Years of Poems and Spirits

Just read this story (”Uzbeks Stop Working With U.S. Against Terrorism”) on Washington Post.

Several things to watch:
1. This is a rare example where American government chooses intagible principle over immediate interest. Is it true? Can this last?
2. Finally being the good guy everyone else thinks it should be, what “soft power” America can wield (especially with the Europeans and the Russians)?
3. Would China be able to (i.e. having the capacity of) assert any influence in central Asia? Note, Uzbekistan does NOT share border with China.

Related: Steven D. Levitt: Freakonomics and Washington Post online article (”Bennett Under Fire for Remark on Crime and Black Abortions”)

In the chapter “Where are the criminals”, Levitt convincingly (i.e. with comparative statistical study) argued that the drop of crime rate in the late 90s has a strong correlation to the rise of abortion rate after Roe v. Wade.

Prof. Levitt, being a insatiable number wiz, went further to prove that reducing crime by abortion is not a very efficient economic model.