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Soon There Will Be No Excuse For Not Having a Crappy Job
Kids Heed Government's Call to Smoke Menthols
The Path From Failed Farmer to Harvard Lawyer Just Got More Perilous
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New Jersey Representing Hardcore in Medical Marijuana Wars
Making It Rain With Trickle-Down Economics
Starving Artists' Souls Never Die, Although Their Bodies Do, By Starving

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MissNormaDesmond
12:02 AM

In reply to Soon There Will Be No Excuse For Not Having a Crappy Job
The Times was being kind to the Tour d'Argent, I think. Sure, some of their problem probably comes from the recession, but they lost two of their three stars, their revenues would be way down no matter what the economy was doing.

Sidenote: doesn't Tour d'Argent mean Tower of Money? Because whoa, irony.
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kappakappaspankme
12/04/09

In reply to Soon There Will Be No Excuse For Not Having a Crappy Job
I have absolutely no problems with paying tax. That said...I wish my money didn't have to benefits asshats like the sign holder.

Some want to opt out of Social Security because they think they can manage their money better than the Government. I want to opt out in the name of spite.
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miss_msry
12/04/09

In reply to Soon There Will Be No Excuse For Not Having a Crappy Job
And my sign says:

"I'd Love to Be Overtaxed and Socialist If I knew When I'd Have My Next Meal."
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Anne Boleyn
12/04/09

@miss_msry: Seriously. That's the first thing that came to mind: that person has NEVER gone hungry for lack of money.
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miss_msry
12/04/09

@[gawker.com]

That's pretty obvious considering this sign wasn't inked in their own saliva and blood and excrement. Which is pretty much all the poors have left with which to communicate.
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Edited by miss_msry at 12/04/09 6:34 PM miss_msry was starred miss_msry was unstarred

ParahSalin
12/04/09

@miss_msry: My sign says "I'd rather have scurvy and rickets than affordable healthcare because I'm a dumbass who thinks lowering taxes on billionaires is actually going to stimulate the economy or help my sorry, sick ass in any way." On the other side it says "Go Tigers."
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Brad Brown
12/04/09

In reply to Soon There Will Be No Excuse For Not Having a Crappy Job
My backup plan is pornography, but the details of that plan are sketchy.
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Beau Nerd
12/04/09

@Brad Brown: Back it up, Brown.
[The Awl]
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ParahSalin
12/04/09

@Brad Brown: My backup plan was moving to Northern California and growing pot, but after pot is legalized the market will just be taken over by Archer Midlands or Smithfield Farms. I may have to join you in the porn, but I've heard times are getting hard (no pun intended) for the pornmeisters because there is too much free stuff on the internets. I'm thinking Ponzi scheme may be the way to go.
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MyNameIsChris
12/04/09

In reply to Soon There Will Be No Excuse For Not Having a Crappy Job
Something tells me this person isn't overtaxed. It also seems like they ran into a space problem with the final "t."
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AnnaZed
12/04/09

@MyNameIsChris: More like a plug-ignorant illiteracy problem (spelled socialist as "socialis" ~ not the first time I have seen that) patched up at the ninth hour. No wonder the poor bastard is unemployable.
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nozer
12/04/09

@MyNameIsChris: Their brain might be, though.
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momof3wildkids
12/04/09

@AnnaZed: Yep, I've seen communiss too.
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Btwbfdimho
12/04/09

In reply to Soon There Will Be No Excuse For Not Having a Crappy Job
Sarah?
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lobstr
12/04/09

In reply to Soon There Will Be No Excuse For Not Having a Crappy Job
how the hell is OTB $80m in debt when (according to the article) they make $1b in bets every year? Don't they take a cut on the payout? Unless Monty Brewster rolled in and put $50,000 on every longshot to win at Aqueduct, how the hell is it a losing business?
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MissNormaDesmond
12/04/09

@lobstr: Any business can lose money if it spends more money than it takes in. Something tells me that gamblers and low overhead don't go together.
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Maxichamp
12/04/09

In reply to Kids Heed Government's Call to Smoke Menthols
What is the deal with menthols? It's like smoking cold air conditioned air.
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Helio
12/04/09

@Maxichamp: i feel the same way. If you really want to freshen your breath, don't smoke or keep some tic tacs handy.
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Banjo-Sea Kitten
12/04/09

@Maxichamp: whereas I feel like I'm going to be doing a threesome with two handsome hair models up in the crisp, cool pines.
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AzureTexan
12/04/09

In reply to Kids Heed Government's Call to Smoke Menthols
I don't know about you guys, but I really miss the Very Berry Opioids and the Tutti-Frutti Phenobarbitol.
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BadUncle
12/04/09

@AzureTexan: My childhood was one endless Saturday morning in front of the TV set, with a bowl of Honey Comb Methodone.
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AzureTexan
12/04/09

@BadUncle: And who can forget Kellog's Banana Nut Barbiturates?
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Perhaps Not
12/04/09

@AzureTexan: I was more of a Lucky Shards man, myself. Picking the marshmallows out of the fiberglass was my favorite part of a balanced breakfast.
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AzureTexan
12/04/09

@Perhaps Not: Yeah, and remember the new improved Lucky Shards?

