It would appear (depending on where you live) that fewer things are considered bad behavior.

Greek disabled groups are angry at a government decision to expand a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs.

But the Labor Ministry on Monday said categories added to the expanded list — that also includes pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists — were included for purposes of medical assessment and used as a gauge for allocating financial assistance.

So, not only are child molesters, flashers, and thieves now considered “disabled”, but they actually get subsidized. The fact that Greece is broke may mean there’s a whole lot more of this kind of behavior than the rest of the world (that’s bailing them out) knows.

No Pants Day 2012: commuters around the world leave their trousers at home
There are some people who should not leave home without them
(then again, there are always exceptions)

I know a lot of people use Twitter and keep others apprised of their activities and thoughts, but (in my opinion) there’s one sentence that should never be used because it implies an almost narcissistic assumption that people actually care:

I’m back.

Don’t say it. Just pick up Tweeting where you left off. You may not be able to handle the fact that people didn’t know or care that you were gone in the first place.

In response to Salvation Army Troop Withdrawal

Most lingerie firms might choose a Victoria’s Secret-esque bombshell to model its latest push-up bra. But though Dutch department store Hema has certainly cast a beauty in its new lingerie campaign, the fact that star model Andrej Pejic is actually a man makes him an unlikely choice.

It looks like the Dutch may soon give Thais a run for their money in this department.

Proposed S. Korean Towers Resemble Exploding World Trade Center
“It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks,” the designers insist, “nor did we see the resemblance during the design process.”
Not good to have architecture designed the dumb and blind

Adam Carolla culminates what we’ve been saying for years…

Not to totally single out Carla but we often hear single liberal black women complaining about the lack of eligible black men out there. Maybe some of them shouldn’t be so damn picky.

Personally, I’m sick and tired of these cosmetic calls for “civility” in our public discourse. It’ll never happen and not because we enjoy conflict but because civility is not in our nature as a people. Incivility is something we practice and tolerate every day.

I’ve touched on this a few times over the years but this time I’ll share an experience and give it the time it deserves to make a point.

If I were king tomorrow, I would address several of my personal pet peeves and issue some edicts just because I could. One (sure to piss off half the population immediately) would be that from January 1st to June 30th, women had to date men. I figured I’d cut them some slack and not make them financially responsible for the major holidays.

Ladies, imagine your having to decide what to get your Valentine this year? Granted, there may be some of you out there who look at Valentine’s Day as a mutual evolution, but most women relish the fact they are on the receiving end of that holiday. Failure to live up to expectations can result in dire consequences, sometimes irreconcilable consequences to a relationship. Yeah, that may sound petty but reality is another thing.

Getting back on topic, the way men and women are presently expected to interact creates winners and losers based almost exclusively on superficial attributes and sometimes brings out the worst in our personalities. Some of us become introverts just to avoid the bullshit. On the other hand, some people become unnecessarily shallow. Some become too nice and some become mean, just because they can, and that becomes part of our daily narrative.

In February of 1986, I left the planet Earth for seven days and found myself in an environment totally foreign to anything I’d ever experienced, or have experienced since. My ship, the USS Midway, dropped anchor in Pattaya Beach, Thailand. Under normal circumstances, all I would remember is heat and humidity and would be totally unimpressed by yet another tropical paradise.

But Pattaya Beach was different, and I’m not sure if this was a regional or cultural custom, but I was soon to find myself in a place where everyone had to be nice to each other.

Because of my at-sea work hours, I decided to miss the long lines to get the crew off the carrier upon arrival and got a good few hours sleep. Hours later, when I did leave, there were no lines and the small boat that took us ashore was almost empty.

I hardly had set foot on dry land for thirty seconds when a gorgeous woman approached me and asked if I had a girlfriend. When I answered in the negative, she asked if she could assume that role as she took my arm. Sorry, but that just doesn’t happen everyday to most of us guys here.

For the next six out of seven days (one day I had to return to the ship for what must have been the longest duty day ever), I was with a really nice woman to asked me what I wanted to do, took me out for dinner, etc. Opening doors was a little awkward as there are some things I still do for women, despite their custom.

You see, the rule there was simple: the woman dated the man. Should they get married, the man would support the woman. But unlike here, women took most of the risks.

