Three Ladies and an Attorney General

Scintillating is...

Scintillating is watching Martha Karua making fodder out of the BBC's Zeinab Badawi. Don't get me wrong - I'm not a political supporter of Martha Karua or her general political style. She was evasive when it came to dealing with specific issues put to her. Nevertheless as a litigator, I could only but admire her performance on the BBC's hard talk. She made Zeinab Badawi look like an amateur.

Startling is...

Startling is watching Zeinab Badawi standing in for Stephen Sackur and doing such a poor job of it. She may have thought that interviewing a politician from the third world would be a piece of cake! Perhaps the apparent lack of preparation on her part was a reflection of that.
Whatever the reason, she was given a proper hiding on BBC's Hard Talk last night.

Surprising is...

Surprising is Hillary Clinton's decision to support the continued U.S. deployment in Iraq. And that, for a Democrat, whose party is all for a timetable for a complete pull-out.

Strange is....

Strange is the US Attorney General pleading the Fifth at a Congressional Hearing where the conduct of his office is in question.

Private v Public

I had been mulling over the dangers of massive buy outs of public companies by private equity firms, and what effect this would have on transparency, accountability, and so on.
Thinking about how this was the way that a select few were going to take over the world, and what not.
All very plausible I must add :)
And then Blackstone go and do this!!!

Blackstone files for $4 billion IPO

Adam Lashinsky notes:

What's so amusing about Blackstone going public is that it pretty much makes a mockery of all the arguments about why it's better to be private.

Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman

It's almost too perfect.

The leading practitioner of the going-private transaction, the technique that removes public companies from the supposedly destructive glare of nitpicking shareholders and obstructionist regulators, is subjecting itself to this most heinous scrutiny.

Under the heading "We Intend to be a Different Kind of Public Company," Blackstone writes: "We have built a leading global alternative asset management and financial advisory firm that has achieved success and substantial growth. While we believe that becoming a publicly traded company will provide us with many benefits, it is our intention to preserve the elements of our culture that have contributed to our success as a privately-owned firm."

Blackstone says this means it will ignore short-term results and instead focus on long-term investments.

The investors in its funds are what really matters, it suggests, and investors in the management company - which is what is going public - will have to live with that reality.

There's both a commendable logic and laughable self-righteousness to the statement.

Whatever one's views, I guess for the conspiracy theorists, another conspiracy is going to have to be formulated!!

Meanwhile on the local front as our NSE index hits the doldrums, and the retail players run for cover, the Eveready's of the bourse are probably scratching their heads and wondering what ever inspired them to go public in the first place.

Diversity

Nakeel's recent post following on from an earlier post, make for worrying reading.
And the fact that the blogger in question comes from the community impugned perhaps lends some credence to the post?
Or is it a case of data being manipulated to give a certain impression?
A comment left on his recent post gives another long list that suggests data manipulation by Nakeel.
Judge for yourselves!

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, Abortion and the Gay Debate

Albert Mohler blogs about the moral issues surrounding "PGD", the soon-to-be-available ability to hand-pick the characteristics of new-born babies, and it's relationship to the raging debate on homosexuality and genetic predisposition.

His blog post titled "Is Your Baby Gay? What If You Could Know? What If You Could Do Something About It?" raises some thought provoking issues:

Of note is his argument that the absence or presence of any genetic disposition towards homosexuality is no basis for an alteration of principle. His argument runs along lines similar to arguments put forward by others that the absence or presence of a genetic disposition towards sexual violence should not determine the moral debate on the issue.

Albert Mohler:

This question stands at the intersection of so many competing interests. Feminists and political liberals have argued for decades now that a woman should have an unrestricted right to an abortion, for any cause or for no stated cause at all. How can they now complain if women decide to abort fetuses identified as homosexual? This question involves both abortion and gay rights -- the perfect moral storm of our times.

The development of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis [PDG] is one of the greatest threats to human dignity in our times. These tests are already leading to the abortion of fetuses identified as carrying unwanted genetic markers. The tests can now check for more than 1,300 different chromosomal abnormalities or patterns. With DNA analysis, the genetic factors could be identified right down to hair and eye color and other traits. The logic is all too simple. If you don't like what you see on the PDG report . . . just abort and start over. Soon, genetic treatments may allow for changing the profile. Welcome to the world of designer babies.

The perfect moral storm of our times.

A sign of the times?

CNN Reports:

Extremist rabbis call for return of animal sacrifice

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A fringe group of extremist rabbis wants to resume the biblical practice of animal sacrifice at an explosive religious site in Jerusalem, members said Wednesday.

The request defied centuries of religious bans and triggered a stiff protest from a Muslim leader.

When the Jewish Temples stood in the Old City of Jerusalem more than 2,000 year ago, animal sacrifice was a centerpiece of the religion. After the destruction of the Temples, sacrifices were banned and rabbinical teachings took their place as the focus of Judaism.