Monday digest

- Climate change on Mars? That pesky sun just keeps getting in the way of the junk scientists' agenda. And, by the way, did Al Gore ask for UN approval before interfering in the politics of another sovereign country this past weekend?

- I recently reviewed a book on China (see below). Here's a shorter article which makes many of the same points, concluding that China is not nearly the threat it is often made out to be.

- Steyn.

- This spring's must-read is going to be George Tenet's book, even if there have been suggestions of inaccuracies.

- One of the most bogus pieces of conventional wisdom going today concerns the issue of equal pay for men and women. A common stat thrown around is that women make 77 cents to every buck a man makes, leaving the impression that women's labour isn't valued as much by employers as that of a man doing the same job. This isn't the case. What the statistic really points out is that among full-time workers overall, women make 3/4 of what men do, and as Stephen Chapman points out here, this has little to do with discrimination and more to do with things like maternity leave, hours spent at work, and other factors. Moreover, if employers were paying women 25% less, that would imply that if they were to fire all of their male employees and hire only women, they would shave a quarter from their labour bill and therefore be more able to make higher profits. Why isn't that happening? I guess the feminist crowd would say that misogyny beats self-interest in the boardroom, but I'm not buying it.