@student: Isn't that hinduism? Aghora, the left-hand path? Lots of good corporeal-getting-over fodder in graveyards.

As far as "this is wrong" goes, meh. It's more overt than shoes, but I don't see how you can create a cogent, marginally leak-proof argument that we don't use animals in any way we like, for lots of purposes both approaching crucial and far from it. I guess you were being sarcastic, Ted, but for argument's sake...Jello, anyone?

And I continue to be sick soulmates with Evilbeagle. I say if it's gross and funny and some people will get offended for the sake of random offendedness, celebrate!

Also? When I was a teenager I had some fish, and when they started committing suicide out of the tank, I started taxidermy-ing them with glue on little cardboard plaques.

The more you (didn't want to) know...

But it's some consolation that we are somehow lady actor weird name good speller soulmates. Wub.

Exactly same here. But now you've sunk the souffle!! All our data be compromised now.

@Lloyd: Are sure about some of those? My love for Coltrane knows no bounds, but...heroin junkies aren't known for their emotional generosity. Just thinking out loud...

Alex, do you have clearance to use the word "National" in a private party sentence? I'm going down to Police Doughnuts and filing a report. OF DELICIOUSNESS IN THE FIRST DEGREE.

80%. Beat that. You can't. I win.

Can we round up some names of artistic geniuses who aren't/weren't dicks? I'm having trouble thinking of any, but they must exist.

Maybe it's something to do with being so loyal to your passion and vision that you don't give much room/thought to others. Your artistic output soars while your personal relationships don't work.

Um, so when you need to signal a rescue plane, you wave S.O.S. sponges crazily in the air and wonder why you can't get help? Yeah, I can see how this could be a real hazard.

@iRonnie: I hear you, I do, but people post stuff like that as a way of drawing out attention in a very cost-effective way: they drop an ounce of intentionally inflammatory/ignorant blather and get a lot more energy in return as people try to a) reason them out of their caves or b) shut them down. It's basically the internet version of pulling pigtails in second grade. Don't know how to interact in a balanced, thoughtful way? Just be repellent and cause a reaction around you--negative energy is still energy swirling about their otherwise lonely and impotent planets and it still makes them feel like they make a ripple in an indifferent galaxy.

On your second thought, I totally agree and I hadn't really thought much about the idea of authority as a psychological get-out-of-thinking free card. It's a really strong point, related but very different from the psychological process of assuming/pretending that "someone else" will call the cops/intervene. All these little mental tricks that allow us to keep walking, slightly sleepy, and hush the struggling little part that would engage critical moments with the awareness and authentic reaction they deserve.

D.C. go hard! I went to the Smithsonian after school probably once a week growing up. I recommend the Natural History gem and mineral wing while on acid, malachite slab and biggest crystal ball in the world room.

I do NOT recommend filling up on eleventeen packs of space ice cream at Air and Space and then puking in the moon landing pod thing. They don't seem to find the humor in that.

It is amusing, and by amusing I mean incredibly frustrating and useless, how many people are chiming in to repeat the same one-dimensional point that has already been treated, responded to, and taken to a more nuanced place by commenters bothering to read the thread and engage the conversation for what it is: complicated.

Announcement: there are lots of angles to this situation, and only one of them involves some bizarro fantasy scenario of trying a roundhouse on a rapey devil and being slaughtered unceremoniously on the subway platform, thereby leaving behind a gaggle of weeping progeny. Get a grip.

@iRonnie: Your thoughtful comments notwithstanding, please don't dignify the pathetic trollery by granting it your energy. To acknowledge those opinions is to treat them as even marginally worthy of discourse, which they are not.

Gah, now the tough guys are out calling those of us who say we'd do more for the victim the "tough guys." I don't call it tough, I call it human and decent.

And although it's easy to excuse your own ambivalence with the projection that most who claim they'd help more significantly have never actually been called upon to test that assertion, I'll volunteer that I HAVE been in just such a situation.

Walking past an alley in D.C., saw a woman being assaulted. Screamed like a banshee, grabbed a passerby and ordered them to go for a payphone (no cells then), stayed in the relative light of the street lamp, and threw my shoe at his head. Then the other one. Couldn't think of anything else to do, but at that moment my instincts somehow found a balance between a healthy fear of death and a human urgency to help. I don't in any way think this is going above and beyond the call of duty. I think it's the natural and correct course.

And the man exited the woman and ran because I assume he could see it was no longer a situation where he had the advantage and the safety of being ignored.

Doing a little more seems to have an exponentially greater effect in these instances, and that's an important point. I'm not now and have not argued that one should jump on the guy's back. But there is a middle ground that can really make a difference.

You can defend doing the least. I'd rather be at marginally more risk by doing a little more and potentially preventing something horrific.

@rkolter: If you're going to speculate about the contingencies involved in the employees' behavior, you might want to extend that magic eight ball vision to the victim, who a) could have had mace and a phone and been unable to get them out because of the whole "attack" situation and b) is not by rational measure exhibiting "risky" behavior by virtue of being female on earth at 2 in the morning.

Common sense? One in three women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. I'd love to be able to leave my vagina at home when I go out, but that's not an option and likewise, going through life gearing all my behavior toward the everpresent threat of rape is no real life at all.

Sure, trust in god but tie your camel, but also, the behavior that needs adjustment is ultimately that of society and the victimizers. I don't argue that mace isn't a good idea, but really, it's not useful in the least to muse about this woman's choices, since they basically involved existing while having genitals.

Yes Craig, because of a rare anecdotal incident in which someone who seemed to need help was actually part of a scam, everybody should stay inside their little psychological booths when fellow humans are threatened. Remind me not to get endangered while you're on Craig's Illogical Better Safe Than Human Patrol.

And robbery does not even remotely compare to rape.

I'm going to argue for doing what you can while remaining safe, regardless of the employment repercussions. As rape is all about power over someone you can control, the attendants would likely not have put themselves in harm's way by staying within sight range of the rapist and screaming their heads off while calling police.

We can't know for sure, but it seems likely that a rapist wouldn't as easily complete his crime with that kind of audience. If he sees that the station employees aren't going to budge from their compartments, he probably feels he has time to carry on being a rabid piece of excrement.

Sure, you can't punish the attendants for doing the least, but come on now. I sincerely hope that if I am ever threatened with one of the most devastating violations in existence, people nearby would do more than this.

And I don't know about the "men as protectors" issue, but I know that as a Person, if I saw this going down, my throat and my hands would still be sore from screaming bloody murder and gripping my car keys like weapons, ready to roll.

Rapists are cowards beneath their desire to victimize and dehumanize. They don't like a challenge. Even one extra person on the scene, one more witness, one more person protesting, usually prevents such horror.

I just can't imagine the numbness required NOT to exit the booth and at least make a scene so that a fellow human isn't profoundly harmed. Incredibly sad.