Monday's Daily Brief

Monday, July 11, 2011 Arianna Huffington: On Snow Flower, Female Friendship, and the Madness of High Heels Arianna Huffington: Throughout my life, I've had the good fortune to have a group of very close and supportive female friends. They have been a real blessing. So when I saw an early screening of the new film, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I was deeply moved by the passionate way it evokes the power of female friendship. The film chronicles the friendship of two girls in 19th-century China, and the bond between two of their descendants in present day Shanghai. But the story is universal. One scene, depicting the cruel tradition of bound feet, caused me to make my own time-shift jump to the present: thinking about what modern women are inflicting on our feet in the form of wearing impossibly high heels. Today, we do the binding ourselves -- and pay a lot of money to do so! POLITICS Obama Tries To Resell Republicans On A Grand Debt Ceiling Deal BUSINESS As Government Nears Accord With Banks, Questions Swirl Over Scope Of Investigation WORLD Regime Supporters Reportedly Attack U.S. Embassy In Syria MEDIA Murdoch's BSkyB Bid In Peril CRIME Casey Anthony's Lawyer Worried For Her Safety BLOG POSTS Robert Kuttner: Address the Jobs Crisis First Does anyone care about the American middle class? The working middle class -- especially its younger members -- now faces a prolonged period of high unemployment, declining wages, and diminished public services. Radley Balko: Why "Caylee's Law" Is a Bad Idea Laws named after crime victims and dead people are usually a bad idea. They play more to emotion than reason. But they're disturbingly predictable, especially when they come after the death of a child. The push for "Caylee's Law" needs a douse of cold water. Barbara Hannah Grufferman: Will America Kill the Equal Rights Amendment? Can a country that prides itself as the leader and protector of democracy in the world, and one which implores other countries to include the word "women" in their constitutions, still not protect the rights of women in its own? Robert Creamer: Growing Economic Inequality the Root Cause of Economic Stagnation Growing economic inequality as we have had in America for the past three decades directly impacts million of lives and destroys millions of dreams. It's not just about economic policy. It's about right and wrong. David Berri: Do the Players -- and Cities -- Really Need NBA Owners? Once again, two groups are being extorted by the 30 NBA owners: cities and players. A simple solution is for these two groups to come together and form a new basketball league, which I am gong to refer to as the Basketball Players Association League (or BPAL).

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