Today’s Links: January 19, 2012

OPINION

DIANA FURCHTGOTT-ROTH: “Jobs Are Created and Destroyed Every Year”
“There’s no specific, reliable number for the jobs that Mitt Romney supposedly destroyed and created during his tenure at Bain Capital, the private equity firm that he headed between 1984 and 1998. But one thing is sure-whatever jobs were lost in companies acquired by Bain, or shut down in a few cases, they were a tiny fraction of job destruction and creation in the American economy as a whole. ”

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Andrew Sullivan’s Inadvertent Cherry-Picking”
“Andrew Sullivan’s feature about Barack Obama’s critics has stirred up a lot of controversy in the blog world over the last few days.  On one charge, I’ll defend him:  it is a little known fact that writers do not choose their headlines (or even necessarily see them).  So the next time you are set to fire off an angry letter to a writer, pause for a moment and ask yourself: ‘am I reacting to the piece, or to the headline?’ However, one charge does stick: he’s puffing up Obama’s record by comparing gross to net.  You just can’t do that; any resulting numbers are useless.”

TRIP GABRIEL and BRIAN STELTER: “Gingrich Camp Responds to Ex-Wife’s Interview”
“Anticipating a potentially damaging interview with one of Newt Gingrich’s former wives ahead of the South Carolina primary, the Gingrich campaign issued an open letter on Wednesday night to ‘ABC News leadership,’’ the network that conducted the interview, in preparation for a Thursday night broadcast.”

NEWS

LEGAL – Supreme Court Says Congress May Re-Copyright Public Domain Works
“Congress may take books, musical compositions and other works out of the public domain, where they can be freely used and adapted, and grant them copyright status again, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.”

INTERNATIONAL – Iran Cracks Down on Barbie
“Iran’s morality police are cracking down on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values, shopkeepers said on Monday.”

FOOD – The Many Benefits of Creating a Single Food Safety Agency
“According to rumors passed along by Dan Flynn at Food Safety News via the Hagstrom Report (an agricultural subscription news service costing $999 a year), the Office of Management and Budget wants to merge federal agencies, among them the food safety components of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).”