INTERESTING WEEKEND READS (for 3-15-13)

MISCELANEOUS / INTERESTING
* Man of the Year Award? Woman mauled to death by lion as she made love to her boyfriend, who fled once the attack began, (The Telegraph).
* Great news, I think. Saudi Arabia might stop public beheadings ... due to a shortage of qualified swordsmen, (Mailonline).
* The truth behind the charter school movement, (Salon).
* We're #1, we're #1 ... the U.S. is ranked #1 when it comes to death by violence, (Ranking America).
* Modern gun owners are just scared? Security passes hunting as the top reason to own a gun, (Talking Points Memo).


POLITICS & COMMENTARY
* How the Iraq War has hurt Republicans, (Washington Post).
* Paul Ryan's budget proposal screws the middle class by redistributing wealth upward, again, (Robert Reich).
* A timeline of Paul Ryan's Medicare flip flops, (TPM).
* I'm no fan of Ben Bernanke, but our GOP-led Congress looks clueless when they try to grandstand on their knowledge of the economy, (The Economic Populist). 
* Another case of the right wing echo chamber spewing hate and getting it wrong, big time (addictinginfo.com). 
* With GOP filibuster, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in trouble, (Talking Points Memo). 
* Why is the FDIC helping financial institutions do their PR work by hiding "scores" of bank settlements from the public (nakedcapitalism). But, wait, it gets worse ...
* Attorney General Eric Holder says we can't prosecute big banks because it would negatively impact the global economy ... effectively telling the world that banks are immune from their reckless stupidity and greed (The Economic Populist). 
* OK, this one also helps explain why our gangster banks don't get prosecuted, (nakedcapitalism).

MARKETS/ECONOMICS
* Economist Mark Thoma does a good job of explaining why Paul Krugman trumps Jeff Sachs, (Economist's View).
* How high frequency trading (HFT) has become more predatory, extractive and contributes to Wall Street's on-going casino mentality, (nakedcapitalism).
* All you wanted to know about the current jobs report, in seven graphs, (Wonkblog, Washington Post).
* And in the "It's time for the GOP to stop complaining" category: We have yet another month of private sector job growth in America, which makes for 36 months straight ...

- Mark