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As economists such as William Black and James Galbraith have repeatedly said, we cannot solve the economic crisis unless we throw the criminals who committed fraud in jail.
And Nobel prize winning economist George Akerlof has demonstrated that failure to punish white collar criminals – and instead bailing them out- creates incentives for more economic crimes and further destruction of the economy in the future. See this, this and this.

Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz just agreed.

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You may think that when you start quoting the Bible by chapter and verse, you are causing us atheists to take a surprised pause and reconsider our place in the universe. In fact, we’re not doing that. Have you ever seen this Far Side cartoon, where the man is scolding his dog Ginger, but all the dog hears is “blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah GINGER”? That’s pretty much what atheists hear when you start quoting the Bible: “blah blah blah.” To be perfectly honest, I don’t even read that stuff anymore. My eyes just slide right over those paragraphs as I skim down to try and figure out if you have a point buried in there somewhere.

Now you’re probably already snickering “Hee hee, Kazim just admitted that atheists are as dumb as dogs!” Nope, that’s not it. Think of it like this. Imagine you’re trying to have a conversation with some guy who really loves Star Trek. Every time you try to discuss something with him, he suddenly perks up and babbles random Star Trek references. He’ll say: “You know, in episode 45/4211.4, Captain Kirk said ‘The only solution is…a balance of power. We arm our side with exactly that much more. A balance of power…the trickiest, most difficult, dirtiest game of them all. But the only one that preserves both sides.’” Sometimes the Star Trek quotes make sense in context, and sometimes he just says things that appear to be a complete non sequitur. But he always quotes them with great significance, as if the words of Captain Kirk are the greatest pearls of wisdom that have ever been offered to the world.

After a while, wouldn’t you stop paying attention to what this guy says? I mean, not that there’s anything particularly wrong with Star Trek, but it is, after all, a fictional story written by some guys in Hollywood in order to make a paycheck.

That’s what we think of your Bible.

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Spanish gays and lesbians will welcome Pope Benedict XVI to their country at the weekend with a massive homosexual kiss-in to be staged in front of Barcelona’s cathedral.

Organisers have invited gays and lesbians from around Spain to congregate in Barcelona during the papal visit on Sunday to form what, on their Facebook page, they call a "queer kissing flashmob".

The plan is for participants to meet at the city’s gothic cathedral and start kissing as soon as the pope steps out of the building at 10am.

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Belgian media says the country’s ultraconservative Roman Catholic archbishop was hit by a pie in the face during an All Saints Day service.

Footage of the incident released Saturday showed a young man approaching Archbishop Andre Leonard on Monday and smacking him with a pie. A church official says the archbishop will not press charges against the unknown attacker.

The incident came amid growing turmoil within Belgium’s Roman Catholic church, which faces an investigation into hundreds of cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. Leonard himself shocked Catholics by sympathizing with priests accused of pedophilia and by saying that homosexuals deserved to get AIDS.

On Tuesday, Leonard’s spokesman quit his job, saying he could no longer speak for a "loose canon."

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A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardize his job, prosecutors said Thursday.

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It looks like voters in Oklahoma just ratified the law of unintended consequences.

Lawmakers in the Sooner State put a constitutional amendment banning the application of Islamic law by Oklahoma courts on the ballot for Tuesday’s election.

But the amendment, which also banned the use of international law in judicial decision-making, might force Oklahoma judges to ignore all laws that were conceived on foreign soil, including the 10 Commandments.

"I would like to see Oklahoma politicians explain if this means that the courts can no longer consider the Ten Commandments. Isn’t that a precept of another culture and another nation?" said a University of Oklahoma law professor. "The result of this is that judges aren’t going to know when and how they can look at sources of American law that were international law in origin. Many of us who understand the law are scratching our heads this morning, laughing so we don’t cry."