“Annus horribilis?” and other optimistic links…
Shanaz Musafer: “The company's chief executive Akio Toyoda drew a barrage of criticism: for being too slow to react to the safety issues, for offering unclear explanations and for initially signalling that he would not face Congress in the US, where many of the recalls took place and there was anger over deaths that occurred in accidents caused by Toyota safety problems. (He eventually did appear before a congressional hearing after being formally asked to do so). …The Japanese media also slammed him for not bowing deeply enough during a news conference, which had been arranged for him to apologise for the recalls, leading to questions about exactly how sorry he really was.”
“The Truth About Gay and Lesbian Income”
FREAKONOMICS: “Joe Clark, who has previously written about women’s hockey, took a look at the myths surrounding gay and lesbian income statistics. Interestingly, Clark found that ‘[g]ay males earn less than straight males, often much less. Meanwhile, lesbians earn more than straight females.’ Clark attributes the difference to professional choices, not discrimination: ‘Gay males have more education than straight males, but they do not choose male-dominated professions as often as straight males do. In fact, they choose female-dominated and/or service professions much more often.’ Gay males also work fewer hours than straight males. Lesbian women, by contrast, work more hours than straight females and are ‘overrepresented in male-dominated professions that pay better than female-dominated professions.’”
“Back To Normalcy: On American Decline And Decadence”
Paul Kennedy: “It is easy to say “yes” to all those questions, and there are many in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and in the United States itself, who do so. But there is another way to think about America’s current position in today’s mightily complicated world, and it goes like this: All that is happening, really, is that the United States is slowly and naturally losing its abnormal status in the international system and returning to being one of the most prominent players in the small club of great powers. Things are not going badly wrong, and it is not as if America as becoming a flawed and impotent giant. Instead, things are just coming back to normal.”
“On GOP Opposition To Quantitative Easing”
Jonathan Chait: “Upton Sinclair gave the most pithy summary of how this mental process works: ‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.’ The right’s embrace of economic masochism may not be cynical, but it is an expression of political self-interest. If the GOP controlled the government today, the chances that the party would be implementing the fiscal and monetary policies it now demands are nil.”
“Recording the Police”
Bruce Schneier: “Being able to record the police is one of the best ways to ensure that the police are held accountable for their actions. Privacy has to be viewed in the context of relative power. For example, the government has a lot more power than the people. So privacy for the government increases their power and increases the power imbalance between government and the people; it decreases liberty.”