

Alex VF is Diane von Furstenberg's son, and now the presumptive heir of her new husband, IAC megamogul Barry Diller. He owns a surf shop in Malibu! Now what happened was that former Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller, who by the way can totally blow me for beating the Knicks all those times, had some sort of little text message-based fling with Alex's fiancee, Ali Kay. The New York Post says their attraction was mutual, according to a lawyer, at least:

But fiancée Ali Kay sent two provocative photos of herself to the NBA announcer during a three-month phone flirtation, the former hoop star's lawyer Marty Singer insisted.

"There was one of her in bed and one with a bathing suit on," he said.

Pics or it didn't happen, Marty Singer. So! The average man, confronted with this situation, might 1) Break up with this girl; or 2) Keep this whole thing quiet, reasoning that the fact that one's fiancee is hot and heavy for a pro athlete is not something that reflects well on you, her ostensible man; but probably would not 3) File a restraining order against Reggie Miller, and then also hire a plane to fly over beaches in Southern California towing a banner that says "Reggie Miller Stop Pursuing Married Women."

But that is the course that Alex von Furstenberg chose to pursue! Strange also since his fiancee is not a "Married" woman! (However, as the Post points out, Alex was very "married to Duty Free heiress Alexandra Miller" — no relation to Reggie — when he first started dating young Ali.) But I guess that's just how Lakers fans do it! Barry Diller, your empire is in good hands.

1. Trying—and failing—to forgive.

Julie Behar lost $2.6 million; her children lost their trust fund; her mom lost millions as well. But now she's started saving again, concentrating on her children's futures, and hoping for the best. She knows that holding anger in her heart is no way to live. How about it, Julie—do you think you can forgive this man? "I'M NOT accepting Bernard Madoff's apology." Ah. I see. Okay.

2. Trying—and failing—to move on.

Let's just focus on what we need to do now, okay? The past is the past. There are so many things to do now. Phyllis Molchatsky lost $2 million and may lose her house, but she's moving on by...losing her faith in the government, the SEC, the American Way, and god. "I think part of me died that day I learned of the fraud, along with so many hopes and dreams for the future." Oh. Well. That's depressing as fuck.

3. RAGE!

This rage is Biblical:

"I told the judge that when Bernard Madoff leaves prison, which means after his death, that he will then go down to the depths of hell where he'll join those other people who are in the mouths of Satan," Burt Ross, the former mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., who lost $5 million with Mr. Madoff, told the crowded press corps outside the courthouse.

You people will die of stress before Madoff does.
[Read em all! And weep.]

Specifically, according to snarling werewolf-columnist Andrea Peyser, if you can believe it! This traumatized woman, Sandra Boss, had a child with the con artist calling himself Clark Rockefeller. Then the guy flipped out and kidnapped the kid. This woman's ordeal makes Andrea sick:

But Sandra Boss shouldn't get off the hook. She's unquestionably guilty of stupidity in the first degree.

Either that, or, even more likely, something even worse. She really didn't want to know.

Why wouldn't she want to know that her husband is a pathological liar who would go on to kidnap her own child? Maybe because, as Andrea deftly puts it in her opening line, "At least he was straight. We think."

Ha, let us snarl at this unfortunate woman! A man being straight is the minimum requirement for Andrea Peyser not to cannibalize him on her fortnightly moonlit hunting trips around Manhattan. The Post photo caption guys do their part by labeling Sandra a "Dingaling doormat," in a photo of her with her young child.

Blaming the victim is always the Post's fallback position, because it's easier, and it fits in with their perma-sneers, and the werewolf blood running through Andrea Peyser's veins has already stripped her of all human empathy, so why not go with it? Just wait till the woman starts crying over the trauma her child has endured. That's when Andrea can really mock her!
[NYP]

See, the state inspector general, a chap named Joseph Fisch, went up to Eliot's office to ask him some questions about some boring investigation into something unethical Spitzer did, back when he was governor. This interview took place "late last year," and it took place in Spitzer's office instead of the IG's office because Spitzer was convinced the media were stalking him. Mr. Fisch pointed out that he didn't see any reporters, and that office security hadn't seen any in weeks. This was apparently the wrong way to start the interview!

"In fact," Mr. Spitzer replied, "last Friday, there were photographers outside my residence; they followed me and my wife and my children; they are constantly inquiring of where I am and my whereabouts; and it is a presumption of people who are interested in my security that there is surveillance," he said, "as there has been by individuals, paid for by individuals, corporations, law enforcement and others who have acted properly and improperly in an effort to intercept conversations of mine and other communications."

