2010 Pictures of the Year - From LIFE

Made in Dagenham

Made in Dagenham, the latest film from Nigel Cole (Calendar Girls) depicts the heart-warming story of working women in Ford assembly plant in Dagenham who, in 1968, walked out in protest against gender discrimination; a bold move that resulted in “Equal pay Act of 1970” in England.

Made in Dagenham is a well-made, witty, thoughtful and stylish movie that although is not a cinematic masterpiece, it is head and shoulders above much of what you can see these days in theatres. Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky) brilliantly revives the heroine of the story; Rita O’grady, in an Oscar-worthy performance and the rest of the actors are no less impressive, specifically after you get use to their thick cockney accents that make the first twenty minutes of the movie, literally incomprehensible.

I admit that Made in Dagenham is, at times, predictable and it never shies away from using clichés. It is, nonetheless, an inspiring movie that challenges you to think and encourages you to empathize, and even shed a few tears on the side. Meanwhile, the movie keeps a fine line between optimism and realism and it is delightfully cautious, not to over-milk sentimental moments. It is an easily enjoyable movie that provides an utterly refreshing and satisfying experience.

I strongly recommend this movie, particularly to all my friends from Iran, where women have been fighting bravely, not for the right to equal pay, but sadly, for the right of equal existence! Made in Dagenham reassures you that if your cause is so obviously right, even an ostensibly powerless but highly motivated group can accomplish the seemingly impossible!

And for my female friends in North America: If this wonderful film, sells one cent short of that hideous “Sex and the city 2”, you should all be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves! So rush to the theatres and support the movie that empowers women, through encouraging them to demand their rightful place in the society, and not through excessive shoe shopping!

When Zombies Win - By Paul Krugman

"Free-market fundamentalists have been wrong about everything — yet they now dominate the political scene more thoroughly than ever."...

"A policy under which government employment actually fell, under which government spending on goods and services grew more slowly than during the Bush years, hardly constitutes a test of Keynesian economics."...

Read the full article

Touching Bases!

Don’t you think that we use way too many sports lingo in our daily conversations, specifically in our business meetings?!

Just think about it: The ball is in your court, don’t drop the ball, get the ball rolling, right off the bat, he doesn’t play ball with us, ballpark figure, keep your eyes on the ball, hands down, go to distance, and the list goes on and on and on, like a boring game of baseball from which most of these expressions have derived!!!

Just to be clear, unless you’re extremely hot, I won’t touch your base, neither you can touch mine! So stop suggesting it! :)

Fairness and Tax Policy

Recently, an economist friend of mine drew my attention to a tremendously interesting intellectual exchange of ideas, between Gregory Mankiw from Harvard and Jonathan Weinstein from Kellogg, on the subject of progressive taxation and income distribution: “Are the wealthiest citizens paying their fair share of taxes?”

Read "Spreading the wealth around" by Gregory Mankiw

Read "Fairness and Tax Policy" by Jonathan Weinstein

Amidst the heated debate over the extension of Bush’s tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, reading these two articles is HIGHLY recommended.

At the end; and in addition to the questions that were raised by Weinstein, I would like to raise a question of my own: Is it possible to argue – even when market imperfections are taken into consideration - that citizens’ contributions to the society are always proportionally rewarded? For one instance, in our media-heavy culture, anything that can entertain – and thus, attract viewership- can be heavily monetized through advertisements. Hence, it gives a disproportionate piece of the pie to those who can entertain - the funny host of a popular TV show, for example - compared to those whose invaluable contributions are much less entertaining, such as a world-class researcher who expands the frontiers of the human knowledge.

Block Those Metaphors - By Paul Krugman

"bad metaphors make for bad policy. The idea that the economic engine is going to catch or the patient rise from his sickbed any day now encourages policy makers to settle for sloppy, short-term measures when the economy really needs well-designed, sustained support." Read the article

Endgame in Sudan by George Clooney

"We were late to Rwanda. We were late to Congo. We were late to Darfur. We can't afford to be late again. This is our chance to actually stop a war before it starts." Read the article

George Carlin on the Sanctity of Life

"Life is sacred?! Who said so?! God?! Hey if you read history you realize that God is one of the leading causes of death. Has been for thousands of years. Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christians, all taking turns killing each other cause God told them it was a good idea! The sword of God, the blood of the lamb, vengeance is mine..millions of dead mother fuckers all because they gave a wrong answer to the God question!" George Carlin, Back in Town

Sex by surprise!

Yesterday, the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, was arrested in London. He will be extradited to Sweden to be tried there. However, as the prosecutor of the case insisted, charges are totally unrelated to the fact that this guy has frequently and repeatedly embarrassed many of the world’s leaders and has been a permanent threat to their secretive machines. Instead, he was accused of rape (in fact, the technical term is "Sex by Surprise!!!"). As if the world’s most wanted anarchist; who happens to be a good-looking guy, needs force to get laid in SWEEDEN - among all places - for crying out loud!!!!

Another smooth move came from Assange’s bank in Switzerland. They froze his account due to a technical glitch: he did not have an address in that country! So I guess it was OK for Nazi leaders to live in Guatemala and have their bank accounts in Switzerland, but not for this guy, huh?!!

Well done folks, but you’re fooling no one!

Let’s see what this “crime of the century” was: During a slumber party, bunch of teenagers who were gossiping about some other teenagers, suddenly realized that they’ve forgotten to turn off their webcam! Now that the whole high school knows about it, their small brains can’t come up with a better idea than breaking the webcam!

