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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

News The Wednesday Morning News

Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:56 AM

In Favor of Killing Saturday Postal Delivery: On Slate, Matthew Yglesias doesn't share Paul's astute analysis (Paul says USPS's problems are a manufactured problem caused by onerous retirement obligations, not a result of Saturday delivery). But Yglesias calls cutting Saturday postal service "a perfectly reasonable idea that will improve USPS' budgetary situation."

Do You Have to Give Your Boss Your Facebook Password? One Washington legislator says no.

A Super-Duper Port Commissioner? William Pontius has filed for an open seat on the Port of Seattle Commission. He's a "former Mr. Gay World USA, Mr. Neighbours, and 'Best Sex' winner at the Stranger's amateur porn fest HUMP!, he's also featured in Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' 'Same Love' video."

BLM Officers Shall Be Outfitted Entirely in Gortex: President Barack Obama will nominate Sally Jewell, REI's president and CEO, for Secretary of the Interior.

It's All Fun and Games Until... "A simple length of rope tore off the fingers of two teenagers during a schoolyard tug-of-war staged to boost campus spirit."

GOP Congressman Reichert: Wants you to know Ronald Reagan would be really, really demented today if he weren't dead:

Today is Ronald Reagan’s 102nd Birthday.His life and legacy remind us of the need for tax reform and economic growth. #RequireAPlan
— Dave Reichert (@davereichert) February 6, 2013

BUT HE'S WEARING A VANS T-SHIRT? A baker in Gresham, Oregon, won't bake a wedding cake for lesbians because Jesusbiblegod...

Yelp Might Not Be Completely Useless: Yelpers hit back at the aforementioned baker with bad reviews. Here's some of what they wrote:

A gander at the recent Yelp entries for Sweet Cakes shows something far more chilling to a business owner than accusations of discrimination – it’s single stars. Lots and lots of single stars. A reviewer complains about the bakery’s “bigoted behavior,” after excoriating it because “Your cakes are dry and tasteless. Nobody ever likes your cakes.” A reviewer from Portland adds, “Stale, dry cupcakes. Also didn’t appreciate the homophobia.”

Truth Be Told: Yelp is still pretty useless.

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Comments (23) RSS

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Yelp has many annoyances, but to call it completely useless is a bit ridiculous.

How useful would you describe the Stranger's own Restaurant and Dining guide?

Posted by stinkbug on February 6, 2013 at 9:17 AM

@1) Perfect in every way, thank you for asking.

Posted by Dominic Holden on February 6, 2013 at 9:19 AM

I don't get this whole thing about employers asking for employees facebook passwords.

Just tell them you don't use facebook. Problem solved. If they find your account tell them it's not yours, you don't know who set it up.

Of course, nobody should ever, EVER, accept a job from a POS employer who would demand their employee's passwords. But I know times are tough and sometimes people have to take what they can get.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on February 6, 2013 at 9:27 AM

That Hump!lebrity Pontius is running for Port commissioner is the awesomest result possible from the Port having run a banner ad for candidates on the Stranger website.

Williams's website is a marvel: he's a "CONNECTOR * SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT * ACTOR * SOCIAL ACTIVIST * MODEL * PHILANTHROPIST * PRODUCER". And possibly the public sort of Christian, if the large cross necklace in his lightly-photoshopped front page photo is any indication. http://williampontius.com

This is gonna be fun!

Posted by gloomy gus on February 6, 2013 at 9:45 AM

Five bucks says this douche is a Mars Hillbilly. Faux hipsterism + virulent bigotry = Marc Driscoll in a nutshell.

Posted by Die Marc Die on February 6, 2013 at 9:46 AM

I met William Pontius at last year's SIFF closing night gala. Dude's an asshole.

Posted by DOUG.

on February 6, 2013 at 9:48 AM

The xtian blowhards have panicked about the guvment forcing them to support gay weddings. Hopefully as time goes by and attitudes change, social opprobrium will be a better stick. Unfortunately I doubt that will ever happen in some parts of our country.

