• The Impending Food Fight | Victor Davis Hanson | RealClearPolitics
• The Growing Dangers of the China Trade | Jyotti Thottam | TIME

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• World millionaires' club numbers 9.5 million | AFP

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• 'Radio Imbalance' is in the Talent | Rich Lowry | RealClearPolitics
• Big-Government Conservatives | John Stossel | RealClearPolitics
• What Michael Moore left on the cutting room floor | Helen Evans | Chicago Tribune
• Competition is the best Rx | Chicago Tribune

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• China Becomes World's Biggest Air Polluter | Peter Brookes | RealClearPolitics
• Which candidate is business betting on? | Nina Easton | Fortune

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

According to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary , the word "exploitation" can carry two distinct meanings. The first is the "use or utilization, esp. for profit, e.g. the exploitation of newly discovered oil fields" . The second is "selfish utilization, e.g. He got ahead through the exploitation of his friends." As the first definition suggests, "exploitation" carries a specific meaning in the oil industry. In short, it means to extract oil reserves and is contrasted with "exploration", the preceding search for said reserves. An AP story out today about negotiations between oil giant ConocoPhillips and the government of Venezuela embodies all of these meanings. In short, an old idiomatic expression is literally and figurative appropriate here: Venezuela has ConocoPhillips over a barrel- actually several million of them:

ConocoPhillips held last-minute negotiations with President Hugo Chavez's government before Tuesday's deadline to decide whether to accept tougher terms or give up on Venezuelan oil. Most of the five other major energy companies involved appeared likely to accept the government's terms and sign deals Tuesday formally reducing their ownership positions to minority stakes in state-run joint ventures to keep pumping heavy crude in the lucrative Orinoco River basin. Venezuela is taking at least 60 percent of each Orinoco venture, and gave the companies until Tuesday to negotiate the terms of their remaining stakes. Chavez's government already took over operational control of Venezuela's last privately run oil fields on May 1 as part of its nationalization drive. ConocoPhillips is the third-largest U.S. oil company, and its Venezuelan projects account for about 4 percent of the company's daily global oil and gas production. It is the only major firm in Venezuela that has not agreed in principle to state control. Venezuela has claimed that foreign oil companies owe billions of dollars in back taxes related to oil projects.

So, Venezuela feels exploited by those it allowed to exploit its resources. One of those exploiters is thinking about pulling up stakes, of pulling out of the country. This should be called "Exploit Us, Interrupt Us."

Posted by Starling Hunter at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Google Fights Global Internet Censorship | Christopher Rugaber | USNews.com

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Articles - Live Free or Diet | Robert Samuelson | RealClearPolitics
• Here Comes the Repo Man | Kris Frieswick | The Boston Globe
  months
• The Incredible Shrinking New York Times | Thomas Lifson | RealClearPolitics
• Let the market set gas prices | Edward P. Lazear | Politico.com

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Nation, a weekly political magazine founded 1865, describes itself as the flagship of left-wing politics. It's editor and co-owner, Katrina vanden Heuvel, is both a long-standing, articulate, and steadfast advocate of leftist causes and a recipient of many of their highest accolades.

So what a surprise it was for me to see her magazine do something that many left-wing journalists have failed to do of late: criticize Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez's shut down of a popular opposition-owned television station, one that he feels has unfairly criticized his rule:

Hugo Chávez has committed a grave error in closing down the opposition TV station, which has been on the air a half-century. Like it or not, this was not a frontal attack on the economic elite but rather a blow to the cultural identity of millions of Venezuelans--and it will have severe consequences for the government. Trying to replace popular soap operas and game shows watched by the poor with pathetic "revolutionary" programming is as bad as leaving them without food.

But as I continued to read, I realized that the criticism was not motivated by a desire to see a more participative democracy, freedom of speech, freer markets, and greater individual liberty. The real problem that The Nation has with Chavez' actions is made clear by the use of scare quotes around the word revolutionary. If I read the article correctly, the Nation's problem with Chavez is that he's a poseur:

Anticapitalist revolutions are fueled more by dictatorships than by poverty. In Venezuela there was no dictatorship, and poverty was not key to Chávez's ascent. Every revolution imposes austerity, and this is something to which Venezuelans on the right and left remain immune. Venezuela is not an industrial capitalist state but rather one of export and consumerism. Chávez is strengthening the economic role of the state, redistributing oil income and forming new economic elites, all mixed with doses of populism, corruption and business opportunities. All this is new--but it is not revolution and it is not socialism.

