Sex, Lies, Arrogance: What Makes Powerful Men Behave So Badly?

When her husband Dominique Strauss-Kahn was preparing to run for President of France five years ago, Anne Sinclair told a Paris newspaper that she was “rather proud” of his reputation as a ladies’ man, a chaud lapin nicknamed the Great Seducer. “It’s important,” she said, “for a man in politics to be able to seduce.” Maybe it was pride that inspired French politicians and International Monetary Fund officials to look the other way as the rumors about “DSK” piled up, from the young journalist who says Strauss-Kahn tried to rip off her clothes when she went to interview him, to the female lawmaker who describes being groped and pawed and vowed never to be in a room alone with him again, to the economist who argued in a letter to IMF investigators that “I fear that this man has a problem that, perhaps, made him unfit to lead an institution where women work under his command.” Maybe it was the moral laziness and social coziness that impel elites to protect their own

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What’s Killing the Sea Otters

Los Angeles They’re cute, furry, and when they’re not chasing each other around kelp forests, they’re floating on their backs like miniature teddy bears. Hunted nearly to extinction for their luxuriant fur–the thickest of any mammal’s–the sea otters of California were making a comeback until they started mysteriously dying off.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Legacy as Governor of California

Appropriately, the race to become the next governor of the richest state in the Union could well be a treatment for a Hollywood script: a multimillionaire taking on the wily scion of a political dynasty to succeed one of the biggest box-office stars of all time as governor of California. On Tuesday, Californians will decide if Democrat Jerry Brown, the current attorney general, a former governor himself and three-time presidential candidate, or Meg Whitman, the eBay billionaire who has spent a record $140+ million on her campaign, will succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger

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Can Jerry Brown Solve California’s Perpetual Crisis?

Like his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California Governor Jerry Brown is struggling to keep the state afloat in an ocean of red ink. Facing a $26 billion deficit, he warns of “draconian” cuts to education and public safety if the state cannot raise revenue and has to adopt an all-cuts budget.

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