Posted by wxPDX on February 6, 2013 at 9:53 AM

That dude should totally make cakes for Mark Driscoll

Posted by Westside forever on February 6, 2013 at 10:00 AM

@3: Unless they've seen that do you have a Facebook page. But you're right.
And any software company concerned about security, like that one in Redmond for example, would never ask a job candidate for a their password.

Posted by Phoebe in Wallingford on February 6, 2013 at 10:13 AM

@3: I didn't read your comment thoroughly enough, sorry.

Posted by Phoebe in Wallingford on February 6, 2013 at 10:20 AM

christians are stupid and evil. let's them choke on their crazy hate cake.

Posted by Adrian Ryan on February 6, 2013 at 10:29 AM

I see a tattoo, I'm pretty sure Leviticus has some prohibitions against that

Posted by TORMATO on February 6, 2013 at 10:32 AM

First, another one of those rare times when Paul Constant is actually correct about something; Slate, and Matthew Yglesias are both super-douchey --- Slate has always been a stealth neocon rag. Period!

Do You Have to Give Your Boss Your Facebook Password?

The fact that this question/action is even being raised suggests how terrible things have devolved in Amerika! But there is another, slightly more subtle truth: the reason they are now demanding such a privacy invasion is because that Boeing subsidiary, Narus, who coded software to data mine and spy across all of Facebook, is offering said data at cost, which is still too high for many criminal (and cheapo) corporations, so they want this stuff for free.

(Narus is a leading Internet spy firm, a leader in Deep Packet Inspection technology.)

While it is sad anyone lost their fingers, perhaps if poorly conditioned youth would show a bit more wariness in pursuit of physical activities, such a sad thing wouldn't occur?

Posted by sgt_doom on February 6, 2013 at 10:40 AM

Hey what happened to Dan's drunken post from last night begging us to vote for Eli? Who is he? Did he win?

Posted by pfffter on February 6, 2013 at 10:50 AM

Jeebus, Sgt Doom, is your tinfoil hat on so goddamn tight it's cutting off the blood to your brain...?

Posted by Dr_Awesome on February 6, 2013 at 10:52 AM

@14 he was some guy with abs. No idea.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on February 6, 2013 at 10:53 AM

"Paul says USPS's problems are a manufactured problem caused by onerous retirement obligations"

Well, it's true. Their problems stem entirely from Republican attempts to destroy and privatize them.

Posted by undead ayn rand on February 6, 2013 at 11:33 AM

I wish I knew if the five-star reviews from people with only one review and from out of state as well are considering this gem of a credo from Sweet Cakes' Facebook when they share their support. I wonder if the woman with the avatar of an African-American, who supports Sweet Cakes, supports the shop because they hate people of her avatar's perceived racial identity.

Posted by Keister Button on February 6, 2013 at 11:39 AM

Yelp has been pulling comments. They pulled mine.

Posted by Just Jeff

on February 6, 2013 at 11:56 AM

First class mail should be more like $10 to deliver. The availability of email would allow the USPS to raise rates and have our Constitutional mandate met.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on February 6, 2013 at 11:57 AM

@2, agree. Yelp is useless. How can you have a site where someone can create a profile to make three one-star reviews, does this woman look like she works in fashion?

http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=…

Look at this freak, who creates a profile to review Walgreen's?

http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=…

Posted by biffp on February 6, 2013 at 11:58 AM

@3- If you don't have a Facebook profile, they won't hire you. They want access and control of your personal life.

Posted by dwightmoodyforgetsthings

on February 6, 2013 at 1:28 PM

People have lost hands and arms in tug-of-war contests. Don't Google that or you'll be sorry.

Nonetheless, doom, it's generally perceived as a "safe" physical activity, no? Plus, they were children. Plus plus, they were doing it for school spirit and whatnot. Also, what does "poorly-conditioned" mean in this context? You know, some of your paranoid ranting is unpleasant to read but usually makes "some" sense. So I leave it alone.

Here, you just sound like an asshole implying that the kids had it coming to lose 4 or 5 fingers.

Posted by Sandiai on February 6, 2013 at 3:56 PM