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Pan B is not an abortifacient, even if that inconvenient fact destroys the entire premise of Joe Connelly’s column this morning. While it’s great fun to attack liberals for hypocrisy, it’s actually more fun if it’s actually true.

If I were a pharmacist I would, as a matter of conscience, require men getting erectile dysfunction medications to present a marriage license and an affidavit from their wife acknowledging approval. That would pretty much stop this endless, phony controversy, which at its core represents the desire of religious extremists to subjugate women. If contraception is so evil, why are medically created erections so damn holy? Huh?

This is an excellent example of how regulations need to be written in a practical, careful and balanced manner, since there can be severe medical consequences if a woman is wrong about when intercourse happened or is lying about it. Pharmacists are not doling out chicklets back there, so it might be wise to avoid “make them give it out or else” regulations as well.

We’re supposed to be at the end of the attacks on science, but guess not. It has been cold this winter, so there’s another column that could be written.

Last week’s contest was won by wes.in.wa in only 16 minutes. It was Middlesbrough, UK (link here). Here’s this week’s, good luck!

Not a surprise, but The Columbian confirms that some people got telephone calls warning them to take their money out of the about-to-fail Bank of Clark County, and some didn’t. And it’s legal!

Insider calling did occur. According to one contractor with $500,000 on deposit at the bank, he was alerted by a telephone tipster to get his money out of the bank two days in advance of the Jan. 16 closure. “Thank God,” he said, “or I wouldn’t now be in business.”

According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. documents, customers pulled an estimated $28 million out of Bank of Clark County as word got around that the bank was circling the drain.

Others weren’t so lucky to get the advance notice.

At least one retired senior is wondering when or if she will get back $160,000 in uninsured deposits with the bank.

So the bidness guys and gals made sure their buddies were warned. The hoi polloi who had deposits over the insurance limit, well, we’re sorry.

Let me emphasize that, according to The Columbian, this was all legal. Apparently bankers can go around tipping off their friends, no problem. Neat system we have.

And politicians wonder why people get up in arms. Maybe someone at that big domed thing in Olympia would like to look into all this? I know life isn’t always fair, but little old ladies losing their money while contractors get theirs just doesn’t seem right.

I hope everyone enjoys the game today.

As HA/JOA expands here to incorporate different subjects into its offering, sports will certainly be part of that. We’re already working on setting up a Sounders blog, but we want to hear about what else to cover. If you have any interest in being a sports blogger with us, drop me an email (linked on my name above).

Do bank executives eat peanut paste products?

I’ve mentioned before that I work with a student group at the University of Washington called AIESEC. I had been involved as a student with the chapter at the University of Michigan back in the mid-90s, and began helping out the UW chapter soon after I moved here. The organization runs a worldwide internship exchange program and has chapters across the world. It’s the largest student organization in the world.

Recently, the Financial Times printed an article about AIESEC’s expansion into China [PDF]. When I was a junior in Ann Arbor looking for overseas internship opportunities, China wasn’t an option (I wound up going to Helsinki). That would change for students in later years, and it was largely because of a very motivated AIESEC member from the University of Washington, Lili Hein.

I’ve known Lili for almost a decade now, and what she and others did back then to convince the Chinese Ministry of Education to embrace the AIESEC program was extraordinary for a college student. Recently, the AIESEC alumni blog AIESEC Life posted an interview with Lili and Joel Sanders. Joel is a former University of Colorado AIESEC member who was also a big part of that effort.

The AIESEC chapter at UW just wrapped up its winter recruitment drive, but it’s never too late for interested folks to sign up – and change the world.

On Thursday The Big Picture had some excerpts from the January newsletter of GMO, a global investment firm. The comments were written by Jeremy Grantham, the chairman of GMO’s board, and are absolutely fascinating, if not easily quoted on a blog like this.

The excerpts at The Big Picture were run under the title Grantham assigned the first section of his newsletter, “Greed + Incompetence + A Belief in Market Efficiency = Disaster,” and they are worth a moment of your time. If you want to worry about the people Obama has picked to pilot the boat during this storm, check it out.

But the the part that really stunned me was Grantham’s discussion about the scale of the economic disaster, especially when it comes to write-downs and private debt. Keep reading for more. [Read more…]

It’s good to find time for some less serious stuff.

Word is, the Blethens have enough cash on hand to keep the Seattle Times operating through at least March, but they’ll reach a major decision point by May:

While a bankruptcy filing is not imminent, if things play out as expected (no last minute reprieve for the P-I, no big concessions from the Times’ unions), Times executives believe a Chapter 11 filing is more likely than not. Such a filing would not necessarily mean the paper is doomed; rather, a Chapter 11 reorganization would buy the paper time, allowing it to continue publishing as it restructured its operations, figured out a way to pay off its debt, and renegotiated its contracts in an effort to make the paper viable when the local economy recovers.

In other words, the Times will use bankruptcy as an opportunity to break the unions.

More from Publicola’s News Junkie.

Click for Part 5

“It behoves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.” – Thomas Jefferson

Last summer, Prince George County Police in Maryland intercepted a package containing 32 pounds of marijuana that was addressed to a local woman. On July 29, undercover police officers went to the residence as part of a SWAT team to deliver the package. An older woman first came to the door and told them to leave it on the porch. Soon after, a middle-aged man who’d been walking his dogs picked up the box and put it inside.

With that, the police made their move. They invaded the home, quickly shooting a potentially dangerous dog, then another. They kept the suspects cuffed until they had enough time to search the home for evidence. Eventually, the police left without being able to make any arrests. Why? Because the person whose home had been invaded was Cheye Calvo, the mayor of the town of Berwyn Heights. He and his family were completely innocent of any crimes.

[Read more…]