That’s it! That’s the story! Only here, that webcam is Julian Assange, and those gossipy teenagers are – regretfully - folks who lead our world!!!

In fairness, they have a lot to be embarrassed about: They’re sending men and women to be killed for wars in which they don’t believe. They’re transferring billions of dollars to governments that are knee deep in corruption and their closest allies in the Middle-east are; and always have been, supporting their biggest enemy, Talibans!

But relax people! Sadly, none of this information is news to us! We already knew that you were bunch of lying hypocrites! We didn’t elect you for your honesty (at least, those among you who’ve been elected, for Christ sake!). We elected you because we didn’t have any better option, and we elected you to create some freaking jobs, balance the budget, and get the world’s economy out of this slump!

So shut the hell up, stop whining, get back to your jobs and leave this poor guy ALONE!

And for future references, if you can’t build more transparency, at least STOP acting like teenagers!

Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks

100 Notable Books of 2010

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The Spanish Prisoner by Paul Krugman

"The bad news about America is that a powerful political faction is trying to shackle the Federal Reserve, in effect removing the one big advantage we have over the suffering Spaniards. Republican attacks on the Fed — demands that it stop trying to promote economic recovery and focus instead on keeping the dollar strong and fighting the imaginary risks of inflation — amount to a demand that we voluntarily put ourselves in the Spanish prison." Read the full article

I do not entirely agree with him on the Spain's debt issue. Although, by joining the Euro zone they have lost their ability to devalue their currency, but at least their debt remains in Euro (the luxury from which most of east Asian countries were deprived, during 1997 crisis). However, he is right on the money in condemning the latest assaults on the Fed's independence (though despite what he says, the attacks are not coming only from conservatives, but from the liberals as well).

Dear Congressmen, confine the democracy to that dysfunctional Congress and don't mess with the Fed's precious Independence, please!

WikiLeaks: U.S.-Iran Relations "Now What" Moment?

"Moreover, as the leaked cables show, the highest levels of the Obama administration never believed that diplomacy could succeed. While this does not cheapen Obama's Nowruz message and other groundbreaking facets of his initial outreach, it does raise three important questions: How can U.S. policymakers give maximum effort to make diplomacy succeed if they admittedly never believed their efforts could work? Why was Iran expected to accept negotiation terms that relinquished its greatest strategic asset (1200 kg of LEU) without receiving a strategic asset of equal value in return? And what are the chances that Iran will take diplomacy seriously now that it knows the U.S. never really did? The Obama administration presented a solid vision, but never truly pursued it. " Read the article

India's Ambani hosts party for 'world's priciest home'

The world's most expensive dwelling...Read the article

Eating the Irish by Paul Krugman

"Then the bubble burst, and those banks faced huge losses. You might have expected those who lent money to the banks to share in the losses. After all, they were consenting adults, and if they failed to understand the risks they were taking that was nobody’s fault but their own. But, no, the Irish government stepped in to guarantee the banks’ debt, turning private losses into public obligations."

"Before the bank bust, Ireland had little public debt. But with taxpayers suddenly on the hook for gigantic bank losses, even as revenues plunged, the nation’s creditworthiness was put in doubt. So Ireland tried to reassure the markets with a harsh program of spending cuts."...

"But at this point Iceland seems, if anything, to be doing better than its near-namesake. Its economic slump was no deeper than Ireland’s, its job losses were less severe and it seems better positioned for recovery. In fact, investors now appear to consider Iceland’s debt safer than Ireland’s. How is that possible?

Part of the answer is that Iceland let foreign lenders to its runaway banks pay the price of their poor judgment, rather than putting its own taxpayers on the line to guarantee bad private debts. As the International Monetary Fund notes — approvingly! — “private sector bankruptcies have led to a marked decline in external debt.” Meanwhile, Iceland helped avoid a financial panic in part by imposing temporary capital controls — that is, by limiting the ability of residents to pull funds out of the country."

Read the article

Cost of long-gun registry a fraction of what Tories claim, report shows

I am not against saving some money here and there, but guys, there's a limit to bullshitting the public! There is a slight difference between $1.5 million and $2 Billion!!!!

"An independent cost-benefit analysis of Conservative legislation to kill the federal long-gun registry has found the public savings could amount to just over $1.5-million annually"...

"This September’s very close vote is the furthest we have come to dismantling the $2-billion wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry,” said Christopher McCluskey, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. “We will continue to work to scrap it.”

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A Spanish Bailout Would Test Europe’s Strained Finances

"But any bailout of Spain — with an economy twice the size of the other three combined — could severely stress the ability of Europe’s stronger countries to help the financially weaker ones, and spell deep trouble for the euro, Europe’s common currency". Read the full article

U.K. to measure happiness alongside GDP

I'm no fan of Tories, but I'm beginning to like this guy! Shame on me! :))

Read the article

A Hedge Fund Republic? By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

"Oops! That’s already us. The top 1 percent of Americans owns 34 percent of America’s private net worth, according to figures compiled by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The bottom 90 percent owns just 29 percent." Read the full article

Scientists Claim Breakthrough In Antimatter Hunt

"Scientists may have been able to capture elusive atoms of antimatter"..."But in a report published online by the journal Nature, the scientists said they'd been able to trap individual atoms and keep them around for a bit more than one-tenth of a second. To a particle physicist, that's a pretty long time." Read the full article