Saturday News Briefs

News you can use all weekend

• Numbers - And now it can be told: the GOP held onto their seats through gerrymandering. The counts keep coming in and the Democrats won more than 1,000,000 votes than the GOP, but they kept their seats through a massive gerrymandering effort. (Think Progress)
• Law Suits - Famous writing person, Dana Loesch, is suing Breitbart.com to free her from her contract and is seeking $75,000 in damages:

  St. Louis talk radio host Dana Loesch, also a frequent guest on CNN, alleges in the suit filed in federal district court in St. Louis that the site is refusing to publish her work while "sabotag[ing] her attempts to labor in a similar fashion elsewhere through public misstatements and private threats to sue those who would otherwise employ Loesch."

  Breitbart's ghost has a sad. (BuzzFeed)

• Reprimands - "DECEMBER 21--A federal employee was formally reprimanded this month for excessive workplace flatulence, a sanction that was delivered to him in a five-page letter that actually included a log of representative dates and times when he was recorded “releasing the awful and unpleasant odor” in his Baltimore office." (The Smoking Gun)

Comments

[pansypoo]

santa pet photos is so stupid. actually animal abuse. child abuse too.

[bo]

Sure the source of the last bullet wasn't The Smoking Bum?

[montag]

Is there a maximum allowable limit for flatulence in federal offices? Enquiring minds, and all that. How's it measured? Parts per million? Is there an official federal U.S. Nose that determines pungency? Would you be similarly punished if, say, your farts smelled like lilacs, instead of, oh, rotting cabbage and stale beer?

What, in fact, precipitated the disciplinary action? Did this person drive his co-workers out for air? Set off gas leak alarms? Trigger the Department of Homeland Security's Biowatch system? Give off clouds visible from the space station? What?

[hauksdottir]

Excessive and nauseatingly odiferous flatulence is sometimes a health issue, and sometimes a side effect of medication. Also, there are products that REALLY relieve bloating and gas. Before formally reprimanding an employee, especially if the employee was a good worker, a sensitive HR person might delicately inquire about possible medical issues.

Flatulence is a normal part of the digestive process. Most of us try to be discreet. However, some people deliberately fart. George W Bush was a truly bullying jerk about making visitors to the Oval Office uncomfortable. If this employee's farts were recorded and time-stamped, he was quite possibly being deliberately obnoxious. Whether closed office or open cubicle, making his co-workers suffer can't be tolerated... the cause must be addressed.