That last line is quite extraordinary because Chavez has proclaimed for some time that his mission is to advance "21st century socialism" in Venezuela. The Nation clearly doesn't see it that way. To them, Chavez is like the soap opera doctor turned cough-syrup pitch-man: "I am not socialist, I just play one on state-run TV."

Links: Carnival of the Insanities

See also: Policing Hate Speech

Posted by Starling Hunter at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• The Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It | Think Progress
• The Structural Imbalance of American Talk Radio | The Center for American Progress & Free Press

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the second time in two years, rioters ransacked a KFC in Karachi Pakistan. According to an AP reporter, rioters were neither protesting the high cholesterol content nor its nefarious role as an agent of globalization and spearhead of Western hegemony. Rather, it seems like opportunism borne of an ordinary power outage:

Hundreds of residents angered over a 16-hour power outage rioted in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi overnight, ransacking a KFC restaurant and two banks, police said Thursday. At least six people were hurt as youths burned tires on roads, stoned passing cars and caused extensive damage to commercial property in the south of the city during two hours of unrest. Police used tear gas to control the mob, and arrested 13 people, police officer Azad Khan said. The riot ended when power was restored early Thursday. The KFC restaurant near an upscale district of the city was badly damaged, and rioters made off with the cash register. Two guards at the restaurant were among those injured in the violence.

The last time something like his happened was in May 2005. Then, there was a serious issue motivating it. But again, there was no clear connection to KFC:

Six people were killed when a KFC restaurant was set on fire by a mob angry about a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Karachi, bringing the overall death toll to 11, police said Tuesday. The fast-food chicken restaurant was targeted in overnight rioting after Monday's attack on the Madinatul Ilm Imambargah mosque, where three assailants clashed with police before exploding a bomb in violence that killed two attackers, two policemen and one worshipper and wounded 26 others. Sunni Muslim extremists were suspected in the mosque attack, and it was unclear why KFC was targeted in retaliatory rioting, along with arson attacks on vehicles, shops, three bank branches and three gas stations. However, the restaurant is heavily associated with the U.S. and rioters in Pakistan typically attack symbols of Washington while on a rampage.

The common thread between these two attacks may be that the KFC was in an "upscale" neighborhood and thus, one "heavily associated with the US." And if in the minds of Pakistanis affluence is associated with America, that ought to be considered a good thing. That having been said, Karachi may be the only place on Earth where something from Kentucky is taken as a symbol of Washington D.C.

Posted by Starling Hunter at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wikipedia defines product liability as "the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause."

Thousands of product liability claims are pursued against companies each year in the United States. According to Wikipedia, there are three basic areas upon which such claims are based: "design defect, manufacturing defect, and failure to warn." They also note that claims "may succeed even when products were used incorrectly by the consumer, as long as the incorrect use was foreseeable by the manufacturer (or other party in the "supply chain").

With those thoughts in mind, consider this story out of Texas today.

Man bursts into flames after being shot by a taser gun

Police are investigating the firey (sic) death of a man who burst into flames after dousing himself in petrol and then being shot with a taser gun. Officers used the gun after the man had poured gasoline over himself. Juan Flores Lopez, 47, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Texas. Police initially used pepper spray when they tried to take Lopez into custody. Then they used the Taser. Some stun guns emit an electric spark when they deliver the jolt of electricity. The Texas Rangers were also investigating whether a lighter that was on the porch could have contributed to the fire. "We don't know what ignited the fire," police said. No one else was injured in the confrontation. It was unclear whether Lopez had been charged with anything. Two of his sons who live nearby said their father had been threatening for months to burn himself and his house. His wife was seeking a divorce and he did not want to have to leave the house, the sons said.

Commentary

I, for one, would find it shocking if some enterprising and ambitious Texas attorney has not already started preparing a product liability against Taser for this horrific death. Before doing so, they'd do well to research the company's win-loss record:

TASER International, Inc. a market leader in advanced electronic control devices announced that the wrongful death product liability lawsuit filed by the estate of Leroy Pierson has been voluntarily dismissed against... This is the fiftieth (50th) wrongful death or injury lawsuit that has been dismissed or judgment entered in favor of TASER International. TASER International has not lost any product liability lawsuit.

With an impressive string of wins like this, I would be hard pressed to think Taser won't prevail in the lawsuits that will likely follow. That said, I do expect the incident to reignite the standing debate over whether Tasers are too dangerous for use on the streets.

