What I'm Reading

The Economist this week has an article on research about employment opportunities for women.  Researches have determined that the opportunities for women outside the home are directly related to the country's farming methods.  Does the history of your country favor a plow or a hoe?  If you're a female looking for work you want to be born in a country that farmed using a hoe.  The plow, heavier, is for man's work, according to the scientists.  Countries that historically used the hoe like Burundi have 91% of their women working outside the home.  The Arab world, historically using the plow, has less than a quarter.  The Second World War changed some of the attitudes regarding gender and employment.  Still, even today with worldwide industrialization in farming, traditional attitudes remain.  Among groups in America, those who prefer a male President or believe during a recession a man should get that job before a woman, are descendents of immigrants whose farming culture was based on the plow.
In the New Yorker:
"the U.S. shouldn't have and doesn't need a debt ceiling.  Every other democratic country, except Denmark, does fine without one"  The only reason we need to lift the debt ceiling is to pay for spending that Congress has already authorized.  If the debt ceiling is not raised the President will be breaking the law by not paying for those things Congress has authorized, and if he does pay for them he will be breaking the law that instituted the debt ceiling."
More on Murdock, the 38th richest person in America:
Piers Morgan was sacked by Murdock in 2004 for publishing pictures of British soldiers abusing Iraqis.  He was sacked because the photos were fake and had caused retaliation against the military from Iraqis.  So Piers Morgan went on to host Britain's Got Talent and then America's Got Talent, and now Larry King's job on CNN.  Morgan also published a fake photo of a celebrity comedian, Spike Milligan, showing him to be "a shadow of his former self".  His lawyers contacted the paper and Morgan said: "I can't believe how prickly Spike is being."
Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of Murdock's "The Sun" from 1981 to 1994, published an "interview" with the widow of a hero of the Falklands' War.  She never gave an interview or spoke to anyone at the paper.
The News Of The world whistle blower, Paul McMullen, wrote a story about Jennifer Elliott, the daughter of English actor Denholm Elliott.   Her father died in 1992 and he wrote in 1995 that allegedly because of her drug addiction she was living on the street and prostituting herself.  The 'tip' came from a policeman who was paid by the paper.  Jennifer committed suicide.  When asked if he thought his story had anything to do with the suicide he said: "Yeah, I totally humiliated and destroyed her.  It wasn't necessary, she didn't deserve it. ... If there was anyone to apologize to I would.  But they're all dead."
"That's about played out, any way, the idea of sticking up a sign of 'private' and thinking you can keep the place to yourself.  You can't do it - you can't keep out the light of the Press.  Now what I'm going to do is to set up the biggest lamp yet made and to make it shine all over the place.  We'll see who's private then."
Spoken by George Flack from Henry James' novel "The Reverberator"  published in 1888.   The Reverberator is the title of an American tabloid, and Flack is a columnist.