Via the BBC:  Argentina ex-military leader Jorge Rafael Videla dies Former Argentine military leader Jorge Rafael Videla has died aged 87 while serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity. He is reported to have died from natural causes in prison. The general was jailed in 2010 for the deaths of 31 dissidents during the [...]

Via the BBC:  Greek pro-drachma party Plan B to hold first meeting "Plan B" only has about 400 members but its leader, Alekos Alavanos, believes it can offer a new way out for Greece. Mr Alavanos has told the BBC he wants a moratorium on the country’s debt repayment, an orderly exit from the Euro [...]

Via the Portuguese American Journal:  LGBT: Portuguese parliament approves right to adoption. The law provides for the spouses in same-sex marriage to adopt the biological child of their spouse: Portuguese parliament has approved Friday a bill that will allow same-sex married couples to adopt their partner’s bilological or adopted children. The bill was approved with [...]

Via the BBC:  France gay marriage: Hollande signs bill into law France’s president has signed into law a controversial bill making the country the ninth in Europe, and 14th globally, to legalise gay marriage. On Friday, the Constitutional Council rejected a challenge by the right-wing opposition, clearing the way for Francois Hollande to sign the [...]

Tuition goes up as state funding goes down.

A starting point for two important stories.

Former SecDef Robert Gates on many critics’ views on the Benghazi incident:  "It’s sort of a cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces.” Personally, I have been thinking “action movie impression” but “cartoonish” works as well.

Keynes and uncertainty about the the future: about childlessness or philosophical assumptions?

Via the American Homebrewers Association:  Homebrewing is Legal in Alabama! The era of illegal homebrewing has come to an end! Alabama, the final remaining state to still outlaw the making of beer at home, officially legalized homebrewing with the passage of bill HB9 which was signed by Governor Robert Bentley on Thursday, May 9, 2013. [...]

The following is not a comment on the wisdom or value of current economic policy, nor is it to suggestive a simplistic correlation between the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the occupant of the White House.  However, anyone who thinks we are in the least bit “anti-capitalistic,” or that the current policies of the federal [...]

Via the BBC:  N Korea ‘removes’ missiles from east coast launch site North Korea has removed two medium-range missiles from a coastal launch site, indicating a lowering of tension on the peninsula, a US official said. Pyongyang was believed to be preparing for a launch last month, having threatened attacks in the region. [...] The [...]

Apparently, Benghazi has not faded (at least not for some).

Via Colombia Reports:   Colombia police arrests escaped prisoner in spite of convincing sex change Police in the north of Colombia on Monday arrested an escaped prisoner who apparently tried to avoid capture by dressing as a woman and even getting breast implants. After escaping from prison where he had been sentenced to serve 60 years, [...]

Via the BBC:  Niall Ferguson apologises for Keynes remarks Prof Ferguson has now apologised “unreservedly” for what he called “stupid” and “insensitive” remarks. He was asked to comment on Mr Keynes’s famous observation of “in the long run we are all dead”. In unscripted remarks during a question and answer session, the high-profile historian and [...]

Via the NYT:  At AMC, Zombies Topple Network TV comes some pretty amazing numbers: During its run last fall, “The Walking Dead” was the highest-rated show among viewers 18 to 49, the most-sought age group, with a bigger audience than network winners like “The Big Bang Theory,” “American Idol,” “The Voice” and “Modern Family.” Now [...]

Some info from the World Drug Report

In fact, yes: the demand for drugs does come largely from the US.

Via the Financial Advisor:  Harvard Professor Trashes Keynes For Homosexuality Speaking at the Tenth Annual Altegris Conference in Carlsbad, Calif., in front of a group of more than 500 financial advisors and investors, Ferguson responded to a question about Keynes’ famous philosophy of self-interest versus the economic philosophy of Edmund Burke, who believed there was [...]

Via the AP: Rat meat sold as lamb in latest China food scandal.

Via the BBC: Venezuela MPs in punch-up over disputed election Fistfights have broken out in Venezuela’s parliament over the recent disputed presidential election. Several legislators were left bloodied and bruised, with both opposition and pro-government lawmakers accusing each other of starting the fight. A measure was earlier passed denying MPs the right to speak until [...]

Via the BBC:  Bangladesh building collapse: Death toll passes 400 The number of people killed in the collapse of a factory building on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, has passed 400, officials say. A senior army official also said that a list of 149 people still missing had been compiled from relatives. The [...]

Via The Sun:  Family of ten are world’s biggest albino clan The family — who live in a crammed one-bedroom flat in Delhi — all have pale skin, white hair and poor vision, a side-effect of being albinos. Roseturai told The Sun: “I’ve heard people call us ‘angrez’, which means ‘English’. It’s hard for people [...]

Via Erik Loomis: In 1980, OSHA employed 2950 people. In 2006, it employed only 2092 people, despite the near doubling of the size of the workforce. The explosion at the West Fertilizer plant in Texas on April 17 that killed at least 14 people demonstrated the agency’s very real limitations. There are so few OSHA [...]

Via the AP:  Black Voter Turnout Passed White Turnout For The First Time In 2012 The article is actually rather poorly written, to be honest, as it does not provided clear numbers in the body of the discussion (indeed, it reads a bit as if the reporter didn’t quite understand the topic being reported)..  However, [...]

Shutting down media that the government doesn’t like is unlikely to solve the sectarian problems in Iraq.

After months of impasse, a new coalition has been formed in Italy.

