Monday morning roundup

Forced abortions are, a reality in China, are a terrible thing.

In a less nefarious effect of the one-child policy, fashion magazines have found an audience in China. Can you help me figure out the math here?

Lena Yang, general manager of Hearst Magazines China, who oversees nine publications including Elle and Marie Claire, says that the typical reader of Hearst Magazines in China is a 29.5-year-old woman who is more likely to be single than married. She has an average income of about $1,431 a month and spends $938 a season on luxury watches, $982 on handbags and shoes and $1,066 on clothes.

Here's the explanation:

Ms. Yang says these women often live at home and turn to their parents and grandparents to pay for them. The study also showed that many readers in their 20s saved little.

“Most of them, they are a single child,” Ms. Yang said. “That means they don’t have to pay for their rent. So all of that goes to pocket money. They have the parents support them and the grandparents. They actually have six persons to support them.”

But don't expect the magazines to use their in to address the weighty issues (like reproductive rights) plaguing the country:

“We’re pretty low-risk,” Mr. Edwards said. “Cosmo and Elle and magazines like this are not deemed to be highly likely to offend the relevant government bodies.”

The Post aptly characterizes Latin America's generation of "democratically elected authoritarians."

A dialogue about gun control is, apparently, too much to hope for.

So is an embrace of pollution limits from an industry that advertises and depends on pristine environments.

If you must break the law, at least put some clothes on.

Please visit the National Gallery, especially in memory of Herb Vogel. I love this:

Mr. Vogel could not always articulate why he liked certain works of art more than others or what he looked for when collecting. Sasaki, the director of the 2008 documentary about the Vogels, ended up focusing the camera on his eyes, which instantly grew wide whenever he saw a new artwork that he admired.

“I just like art,” Mr. Vogel said in 1992. “ I don’t know why I like art. I don’t know why I like nature. I don’t know why I like animals. I don’t know why I even like myself.”

Wow, my mom isn't a professional profiler--in fact, she's often a terrible judge of character--but she has the same knack for evaluating relationships from a distance. It's eerie. But what spoke to me even more was the part about how we all have the capability to profile effectively; we just will ourselves out of using it, and then, when a relationship sours, we acknowledge all the signs we ignored. But there's something to be said for that:

Might I have avoided heartache by heeding my mother’s advice? After all, she was right both times. But a relationship that doesn’t work out isn’t a waste. There is no exact science or crystal ball. Profiling is a surface art; real love isn’t. As Hemingway once said, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” Likewise, the best way to know if you are meant to be with someone is to be with him.