Turing chief executive Martin Shkreli (shown here) has become an overnight villain after public interest organizations raised alarm over his company buying a long-used medicine, Daraprim, in the treatment of AIDS and immediately raised the price of $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill. When a reporter asked him to explain the increase for a drug that has been on the market for 62 years, Shkreli called him a “moron” and refused to answer the question. The company has now become a target in the presidential election as an example of how companies are still profiteering on these drugs.
Category: International
As we struggle with our own unemployment issues, it is easy to lose sight of how much worse the situation is in countries like India. That comparative point was driven home this week when the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh announced that it had a few hundred job openings for low-level office workers who run errands and make tea. The response was a deluge of 2.3 million people applying for the 368 jobs.
Continue reading “Indian State Posts Openings For 368 Low-Level Jobs . . . 2.3 Million Apply”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The BBC presented an engaging and informative report concerning how the unprecedented demand for rare earth elements is leading to environmental degradation, especially in developing countries. It proposes that one of the ironic tragedies of manufacturing green technologies is that it is leading to concentrations of pollution in specific areas. This also brings forth the importance of having a conversation about advanced, consumer societies needing to engage in much self reflection on the causes of the insatiable appetites consumers have for top of the line electronics. Of which are designed with quick obsolescence as a business model.
Continue reading “Rare Earths Mining And Processing Leading To Much Pollution In The East”
We have been discussing the controversy over a man from Qatar who went on a dangerous high-speed chase in a yellow Ferrari and then both threatened a reporter and claimed diplomatic immunity. He informed the reporter that he could kill him with utter immunity from prosecution and topped off that threat by saying “F*** America.” It is now confirmed that this disgraceful thug is a member of Qatar’s ruling family: Sheik Khalid bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar’s ruling family. Al-Thani claimed immunity but does not actually have it. However, by some incredible sequence of events, Al-Thani was allowed to flee the country to avoid any accountability.
Continue reading “Qatar Prince Who Claimed Immunity In High-Speed Chase Flees The Country”
We have previously discussed the myriad of discriminatory rules facing women in Iran under that country’s application of Islamic rules. Now one of those archaic rules has cost the country’s soccer team it’s captain. Niloufar Ardalan, 30, will not be competing in Malaysia because her husband refused to sign papers to allow his wife to renew her passport. The Asian Football Confederation Futsal Championship is set to run from Sept. 21-26.
I have the honor today and tomorrow of speaking at the Utah Valley University’s annual Constitutional Conference sponsored by The Center for Constitutional Studies. The CCS, under Director Rick Griffin, has blossomed into an extraordinary center for intellectual exchange in Orem, Utah with figures regularly brought from all over the world to discuss a myriad of legal and policy questions. This conference is particularly fortunate to have a group of diverse academics and lawyers, including Judge Sir Christopher Greenwood, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Judge on the International Court of Justice. Sir Christopher will give a keynote address entitled “The Powers and Privileges of U.S. Presidents Abroad under International Law.” He is one of the truly towering figures in international law.
I have been highly critical of the environmental policies of Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott who has led the world in rolling back efforts to deal with climate change and reducing pollution while opening up pristine areas of mining and other industries. In a move that is likely to be celebrated by environmentalists around the world, Abbott is Prime Minister no more. In a remarkable change, ruling conservatives ousted Abbott (right) as party leader in favor of former party leader and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull (left).
Continue reading “Tony Abbott Dumped As Australian Prime Minister”
Some might think that a driver with driving violations might be able to “work something out” in a town called “Bribie,” but this is not that type of place, this was not that type of officer, and most certainly this was not just any violation. The officer saw a door flapping on a car and discovered that it was just held shut with a rope.
Continue reading “For Sale: 4dr Sedan, Radio, and Rope Pull . . .”
Hungarian camerawoman Petra Laszlo has publicly apologized for kicking migrants but insisted that she was acting out of fear for her own safety. The government is reportedly considering a public nuisance claim against her though it would seem a simple case of assault. We previously discussed her controversy.
One of the leading Hungarian broadcasters has fired a camerawoman after she was shown tripping a fleeing refugee man who was carrying his young son in his arms. The broadcaster and many Hungarian news outlets have been accused of highly negative coverage of the influx of refugees. The camerawoman has been identified as Petra László of N1TV.
The world has stood appalled by the destruction of Muslim extremists in ISIS of ancient Syrian architecture and Christian tombs, including continuing demolitions revealed this week with the destruction of the famed tower tombs. A construction company in Israel however shows that you do not have to be a religious fanatic to show the same ignorance and destruction. In this case it was allegedly a case of blind greed rather than blind hate. The unnamed company was told that it could build in the sensitive area of Ashkelon where antiquities are often found (like this earlier sarcophagus) so long as they proceed carefully and report any findings (and stop work when any findings are made). The company allegedly found the beautiful 1,800 year old sarcophagus but decided to hide it rather than stop work. In the process of yanking it out of the ground with a tractor and hiding it under sheet metal, the invaluable piece was irreparably damaged. (Since the photographer for the Israel Antiquities Authority has copyrighted the photos, a curious claim for a government agency, we cannot post the pictures which can be seen here It is an ironic twist, the IAA is objecting to the damage to a historic piece that belongs to all humanity but then claims copyright to the images to ostensibly require anyone who wants to use the image to get its permission)
Pakistan continues to defy the United States and the Western world in harboring Taliban fighters and lying publicly about the collusion of its intelligence services with the terrorist organization. There is no greater example that a meeting of hundreds of Taliban leaders to select their new leader. That would seem an ideal time for an attack by the United States and Afghanistan, but the meeting is being held in Pakistan and reportedly with the knowledge of the Pakistani government. The “Unity shura” will be brought to the Taliban by the country that we have given billions of dollars to in the war on terror.
Continue reading “Taliban Reportedly Holds Huge Meeting To Select New Leader . . . in Pakistan”
The Chinese regime followed its recent market meltdown in true Maoist fashion this week. It dragged out a journalist, Wang Xiaolu, to confess that he helped start the crash. It cannot be the centrally planned, artificially dumped up system itself. No, it was a journalist.
President Robert Mugabe, 91, has long been one of the world’s most heartless and merciless dictators, but he seems also on a quest to show that he is also the most clueless. This week Mugabe expressed utter surprise that his people were starving as he and his notorious and corrupt family live like emperors. He assured that there is “no suffering” in Zimbabwe.
Continue reading “Mugabe Insists “No Suffering” in Zimbabwe”
According to various media reports and Amnesty International, an all-male village council in India sentenced two sisters, including a 15 year old girl, to be raped as punishment for their brother running away with a married woman from a higher caste. The accounts state that Meenakshi Kumari, who is 23, and her younger sister, will then be paraded naked with their faces blackened through the streets as part of this disgraceful, primitive sentence.