At one point, we went to a bar and my “girlfriend” excused herself to the ladies room. Unbeknownst to myself, I had just become meat. For the next five minutes, I got hit on four times (an astonishing number by American standards) and when I apologized and told the last chick I was waiting for someone, that’s when it hit me.

As I found myself in the rarest of situations (rejecting the advances of a beautiful and now visibly dejected woman), I saw myself in her position as the person who exposed my emotions to a total stranger. I would never give her the once over and then say “no” with an expression on my face like I still haven’t found what smells so bad. I would never laugh at her and walk away. I might make up a polite excuse, but the point is I wouldn’t go out of my way to be mean.

And don’t get me wrong, Fabio-lookin’ assholes treat women with incivility everyday, so it’s not to say only women are jerks. The point is we are taught to live with incivility. Incivility is a scar that penetrates down to our emotional level and it’s something we’re expected to deal with. Imagine a country (if I were king) where for at least half the year, the shoe would be on the other foot and we’d have to respect each others feelings because we’d near equally know what it was like to have them smashed on a rock?

Hopefully, that would trickle down through all facets of our society including politics. I really don’t think some of us care what incivility will do to someone else. Some could clearly care less what it does to not only the target, but their wives (and or husbands), relatives, colleagues, and friends. Personally, I think more of us need to have our emotions smashed on rocks so we’d know how it felt before doing it to someone else.

As the Thailand experience is one that will never be replicated in the United States, there’s no mechanism to allow us to mutually respect each other on the base level. Without that kind of respect, the door is still wide open for the choice of between being nice, respectful, mean, and/or uncivil to each other.

Why should we then expect our political discourse be any different?

Just because YOU drive a Prius and YOU’re better-than-the-rest-of-us because YOU’re saving the planet, doesn’t mean YOU can just cut off anyone on the road. Semi tractor trailers don’t brake on a dime just because YOU are now in its path and rudeness can cost YOU your better-than-the-rest-of-us life.

Kim Kardashian Superstar: Mystery buyer looks buy rights to sex tape
I wonder what her late father would think knowing a sex tape is the only reason his daughter is “rich and famous”… then again, we are talking L.A.

Hot mama! Jessica Alba shines as she gets oiled up in sexy magazine cover
And why do we sexually sell people who are taken? (That was a rhetorical)

Life isn’t fair, but of course when the left starts toying around with ideas, regulations and laws usually aren’t far behind.

Why not offer legal protections to the ugly, as we do with racial, ethnic and religious minorities, women and handicapped individuals?

We actually already do offer such protections in a few places, including in some jurisdictions in California, and in the District of Columbia, where discriminatory treatment based on looks in hiring, promotions, housing and other areas is prohibited. Ugliness could be protected generally in the United States by small extensions of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Ugly people could be allowed to seek help from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other agencies in overcoming the effects of discrimination. We could even have affirmative-action programs for the ugly.

I could be okay with that, with conditions. Self-inflicted ugliness (see pic) would have to be an automatic disqualifier.

DC, I worked near Northridge, I knew Northridge, Northridge was a neighbor of mine. DC, you’re no Northridge.

Bert and Ernie strictly ‘best friends’ insists Sesame Street after petition asks for them to marry
Activists actually wanted puppets to marry. Reality check

So, those who can afford more are being told to pay their fair share to support people like this?

h/t Jessica S

Peter Parker’s been killed off and Spider-Man will be back. But is Marvel issuing an Election 2012 message that half-black is still cool (if you know what they mean), and is that going far enough…?

He started life as a white science geek living with his uncle. But now to reflect the racial changes in America Spider Man has been given a makeover – as a half black half Latino teen. Miles Morales has replaced Peter Parker as the face behind the famous webbed mask, Marvel Comics has revealed.

But another surprise could be in the pipeline after his creators said that in the future they would not rule out making him gay.

It’s obvious they’re going to do whatever they can to push their personal agendas whether we like it or not.

Oops, it’s a £700,000 prang… Hapless blonde crashes her Bentley into a Merc, Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin
No amount of make-up sex will garner much forgiveness here

Yet one more reason I don’t care for New York City.

Now that’s a whopper: World’s largest hamburger tips scales at 777lbs with more than a MILLION calories
The massive 777lb burger – which included a 110lb bun, 20lbs of onions, 12lbs of pickles and 30lbs of lettuce – beat the previous record holder, a Canadian creation that weighed a measly 595lbs.

Hungry?