Here are two stories from today's New York Times about law-enforcement priorities and matters of public outrage in New York City. The first is a front-page news story, describing the prosecution of a 22-year-man in Brooklyn who violently kicked a cat and posted a video of the kicking to Facebook:

That Lars von Trier certainly discombobulates people who watch his movies! For instance, there's Peter Debruge, chief international film critic of Variety, who just wrote his review of von Trier's four-hour Nymphomaniac, which includes the following passage:

A man forced to abandon his yacht after running into a reef and nearly capsizing chose to help his dog ashore before returning to rescue his wife.

I'll tell you something about a lot of people that just might surprise you: people can't figure things out. Sometimes I look at people like, "Man, you are just not right with that." People don't understand things much, is the problem. People don't know.

If there's one thing in the world that Arizona needs right now, it's an official state gun. Another totally normal state, Utah has one, so it's only fitting that Arizona followed suit. Governor Jan Brewer yesterday signed the important bill into law making the classic Colt Single Action Army Revolver the state gun.…

As John Boehner cries for America in these trying times on the Hill, it looks like a government shutdown will mean that US troops serving overseas will only get half their pay (or maybe even less) until a later date. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is in Iraq today, and had to break the news to servicemembers. The …

The MTA is redesigning its service advisory posters to give NYC subway riders a clearer idea of which lines are fucked. But they're refusing calls to cut off those ceaseless shrieking emergency-exit gate alarms. Don't want to improve too much!

The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association — besides fighting over 400 teacher layoffs in the school district — is locked in a legal fight to reinstate taxpayer funded Viagra, which would cost nearly $1 million. Or jobs for about 25 teachers.

Despite the fact that old people are mathematically closer to death than the rest of us, they just keep clinging to life—and taxpayer dollars. Finally, that may be changing. But the olds are living longer than ever. Thanks, jerks!

In order to "take some of the angst out of" the subway experience, the MTA has spent nearly $400 million on those countdown clocks that tell you when the next train is coming. (No time soon.) [NYT. Pic via]

Because Congress is populated by venal idiots, the estate tax expires on January 1, 2010 only to rise again on January 1, 2011. So rich old people everywhere are deliberately engineering their lives to end during the next calendar year.

The Way We Live Now: Misprioritized. We blow our emergency cash on suits. We spend all our time thinking about the lottery. We acquire stress ulcers while our wealth actually grows. Straighten up and fly right—for America.

A third murder committed by a right-wing extremist? Eh, worth a link, sure. Obama administration takes a "half step" to let shareholders have a say in executive compensation? Fire up the siren.