Rotundus.com

Taking Sides in a Divorce, Chasing Profit

A look at finance companies offering funding to obtain assetts in a divorce. "The state laws were written to make people think twice before pursuing a divorce. But Madeline Marzano-Lesnevich, a New Jersey lawyer who serves as a vice president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, which sets ethical standards for divorce lawyers, said she welcomed the use of divorce financing as a workaround because, in her view, society also has an interest in helping people who are determined to separate." ... she welcome it... of course she does. It means more profit for her.

Does Obamacare discriminate against men?

"There are at least 7 new agencies and departments devoted solely to women while there is not one office for men or male specific ailments. Men’s health advocates long have pushed for an Office of Men’s Health to act as a companion to the Office on Women’s Health, established in 1991. Instead of rectifying that disparity, the new health care law intensified it."

Companies Cling to Cash: Coffers Swell to 51-year high as Cautious Firms Put Off Investing in Growth

"Rather than pouring their money into building plants or hiring workers, nonfinancial companies in the U.S. were sitting on $1.93 trillion in cash and other liquid assets at the end of September, up from $1.8 trillion at the end of June, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. Cash accounted for 7.4% of the companies' total assets—the largest share since 1959." Would government action be a cause of or solution to this sort of problem? e.g. fear of higher taxes might be one factor decreasing the likelihood that a company will make an investment.

Fake Watchful Eyes Discourage Naughty Behavior

I guess it's like the fake security cameras that some places might use... just subconsciously planting the idea that your behaviour is observed can chang it.

HT: Z

The Privilege Of Absurdity

"Unlike Dawkins's assertions, Atran's account of violent jihadism is based on extensive empirical research. An anthropologist who has spent many years studying and talking to terrorists in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Gaza and Europe, Atran believes that what motivates them to go willingly to their deaths is not so much the cause they espouse - rationally or otherwise - but the relationships they form with each other. Terrorists kill and die 'for their group, whose cause makes their imagined family of genetic strangers - their brotherhood, fatherland, motherland, homeland, totem or tribe'. In this terrorists are no different from other human beings. They may justify their actions by reference to religion, but many do not. The techniques of suicide bombing were first developed by the Tamil Tigers, a Marxist-Leninist group hostile to all religions, while suicide bombers in Lebanon in the 1980s included many secular leftists. The Japanese Aum cult, which recruited biologists and geneticists and experimented with anthrax as a weapon of mass destruction, cobbled together its grotesque system of beliefs from many sources, including science fiction. Terrorists have held to many views of the world, including some - like Marxism-Leninism - that claim to be grounded in 'scientific atheism'. If religion is a factor in terrorism, it is only one among many. "

Evangelical author Philip Yancey asks: What good is God?

"CNN: How is the practice of Christianity different in China than in the U.S.?

Yancey: At my church, when something bad happens, people immediately ask God to fix it: get me a job, heal my aunt, whatever. I pray those same prayers, and I see nothing wrong with them. In China, though, I heard different prayers, not 'God, take away this burden,' but 'God, give me the strength to bear this burden.'" (Via: Z)

Women Vets Face Greater Risk of Suicide

As usual with this sort of thing, this analysis is full of holes. The LiveScience article they cite notes that "Women veterans are more likely to complete suicide than nonveteran women" NOT that "that women vets are almost three times as likely to commit suicide as their male counterparts." Look at suicide rates amongst male veterans and you find that the suicide rates amongst them is 4.24 times as high as for the suicide rates amongst female veterans. Male veterans are also significantly more likely to be killed in combat and face the stress of front-line duties.

Rant About Worship Songs

A tongue-in-cheek rant against current trends in worship music.

The following blurb formed the lead-in to a CNET News article entitled 'Feds hint at charges for WikiLeaks' Assange':

The U.S. government indicated today that WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange could be in legal jeopardy for disclosing classified information because he is "not a journalist."

When asked whether "traditional media" organizations that republish secret documents could be prosecuted, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that the administration applauds "the role of journalists in your daily pursuits."

"In our view, Mr. Assange is not a journalist," Crowley added.

Can one really coherently define a distinction between a "journalist" and someone who is "not a journalist"? Is the distinction basically on the basis of employer - which might then be dubbed a corporatocracy or something similar?