Spitzer then spent the rest of the interview ranting about Paterson every time Fisch tried to ask a question and then berating Fisch for wasting his time and not asking any questions.

Also the whole thing was the fault of comical GOP dirty tricks specialist Roger Stone.

"This whole thing has been nothing more than the creation of clever P.R. by, we now know, Roger Stone and others, to gin this up and get the press to create hysteria, which the Ethics Commission then felt compelled to respond to," he added.

So there you have it: Eliot Spitzer: still an asshole.

Because people these days are mad, see, and when the people are mad, the customers are mad, and that means the companies and especially the ads have to get mad. There is no situation to which the mechanisms of capitalism cannot adapt! Corporate America is the very model of absolute moral plasticity—they agree with you, whatever you happen to be feeling! Why not have some beer with your moral indignation? Why not fly the airline and eat the cereal that really understands your populist angst? Why not allow us to replace your seething anger at things you can't change (THE WORLD, INJUSTICE, ETC.) with seething anger at something you can change:

"We're turning up the volume in relation to what our customers are feeling," said Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, chief marketing officer at the Eastman Kodak Company, which is running ads for a new line of printers and inkjet cartridges that rant about a "$5 billion stain" on the economy caused by "overpaying" for other brands of inkjet printer ink.

Ride your rebellion-spewing Harley Davidson-brand motorcycle right over to OfficeMax and pick up some Eastman Kodak brand inkjet cartridges. That'll show those fat cats! Si, se puede!
[NYT]

We're forced to admit that they are. Also, the capitalist pigs on the opposite side of the protesters are putting their meek, chastened American counterparts to shame, by telling the protesters to fuck off:

City workers waved £10 notes at G20 protesters today as thousands descended on London's financial heartland.

Bankers leaning out of office windows taunted demonstrators on the streets below, who responded with jeers and shouts.

Ha ha! See, the two sides of a protest feed off of each other, so this taunting by the rich just makes the anarchohippies more awesome. Already huge crowds have been 'CLASHING' with riot police, shooting paintballs, and hurling fruit, which gives the whole thing a pleasant "Public shaming in the town square, 1745" vibe. Police helicopters are hovering overhead while smoke wafts through the streets, packed with bandanna-clad punks ready to break shit. Or better:

This morning a group [of protesters], caught with police uniforms, drove a riot truck or armored car through the city.

This is the level of commitment that turns street protests from boring retreads of laughable kids playing anarchist and chanting "Si se puede!" into truly entertaining affairs. They have jeering bankers hurling money out windows and tomato-slinging angry unemployed workers stealing armored cars; we have AIG employees scared to wear logo-ed golf shirts, and NYU food court revolutionaries demanding the right to a vegan lunch.

Let's get our act together, America. We can hate each other in a much more professional fashion. Yes we can! [Pic: Getty]

Agency Spy broke this important news of the Republican prostitute shilling for the discount retailers. And what do you know?:

Ha. Hahahaha. Please, please let this be authentic. It is, at the very least, someone who has studied Vincent's particular brand of discourse quite closely. And remember, from his most recent public offering of his own company:

Heavy set, older, red heads and even black chicks can have me if they can pay the bill. No real female will be refused. However, I highly frown upon any male having even the slightest momentary thought or wish that they could ever become my client. No way Jose.

So there. [Agency Spy; Vincent, email us to confirm or deny!]

TMZ, which first got ahold of this shouty goodness, says that the recording was made last July when a director of photography wandered into a shot and a ruined a scene. Highlight exhortations (try these in your best Batman voice*!):


"Don't just be sorry! Think, for one fucking second!"

"No! NO! Don't shut me up!"

"What the fuck is it with you?"

"Give me a fucking answer!"

"Ohhhhh, good for you!"

"How was it? I hope it was fucking good, because it's useless now!"

*This man is not a role model.

"Dick" Fuld, who oversaw the collapse of Lehman Bros., is just barely scraping by after selling his multimillion dollar art collection. His wife has been shamed into concealing her luxury purchases! But can they fit an entire mansion into a plain brown wrapper? Because Dick just sold his $13 million mansion. To his wife. For less than 100 bucks.

“This is the oldest trick in the books” said Eric S. Ruff, a lawyer with Ruff & Cohen in Gainesville, Fla. “It’s common when you hear the feet of your creditors approaching to divest yourself.”

Feel the rage of the proletariat! In related news, multibillion dollar taxpayer bailout recipient Citigroup is buying a fancy new jet! Oh god so angry!

Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed.

Even though the bank's stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas and it's burning through a $45 billion taxpayer-funded rescue, the airhead execs pushed through the purchase of a new Dassault Falcon 7X, according to a source familiar with the deal.

