Every summer when the temperature goes up, people start stripping down. At the risk of sounding like a prude, I find it unseemly. Toddlers look cute in just a pair of shorts. Middle-age men do not. Most women don’t look good in shorts, period.Yes, there are starlets strutting down Sunset Boulevard beautiful in little short-shorts, but they’re the exception. I don’t see them at my local grocery sto

Viewpoints July 31, 2011

From the front door of the house to the back is a straight shot unbroken by walls, handy for pacing, 24 steps each way.It is a small house on a small lot in Highland Park, a Los Angeles neighborhood that was on its way up until the recession. The house has not always been well tended: It’s old and a bit shabby, but it stands pretty much foursquare.I bought it in 2005 for $503,000, most of it borro

Viewpoints July 31, 2011

Seismic tremors have shaken the media empire of Rupert Murdoch.Empire is the right word. The collection of newspapers, TV stations and news outlets that constitute a large part of News Corp. have been run in very imperial style. And the emperor, 80 years old and going strong, is Rupert Murdoch.The news part of the empire has not been marked by distinguished journalism. But the trigger incident for

Viewpoints July 31, 2011

The sensational result in the O.J. Simpson murder case notwithstanding, it’s an article of faith among criminal defense attorneys that sequestered jurors are more prone to convict than those who go home when the trial recesses for the day.That’s why more notice should have been paid when J. Michael Flanagan, who is defending Conrad Murray ― the physician charged with causing the death of pop super

Viewpoints July 31, 2011

Savings banks’ depositors are protected by deposit insurance, not in full but in part, from losses caused by the inability of the non-banking institutions to pay their liabilities when they are due. Deposit insurance is designed to promote financial stability by protecting depositors and, by doing so, forestalling bank runs.But the downside is the moral hazard it causes. It encourages depositors a

Editorial July 29, 2011

Growth is slowing and prices remain stubbornly high, sending economic experts scratching their heads and trying to figure out if it is a sign of forthcoming stagflation. But the administration and the central bank rule out the possibility of the economy slipping into stagflation, saying that growth will regain momentum and prices will be more stable in the months ahead.Gross domestic product grew

Editorial July 29, 2011

On July 8, radioactive cesium in excess of the provisional government limit was detected in beef from a cow shipped from Minami Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, to a Tokyo slaughterhouse. Later beef from 10 other cows from the city was found to have been contaminated with such cesium.As of Monday, at least 2,600 cows suspected of having been fed with rice straw contaminated with radioactive cesium were

Viewpoints July 29, 2011

It is a relief that Indonesia arrested 11 would-be terrorists recently before they could go ahead with their intention of attacking the Singapore Embassy in Jakarta, but disquietude remains. Singaporeans owe gratitude to the Indonesian anti-terrorism agency for its vigilance and timely action. It has prevented what could have been a horrific loss of innocent lives. Captured together with small arm

Viewpoints July 29, 2011

The June job figures showed that the employment rate of women in their 50s, which was at 59.3 percent, was higher than those of men in their 20s (58.5 percent) and women in their 20s (59.2 percent).One commentary said the high rate of employment for women in their 50s cannot be welcomed wholeheartedly, adding that elderly women are driven into the job market as their sons and daughters have diffic

Viewpoints July 27, 2011

Talks on forced mergers and liquidations are under way. The targets are not corporations that have become insolvent or are nearing insolvency, but junior colleges and universities whose finances are in bad shape.One of the first steps to be taken in this regard is to pass a bill on restructuring private schools. The presidential office and the ruling Grand National Party agreed on the bill’s early

Editorial July 27, 2011

Muslim extremists. American heroes. Betrayed confidences. Barren landscapes. It’s the stuff of a summer thriller, but sadly, Joby Warrick’s spellbinding book “The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA” is a work of nonfiction. And in the end, nine individuals ― including seven CIA operatives ― were killed.Why was a young Jordanian doctor named Humam al-Balawi, who had never been

Viewpoints July 27, 2011

Migraine sufferers are all around us. Twelve percent of Americans ― almost one in eight ― are occasionally affected, and most of them don’t retire to a dark room for four days to recover.If you’re one of the afflicted, chances are you have a fairly strong opinion about whether U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s migraines are a deal breaker in her campaign for president. That opinion is likely based on h

Viewpoints July 26, 2011