[Before I start, the answer to the Yemen poser from last time is that the president's name is Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is currently convalescing in Saudi Arabia after being seriously wounded in an opposition bombing of a presidential compound.]
- On corn and ethanol: for a very quick overview of what's wrong here, read this op-ed from today's Times. For a slightly longer and more slanted argument, try Tom Philpott's post from Mother Jones a few days ago. For those unused to MoJo's coverage, yes it's lefty-loosey, but the writing's good and the facts are almost always very solid, if occasionally cherry-picked.
- More MoJo madness that will make you mad: this month's special report on what MoJo is calling the "Great Speedup" -- the "recovery" that has seen wages and wealth rise at the top by virtue of making those who didn't get laid off work even harder than before -- is vital reading for all you working stiffs out there who sense that things just ain't the way they once were and something's not quite right in the job world. Here's a link to the two-page main article; those who prefer visuals should at least check out the accompanying charticle. For those who want the real quick-and-dirty: corporate profits are up 22% and "productivity" is returning, but no-one's actually getting re-hired. What gives? Turns out industry has simply decided to get back to pre-crash output by demanding more of post-crash input, especially of the human variety. Yet another example of how fallacious traditional measures of economic recovery and well-being are these days: if corporate profits go up enough, GDP will recover, but those of us not in C-suites won't feel any better because we're either working too hard to enjoy it or still unemployed.
- I haven't gotten to this one myself yet, but here's a New Yorker article (courtesy of Longreads.com) on the s---storm that is Galleon. Definitely read this if the words "Galleon" and "Raj Rajaratnam" don't mean anything to you yet. This is an insider-trading scandal of fairly epic proportions that hasn't got nearly as much ink spilled over it as the Madoff mess.
- "Bombing the Moon": a quickie about the ridiculousness of GOP "bipartisanship" and no-new-taxes orthodoxy/lunacy. Should also be taken as a reminder that Obama hasn't exactly been leading from the front on a lot of important issues. I read an NYT opinion piece the other day about the post-FDR phenomenon of the "100 days" presidency, in which we watch with baited breath to see what a new President can do in his first 100 days, and then that's the ballgame for his four years in office as the whole machine gears up for the next round of elections. Think about it. We got ObamaCare and then...what, really? Lots of hot air about bipartisanship. The GOP is making a mockery of itself proving that bipartisanship isn't about to happen right now: if Republicans walking out of budget talks because raising revenue is still on the table -- and calling for Obama to show some leadership in the matter on their way out the door, no less -- hasn't made it clear that they're not about to compromise, what'll do it? Did anyone in the White House watch the GOP "debate" a couple weeks ago? A bunch of blowhards tripping over themselves to impugn Obama as the worst president ever. (Side note: Romney, your signature accomplishment as governor of Massachusetts was RomneyCare, on which ObamaCare is based. Now you're against health care and Obama has failed the nation? Maybe it's not the Mormonism that's keeping you out of office, pal. Maybe people want leaders who actually take a position on issues.)
- The grapes of wrath: in passing Arizona-style anti-immigration, Georgia lawmakers apparently forgot to ask the opinions of the constituency that makes the most use of immigrants: farmers. Now there are fears that Georgia's biggest economic asset, produce, will be left rotting in the fields this summer with no immigrants to harvest it. Whoops! If Georgia farmers -- not exactly bleeding-heart liberals -- are honest enough to admit that they're up a creek without illegals in the fields, somebody ought to listen.
- Southern-fried sanity: those paying careful attention to my last study-abroad lead might remember my Oxford American reference; that's the quarterly "Southern magazine of good literature" that I discovered a couple of years back and now devour every season. Here's an interesting, somewhat off-beat bashing of the Bible Belt and its burr-in-the-saddle relation to the modern, interconnected world of the "global village" from the OA's Hal Crowther. Great read, especially for you Yankees that think there's only one fire-and-brimstone line of thinking below the Mason-Dixon.
- Sibhialtacht Ceilteach (Celtic civilization): three much longer reads for the philosophically-minded among ye. First, the whole article by Michael D. Higgins that I quoted from in the last post, "The Challenge of Building the Mind of Peace." Reading it may remind you of doing homework for your college philosophy class, but I think it's worth it if you've 20 minutes to spare sometime. The other recommendations are proper summer reading: Jamie O'Neill's At Swim, Two Boys and Roddy Doyle's A Star Called Henry. These were the last books I bought for myself at Charlie Byrne's siopa leabhair (book shop) in Galway to help myself transition back across the Alantic; both are excellent treatments of the events of the Easter Rising of 1916 and the birth of modern Ireland as experienced by teen-aged boys in Dublin. At Swim, Two Boys is a 600-page tome that's a bit slow to wade into but thoroughly engrossing and a brilliant literary piece of work that's well worth the effort; A Star Called Henry is classic Doyle, shorter, quicker, peppered with the colourful speech of Dublin street urchins and totally anti-establishment. I've blasted through the first 200 pages in the last 24 hours and should have it finished and the next two books of the trilogy ordered by this evening.
- Grist: Gore on condoms, Obama's losing the greens and how to "put food on your family" courtesy of stupendous supermarket food waste. Three interesting -- and very short -- articles that should get your dander up. Highlights: a conservative (Wayne Christian [!], R-TX) actually admits that what arch-conservatives really want is to eliminate contraception, not just abortion; environmentalists are among the latest liberals to feel a distinct lack of hope or change coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.; and one intrepid reporter literally dumpster-dives at Trader Joe's to feed his family some of the 96 billion pounds of food thrown away in the U.S. every year (correct: "That's 263 million pounds a day, 11 million pounds an hour, 3,000 pounds per second!").
- Traffic in paradise: ever wonder why suburbia seems a little weird when you think about it? Here's one theory: it is the most unnatural development in the world, the first human settlement built on the scale of something other than humans (namely automobiles). Worth a ponder...
- The economics of happiness: Correction -- last post, I mistakenly identified rogue British economist Tim Jackson as "Tim Robinson." Oopsie. In any case, here's his 2010 "Economic Reality Check" TED talk. It's still worth a listen if you're open to hearing that your entire lifestyle is based on buying things you don't need with money you don't have to make impressions that won't last on people you don't know (his words)!
So, happy weekend, and hit the links!
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