Every American child has the chance to become President, so the saying goes. Not if their parents have anything to do with it though: let my child become anything, a janitor or a used car salesman, rather than a politician.

A stunning statistic: only 300 titles a year are translated into Arabic. Fortunately, there'll soon be another 100, including Milton Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom". That might shake a few things up. 

If you're going to run a campaign calling for "fair pay" for everyone, shouldn't you actually pay those running the campaign for you? 

More news of dirty goings on in the US mortgage market but this time on the sales to investor side, not the lending.

That Vioxx settlement: did the plaintiff's lawyers actually have a decent case or was it a shakedown? 

The UN has passed a resolution calling for the respect for the value systems of all religions. The voting list either side is interesting. 

And finally, in entirely unrelated news governments are not handing over enough money to the UN so they are asking that (giggle) private companies might like to fund the UN.