What Caught My Eye Today - China, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Economic Growth, North Dakota

China - Choking smog all but shut down Harbin, the capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million people, in the country's first major air pollution crisis of the winter. An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers, reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of the city. A level above 300 is considered hazardous, while the World Health Organisation recommends a daily level of no more than 20. To put it another way, the current particulate matter in Harbin  is 50 times the recommended limit. Kind of makes Los Angeles seem like a bastion of pristine air, doesn't it? The smog not only forced all primary and middle schools to suspend classes, but shut the airport and some public bus routes, the official Xinhua news agency reported, blaming the emergency on the first day of the heating being turned on in the city for winter. All this on the first day of winter? Oy vey! Visibility was reportedly reduced to 10 meters. I'm thinking not being able to breath trumps the lack of visibility. Air quality in Chinese cities is of increasing concern to China's stability-obsessed leadership because it plays into popular resentment over political privilege and rising inequality in the world's second-largest economy. Pish posh. How much of a fuss can a measly 11 million people --who cannot breathe, mind you -- cause?

Azerbaijan - Azerbaijan government officials accidentally announced the re-election of incumbent President Ilham Aliyev a day before the polls opened. I've heard of calling a race a bit prematurely on election night, but a whole day before the election was held. Wow, those exit polls must be really, really good. The Central Election Commission's smartphone application show Aliyev winning a third term with 73% of the vote, with just 7.4% going to the opposition candidate. The Commission quickly retracted the results saying that it had mistakenly republished the last election's results. Surely, an honest mistake, right? However, since the opposition candidate did not run in the last election, the excuse seems implausible. Or perhaps not. The country has never held an election that Western observers deemed free and fair. Obviously Azerbaijan doesn't care a great deal about what us pesky Western's think.

Morocco - Protesters staged a "kiss in" in support of a teenage couple who were arrested after posting photos of their kiss on Facebook. Oh the horror! The boy and girl were charged with violating public decency. I say public floggings for all those involved in this heinous act. Public displays of affection? It is amazing the depths to which our civilization has fallen. An online campaign to kiss publicly in front of Parliament drew more than 2,000 supporters, but only about a dozen couples actually kissed at the protest. Way to make a statement, people. Morocco has been growing more conservative since Islamists swept the 2011 elections in the wake of Arab Spring democratic reforms. Don't these people get it? Democratic reforms are supposed to reflect what the Western world sees as acceptable, not what the people actually want. Seriously, how dense can you be?

Economic Growth - Recent studies have concluded that if not for the multiple "fiscal crises" created by Congress over the past two years, another 2 million Americans would have jobs, the unemployment rate would have dropped below 6.7%, and The growth of the GDP would be close to 4%, instead of 2.5%. And champagne would rain down from the heavens...but I digress. The study found that Congress's fiscal cliff and debt ceiling emergencies have unsettled markets and employers, kept consumers in a cautious crouch, and paralyzed the entire system with uncertainty. Apparently, the Great Recession wasn't challenging enough. The 5% annual cut in federal spending forced by the sequester has been found to be too drastic and has retarded growth. One can only assume that someone in Washington discovered that some of us still had some retirement savings that survived and decided something had to be done to remedy that anomaly.

North Dakota - Nine out of 10 workers lured by North Dakota's oil boom are men, but there is a peripheral industry that is attracting women: exotic dancing. Fascinating how opportunities arises under the most unexpected circumstances. Then again, we are talking about a lot of testosterone filled men with loads of cash and not much to spend it on. Strippers can bank over $2000 a night in oil boomtowns. Prostitution is also on the rise. I totally get this. Sit in a strip club for a few hours and you are bound to get a little hot and bothered. A clear cut case of cause and effect if ever there was one.  Hospitals note that rates of chlamydia doubled between 2010 and 2011. Yup, more cause and effect. Speaking of which, you can sort of see this last item coming from a mile away. Local women have also complained that the roving bands of unattached, restless young men have created a culture of constant sexual harassment.