Nov. 12th, New York Times:
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WASHINGTON ? The Federal Reserve announced new rules on Thursday that would sharply restrict banks and others that issue debit cards from charging overdraft fees without the express permission of the cardholder.

Advertisement on my gmail, Nov. 22nd:
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Bank of America � - www.BankofAmerica.com - Changing the Way Overdraft Fees Work. See How We're Helping.

"For many years, European soccer has looked east toward China, Hong Kong and Singapore hoping that the day would never dawn when its own sports were contaminated by match fixing on anything like the levels of Asia.

Events in Bochum on Friday killed that hope. There, at police headquarters in the heart of the industrial Ruhr Valley, law enforcement officials announced that 15 suspects in Germany and two in Switzerland were under arrest. This, apparently, is the tip of an iceberg. The police claim they have evidence implicating the corrupting of some 200 professional matches across nine central European countries during 2009 alone.

The suspect matches range from minor regional leagues in Germany to top Champions League and Europa League encounters, the two most glamorous club tournaments in the global sport.
" (NY Times)

Belle de Jour revealed. She turns out to be a PhD.

Vogue profiled Hillary Rodham Clinton. It's an amazing read.

These are some serious candidates that would have been a better pick for EU first President position instead of Mr. Waffle.



Vaira V??e-Freiberga - Ex President of Latvia - she's a critical figure in bringing Latvia to join NATO and EU.






Tony Blair - Ex Prime Minister of Britain. Part time douchbag but has a lot of visible international presence.


Mary Robinson - Ex President of Ireland - she was a pretty popular President when she got the job.

"Leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union on Thursday night chose Herman van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister, as the European Union?s first president, and Catherine Ashton of Britain, currently the group?s trade commissioner, as its high representative for foreign policy. The vote was unanimous." (NY Times)

"Afghanistan has been rated by Transparency International as the second-most corrupt nation in the world, with public sector corruption worsening for the second consecutive year.

Only war-torn Somalia rates worse on the Berlin-based organisation's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of 180 nations, which was released on Tuesday." (Al Jazeera)

"From the point of view of western self-esteem, 1989 is a year to die for: a tale of the triumph of individual freedom and the defeat of an ideological competitor, all captured live on television in the ritual destruction of a reviled enemy symbol in the heart of Europe. So the blanket coverage of the anniversary of the fall of the wall, and the parade of platitude-mouthing politicians in Berlin to mark the implosion of European communism it symbolised, was only to be expected.

What has been more striking, though, has been the lack of ideological confidence and enthusiasm that would have been expected only a few years ago. In the rest of what was eastern Europe, there have been barely any high-profile celebrations of the wider collapse of the old regimes. Given the eruption of wars, global insecurity and now economic crisis that have marked the 20 years since the end of the cold war, the larger narrative of peace, capitalist prosperity and the end of history peddled in the wake of 1989 just seems ridiculous." (Guardian)

Hiroko Mima, who was crowned Miss Universe Japan 2008, and Anya Ayoung-Chee, who was crowned Miss Universe 2008 of Trinidad and Tobago 2008, are in the middle a scandal after an intimate video tape leaked allegedly showing Hiroko and Anya together having sex with Anya's boyfriend Wyatt Gallery, and with each other. (link)