athiesm in the american theocracy

First, recent study finds that Athiests are the least trusted minority group in the coutnry.

Second, a book I'd like to take a look at on the American Theocracy, getting a lot of press, written by a former Republican strategist.

Third, to round it out, note that though most people oppose the Iraq war as much as the vietnam war, "few have done more than pray about it."

In contrast, I imagine a lot of people will try to get the government to take action--and in fact it already seems to be--on the Afghan man who has received a death sentence for converting to Christianity.

Finally, evidently the Domino's Pizza guy who wanted to create a Catholic utopia in FL has backed down some by saying that anyone is free to live there (though I guess they'd still have to live by his rules.)

China, competativeness on the decline

Financial Times reports that Chinese competativeness is on the decline.

“China’s costs are all going up,” Mr Fung said. “It is no longer the most cost-effective country in the region...Anything [sourced] from China has a higher inflation component than from other places around the world.”

Cited as reasons for this inflation are the increase in the value of the renmibi, increased labor costs, etc. This reminds me of the recent response to labor strikes in Vietnam whis was that Vietnam can afford to insist on higher wages because the average Chinese worker still gets paid more. (article at home, I'll have to track it down.) Some other articles I'd cite in this thread...

A piece on the structural position of vietnam in world economy
recent piece by Bensaid - focuses mostly on the protest movements generally (as does this)
Editorial by Vietnamese wage minister on how the strikes should be ignored and suppressed
Piece on strikes in both vietnam and china
A piece on Europe's concern (and media avoidance) of Vietnamese strikes
A piece on worker strikes in Dubai that, despite the recent news about that country, will surely get ignored as well. In short, Asian workers striking over conditions and wages there.

On China, trade, etc.

Morgan Stanley guy gives some messages from Chinese Primiere, in particular, some interesting ways that the Chinese are planning (and, in fact, able to plan--i.e. they are in a structural position to be able to focus on local issues, a luxury no longer open to the US) and on exchange rate issues. One quote that you know was made with a great deal of gravitas:

At the end of his discourse, he leaned forward, looked me straight in the eye, and stated with great emphasis, “You can take this message back to the American people: It is unfair to make China a scapegoat for structural problems facing the US economy.”

googlebombing an asshat

sexist asshat, Senator William M. Napoli.

not sure what makes him exceptional in that state at the moment, but just for kicks...