[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Edward Lucas observes that NATO and Russia seem to have quietly decided it's best not to sell advanced weapons to a Georgia that may be inclined to use--misuse?--them.


• Far Outliers' Joel points out that arguments English--or any other language--became a world language by virtue of its innate suitability as a world language overlook the fact that it became a world language at all only because it was spoken by expansionistic powers.


• The Global Sociology Blog warns that the service cutbacks made by American states in response to their fiscal crisis might create "failed states" of a sort, where corporate power will reign supreme.


• GNXP makes the point that porn doesn't modify people's sexual interests nearly as much as some panicky people of whatever ideology might like.


• Marginal Revolution reveals that Somali pirates certainly don't make any fortunes by developed-world standards, although by the standards of their homeland they do pretty well indeed.


• At the Power and the Money, Noel Maurer blames the failure of the Filipino economy to boom after the Second World War despite guaranteed access to the American market on an exchange rate fixed far too high.


• Slap Upside the Head comments only briefly--as much as needed--on the case of the American churchgoer who sued her church for performing same-sex commitment ceremonies.


• Understanding Society's Daniel Little writes about the story of the Chinese-American left, which--as described by scholar Him Mark Lai--developed virtually independently but in parallel with the American left in the early 20th century on account of racism.


• Wasatch Economics' Scott Peterson also warns that the global economic crisis will reduce not only subnational entities, but states and blocs like the United States and the Eurozone, to pawns of corporate power.