Luxuriate in the fires of your media-stoked rage, common Americans. It is the only satisfaction you'll get. [NYT, NYP]

From an unpaid photographer on the email list:

Dave Mays, by the way, is a guy who founded The Source while he was a student at Harvard, and built it into one of the most respected hip hop magazines ever—until he let it all go to hell. Benzino is a Boston thug rapper-turned-magazine exec who came in and helped run The Source into the ground, doing things like inserting features about his own rap group into the magazine just before publication. He has inspired much fear in writer types during his media career. The highlight of Benzino's hip hop career is probably being dissed by Eminem in this song:

[More on the fallout from Thaddaeus McAdams at Exclusive Access]

HHW, we hear, has trouble paying its vendors, writers, and photographers. Or just doesn't want to. Either way, lots of people who have done work for the magazine are pissed at it. So it was pretty dumb for HHW to (mistakenly?) blast out an invitation to its 50th issue release party to a long list of contributors who hadn't been paid yet. Cue the responses!

And the kicker:

That's why you should pay people for their work.

[UPDATE: And possibly there will be some sort of protest rally]:

"The lawsuit filed yesterday is filled with frivolous and unfounded allegations, and I hope every partner in this company is as outraged as I am at having to spend the time and money required to defend ourselves against it. The media industry is in crisis, the advertising environment is extremely difficult and the economy is in turmoil. The overwhelming majority of our employees have taken up the challenge — they are working hard, leading by example, and devoting themselves to re-inventing our businesses by developing new and innovative products for our readers, viewers and advertisers. As a company we are attacking our problems and revolutionizing the media industry.

"This lawsuit is a mere distraction, and we will work quickly to see that
it is dismissed. It will not deter us from completing the work ahead."

[via Adrants. Entire penny campaign is here]

Jackson Hewitt says: Taxes make you break things.

Southwest: God damn airlines and their fees!

But anger only goes so far:

Among the ads in the Southwest campaign was one featuring a mock coupon that read, “Don’t #$*!% me over,” which appeared above a declaration that “Southwest is the only airline that accepts this coupon.” That ad, however, was withdrawn.

Assholes! God!

[NYT]

An abridged version of the infamous anonymous comment:

The last time I looked, BusinessWeek.com boasted a news editor who formerly worked at STAR magazine, has her shelves covered with Barbie dolls, has decorated her office in leopard skin prints and was the chief water-fetcher and gossip retailer to Kathy Rebello, whom Byrne replaced after she managed to fill the site with click-fraud slide shows that artificially boosted traffic while alienating BW’s traditional audience of investment-savvy readers.

Rebello also managed to drive off 90% of the staff she inherited from Bob Arnold, largely because they had been hired by him, not her. Complaints of abuse, overwork, and gratuitous slanders peddled by her “pod squad” of underlings landed on the HR department’s desk with such frequency during Rebello’s tenure that even someone so manifestly out of touch as Steve Adler eventually had to do something about it — the first step being to quit penning officewide herograms about the great job she was doing, the second to appoint Byrne.

Mind you, Byrne’s appointment also made considerable financial sense: Given BW’s parlous financial state, McGraw-Hill could ill afford to keep sending multi-year severance checks to abused staffers who lawyered up on the way out.

Sadly, BW.com can’t be taken too seriously while the Rebello influence lingers, and while Byrne is a lovely man, that “reader engagement” stuff is but a ploy to present chicken droppings as chicken salad.

Yes, it’s nice that stories are getting lots of comments. But are the bulk twitterings of internetland’s keyboard ticklers really the metric for judging the success of magazine site — a magazine that was once, and not so long ago, a peer of The Economist, both in terms of analysis and influence?

I can’t really believe that Byrne believes what he is saying, not in his heart of hearts. It’s his duty as a good company man to put the best spin of things, and that’s what he has done.

When he cleans out the Rebello apparatchiks — one was a humble conference organizer before embarking on a new career as a mad woman’s sycophant — then you will know that BW.com means business.

Context from a tipster:

Incidentally, the BW senior editor who worked at Star magazine is Patricia O'Connell...(at Star she was famous for once taking a week off when her cat got sick).The napkin-folding ex-conference planner is the celebrated Martin Keohan, who I remember as leaping up from his desk and racing to the vending machine whenever Rebello would stick a hand holding an empty water bottle out the door of her office. She didn't even have to say a word to get the little brown-noser off and sprinting.

Anybody have any more information on Rebello or BW's problems in general? Email us.

[Talking Biz News]