In the world of the obvious, Gary Weiss at Salon writes about how the Enron case didn’t and won’t alter the behavior of executives inclined to commit corporate crime. My response on Salon was as follows:

… But a lot of this seems, frankly, OBVIOUS. There is little incentive not to commit crime when you are an executive. And the problem is not the executives, but that the crimes committed have little penalties, and would willing be committed by someone else. In economic terms, there is too much opportunity cost (read: money), to not commit a crime that is at best lightly punished.

I don’t want to condone any behavior, but regardless, you cannot expect much out of people who have gained their positions with a combination of intelligence and greed.

Also at Salon, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks about Israel, his letter to Bush and Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Synopsis: Zionists, Zionists, Jews, Zionists… oh and also Jews.

The good news about a new Dutch political party: part of their platform includes “”includes ideas for other areas of public policy including legalizing all soft and hard drugs and free train travel for all.” The bad news? It’s being formed by a group of pedophiles. In a quality quote about pedophilia, “A ban just makes children curious,” Ad van den Berg, one of the party’s founders, told the Algemeen Dagblad (AD) newspaper.

Oh, also, there’s a new Laguna Beach shoot off beginning tonight on MTV. I will be sorely disappointed if I don’t see the bare body of an over-developed California teen 1 minute into the show.