Check out the correlation between the hacking of the AP’s Twitter feed (announcing a bombing at the White House) and DJIA as presented over at the Monkey Cage.

Via the BBC:  UK economy avoids triple-dip recession The Office for National Statistics said its first estimate for gross domestic product (GDP) showed the economy grew 0.3% during the first quarter of 2013. Huzzah! Economists say the news should give a small psychological boost to consumers and businesses, but the broader picture of the economy [...]

Via the BBC:  Spain unemployment hits record high Spain’s unemployment rate soared to a new record of 27.2% of the workforce in the first quarter of 2013, according to official figures. The total number of unemployed people in Spain has now passed the six million figure, although the rate of the increase has slowed. The [...]

Via the BBC:  Enrico Letta set to become Italy’s new prime minister Enrico Letta is set to become Italy’s new prime minister, after being asked by President Giorgio Napolitano to form a broad coalition government. The appointment of Mr Letta, currently deputy leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, could see the end of two months [...]

Via CNN:  Ricin suspect freed, marshals say: The Mississippi man accused of sending ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama and other officials has been released from federal custody, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshal’s Service said Tuesday. Then, the next paragraph starts: Paul Kevin Curtis, an Elvis impersonator from Corinth, Mississippi, was charged with sending [...]

Via the BBC:  Same-sex marriage: France changes law France becomes the 14th country to pass a law allowing gay marriage, and follows New Zealand last week.

It would be nice if columnists for major newspapers would consult political science, rather than Hollywood, for their understanding of our system.

So, not only is Alex Jones peddling his “false flag” theories, so are Chechen separatists. Both are blaming the FBI.

Via the BBC:  China ‘reveals army structure’ in defence white paper. China has revealed the structure of its military units, in what state-run media describe as a first. The army has a total of 850,000 soldiers, while the navy and air force have a strength of 235,000 and 398,000, China said in its defence white [...]

Via the BBC:  Iraq in first vote since US pullout Iraqis have voted in a provincial election, the first ballot since the departure of US troops in late 2011. [...] Almost 14 million Iraqis are eligible to vote for more than 8,000 candidates, who are competing for 378 seats in provincial councils. [...] Voters were [...]

Via Right Wing Watch:  ‘I Don’t Bluff, I Make Promises’: Beck Gives Gov’t Until Monday to Come Clean About Boston Bombing Cover-Up Near the end of today’s radio broadcast, Glenn Beck declared that the cover-up of the Saudi link to the Boston Marathon bombing makes this the second most important thing (behind 9/11) that he [...]

First, it is perfectly understandable that people react with great emotions at times of violence, most especially when innocent people are the victims. Second, however, some emotional responses are offensive and out of bounds, such as those by World Net Daily commentator (and Fox News Contributor), Erik Rush, who tweeted the following yesterday: Third, if [...]

Today, the Venezuelan electorate chooses its first president not named Hugo Chavez since 1999.  Via the BBC:  Venezuelans vote to choose Hugo Chavez successor: Acting President Nicolas Maduro, chosen by Mr Chavez as his successor, is running against Henrique Capriles, currently governor of Miranda state. Mr Capriles narrowly lost to Mr Chavez in elections last [...]

A mix of media and abortion politics.

A preventative strike against North Korea is a bad idea.

Via the BBC:  Beyonce and Jay-Z visit to Cuba queried in US Congress A visit to Cuba by US pop singer Beyonce and her rap star husband Jay-Z is coming under scrutiny in connection with the US economic embargo. [...] Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, both members of Congress from Florida, asked the US treasury [...]

From Southern Media & Opinion Research [PDF]: Lingering dissatisfaction over higher education and budget cuts, along with pessimism over the state’s direction ontributed to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s declining popularity in Southern Media Opinion & Research Inc.’s latest statewide survey. The governor received a 38 percent approval rating in the spring 2013 survey, compared to 51 [...]

Man buys toy poodles, discovers they’re actually ferrets on steroids

Because sometimes poorly contructed observations can set a fellow to writing.

There is a really interesting interview over at Wonkblog with Mark Kleiman, UCLA Professor of Public Policy that is worth a read.  Kleiman is an expert on policies around illicit drugs and speak with Dylan Matthews about issues such as drug policy, alcohol, and crime. Some notable excerpts: On the connection of drugs and crime: [...]

First, acting president Maduro received a blessing: According to various media and news agencies, from Chavez’s childhood home in Barinas, west side of Venezuela, Maduro explained, "I felt him there, like he was giving us his blessing, saying: ‘Today the battle starts. Go to the victory. You have our blessings.’ That is how I felt [...]

Via the BBC:  Cuban ballet dancers defect while on tour in Mexico Seven members of the National Ballet of Cuba defected during a performing tour of Mexico last month. [...] Exile website cafefuerte.com identified the dancers as two men and five women, all in their early 20s. They had now requested asylum in the US, [...]

Via the BBC:  Argentina protests after Kirchner is called ‘an old hag’ Argentina has made an official protest after the Uruguayan president was caught on microphone apparently referring to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as an "old hag". President Jose Mujica was overheard saying: "This old hag is even worse than the cross-eyed man." [...] [...]

Via the BBC:  Venezuela campaign starts to elect Chavez’s successor. And, not surprisingly, acting president Nicolas Maduro is starting down the Chavez road as the basis of his campaign: Mr Maduro, who was chosen by Mr Chavez as his successor before the former president travelled to Cuba for cancer surgery in December, will start his [...]