Because a state bank, not the country itself, is in the firing line the government may see a court case as embarrassing rather than painful.

ECONOMIST: Russia

Again, there is a more humane and logical explanation for the zeal with which the authorities in Braintree pried open this painful case in 2010: for officials there, the inquest offered a way to purge past misconduct and exorcise an old form of government.

NEWYORKER: A Loaded Gun

But what the police class as a low-risk case is no less painful for family and friends left behind.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Magazine | The missing link

The case involves a convicted rapist and murderer who argues that the injections may be unnecessarily painful.

NPR: Slate's Jurisprudence: Cruel, Unusual Injections?

Guys who are long never want to see a bear case get built for their holdings, but John Ayling, an analyst at Morningstar, has a painful two star rating on the stock.

FORBES: Biggest US Investor of China's Focus Media Not Selling

We just have a basket-case political system that can't make the choices that at this point would not be very painful.

CNN: World faces a day of financial reckoning