"Now with more asbestos!"
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ShanghaiLil
12/03/09

In reply to Every Healthy Action Bound to Backfire
I used to get sexually harassed at the gym. There was an employee there who would offer me free tanning on the unspoken condition that he got to "check in" midway through and peep at my junk. Then I turned thirty, and it stopped happening. I miss all that...
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Atilla the Bun
12/03/09

In reply to The Path From Failed Farmer to Harvard Lawyer Just Got More Perilous
As I think has been discussed here before, many big firms are paying some of their associates or soon-to-be associates about 1/3 of their salary (which is still quite a lot) to work for a year or two in the public sector before working at the firm (though who knows if their jobs will still be there when they are done). As a result, I've heard that many public sector jobs have more lawyers applying than they can use.

So this situation at Harvard may suck for some 3Ls who never tried to get a big-firm job in the first place, but I don't think it is hurting the public sector too much, at least not for the time being.
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GaythamWatkins
12/03/09

@Atilla the Bun: It'll hurt the public sector when all of those people head back to the firms at the end of their exile, and all of the people who wanted to work for the public sector are too frozen in their boxes under the BQE (one of New York's classier expressways) to lateral.
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heywhat
12/03/09

In reply to The Path From Failed Farmer to Harvard Lawyer Just Got More Perilous
This is such a shame. I know many law students who have a strong desire to work in the public sector but it's just not a realistic option for them. The monstrous student loan debt means they would have to make some very hard sacrifices. There are very few public sector jobs that pay a decent wage that allows them to pay off their debt and still be able to eat anything other than beans from a can. I know NYU had a terrific loan repayment program for their law students that only required them to work 3 years at a non-profit or public sector job. I hope they won't have to curtail or cancel their entire program as well. I wouldn't blame Harvard students if they decided to chase after Larry Summers with pitchforks and torches.
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grahameday
12/03/09

@heywhat: I graduated from NYU five years ago, and they changed their loan repayment program during my final year. It used to require that students commit to work five years in the public sector, and they increased it to ten. Whether, and how much is repaid on one's loans by their program is based on a sliding scale, depending on how much you make. It's quite complicated now, particularly for those who want to be stay-at-home mothers or fathers for a year or two and then return to work in the public sector again.
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GaythamWatkins
12/03/09

@heywhat: Not to indulge too much in Negative Nancyhood, but NYU's repayment program isn't nearly that good. NYU does have the Root/Tilden/Kern scholarships--ones that, more often than not, go to a bunch of Those Kids who spend years irritating the heck out of you in Constitutional Law and Federal Courts, when they're not bolting to Yale the first chance they get--but the rest of the public interest rank-and-file have to deal with an LRAP plan that doesn't necessarily cover all loans and makes it functionally impossible to work for the federal government (whose starting salaries tend to be just high enough to make the LRAP contribution negligible). Add to this the huge number of deferred BigLaw associates who are pretending to care about gays/the environment/the homeless for a year before returning to Skadden for perpetual M&A, and you have one terrifyingly nerve-wracking public-interest job search for current 3Ls.

Bitter? Me? Never.
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heywhat
12/04/09

@GaythamWatkins: Thanks for this. My knowledge of NYU's loan repayment program was second and third hand. I didn't know it was so cumbersome. Whenever any school talks about starting a loan repayment program they always point to NYU's as the most successful model. You're right about all of the BigLaw associates who are ruining the job market for people who actually want to work in the public sector. Whenever I hear my friends complaining about their job prospects, I always ask why the BigLaw types are even getting jobs since everyone knows they will bolt the second the economy rebounds. I always get the same answer: a law degree from a prestigious school and/or good GPAs, law review ect. trump everything. It's like employers are label whores and only care about the superficial stuff.
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heywhat
12/04/09

@grahameday: I didn't know it was ten years. You would never know from the way they market their LRAP program that they are not fully committed to helping lawyers who want to serve in the public sector but are not financially able.
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econdave
12/03/09

In reply to The Path From Failed Farmer to Harvard Lawyer Just Got More Perilous
I'm sorry, these urbanites/suburbanites who move to the country are morons. Farming's hard work, there's not much money in it, and there's a reason why rural areas are dying off.
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thatgirlinnewyork
12/03/09

In reply to The Path From Failed Farmer to Harvard Lawyer Just Got More Perilous
isn't the new federal tuition loan program providing some forgiveness for those JDs who pledge to serve not-for-profits?
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Z und Vielpunkt's chick
12/03/09

In reply to The Path From Failed Farmer to Harvard Lawyer Just Got More Perilous
I wish my law school had this program. Why didn't I go to Harvard? Oh, right.
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