SR is right. The people for whom sin taxes would make up the highest percent of their income are poor people, hooked on cigarettes and whatever other habits that comfort their otherwise bleak lives.

And anon is right that it's the dancers that represent the "flexibility" for the club owners; it's the women who need the work that get screwed.

It's bizarre in this country that we seek to make taxation a bad thing that, wherever possible, should be drawn from bad behavior. I'm an environmentalist, but hiking gas taxes isn't gonna change the fact that a single mother in poverty, whose only job and living options are on opposite sides of a town with no public transit, will still have to buy it.

We should be proud of paying taxes, and more careful about spending it in ways that help the most people (e.g. public transit). Crap like this stripper tax is just political posturing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6376639.stm

US 'Iran attack plans' revealed

US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.

It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.

The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions.

But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.

That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say.

Two triggers

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.

Natanz, Iran

The Natanz plant is buried under concrete, metal and earth

Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.

Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to penetrate the Natanz site, which is buried some 25m (27 yards) underground.

The BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the news that there are now two possible triggers for an attack is a concern to Iranians.

Authorities insist there is no cause for alarm but ordinary people are now becoming a little worried, she says.

Deadline

Earlier this month US officers in Iraq said they had evidence Iran was providing weapons to Iraqi Shia militias. However the most senior US military officer later cast doubt on this, saying that they only had proof that weapons "made in Iran" were being used in Iraq.

Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said he did not know that the Iranian government "clearly knows or is complicit" in this.

At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "excuses to prolong the stay" of US forces in Iraq.

Middle East analysts have recently voiced their fears of catastrophic consequences for any such US attack on Iran.

Britain's previous ambassador to Tehran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the BBC it would backfire badly by probably encouraging the Iranian government to develop a nuclear weapon in the long term.

Last year Iran resumed uranium enrichment - a process that can make fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for a nuclear bomb.

Tehran insists its programme is for civil use only, but Western countries suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.

The UN Security Council has called on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium by 21 February.

If it does not, and if the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms this, the resolution says that further economic sanctions will be considered.

I agree that gender-specific "character training" isn't my cup of tea, but I'm a crazy liberal who enjoys navigating complex social situations as much, or more, than kicking the ass out of the other team.

So I guess for me, as long as young people choose their own path to character training, what's the beef? For many young women, sports is the answer, and for a few boys, tea will be. But whatever the contributing levels of nature and nurture, this might be a useful program for some.

Also wondering, if you make choices because of nurture, is it less of a choice? Following a parent's career? Deciding to move back to a small town? It's an interesting question.

The people most affected by Katrina are a shattered voting block. Everyone else can wait it out until they bulldoze the homes and put in a big New Orleans style theme park, with golf courses and conference centers. From the point of view of more than a few LA residents, Katrina flushed their toilet. Bush's lack of action is no accident. That's hard core class and race politics in a racist state inside a racist nation.

Look, even if all the "terrorists" my government has caught in this "war on terror" were guilty of the same regular non-violent crimes people have always committed, who cares?

All "keeping us safe" has cost us is our Constitution, and $1 trillion in failed wars, and the loss of respect around the globe, and close to 1 million people dead who would have otherwise been alive.