Disclosure: the author of this post owns 100 shares of Taser.

Posted by Starling Hunter at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you happened to be in Spain yesterday and wanted to see a movie, there was a good chance you could not do so. A 90% chance, to be exact. TypicallySpanish explains:

Spanish cinema federation calls for cinemas to close for 24 hours. It comes in protest at the new Cinema Law which obliges them to show a percentage of Spanish and European films. The Federation of Cinemas in Spain (FECE) to which 90% of the screens belong, has called a 24 hour strike Monday to protest at the Government’s plans for a new Cinema Law. The law obliges the cinema owners to show a percentage of both national and European films, but the cinemas claim that the public do not want to see Spanish films. They claim that showing national product is costing them money, with only five in every 100 cinema goers choosing Spanish films. They also want to see a period of at least six months between the film being shown in the cinema and its broadcast on Television or DVD. A recent poll carried out by the Complutense University showed that 58% of Spaniards consider Spanish film to be ‘mediocre or of little interest’. The Government claims the new law is intended to promote both Spanish and European filmmaking. Meanwhile Spanish actors have complained that nobody has asked them for their opinion.

Commentary

The Spanish government's placement of duties and/or quotas on foreign films is a textbook example of protectionism. That is to say, it is designed to protect the domestic and European film industry from foreign competition namely in the form of Hollywood. Using the language of Michael Porter's Five Forces framework, we'd say that the Spanish government is erecting barriers to entry by foreign filmmakers.

The state of affairs that resulted in no movie reels in Madrid is perhaps not unlike that existing among Spanish soccer teams like La Liga champs Real Madrid. Commenter "Sergio" explains in a post at DanielDrezner.com last fall about "Sports Protectionism in Russia"

Continue reading "Reel Madrid" »

Posted by Starling Hunter at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Dunkin' joins program to verify if workers are legal | Lisa Kocian |The Boston Globe
• Another Reason to Prefer Dunkin' Donuts | Van Helsing | Moonbattery

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Online Sales Lose Steam as Buyers Grow Web-Weary | Matt Richtel & Bob Tedeschi | New York Times

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wikipedia describes pickpocketing as follows:

Picking pockets is a crime, a form of larceny which involves the stealing of money and valuables from the person of a victim without their noticing the theft at the time. It requires considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. Someone who picks pockets is known as a pickpocket. Pickpockets and other thieves, especially those working in teams, sometimes apply distraction, such as asking a question, bumping into the victim, or deliberately dirtying the victim's clothing and then "helping" him/her to clean it. The crime used to be punishable by death – even though public hangings were considered prime targets for pickpockets.

The "How Stuff Works" website adds these interesting details:

Pickpocketing is one of the oldest and most widespread crimes in the world. The appeal is its relative safety: A skilled pickpocket can make off with just as much money as an armed robber, without much danger of confrontation or risk of being identified in a line-up. By the time the victim even realizes what has happened, the pickpocket is long gone. And since no weapons are involved, pickpockets who do get caught face minimal jail time.

Today's Peninsula, Doha's leading English language daily, reports on a very unusual local take on this age old ruse:

Continue reading "Public Displays of Deception" »

Posted by Starling Hunter at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• FDA Steps Up Oversight of Body Parts Companies | Forbes.com
• Memo to Meese: Work Verification is the Real Fence | Robert Robb | RealClearPolitics

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Bid to shift tobacco cases to US courts denied | John Donnelly | The Boston Globe

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Liberty: A capital idea | Matt Manweller | Seattle Times Newspaper

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Tepper School of Business :: Faculty Information :: Starling David Hunter III

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• The Gay Lobby Takes on eHarmony | Ross Kaminsky | RealClearPolitics
• The Price of Free Airwaves | Michael J. Copps | New York Times

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• The Global Immigration Problem | Victor Davis Hanson | RealClearPolitics
• Calif. woman sues eHarmony alleging discrimination against gays | Associated Press
• Wal-Mart may buy stake in Indian logistics company | MarketWatch
• If Only Greens Saw The Forest For The Trees | Roy Innis | Investor's Business Daily

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Wal-Mart sneezes, China catches cold | Gordon Fairclough | Wall Street Journal
• SF Chronicle Managing Editor Resigns | Associated Press
• Growing share of 'Big Three' drug wholesalers gets attention | Russ Britt | MarketWatch
• International Federation of Technical Analysts - Certifications

Posted by Starling Hunter at 5:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)