Sudan killed about 2 million of its own people (mostly Dinka) in the South of their country, took a large number of them as slaves, and are currently machine-gunning, raping, looting, and butchering the Fur minority in the West. That’s bad enough, but treating a reporter roughly? “They can always say `no comment’ … but to drag a reporter out just for asking is inexcusable behavior.”
Mitch Townsend
Drug Out
The Canadian government has said that they’re going to limit the amount of drugs that Americans will have access to, but they’re being rather vague about the specifics.
I’ve been wondering when they’d get around to this. The Canadian health minister, Ujjal Dosanjh, tried to spin the news a certain way when he said that a nation of 33 million couldn’t handle the needs of 280 million Americans. This strikes a false note to me, since just about all of the drugs available in Canada are manufactured here in the United States before being shipped north. If the US, with its population of 280 million, is the source of the drugs for a nation of 33 million……
Well, you get the idea.
Blogging for Bucks? Why Not?
From Mediacrity via Instapundit, we learn that Romenesko’s media column earns him $150K from the not-for-profit which sponsors him. That’s not too shabby (the money, I mean, not the column). We see in the Boston Globe that one poor guy settled for $5 to say nice things about an on-line florist.
Let me assure potential advertisers that as ardent capitalists, we Chicago Boyz can be bought. Any Dodge/Chrysler dealer with an extra one of these hanging around the lot can expect to read many favorable things about their product in exchange for one of them. That other guy would probably settle for a couple of chrome lug nuts, but sometimes quality costs more.
Two more things noted:
The bloggers mentioned have a rather cavalier attitude to disclosing their pay-for-play arrangements. We don’t do that; hence no links to the bloggers in the story.
And once again, the on-line version of a print media story on blogging appears with no hyperlinks, although they give some URLs. Sigh.
The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy is Alive and Well
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D NV) and Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D IL) took the press to the woodshed for its coverage of DNC Chairman Howard Dean’s recent pronouncements, including his observations that Republicans are “liars,” “evil,” “corrupt,” “brain-dead,” and almost uniformly “White Christians” who have “never made an honest living in their lives.” Sen. Durbin attributed the continuing media attention to the baneful influence of the right wing and Fox News, and chided the more sensible parts of the media for following along, instead of running more stories about all the wonderful things the Democrats would like to do for us. He probably wouldn’t mind seeing more ink “invested” in Abu Ghraib, WMDs, the Downing Street memo, and Guantanamo, either. Or the Michael Jackson trial. It’s not polite to stare. Or to laugh and point.
If they get rid of the good doctor, I hope Sen. Durbin is available.
Mutual Fund Scandal
The first verdict in the market-timing scandal has come in with an acquittal on 27 accounts and a mistrial on the remaining four (the jury was deadlocked at 11-1 to acquit). The broker had been accused of helping a hedge fund, Canary Capital Partners, place trades to buy mutual fund shares after the 4:00 PM cutoff and still get the pre-cutoff price.
This is the first of NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s cases to go to a jury. If he brought his strongest case first, this is not good news for the ambitious Spitzer.
More background information on the mutual fund scandal can be found here and here.
As a rule of thumb, if you were already a smart investor, you probably had little or nothing to worry about. Every one of the funds involved in the scandals was sold through intermediaries (brokers, financial planners, etc.) for fees or commissions. Not one of the no-load funds was involved at all, and these usually have lower fees. The largest no-load fund families include Vanguard, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price. Investing on your own means doing your own research, but if you work alone, you can be sure there is no conflict of interest. Or as a great merchant puts it, “Suffer a little, save a lot.”