crime and punishment

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-- A study of Indian suicides by people who took micro-finance loans they could not pay back links lenders to some of the suicides. I wonder how long it will take before such a study is made in the upscale West.

-- Sarah Palin, once the air-head darling of the conservative world, was feeling the heat, apparently, before she quit her job as Alaska governor. She had been invited to play with the big boys when Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as a vice-presidential pick. She accepted the invitation, but, like Icarus, seems to have flown too close to the sun.

-- The U.S. has decided to freeze the assets of known Yakuza organizations and/or other organized crime members. Japanese organized crime is likely to feel the pinch, I guess. Organized crime is a vile and violent world, but it is hard not to think of the approximate quote attributed to Honore de Balzac: "Behind every great fortune, there is a great crime." Personal, social, international ... where are the lines?
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