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6. april 2005
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Norway is certainly not squeamish about using radical affirmative action to ensure gender equality. The parliament has already passed laws allowing the government to force businesses to have at least 40% of each sex on the boards of public limited companies, and the government has used this threat to force businesses to appoint more women to boards.
The private sector, however, has not responded fast enough for our center-right government, so the government threatens to force the issue under the threat of dissolving non-compliant businesses..
"Companies have been dragging their feet. They really have to recruit more women," Children and Family Affairs Minister Laila Daavoey told Reuters.
"In the very worst case, they will face closure."
Norway's parliament told firms in 2002 to ensure at least 40 percent of each sex in boardrooms by mid-2005 to force corporate leadership to match Nordic traditions of sex equality elsewhere in society.
Before Tuesday, however, Oslo had not spelt out sanctions for non-compliance. Many companies denounce the scheme as the toughest corporate sex equality goal in the world.
"Since 2002 the percentage of women in boards has risen to only 11 percent from six," Daavoey said. "Yet there are thousands of qualified women out there -- companies can choose from half the adult population."
The problem with this scheme is that men still own 90% of all stocks in these companies in Norway. Board members of private companies are owners or the direct representatives of the owners. These new rules would mean that people who own large shares in public companies may not be allowed to be represented on the board, or will be forced to appoint women in their place.
Women who are already on the boards are not happy about this. They fear that forcing women into the boardrooms through legislation means that women who are appointed because they own shares or are otherwise qualified risk being considered feminist tokens.
11:33:32 PM 
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Deputies in Tennessee at first thought it was an April Fool's Day prank, but eventually discovered that the joke was on some hapless would-be burglars who had accidentally dialed 911 while planning a crime:
Authorities arrested Jason Anthony Arnold, 29, and James Keith Benton, 38, both of Church Hill, and charged them with burglary and theft over $500. Officers said they tried to steal a refrigerator from a mobile home dealership.
The Hawkins County Sheriff's Department was tipped off early Friday morning when dispatchers overheard a 40-minute conversation from a cell phone about plans to rob the dealership.
"It's the kind with the numbers exposed," detective Eve Jackson said. "Apparently with this type of phone if you hold down the number nine it automatically dials 911. So Mr. Arnold's phone was in his front jeans pocket, and somehow the number nine got pressed, and central dispatch heard everything they said."
Hat tip MacRaven.
PS: Bonus story from same blogger, which I somehow managed to miss:
Norwegian Job Ad Seeks Friendly Vikings
I didn't see this in the local news.
5:48:01 PM
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Is the city of San Francisco preparing a campaign regulating ordnance that may seriously regulate political bloggers? Eugene Volokh tries to make head and tail of the legalese.
So the bottom line is that I can't tell what the ordinance as currently drafted really means. Now some of the features I describe may well be unintentional, and perhaps they'll be clarified in future versions of the ordinance. But the version that I have seems to pose a serious risk of imposing nontrivial regulations on bloggers who mention San Francisco candidates before an election — and, I think, violates the First Amendment on vagueness grounds.
When a law prof struggles with the text, it's a fair guess normal bloggers will be hard pressed to understand it.
PS: As blogging gets more and more attention, we can expect lots of conflicts and insane rules like these in the future, all over the world. I wouldn't be surprised if mainstream media and politicians gang up on blogs, trying to add rules making it more difficult for amateurs to have their voice in the political debate.
5:37:35 PM
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YaGoohoo!gle does exactly what it sounds like it will do, though not necessarily in a very useful way.
8:19:52 AM
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A good idea, and hopefully not lawyer-bait: The Annotated NYT. Links to articles with full blog commentaries, quite tastefully put together, even though it could be more readable. Like a Memeorandum for just the Times.
PS: I personally would prefer if only a shortened form of blog stories were posted. I like reading the full stories in their context, and I think most bloggers also would appreciate that their readers visit their blog. Maybe that's what the small courier font of the blog articles is supposed to encourage?
8:14:54 AM
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After electing a speaker, it appears the Iraqi parliament has now broken the deadlock.
Iraq's major political parties agreed this evening to appoint a president and two vice presidents at a meeting of the national assembly on Wednesday, according to a senior assembly leader, breaking a two-month deadlock in negotiations to form a new government.
The main Shiite and Kurdish political blocs have agreed to name Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, as president; Adel Abdul Mahdi, a prominent Shiite Arab politician, as vice president; and Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar, the Sunni Arab president of the interim government, as the other vice president, said Hussein al-Shahristani, a vice speaker of the assembly.
The three officials, who will make up the presidency council, will have two weeks from their appointment to name a prime minister, who would then select a cabinet. The new government would have to be approved by a majority vote of the assembly, according to the interim constitution.
Hopefully that will go smoothly. Iraq needs a government of the day, and the parliament certainly has enough work to do with drafting the constitution.
12:47:33 AM
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The United Kingdom will go to the polls on May 5. Tuesday Tony Blair asked the Queen to dissolve parliament next week. Labour is still ahead in the polls, but it looks like it will be a much closer race than expected earlier.
However, we have to remember that many are voicing dissatisfaction with Tony Blair from the left, and election day coming, they are not likely to vote for the Tories.
12:09:20 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.05.2005; 01:54:57.
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