18 Mar 2004
US tells China to drop chip sales tax - or else

This could be instructive for those who do not understand that "free trade" isn't really very free at all ... imagine China's reaction if we imposed a 17% tax on textiles, with a 14% rebate to domestic textile producers.

Note that this situation has been ongoing since 2000, and that it's taken our government nearly four years to notice and complain. Given that the semiconductor industry is one of the more influential in lobbying Washington, this doesn't bode well for those in less "well-connected" industries.

It's (trade) war!

(link) [The Register]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Bans on Interracial Unions Offer Perspective on Gay Ones

I always hate to post stuff from the Times, as it expires rapidly, but this is worthy instructional material on how the whole gay marriage brouhaha may be, in fact, much ado about nothing.

It seems as though, in the (unfortunately rather recent) era when interracial marriages were prohibited in some states, the full faith and credit clause of the US Constitution was rarely invoked to enforce recognition of those marriages in all states. And the situation evolved naturally until the right was established nationwide on general constitutional grounds by the Supreme Court.

Which would be a far better model for progress than the divisive debate we're undergoing now.

Scholars say that an examination of the last national debate on marriage shows that the president misunderstood the legal terrain.

(link) [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link