Catching my eye: morning A through Z

Here’s what’s caught my eye this morning:

• Is anyone else having problems reaching the Munuvian blogs? UPDATE: Yup. Their server was down.
• Megan McArdle of Asymmetrical Information weighs in on the Vioxx case. I know I haven’t read the transcript and I doubt that Megan has, either. I’ve served on a number of juries and, perhaps consequently, am inclined to cut the jury a little more slack than she is. My own experience is that jurors take their responsibilities seriously and genuinely do their best to decide cases. But they can only deliberate on the cases that are presented to them not on the law or on the case that should have been made.
• No man is poor who has friends.
• The chart that gold bug Mover Mike has on the gold/oil price ratio suggests that something’s got to give. We’ve heard a lot about a housing bubble but I wonder if we’re not also seeing something of an oil bubble.
• I missed this last week but in case you did, too, here’s something from one of the funniest, sharpest guys in the blogosphere, The Religious Policeman. The post is a purported interview with the Saudi Minister for Tourism. Here’s a snippet:
  

  RP: So anyone can fly into Riyadh or Jeddah and just pick up a visa at the airport?

  M: Men can, certainly, and married couples, as long as they can prove they’re married, so they’ll need to bring a Marriage Certificate, four copies translated into Arabic and certified by a lawyer. Not a Jewish lawyer, naturally. Women, on the other hand, will need to be sponsored by someone inside Saudi Arabia.

  RP: But suppose they don’t know anyone in the country?

  M: Well, we can’t help them there, can we? We’re not a Dating Agency.

  RP: And what about couples who aren’t married, or gay couples?

  M: Well as you know, we behead homosexuals, and stone adulterous or loose women to death, so it’s probably best if we don’t let them in in the first place, otherwise there’ll be no end of paperwork.

  As always, read the whole thing.

That’s the lot.