... that the contracts contained clauses saying that if the bonuses were not paid on time, then they would have to pay three or four times the amount as a late penalty.

This seems a very strange thing for a company to put into an agreement to pay a retention bonus, and even stranger if several of the recipients left the company and still received the bonus, because you would certainly expect non-competition clauses and penalties for leaving the company when you had received a huge retention bonus.

Makes you wonder if these contracts weren't so one sided as to not constitute valid contracts. Clearly if you pay someone to do something--like not quit--you have an expectation that the service of not quitting will be performed.

I commented elsewhere days ago that the supertax would only apply to US citizens.

I would really like to see a list of the recipients.

...have the capacity to perceive Brown as a troubled young man with little education dealing with the absurd idolization that is thrust upon pop stars. At least the Beatles had a sense of humor about it, and they were older too.

But then again, no one seems to be considering or discussing the possibility of underage drinking or substance abuse in this case, which is commonly linked with domestic violence.

If Rihanna is smart, she will learn that there is no good to be got from looking at a guy's cell phone. If he is a dog, then he is a dog and you will never make him a faithful boyfriend by making scenes. Better to walk away from him.

If Brown is smart, he will learn that he will do better with a girlfriend who is out of the limelight and not in any kind of career competition with him.

Although Rihanna is the one with the bruises, it is Brown who is now the marked man, and he cannot afford to have anything like this happen again. Hopefully it will be a learning experience for him and he will be doing his community service in a battered woman's shelter.

Please stop referring to a condomn as a "little piece of plastic".

Actually most condoms are made of rubber, not plastic, though you can get some polyurethane ones which are a bit more pricey.

This is important to remember, because you cannot use an oil-based lubricant with a rubber condom. You have to use a water based one. With the polyurethane I think oil-based is OK.

...with demographic changes, for example the growing Hispanic population, where early motherhood is pretty normal.

... is that although $169 million is a drop in the ocean, it is symbolic of the way the people who run financial organizations have been looting the companies where they work for their own personal benefit.

A drop in the ocean, yes, but a bonus of $1 million would be life changing money for most Americans and in many cases make early retirement possible, or at least purchase great security for a family.

But the key point is that the people who run financial institutions have been setting up the system and selling products designed primarily to enrich themselves.

I had a glimpse of this many, many years ago when I had a job selling life insurance to students. After only a few weeks I was aware that the type of policies we were selling were not the most suitable for the students, but they were the ones that yielded the most commission, and not just for people like me at the bottom of the pyramid, but for those who were higher in the organization who might continue to reap commissions from my sales many years after I had quit the company.

I also discovered that our most successful salesman did not use the approved script, but just lied totally about the policies we were selling, reducing a 20-minute presentation to one minute.

Obviously I wasn't cut out for that type of work, but just saying.

It seems to me that a lot of the same thing has been going on with credit default swaps, fancy mortgages, and so on.

This is why people are angry at the individuals who are getting these huge bonuses. Maybe they are the financial equivalent of brain surgeons, but they have killed too many patients to be made financially comfortable.

If the 'Jesus People' in this article would really look at what he taught they would realize quickly that he didn't judge anyone and he didn't believe you needed to be fixed. He just spoke of the truth of everyone's inner self, which was flowing through his inner self.

Well, the only source of biography of Jesus that we have is the 4 Gospels, and I would like to refer you in particular to the bitter and vituperative Jesus depicted in the Gospel of Matthew, he who curses a fig tree, drives a herd of pigs over a cliff, demonizes the foolish virgins, and predicts disaster for the goats who are not sheep.

Actually he sounds exactly like the Dayton Beach ranters. Admittedly you can find some lines in the Gospels that portray Jesus differently, like the "Kingdom of Heaven is within you" line from Luke, or the metaphysical ravings of John's Gospel, but the most likely to be true version is that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet who believed that the end of the world was nigh and that only the good sheep would be saved.