Thread. Midday. Open. Capisce?
- Three men were deported from Saudi Arabia for the offense of...being too handsome. No, really.
-
The men were visiting Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates to attend the annual Jenadrivah Heritage & Cultural Festival in Riyadh. They were apparently minding their own business when members of Saudi Arabia’s religious police entered the pavilion and forcibly removed them from the festival. Their offense? They were considered “too handsome” to stay for fear that women would find them irresistible, according to the Arabic-language newspaper Elaph.
If you feel like ogling one of them, here you go.
- Michelle Rhee ought to be ashamed of herself, but she likely won't be--even though she gave a "reformer of the year" award to Tennessee State Rep. John Ragan, co-author of the states's notorious "don't say gay" bill. How any Democrat can choose to associate with her at this point is beyond me.
- President Obama spoke at Planned Parenthood yesterday:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama vowed Friday to join Planned Parenthood in fighting against what he said are efforts by states to turn women's health back to the 1950s, before the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide, and singled out the GOP-governed states of North Dakota and Mississippi for criticism.
"When politicians try to turn Planned Parenthood into a punching bag, they're not just talking about you," Obama said, becoming the first sitting president to address the abortion-rights group in person. "They're talking about the millions of women who you serve."
Obama asserted that "an assault on women's rights" is underway across the country, with bills introduced in more than 40 states to limit or ban abortion or restrict access to birth control or other services.
- The City of Los Angeles will consider banning the possession of high-capacity magazines within city limits, as well as facilitate electronic record-keeping. If it passes, expect lawsuits by gun rights activists.
- Yes, it's slightly nepotistic, but come on, it's justified. Over at digby's place, David Atkins has written a seminal takedown of conservative/neoliberal economic thought, especially as it applies to rational actor theory in the context of the recent mass casualties in Bangladesh.
In order for conservative economics to work, it must be assumed that everyone has an abundance of choices as well as the information needed to make the proper choice. In the conservative worldview, businesses will automatically move in to fill every need in the marketplace at the highest price they can extract; consumers will carefully choose from among the products on offer, buying the best products offered for the lowest price; employees will find the companies that deliver them the best payment package and quality of life according to their skills sets; and companies will hire the best workers they can at the lowest wages they can.
All of this is supposed to be a beautiful system of free choice in which every product, service, and employee achieves its perfect value on the market, and in which every employee, consumer and business is free to make the choice that best befits their lifestyle and comfort with risk. If government simply steps out of the way and ceases to create "distortions" in the market, everything will be perfect. There will be no inflation, and any misery or failure will be solely attributable to the poor choices of those who are suffering.
...
But the biggest problem with this worldview is the failure to recognize that uman life and dignity are drearily cheap on the open market. Absent laws to prevent such exploitation, the open market looks like Dickensian England: abundant child labor, eighty hour work weeks, mass immiseration, horrific discrimination, and a host of other evils. It turns out that consumers don't much care how a product was made so long as it works, and businesses are more than happy to institute revolting practices in order to create even more decadent wealth for owners and investors. Contrary to social conservative claims, there is no amount of religious fervor or charitable giving that even makes a dent in the horror of purely market-driven economics.
- Primarily, the above a response to this horrific piece by Matt Yglesias. In case you didn't read it, prepare to retch.
- And speaking of Bangladesh: two owners have been arrested in conjunction with the collapses that killed several hundred garment workers:
SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Police in Bangladesh arrested two owners of a garment factory in a shoddily-constructed building that collapsed this week, killing at least 324 people, as protests spread to a second city Saturday with hundreds of people throwing stones and setting fire to vehicles.
Also Saturday, police detained for questioning two engineers who were involved in approving the design of the 8-story building. The wife of the building owner, who is on the run, was also detained in an attempt to force him to surrender.
But you know, like Yglesias said--different places have different standards, and that's okay!
- In California, there's a campaign forming to put an oil severance tax on the ballot:
In order to collect the signatures the campaign is taking a two-pronged approach, using both grassroots organizing and meeting with donors to raise money for paid signature gathering. In the three months leading up to official summary and title, 109 volunteers from across California have signed up to help gather signatures in addition to the organizations supporting the bill. "As people learn about the benefits of CMED - decreased tuition, renewed cities and parks and job creation fueled by green energy - they are eager to sign on and help," explains Jack Tibbetts, author and lead-proponent of the campaign.
The California Modernization and Economic Development Act (CMED) places a 9.5% tax on the oil and gas that's extracted from California, and would bring in over $2 billion of new revenue to the state. $1.2 billion would be allocated in four equal parts towards K-12, California Community Colleges, California State University and the University of California. Another $400 million would be used to provide businesses with subsidies for switching to cleaner, cheaper forms of energy. The remaining $300 million will be allocated to county governments for infrastructure repair, public works projects, and funding public services.
About time.