Protesters in Maine calling for a ban on BPA -- John Clarke Russ | Bangor Daily News
“NOW THAT NO ONE IS USING BPA IN BABY BOTTLES, THE FDA FINALLY GETS AROUND TO BANNING IT.”
(EurekAlert)
Public health expert David Daussey denounces as a “hollow victory” for public health that the FDA has banned the use of Bisphenol-A in baby bottles and sippy cups, leaving unregulated the use of BPA in many other products. This symbolizes the overall lack of FDA regulation of chemicals used in the manufacture of consumer products.
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SYRIAN OFFICIALS TO THE WEST: “NO WE DON’T HAVE CHEMICAL WEAPONS BUT YES WE WILL USE THEM AGAINST YOUR MILITARY FORCES IF YOU TRY TO INVADE OUR COUNTRY.”
(New York Times)
This might be a loose translation of recent statements of Syrian officials, declaring they would never use such weapons against their own people in the “civil war” that is now wracking the country. Left not-quite-said is that the government possesses chemical weapons, though it has previously denied this, which would indeed be used were Syria the victim of “external aggression.” The New York Times, a usual mouthpiece for the Israeli position in the Middle East, is candid enough to admit that this sort of threat to use weapons that Syria denies it has is very similar to Israel’s threat to use nuclear weapons whose existence it has never acknowledged.
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WHAT DOES THE LIBOR SCANDAL TELL US ABOUT THE AMERICAN ECONOMY? THAT IT’S THE HELL TIME TO GET WALL STREET OFF THE BACK OF MAIN STREET.
(Counterpunch)
Economist Moshe Adler makes this point, noting how fiscal policy in the U.S. as in Britain enables a financial elite to manipulate investment opportunities to the benefit of financial elites and the profound detriment of small investors. The problem is not only the de facto absence of “regulation” of stock market operations: it is the system of fiscal management that keeps savings rates (on U.S. bonds for example) low to non-existent and forces investors into the stock market if they want any return on their investments at all. The much-touted “ownership society” in which the many own a “piece” of the stock market just accumulates the stockpile of Wall Street (and Fleet Street) funds with which the truly big boys can play in the sandbox of fiscal “management.”
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PROVIDING MEDICAL CARE FOR RAPE VICTIMS AT BORDER-CROSSING “DROP” LOCALES WITHOUT SUBJECTING THE VICTIMS TO CRIMINAL SANCTIONS AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
(Immigration Daily)
This is but one of the 4 areas of “immigration reform” practices recommended by a class taught by two immigration experts in the University of Miami law school. Small groups of students were assigned to come up with innovative if less-than-grand incremental steps toward reform. Another group recommended finding a way to provide easier employment for undocumented immigrants in the state’s tourist industry.
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WANT TO JUICE UP YOUR “UNDER-PEFORMING” CONVENTION CENTER? BUILD A 400-UNIT HILTON HOTEL NEXT TO IT.
(Palm Beach Post)
This is the solution being considered by Palm Beach FL County Commission for improvement of the lagging center in West Palm Beach—a solution applauded by a staff writer for the Palm Beach Post. Critics wonder why taxpayers should bear so much of the cost of this prop for an under-performing facility. The answer to this is the “depressed economy” which makes it difficult to attract private investors to such projects, so that public-private “partnerships” seem to be the way to go: if your “depressed” tax revenues base can sustain the public side of the partnership.
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Quote of the day…
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, cited in an article on the LIBOR scandal and its relevance to U.S. system of elite dominance of the economy.
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