Links and Minifeatures 09 26 Monday

China is trying to bail a levee breach with a sieve, but don't tell them that. China Imposes New Rules on News Web Sites. It's nice to see a situation where entropy works for civilization and against its enemies. Of course the chinese leaders would never agree with that characterization, but a lot of chinese people might.



Another, similar article. China Wants Only 'Healthy' News.



George Orwell, call your office.

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Ack! I've been discovered by spam-meisters! Twenty-two trackbacks to a payday loan scam this morning. I almost deleted Tinkerty-Tonk's RINO sightings trackbank by accident. I am glad Powerblogs will handle this particular offender automatically from now on.



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Speaking of RINO Sightings, it's up at Tinkerty Tonk. Recommended: Says Uncle



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Carnival of Personal Finance is also up. I would be careful about taking any of the advice that's not backed up with a calculator, however. The post that most says something that most people badly need to hear is Fiscal Times, which basically says "Get off your duff and get started!", but I would never in a million years use sharebuilder or anything similar. Yes, put money in a jar if you have to, starting today, right now. When it gets to be enough, put it in a savings account. When the savings account gets to be enough (You can get started with mutual funds with $1000 once or $100 per month), move it there. Most people should be able to come up with $100 per month, enough to start an automatic contribution to most mutual funds.



Most personal finance writers will do just about anything to keep you away from a professional who really knows what they are doing. The reason is that if you go to a professional, you're not likely to buy personal finance magazines and read them in newspapers, and spend your money on the latest crap by Goober T. Journalist. The reason they send you to a "fee only" advisor when they have to is because all the fee buys is a plan, no execution, and you might still have to read their drivel to make your actual investments. So they focus on not spending money for advice "because you don't need to". Horseradish. Especially when you're first getting started, Class A, B and C loaded mutual funds are some of the best and cheapest ways to get targeted professional advice specific to your situation that you can hold somebody's feet to the fire over if it is incorrect. When I worked on a "fee only" basis, my sole responsibility was that any recommendations I made were appropriate at the time I made them, not did I have any responsibility for updating or staying current on those recommendations, and I'd make $400 or more for not a lot of work. Basically, I'd make my money for responsibility that was somewhere below 1 on the zero to 10 scale. When I worked on an Asset Management basis (percentage of assets per year), my responsibilities were as high as they could be, but you had to have $50,000 invested to be eligible. When I worked on a sales charge basis, my effective responsibilities were about 99% as high, and if the sales charges were a little higher up front, the 12b-1 charges in subsequent years are a fraction of the average investor's asset management fee. Journalists, book authors, newspaper and newsletter publishers? They are explicitly exempted from any responsibility for bad investment advice under the Investment Company Act of 1940.



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This is both well and properly done: SEC chief recuses self from Frist stock probe. What the headline didn't say was that the SEC has begun an investigation. The Bush administration is not shielding Frist, at least as far as the evidence to date shows.



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Bush Drops 'Diversity' Hint About Nominee. I'm hoping Janice Rogers Brown. Anybody that can get these moonbats all stirred up. and these. Wikipedia, hardly a right wing publication, debunks both if you read it. And nine years as a Justice of the California Supreme Court is hardly a disqualification, and remember that the California Supreme Court is almost as far to the left as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; saying a justice is the lone dissenting vote on that court is akin to saying that a justice has some connection to reality.



I did like Gay Orbit's reaction, though. As long as any criterion other than "Who will do the best possible job?" is even acceptable, we are a discriminatory society.



Resistance is futile likes her, too.



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More on the mess here in America's Finest Banana Republic City. 'Unanticipated events' may delay S.D. audit. If you want to know how bad it is, read this article: Runway paved with neglect. There are problems with the location at Brown. A three thousand foot mountain on final approach, albeit several miles out but still a real factor for all of it's traffic (As Reba McIntyre, among others, could tell you). Tijuana's main airport is only about a mile away, meaning that instrument approaches have to be timed so that they don't conflict, as do instrument departures (Normal separation rules for instrument traffic is 3 miles or 1000 feet). Since almost all commercial traffic is required to be on instrument flight rules, these are issues. In fact, the only Instrument approach to Brown is an overhead VOR approach. But with all that said, it's an 8000 foot runway and until the stupidest City Council on the face of the planet wasted the opportunity, it was a real option for all of the air cargo to go down there. Now, of course, it's solid development all around. But ten to fifteen years ago there was both an opportunity and an obvious need. Anyone who's ever flown into San Diego's primary passenger airport, Lindbergh, knows it's a white knuckle experience (a 747 among other planes, would actually HIT a parking garage if it flew on glide slope to the default runway). It would never be accepted if it were being certified today. Plus it's only a single runway, and there's another hill off the west end. The FAA is doing the best they can with what they have, but it's the city's responsibility to find the land for an airport if they want one.



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Today is the anniversary of the end of Sir Francis Drake's finishing his great voyage around the world.



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Dog lovers, watch out for your pets! Report: Mysterious Disease Is Flu Strain. I've already spent $5000 on vet bills this year. I really don't need any more vet bills right now, thank you.



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If the greeks can launch satellites to check for illegal aliens, why can't we require employers to just not hire them?



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Yeah, Hamas, keep selling the fantasy that you drove the Israelis out of Gaza like you have, and pretty soon you'll be driving the Palestinians out as the Israelis counter-attack.



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To contrast advocacy BS with useful information, Watchful Investor has two articles worth reading: Panic Now and Beat the Rush on the mortgage debt situation and Hocus Pocus on technical analysis.